Understanding and Obtaining the Teaching Materials Available to Your Homeschool
A large element of your curricula plans is likely to be various teaching materials. These materials can include the following:- Books. You are likely to need lots of books to support the various curricula you will use during each school year. These include textbooks, reading books, instructional books, references, and so on. Some of these you will probably purchase while others you will be able to borrow, either from individuals or from libraries.
- Workbooks. Many curricula include workbooks that contain exercises for students to complete. Workbooks can be useful up to middle school grades, such as kindergarten through fifth or sixth grade.
- Videos and DVDs. There are thousands of videos and DVDs that can be important elements of your curricula. These include documentaries, historical pieces, instructional videos, and so on. Some movies can also be very useful, such as some of the classic books for which movie versions have been made.
- The Internet. The Internet can be a very significant part of your curricula. From Web sites that provide reference material on any topic you can imagine to online courses that your students can take, you should consider Internet resources for your curricula needs. Additionally, the Internet is extremely useful in developing your curricula because of the many homeschool resources you will find there.
In your curriculum plan, you should identify the teaching materials you need. For example, you will see that a number of resources will be needed for this fifth grade student such as a pre-algebra book, a history text, reading books that focus on the historical period being studied, a grammar workbook, and so on. Use your plan to make a list of materials you need for each student. This list will become your shopping list and you will be ready to start researching for the materials you want to gather.
No matter what your teaching materials needs are, there are likely several options from which you can choose. The sheer number of possible materials, even for fairly specific subjects, might feel overwhelming to you at first. But with a little effort, you can winnow this set of possibilities down to a few that you will examine in detail.
Researching teaching materials is another area in which your homeschool network will be extremely valuable. Asking other homeschoolers in your network for recommendations for specific curricula needs is one of the best ways to discover what materials are available and to understand the strengths and weaknesses of those materials from the perspective of people who have actually used them. Frequently, asking about specific needs will quickly result in two or three options that you can research in more detail. Even better, you can usually borrow these resources for a short time so that you can evaluate them hands-on, which is the best kind of research you can do.
In addition to your homeschool network, there are several other sources that you will find very useful: the Internet, homeschool conventions and seminars, and homeschool publications.
On the Internet, there are thousands of Web sites for both publishers and retailers of materials that you can visit to get information about the teaching materials they offer. For example, when researching these sites you can get extensive amounts of detail on a specific curriculum.
Most homeschool conventions and seminars feature vendor display areas in which you can examine all sorts of teaching materials. This is very useful because you can often compare options for specific needs you may have. (Often, you can purchase these materials at discounted prices too.) One goal for many homeschoolers who attend these gatherings is to purchase a good portion of their teaching materials for the upcoming school year.
You can also get information about teaching materials via homeschool publications, both in paper (magazines and other periodicals) and online. These publications include reviews of materials and other information that you might find useful.
As you research available materials, your goal is to choose materials that best match your needs. The following are some of the factors you should consider:
- How is the subject approached? Is the topic handled in the same way that I plan to teach it?
- Does the material teach the topic effectively?
- Are the materials clearly organized in a helpful way, for example in daily lessons.
- Are supporting materials, such as teacher's guides, available?
- Does the material play to my child's personality type and learning style or is it counter to them?
- Is the curriculum available for future years?
- How much does it cost?
Teaching Materials for Subjects
| Student | Grade Level | Subjects | Curriculum Elements | Teaching Materials |
| Emily | 5th Grade | English (Literature,writing, spelling, grammar) | Book club | Borrow books to read from library as needed |
| Grammar | Grammar: A Journey Through Grammar Land, Pt. 1 | |||
| Spelling | Sitton Spelling Workbook | |||
| Sitton Spelling Source Book | ||||
| Period study (1700-1800) | American Revolution Battles and Leaders | |||
| Founding Fathers DVD | ||||
| The Revolutionary War Memoirs of General Henry Lee | ||||
| Frontier Living: An Illustrated Guide to Pioneer Life in America | ||||
| Math (Pre-algebra) | Pre-algebra | Saxon 6/5 Math | ||
| Student Edition | ||||
| Teacher's Edition | ||||
| Solutions Manual | ||||
| Concept Posters | ||||
| Facts Practice | ||||
| Workbook |
After you have developed your list of needed materials and have done the research to identify possible options, it is common that you will be able boil down the list of possibilities to one or two options. If your research leads you to one clear choice, you simply need to purchase or borrow that curriculum.
More likely, you will have two choices between which you need to decide. If that is case, go back to your research sources, again starting with your homeschool network. Try to find people who use each option so that you can compare your choices directly. If that doesn't help your decision, check out online resources, such as publisher Web sites and retail sites. If the choice still isn't clear, there probably isn't a significant difference between the options so you can make a decision based on other criteria, such as cost.
Although most publishers produce curricula in many subjects, don't think you need to use the same publisher's curricula for multiple subjects that you are teaching. It is common to mix and match among publishers for different subjects. You can also switch among publishers from year to year for the same subject. However, you need to be aware of any gaps or overlaps in coverage of the material between the materials from different publishers and different grade levels. Ideally, you will stick with a curriculum from a single publisher for a subject for its entire course because this gives you the most consistency from grade level to grade level. Of course, you can always supplement that curriculum with supplemental materials.
After you have decided upon materials for a subject, you need to obtain those materials. Often, you will need to purchase them. Like other things you buy, you can get the same materials from different sources. Start with the publisher's Web site to get cost information. Then explore retail sites on the Web; if you live in a larger city, you might also be able to find a bookstore that specializes in homeschool materials (but it is usually easier to find specific materials on the Web).
With some good luck, you might be able to borrow teaching materials from someone in your homeschool network. For example, another homeschooler might have the curriculum material you need, such as textbook, but currently not have a child at that grade level. This presents a good opportunity for you to borrow the material for your school year.
Your goal should be to have all of your teaching materials on hand at least a month before the school year. This will enable you to learn about your materials and get them organized for the upcoming year.
Reproduced from Absolute Beginner's Guide to Homeschooling, by Brad Miser, by permission of Pearson Education. Copyright © 2005 by Que Publishing. Please visit http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0789732777 to order your own copy.
