Garlic Press Curriculum

You just have to love a publishing company that names itself “Garlic Press.” I was inclined to like this series of books for that alone. Then I opened the books, and liked them even better. Garlic Press publishes books that cover a huge range of topics. I was first introduced to their Straight Forward Math series. I appreciated how they covered each topic sufficiently without moving on too quickly, and without beating the horse to death. The lettering on the pages is nice and dark, so you can plainly see what you’re looking at, and the books are fully reproducible. … Continue reading

Comprehensive Curriculum Books by American Education Publishing

A lot of people ask me what curriculum I use to teach my children, and I honestly tell them that I’m very eclectic. One day, we might spend all our time on one subject and never make it around to the others. Sometimes I go all Martha Stewart and we do crafts. Some days we unschool. Some days we follow a tight schedule. But I do try to base it all on some sort of framework so we’re heading in the right direction, and a framework that gels for me is the comprehensive curriculum series produced by American Education Publishing. … Continue reading

How To Take Ebay For A Test Drive

Have you ever wondered whether you could work from home as an Ebay seller? If you have ever visited the site, you know that many people are Ebay sellers. Many Ebay sellers work from home either full time or part time, running their Ebay stores. If you have thought about selling on Ebay but you do not know whether it is right for you, you may want to try it out on a very small scale first before opening an actual Ebay store. You can start out small on Ebay by listing a few items for sale. After you get … Continue reading

EBay makes online auctions worthwhile again

I have always used EBay to make money saving purchases. When my video camera battery died, and it was no longer available in the stores, I did not buy a new camera, I got a new battery on EBay. When the cat popped a few keys off my daughter’s laptop, I didn’t spend $100.00 on repairs, I got new keys from EBay and found an online tutorial for installing it. Instead of buying a $1000 projection screen for the basement, I purchased fabric and screen building instructions from EBay and made the perfectly good screen for $40.00. EBay has saved … Continue reading

The Ethics of Buying and Selling Used Curriculum

With it being time to start considering homeschool curriculums for next year, the homeschool boards are full of questions about whether selling or giving away used or gently used curriculum is ethical. The problem arises in the fact that the curriculum companies lose money when homeschoolers sell used curriculum instead of buying new. Some have even gone as far as to make copies of curriculums for their friends. To cut the losses, many curriculum companies, have placed rules around use and re-use of curriculums in the form of licensing agreements. For example, a Calvert customer must sign a legal binding … Continue reading

Making School More Affordable

One of the downsides of homeschooling is the expense. When you public school, there is a financial outlay, but when you homeschool, not only are you making purchases, but you’re determining for yourself what to get rather than following a prescribed list. It can get daunting, and pricey. And you don’t want to spend money on things you won’t end up using. Is there a way to make this less complicated? 1. Look on Amazon.com and eBay for curriculum books and educational games/toys. Very often, you can find exactly what you’re looking for at a fraction of the price. And … Continue reading

Is Homeschooling a Right or a Privilege?

I had a bad EBay experience today where I purchased a power cord and when I got it, was not happy. The seller was dismissive about it. He then demanded positive feedback. I replied that I would not give feedback at all. You see, I told him, feedback is a privilege to be earned, not a right. Let us just say that this is where it got ugly. So what does my EBay experience have to do with homeschooling? Well I saw an interesting correlation. (I am a homeschool blogger; I would see a correlation in a ham sandwich) There … Continue reading