Homeschool Tip #3 Purchasing Textbooks

Summer is here, and it is time to think about buying textbooks and school supplies for next year. Whether you are buying the next book in a curriculum you have been using for a long time, changing curriculum or looking to add new course work to your homeschool, finding what you need without completely draining your wallet, can be a challenge. Here are a few tips I have learned over the years. 

Shop Around

Buying the text directly from a publisher or at a homeschool convention is not always the cheapest way to go. Check homeschool book stores and search the Internet and compare prices. 

Some homeschool book stores will give huge discounts and offer free shipping if you make purchases over a certain price or buy from a particular publisher.  My favorite homeschool supplier offers a free book for every $50 spent.  One year I was able to acquire five copies of Merchant of Venice I needed for free. 

Another great place to find used textbooks is Amazon.com.  Many times you can find books you need for up to half the price, and the books are either new or only slightly used. 

Do Check with the Publisher

While publishers do not always have the best prices, they often have items not available elsewhere. This is especially true when it comes to testing materials, lab supplies, and teachers’ manuals. 

For these special order items, homeschool book stores will often order them for you, if you give them the stock number from the publisher. When living outside the US and homeschooling from overseas, I found my homeschool book store supplier to be very helpful in this way. I provided the stock numbers and other information, and they would order from the publisher, then ship them with my other books at no extra cost.  

Cheaper Can Be Better

Like everything else, a higher price tag does not always mean better.  In fact, the higher price can (and often does) mean that you are buying a lot of useless extras or the material in question is not in high demand. This is especially true when purchasing from small publishing houses. A perfect example is a business math textbook I planned on purchasing. The textbook was $25 and the answer key was $52! I asked the publisher why the skinny answer key was so expensive, and I was told it was not in very high demand and therefore, expensive to publish. It turned out all the answers for the problems were in the back of the textbook.  

On the contrary, good texts can often come in inexpensive packages. The readers I chose for my children are still only $5 - $8 per hardback book and reusable. The workbooks were equally inexpensive. I was able to resell these texts as they were still in excellent condition when we were finished with them. 

Check the Textbook Edition

Make sure, especially when purchasing used books on Amazon or buying workbooks that go along with textbooks you are re-using, you have the right edition. I made this mistake only one time. The text and answer key were published in the same year and had the same cover, but the text I purchased was a homeschool edition, and the answer key was a public school edition. The answer key was useless.

Enjoy Yourself 

Textbook shopping can be an adventure, and personally, I love the excitement of finding just the right materials and the anticipation of learning something new. And frankly, brand new textbooks just smell nice.

So whether you have a lot or a little textbook shopping to do, enjoy yourself! This time only comes once a year.

Happy shopping!

~Joy