Link Love: Co-op Helps Homeschoolers

For families who choose to homeschool, most are living on one income.  This makes it difficult for a family to purchase homeschool curriculum.

School districts have purchasing power but homeschool families pay as individuals.  If school districts get educational discounts, why can’t homeschoolers?

Brent Walter, a homeschooling dad, founded the Homeschool Buyers Co-op.  It is the nation’s largest purchasing cooperative for homeschooling families.

Brent created this co-op, which currently has over 51,000 member families, to give homeschoolers the same purchasing power as school districts.  They contact suppliers, tell them how many families they represent and ask for a discount.  Surprisingly, most of the suppliers say yes!

Co-op members can take advantage of discounts of 10%-70% off retail prices from exclusive suppliers.

There are also Group Buy discounts where, by purchasing as a group, members can earn exceptionally deep discounts on selected educational products for their homeschools.  I have taken advantage of this for our Spanish curriculum.

Here are other services they offer to their members on their website:

• Fully searchable database of free curriculum and educational resources
• The Internet’s largest database of contests and scholarships for homeschooled students
• Database of local retail merchants that offer discounts to homeschoolers
• Free classified sections for members
• Daily deals

The best part about this co-op is that the membership is FREE!  They need as many members as they can to increase their purchasing power.

photo credit: jimmiehomeschoolmom