How to Expand Gifted Learning in Homeschool on a Budget

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Being mom to a child with gifted learning abilities can be so frustrating when your family lives on a tight homeschool budget.

Because we have chosen homeschooling for our son’s education the entire responsibility for educating our learner is on us. Knowing that he has an insatiable thirst for more and more knowledge I’m constantly feeling behind the curve, as if I’ll never be able to fill the cup.

Add to that the family’s tight budget and I’m constantly feeling as if I have to balance fulfilling his need to learn with what we can and can’t afford to do. That can be so frustrating because I want to provide him with an expansive, and well-rounded education.

What I’ve learned over the years is that there is always more than one way to expand gifted learning opportunities. Sometimes, you have to think creatively to find ways to provide educational opportunities.

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10 Ideas for Expanding Gifted Learning Opportunities

Curiosity Stream This pre-recorded video stream has amazing educational content. It’s a video channel the whole family will love. (Note: these videos are often secular in nature, so be sure to preview for content.)
TED-Ed Videos – From the makers of Ted Talks, these educational videos offer a fun look at educational topics. Most are short videos of less than 10 or 15 minutes. But, they are jam packed with information for young brains to absorb. (Note: these videos are often secular in nature, so be sure to preview for content.)

Egypt 360 – This is a Facebook page called Egypt Cradle of Civilization, but the fun part is their videos and photos. Click through the photos on their page. Many of them offer a 360° view of the myriad of Egyptian artifacts, pyramids, sculptors and relics. Click any photo then use the grab tool to look around. (Not all images are 360° but many are.)
FieldTripZoom – An online field trip service offering educational content to homeschoolers and schools via live streaming video meetings. Get an exclusive 10% discount using my code: 01344. Good through 12/31/16.
Veritasium – a YouTube channel of engineering, science, STEM videos featuring experiments, interviews, and fun demos.

The Spangler Effect – Steve Spangler is a former science teacher, turned author, and Emmy award-winning science communicator who finds the most creative ways to make science fun. See his YouTube channel for fun science experiments.
Google Earth – Did you know that you can take a virtual tour of just about anywhere on earth? Google Earth uses satellite imaging and can zoom into nearly any location and allow you a street view. What’s so cool about this? Think about far away places you’d like to tour, the great wall of China, Angur Wat, Mt. Rushmore, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Those are just a few of the things on earth that you can tour virtually using Google Earth.
The Smithsonian Institute – The educators section at SI offers some incredible resources that you shouldn’t miss out on. Like Smithsoian Virtual Tours , Smithsonian X 3D which offers 3D views of objects, art, documents and more. Seriously, mammas you need to spend time exploring the vast amounts of resources that SI has to offer (all for free). Additionally, be sure to tune in to the Smithsonian YouTube Channel.

The Louvre Online Tours – Can’t make it to Paris this year? How about an online tour? Caution, you just might find yourself lost among the art for a good long period of time.
The National Archives – Another awesome resource for educators, or history buffs. The National Archives has a wealth of resources and information. From federal records to ancestry research the archives provides an in-depth documented view of all things American.

Let’s face it, gifted learning can take a lot of time. Children with the ability to absorb vast amounts of knowledge tend to follow the rabbit down the hole, if you know what I mean. But it really doesn’t have to cost a fortune to

There are many, may more places where you can find virtual tours and free educational resources. I chose these because I’ve found them most fascinating and both Young Man and myself can find ourselves lost in these virtual worlds. If you have a gifted learner, I hope that you find them as useful as I do.

Let me know what your most excited about, which ones you’ve utilized before, and which ones you’ll be exploring soon. Tell me in the comments section below.