BYB tips and tricks

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The biggest homeschool sale of the year is back!

And it’s starting off with a $300 giveaway from BYB! You can enter to win here.

$15 GIVEAWAY

I’m hosting an additional giveaway on my own Facebook page.

This is a super easy Giveaway to enter! I’ll be randomly selecting one winner on August 9 (after the BYB sale ends) and sending a $20 gift card to either Amazon or TPT (you get to choose!).

Here’s how to enter:

1. Visit the BYB site here (or through any of the BYB links in this post), find one item that you like, and leave a comment with the name of that product on this Facebook post.
2. Like the giveaway post and follow me on FB.

The legal stuff: This giveaway is from R.E.A.L.-World Learners. It is not sponsored or endorsed by BYB or Facebook.

All my BYB tips, tricks, and recommendations

This is a big sale!

You can keep it simple and buy pre-made bundles, saving 81% – 92% off retail price. (My personal favorite is the STEM bundle!)

Or … you can meticulously comb through All The Items using the Build Your Own Bundle option and create the perfect bundle.

I spent at least 8 hours analyzing every single product, since I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

That’s a lot of time though to spend shopping! 

So, to save you time, I put together a list of my personal top favorites from the sale, broken down by category, with some of my notes about the products.

To be honest, some of the descriptions of products weren’t clear enough for me to tell what was actually included …

So I did the only logical thing … I bought them all so that I could see what they were.

Lol. Kind of kidding. I actually only bought $800 worth of products.

I went through initially and added everything to my cart that looked the least bit interesting, figuring I could cross things off my list later.

But … even though I had explained this to others, it still caught me by surprise.

Once I started taking things out of my cart, my price went up!

Sometimes even the Math teacher needs a Math lesson ;).

1. Do the Math

So, here’s what I learned – hopefully it will save somebody some time.

If you’re going to get $533 or more worth of product (retail value, not sale value) then you might as well go on a shopping spree and get $800 or more!

Because … sorry, I can’t resist explaining this 😉 …

$533 at 85% discount comes to $79.95.

But … once you hit $800, you reach the 90% discount level – so the sale price for the complete cart bumps back down to $80.

So … if you want to go curriculum shopping crazy, go do it 🙂

If, however, you still don’t like the idea of spending $80 (for $800 worth of resources!), I’ve got something for you.

When you’re ready to go shopping, here’s …

2. My absolute top recommendations

After buying all the things I thought I might possibly be interested in, I went through each purchase and looked through it carefully (and saved it in organized files on my computer!) and then made notes about which ones I would really, truly recommend.

So here’s my “reader’s digest” version of the Best of the BYB.

(UPDATE: Every product on the BYB site now includes a link to the publisher’s website so you CAN get a better idea of what the product is about, in case the on-page description is not enough. That means you won’t have to re-create my experience of buying everything just to see what it looks like. 0_0 )

Here are my top recommendations, sorted by subject area, with some added details where needed.

You can also see this in a clickable wishlist form on the BYB site so that you can build your own shopping list based on this. 

Reading:

• 100 Gentle Lessons in Sight and Sound
• Ready for Reading Level 1

History:

We’ve used the first volume of Story of the World and really like it so far (especially the Teacher’s Guide loaded with extension ideas!). If you use this curriculum, these sets of cards are a great supplement:

• Ancient Cards
• Middle Ages Cards
• Early Modern Cards
• Modern Age Cards
• American History Cards

If you want to use Mystery of History, you can get the audiobook versions here. (Each volume comes with the first 2 out of 4 sections, plus a coupon code for the other 2)

• Mystery of History Volume II
• Mystery of History Volume III
• Mystery of History Volume IV

Other history stand-alone items:

• A Child’s Geography: Explore Medieval Kingdoms (this one is currently a best-seller!)
• Modern Days: Remember the Days
• History through Musicals Bundle (This looks like good research/unit studies for older kids.)

Math:

• Math Mammoth Grade 3 Complete Curriculum (I personally love RightStart Mathematics, but this was here so I wanted to check it out – and it looks like a solid, kid-friendly workbook!)
• Math in the Cards (Math games using a deck of cards by MathGeekMama)
• My products 🙂
  • Choreograph a Robot Dance
  • Developing Algebraic Reasoning ebook
  • Tactile Math and Movement Game
  • Pixel Alphabet
  • Marketing Plan (this is more for high school level)

Geography:

• State Reports
• Travel God’s World Geography (this is a very complete unit, packed with activity ideas, printables, information, teaching ideas, and more!)

Unit Studies:

• Summer Nature Study (this is from a company called 5 in a Row – they make fun, in-depth unit studies.)
• Famous Inventors Online Unit Study (looks good but probably a bit advanced – I bought it but will be saving it for later)
• Jane Goodall Mini Bio Unity Study (looks fun for elementary age kids)
• Pioneer Complete Unit Study

Art:

• Early Christian Art (I was impressed with how many activities and in-depth studies of artists they had. Admittedly, it would be parent-intensive … but I guess at some point I have to concede that this is what homeschooling looks like ;). )

Science:

• Exploring Nature Science Education Website – This is a packed resource! You get one year subscription to the website with hundreds of links to science resources and activities.
• Science of the Seasons
• Slime Science (this looks fun!)

In my online wish list (that you can use to jumpstart your own shopping list) you’ll also see a complete kindergarten and third grade curriculum. I haven’t bought those so I can only say they look good if you’re looking for an affordable all-in-one solution.

I don’t have links on there for other preschool or kindergarten resources, but you can check out those pre-made bundles if you want to see what’s available.

I do have several items listed on the wish list from the Upper Grades bundle because they all look really fun! (We’re years away from that though, so I resisted buying most of it ;).)

3. Video preview

I did another facebook live video to show in detail the 5 Math and Coding products that I have in the sale. 

You can see it here if you’d like a full preview of these products:

• Choreograph a Robot Dance
• Developing Algebraic Reasoning
• Algebra project: Marketing Plan
• Math and Movement game (complete set of 8 games)
• Pixel Art Alphabet

If you made it this far, don’t forget to enter the R.E.A.L.-World Learners’ Giveaway on Facebook for a chance to win $20! 🙂

Enjoy curriculum shopping! Then reward yourself with some time off with your family, doing nothing but playing and relaxing!! :D.

R.E.A.L.-World Learners: Relevant. Engaging. Authentic. Lifelong.