Choosing Curriculum page

Curriculum

Finding suitable curricular materials can be frustrating as periodicals, in general, do not review K-12 educational materials. Here are several suggestions that I hope will help in your search to find K-12 materials. Note that this page is geared more toward finding individual materials. There are other pages that contain information on the many complete programs, such as Calvert.

• Many Schools of Education have Educational Resource Centers that contain, among other things, curricular materials and teacher training materials. Locate a School of Education at a nearby college or university and see if they are open to the public. If they are, then pay them a visit and browse through their materials to help in your purchase decision.
• There are a few retail stores that cater to homeschoolers. If you are lucky enough to have one of these nearby, then a visit might prove fruitful.
• Abeka has roadshows in the Spring and Summer where they display their materials.
• Your school district may have their own curriculum library. Contact your superintendent to see if you could look though it.
• Ask the members of your local support group if you could look through the materials that they use.
• Many vendors now have home pages on the world-wide-web. Some provide very little information, such as a picture, the number of pages, and the price. A few provide an overview along with the table of contents.
• You can ask about specific materials in one of the homeschooling newsgroups or on one of the mailing lists.
• You can ask vendors for catalogs. These will give you pictures and prices but not much else.
• Various homeschooling groups put on curriculum fairs where you can view materials. Contact your state associations to see if there are any in your area.
• You may be able to preview materials using interlibrary loan at your local library. This is useful if you have a particular textbook in mind. You typically need to fill out a form at your local library and then wait until your request is filled.
• If your child is interested in college-level materials, then visit your local college or university bookstore near the beginning of the semester and have a look around.
• Some cities have stores that sell teacher supplies. You may be able to find useful materials at one of these. When I was a child, I visited one of these stores in Boston and purchased a book on Algebra II. I taught myself Algebra II in a few weeks. You might also see if they have clearance sales.
• To get an idea of the topics involved in math and science subjects, I'd suggest looking through an Encyclopedia Brittanica under mathematics and science and their subtopics.

Curricular materials on a budget

In general, buying materials individually costs less than buying complete programs, typically sold by grade. You also have more flexibility in that a student can work on materials at his own pace and ability level. Costs can go up (more than double) if you have to buy the teachers guide though. Here are some suggestions for finding materials inexpensively.

• Libraries (public and private) are a good place to look. They are typically limited in that you can only have materials for a fixed amount of time. In some cases, it might be useful to purchase a membership at a private library.
• School districts dispose of materials from time-to-time for various reasons. Contact your local school district to see when they do this, and, if you can have them or if you can buy them.
• Some school districts dispose of their materials by selling to a reseller. If this is the case in your district, then contact the reseller to see if he sells the materials inexpensively.
• Your school distract may lend materials to homeschoolers in the district. Contact your superintendent to see if they do this.
• There are a few web pages where you can buy and sell used materials.
• Libraries dispose of materials from time to time. Ask them when they do this and how they dispose of materials.
• Older materials may be quite suitable for certain subjects and can frequently be had inexpensively at used bookstores.
• Your parents may have textbooks that they used when they were younger that may be available to you.
• You may find educational materials at garage sales in your local area.

and was last updated on January 28, 2000.