You can definitely buy books on sale. Sales around Black Friday and Christmas time are a great time to buy. But don't wait until then. If your child comes home with a flyer, take a look at it.
PICKING BOOKS IDEA:
I like to give the flyer to my son and have him circle the books he finds interesting. He looks at book covers, reads titles and chooses.
Be warned, there are kits and diaries and stamp sets...So let them know, you want to buy books, not a slime making set. They are fun, though!
BUT ARE THEY GOOD BOOKS?
A good number of the books in the flyer are popular books. In the last year, three of my sons favorite books were found on different Scholastic flyers, those books I purchased from Amazon, but they came from a list of recommended books for kids. So the Scholastic flier isn't just outdated books.
ONLY IN ENGLISH?
They have books in Spanish for our developing spanish speakers/readers. :)
PRICES:
In comparison to Barnes and Noble, Target and even Amazon, Scholastic had better pricing. This may not be for every book, so always check multiple sources when buying books, but in my experience I spent $25 on books, got a free book and saved money.
Shipping:
It ships to the classroom and the shipping is free.
If you have never seen a flyer, speak to your teachers. Often times parents wont buy books. If you seem interested, then you may spark something in a teacher to try again. Since books only ship to the classroom, a teacher has to be on board with the idea of collecting money, sending flyers and interacting with parents.
Who benefits?
In a nut shell, everyone, you get to save money, your child reads, teachers get points, authors sell books, scholastic sells books....
Teachers get points for every book you purchase. With that they can buy books for the classroom, lessons for math, science...and it's only teacher related things. So, if you can, help out your class and purchase a book.