Curriculum Sticker Shock

[Ravin]

Today I added up the things I'd like to use for DD for next year on Rainbow Resource. It came to over $600, which is more than I spend on my own textbooks, and didn't include a few things that aren't available from them!

 

Sigh. The question is, what is going to give?

[macmacmoo]

I rarely buy things at full price. I make my list about 6 months out, and hunt for a good deal. About a month out from when i need it, I bite the bullet and buy whatever is missing at full price.

[Ravin]

The problem is, I can't buy it at all until I get fall financial aid, and that's actually after I'd like to get school started. I'm going to buy part of it (a single unit of something new before committing to many units, etc.) with summer financial aid, but...yikes!

[macmacmoo]

www.TheBookSamaritan.com/

[nikkistone]

www.TheBookSamaritan.com/

 

 

 

what a cool ministry!

[JudoMom]

Wow, that's a lot for 4th grade. Can you cut anything or substitute?

[Holly]

I buy ours in stages. We use lots of living books, so some won't be used until next spring. I actually have one book yet to buy for this year! Also, I sometimes buy things as Christmas gifts (puzzles, games, art supplies, books, etc.). I buy from Amazon quite a bit since their free shipping amount is so low. I usually place an order or two from RR to buy things that are exclusive to them or a much better bargain than Amazon.

 

With that being said, $600 does sound pretty high for 4th grade (to me anyway)...I bet you can narrow it down if you need to.

[Prairie~Phlox]

I'm not even spending that combined for a 7th, 8th & 10th grader. You're using your finacial aid to buy homescool curriculm, is that legal? Personally I'd find something cheaper, borrow or sell stuff before I did that.

[wapiti]

Can you buy anything used on Amazon or find some of it at the library? That sounds like a lot to me for fourth grade, and I tend to spend freely (though I buy almost everything used if I can find it).

 

I'd prioritize math and language arts and then add in the other subjects with less expensive/library resources.

 

Eta, I've only bought a few things from RR as I can almost always find a better deal elsewhere.

[Lilaclady]

You may need to shop around. look for used book sales at the libraries and also in your homeschool communities if they are available. I spend a lot on books but that is because i tend to buy for even 3 -4 yrs out.

[ByGrace3]

I wish mine added to that!!! ;) last time I checked the count was over $1000. I justify it by saying it is only a fraction of the cost of private school! :)

[Farrar]

Post what you're getting and maybe people will have some specific suggestions or some places to make cuts. :)

 

We spend about $500 on two kids. Every year I think it's going to be less, but I always end up adding stuff in stages. They finish things!

[Michelle My Bell]

I think the newest level of HOD is going to cost close to $1000.00. Unfortunately we have used this program for the last 4 years and my daughter thrives with it so I can't really change now. I am justifying it because I will save it and use it for my next three kids. That takes it down to 250 really. I'll make payments on it to pay for it.

[Samiam]

I agree, that is a high cost for 4th, unless you are going with some boxed curriculum, like Sonlight, MFW, WinterPromise, etc. But if you are getting it from Rainbow Resource, I'd have to assume you are not going with boxed, but using different publishers. I will be doing 4th and 2nd, and only spending about $500 total if I get everything new. And that's not cheapy stuff either. Can you share what you are purchasing?

[Ravin]

(Tried to quote above, it didn't work)

 

Yes, it is legal. Financial aid is for living expenses, and when you have children it is understood that some of those expenses are for dependents. I actually get increases for child care expenses specifically, but homeschool curricula comes out of general living expense $$.

 

Anyway, I'm already narrowing it down for myself. Some of it can wait until Spring, as well. The priciest items are the Moving Beyond the Page lit units. that's what we're going to buy just one of to try out (I'm buying from RR because they sell the lit unit as a separate item, MBTP's website makes you buy the book with it, which I don't want to do for books we already have or can check out of the library!)

 

I really want to use the lit units because they'll also help with DD's writing.

 

The one thing I'm really on the fence about is Mapping the World with Art. I could put World Geography together with library materials, etc., but DD is very hands on and won't have any hands on art classes at her enrichment program so I want to incorporate it at home. Not being an "art" person myself, I really need structure for teaching that.

 

Some of it was gravy which I can cut back (enrichment games). One big chunk was the Key to... books, which I may just buy some of instead of the whole shebang, even though buying it all at once is cheaper in the long run.

