Friday, March 12, 2010

Review: Homeschool Library Builder



I have been looking over the above website for the past couple weeks every few days and have recently found some books that we are needing to purchase for our school year. We began a new curriculum in February, published by Heart of Dakota, and so have been searching for some books to buy at an inexpensive price to keep in our home library. Well what do you know as part of the TOS Crew we were asked to look at Homeschool Library Builder and review their site and what is available for members.


I have read through some information on the site first to see who/what/where/when and why this library site is even around, and is offering a better service than perhaps buying through Craigs List or e-Bay for instance.


The site is owned by 2 homeschool moms who between them have 8 children. They love 'living books' which is right up my alley, and they wanted to share their finds with others in the homeschool world and whoever was interested too. I began to notice immediately they have things that I have been on the lookout for recently. They provide a service to the customers who are interested in purchasing books that are either new, used or rare and out of print finds.

They stock titles from literature based curricula like Sonlight; Tapestry of Grace; Ambleside (online free Charlotte Mason based curriculum); Five in a Row; Beautiful Feet and Heart of Dakota for example. There are many other interesting books on the site right now that can be used for unit studies or lapbook information at all grade levels too.

When you purchase books on Homeschool Library Builder (http://www.hslibrarybuilder.com/index.php ) though you can earn points. These points add up and turn into dollars once you have enough of them. One book point is earned for every dollar spent on books, and every 15 points is worth $1.00 in your account. These points can then be used for purchasing more books, or on shipping for other products too. By referring friends to Homeschool Library Builder and linking them to their website you can earn points too.

During the month of February they also raised money for Haiti by doing promotions and being a "Helping Hand" for that country. They have different "Helping Hand" projects they have done in the past and continue to sell books to support that. Currently the books listed under "Helping Hand" are being sold and the money will go towards sponsorship for a Compassion International Child.

I do believe if you are looking for a certain book you can email the owners Julie or Gayla, and ask them to help you out. As a Crew we are reviewing the site and hoping to help them out with advertising as this is pretty costly these days too. This is a homegrown company like a lot of the ones I have reviewed products for this year, but they are not so big that they have lost their personal touch which is neat to see. The website is easy to move around, and book titles can be found in several different categories. Books are listed in alphabetical order in each category.
I have enjoyed cruising this site, before I dive in and become a member. I needed to get a good feel of what they had to offer. If you are looking for books at an inexpensive and not ridiculous price then pop on over to their site at : http://www.hslibrarybuilder.com/index.php and check them out.
The link to the TOS Homeschool Crew blog with other reviews for Homeschool Library Builder is right here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HomeschoolCrew/763769/
I have reviewed this product for TOS Crew for 2009/10 school year and the above information is my opinion. I have not been paid for this review.


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