9 Memberships for Homeschooling

The memberships I am sharing are specific to Greenville SC, however the concept can be used anywhere. I am very close to removing Lady J from Montessori School she may stay til December of this year. We have been doing part time homeschooling this year, I am getting my plans and planner ready for full time homeschooling in 2023. I have paid as high as $1300 a month and as low as $450 a month for care for Lady J. Please consider that when you review how much some of these membership cost me. In the interim there are several memberships that have been helpful to us. If you have other memberships suggestions, please share!!

State Park Membership

The All Park Passport (Yellow) provides unlimited entry to all 47 South Carolina state parks for everyone in the vehicle. The All Park Passport also comes with the following value-added benefits: Free historic home tours at Redcliffe, Rose Hill & Hampton plantations

Annual Fee: $100

Local Zoo Membership

At the 14-acre Greenville Zoo, you can visit wildlife from around the world any day of the week. Open throughout the whole year, except for Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day, the zoo offers special rates for children and free admission for members.

Curious orangutans, cuddly red pandas, majestic lions, and many more call this 14-acre zoo their home. Every visitor has their favorite animal, but the giraffe exhibit is special to locals.

Household Membership Benefits:

• Two named adults at the same address
• Up to six dependent household children under the age of 18 per visit
• Unlimited daily admission to the Greenville Zoo
• Discounts on educational programs, birthday parties and Zoo camp
• Free or discounted admission to more than 130 other zoos around the country (view the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) list)
• 10% discount in gift shop and concessions
• Discounted admission to special events, including Boo in the Zoo and Holidays at the Zoo
• E-newsletters, updates and notices of special events

Annual Fee: $90

Children Museum Membership

With two locations in Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina, TCMU is one of the largest children’s museums in the world and was the first children’s museum to be recognized as a Smithsonian Affiliate.

TCMU-Greenville houses more than 80,000 square feet dedicated to excellence in play-based learning for children ages 0–12, including 30 unique exhibits reflecting the areas of arts, science, health, transportation, the environment and more.

TCMU fulfills its mission of developing young minds into compassionate problem solvers through purposeful, intentional and accessible play-based learning opportunities.

Annual Fee: $105

A virtual homeschooling Co-op: Melanted Villiage

The Melanin Village is a social-impact organization that equips and empowers Black families to homeschool. We increase the educational opportunities and outcomes for Black youth by providing professional development, support, and community for melanated homeschooling moms and academic programming and community for their children.

Monthly Fee: $39 a month= Annually fees: $468

Swimming

Created for Parents by Parents:

Goldfish Swim School is proud to provide state-of-the-art aquatic swimming facilities that are dedicated to indoor swim classes and programs for children, ages 4 months and up. From Jump Start Clinics to our competitive team known as Swim Force, we’re committed to helping your child develop important life skills so he or she can make waves in life.

Monthly Fee: $98 Annual= 1176

Soccer

STRONGER YOUTH. BEYOND THE GAME.
We believe that soccer is a powerful vehicle for positively impacting youth. Through our partnership with the U.S. Soccer Foundation, we aim to impact children who live in underserved communities through quality soccer programs that support their physical and personal development.

Bi-Monthly Fee: $135

Local Library

The Greenville County Library System traces its beginnings to 1921 when the library consisted of some 500 volumes in a vacant store room on East Coffee Street. Thomas F. Parker, a local businessman and philanthropist who initially garnered community support for this public institution, served as Chairman of the Board. In 1923, Mr. Parker purchased a three-quarter-ton truck, and had it fitted with glass doors, thus introducing the first ever Bookmobile in the South to meet the needs of Greenville County’s mill communities. Introduced into service on October 10, 1923, the Bookmobile has been making rounds throughout the county for nearly 100 years.

Today, the Library System has grown to twelve locations. And the Bookmobile makes weekly stops delivering books and fond memories. The Library remains dedicated to providing free access to materials, experiences, and resources to communities throughout Greenville County.

