Building a homeschool library and a love of reading are some of our core values for homeschool. When children readily have access to books, they are more likely to pick up a book. Daily reading helps teach fluency and build language.
Reading is also a great way to bond with children. It stimulates their imagination and expands their understanding of the world.
Books are a key aspect of unschooling for our family. At any given moment, books allow our daughter to explore her interest and curiosity. I enjoy having physical books because they are screen-free and great for kids that are hands-on learners.
Although most of our homeschool library consists of physical books, this post includes tips for borrowing books, audiobooks, and digital books.
Growing A Homeschool Library
There are five ways we have built our homeschool library of physical, digital, and audiobooks.
Usborne Books & More
If you have never heard of Usborne Books and More, here is a little excerpt from the company:
Usborne and Kane Miller books are the most exciting, engaging, and educational books on the market today. They are high-quality, innovative, lavishly-illustrated, and best of all, they are the books kids love to read. Choose from over 1,800 bright, colorful, and fun titles covering a wide variety of subjects.
Being an Independent Consultant
Usborne Books and More has a wonderful direct selling division in which I am an independent consultant and distribute books via my e-commerce website.
I have grown 90% of our homeschool library by hosting virtual book events where I earn free and half-priced books, earning commissions from orders placed on my website and investing those earnings into buying more books, and finally sharing the opportunity with those that are interesting in working independently with the company.
For more information about becoming an independent consultant as a way to grow your homeschool library, feel free to email me at deanna@faithheritageathome.com or visiting my site.
Being an Event Host
While I enjoy being an independent consultant with such an amazing company and educational resource for homeschool families, direct sales may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
Thankfully, I’ve found something that just naturally aligns with my blog and mission to advocate for homeschooling as an alternative to traditional education. That is why I’ll never knock direct sales because some people truly are passionate about the product they sell and the company they represent. I am all for supporting a side hustle, but that’s neither here nor there.
As an event host, you get to pick an event date, virtually invite friends and family that would love to see these amazing books and earn free and half-priced books for qualifying events. You could also earn some fun bonuses.
This is my favorite way to grow a homeschool library full of high-quality, beautiful, and engaging books for children from birth through young adulthood.
Memberships & Discounts
The next way one can grow their child’s homeschool library is through discounts and membership perks. Barnes & Noble has an educator discount available to homeschooling families. If you are buying books new, consider saving by buying from Barnes and Noble using your 20% educator discount.
Digital Books
Earlier I mentioned I had a love of physical books. However, I am beginning to embrace digital books and their convenience. There are a few ways you can find and use books digitally:
- Audible is a paid monthly audiobook subscription to a full library.
- Vooks is a kid-safe, ad-free streaming library of read-along animated storybooks for children.
- Epic is a digital library with over 40,000 of the best books, audiobooks, and videos.
- Hoopla and other digital public libraries offer free access with a library card. You can ask your local librarian about getting a library card.
Local Library
If you have access to a local library, head there now and get yourselves a library card. Pre-pandemic, we went to the library twice a week and my daughter loved picking out books to bring home. This is an amazing way for homeschool families to build a rotating supply of books affordably.
Thrifting and Book Swaps
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about my consumption of new things and how freeing a low-waste lifestyle can be. Not only is buying second-hand easy on the budget, but it also helps the planet by reducing the demand for new books.. made of paper.. from trees. You get the point, ha. I wrote a blog post about ways to help save the planet if you want to check it out.
So, many benefits of shopping second-hand to grow your homeschool library affordably. Here are a few places you can buy books second-hand:
- Family and friends with whom you can swap or inherit books
- Thrift Books
- Better World Books
- Half-priced Books
- Abe Books
- Little Free Library
Having a huge library of books in your home is not a requirement for raising readers or homeschooling. Providing access to books is the goal, no matter the avenue.
COMMENT
What are your favorite read-aloud books? Does your reader have a favorite genre of books? Let me know!
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