The Learning Umbrella

Things are pretty different in homeschool curriculum, since I was a kid.  There weren’t anywhere near as many big publishers marketing to homeschoolers, and we used lots of small business, very simple publishing style, limited quantity, type materials.  Now, most of those little companies seem to be out of business, and no one wants the old used materials we have from them either.  It’s kind of sad - sure there are no illustrations and they are just comb-bound, but I loved those old Zephyr unit study packets. 

I remember going to the homeschool curriculum store, and actually handling and browsing through materials.  Now, they are out of business because they couldn’t compete with online sources.  We ordered from some catalogs, like Timberdoodle, that are still in business.  But when I was a kid Timberdoodle wouldn’t take credit cards - it was a religious principle not to incur debts.  Now, their website accepts credit cards - is that just part of having to adapt to a new internet business environment?

The state convention seems to be getting less attendance, even as the state homeschooling population increases.  People don’t need to drive to a convention to get curriculum, or to find information about homeschooling.

And, we can do it ourselves.  I realize the library has always been there, but the internet has added to it and made it really easy to just put it all together yourself.  Why pay for something you can do yourself?  No reason - but it does make it harder for the small business people that used to work in the homeschooling market.

My mom and I have been loving the organizers we’ve made, and we thought “hey, let’s print some up and take them to sell at the convention”.  A little market research shows that there are lots of forms available online for free.  So, we won’t try to compete with a free resource that’s already out there.  There’s so much stuff out there for free - you can’t compete with free.

It seems like things are going in two directions, and it’s either a big(ger) publishing company selling large curriculum or it’s free stuff drifting around on the internet.  And the little entrepreneurs and Mom and Pops that were running a little business while homeschooling their kids just aren’t making it anymore. 

This is personally sad for me, since I’d love to follow that model.  But I can’t say that it’s bad for there to be so much self-reliance among homeschoolers and open source materials on the net.  We’re all trying to make our budgets work, and trying to educate our children without having to give up too much material comfort in the process.

I’m thinking about just shutting down my “business” altogether, since it’s not been much of a business at all.  Unless you count the benefit of a big tax deduction (yay - I’ve contributed a net loss to my family’s income - now we don’t have to pay taxes), it’s really just been a dead weight.  I think I’ve written some lovely unit studies - but who is using unit studies right now (and if they are using them, they feel confident they can design their own).  I also created study guides for biology, that I think are great and we’ve found to be very useful ourselves.  None of that work was totally wasted, since I can and do use it with my own kids, my sister, and maybe some day a class or club.

I don’t know.  Part of me wants to just brush it all under the carpet and pretend I never even tried, since it’s embarrassing to have an idea that you thought was cool fail.  Another part of me still loves the idea, and has trouble declaring a time of death for it.