Annual Fee: FREE

Online Curriculum: ABC Mouse

is a subscription-based digital education program for children ages 2–8, created by Age of Learning, Inc. Subscribers can access learning activities on the ABCmouse.com website or mobile app. Subjects covered include reading and language arts, math, science, health, social studies, music, and art.

The content on ABCmouse currently consists of more than 10,000 learning activities and 850 lessons. The program, with e-books, printouts, games, and progress tracker, can be used online or offline. The program added an ABCmouse Classroom Live! feature in September 2020 that offers a daily interactive virtual classroom experience led by teachers offering curriculum-based activities for pre-k and kindergarten-aged children.

In 2020, ABCmouse parent company Age of Learning, Inc., without admitting guilt, agreed to pay $10 million and settle a Federal Trade Commission complaint alleging that some of its past marketing and billing practices were unfair.

Annual Fee: 59.99

Online Curriculum: ST Math

What Is ST Math?

It’s a PreK-8 visual instructional program that leverages the brain’s innate spatial-temporal reasoning ability to solve mathematical problems.

ST Math’s unique, patented approach provides students with equitable access to learning through challenging puzzles, non-routine problem solving, and formative feedback.

With ST Math, students build deep conceptual understanding, and schools see proven, repeatable results.

Annual Fee: FREE

Bonus: Science Center

For more than 30 years, Roper Mountain Science Center has supported STEM education in South Carolina. Now, you can support Roper Mountain and get special benefits for yourself, including free admission to hundreds of science centers and museums nationwide through the Association of Science and Technology Centers’ Passport Program.

Please note that as a facility of Greenville County Schools, most of our weekdays are for school instruction. All buildings including the Living History Farm are closed to the public except during specified public programs including Friday Starry Nights, Afternoon Explorations, and Summer Adventure.

• Unlimited admission for the household to public programs including Friday Starry Nights, Summer Adventure, and
• Afternoon Explorations.
• Discount ticket prices for special events
• Special member communications
• Access to Summer Camp early registration and discount (except Individual membership)
• Admission benefits at more than 300 different science centers and museums through the ASTC (Association of Science and Technology Centers) Passport Program

Annual Fee: $95

Roper Mountain Science Center Homepage
Experience Friday Starry Nights in the T.C. Hooper Planetarium with a 360° full immersion dome, 4K projection…
www.ropermountain.org

I am still looking for a local secular African American homeschool co-op to be apart of. I will let you all know when I find one. I did hear about a local secular co-op and will be speaking with a couple families that are apart of it.

However I am providing personalized learning plan for my daughter and I am attempting to meet her where she is. Lady J is extremely kinetic and I needed a tools and a pedagogy that would work with her. I like Montessori for is logical components, but for her learning via a play and experience has great impact on her.

So if you are like me and my husband we are always looking at the bottom line, that is great that you are providing personalized care so what is the

Cost Comparison

Let me state, this is only memberships, this does not include any physical I have purchase for the purpose of homeschooling:

1. Curriculum books

2. Tools

3. Learning aid

4. Toys

5. Professional Development for facilitator (Training for myself)

I could add things like Curiosity Stream, Disney plus(national geographics), and Netflix that we use as well. However, we would have those memberships regardless of homeschooling her or not.

This also does not take my earning potential into account as I am taking on the primary roll in our daughters homeschooling. We are both looking for ways to bring in $$ a different method but loosing a portion of the household earnings is a cost that is not added into this equation. My partner and I have agreed that we are doing to downgrade my roll as co-breadwinner so I can add this roll as homeschool facilitator for lady J.

I miss living in the DMV because we would not be paying for a portion of the memberships that we do because the access to key museums and FREE they are covered by endowments via the Smithsonian and Taxes (what a concept). However that is another conversation for another time.

However, these are just my thoughts.

Shanté

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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