Who are we?

The Homeschool Buyers Co-op is the nation's largest purchasing cooperative for homeschooling families.

Like you, we are homeschoolers with a love for family and a deep commitment to homeschooling.

Like you, we have made the profound and life-changing decision to assume full responsibility for our children's education. We understand the sacrifices and joy that this entails, and have decided to devote our energies and talents to helping other homeschooling families who have chosen to walk the same path.

On this page you will learn why we started the Co-op, what benefits we provide to homeschoolers, and why we hope you will join us. Membership is absolutely free and private.

Whether or not you join, you are welcome to browse our site, return as often as you like, and take full advantage of our many wonderful resources and services for homeschooling families!

Why have a Homeschool Buyers Co-op?

School districts get educational discounts -- why not homeschoolers?

The reason is simple: school districts have purchasing power and homeschoolers don't because we buy as individuals.

The Co-op changes that by combining the purchasing power of thousands of homeschooling families around the country to give homeschoolers the same purchasing clout as school districts.

It is a simple proposition, and it works! Just take a look at the many educational suppliers in the Exclusive Discounts section that offer homeschool member discounts from 10% to 70% off their retail prices.

How the Co-op helps YOU...

• We negotiate exclusive member discounts for homeschooling families from educational suppliers.
  
  How do we do it? We contact suppliers, tell them how many thousands of homeschooling families we represent, and ask them for discounts.
  
  What's more, most of them say "Yes!". You will find their names and offers in the Exclusive Discounts section of our site. Your favorite supplier is not in our network? Let us know and we will try to sign them up!

• From time to time, we arrange Group Buys that give homeschoolers even deeper discounts than those listed in the Exclusive Discounts section.
  
  To date, Group Buys have saved homeschooling families collectively tens of thousands of dollars!! For example, a recent group purchase saved homeschoolers 30% on high-quality guitars and guitar-learning DVDs. Another one saved homeschoolers 50% on award-winning art curriculum. Another one saved homeschooling families hundreds of dollars on microscopes!
  
  Homeschoolers love Group Buys because they can save you a lot of money! Suppliers love them because they only give deep discounts if they get the desired volumes.

• We maintain a fully searchable database of Free Curriculum and other educational Resources.
  
  This includes free resources from the U.S. Department of Education, the Library of Congress, National Geographic, PBS, the BBC, and many other providers, as well as many smaller websites with wonderful resources.
  
  Sure, you can find all of these resources on the Internet on your own, but how much junk will you have to look through in order to find the gems? Our editors are veteran homeschoolers, and they know a good resource when they see it. They have saved you time by searching for and compiling the best websites in one simple and searchable database.

• We have compiled and maintain the Internet's largest database of educational Contests & Scholarships available to homeschooled students.
  
  Here you will find links to over 170,000 educational contests and scholarships worth over $700 million!!!
  
  Winning a contest or scholarship is a wonderful way for homeschooled students to polish a college application and help their families save big dollars on higher education!

• We have compiled and maintain the Internet's largest database of local, retail merchants that offer discounts to homeschoolers!
  
  Simply type in your zip code, click the "Go" button, and our computer will display a map of retailers in your area, along with their exact location and distance from you!!! (Actually, it's the distance from the center of your zip code area. :) )
  
  What's more, each entry gives you specific instructions how homeschoolers can qualify for the retailer's educator discount!

• We collect and publish scores of money-saving and making tips, specifically for homeschooling families. You'll be amazed how much money you can save -- or make! -- each year with these creative suggestions from our editorial team and other frugal homeschooling moms! All of our tips have been contributed by homeschooling moms.

• We run an ongoing sweepstakes of prizes from our network for educational suppliers.
  
  Unlike most sweepstakes, where your odds of winning are usually one in millions, in THIS sweepstakes your odds of winning are typically one in hundreds.
  
  What's more, you can significantly increase your odds of winning by telling your friends. They can then play and win, and you get extra eTickets!
  
  In the event that you don't win, most of the suppliers have arranged to make a consolation prize or special discount available to you -- just for having played the game! Be sure to opt-in for their "consolation" email when you play the sweepstakes the first time!

• Did you know that many hardware and software manufacturers (e.g., Microsoft, Symantec, and more) offer DEEP DISCOUNTS for their products to qualified educators and students? It's true! However, they don't hand these discounts to anyone! Instead, they authorize a select group of merchants to offer those discounts on the condition that the merchants verify the educational status of the consumer.
  
  By special arrangement with Academic Superstore, one of the merchants mentioned above, Co-op membership qualifies you for deep educator and student discounts as homeschooling families! Please read more about this and get your free qualifying letter!

• We maintain a Free Classifieds section for members. Do you want to sell or trade used homeschool curriculum? Do you have non-educational items to sell? List your "For Sale" or "Want-to-Buy" homeschool items FREE!!
  