[kiwik]

Youch but as you say split four ways it isn't so bad.

[Mom2TheTeam]

I wish mine added to that!!! ;) last time I checked the count was over $1000. I justify it by saying it is only a fraction of the cost of private school! :)

 

 

:lol: I say the same thing!

 

I buy MFW as my core and add and tweak. My saving grace is knowing that my other kids will use it too. So, the kids coming behind are minimal.

[Ravin]

Also adding that this is for 5th grade next year.

[PentecostalMom]

Doesn't really seem like a high amount to me, then again, we budget $1000 per year right now, and that is only for the 7yo. I don't expect it to go up much as we add students because we use Sonlight and much of it is non-consumable.

 

I do think you could possibly get some of that used. Have you checked Homeschool Classifieds and this facebook group? The FB group was started by a WTM member and I actually saw Key To books on there today. I'm not sure if they sold or not and I do realize that they are partially consumable, but if you can save some $$, it cannot hurt to check.

[Koerarmoca]

That's super high, I spend less than that on 4 kids and one is in high school. I would go back through and cut what you can and shop used!

[boscopup]

At that amount, I'd expect to see plenty of BOOKS. I easily spend that, but it's on books for my personal library. If it's just on curriculum, you might be able to do better. For the MBtP, I'd try one first to see if you like it, if you haven't used it before. For Mapping the World, you can get just the CD for about $25 on Ellen McHenry's site... don't know what shipping is though, and of course you'd need to have cheap printing at home (like a laser printer).

 

I don't think $600 is bad (definitely cheaper than private school!), but if you can't afford it, you can't afford it. Time to cut some things out. Hopefully it won't be TOO painful. :)

[Ravin]

Thanks for the link to the CD only Mapping the World with Art! I have no problem with printing, we have a good color laser printer and buy paper by the ream.

 

I've weeded down the lit units to ones I most think DD will enjoy, and I will purchase the one before I commit to more. I'll put off some of the games until Spring.

 

I always hit the used bookstores to see if I get lucky before buying any books new, but my first choice when it comes to books is the library as our home library is busting at the seams as it is.

 

 

[kiwik]

I don't think the postage for the cd is very high as she gave me a very reasonable quote for sending it to NZ.

[Ecclecticmum]

Um, my math program just came to over half of that *eek* lol. But then again, its the new rightstart, with shipping to Aus. And its going through 3 kids, and all I have to purchase after that is the TM and e-workbook.

 

We were spending a lot before, but hopefully that'll change now that I've finally found ground to stand on. Maths will cost a few dollars a year, phonics will cost a few dollars a year. I already have most of the stuff I need for the rest of LA for several years once they are past phonics stage. I have science for a few years (but will purchase the odd crazy experiments book for $10 a pop).

 

If I continue with Live Ed & OM thats about 400 a pop each though :huh: This years a trial run with those two, if i drop them, and don't continue using them, then I won't be replacing them with anything else. We have enough history for a fair amount of years.

 

So really the only thing I can see spending lots of moula on is "household supplies" that experiments require, paper, and re-filling my atelier every year (the kids make a lot of stuff, so pencils, glue, stickytape is needed by the pallet lol).

 

If we don't continue LE & OM, the amounts apart from 'supplies' will be minimal, if we do continue, well the way of justifying is Oak Meadow is my backup, even DH can teach from it, I like the program all the way upto highschool (my kids are just more "do-ers" than wanting to listen to stories from books all day (me making up stories is different, they'll listen to me storytell for ages whilst acting out what I'm saying) and Live Ed is justified by being my teacher training (really, its cheap for teacher training when you consider I do it in my own time, and can teach after I read a paragraph ahead, and only gives me the 'training" for the levels I need). In my mind, I *could* drop both of them, and I may, but for now they are my safety net.

