In an effort to align with the times and save families money, many curriculum manufacturers offer digital products available to download when and where you need it. This is such a money saver for families, especially if you have multiple children, or if you are buying curriculum for various grade levels and ones that you will use again at a later time. Our family falls into this latter category, so I set up Dropbox and uploaded all of our digital curriculum there.
Once you've chosen the curriculum that best suits the needs of your family, there comes a time when you decide whether or not to print said curriculum. For our homeschool, that was a no-brainer. Being a kinesthetic planner, I needed all of the content at my fingertips. The curriculum we purchased was interactive, and I work best from books, textbooks, teacher guides, etc in my hands rather than on a tablet or computer. Unfortunately, we ran into a problem that a lot of homeschool families are facing right now, lack of affordable printing options.
This is our story.
I started our homeschool with a great monochrome (black and white) laser jet printer, but I ran into the issue of losing all of the magnificence of our beautifully illustrated and colorful content by printing it in black and white. So, I emailed a local, small print shop to send some business their way. I only needed one teacher guide (154 pages, color, double sided, coil bound) plus two student guides (68 pages, color, single sided, coil bound). They said they would have it ready the very next day. I was stoked. When I got to the print shop to pick up our first printed homeschool materials, I had sticker shock! Our science curriculum that cost me only $40 (including teacher guide and student guides), ended up costing $155 for printing and binding.
Was I happy to support a small, struggling business during a pandemic? Yes.
Was I discouraged by the high cost to print these materials? YES.
So, I decided to find an inexpensive printing option. I found a FREE inkjet printer. Then I ordered ink for $80, and I got started printing ALL the things. Long story short within 2 weeks, I spent another $80 on more ink cartridges. That's when I told my husband, "There has to be a better way."
I began researching and found some amazing homeschool printing companies, but their processing time was too long to wait for our materials. Unfortunately, I needed my curriculum in hand, quickly. For the next few months, I taught our homeschoolers, and I secretly planned, while trying desperately to save our ink from running out, again.
It was during that time that I decided to start a small printing business. I've always been called to entreprenuership. While a pandemic seems like the least likely time to start a new business like this (Have you heard? Print is dead.), I feel called to support homeschool families like mine.
My hope is that my business not only supports my family, but helps you and your family and your homeschool printing needs. I'm here to save you time, money and stress. I'm also here to support my teacher friends out there, and anyone who needs 8.5x11 prints and binding on the cheap.
I'm a real homeschool parent like you.
I'm Gabrielle, and I'm only a message away if you have any questions. Our FAQ is chock-full of answers too. As of today, our processing aka turn around time is 1-2 days. We use USPS Priority Mail shipping which is normally 2-3 business days. Unfortunately, during the holidays and a pandemic, shipping times are delayed. USPS Priority Mail is delayed up to 5-7 days in some regions as of this post (12/09/2020).
Feel free to compare our costs below to your local big box printers. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
