Preparing for the New School Year with Deals

O how it's that wonderful time of year to prepare for the new teaching and materials us homeschool momma's have to do. Everyone has their own way of preparing, I'm sure. So I always go through our books and clean out things that are dated or not interesting, doubles - because it happens so easily in our house and books that are to small for my ages. Then I get a plan in my head and on paper of all the subjects we are going to be covering in the next year studies, which is a hard thing to do! I try to plan 8 weeks at a time but have large goals for the entire year. I find my goals easier to obtain if they are small.

I always scope out Goodwills, Yard Sales and Library Sales to help save money on books. We do a lot of reading in our home and we learn the majority of our history and science threw living books used in lapbooks or journals. Last week was our trip to the homeschool store 3 hours away. We devoted the ENTIRE day to looking for school material.

This was our buys:

Table full of books and of course my wonderful daughter that loves books more than me was sitting at the table reading, I got these at various places along our trip and for 86 books I think $32.00 is wonderful that's about .34 cent each book.

Next was Staples. They had a huge sale. We go through file folders like crazy and printer paper the same! So when Staples has a 75% off coupon its the best sale ever!!! So a wonderful homeschool friend of mine gave me the heads up of the 75% off on file folders normally around $14.00 for just over $3.00. Then when I got in the store the customer in front of me had a coupon for 75% off any HP Paper and I about died for that coupon. The cashier was so wonderful because guess what -- She let me use the coupon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So the paper is normally around $40.00 and I paid right at $9.00. My total for this was just at $16.00.

The homeschool store. I went in with a list and some books to trade in. I went in with high hopes simply because this was our first time going to this location, which had been recommended so many times by the smaller location because of the selection and the size. However I have to say I was actually disappointed and had wished we would of went to the one we normally do. So being there I tried to make the most of our trip.  I started digging threw and found several items on my list and several that wasn't... You know how that goes!!!!! Yes you do!!!!

On my list was the MUS items. I didn't get the complete set of Epsilon however some was better than none! Editor in Chief was on my list as well. The state game was a nice bonus since we are going to be learning about states this year, Yes Kyle already knows states and capitals and can help with learning for Lexi and Zac however we are going to be learning in dept on the states information. The Critical Thinking books was a GREAT Bonus as well. I had wanted Building Thinking Skills book 1(the red one) however just didn't figure I would find one second hand. The CT books are always so expensive however worth every penny! I was glad to find such a great selection for the kids.

Last but not least. At the homeschool store I found something that totally was a shocker. Real Science 4 Kids. I have looked at her stuff for a couple years and just didn't want to pay the price for it until all 3 kids was of age to learn and partake in the learning and experiments. I found this set for $20.00.

I was over all pleased with my finds. We will be making one more trip to attempt to buy my items on my list second hand on the 22nd. I hope to find the rest of my items so that I don't have to buy online, However I know there are a few items I just will not find!