By Brenda B. Covert
The Christian Online Magazine -
bbcovert@juno.com
One question I often get from folks who are curious about how homeschooling works is this: "Where do you get your books?" Their assumption is that public school textbooks are the only available option. They dont know about the plethora of teaching materials available to homeschoolers. The question for us is not, "Where can we get it?" but "What should we choose?" Its mind boggling to be faced with so many choices. However, I dont advocate the "eeny meeny miny mo" method for selecting your students books. Its going to take a lot of thought and research. Heres a list of pointers that my help you.
- It will help tremendously if you know your childs learning style. Most likely your personal learning style will NOT be your childs learning style, meaning you cant assume that what worked for you will work for him or her. There are a number of excellent books out there for figuring this out, but hopefully youve spent enough time getting to know your child that you sense whether he or she is a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner. A visual student learns by seeing; an auditory student learns by hearing, and a kinesthetic child learns by moving and touching.
- You can find educational materials geared to different learning styles! There are textbooks, workbooks, video series, tapes set to music, computer programs, satellite classes, and learning kits with manipulatives included. You can find programs made specifically for your ADHD student! It is liberating in a way to have the freedom to teach to your childs learning style.
- Regarding curriculum choices, the new homeschooler may want to get the complete set of all subjects from one publisher that first year. That cuts down on the anxiety of weighing the multitude of options for each subject. This worked for me. I waited until two weeks before kindergarten was supposed to start. Then I rushed to my local publishers store and found the kindergarten curriculum I needed. That gave me the rest of the year to get comfortable with homeschooling and research my options for 1st grade!
- Once the parent gains a little confidence about home education, the option of eclectic curricula opens up. Thats when you choose to go with different publishers for each subject, based on your goals and your students learning style and interests.
- Another option is to teach with unit studies. They are less formal, but take a lot more planning. Each subject is integrated around a specific topic. Say you choose to study chocolate. Language arts would revolve around reading about chocolate, spelling words that correlate to the treat, and writing a paper on chocolate. Math might involve working with chocolate dessert recipes. Science could be done in the kitchen as well. History would cover the discovery of chocolate. Better yet, you could buy a variety of chocolate white, milk, dark and perform taste tests! A field trip might take you to a candy factory! While some experienced homeschoolers design their own unit studies, there are companies who publish these for you, including the list of supplies you will need for each unit.
- The last option is for the experienced homeschooler only, and that is to create your own curriculum. This is done by collecting resource material from libraries, bookstores, friends, and the Internet rather than using traditional textbooks and workbooks.
Ive used all but the unit study approach. I simply dont have the time or interest needed to pull those together! I enjoy having a teachers manual for each days lesson. As I said before, my first year teaching I got a complete curriculum from one publisher. After that I discovered several programs geared to children with ADHD that I used successfully. I use one program for language arts, another for science, a third one for math, and this year (my 7th as a home educator) I created my own curriculum for history and geography based on my childrens interests and their goal of competing in the upcoming geography bee. The eclectic method works for us. Some of our supplementary education comes from music tapes, where the material is put to music and sung. This is perfect for my auditory, musically-gifted learner! Our science involves many hands-on projects, perfect for my kinesthetic learner. I have lots of educational games that make learning fun.
Having covered your options for choosing curricula, I should move on to where you can find these things! Are you ready to be overwhelmed? Then take a look at this list of websites, followed by a list of other possible ways to find what you need.
Abeka
Full curriculum supplier K-12
http://www.abeka.org
Alpha Omega
Full curriculum supplier K-12
"Lifepacs" and Switched On Schoolhouse
http://www.home-schooling.com
Bob Jones University Press
Full curriculum supplier K-12
http://www.bjup.com
Christian Book Distributors
For all your Christian needs
http://www.christianbook.com
Eagle's Wings
math, phonics, history and science
http://www.EaglesWingsED.com
Educational Insights
Manipulatives, Science kits, and Geosafari packs
1-800-995-4436
http://www.edin.com
The Elijah Company
All curriculum needs, identity-directed homeschooling
http://www.elijahco.com
GreenLeaf Press
Full curriculum supplier and individual needs; strong on history
http://www.greenleafpress.com
International Linguistics Corporation (Learnables)
Foreign languages curriculum designed for Homeschoolers
http://www.learnables.com
Rod and Staff Publishers (Mennonite)
Full Curriculum K-6
P.O. Box 3, Hwy 172
Crockett, Kentucky 41413-4348
School of Tomorrow (PACES and ACES)
Full curriculum
http://www.schooloftomorrow.com
Sing and Learn
Make Learning Fun with Music
http://singnlearn.com
Sonlight Curriculum
Full curriculum Literature based
http://www.sonlight-curriculum.com
Timberdoodle Company
Hands on learning needs and books
http://www.timberdoodle.com
USED BOOK SITES
Homeschool Classifieds
http://www.homeschoolclassifieds.com/
The Homeschool Curriculum Swap
http://www.theswap.com
VegSource Used Curriculum Boards
http://www.vegsource.com/homeschool
Where else can you look for educational materials?
1. Homeschool Support Group Used Book Sales
2. Garage Sales
3. Used Book Stores (check local yellow page listings)
4. Ask fellow homeschoolers if you can borrow or buy from them
5. Homeschool Conventions and Book Fairs
6. Some school districts allow homeschoolers to use their textbooks. Also, when they discard books you can probably take advantage of that and get free books. Sometimes they throw out brand news books simply because they decided to switch publishers! If we dont get them, the landfill will. However, these will be secular books which you may want to use as supplementary material rather than your main curricula since they may contain objectionable material.
I guess its apparent by now that homeschoolers dont simply teach at home using public school textbooks. We have a world of options from which to choose. If you adore books, youre in for a treat. I can browse for hours and never tire of it. If you dont love books, well ... youd just better learn to love books! Or else look up some of the video, computer, and satellite programs that are available. If you can imagine it, it probably already exists out there.
Copyright 2003 by Brenda B. Covert