[When you're done with your curriculum. . .]

Selling is not that hard, but I've been doing it for years. You do have to have some basic knowledge and supplies, though.

 

Does anyone have a link to a blog page that lists the ins-and-outs of selling online?

 

I have good success with Homeschool Classifieds. I generally sell most of my stuff for half price, plus shipping/PayPal fees. I do check to see what the going rates seem to be, though, and try to be competitive. And, I try to get more out of more expensive, high-demand items. I can always reduce my price, if it doesn't sell in a reasonable time frame. If you have individual books that aren't worth much, you'll need to group those in logical bundles. For example, I group my Singapore Math books in bundles.

 

You need a reliable and accurate scale that will weigh up to about 8-10 pounds at a minimum (needs to weigh in ounces/pounds). You also need poly-mailers, bubble mailers, boxes, a home printer, and packaging tape. You want to use the smallest, lightest, best-protected form of packaging you have available. (Do not wrap in newspaper.) I save most boxes I receive my curriculum and books in from Amazon, CBD, etc. I've also saved bubble mailers in the past. (I've seen people ship in inside-out cereal boxes.) I bought poly-mailers in bulk from eBay several years ago (I used to sell DD's used clothes). When I use poly-mailers for books, I take four pieces of card stock and fold (and tape...not to the book) them around each side of the book to protect it.

 

Books/curriculum can be shipped Media Mail. Set your book/books on the scale with its shipping packaging. Use USPS's rate chart or calculator to figure up how much it would cost to mail it. Hop over to a PayPal fees calculator. Plug in the amount of how much you want for your books, plus how much it would cost to ship. The fees calculator will tell you how much more you need to add to make up for the fees. After that, list your book at Homeschool Classifieds or where ever.

 

After you make a sale, simply print postage from PayPal. Take the printed label and tape it on the envelope/box with packaging tape. Drop it off at the post office or a post office package drop-off location. Or, drop it in a blue box, if it's light enough. Or, schedule a carrier pick-up. I have my DH drop off most packages on his way to/from work. Or, there's a USPS package drop-off location near where we take DD to gymnastics.

 

Take your money and go buy more books!

 

(sigh). . .I guess it's doable, but it involved buying a lot more STUFF and that's what's really weighing me down. 

I've never sold anything either. I just did a major purge, but still have some things here with no potential local home, and I can't afford the shipping to give them away free this month. I threw some things away that have left me feeling a bit guilty, but...it's paper. People, including me, are more important than paper, and I REALLY needed a quick purge.

 

How to get rid of stuff is majorly affecting what I purchase now. I'm almost exclusively buying trade books instead of curriculum, so I can donate it more easily. And I'm printing eBooks because I feel less guilty throwing away what I printed than a professionally printed book.

 

Books used to make up 9/10 of my possessions. Now they make up about 1/2. I'm hoping soon to get that down to 1/4.

 

I made myself the deal that I had the right to throw away some books if I promised to never get myself into a situation like this again. The problem started when I brought this stuff into my home in the first place.

I don't feel bad giving things away considering how many things have been freely given to me over the years. . .but I am definitely going to be more aware about how much curriculum I'm bringing in.  I'm trying to transition into owning less curriculum but more books. . .I have sorted through SOME of our regular books and set aside a couple small boxes to give up, but when you have such a wide age range of kids, it makes minimizing a bit tougher.  Books are nowhere near 9/10 of my possesions. . .if you don't count furniture, then it may be half. ;)

[If you delayed science....]

This is what we did til high school when my kids finally did formal subjects at an AP level or at the community college. They were fine, they thrived.  One is a science major, top in his class who has been doing research with his professors since freshman year.

This is very encouraging.

[We like CLE LA, except...]

...we use a different spelling.

...and my DD prefers Pentime for handwriting.

...and we don't need quite as much repetition.

And And And. ;)

 

We like:

the grammar portions, the gentle, bite-sized instruction -- it's been perfect for my struggling reader.

the aesthetics of CLE LA (just a little color, sweet drawings, pretty calm overall).

workbooks that are open-and-go.

