My Shopping List

Ahh! It's that time of the year when my dream list for next year is being whittled down to a more realistic list. I am very blessed to have most of our literature and history curriculum already. Also, I have most of our language arts program and our music program as well. Now that my list is almost ready, I need to decide where to buy each item. I really like to shop locally whenever possible. However, we do not have a homeschool store or even a teacher supplies store in our city. We do have a chain book store and a few private new and used book stores in town. Then there are catalogs, Ebay and Amazon. Although Amazon is often the cheapest, I try not to buy everything from them. I like to support stores that have books I can touch and look at before buying. Maybe I am old fashioned in that way. Also, I always try to buy a few items from Rainbow Resource, because they really take the time to talk to you about their products. This year, I will also be buying some of our curriculum directly from publishers.

On with the list ~

We will be purchasing Teaching Textbooks Math 5. I will probably be purchasing this directly from the company.


We will also be purchasing Beyond Five in a Row Volume 3. This will probably be purchased at Amazon.


For science we are using Focus on Astronomy Middle School from Real Science 4 Kids. The best deal looks like it is at Rainbow Resource.


We will need All About Spelling Level 3 which will also come from Rainbow Resource.
I need Explode the Code 4 and 5. They will be added on to my Rainbow Resource order.


We need to refill our art supplies cabinet. We are lacking in clay, clay tools, liquid water color paints, and good quality marking pens. I need to study our art curriculum to determine what else we need.


There are some things at Veritas Press to make a homeschool mom drool. However, I will try to stay under control and just order the next level of Leagues and Legends.


Lastly, we are kicking off art this year with a 9 week course on architecture. We will be studying Frank Lloyd Wright and studying the many different types of architecture in our own city. A few years ago, I gave to several homeschoolers a coloring book about architecture in our city. Now I have decided to use it as the core of our architecture curriculum. So I went off to the visitor center to buy four copies of it for the kids and myself (I like to color, too). Yikes! They didn't sell it anymore! Next, I looked it up online and found one copy and ordered it from Ebay. The downer was discovering that the coloring book had been printed only once in 1987. It seemed that finding more copies was going to prove difficult. The girls and I hit the streets to look through used book stores in our area. A wonderful store clerk on our very first stop did not carry it, but had an idea. She called the publisher, which was our city's preservation society.  Our preservation society has one full-time employee who said he had a case of the coloring books in his supply closet. He would be happy to sell us copies for a great price. Score!! When I stopped by to pick them up, he asked why we wanted them. I explained that we were homeschoolers and that I was planning a unit study using the coloring books. He became excited and told me that he was looking for a way to start a class for homeschoolers! Can we say synchronicity?! He wanted to know what the homeschooling community's needs were. I talked to him about some great options. I look forward to seeing if he is able to get approval from the preservation board to start a homeschool historical field trip class. It sounds fantastic to me. I love to watch doors of opportunity open.

We start back to school the last week of July and I am getting excited! What is on your shopping list?

Blessings, Dawn