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I have been getting a lot of questions lately about how to save on school textbooks and homeschooling curriculum. There are so many options and it can seem so expensive that shopping may be overwhelming at first, but here are some tips about how to navigate your options.
Consignment Sales
Consignment sales are a great place to find used copies of curriculum. This is not the best route if you know exactly what you want, but if you are open to different options and willing to search you can potentially find some great books for a lot less. This can also be a great resource for stocking a reading library for little cost.
Homeschool Groups/Curriculum Sales
At local support groups people will often bring what they have used to giveaway or sell. This saves money as you can buy directly from the source. This is a great way to be able to look through the curriculum before buying it and talk to other parents about their experiences with it.
I’m even part of a local facebook group that is just for swapping and sharing books. It never hurts to start asking friends if they want to share and put something together.
Online Options
There are also great resources online such as the Homeschool Classifieds and Ebay. You can buy new and used curriculum. There are a lot of options and you can even post wanted ads. You can sort by grade level, publisher, and subjects.
Amazon is another great place to search. This is a great option if you know exactly what you want. You can search for the book and look for used copies available.
eBooks
A great website for eBooks is CurrClick. They have a lot of options and even some that are free for download. They also have live classes.
Renting Books
Many college textbooks are now available for rent and you can also get some homeschool curriculum this way. A great way to save on homeschool curriculum is to reuse it with your other children though, so it may be better to only rent curriculum you will not be able to reuse.
You can find more information about renting textbooks here. Be sure to compare with the price of buying used before renting as you can sell back books you buy, which may actually make it cheaper in the end.
Want to look over curriculum before making choices?
Many local libraries will have a copy of the top curriculum publishers work. It may not be the grade you are looking for, but will give you great insight to how the lessons are laid out and type of work for students.
Homeschool Conferences
Attending a homeschool conference is also great for skimming curriculum. Most major publishers will be there and let you look through anything you want. You’ll also find a number of used book sellers offering large discounts – you’ll just need to make purchases on the used items right then rather than thinking about it and purchasing later.
Choosing Curriculum
Many of you have asked what curriculum we use. I am fine with sharing, but firmly believe that one of the joys of home schooling is that you can tailor your resources to the child’s way of learning. What works for one family may not work for another. So don’t ever feel that you need to go with a program because “that’s what everyone else is using.”
First off, one thing we’ve used with all our girls that is awesome is The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. When my youngest started kindergarten, but we did a “one room” approach meaning that she learns a reduced version of what her big sisters are covering. For the big girls, we use Saxon for math, BJU for English, Spelling Plus for spelling, and Apologia for Science. We are also part of a local Classical Conversations group for other subjects.
Do you have any other tips for cutting costs on text books?
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