 

My Point (elaborated): Each family is different :closedeyes: I could get away with paying nothing, but I do what makes life easier for me. I know sometimes I do leave stuff in my RR wishlist for several days, and I know how much it comes to all up (I did this the other day actually with RR) then come back to it after researching and leavin it alone for a bit. I usually end up tossing 90% from my cart as they were just "oh, this is cool" or "she'll love that!" things, and leave 1 thing for each child thats a fun extra instead of 20, rofl (so for my last lot I had both BambinoLUk & MiniLUK, plus a bunch of books, supplements for Atlas, Wedgit sets & cards, and a billion other 'not needed' things. I left it, searched around, and decided they would be fine with just the starter packs (1 book and controller) for the LUKs (I could always get more books later if they liked it, but if they didn't, having a whole bunch of extra books would be more money wasted, and having to try to re-sell), realized I could get the Wedgits in Aus for same price (in other words, that could be put on the back burner or not purchased), removed all the supplements (when am I going to fit all these "supplements" in? I thought I was just going to concentrate on the R's, and 1 program for each! Silly woman!) so in other words, I grew commonsense :laugh: and tossed nearly everything out of my cart. :hurray: Much cheaper. And less things I have to somehow find a way to use (Luks are for the two littlies whilst I'm dealing with the eldest).

[Ravin]

Some things are not costing us anything because I had them built up or are continuing from last year. Math only needs tweaking/reinforcing. But we're on a whole new topic in Geography that I haven't built anything up for except a wall map, and we were using CW last year until I gave it up as just not fitting DD's learning style, so there's a big hole there. We did a Shakespeare lit unit this year, but it dragged on too long. I've eyed MBtP before and decided we couldn't afford it, but at this point I'm more interested in what's a best fit for DD than what's a best fit for our pocketbook.

[Haiku]

I spent around $100 for dd's 5th grade year (unless you count hockey as PE; then the price goes up considerably! ;) ). Some of what we used was stuff I already had, but the only things I bought specifically for 5th grade were Math Mammoth 5, Hake Grammar and Writing, Holt Science (used text from Amazon, $5), and History Odyssey.

 

Next year she'll be moving to Dolciani Pre-Algebra ($8 used), and we hated History Odyssey, so 6th grade will be even cheaper.

 

I use a lot of free Google books and things from the library. Buy early, buy used, and substitute with free or cheap resources.

 

Tara

[Haiku]

I see you need a writing program. My dd uses School Composition, a free, vintage Google book. It's by William Henry Maxwell, and it is the type of text that all the new retro writing programs are based on. It's thorough, easy to open and go, my daughter likes it, and it's FREE. :)

 

Tara

[alisoncooks]

I don't think that looks like an exorbitant amount. We're spending close to that for a 2nd and K.

And it would've been more if we'd caved on Nancy Larson this year (but I went a different route.)

 

Best of luck!

[Ravin]

Thanks for the Maxwell writing link! Thanks to that and the generosity of another WTM mom, the price tag has gone down considerably.

 

Of course, I also added Draw Write Now, which if anyone knows of a better deal on, I'm all ears. DD is actually very excited by the prospect.

[raceNzanesmom]

Buying new, that sounds reasonable for 5th grade- that's why I don't buy new. For 4th grade, the only thing I'll buy new is his math workbook and one other book that I haven't been able to find used.

[Ravin]

I love finding things secondhand, but due to cash flow for our family, I wind up having to buy right when I need things instead of having time to look for a good deal used. I am going to try to set aside some $$ from summer financial aid for that purpose, though.

 

I've also favored non-consumables for a lot of things, so if we get to homeschool DS, it won't cost much.

[TraceyS/FL]

I love finding things secondhand, but due to cash flow for our family, I wind up having to buy right when I need things instead of having time to look for a good deal used. I am going to try to set aside some $$ from summer financial aid for that purpose, though.

 

I've also favored non-consumables for a lot of things, so if we get to homeschool DS, it won't cost much.

 

This is how it has been here, I was able to buy some used stuff from Amazon this time around without a lot of effort, so that helped. But, otherwise I was buying stuff I needed weeks ago and bought with the knowledge that I should be able to get another use out of it with DD3. Maybe.

[mymommy1]

Just a thought - do you sell your school books back at the end of semester? Could you use some of that money (though it's not much) to shop used over summer?

[Ravin]

I'll sell some of my textbooks back, but I also have to buy a textbook for my summer class and if I want to get it used online (or even new is usually a better deal online than in the bookstore), I need to take that into consideration. Plus I'll probably spend the cash from buybacks on gas or a utility bill. We're really strapped right now and my car accident threw unexpected expenses (like fueling a vehicle with half the gas mileage of the wrecked one) in our path.