Building our Home Library

Building our Home Library

We have relied heavily this year on our local library for books. When we began homeschooling in June I quickly realized our home library was lacking and needed to become focused on learning versus just for entertainment purposes. It has been a challenge to add quality books without spending a fortune. The Lord has truly been wonderful in opening doors of opportunity to attain good materials.

The best books we've purchased have come from our library. They consistently offer books for just a quarter that cover a wide spectrum of subjects. Just today I added the following books to our library:

* Zig: The Autobiography of Zig Ziglar (hardback)
* The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw (hardback).
* A Field Guide to Homeschooling by Christine M. Field (trade paper)
* The One Year Book of Devotions for Kids #2 (trade paper)

And our two great finds today:
* The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees
* The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders

For $1.50 we added some good books.

My daughter found a spider this afternoon and proudly announced it was a termite according to our new field guide. Praise the Lord she was wrong on that one! The books are already a hit and the kids can't wait to get outside tomorrow and begin naming trees and bugs.

Our library also sells paperbacks by the bag for $1.00. Most of the books offered are of no interest to me. What I plan to do is buy a few bags and trade them in at a local used book store where I receive credit for half of the book's value. In exchange I can add to our library with books of substance without breaking the bank.

Lastly, tonight I visited http://www.amblesideonline.org/ which offers books lists for those building living libraries in the Charlotte Mason style of home educating. While we do not teach Charlotte Mason, I do appreciate the site and plan to use it to compile a list of books to add to our library.