Shop for homeschool bargains in the spring

May 18, 11:08 AMMinneapolis Homeschooling ExaminerChris Oldenburg

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Shop for those homeschool bargains now. Even if you don’t actually make any purchases, spring is a great time of year to request catalogues and start taking notes about any books, resources, or curriculum pieces you might need. It may seem a bit early, but it can be surprising how fast the summer months pass by and leave us needing those handwriting or science book to start things right in the fall.

Each winter after the holidays I start to make my mental notes about what is working and what is not for our learning resources. This way I can keep my eyes open for deals for next year or start asking around for suggestions. By spring I like to have my catalogues arriving and start decorating them with sticky notes and highlighter colors.

One of the best homeschool resource catalogues to have is the larger than a metropolitan phonebook Rainbow Resource catalogue. The descriptions are well written and give more details than any one place I have found. I know it saves paper not to have them mail the massive book, but if you have never flipped, or heaved, your way through it, it is a must for at least one time.
Another solid source, both for descriptions and prices, is Christian Book Distributors, the homeschool version. It has the color photographs that the Rainbow source is missing, and the web site is constantly listing bargains and reduced prices in the spring that are worth searching through.

You can sign up on CurrClick and receive notices of free downloads throughout the year. Even if you don’t think you will need them now, download them and save them in a folder for later.

While these sources can be great for learning more about the curriculum available, I always check prices on web sites that promote selling and buying of used curriculum. Some that I have used are Used Homeschool Curriculum and VegSource.com. The items are always changing, but you can find great bargains, and unload some of your own unused items.
Don’t forget to shop locally either. The Minnesota Homeschool Alliance lists things like used curriculum sales on their site.

I always love to find a good homeschool bargain, so send me a note with your favorite resources.  Happy homeschool bargain hunting!