As home school conventions approach and school is starting to wrap you, one’s mind tends to go toward the products you’d like to read about in order to make decisions for next year. I like to look at catalogs and read the reviews of products from a few trusted sources. Where do you start? Here are the companies that I rely on to help me with my decisions.
Rainbow Resource Catalog The granddaddy of them all, this catalog gives a description about each curriculum product they sell. I appreciate that and refer many home school families to them for that very reason. If you would get a paper catalog it 3 inches thick and has over 1,300 pages! I just looked! Click here for their website.
Christian Book Distributors sells individual products as well as packaged curriculum.
I realize that some of you are not interested in or comfortable with putting all of your own curriculum together and want a package instead. Here is a list of companies who offer just that!
Sonlight offers a literature-based, Christ-centered curriculum from preschool through high school. I used their American History program with some modifications and read many of their read-aloud books to my sons.
Timberdoodle has been in business for 25 years and has first-hand experience with nearly all of the products they recommend.
Do you have a favorite company that offers homeschool products and curriculum that I haven’t mentioned? Feel free to add to the list.
I like to find books that will help you and your child as you go through the reading process and help provide reading independence. You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You is a series that you and your young reader share together. You read one portion of a short story and your child reads the other portion. There are even times where you read parts of the book together. This is known as choral reading and is one language arts standard that is covered in primary grades. I think this is important since reading takes a lot of “brain power” and can be overwhelming, plus it’s fun!