 

 

Is there something similar that is JUST GRAMMAR, that offers some review and is still gentle?

I could have written most of this. . .except that the grammar is a bit tedious for us in level 600.

I've also used CTGE for quite awhile and RS very briefly.

The open and go of CLE is definitely a plus, but I feel like I spending an awful lot on something that I only use part of and that I won't be able to reuse for my other kids.

I've see sawed back and forth over the years with this.  If you discover the perfect solution, please let us know. ;)

[When you're done with your curriculum. . .]

Oh man, I do like the "idea" of selling it. . .but part of the reason I want to do this big purge is because I'm really overwhelmed.  How hard is it to sell stuff? You have to figure out how much to charge so that it's actually worth the time you spend and to adequately cover the shipping and the gas it takes to take a trip to the post office. I'm having heart palpitations just thinking about it.

 

I'm ONLY getting rid of things that haven't really been a "fit" for us.  Everything else is being saved for those coming up. I still have an embarrassing amount of things to get rid of. :/ 

 

To sell or to take to the thrift store. . .that is the question. I hate the idea of it all sitting in the garage indefinitely because I can't make a decision.

[When you're done with your curriculum. . .]

What do you do with curriculum when you're done with it. . .or if you're just not going to use it?

 

I'm getting ready to head into a massive declutter and disown session and I'm not sure what to do with all the stuff laying around here.  I found a thrift store within 30 minutes, so I can actually do this now, but do thrift stores want homeschool stuff?  

[Veteran moms of many, share your wisdom please]

Maize,

 

 

I'll be honest I made a serious attempt to use all the "combining" curriculum out there.  Bless their sweet, well-meaning hearts, just an FYI, "combining" middle school, elementary, and upper levels is never going to happen.  My days were filled with trying to explain what too old curriculum meant to little people and adding on, supplementing, whatever word you want to use, for older children.  It required a lot of organization, notes, planning (because I didn't buy all the books but utilized the library.)

 

I've simplified.

I actually have essentially gone back to how I did school when I had a few children.

There are a few things that have really WORKED for me and it's what I do.

 

1.  We read lit according to a time period but I don't get wrapped up in perfect order.

2. I use a spine specific to the age.

    For youngers, that's SOTW.  For my middle girls, they have used both Streams of Civilization and the Genevieve Foster books.  Then we made a list (at the beginning of the year) of lit I wanted them to read this year and they are steadily working through the list.  Simplified.  I'm not matching up absolutely everything, creating worksheets from nothing, etc.

I have also found the IEW books arranged for the time period slide nicely in here without me having to reinvent the wheel.  Now, if I had two kids I'd carefully teach writing, pull subjects from their reading, and make it all fit together.  But I don't.  It's okay.  I actually had small panic attacks (and larger ones) when my older kids were young about not MATCHING EVERYTHING.  No more.  (And the oldest made Dean's list at university this first sememster, so I'm officially giving myself the okay.  Apparently not doing all the matching of every assignment did not permanently damage her ability to read, write, and learn.)

3.  If you find a math and it's working, stay with it. Be faithful.  It's all good.  You open cans and cans of worms by constantly switching math curriculum, IMO.  YMMV.

4. Heavy outside "stuff" for non-older children we've found unbelievably taxing.  My oldest children did piano, guitar, trampoline &  tumbling, tumbling & tap, AWANAS, and soccer, and soccer, and more soccer, oh and summer t-ball and softball, some of which we helped coach.   I no longer do the insanity because they no longer wish to have careers as pianists, guitar players, professional trampolinists, gymnasts, professional Bible quizzers - though I'd still be involved with AWANS, I felt that was worthwhile, nor are they professional athletes.  I think everything you do with kiddos should be an investment - meaning there is some kind of return.  For your family you might find these things are *investing* we found they were just leeches.    My most "energetic" years as a schooler were years where I spent more time in the home, doing just select activities.  I am actually going to have to totally re-vamp this next year and drive every day.  I'll let you know how that goes.  :driving:

 

So, now with one graduated and the another will be done with school at home next year except for writing and SAT prep, I feel pretty confident in my plans for the little people.

