Inside: Why buy new when you can get homeschool books for less by renting! Yellow House Book Rental makes renting homeschool curriculum easy!
Homeschool curriculum books can be quite expensive, especially when you are buying for more than one child. Finding sales or searching for used materials used to be the only way to save money.
Now there is another option! Yellow House Book Rental offers a rental program so you can get homeschool books for less.
Yellow House Book Rental was created by a family who has been homeschooling for 22 years. Their desire is to assist other homeschool families by lowering the cost of curricula through their rental program.
They look for the lowest price possible on products so that they can provide you with an affordable rental fee. In addition to the rentals, they do offer several other ways you can get curricula from them.
Homeschool Curriculum Options Available
Every family is different and so are their needs. Finding the right materials is very important, and the owners of Yellow House Book Rental realize this. They have provided several options to serve these needs.
Option 1: Rent-Use-Return– This is the most common method and why Yellow House Book Rental was created. You go online and place an order for the books you want to rent. Use them during the school year (the rental period is for ten months- August through May or September through June, unless specified as a semester rental for five months), and then return the items at the end of the year. They are currently working on a way to pre-order. This would allow you to make a partial payment when you place your order and pay the rest right before the school year begins. When your final payment is made, they will ship your order.
Option 2: Rent to Own (Try Before You Buy)– Some families may find they want to try out a curriculum before they purchase it. Yellow House Book Rental gives you that option on many of their materials. You can rent them as usual, paying only the rental fee, and if you decide you want to keep them, you will be charged the purchase price (minus the rental fee.)
Option 3: Purchase New or Used– I have found the prices of many of the new products they offer to be cheaper than other places. If you are looking to buy new or used, you will want to check their prices out first.
Option 4: Download– Several of the materials they offer are in a digital download format, and you will be able to have access to them instantly.
Benefits of Renting Books
- Save Money- As I’m sure you already know, it can be costly to buy homeschool materials. Renting them can save you as much as half. Teacher’s manuals and answer keys are particularly expensive, and this is a great way to cut down on those costs.
- Starting school in the middle of the year- If you are only going to be using a program for part of the year, why pay all that money? They offer partial-year discounts.
- Money-back guarantee- If you are not satisfied with your order, you have 21 days to return it. You can see the details in the “Homeschool Book Rental Specifics” section of this article.
- Try out new materials- I have often bought products and realized they weren’t going to work for us. Having the option to try before you buy or even return an item is really nice!
- Children with multiple ages- You may put curriculum aside for several years until the next child is ready to use it. By that time, the publisher has usually made updates or come out with a later edition. By renting, you have access to the latest version of the programs you love.
- Don’t want curriculum lying around- I have shelves upon shelves of books in my house. Had this been around years ago, I definitely would have used it to cut down on the number of school materials lying around.
- Don’t want to deal with reselling books- If you like to keep your shelves clean (unlike myself obviously), you probably try to sell your used curricula at the end of each school year. This can be a pain trying to take pictures, listing it on several different social media outlets, and keeping track of everything. Simply returning your books is a much easier alternative. In addition, if you have purchased a new book (or certain DVDs) from Yellow House Book Rental, you can sell them back.
Subjects Available
There is a wide range of subjects to choose from. Here are the categories:
Homeschool Companies
Here is a list of the homeschool companies they carry curriculum for:
Homeschool Book Rental Specifics
Refund policy– There is a 21-day money-back guarantee. You have the choice of a 90% store credit or 80% refund.
Return policy– At the end of your rental term, it’s quite easy to return your books. You can either take them to your local post office or go online to USPS.com and print a label and put the package in your own mailbox. You will be reimbursed for the cost of shipping after the package is received. If you choose to use a method of shipping (such as priority), you will only be reimbursed for the USPS media mail rate. You can choose to be refunded through a check, PayPal, or a discount code to use at Yellow House Book Rental. If you chooose a discount code, you will be get 100% of the refund. For check or Paypal, you will receive 50%.
Shipping costs and free shipping– Their shipping rates are very reasonable and any order over $150 ships for free. Orders are always sent in one shipment unless otherwise noted. It’s best to place your order in spring or early summer to make sure the books are available. Also, orders placed in August and September can take longer to ship due to the high volume of orders being placed at that time.
Extensions– If you are not finished by the time the books are due back, you can request a one-month extension. The cost is 15% of the rental fee.
Late fees– Books must be returned by their due date. All rentals are due by December 30 or June 30, depending on whether it was a semester or yearly rental. If they are not received, they will automatically be extended 15 days, and you will be charged 15% of the rental fee. If after the 15 days, a book is still not returned, you will be charged the full price and can keep the book.
