One of the biggest questions as a homeschooler, to buy or not to buy?
I find myself standing in the middle of the bookstore asking myself this exact question more than I would like to admit. I used to have a serious problem with buying books, I would buy them from the bookstore, second-hand stores, garage sales, and even the dollar store. The issue was that we never really used all the books I was buying, so I started really utilizing the library.
Now I try to stick to a couple of rules before deciding to buy a book. First, how often are we going to be using the book, is it something we will be using for a long period of time? Secondly, is it a book that we need to write in, would it make our day run smoother than having to write in a separate book. Lastly, is it available from the library?
If we need a book to go along with any curriculum that we are using, would we use it for a couple of months or even the whole year? If the answer to that is yes, then I feel like it’s reasonable for me to go ahead and purchase the book. If the plan isn’t to use the book for an extended amount of time then we don’t need to own it, and that’s okay. Most libraries allow you to keep a book for three weeks and then you have the option to renew the book for another three weeks, up to nine weeks total, which is more than enough time to add some extra books into your homeschool throughout the year.
The library also offers some very amazing things that some people don’t even know about. You can rent all sorts of things, movies, music, and video games. Besides that though, the library often offers classes or club like situations for people to join. The kids have been part of some of the classes they run and have had a really great time, usually, they are free so it’s an awesome opportunity for people who might not be able to afford tons of extra activities because as I’ve found out homeschooling can become very expensive. As I mentioned in my “Our Love For Audiobooks” video, the library is an awesome place to get audiobooks. They have some great apps that you can access with our library card number and you’re able to listen to audiobooks for free.
