This summer a really sweet college girl from the UK came to our neighborhood selling booksets, they are very expensive ($370) . It has all subjects from K-through college. I got the books delivered today and they are very nice, heck I can even learn from them especially math.
Now I am wondering though is $370 to much? Then again we have 4 kids and will get good use out of them. Then on the other hand you can find all info on the net today for free.
Should I keep them?

Georgy, were they a UK brand of book you don't know? Can I help?

I'm a book person, if you have four kids who can all get use out of these then I would say keep 'em. If you think there is enough breadth of subject to consider buying them in the first place, and you are learning too, surely that's a good thing?

They sound nice. Are you home-schooling?

BeeLady, they are American books, based on everything american. They came to the US for the whole summer, that's how they pay their way through school, very friendly young kids.
I'm not homeschooling. I think I keep them, I suck at math and when I look in the books to see what's to come I'm in trouble with homework.
Hubby is the whiz but he's always gone even when he's home he comes home late.

In my opinion, kids need to know how to look stuff up in books even though everything is available online. They sound like they might be a good help for you also. I say keep 'em. :)

My guess, they'll be helpful, but not for every subject from K through college.

They'll probably be most useful now, and gradually become less so. It will also depend on the subject.

For the elementary school basics, learning to read and write, learning arithmatic, they'll probably be fine. Also probably fine for US geography, basic US/world history, very basic science.

For subjects like social studies and science, they'll probably be okay now, but the subjects are likely to change over the years, so they'll be less useful later on. Think how much the world map has changed since 1980!

As the kids get older, and their classes more complex, the books will probably not be complete, and not match the school curriculum as well. Advanced history classes, for example, use a lot of primary sources, and the books may not get into college math subjects like calculus. They may still be useful for looking up background at that level, however.

The last book as calculus up the ying yang I get the willies just looking at it, it has college prep tests, they are really nice, leather bound and you can pick them up by one page and they don't tear.
I wished I had those as a kid, I would have read them just for fun. It has science, chemistry, biology. Those subjects shouldn't change to much like history and geography. I like the world religion part allot.

ETA: I just don't know if it justifies the money.

Oh, OK, I just wondered and all... I know what you mean about the money, but if they are useful for everyone to refer to - and it will help you help your kids I still think it's a good thing. ;)

There is also the thought that if any of your children is more advanced, they can begin to read up on the next level of things..... Ursula's validity of information point is a good one though.

If you enjoy them yourself, then that's a good reason too.

You are right BeeLady, my 6th grader is in advanced math and english, and the school made me sign something that she will have to keep her grades up or she will be switched to a regular class, so if she runs into problems, we can learn from the books to keep her ahead.
My 7 year old is advanced in reading, and he flipped to the books so they are no un returnable anyways lol.
My other daughter read all about biology and animals, I was happy seeing them taking intersts in the books.