The Financial Cost of Curriclum Mistakes pt. 2

Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ

I sat down in front of a crate of curriculum I have bought over the last year before switching to Heart of Dakota (HOD).  I began adding the costs on a calculator.  Some of the materials I bought used.  I didn't include the cost of storybooks.  I only included the workbooks and all the materials I bought to "try".  In this crate was nearly $500 worth of homeschool curriculum.  Much of it is consumable... meaning my daughter wrote in it so I can't do much with it.  I can't sell it.  I can't re-use it later.  Much of it will just be stored for a while as proof of what we worked on this year, and then tossed.

Costs of homeschool materials can be deceptive.  When I see a price tag for a complete year of materials as several hundred dollars, I hesitate.  Spending that amount of money at once is not a common occurrence with our budget.   However, as I have proven to myself, I am not saving any money by purchasing items a little here and there.  Ten dollars here, fifteen dollars there, and throughout a school year the expenses add up to more than what would have been spent for the all in one package.... especially when you figure shipping for each separate purchase!  I won't even get into the many times I bought used, and had issues with not receiving materials or receiving incorrect or damaged goods.

Many people put together their own curriculum, make excellent use of local libraries, and give their children wonderful educations for very little costs.  I've tried it.  It didn't work for me.  I ended up with late fees at the libraries.  The books I needed either weren't in, or they didn't carry them.  I couldn't make it work.  Buying used didn't seem to save me much when I had to buy from so many different sources and pay the shipping for each one.  Throw in all the materials I bought hoping that they would be a perfect "fit", only to find out that they didn't work for us, and you have a lot of money spent over a school term. 

I discussed some of my curriculum mistakes in a previous post.  Honestly, I can say now that a reusable program like Heart of Dakota, where my younger daughter can use the materials, is quite beneficial for the budget.  It might be an investment now, but when I don't have to purchase as many things later, the costs will be nearly nothing.  Heart of Dakota has just a few consumable items.  Math workbooks, maybe cursive books, and student notebooking pages may be all that needs to be purchased later other than standard supplies like binders, paper, pencils, etc.  Even the cost of paper and notebooks is reduced by doing a lot of work for grammar and math teaching on a dry erase board.

My 17 year old daughter is getting ready to graduate from our homeschool this year.  She has watched the transformation in our schooling with the younger children.  She has told me not to sell or give away the Heart of Dakota after my youngest is finished.  She told me that her children are going to need it one day.  Of course she says I get to homeschool my grand kids, but that is hopefully a while away.  It made me smile though.