  Unlike other homeschool classifieds, our classifieds are fully searchable by keywords and categories, making it easy for other homeschoolers to find your products or you to find theirs!

• We update daily our database of the latest, greatest specials and coupons from hundreds of brand-name merchants. Every morning, at 1:00 AM, a Co-op computer wakes up and queries merchant computers on the Internet for the latest, greatest deals, then categorizes and loads them into our database for you to find with a few mouse clicks.
  
  What a great deal for homeschoolers on a tight budget! What's more, you can subscribe to our Daily Deals email at My Profile and every morning we will deliver TODAY's new coupons or specials directly to your inbox every morning! It only takes a minute to see if you can get something you need at a discount! Plus, many specials are one day only, so if you are counting on our weekly homeschool newsletter to tell what's hot, you'll miss out on some great deals unless you get the Daily Deals email.
  
  When we find an unusually good deal, we profile in the Deal of the Month section. Typically, these deals are good for only a few weeks and will save you 30% or more on well-known products for homeschooling families from brand name educational merchants (e.g., Alpha Omega, Rosetta Stone, and more).

How much does membership cost?

Surely, with all these great services, the Co-op must charge something to become a member?

No! Co-op membership is ABSOLUTELY FREE to homeschoolers!!

But don't all these great services cost money to develop and support? How does the Co-op survive? What's the catch?

No catch! And yes, indeed, it does cost money to provide these services to you, to keep this website up and running, to pay our dedicated homeschooler staff, and so forth. So, how we do it?

First of all, the Co-op is a nonprofit corporation. We have an educational mission to help make homeschooling more affordable. We aren't trying to make a profit! So, that helps a bit. All the same, we do have expenses!

Mostly, we are supported by advertising dollars. These dollars come partly from our wonderful network of educational suppliers, who choose to spend their marketing dollars on YOU through the Co-op. We keep their fees as low as possible so that they can afford to advertise on this site AND offer you the wonderful discounts you find in the Exclusive Discounts section. Please help yourself and the Co-op by shopping with these dedicated merchants, who respect the choice we have made to homeschool our children!

Additionally, you will see ads from other suppliers on this website. When you purchase from any of them, the Co-op makes a little bit of money. For example, when you purchase from any of the merchants listed in our Daily Deals section, we get a small commission (but only if you make your purchase shortly after clicking through to their websites!). It doesn't cost you anything extra, but it helps us provide you these wonderful services and resources to homeschooling families!

Finally, we make some money by selling a limited selection of services and products, such as the Family Learning Resource Book. Even in these cases, homeschooling members always get a discount!!! And the Family Learning Resource Book will pay for itself many times over with great savings for you!

But don't we sell your information to other companies??

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! Read our Privacy Policy. Here are our promises to you:

• We will not share your information with anyone, ever! See our Privacy Policy

• We will never send you unsolicited emails. You have total control over your subscription at My Profile (located in the "Members Only" section in the upper left of each page when you are signed in).

• If you want to get our newsletter or special offers, we will send you exactly what you ask for -- nothing more and nothing less.

• If you subscribe to emails, each and every email will send will have an easy and convenient way to unsubscribe. Also, you can come back to our site at any time, sign in, and change any of your subscription options in My Profile.

What do we want from you?

OK, so membership is free and private, we don't charge you for anything except a couple products, and the whole website and service is geared towards homeschooling families. We make most of our money from advertisers. So, what do we want from you??

Join us!

Our strength is in our numbers!!! That's why your membership is so important!

Can you imagine what sort of purchasing power we will have as homeschoolers when we have 50,000 members? 100,000 members? That will make us as large as the largest school districts in the United States! Think of it -- our very own homeschooling school district! :)

Do you think that will make educational suppliers sit up and take notice?

The more members we have, the more useful the services and resources we can provide to homeschooling families. Services like Exclusive Discounts, Group Purchases, Free Homeschool ID Card PDFs, Supplier Sweepstakes,, and Free Homeschool Classifieds.

Resources like our databases of Free Homeschool Curriculum, Contests & Scholarships, Local Homeschool Educator Discounts, and Money Tips by and for homeschoolers!

Who knows what other benefits we'll come up with in the coming months? We put the services and resources you see here together in less than two years! What additional services will we have for homeschooling families in another year? In 5 years??

So jump on the bandwagon -- Join the Co-op NOW! Your membership, while free and respectful of your privacy, will benefit not only you but thousands of other homeschoolers around the world!

Who knows? Joining the Co-op may be the single most important thing you do in support of your homeschooling experience. And it is certain to help not only you but homeschoolers everywhere, because our strength is in our membership!

Whether you choose to join us or not, if you are a homeschooler we invite you to browse the site. Feel free to return whenever you want and take advantage of our many homeschooling resources and services!

We wish you great success and happiness in your homeschooling adventure! We applaud you for starting down this rewarding and joyful path!!

Blessings and warm regards,

The Homeschool Buyers Co-op