On Buying Local in Homeschooling

There is a spat brewing at the moment over the speakers' lineup at the MidWest Homeschool Convention that I'll be attending in a week. One particular speaker crossed the line in his behavior at a previous conference and was disinvited by the organizers. I personally won't miss him any. But I am bothered by the efforts of some of the attendees to encourage other vendors to pull out and to encourage registered attendees to not come.

I emailed a few vendors that were listed as coming to Cincinnati. I wanted them to know that I was looking forward to the vendor hall and going through all the options on homeschool materials.

Our background is that we've been outside the Continental US for all of our active homeschooling, until a couple months ago. We either had no conventions or only the small one that was in Hawaii (held at a largish church).

Several of the vendors have written me back. A couple of the comments struck me as notable.

One vendor said that while they had intended to come, he and his wife were in their seventies and they had realized that driving to four conferences in thirty days was beyone their physical capabilities. (He said that they would be providing the same free shipping that would have been offered at the conference, because they just had to cut back on their driving.)

Another vendor mentioned that they had been attending the conferences for several years but had seen that they lost money nearly every year. (I assume once they subtracted lodging, transportation and any vendor fee.) FWIW, this vendor sells books that are probably attractive to the same customers who are now considering not coming. So the kerfluffle will have a big impact on his customer base.

Finally, there was a comment on one of the convention's FB updates, that basically accused them of being in it only for profit and not giving anything back to the homeschool community. This struck me as rather uncharitable. (FWIW, my dh and I think that national defense is important enough to have devoted our adult lives to military service - but we still depend on the paycheck to pay our rent and buy our groceries. You can be devoted to something and still want it to be worth the time and effort that you put into it.) I understand that convention organizers would feel inspired to put in the effort to host a convention our of the idea that it is good for the greater homeschool community. Maybe they do even see it in terms of a ministry. But if I want a professional, well won conference, I don't think that I should begrudge them using the returns on it in place of a regular income.


There can be moments of sticker shock in homeschooling. I know there have been several times when I've totalled up my cart full of materials and then sat back and thought, "Really? That's a lot when it's all added up." I try to justify things by considering how many of my kids will use it or how many years it will be good for or by figuring the weekly cost. But sometimes I end up spending a few more hours combing through Amazon to see what I can get a little better deal on.

But to what extent am I cutting off my homeschooling nose to spite my face? Amazon may save me a few dollars. Sometimes it might save me even a hundred dollars in a years worth. But how much of that is worth spending in order to encourage the future production of more homeschool materials. Amazon is a delivery method. They don't research, write or publish books. They don't go through the painstaking process of editing copy. And as thankful as I am that they have been able to get me materials quickly and reliably, I also want to reward those whose hard work created the books in the first place.

All of which is just a gentle reminder that there is a way to "buy local" in homeschooling materials too. There are vendors who comb through products to find quality materials. There are curriculum developers who write study guides and writing or science programs. There are publishers who comb through old books looking for classics to reprint and who consider new authors looking for great potential. There are busy homeschool moms who polish the units they produce for their own kids in order to make it available to others. Buying from these producers of homeschool materials is a way of investing in the future. It's not always possible. But I think that it is worth considering.