| Conventional learning materials such as textbooks | | | | in the endless racks of seasonal bulletin board |
| are usually easy to find. If you're interested in the | | | | decorations and "Great Job!" stickers, but many |
| type of texts used in the schools, you can check | | | | such stores also carry lots of supplementary |
| with your local school district or county office of | | | | materials for science, math, and literature. Usually, |
| education to see if they have a curriculum library. | | | | you'll also find an assortment of paper and other |
| Sometimes access to such libraries is limited to | | | | consumables: colored construction paper, |
| public school teachers, but often the public is also | | | | newsprint both blank and ruled for various grade |
| allowed to peruse school materials there. Media | | | | levels, poster and finger paints, pens, and pencils. |
| and technology centers, from which laboratory | | | | Dozens of catalog businesses are aimed at the |
| equipment, films, video and audio equipment and | | | | home schooling market - with more popping up |
| tapes, or computer hardware and software can | | | | every day. Some mainly carry books about |
| be borrowed. Availability to homeschoolers will | | | | homeschooling; others carry mainly curricular |
| depend on state and district regulations. | | | | materials. |
| Your area may also have a used book | | | | Recently, as homeschooling has become more |
| depository, where textbooks, library books, and | | | | popular and well-known, larger companies have |
| equipment no longer used by area schools can be | | | | entered the market, some carrying materials |
| purchased for thrift-store prices or are free for | | | | previously unavailable directly to homeschoolers |
| the taking. Old encyclopedias, dictionaries, and | | | | and others carrying the more popular products of |
| other reference books are fairly common but are | | | | smaller companies but undercutting their prices. If |
| far outnumbered by the literature: historical | | | | you tend to enjoy the more obscure resources, |
| novels, literary classics, just plain good reading. | | | | you might want to make a point of patronizing |
| Some educational publishers will ask for a school | | | | the smaller companies, even for those items |
| purchase order or for an order on your school | | | | available elsewhere, just to help keep those |
| letter head. Others are happy to sell textbooks to | | | | interesting but obscure items available. |
| home-schoolers but draw the line at teachers' | | | | A relatively new dement in the homeschooling |
| guides and answer keys. Some refuse to deal | | | | market in recent years are the independent |
| with homeschoolers at all, but a few educational | | | | dealers. Dorling Kindersley and Usborne Books are |
| publishers, such as Follett, have set up divisions | | | | especially active in the homeschooling market, |
| specifically to serve the homeschool market. | | | | fueled largely by homeschooling parents who sell |
| Also worth checking out are local teacher supply | | | | the books to afford to buy all the volumes they |
| stores. Most homeschoolers will not be interested | | | | want for themselves. |