The secret weapon to interest-led homeschooling isn’t the curriculum you buy, the co-op you join, or having all the expensive learning materials. The best thing you can do for your homeschool is to build a home library for your family. I don’t mean literally going out and getting lumber to build bookshelves (though if you know how to do this, I’ll be eternally impressed). I mean stocking your home with quality books on many different topics, so that they’re available to your kids.
Recently, my niece game me the best compliment. She said, “Auntie Jess, you have the best library. I always know that anytime choose a book, I’m not going to be disappointed.”
That has been my goal in building our family library. I’ve spent years cultivating a collection of books that enrich our family learning, provide wonderful resources, and fill our minds with beautiful stories.
Why build a home library?
Your kids can spontaneously learn what they want
Instead of waiting (and often losing interest), when a child asks a question like “why does it get so dark in the winter?” or “what kind of animals live in Africa?” or “what does the White House look like inside?” we can go straight to the bookshelf and find an answer.
Choose books that match your family values
Have you ever been in the library or a bookstore and your kids bring up a book that you can tell does not align with your family values? Instead of saying no all the time, you can say YES to any book in your family library, because you know that they’re appropriate and don’t have questionable content.
Books are the ultimate curriculum
A premade curriculum can only take you so far. But books are endless. Rarely will you try to study a topic and only find one or two books on that subject. You can deep dive, sprout out into different directions, and literally learn anything with books.
Create a family culture of reading
Studies show that the environment where your kids spend their time makes a huge impact on their interests and learning. If you want to raise readers, you need to give them lots of books!
But how do you actually build a home library?
I know that the idea of building a family library can be intimidating or even overwhelming.
Here’s where to start:
- shop thrift stores and rummage sales
- get books you know will last through different stages of your kids’ learning
- skip the books based on cartoon characters and TV shows
- be patient – my library has been built over the course of 25 years!
I go into so much detail on how to find books, tips for buying used, where to buy, how to vet their contents, and how to organize them (even if you don’t have space) in my e-book Building a Family Library.
If you want to deep dive into building a family library and creating a family culture of reading, these e-books are for you:
But you can get these e-books along with SO MUCH MORE within The Literary Lounge
Doors are open now for a limited time!
Fall in love with language arts as a family
In the Literary Lounge, you’ll get:
- access to The Lit List: curated book lists organized by topic and age (so you don’t have to spend your time researching books – it’s all done for you!)
- PDF guides and e-books for home education (including Building a Family Library and Raising Readers in a Screen Filled World)
- exclusive quarterly Homegrown Literacy magazine
- video teachings on language arts
- exclusive printables
- monthly live calls with Jess to get support and ask questions
- **Join as a VIP and you’ll get access to $130+ of language arts resources for the whole family plus the Whole Family Learning Course worth $77!