22 Places to Check for Homeschool Books and Save Money

In keeping with my reputation as a Connector, this post will connect you with books! But first, a little story...

(queue the sad classical music)

I was going to teach a high school Government class at our homeschool co-op, and I planned to use the 2014 edition of Declaration Statesmanship in conjunction with the Book of Readings. Early in the summer, these were easy to find for under $15 each, but as fall loomed closer, they were more rare and more expensive.

One of the moms in the co-op needed these books. 

She told me the main book was going for $200 on Amazon. I did a head-snap and was like, "WHAT?!" and then my fingers flew across my laptop keyboard searching for a better price. I knew that other parents also did not yet have the books and was worried they would not be able to find it at a good price, and that is NOT ACCEPTABLE!

And yes, there is that not-super-visible part of the page that says you can maybe get a copy used if you click a certain link. (she ended up getting the book that way; another student's mom got the book from another homeschool mom I connected her with)

Happy ending to this story, and here are 22 places where you can check for books you need! 

*Some of these include affiliate links so, for instance, if you purchase something on BooksRun, I get some points that go toward purchasing my own homeschool books. So thank you!

AbeBooks

Alibris

Amazon (click the used)

Best Bookstores by State (blog post)

Better World Books

Bookfinder 

BookScouter 

BooksRun — 

Chegg 

eBay 

Facebook (groups, personal, Marketplace, used curriculum sale events)

Friends and fellow homeschoolers who have older kids who may have taken the course, so they might have the book you need. I'm always more willing to part with books on my bookshelf if someone is offering me money for them!

Garage sales — True, this is more for when you are planning WAY ahead or in pure perusal mode, but you never know what you might find!

Half Price Books 

HomeWorks for Books — This is a local Kansas City area homeschooling foster family with a HUGE consignment business. We have consigned some of our coop books and I've consigned my personal books and we've done very well going through her!

Library (yours) 

Library (friend's or family member's) 

Powell's Books

Second Sale 

SellBackYourBook.com

ThriftBooks 

Thrift stores — You never know what books you might find at your rinky-dink neighborhood thrift store!

Have more ideas? Let me know in the comments or at mommykerrie@yahoo.com. Thanks!

Aspirational and Sentimental Homeschool Clutter

I may not have a lot of books compared to some homeschoolers, but it feels like a lot when I'm sorting through things and feeling overwhelmed. When I realized books had overflowed off of two bookshelves into my storage room and were piled high in stacks on a filing cabinet, I knew I had to do something about that. Thankfully, it was Christmas break so I could finally tackle the project.

Let's take a specific book I've been saving as an example and make it our scapegoat. The book in question is What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know (Revised and updated): Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning (The Core Knowledge Series) and my youngest child is 11 years old and in 5th grade. This means this dialogue also applies to several more books I own in the series.

My dialogue goes something like this:

Current Read-Alouds and Independent Reading Winter 2021

Welcome to the Winter 2021 edition of Current Read-Alouds. If you're not familiar with Read-Aloud Revival or Pam Barnhill (morning basket) or Brave Writer, simply click on the links 😉 I also read to the kids from our Afternoon Basket (because we can't all get going early enough to call it a Morning Basket 😂), which currently includes Story of the World Volume 1, The Gift of the Magi (oh, the vocab words!), and Reading 7 for Young Catholics, among a few other things, like this one:

Scroll down to find out who is hearing which book!

October Homeschooling Fun

October is one of my favorite months!

This month Sam (my youngest, and the one who went to the NICU) turned 10. My husband and I hit 21 years of marriage and the next day he left for Kuwait for 6 weeks (airport field trip!), the same day we closed our swimming pool.

We've been to Paradise Park in Lee's Summit, MO twice (once to play mini golf with our POGO Pass), Wonderscope in Shawnee, KS (POGO Pass), Worlds of Fun in KCMO for the teen boys, a barn dance for my teen girl, three different skate parks, my dad and stepmom's for a lovely day of visiting and not cooking, as well a visit with my grandmother.

Kayaking on our pond, homeschool coop, church, and the Kansas City Chiefs, peppered with my teen boys working hard at their jobs and everybody homeschooling like champs.

I got to see Downton Abbey finally with friends last night, and this weekend includes Kansas City Boo at the Zoo and Johnson Farms in Belton, MO.

Then we get to hang out with my mom next week and then we have HALLOWEEN (to include giving Boorito a try at Chipotle for the first time)!

What are you up to this month?

Drove to our local pumpkin patch, Johnson Farms, just to get pumpkin donuts for our reading time

I needed a coffee (surprisingly, NOT pumpkin spice), and the trees at Starbucks were gorgeous!

A fun book for our story time!

You can always count on Trader Joe's to have something related to a fun, festive fall.