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I started shopping for next school year!


RainbowSprinkles
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We are currently in our third year of homeschooling and I must say after trying a ton of different things, I feel like I'm finally getting a feel for what I want and what works for my dc.

 

I'm also excited that I won't be spending as much on curriculum as I have in previous years. I'm beyond happy about that!

 

I already bought history for next year. I'm just debating on whether to buy the history literature or not. Our library is not the greatest... I also bought a couple of things for Language Arts already.

 

Anyway, just glad this is finally starting to work out for me and no one IRL is really gonna care, so I thought I'd share here! :)

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Me too! I spent so much time agonizing over my selections for our first year of homeschool. It looks like this year will be a breeze to plan compared to last year. I just downloaded BFSU volume 1 and ordered First Language Lessons which I may start next month with my oldest. She is almost done with her Veritas Press 1st grade phonics and reading fluently so I think she is ready.

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I haven't started buying for next year, but I have started thinking about it.

 

I'm excited about my choices for next year, although I am totally unsure about language arts... should I go the WWE/FLL/WWS route, or IEW themed writing, or Brave Writer/Brave Writer Lifestyle? Or even maybe keep using Igniting Your Writing for ds and then I only have dd to figure out? :confused:

 

Everything else is pretty well nailed down, and I'm buying less than usual.

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Would I be ostracized if I said I bought next year's history, uh, two years ago? I originally bought it (CHOW) to compare with SOTW, went with SOTW, dropped it, and now am planning to use CHOW with the Calvert stuff. I think. Maybe. If I don't change my mind before then.

 

I love shopping for curricula, but I wish I had more funds to do it with. I just had to buy a whole bunch over Christmas because Ariel had a mental leap and the stuff we were using wasn't challenging anymore. New math level, English, composition, spelling, geography, science, handwriting...the only things that didn't change were history and Spanish and both of those were just started about 3 months ago. My wallet hurts.

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I'm getting everything together to order in about a month or so. My shopping carts are all full! I piece together some SL stuff, so I've been getting those books from Paperback Swap for a while, but it has dried up now, and the last few books I'll have to get. I'm getting one big order in about a month, and then I'll have to do it slowly this year, a little every 2 weeks or so.

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I usually am buying 1.5-2 years in advance. So I have had almost all of next years curric (with a few exceptions) since last spring, Currently all I am buying is fun supplements for this term, and those last few exceptions. I should be done next year's shopping by Mar 1, the main thing I still need to buy is Sonlight P4/5 for my dd. I was undecided if I wanted her to do MP K or Sonlight P4/5 but decided to hold off on K for another year.

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DH doesn't understand why the buying frenzy happens in January and February, but I know you guys get it!

 

This is probably a stupid question but I don't understand this either. Is it better to purchase things in Jan or Feb? Sales? Could someone explain it to me.

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Well, frankly, I am so tired of the materials we are using this year that I get all excited for next year.:D You know, the winter slump.

Also, however, I like to plan my purchases now and buy by March or so so I can spend the last few months before summer break doing the bulk of the planning, copying, organizing and filing. Then I can enjoy the break too. Plus, if I get something in March and see that it is not going to work for whatever reason, I have plenty of time to return it and figure out what to replace it with.

 

It is just a tad strange this year though, since we are finally hitting our groove and most things we are using are great, so I'm just buying the next level. Lucky for me (The Everplanner) the Logic stage looms eerily on the horizon, instilling heart stopping fear and frenzied research...

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This is probably a stupid question but I don't understand this either. Is it better to purchase things in Jan or Feb? Sales? Could someone explain it to me.

 

Well, for ME, I buy my core in February/March. It gives me oodles of time to prepare without being under the gun and if I choose to preread the books, I can ... in leisure. Then...

 

In summer, I buy the other stuff; math, reading, english...that' boring junk. I don't usually have any preparing for that, plus it divides my expenses throughout the year. And...I don't buy anything at the convention then unless it's a game or something frivoulous!:D

 

Sometimes, some companies are overwhelmed in spring and summer and this avoids that for the most part.

 

.......buy by March or so so I can spend the last few months before summer break doing the bulk of the planning, copying, organizing and filing. Then I can enjoy the break too. Plus, if I get something in March and see that it is not going to work for whatever reason, I have plenty of time to return it and figure out what to replace it with.

 

Yep...that too.

Edited by alilac
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OK, what did you get for history?

 

My kids will be 8th & 10th grade next year. We're going to use America: A Narrative History as a spine, then I've got a schedule for Historical Fiction to correlate.

 

Older will be using Excellence in Lit (American History) and younger LL8.

 

I have all my science for dd, but it was ds's last year, so there I didn't get to buy anything new. They'll both be continuing with their foreign languages and math, so nothing exciting there. The only big decision I'm still working on is Chemistry.

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This is probably a stupid question but I don't understand this either. Is it better to purchase things in Jan or Feb? Sales? Could someone explain it to me.

 

For me it is all based on my funding allotments (Alberta homeschoolers get money to buy curriculum). I use my second term allotment to buy for the following fall, and then the fall allotment to buy for the 2nd term etc. As far as I know the core I want is not changing this spring so there is no benefit in waiting until after April to get it, so while I still have the money I will get it. Also the 2 main curriculum fairs I attend (1 used, 1 at convention) are in March and April. I like to get all I can at the March one used and then just have odds and ends to find at convention. If I wasn't trying to stay ahead of the game when it comes to funding (and also avoiding backorders during peak times) and wanting to be done before convention I would wait until Summer.

 

The last 2 times I have placed huge orders with my favorite homeschool store during peak times I have had to wait nearly 6 months for some of my backorders (now I do sometiimes chose things that are not very common), by ordering as far in advance as I do, I have managed to always get everything in when I needed it even with such a long delay. It takes all the stress out of waiting for curriculum to know that I have 6-9 months before it is needed for it to arrive.

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I finished ordering everything we need for school next year a couple of weeks ago. Everything is starting to arrive this week and I have to say that I am so glad that I ordered early and will have time to pre-read and make lesson plans for the year before summer.

 

FWIW, I ordered the VP self-paced history for my two DC as well. We read a lot for pleasure but I did go ahead an order the literature selections from Veritas just to round out our history lessons a bit. I'm thinking that it will really enrich our studies next year.

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