 

1. Get them reading.  Not just reading, but READING.  The sooner and more solid they can read, the better.  This is at all costs.  Do not skimp on reading ability, prosody, ability to read aloud, etc., in order to cover other curricula.  Skip all curricula if you can do nothing other than get them reading solidly.  I say this and half my kids are dyslexic.  I'm remediating them.  No excuses.  Reading is the single most important skill you give them for academic success. Hit it, hit it again, and continue until they are PHENOMENAL readers.

2. Read or sleep.  That is a rule we've had since like 2000 or 2001.  At naptime, there is 1-2 HOURS you can read or sleep.  You will do one or the other.  Eventually even haters will choose to read.   This will go back to the first tip.  Create readers.  We also bought them night time reading lights and "awarded" them to readers so that readers get to stay up a little later and read more.  They thought it was a privilege.  It was actually in our best interests.  LOL.   ;)

3. Pick their books.  Until they are much, much older, pick their books.  And when they are much, much older, still oversee their books.  Ana is in college, we still talk about what she's reading.   I don't pick anymore, I'm sure the professors would frown on it, lol, but we still discuss.

 

In K-5, everything else can be lightweight.  Your first goal is reading, strong reading, and reading worthwhile things, classical literature, etc.  Read aloud.  Please, please, please, if you make  time for something, read aloud.  It has been proven this helps to make good writers. In my opinion, and someone will come and argue with me, you would be better served to skip writing programs until the fifth grade if you don't have time and just read aloud. A lot.

 

I picked books, so a lot of times my kids didn't do science.  I just picked interesting science, non fiction books.  Someone could argue, but my kids still tested very high on standardized tests in science.  It worked for me.  It also cut down on my teaching so that I could read aloud.  See above.

 

I will tell you that I had my kiddos and still have them do workbooks.  Why?  No educational reason whatsoever.  I have them do workbooks so that at a young age they get in the habit of waking up, doing chores, getting dressed, and doing school.  It simply creates a habit.  I don't really think there's that much value in them at all.  They are, IMO, busy work.  But the IDEA of waking up and doing school without complaining or fussing is absolutely INVALUABLE.  MCP books, Explode the Code, HWoT, Rod & Staff workbooks for "beneath" their working level for re-inforcing ideas, whatever is easy, inexpensive, and you like. ;)

 

Middle school - focus on writing.  Focus on this like you did reading in elementary grades because it's foundational for high school success as reading was for middle school success.  I like IEW for grade 5-7.  But Christian has done Writing with Skill and that has been great for him.  I also like PWN the SAT Essay, but really, truly that's for 10th+.  IEWs essay programs for high school is great.  But do make sure you hit writing strong in middle.

 

I will tell you I think grammar is important.  I know that many don't think so, but assuming you have non-dyslexics, I really love Rod & Staff.   :001_tt1:   I have my kids do 1-2 years below their grade level so that it's not terribly hard for them and borders on self-teaching with a little help, but our oldest is the biggest fan of Rod & Staff.  She's been taking Latin, Russian, and linguistic classes this year and having a solid grammar foundation has been very valuable.

 

Essentially what I'm saying is decide what is optional, what is fun and good, what is FOUNDATIONAL.

 

Reading in elementary is foundational.

Grammar in mid-elementary to lower middle is foundational.

Writing in middle is foundational.

 

I believe you CAN do more with less.  The fewer frivolous things you do, the more foundational things you can cover WELL.  And I actually think this is the perk of a large family.  You simply don't have the ability to cover all things so you have to choose.  In being forced to choose, you make sure you cover those foundational things more than adequately.  It's a good thing.

This is so very very helpful. Like KeriJ I'm going to need to come back to this again. Doing less with more and truly simplifying has longtime been a desire of mine and yet fully implementing that ideal has eluded me a bit.

