How to Find Homeschool Curriculum Inexpensively

The biggest expense of homeschooling is curriculum. Every year we are faced with the same question: How are we going to budget for next year’s curriculum? Homeschooling doesn’t have to be expensive. Over the years I have found many places on the web where you can get affordable curriculum. If you can get your curriculum used instead of new, you will save quite a bit of money, and if you can sell your curriculum from the previous year, you will save even more because you can use the money from your sales to offset the cost of the curriculum you need.

Here is what I do when looking to sell last year’s books and purchase next year’s books:
Once I look through home education catalogs and decide what curriculum I want to use in each subject, I go through my old curriculum from the previous year looking for items that I can sell. I make a list of the items that I think other people may be able to use with the prices listed. I usually ask for half of what the new price is. Then I start searching the web for places to sell my used curriculum and purchase the curriculum I need for next year at the best possible price.

My first stop is the library. Many times, I can find what I am looking for in the library system and even request what I need via inter-library loan. Then I get my curriculum for free!

For the rest of the items, I first go to half.com. At the home page, I click on “sell your stuff”, and I list all my items for sale. It costs me nothing to list my items, and it is easy to list them by the ISBN numbers. Once I list my items for sale, I search for the curriculum I need for next year and jot down the going prices.

My next stop is ebay.com. I do not list my items on eBay because of the listing fees, but it sure is a great place to buy used curriculum. I type what I am looking for in the search box and see if what I need is up for auction. I sort the results by price: lowest first and note the going prices and the ending dates of the auctions.

Next I go to www.vegsource.com/homeschool On the right side, I see the swap boards. I post my items for sale on the appropriate boards. I also check the wanted boards to see if anyone is looking for something that I have. Then I check the Items For Sale boards to see if what I am looking for is currently posted for sale. Lastly, I post my Wanted to Buy list on the Wanted board.

My next stop is amazon.com. I click on “sell your stuff” and list my items for sale by using the ISBN numbers just as I did at half.com. Then I search for the curriculum I need and note the prices.

Then I check out an auction site. I choose one of the following: http://thislittlepiggystayshome.com and http://homeschoolbuy.com Both of these are auction sites similar to eBay, but there are no listing fees for homeschool specific auctions! Both sites are very user-friendly. I just list my items up for auction and search for what I need noting the going prices.

Next I go to http://homeschoolclassifieds.com This is not an auction site. I quickly list my curriculum for sale at a set price which is a pretty simple process on this site. I also check the wanted section for listings that are 0 to 2 days old, and I contact the people who are looking for the items I have for sale. Then I click “search” and type in the keywords for what I need to purchase. Lastly, I post my wanted list to the wanted board.

Then I go to Yahoogroups and look into three email groups: homeschool fleamail, thehomeschoolmomusedcurriculum, and homeschl-used-books. I make sure that I am set up to receive my mail in digest form. This enables me to see all the curriculum for sale in one email. I post my for sale/wanted list to all three email groups. I type out the first one, then I copy it and paste it to the other two. This saves a lot of typing time.

Then I also paste this list into an email message to my email loop. I have a home education email loop of approximately 100 families in Woodburn, Oregon and surrounding areas. If you are in these areas and would like to subscribe, simply send an email to jpalacio@wbcable.net with the words “subscribe MCH” in the subject line.

Now that I have gone through and posted my curriculum for sale and my wanted list in various places, I just wait several days keeping a log of the responses that I get. Then it’s just a matter of selling to the highest bidder and buying from the lowest price offered. I know this seems like a lot of work, but if you will follow this system, you will find that you save quite a bit of money on curriculum.

Regardless of which publishers you go with, there are a couple of free sites that I would like to mention. They are both excellent supplements to any curriculum. For math, there is a site called www.math.com It offers easy-to-understand explanations of math concepts. There is also a quiz at the end of every unit to ensure understanding. For science, check out http://school.discovery.com This is an excellent site to support all of your science lessons.

So don’t let the high cost of curriculum discourage you from homeschooling. There is a less expensive way. Homeschooling does not have to break the bank, and you can still give your child a rich, well-rounded education for a lot less by taking the time to find the best price available. Give this a try. You will not regret it.