Costco Back to School

Below are my picks from the Costco back to school offers, taken from the Costco Connections magazine August 2009 edition. Interestingly Costco this time dedicated one page to homeschooling with articles highlighting two homeschooling moms and their families.

Back to School Books
Books on sale at Costco in August which my family has enjoyed:

• Ripley's Believe It or Not: Seeing is Believing - I can't think of a book more suitable for intriguing and entertaining a preteen boy. Ripley's is a firm favorite in my home. What a great conversation starter! It's not just parent-grossing - it gets kids thinking about science and human behavior and it's the kind of book grasped by many a reluctant reader.
• Dorling Kindersley Hardback Titles - every home with school age kids needs a collection of fact-filled encyclopedia style books and Dorling Kindersley make some of the best. Pictured in Costco Connections are the titles Bird, Flight, Earth, Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life, Encyclopedia of Space, and Encyclopedia of Animals. I'm not familiar with any of these specific titles. What I can say is I remember a whole host of library trips where I carted home DK titles for my son to pore over. DK make great books - they're perhaps Usborne's biggest rival in non-fiction children's books.

Worth a Look

• Inkheart, Inkspell and Inkdeath by Cornelia Funk - a great trilogy collection recommended for read-aloud dad and daughter time.
• Casio fx-300ES Scientific Calculator and Texas Instruments TI Plus 84 Silver Edition Graphing Calculator - Costco price and quality can't usually be beaten so if you have a teen who needs to move up in calculators this year check these ones out and compare to what you can get from Amazon.com and office supply stores like Staples.
• The Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook - slow cooking can be such a help when you have a busy home schedule, whether you homeschool or not. Costco describe the Fix it and Forget It Cookbook as follows "offers more than 800 tried-and-true slow cooker recipes for any occasion." There is also the Fix It and Forget It: 5-Ingredient Favorites cookbook. Sounds to me like recipes a homeschooler would want to have to hand to 1) keep the day on-track and 2) teach the kids simple, everyday cooking.
• Olympus VN-5200 PC audio recording device. Writing can be hard work for kids, especially so when they have dysgraphia. A recording device could really have a lot of uses in homeschooling - think interviews, recording personal thoughts, taking lecture notes in co-op or in community colllege classes. I don't know how the Olympus VN-5200 PC compares but it's worth a look if this a need you have.
  

If You Like It
The two homeschool moms interviewed for Costco Connection talked about using the craft supplies, office supplies, workbooks, CDs, and computers available from Costco in their homeschooling. I'm not a personal fan of most of these items but your mileage may vary. If you have needs in these areas do check out Costco's offerings.

Two Costco office supply offerings which have stood the test of time in my home are: the multi-packs of white view ring binders and the Avery sheet protectors. I purchased these years ago and they circulate around my home finding new uses and lasting really well.

Where do you like to shop for your homeschool books, materials and supplies? Have you seen any great deals?