What to know about buying a digital curriculum bundle!

by Kira Keller
If you’re like me, you are easily sucked in to beautifully staged pictures of learning materials that promise to be fun, engaging, and add value to your homeschool.  During this season, home educators and teachers alike are all hunting down curriculum and supplemental materials to use or help plan out lessons for the year.  So how does buying a curriculum bundle help you? 

As a participant of 2 giant curriculum bundles I’ve seen the quality and content of, I’m happy and proud to say that these bundles can last much longer than a year.  There are some out there that don’t have a preview option of everything included, and this scares me personally. I don’t really want to buy something I can’t see. You may purchase a bundle based on high profile likes or advertisement, but then you go to download it and it isn’t at all what you hoped for. Here is where I encourage everyone to view the product photos, look at what’s included and see if it really will get used! Consider your age groups and the material advertised. Is it a good fit?

Digital curriculum is either a Brilliant plan or a Terrible one. For some people, minimal stuff is ideal. Digital curriculum and learning materials is their jam. They can save the whole thing to a computer or flash drive (where are you road-schoolers?) and print what they want, when they want! For others, they prefer books and already printed/bound material. Not bad to have either. Unless you’re going to move. It gets very expensive…(.furniture or books)?!  In fact, a lot of military homeschoolers are on a limited weight when moving, so digital curriculum is a must.

Let's talk price! The value on digital curriculum is usually amazing. When you consider all the time and creativity that went into each shop's contributions, and the price they sell that one item for, you're going to end up saving about 90% by purchasing in a bundle and you never have to pay shipping! I also print and bind things myself. I use a Brother toner printer and get over 1,000 pages out of my cartridges, then I bind anything that qualifies as a book. Other things, I laminate, and put in those colorful teacher bins. Read further for outside printing recommendations.

I also know that some people are confused to how it downloads. I can't speak for all bundles, but the ones I've been a part of can be downloaded upon purchase. You can usually choose the folder or drive you want it to go to after that and save it! Some shops give you the ability to come back and download if you have an account, or give you up to 5 times. I always recommend downloading upon purchase. 

If printing at home isn’t for you, consider supporting a small business locally, or a homeschool family business for printing. Here are some recommendations: (this is not a paid advertisement, simply a suggestion)

  • https://familynestprinting.com/

 

  • https://thehomeschoolprintingcompany.com/

 

  • https://www.makingfamilycount.com/

 

  • https://press.barnesandnoble.com/print-on-demand

Last, really consider the topic, theme, or materials. Do these line up with your studies, or lessons. Can you apply them easily? You’re being exposed to new ideas, new curriculum, new homeschool families, or teachers, and tons of inspiration!  Is the bundle you’re eyeing worth it? 

I hope this blog post helps anyone looking at digital curriculum bundles that may have been on the fence about purchasing such a package! 

 

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