How to Home School Your Child - Choosing Textbooks

There is a wide variety of textbooks to choose from. Companies like Abeka and Alpha Omega specialize in homeschooling textbooks and materials based on Christian beliefs and values. Traditional textbooks from companies like McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Prentice Hall, and Scott Foresman are also available to homeschoolers. There are several other minor textbook publishers also available.

The best way to choose textbooks is to do some research on what is out there, and what fits within your budget. If you have specific religious beliefs there should be no issues in finding materials that fit within your values. 

The best textbooks to get for young children are workbooks that come with practice sheets. These are ideal for learning basic math, reading and writing skills. You can often find basic skills workbooks at stores like Wal-Mart, Costco, Sam’s Club, and bookstores. These workbooks are often extremely inexpensive, usually under $10 each. They are far from a complete curriculum, but go a long way toward achieving educational goals.

The best textbooks for older children are those that come in sets. The textbook set should come with the student textbook, the teacher’s manual (complete with answer keys), quiz booklets and test booklets. In this way you have an entire curriculum for the subject without having to do a lot of research and lesson planning.

Used textbooks are readily available for homeschoolers on a budget. There are a ton of great websites that are basically textbook exchanges for homeschoolers. Parents list books and curriculum for sale, and post want ads for the next level of books they need. The best time to get on these sites is the summer months when parents are planning for the following year. A partial list of these sites is also found in the resource section at the end of this book.

It is impossible to teach a well rounded curriculum without textbooks. However, if you have a limited budget and have trouble finding complete textbook sets from affordable resources, do not despair. You can buy textbooks with minimal resources and information, and supplement them with your own curriculum. There is a wealth of curriculum available online, much of it for free. However, it is much more difficult to follow this path. It takes time, effort, and dedication. If you plan to take this route, you should definitely only home school eight to nine months out of the year so that you have three to four months for planning and curriculum gathering.

This is an excerpt from the book How to Home School Your Child: Developing a Well Trained Mind: Proven Strategies for Unlocking Your Child’s Genius with Homeschooling by Karina Bartlett

 

You can get the book on this link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NAX3506/