A Library is a One-Stop Shop
Public libraries are just the coolest idea ever! Thanks, Ben Franklin! There’s really no need to spend piles of money on curriculum for your homeschool. Let’s face it, curriculum is for teachers, so they can feel sure they’ve covered specific topics. It’s not for kids and doesn’t improve their relationship to knowledge. One unhurried day a week at the library will do more for your children’s education than any curriculum I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a LOT of them!
Libraries are Better than Ever
Most libraries have done a phenomenal job of moving with the times. Not only can you check out books about almost anything, but you can find movies, audiobooks, downloadable ebooks, and special events. It seems like you could just forget about school and let kids explore libraries!
And Librarians! Oh, My What Treasures!
At a library, you will find highly trained people who are paid by your taxes to help you and your kids access any information you need or want. Wow! It’s still hard for me to realize this outstanding level of service is free! Every librarian I’ve ever met was eager to help me find what I wanted. And since I was homeschooling, I could arrange to be at the library during less busy hours instead of traipsing in with 30 kids holding a rope and asking for the bathroom.
The Library Provides a Wonderful Refuge
A library makes a fabulous place for neurodiverse kids as well as all the rest of us. My daughter, Alta, is highly dyslexic, dysgraphic, and ADD. Classrooms were torturous for her. Her first-grade teacher thought she was uneducable. That’s why I homeschooled after first grade. BUT, at the library…that was a different story! There we found a place she felt completely comfortable and could be entirely herself. She found quiet, dim corners where she could disappear with a book for hours at a time. We met librarians who didn’t think she was a “problem” because she couldn’t read aloud. We checked out books and CDs on 20 different topics and no one minded or told us it was time to move on to a new subject.
Follow Your Children’s Interests
I love buying books as much as the next nerd, but when feeding the voracious appetite of a knowledge-hungry youngster, there’s just nothing like a library. Follow the child’s lead and let them explore the universe from the safety of the local library. For free. Amazing!
by Yvonna Graham, M.Ed.
www.dyslexiakit.net
@GrahamYvonna