Damaged items– If a book or DVD happens to be damaged, you must pay the full purchase price.
Partial year rentals– If you are renting in the middle of the year, you will not be charged for a full year. The prices are marked down in October and again in January. It’s best to contact them to find out the discounted price.
Sell back– If you have purchased a new book (or certain DVDs) from Yellow House Book Rental, you can sell them back. They must be in excellent condition and only a very slight sign of wear and tear. You have the option of receiving cash (which is based on the going rate of the book at that time) or a store credit (which is going to give you more value).
Rent or Purchase– Consumable books are not able to be rented due to copyright laws; therefore, they must be purchased. Items that are for sale will have a “Purchase” or “Purchased Used” button below it. Items for rent will have a “Rental” button.
Extras from Yellow House Book Rental
On top of the great rental service, Yellow House Book Rental has some other great extras you will want to check out.
1. Newsletter with great information that includes:
- Encouragement through articles
- Opportunities for online summits and homeschool conferences
- Freebies and discounts from partners
- A check-in to see how you are doing with your curriculum
2. Discounts through affiliates
3. Free Resources– These are updated frequently.
4. Specials and Giveaways– Check their site often as they change all the time.
5. Rewards Program- They have a very generous rewards program to earn points, coupons, or free products. To sign up, all you have to do is click on the “Rewards” button in the bottom right corner of the home page.
Here are the ways you can earn points with the rewards program:
- Welcome Points
- Birthday Points
- Points for Purchases
- Product Reviews- Review a product or their services and receive 250 points in your account. You can review all the items you have used to gain extra points.
- Newsletter Signup- Sign up for their newsletter and get 500 points! Newsletter points are added manually. You will need to email them to let them know you have subscribed and would like the extra 500 points.
- Past Purchases- Once you create a store account, they will manually add past purchase points!
- Early Returns- Return rentals early and earn 100 points (You need to return all items rented and due on the same date in one shipment.)
- Social Media Shares- Like and follow them on Instagram or share a post telling your followers about the curriculum you rented. Be sure to tag them so they can give you the points. Earn 50 points each time!
Points Chart
500 points- $5 coupon
1000- $10 coupon
2500- $25 coupon
My Experience Getting Homeschool Books for Less
While all this sounds great in an article, it doesn’t mean much if the service is difficult to use. I would like to share my experience with Yellow House Book Rental. I was chosen as part of a group to review The Yellow House Book Rental, and I’m thrilled I was. The experience was very smooth and made me aware of a service I didn’t know was available. Their company is very professional and has fantastic customer support. Any time I had a question, I got a quick response.
My books were shipped in a timely manner and arrived in excellent condition. Included in the package was a receipt with a list of instructions on how to return the books. The date when they were due was listed, along with a form to fill out to get either a credit or refund for the shipping costs when I return them.
I chose to rent two products. Two of the items were physical books shipped to me, and one of those also had a digital download that went with it.
The first rental was a Life of Fred book. Life of Fred books can be rented any time of year. Both the elementary and intermediate books are shorter, and therefore, they are rented for a semester (five months). All the other LOF books are rented for a year.
They carry all the Life of Fred books (Kindergarten through college), and the rental prices are really good. The early books have fewer chapters, and you will go through them fairly quickly. Paying full price seems crazy when you are only going to use them for a short time. Even if you decided to purchase the books and keep them for other children, most of the purchase prices are lower through them.
If you don’t know what Life of Fred is, I have written a full review of this program. For children who hate math or struggle with the traditional way it is taught, Life of Fred can be a great solution! It’s also the math of choice for families who want to teach math with a real-life application.
The second curriculum I rented was from WriteShop. This included the physical copy of the teacher’s manual and a digital download of the activity book to print out the necessary pages that went along with it. I received my digital download right away. They also offer a printed version of this activity book for purchase, but it was out at the time, and it was nice they had a digital version to provide instead.
If you are interested in learning more about a writing program that doesn’t require your child to be writing or reading independently, check out my WriteShop review. I used this with my second-grade daughter this year, and she really enjoyed it. They offer writing programs for Kindergarten through high school.
Conclusion
What Yellow House Book Rental is doing is truly a first in the homeschooling industry and is sure to help reduce the cost of homeschooling that families are faced with each year. I would definitely use their service again. Why pay full price when you can get your homeschool books for less with an excellent service like this!
Check out the Yellow House Book Rental site, and if you are interested, that link will also get you a 10% discount to try them out.
Have you heard of Yellow House Book Rental before? Would you rent your books for the school year? Let me know in the comments below.
