Buying Homeschool Curriculum (and other things) on Ebay

For the last several weeks I have been making decisions about what curriculum we will use for our next school year. This year I will have 3 in "school" and one in "preschool." Cost is definitely a factor in our house, so I look for several ways to save money. I am willing to buy used books to save money so I have been searching ebay (anything you want you can find it on ebay.) To my surprise, I have not found very much I am interested in buying. Why? The used curriculum on ebay is selling for more than I can buy it brand new. That is great news if you are selling, but not so good if you are buying. I believe there are two main reasons for this. The biggest one is people are not doing research do not know your prices. If you don't know how much something costs new, how will you know if it is a good deal? The second reason is the determination to win. People get caught up in not getting outbid and don't pay attention to what they are actually paying for the product.
There are still some good deals on ebay. Here are my suggestions for finding them.

1. Know how much the item costs brand new. The Rainbow Resource Catalog is a good place to look up Homeschool Curriculum.
2.Know as much information about the item (condition, writing in the book, torn pages, etc..) as possible. If the listing is not specific ask the seller for more details.
3. Decide what you think a fair price would be and do not increase your bid if someone outbids you. Stick to your original decision.
4. Buy from sellers with positive feedback.
5.Buy from sellers that will combine shipping if you are purchasing more than one item.

Tweet

Our Chickens

I just wrote a post last week about how excited the boys were to have their brown chickens laying eggs. Well, I am sad to say that something got into the coop and killed all but one chicken. Last week, we had 21 chickens 7 were already laying and now we have one poor hen left. The boys have taken it pretty well. They would like to get more chicks and start all over again even though they will not be able to show in the fair this year. We have a trap and are hoping to catch the culprit (we think it is a minx) tonight. I am sad for my boys, and for all of the money we have put into raising their chickens, but I am encouraging them to get more. They really enjoyed watching the chicks grow and taking care of them.

Tweet

Nick's Vanilla Chocolate Pudding

Some recipes turn out better because of a mistake. Last night the boys wanted their 7:00 snack, and since I hurt my back a couple of days ago I didn't have anything made. Nick decided he was big enough to make some instant vanilla pudding he found in the cupboard. He made a mistake and put double the milk in it. To "fix" the mistake, we added a box of chocolate pudding to it and made Vanilla Chocolate Pudding. The children were very pleased with the results.

Tweet

Chickens and Eggs

Yesterday for Nick's Sunday School class, he needed some pictures of pets or animals that he cares for (they are studying creation and talking about God made animals.) Nick and Alex ran down to the chicken pen to take some pictures (Henry the famous rooster was the star in all the pictures) and collect eggs and guess what they found? A brown egg! We ended up with two brown eggs yesterday and Alex ate them for breakfast this morning. Our brown chickens have started laying. This is much sooner than our last year's chickens. The boys are really excited and anxious to get their egg selling business off the ground. In the next couple of weeks we will be getting 20 eggs a day and most of them will be to sell. Anyone need eggs?

Tweet

Favorite Summer Recipes: Taco Salad

When it is 100 + degrees outside, who wants to heat up the house even more by cooking? Even if you do cook a large hot meal, no one feels like eating it. So, in the summer we (and probably most people) cook a little lighter. I made this Taco Salad Sunday night and it was a big hit.

1 lb ground beef browned
1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 bag shredded lettuce
1 bag shredded cheese
Tortilla Chips
Salsa

After browning ground beef in a skillet, pour off the fat and add corn and beans. Cook about 5 minutes until warm. Pour into a bowl over shredded lettuce. Crumble Tortilla Chips add them to your salad. Top with shredded cheese and salsa to taste. Toss and serve. Makes about 8 servings.

Tweet

Movie Review : Up

We are back from our Branson/Springdale 11 day vacation. While the children and I were in Springdale, we got to see Disney's 3-D movie Up. The children love to go to the movies. I don't know what they like more, the movie or the popcorn. Up was a great movie for people of all ages. It wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, but it was funny, adventurous, and at times a little sad. I enjoyed the 3-D special effects, but I do wish they made glasses in a smaller size for kids. They were way too big for Christian and Anthony to wear. There were a couple of parts that were a little scary mostly towards the end ; a fire scene, dogs that were ferocious, and the villain fighting. Alex (5) and Anthony (4) were bothered for a few minutes by these scenes. Overall it was a very enjoyable movie and one I would recommend.

Tweet

What is "School?"

In general, I believe that homeschooling is becoming more accepted, and even if it isn't something you would do yourself, most people recognize our right to educate our children as we see fit. I do still hear quite a few negative comments about my decision to homeschool mostly regarding the quality of their education. For most people "School" is a building you go to 6 hours a day 5 days a week 9 months out of the year. Any learning must be done within these walls, during this time frame and certainly taught by someone with a piece of paper stating they are capable of doing so. Learning must be done out of textbooks only of course and everyone must learn the same thing at the same time. Even though homeschooling is different than this traditional model, that doesn't mean my children are learning less. I think they are learning more. While we only use the occasional textbook (mostly Math) we teach in other ways too. My favorite is hands on learning and reading real books. Learning is not confined to only certain days a week at certain times a day, it can be done all of the time. Children are like sponges, they soak up everything around them. For instance, even though it is summer, when Daddy went to Dallas for work, we found Dallas on the map, talked about what direction we would have to travel to get there, and how long the trip takes. The children also learned quite a bit about reptiles at the program at DeGray Lake, and yesterday did several experiments on how to make a paper airplane fly higher. Think of it this way. When you learned to ride a bike or drive a car was it just from reading a textbook, or did you have to go out and do it? Can you learn to cook by just reading a cookbook, or do you actually have to cook? I am quite certain my children are getting a "quality education" from the comfort of their own home and from a teacher who loves them more than anyone else in the world.

Tweet