Home Schooling Pathfinder

Home schooling: How do I decide? What are the legal aspects? How do I develop a curriculum? The Monroe County Public Library has materials to help you with your questions regarding home education. For assistance, ask a librarian at the first or second floor reference desk.

BOOKS

Books about home schooling and the education of children can be found in both the adult collection on the second floor and the Parent/Teacher Resource Room in the Children's Department.

Using the library's computer catalog in subject mode, use these search terms:

For general books on home schooling, use the term"home schooling"
To find ideas for home instruction, use the terms "education - elementary" OR "creative activities and seat work" OR "educational games" OR "education - parent participation" OR "curriculum planning"
To find ideas for teaching particular topics, try:

"art - study and teaching"	"reading - elementary"	"mathematics - study and teaching"
"science - study and teaching"	"social sciences - study and teaching"	"language arts"

REFERENCE COLLECTIONS and RESEARCH TOOLS

Reference collections are maintained on the first and second floors. These in-library use items are helpful in locating bibliographies, useful for finding different kinds of books, subject-specific encyclopedias and atlases, biographical resources for finding information about people, and much more.

The library's collection of online Research Tools gives you access to electronic encyclopedias such as Groliers Online and other special resources.

DVDs

In the Movies and Music department, you'll find DVDs on a variety of subjects, including PBS specials and informational series such as Nova and National Geographic. You'll also find a wide variety of U.S. history DVDs, worldwide travel series, and much more.

In the Children's DVD collection, you'll find informational series such as: Bill Nye the Science Guy, American History for Children, The Magic School Bus, and Schoolhouse Rock. You'll also find movie versions of a wide variety of stories, from picturebooks and folktales featured in the Reading Rainbow series to novels, such as Hoot.

AUDIO

Look in the Children's audio collections for foreign language instruction, phonics, even arithmetic set to music! There's also music to enhance your curriculum, such as international music and songs from American history. Many unabridged audiobooks also are available on CD.

MAGAZINES

The magazine Home Education is owned in the Magazines and Newspaper collection on the second floor of the library and in the Parent Teacher Resource Room. The Children's Magazine collection also has informational magazines, such as Cobblestone and Calliope which deal with U.S. and world history; also, science magazines, such as Odyssey and National Geographic Kids.

A useful source for magazine articles is INSPIRE, Indiana's virtual library on the Internet. Through the Student Research Center, you can easily search for magazine and newspaper articles by topic, or focus your search for biographies (information about people), or for facts about states and countries.

CD-ROMs

Many educational CD-ROMs are available for checkout from the Children's CD-ROM collection. Look for Jump Start and Reader Rabbit titles to get help with math and reading at different grade levels. You can even find programs to help teach typing skills.

THE INTERNET

Many Web resources for home schoolers exist on the Internet. A good place to start is with our list of Sites for Home Schoolers. Other helpful links are available through the Children's Services home page.

TEXTBOOKS

Sample reading and math textbooks can be found in the Children's Reference Collection. These books are only available for use in the library.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS

Check our Community Organizations database for home schooling groups and other local agencies that can help support your child's education.

LIBRARIANS ARE HERE TO HELP! PLEASE ASK.

MCPL Children's Services (revised 2010)