How To Stretch Your Homeschool Dollars - A Tip for Reselling Curriculum

Do you have one of these in your back yard?    I certainly don't, and I'm constantly looking for ways to cut costs in our education budget!    I learned this tip from someone in our co-op last year.  I think it had to do with The Story of The World Activity Guide.  I now use it with all of our curriculum that is in the form of a workbook.  I'll use our writing curriculum, Writing With Ease, as an example.

I did watch for the workbooks to be on sale at our homeschool used book sale, but I didn't have any luck.  (I did, however, find two years worth of our Latin program for a total of $17!)  After that I went to Amazon and purchased the workbooks ($23 each for a total of $46) I would need for both children.

 

I took them to the office supply store and had them unbound ($3), purchased 2 spiral notebooks ($3 each) and then three hole punched the workbook pages and put them inside.  I also bought two additional notebooks (one for each child - another another  $6 total) in which I will put copied pages as need be.   These are their own Writing With Ease Notebooks.  

At this point, I have spent $58 on their writing curriculum.   When the time comes for the next child to use them, or for us to be finished with them, I will have a clean copy, ready to pass down or sell.  If I can recoup 40 or 50% of what I spent I think that's pretty good... after all, they are like new, and even if their own notebook.  Now, if you came upon these at a curriculum sale for maybe $10 or $12 a piece , wouldn't you think, "JACKPOT!"??    

 

When I did this with our Story of The World curriculum last year it worked so well!   The children each have notebooks with their names on them and know what to pull out when the schedule says "history", "writing", "science", etc...    (follow the link I gave you to find GREAT printable notebook covers for each volume of Story of the World!) In many subjects, this lends itself well to notebooking, of which I'm a huge fan!  If you're interested in notebooking, this "Learn More About Notebooking" post might help.   (I'm digressing....)

The best thing is that everything is organized in our bookshelf.   Last week we took a field trip that referenced some of the things from the beginning of last year in history - Miss B took out her SOTW notebook and was reviewing the information.  I love it! 

I'm sure you do something similar or have another great organizational tip for me... can you leave me a comment and share?  

Getting Things Done While Homeschooling

I saw this graphic today and laughed! It's me.... that's me this past week! I need to make a plan for being more organized. I always considered myself an organized person, but the older I get and the more that is on my plate, the less organized I feel. Now, I'm not just being Type A -- my lack of organization recently has led to things like me not being able to find the checkbook, forgetting an appointment, and not being able to locate things we need around the house. I'll give you a little background leading up to my organizational breakdown, and then share my plan of attack with you!

I've had one of those weeks that went by in a flash, and I don't know that I could tell you any one large thing that got accomplished, either! It seemed like each day was full of little "fires" to put out, and most of them weren't related to homeschooling. For instance, this week I had to:

• spend a mind numbing amount of time talking to an insurance company and dental office to settle an eligibility and claim issues
  
• solving ANOTHER medical issue with eligibility for reimbursement
  
• wrap my head around having two of our bathrooms painted (one is in bad shape, the other has always been builder white) today - choose the colors, etc... )
• cook for our Thursday co-op and provide snacks and drinks for the t-ball team on the same day
• begin to plan for a large family Thanksgiving at my house (we've always had Thanksgiving somewhere else, but not this year).... I'm very excited about this, though.
  
• work my normal amount teaching piano lessons, doing laundry, etc...
  

You get the picture.

I envy the homeschooling moms who have been doing this since the beginning, because they don't know any different. For me, however, I still remember what those days were like with no children at home when I was super productive. I'm struggling with how to get things done effectively in all areas of my life.

My sweet husband sent me a text in the middle of the week (as he was on his way to South Carolina for work) that said this:

"Don't worry so much about the kids today. They are smart and way ahead because of you. Take the time you need today to get things done for yourself and around the house."

That meant so much - to hear it from him, the leader of our family. I did just what he said and I actually got a handle on a few things that had to get done. Oh, and he brought home dinner that night so I didn't have to fix anything. I love my husband so much.

While I'm talking about my husband, I have to tell you he is one of the most organized people I know. He just looks like he has it all together, don't you think?

He uses something called "Remember the Milk" to keep him organized.

It is an online task management and to do list. He swears by it. I always see him updating his lists on the computer. I even tease him about it sometimes. I think I'll look into it this weekend.

Something else my husband said made a huge difference was reading the book Getting Things Done. I remember a few years ago when he read it - he started putting packs of index cards in his car and writing everything down - I thought he was a little crazy, but he's still doing it today and recommends the book to loads of people. Here's a little thing I found about the book:

So how does GTD work?

This is a really summarized version, but here it is, PowerPoint-style:

1. identify all the stuff in your life that isn’t in the right place (close all open loops)
2. get rid of the stuff that isn’t yours or you don’t need right now
3. create a right place that you trust and that supports your working style and values
4. put your stuff in the right place, consistently
5. do your stuff in a way that honors your time, your energy, and the context of any given moment
6. iterate and refactor mercilessly

(from 43folders.com)

The author knows me! I hate "stuff"! The book is downloaded to our iPad, so I think I'm just going to make myself read it. I, of course, have a list of books a mile long I want to read (most of them pertaining to homeschooling or education), but I think reading this book will be a wonderful investment in my organizational future!

If you have read this and have an organizational tool that really helps you, please let me know! I am open to suggestions.

This post is linked up to the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Hop over and see how everyone else's week went.

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4 Moms, 35 Kids

I loved the link-up I found while browsing blogs, today -- storage solutions at Raising Olives. A while ago I posted about our newly organized schoolroom. It's working pretty well for us, although I must admit we school all over the house, and largely at the kitchen table. It is nice, however, to have a dedicated room for resources, and a room where I can CLOSE THE DOOR if it gets too "hectic" inside.

Becoming a homeschooling mom has alerted me to the fact that I am not the obsessive compulsive neat freak I once thought I was (I can hear my husband laughing at that right now!). With all of the projects, resources, and ideas floating around my house I have become a bit scattered. I guess this is called "letting it go", right? I used to base a lot of happiness upon how organized I was. Well, I would be unhappy most of the time now if this was the case, so I've had to ease up on myself.

So, check out Raising Olives and her storage solutions for a big family. I am impressed to say the least!
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