10 Ways Digital Curriculum Benefits Homeschool Moms

Just a few years ago, I was the mom who complained about digital curriculum and e-books. And don’t get me wrong, I still love the smell and feel of a brand new book in my hands. I have shelves full of books. Overflowing shelves. And at some point I’ve realized that having my new curriculum choices stored on my computer is a very good thing. Today I love to purchase new curriculum and homeschool reading material in digital format and then focus on filling our physical spaces with fun hands-on supplemental wonders for my homeschool. Well guess what?

I’m sharing ten ways digital curriculum has benefitted our homeschool — and I bet you can relate. These days, I think digital curriculum is the bomb! Here’s why.

Digital Curriculum never gets lost.

I never have to worry about the excuse, “Mom can’t find my book.” when an essay is due. It’s pretty easy to find The Great Gatsby when he is living on our Kindle! By the same token, it’s pretty easy to find our math video for the next lesson when I have a digital subscription to the content. The e-reader, the computer, and even the Internet can be easily searched to find what we need, when we need it.

Digital Curriculum is searchable.

The content itself is searchable too. Let’s say you need to find a specific topic within your history reader. You can search for it! Let’s say you need to find out how many times a specific phrase occurs in a certain book so that you can make a big point in your essay — you can run a search! Searchable content and searchable devices are both a huge time-saving benefit in our homeschool.

Digital Curriculum takes up less space.

I mentioned those overflowing shelves earlier, and this is no joke. We move with the military about once every three years and I don’t know how many times the movers have questioned my sanity when they started packing up our bookshelves. I love those books, but we don’t have room on the shelves anymore! My books are stacked sideways! I love the fact that with digital material for our homeschool I can just stick it into a folder on my desktop or documents window and everything I need for our homeschool takes up less than the size of a microchip. BONUS for military families: Having digital curriculum helps keep you under your maximum weight limit for household goods. You’re welcome.

Digital Curriculum can be easily shared between students.

Now hear me out here. I am NOT talking about sharing between families, since that is very definitely illegal. But what I am saying is, both my teens needed to read The Great Gatsby for an assignment. And both could easily access a copy of the book from their Kindle device. I didn’t have to run and out and purchase a second book or break up a fight. And that’s just one example. With six kids in overlapping levels, the need to have two or more copies of something happens pretty often.

Digital curriculum is easily printable.

Have you ever opened up a binder full of worksheets for your amazing grammar curriculum only to discover that the *one* worksheet you need right this minute never got put back into the binder after your last child finished this material? Yeah, that’s never happened to me either because I am the super organized mom who never misses anything! I’m kidding. This is in fact the exact reason why I willingly purchased my first ever PDF file. Which brings me to another point.

With digital curriculum you can print exactly what you need.

No need to print off all 5,425 pages (I’m only slightly kidding) when you only need exactly one page! Find what you need fast, print exactly what you need and nothing more, and get on to the fun stuff like building a fabulous model of the pyramids with a kit you found on Rainbow Resources (keep reading to win a $350 Shopping Spree to Rainbow Resources)!

Digital Curriculum often costs less.

Because you are bearing the printing costs and saving them storage space in the warehouse, publishers will often discount digital products to encourage your purchase. Then because you are only printing exactly what you need, you save money on that end too. Its a win-win.

Digital Curriculum can be organized quickly.

Every time we move into a new home, I carefully unpack all of the books and organize them on my shelves. All the science curriculum goes on a shelf together. All of the grammar books go on a shelf together. History fills a couple of shelves. Early readers get a shelf to themselves. All of the books are lined up in neat little rows arranged by category! That lasts about a week. A few months later, I either have to spend a few hours finding and re-organizing all the books or just give up.

If you saw our office right now, you would know that I typically just give up. With digital curriculum, a simple file system allows you to organize all of your homeschooling material by category quickly and easily! All the lap books can go into a file folder called lap books. And a “mother” folder can hold all of the folders specific to homeschooling. The file folders are like shelves, and putting a book back in the wrong place on that digital bookshelf is much more rare than with physical books.

Digital Curriculum prepares your students for reality.

Whether we like it or not, the digital age is here to stay. Having to work with digital material on a daily basis for schooling prepares our kids for our increasingly digital world in college and the work force.

Digital Curriculum is endless.

While our shelving space is not endless, the topics which can be found in ebooks and e-courses online truly are endless. You can study almost anything you want using digital material. This gives your homeschooling student the chance to diversify, study their specific interests, or specialize in a specific area.