The Arrival of My Home School Curriculum Catalog

My new home school curriculum catalog from Christian Book Distributors, known as CBD, had arrived and I could hardly wait to look through the pages! I knew they would have their usual discount prices on preschool through high school resources and supplies.

This sixty-four page resource is color coded by publishers, subjects, and other helps. For instance, I quickly see Apologia, Alpha Omega, Horizons, A.C.E., Switched on Schoolhouse, and Bob Jones homeschool curriculum.

Publishers

If you are looking for Abeka phonics or any Abeka homeschool curriculum you will have to look elsewhere. Currently, they are not available through CBD. Neither is Math-U-See or Sonlight, even though they carry other resources used within the Sonlight program.

Subjects

You can find homeschool curriculum reviews and/or descriptions on Bible, math, science, and most other subjects and electives. They even have games and family DVDs!

Helps

They have you covered if you are searching their home school curriculum catalog for material to teach the alphabet, create lapbooks, start homeschooling online or just learn more about home education, in general.

Although I was anxious, there were still preparations that had to be done before an order would be placed for next year’s homeschool curriculum which included:

1. make sure that I could have a quiet time and not be disturbed for an hour and a half, at least
2. gather two or three highlighters of contrasting colors such as neon orange and green, to get started
3. get a new legal pad for notes from our supply closet
4. make several copies of my personalized Proposed Course of Study homeschool record keeping form to use as I go through the home school curriculum catalog
5. check the Table of Contents to see if my "old faithful, friends" have added any new home school publishers to the many they already carryied

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Now, I begin to pour over each page carefully trying to find the best homeschool curriculum for the upcoming year. I might make mental notes of things for "down the road" but basically this time is about the upcoming school year.

Remember, those two highlighters I spoke of earlier? Well, here is where they come into play. First, I select one of the colors and use it to highlight everything in the book I need or would like to have. Of course, that ends up being a lot of resources because I have been schooling for over twenty years.

I know; you’re probably questioning what could I possibly still need after all these years and so many purchases. Trust me, though, there are still a few things I don’t own.

After highlighting all the pages I have to pause or put it down for just a few minutes or I might even lay it aside and revisit it later.

Round Two

Here is where I return to the process and really get "down to business." I have an approximate amount I am willing to spend on purchases. I also sort of know which items I may not have to purchase new because:

• I already own the resources
• I suspect that I can get it much cheaper on Amazon or eBay and I have the time to wait for it to arrive
• I will only need it for a short period and would like to borrow it from the Public Library instead of owning it myself- you see, all my bookshelves are filled to capacity so space is definitely an issue for us

Final Decisions

Armed with this information and the other highlighter, I make what I anticipate to be my final run through of the home school curriculum catalog in search of the science, math, history, and Bible curriculum choices for our family.

Then, I place the titles(s) of the proposed curriculum choices on my personalized form and create a guide that helps me “see” what we will be doing later on. I have the guide now, but still no purchases yet.

I will have to see if I was correct in assuming I could get some of these items elsewhere for a cheaper cost. I research online for this information and then proceed accordingly. I have to calculate whether it is worth my time to get it elsewhere because CBD offers FREE shipping on orders over thrity-five dollars which I will certainly spend.

If you have never shopped with CBD, you should certainly take a look at their nearly exhaustive home school curriculum catalog for all your school needs. Of course, shop early for the best selections.

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