One of the often overlooked area of planning and discussion when preparing to begin your homeschooling venture is how are you going to supply and fund your homeschool materials, and where are you going to locate your homeschool supplies, and how will you keep it organized?

Since many homeschooling parents live on one primary source of income due to the immutable fact that the other parent is a full time teacher, being penny wise and cost efficient is a must. However, with a little creativity and some practice you can put together a very effective homeschool resource and materials depot in your home.

The first decision is where to locate your homeschool materials area. If you have an extra bedroom or den in your house that you can do this, you are one of the fortunate ones. However you decide to get this done the idea is to have all of your homeschool materials and resources organized into one central spot. Not only does this make your homeschooling day more efficient and less stressful, but you will also find that this central

organizational approach will be much more cost efficient as you will be to easily determine what homeschool materials you have on hand and what you need to purchase as they get low. Without good organization of your homeschool resources you will find yourself purchasing duplicates and unneeded materials that will only drive up your costs. And remember the goal here is to keep your purchasing costs to a minimum!

Public libraries are a great source for books but they arent always accessible. Buying new books can rapidly drain the budget. There are many resources available for homeschooling materials. Many homeschool groups have book fairs and other organizational event that are a great place to pick up slightly used books and materials. Dont forget to mention to your family and friends that high on your list of needs are homeschool materials and resources. Youll be surprised how many of your friends will donate materials that they had purchased for their kids when they were younger and there is always your birthday and other holidays that you can put homeschool supplies on your wish list!

Dont rule any source for you out! Be creative, and be frugal and you can put together a homeschool material and resource center that will benefit everyone.

Mary Joyce is a former educator, successful homeschool parent, and has written many articles on teaching your child at home for the Homeschool-Curriculum-4u website. Please visit (http://www.homeschool-curriculum-4u.com) for a complete list of Marys articles.