[What does your "schedule" look like for 1st?]

Morning chunk of about an hour:

Pentime

Phonics Pathways

Read from Abeka Reader

CLE math

 

Bible time and memory work and lunch (about 30 minutes?)

 

After lunch combined with younger sister for about 30 minutes:

read alouds geared just for them rotating science/history/literature etc

Right now it's Dragons of Blueland and some Magic School Bus books (all from the library)

 

Quiet Reading time for 1 hour

 

 

Family read aloud time at bedtime for about another hour

 

Yes, its pretty relaxed. Mandatory pencil to paper time is definitely less than an hour, but education is more than that. ;)  Afternoons are free here to play outside, get craft supplies out, play legos, make forts, or whatever thrills his little soul.

[Mott Media McGuffey Readers]

I really couldn't find any good samples. I had to buy the book unseen. My copy of the parent guide has more notes and underlining than my other Beechick books. Even if I don't use the readers, I'll keep the guide. The instructions go a bit beyond just the readers and is good general advice.

 

There are notes for each lesson in each reader. The notes sometimes add grammar, creative writing, comprehension, Bible, phonics. There are partial glossaries for the 3rd and 4th reader.

 

Some of the stories are a bit creepy, like a dialogue between a father and son about the dead cold mother that died overnight. For a family that has raised the children on the KJV BIble and Grimms fairy tales, the readers will be fine, but for a child raised on a more modern and sheltered selection of literature, this all could be quite a shock.

See that story sounds creepy to ME. . .and I'm not a fan of Grimms or the KJV. :/  I have the edited version of the readers with the orange covers.  Would the guide be usable with those? I'm not sure how very different the editions are.

 

I feel better equipped to handle writing for my older kids after reading more of Ruth Beechick's writing.  She's very practical and no nonsense. Whether I'd end up using this guide or not, I'd love to get my eyes on it and glean.

[Mott Media McGuffey Readers]

Is there anywhere that has good samples for the guide? I've looked at CBD and Rainbow and pretty much only see the Table of Contents and a bit of the phonics section.  I'd be very interested to see what type of language lessons are included for the readers.  I only recently read How To Teach Your Child Successfully and took copious notes. :)

[Have we talked about spiral notebooks?]

We did start doing this a little while ago.  The kids REALLY like doing it this way.  As others have said, even things done with mom get written down.  My monkeys like knowing what's in store for the whole day. My methodical child likes to work in order down the list.  My whimsical child enjoys the freedom to change things up and pick whatever she's in the mood to from the list.  . .which is fine. As long as everything gets done, I don't really care what order it's done in.  My whimsical daughter is also a morning person, so while the rest of us have yet to have breakfast, sometimes she's typing or playing the piano. The list being ready when they wake up is really helpful. :)

[Iew's fix it or Easy Grammar Plus]

I've used both...using Fix It now, and used EG in the past.  Hands down I would choose Fix It over EG.  EG will get the job done...but it's kinda boring.  My 11 yr old loves Fix It.   :001_wub:  Lately she wants to do more than one sentence because she is excited to see what happens next in the story.

 

If you are interested, I have a blog post about Fix It where I tried to show a lot of samples and explain how we use it (link in my signature...scroll down past the apple pies and Junior Batgirl :lol: ).

This was very helpful.  I think it would be a hit at our house.

[Iew's fix it or Easy Grammar Plus]

I'm using fix it with my 5th and 3rd grader. My oldest used easy grammer 4 I think. He didn't like it. It was one part of speech and then a bunch of sentences to find that part of speech in.

Fix it's story approach and building on what parts of speech and editing items you find each week is much more engaging for my kids. And it takes like 15 minutes tops. And that is only because I use the rewrite part as penmanship as well.

15 minutes, tops? See, I like the sound of that.

[Iew's fix it or Easy Grammar Plus]

I know I'm not the only one planning next year. ;)

 

I want to keep grammar as a light subject next year, so I can truly focus on writing with my older two.

