Benefits of Digital Curriculum – Affordable Printing & Easy Storage

Dusting. Love it or hate it, it’s safe to say most of us don’t need any more stuff sitting around to dust. That is just one reason digital curriculum can be such a blessing! No textbooks to dust or move to dust around. One less thing taking up precious space on a bookshelf. But easy storage is just one of the benefits of digital curriculum.

The Benefits

Digital curriculum is a great investment for homeschool families. Many times, you can use it with multiple kids over a period of time. You don’t have to dig it out of storage every time you need it. There are often bonuses with digital curriculum that printed textbooks can’t offer, like easy access to websites, videos, and other enrichment resources and activities that makes additional research and rabbit trails so much easier! 

Digital curriculum is also more convenient for your kids to take with them to read when in the car or when they are waiting for an appointment. Why drag around a bag full of heavy textbooks if you don’t have to? 

When it comes to difficult concepts, you can print as many pages as you need for those “do-overs.” When my daughter has sloppy handwriting, sometimes I print off a new page and make her start over. Talk about motivation!

Digital curriculum is often less-expensive and of course, it rocks to not pay shipping. You can save money by only printing the pages off that you plan to use. Any text that needs to be read can be done so on your screen. 

I don’t know about you, but I love downloading my purchases right after I buy something new. Waiting for my books in the mail really makes the days drag on. I am like the little kid waiting for Christmas when it comes to homeschool purchases. 

Affordable Printing

To truly make the best use of digital curriculum, we need affordable printing options, too. Thankfully, I don’t think there’s ever been a time with more affordable printing options available than today. Plus, there all kinds of ways to customize your order to get a resource that meets your needs and fits your budget. 

You can customize the binding to fit your needs.

• You can use a three-hole punch and store the lessons in binders.
• You can choose coil or spiral binding to make it easy to flip pages back as they are completed. 
• You can choose to print single-sided or duplex depending on your needs. Duplex printing saves not only money, but space.
• You can also choose between color or black and white printing to save money. 

Personally, I prefer spiral binding because my books will open and lay flat. In the old days, I had a coil binder system, but flipping pages was not very easy and it would cause some rips and tears. 

There are many places that will do printing and binding for you, including many office supply stores such as the UPS Store, Office Depot, Office Max, and Staples. It is best to call ahead to check on prices–and don’t forget to ask about teacher discounts. If the store does offer teacher discounts, try to get the information in writing so if you stop in while the manager or supervisor you spoke with isn’t there, you don’t have any confusion with the clerks. 

There are great online options to choose from for printing, too. I like to use TheHomeschoolPrintingCompany.com each year for my homeschool order in bulk. It can take about 6 weeks for your order to be printed and shipped, so order early. Another great online company is Family Nest Printing. Their turnaround time varies depending on the time of year, so it’s best to get your order in early. 

If you prefer to print your own resources, investing in a good printer is essential. You can also save on paper when you buy it in bulk. I have a subscription to HP Instant Ink that monitors my ink levels and automatically sends me more ink – talk about convenient! As you might have guessed, it’s for HP printers.

There are multiple plans that you can choose from based on your printing habits and you can upgrade and downgrade anytime. For example, if I am going to go over 100 pages in any given month, I can upgrade to get more pages for a few bucks and then downgrade afterwards. 

With a little bit of planning, you can save a ton of space and money by using digital curriculum in your homeschool!

In summary, check your local office supply store for prices on printing. Some places, like The UPS Store, are franchises, so pricing may vary. Our local UPS Store gives our homeschooling group $.03 black and white copies. 

• The UPS Store
• Staples
• Office Max
• OfficeDepot
• Barnes and Noble
• Family Nest Printing
• TheHomeschoolPrintingCompany.com

Organize your digital homeschool resources with Techie Homeschool Mom’s easy method!