I first came upon Homeschool eStore through NotebookingPages.com, a fabulous site with both free and pay templates for lapbooking, home-schooling record sheets and more. When someone posted not long afterwards that the very same store had electronic versions of the Miquon Math textbooks I went on over to check them out. I am truly glad I did!
Homeschool eStore carries a whole variety of products, ranging from e-book versions of commercially published textbooks to self-published study guides, record keeping and lapbooking templates, and thematic units for science or literature class. All versions are legal, and all are delivered immediately through a download link once payment has gone through. It couldn’t be any easier!
My Miquon textbooks were priced at $6.50 USD – several dollars less than I would have paid to order the printed workbooks – and there was no tax or shipping to pay! Sure, I pay for the printing of the sheets I use. But with four children, I can buy one set of workbooks and keep printing from them as long as I need them. The kids can also repeat a given lab sheet if they want to, which makes the system much more flexible.
Other products listed at Homeschool eStore range from a few US dollars to $10, $15 or even $20 or more. Products are sometimes offered in bundles at a discounted rate, and frequently prices are slashed dramatically. If you have your eye on something but find the price is a little steep for you, keep going back to check on it. You never know when it will be listed several dollars lower than before.
One of the things that motivated me to write this review is that Homeschool eStore is a merchant that gives back a lot to its customers. When I made my first order the store was offering customer appreciation points, which could be redeemed against future purchases. This promotion went on for a whole month, right when a lot of folks were starting a new school year and needed new texts and other materials. The more I spent, the more discounts I earned! Afterwards, I signed up for the free weekly newsletter and discovered that each week one product is offered for download, free of charge. And now, a special notice has just come out to announce that subscribers can download up to 20 e-books ($200 worth) free during Black Friday!
Not sure what you might want to purchase from the store? You can browse by subject or age (including parents’ literature and reference materials) or do a keyword search. You can browse by publisher too. Get a list of all publishers from the sidebar menu, or if you see a product you like you can get a list of its publisher’s other offerings. Most products have a preview (provided by the publisher at their option,) and there are customer reviews just like on the big box book dealers’ sites. You can also join an affiliate program, or even sell your own e-books through the store, if you are so inclined.
All prices are in US$, and no additional charges will be added for tax or handling. Purchase using credit or debit card, or through PayPal. Transactions are smooth and go through quickly. Downloads can be started as soon as payment is approved – and there are five downloads per purchase, just in case something goes wrong!
Worried about using e-books? All the downloads from Homeschool eStore are in PDF format – no unzipping or installing. Most computers are equipped with software that reads PDF’s, but if yours isn’t the eStore has easy to follow explanations and links to the necessary program. They also have a tutorial on backing up your books to CD, so you won’t lose them if your computer is damaged by a virus. (If you forgot to do this, the extra 4 downloads are really handy!)
Homeschool eStore is changing their name to CurrClick, so if the links here don’t bring you to them just do a search in your favourite search engine. This is one supplier that’s worth bookmarking, whether you be a home educator, a school teacher, or a parent who wants to supplement the kids’ schoolwork with a few fun extras!
Update 10 March 2008:
CurrClick.com has been launched! The banner will take you there 
This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
Filed under: Free or Nearly Free, Home Education, Web Site Reviews | Tagged: e-commerce, Home Education, Reviews, web sites
