I home school k-1st, I need to change curriculum without busting the already busted bank. Anyone have advice?

I would suggest Sonlight. It is expensive but I am always able to resell mine on an auction site or the Sonlight site for 75% of what I paid for it. That makes it very inexpensive. Your other option is to purchase the instructors guide and then borrow the books at the library. This would take some work and planning but it can be done.

Their curriculum is amazing and they have a great money back return policy too. We have use Sonlight for 5+ years.

http://www.sonlight.com They have a free catalog too :)

Best of Luck!
Jana
http://www.purehomeschooling.com/

PS-They are close enough in age to share one core curriculum from Sonlight

I used the pace program for these early ages up to middle school. I ordered them on line and you can use the same paces just order an additional workbook. I do not remember them being extremely expensive. It is a Christian based program and it was great up to 6th grade and after that I went to the school board auction where you can pick up old text books for near nothing which I had to do for geography and history because in sixth grade if you asked my kids about a particular war or historical event they were lost but they could tell you everything a Philistine had ever done and half the countries they knew about have long since been renamed! I also attended every make and take that the public school system offered. (Where yo go to a class with other parents and make games, flash cards and craft projects and science experiments that are fun for children to learn. In Florida you have to take your kids to a testing center to assure you are keeping them age appropriate and progressing at a normal level so they offer all kinds of programs for home schooled children to get together for field trips and social interaction, like dances and activities. I don't know if your state offers these things but they were awesome and a big part of my children's success. If you don't have them maybe you could organize a program in your area! oh yeah and I got a whole year of paces on ebay for 10 dollars and only had to get the workbooks and tests! Also pace goes through high school and even offers college classes!

A literature (classical or Charlotte Mason) or unit studies based curriculum is probably your best bet.

You could use Story of the World or History Odyssey for literature, geography and history for all 3 at the same time Just make simple adjustments based on their abilities.
Science can be covered the same way.
Pandia Press sells History Odyssey and REAL Science Odyssey in PDF format. That way you can print as many copies as you need.
http://www.pandiapress.com/index.htm
At this time they are offering a free trial of their PDF text that covers several lessons.

First Language Lessons For the Well Trained Mind covers 1-2 grade and is reusable.

I believe the phonics book Teach your Child to read in 100 easy lessons is reusable
http://www.startreading.com/

For math I really prefer workbooks. I highly suggest Singapore Math. You can reuse the textbooks and purchase workbooks for each child.

I would also recommend a Charlotte Mason style. Have you looked through Ambleside Online? There is a Christian influence there that you can emphasise. Most of their recommended resources are available online for free, then if you add library books and craft ideas from online, nature walks (depending on the weather!!) you should be fine.