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Step Two: Decide Which Books and Supplies to Use

Choosing Books

I'm not going to kid you, choosing books when you are unfamiliar with the choices is difficult. It's like dressing in the dark. Your choices might be turn out to be great or not so great, but hopefully, you are covered. For now, write the subjects for the course of study. Use one of my forms is you want to, one is linked below.

If you have a homeschool friend, see if you can look at her books. If you do not know anyone who homeschools, consider buying a homeschool book-review book. (That is what I did.) Of course, even having such a book is not a perfect solution, but it helps. I used Christian Home Educators' Curriculum Manual: Elementary Years and it is quite worn and out of print.

Two Paths

Now that you have looked at the lists, what is next? Two paths are available to you, Grade Level and Purpose Guided.

  1. Grade Level: Get grade appropriate books and curriculum and hope that the grade level is suitable for your child (sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't).
  2. Purpose Guided: This path is a mixture of core requirements flavored with your child's particular needs and gifts. This path is why some choose to homeschool. Make your lists of goals, objectives, purposes, (whatever you want to call them) and use your list to select a variety of curriculum, library books, Internet resources, and bookstore books.

Curriculum Planners:

Curriculum Planner

I use the curriculum planner to write the names of the books that I think I want to buy, where I can get them and how much they cost.

In Summary

Selecting books is part of your job. Do the best you can, learn from your mistakes and move on. It's not a big deal.

If you can:

  1. Meet with other homeschoolers to talk about books and to look at their books.
  2. Attend a curriculum fair.

Or use online bookstores like
: ChristianBook.com where you can see inside many of the books. That is almost as good as a curriculum fair, and you can browse at home at your convenience.

Most of all, do your best. Math books seem to be the hardest books to choose. Other subjects can usually be adjusted to your child's learning style.

Don't worry!