Using Giveaways to Build A Curriculum Collection
Gathering homeschool materials can be expensive! It’s important to find frugal ways to build a curriculum collection from scratch. When I first began homeschooling, I was a bit overwhelmed by all the options on the curriculum market. Finding what was right for my family is one of the reasons we choose to homeschool in the first place, so this is not a job I took lightly. It is easy to break your budget in an attempt to get it right, and with me no longer working, that was not an option.
As I scanned the homeschool market and perused popular homeschool blogs, I began to notice that giveaways seemed to be popular among the homeschool community. I entered several of them with no results. A friend of mine encouraged me to keep it up, and soon enough, I actually won! It was encouraging enough that I began setting aside a couple of hours each week to search for and enter homeschool curriculum giveaways across the web.
All through the process I was learning more and more about the various companies and their products. I found things I loved for my family, and I found some that wouldn’t work well for us. I read reviews, made notes, and entered as many giveaways as I could find.
A few basic tips for success:
- Set up an email address specifically for giveaways and check it daily.
- Leave comments to get to know the bloggers and begin to be recognized as a “regular reader.”
- Spend 2-3 evenings or 2-3 hours in a week searching for and entering giveaways.
- Use Pinterest by searching “giveaways” or “homeschool giveaways” or similar.
- Take advantage of freebies that go along with the giveaways or are promoted individually on blogs.
- Search Facebook groups for giveaway items.
- Visit Hip Homeschool Moms regularly!
The more I entered, the more our curriculum collection began to grow. I can honestly say that MOST of the curriculum we have received has been a real blessing to our homeschool. Even when it has turned out to not be the best fit for my family, I’ve been able to pull valuable information from it and tweak it to suit us better.
It’s my firm belief that homeschoolers should always approach curriculum with the attitude that we can adjust nearly any curriculum to fit our families instead of following a strict plan. I use my curriculums as guides instead of as strict plans.
It’s a worthwhile and important investment for homeschool moms to purchase a decent printer and, when possible, a laminator. You might also consider an inexpensive binder machine, but I most often purchase inexpensive 3 ring binders to use for printable materials. Don’t forget to check your local thrift stores for used binders – just let the kids decorate a new front cover and they work quite well for keeping all those free printables gathered into categories.
Much of the time, curriculum won in a giveaway is downloadable material. Those binders come in handy for this purpose as well.
There will be many giveaways you won’t win, but as you learn about these companies and their products and find ones that look perfect for your family, don’t be afraid to contact the companies you’re most interested in and ask about their next big sale. Let them know you’ll be budgeting to purchase their wonderful products.
Homeschool companies work hard. They are trying to make a living and feed the family just like you are, but they need good reviewers. They want people to share their products, and giveaways are a great way for them to do that. Share them on your Facebook page, pin them to your Pinterest boards, and leave lovely comments they can use in promotions when you find products you love. You don’t have to be a blogger to share curriculum sales and information in conversations and on social media.
The idea behind using giveaways to build a curriculum collection is NOT to take advantage of the wonderful curriculum companies. It is to help spread the word, to help you save money, and to learn about which curriculum companies are right for your family.
Be sure to check out the giveaways and reviews hosted by Hip Homeschool Moms. You can search “giveaways or reviews” in the search box at the right hand top side of the blog. Also, weekly giveaways are offered on my personal blog – HomeschoolingAdventurez , and a new one goes live every Monday.
Here are a few posts that will give you more ideas on how to homeschool without spending too much money. I hope you enjoy them!
Five Ways to Save on Homeschool Curriculum
Building Your Homeschool Library on the Cheap
Homeschooling for Free (or Cheap)
How about you? Have you found interesting ways to build a curriculum collection for your family without spending too much money? Please share your tips and ideas in the comments!
