Homeschooling Resources

In a recent post, How to Homeschool, I shared a few resources for homeschooling and asked you to share some of your favorites. Here, I would like to make a more thorough list of places to go for help, encouragement, and news in the homeschooling community. Some will be repeats of the previous post, some will be new.


Miscellaneous:

A to Z Home's Cool. Hosted by Ann Zeise, a homeschooling guide since 1997, this site has it ALL--from curriculum resources to how-to articles to legalities. With a plethora of information, it will be easy to get lost so I recommend that you go with a specific question in mind--unless, of course, you have the time to just browse. In addition to her work A to Z, Ann used to contribute a regular column to Home Education Magazine, sharing the homeschooling nuggets she unearthed online.


News:

Parent at the Helm "empowers parents with the news and information you need for informed decisions about your child's educational and life success, and advocating homeschooling as the quickest, easiest and least expensive way to succeed!"

At this point, I don't know of anyone that keeps up with the school, homeschool, and parenting news better than Linda Dobson. If something happens out there of interest to you, as a parent, and your child's education, Linda will ferret it out and post it at Parent at the Helm. Linda Dobson is a longtime columnist for Home Education Magazine and the author of eight books for homeschoolers, such as The Art of Education: Reclaiming Your Family, Community and Self and The Learning Coach Approach: Inspire, Encourage, and Guide Your Child toward Greater Success in School and in Life.

Curriculum:

Little comments, here. Just a list of my favorite curriculum catalogs.

Beautiful Feet Books History through Literature. From their website: "At Beautiful Feet Books we are passionate about children's books. We believe that the best children's literature can both educate and inspire. To this end we are committed to publishing classic and historic works that nurture a love of reading, a devotion to history, and an appreciation for the good, the true, and the beautiful in literary art.

Timberdoodle In business since 1985, Dan and Deb offer the best homeschooling supplies at discounted prices. With curriculum from various publishers, Timberdoodle offers core subjects, electives and products that encourage discovery.

Rainbow Resource This catalog has over 1,000 pages. In my opinion, if they don't have it, you probably don't need it. :)

Love to Learn Diane Hopkins has been reviewing and testing homeschool products for over 20 years and puts all that experience into this catalog of resources. The Love to Learn website features, not only their catalog, but articles, newsletters, and a question of the week.

Encouragement:

I recently found The Homeschool Lounge. I think that homeschoolers just starting out have such an advantage than we did 17 years ago. Without the Internet in the home then, our fellowship had to come from our community. But now, living in a rural area, I realize that there are homeschoolers that cannot find fellowship in their physical community. With sites like The Homeschool Lounge, they needn't look far. You must be a homeschooling mom to join this site. Men and the curious are excluded. Within the Lounge are many groups according to interest. For instance, I've joined the Homesteading group, the Relaxed Homeschooling group, the Virginia Homeschoolers group, and the Writers Lounge. There are 119 groups; so there is definitely something for everyone.

Magazines:

What would homeschooling be without magazines that come regularly to your post box? Here is a list, definitely not exhaustive.

Home Education Magazine -- Hands down, my favorite for homeschooling inspiration, encouragement, and legal information, Home Education was founded in 1984 by Mark and Helen Hegener. Although no longer homeschooling their children, the Hegeners continue to give to this community in a way that few others have. According to their website, "We understand homeschooling because we have always been homeschoolers." Rarely will you read an article in HEM that is written by an "education professional." They strive to bring you information from those of us who know what we're talking about--the homeschooling parents. HEM leans toward the 'unschooling' camp, but even those that are strict 'school-at-home' types will not be disappointed with the encouragement within its pages. Also, HEM is not what I would call a Christian publication but they also do not discriminate against any faith in their articles or policy.

The Old Schoolhouse -- HUGE is the best word I have to describe this magazine. As a quarterly, the issues are full of enough to keep you reading until the next issue arrives. This magazine is distinctly Christian and full of articles by "professionals." However, they do have others written by moms and dads that actually homeschool. TOS not only prints a magazine, they have a very large store of other publications, mostly published by them, for you to purchase. They also have a blogging network for those that want to host a homeschooling blog.

I have read the following magazines a time or two from getting sample copies or from the library but I do not subscribe to them so I cannot really comment anymore except that they are all excellent Christian resources for homeschoolers.

Home School Enrichment

Home School Digest

Practical Homeschooling

Homeschooling Today

I hope this list helps. Of course, as I learn of other resources I am always quick to pass them on to you. But in the meantime, check these out. Most of us have already started school for the year and the rest will be in the next week or two. Nonetheless, we never can have too many places to look for help along the way.

Here's to a great 2010-2011 Homeschool Year!