Have you ever considered renting your homeschool books? I never even knew this was a possibility until recently. What a wonderful cost-efficient way to get your curriculum for your homeschool. I remember being able to rent my college textbooks many years ago. It saved me hundreds of dollars renting my textbooks. Now you can rent books for your homeschool from Yellow House Book Rental.

Yellow House Book Rental is the mastermind of a homeschool mom who created this rental option to help families reduce their curriculum cost. They have several options available: renting, rent to own, purchase new, purchase used, or sell back curriculum that you previously purchased from them.

The teacher’s manuals and student textbooks are usually the books that cost the most in any curriculum. You can rent your teacher’s manual, student textbooks, reading books, and buy the consumable workbooks for your rental set through Yellow House Book Rental. All subjects are available: language arts, math, science, social studies, Bible, Christian living, electives, finance, and budgeting, reading books, downloads, and a few other items. They have grades from pre-school, high school, and even some college prep to rent available.

Yellow House Book Rental offers top-rated curriculum from Apologia, Life of Fred, Notgrass History, Write Shop, and more to rent. The editions are current, and the books are in excellent condition. You will not get tattered books that are falling about. All the books I rented where in great shape. They did not have any writing in the pages or tears. The binding was in great shape. I was really pleased with the condition of the curriculum.

Ordering was simple. I first set up an account with my email. (You do not need to set up an account to order.) You can search by subject or vendor. Once you click on an area you can look up the curriculum by grades. I did not have any issues navigating the website to find what I needed. The website is laid out nicely and user-friendly.

I rented Exploring Government from Notgrass which included the Exploring Government Textbook and We Hold These Truths Textbooks at a cost of $36.00. If you bought the set new it would be $60.00 without the consumable workbooks. The Life of Fred Intermediate Series Set rental is $25.00. Buying it new would be $46.00. The cost difference in most cases will help cover or offset your cost with your consumable workbooks.

Another incentive is that there is a “Reward Program” that you receive points when you first sign up, order, and several other options to earn more points. The “Reward Program” allows you to earn points, coupons, and free products.

You have thechoice of renting for ten months from August through May or September through June. There are some books that are semester rentals for five months. The description of the product will tell you what is available for the rental time. If you need your ten-month rental for different months you can email them.

After you order you will receive your curriculum at the beginning month of your rental date. In your shipping box with the books, you get a “credit refund form” that will give you information for the due date and information on how to receive credit when you return your books. You can receive a 100% credit refund with a discount code, or an 80% refund through PayPal, or a 50% refund via check.

You receive an email a month before your due date with shipping and packaging information. I sent my package back by media mail. After you mail your package you send them the tracking number via email.

You will receive a confirmation email stating that the books have been received. The email will confirm your refund credit method for shipping. It will have all the necessary information such as if you earned any “rewards” and how you can earn more rewards. It was easy renting my curriculum from ordering it to returning it.

Not only can you save money by renting. You can try a curriculum without the cost of buying it. I have bought too many curriculums that did not work for my family. This is also a great option if you have several kids in different grade ranges that are too far apart to school together. You do not have to worry if your teacher manual and the student workbook is the same edition either. I have pieced together older teacher manuals that did not match the current edition with a student workbook. I found out quickly that I regretted not just getting the newest edition in the teacher’s manual.

Another benefit of renting your curriculum is storage if you do not have a designated classroom or enough storage for unused curriculum.

What I really appreciate with this option is that my kids are different. I always thought that what I bought for my daughter, who is three grades above my son, would be used for my son too. I thought that homeschooling my son would be cheaper due to me already having the curriculum available. My kids are completely different in their needs and learning style. It just did not work out that way for my family. I have a daughter with special needs and some significant learning challenges. I have bought a lot of curriculum over the years and have been disappointed spending money on many curriculums that did not work for her. How many times have you shelved a curriculum or maybe you forced your way through a curriculum regardless of it not being a good fit? Once I buy my curriculum for the year, I have usually used up my homeschool budget and I cannot afford to get another curriculum to replace it. This is where rental versus buying can help me out. Another choice is “Try before you buy” or “Rent-to-Own.” You cannot go wrong with those options.

Yellow House Book Rental is a great resource for homeschooling on a budget. If you are looking for a way to make your homeschool budget more affordable this is an excellent choice to consider with your curriculum. I plan to usethe Yellow House Book Rental for my homeschool curriculum more in the future.

-Product review by Renee Knoblauch, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, January 2020