 

Which would you choose for grammar? Fix it or Easy Grammar? And why?

 

I'm thinking this will be easier to decide that composition for next year. . .that's a whole other subject.  :confused1:

[If you "don't tolerate whining/complaining"...]

Whining sounds different here depending on how old the child is.

My 12 year old . .it sounds more like complaining. I have him write sentences or do chores. . .taking his time is the only thing I've been able to come up with that works in getting through to him.

 

My almost 7 year old has always been a very fussy/whiny/pouty child. Sweet and affectionate as anything but SOOO whiny! He gets one warning and if he still can't get himself under control, he gets 6 minutes in the corner to get himself under control.

 

My 3 year olds do their fare share of whining/pouting/tantrums. . .I simply don't respond to that behavior. They're still really young, IMO.

 

Oddly enough, I've never really had any whining from my girls. I get massive waterworks over things, though. I guess that's the trade off.

[FLL question]

Does this mean you could skip the first level and start with the second if starting with a 2nd grader (or older)?

I don't know, but I plan on starting at the beginning with my 2nd grader.  

[FLL question]

Thank you!

[FLL question]

Aside from being separated into two books in the later edition, what's the difference between the old and new editions of FLL?

 

[Kindergarten Plans]

Well, I'll have an older Ker that will turn 6 in the late late fall

 

Phonics/Reading Pathways

Pentime 

Finish CLE K 2 

Then begin CLE 100 math

 

Tons of books including those from Sonlight Core A

[What are you doing for 7th grade?]

CLE Math 700's + LOF Pre Algebra (Fridays with Fred) ----I think we'll be keeping it simple with JUST CLE and see what happens.

Rod and Staff Spelling 7 - maybe--nope. His spelling is fine so I'm dropping this off to do list

Apologia General Science

Uncle Eric Books--just Penny Candy and Whatever Happened to Justice Also Lots of living books on WW1 and WW2

Rod and Staff Bible -maybe--nope he'll be soaping his way through the life of David

Easy Grammar Plus--not sure

Jump In?? or maybe Essentials in Writing 7???--writing is the subject I struggle with every. single. year.

 

Piano

 

Yes, I'm tweaking

 

Oh my word. I just looked back through this thread and realize that what we will be doing is almost unrecognizable from what I originally planned

Soooo I'll retype

 

CLE math, la, ss, reading, and Bible (yes, really)

Apologia General Science

ArtPac(s)

We may throw is something like WWS if I feel like it is needed. We'll see, but I want to get into the year first and see how it goes.

Piano

[5th Grade Planning]

CLE math half of level 500 then start the 600's

SOTW 3 with mapwork and written narrations

Apologia Land Animals (nor sure if we'll use the notebook or just practice note taking without it)

Rod and Staff Spelling 5 (probably. . spelling is a weak area for this one and we've never done formal spelling other than the dictation in Modern Speller)

Grammar/Writing-  ???? I'm clueless here. If it's out, I'd like to try Bravewriter's Faltering Ownership program with her.

Bible- maybe Rod and Staff as I've wanted to try these books for years

 

and Piano

[2nd grade planning thread]

CLE Math level 200

Pentime Handwriting

Rod and Staff Spelling 2

Books from Sonlight Core A and other library books galore

Finishing Phonics Pathways if we haven't by then

 

Grammar/English/Language/Writing (pick your term here)- Anyway, I have no clue what we'll use. Probably Rod and Staff, Abeka, or Cle? I could wing it, but we tend not to be as consistent when I try and do that. . .

 

[Phonics Pathways?]

It's my favorite resource for teaching kids to read. 

[Mystery of History 3 literature list younger child???]

Off the top of my head, Veritas Press and Simply Charlotte Mason have programs for those ages and would fit the criteria of being from a Christian perspective.

[CLE shipping???]

By quick I mean usually within a week. I don't have amazon prime, so that's quick for me! The other place I order from is Rainbow Resource (for the prices) and we wait a very very long time for those orders.

[CLE shipping???]

It's reasonably priced and super quick. :)