Where to start homeschooling? At the library!

How do you start homeschooling? Start homeschooling in the library! If at all possible get a library membership and learn how to use it fully. Know if and how to order books in from other libraries. Find out if you can reserve and renew books online.

If your town or city has a university library, particularily one with an education program, look into getting a library membership there too, as some education departments will have curriculum library and helpful teachers resources. I’ve been able to borrow resources such as an Alaskan math curriculum explaining mathematical concepts in the context of Yup’ik culture, teachers guides on using tangrams and geoboards, as well as preview many textbooks.

Learn your child’s tastes in books. Does too much text on one page overwhelm your child? Does your child like charts and graphs? Are there styles of artwork that disgust or scare your child? I know there are children out there who will willingly gather books from all over the library but my children get intimidated by the huge shelves and tend to stick to one spot. It is easier for me to gather up some books to bring to them than to try to herd all three of them around the whole library with me, but doing this means I need to know what types of books will work for them. Don’t limit yourself to the children’s sections. Look in the adult nonfiction section for coffee table books with an abundance of pictures and charts. I also like to get adult books out on whatever topics they’re studying so that I can learn a bit extra to share with them.Whether you decide to purchase a complete curriculum, allow your children to unschool or find a balance somewhere in between those two extremes, libraries can help fill in the cracks. When we’ve needed breaks from our curriculum we can learn math from library story books. There are sometimes older treasures like Many Luscious Lollipops: a book about adjectives Ruth Heller, that can reinforce concepts learned in other curriculum. There are books about figures of speech and children’s jokes.

Homeschooling is a wonderful adventure, if you’re ready to learn alongside your children. There’s so much to learn.