The Homeschool Book Shop

The Homeschool Book Shop is a consignment book store in Spokane.  For over a year now it has been an asset to the homescholing community here and I thought I would tell about it on this blog.

The book store is on N. Wall and it is owned and operated by the lovely Amber McGuire as see in the photo below.






If you are homeschooling, or if you just like good books, and if you live or find yourself visiting in Eastern Washington or Idaho, then this is one shop to stop at in your meandering around town.

I so seldom get to spend too much time here, browsing, but I always love it when I do.  The prices are reasonable and the place is well organized and best of all there is a great selection of books.  Besides that, Ms. Amber thinks of  nearly everything to make a person feel at home.  That is what inspired me to tell about this place on my blog.  Kids even like to visit here.

It was not enough that she offers weary bookworms, like me, special deals on books, or that she makes hot soup on Saturdays in the month of January to share with customers who come in for the bargain prices, nope; in addition to all of the above, she also puts hand sanitizer and a box of Kleenex in every room... along with a little trash basket, just in case you need one.  Amber thinks of nearly everything to make a person feel at home and welcomed. 

Everytime I visit here I am impressed with here open doors to the people who visit her store and not only her open heart to homeschool families, but any people who are interested in sharing the wonder of books, homeschooling or not.  Books, after all, are for people of all ages, and Amber has some really great books on her shelves!


An she has shelves!

In this room ---
you will find all sorts of things
for Math and Art

In this room you will find Language Arts materials, spelling, vocabulary, lots of Abeka books... even classic reads.  There is every a yardsale room back a ways in this direction where one can get some really good deals!

In the upstairs area there is Christian books, History, Geography and in a separate room after that is Science.






Downstairs is an area where over the last year, Amber has hosted several classes... like Art with artist Cheryl Ellicot, and a Kids Chess Club too.

If you love books and you are in Spokane... this is the place, especially if you are homeschooling or if you are like me, need to recycle some of your beloved homeschooling and educational books.
Amber also consigns books, if you are interested in that sort of thing.

Her website is: http://www.thehomeschoolbookshop.com/index.html

A New Year....

Wow! 2010 is here!

A new year and a new perspective. 

I have really been searching homeschooling philosophies, in particular my own.  My advice to anyone who want to homeschool is, to understand within yourself that you know it is something you need or want to do. If you have a eason, it will make the endeavor so much more meaningful.  If you love your kids and like to be with them and if you know they can learn and explore good things with you, you will most likely do very well.  I would be careful not to do it because everyone else is doing it or out of fear. 

I think too many times people just get caught up on some band wagon, and just do something because eeryone else they know is.  This is not the same as doing something you yourself know in your heart that you would like to try.  Sometimes it takes seeing an example in which to follow.  In my own life someone else's example gaveme the freedom to try something new to me, but they could not do it for me not tell me what I needed to do.  I had to do what I had to do and press on, even when their circumstances changed.  Circumstances do change as do our children's needs and wants, which is why every parent needs to have some foundational aspect of conviction of the heart.  It helps us make decisions and stay the course, whatever the course is and wherever it may turn.  It even keep us afloat in our desparation.

I also think it is important to realize that people's reasons to "homeschool" is as varied as the people who do it as well as the various homeschooling approaches one reads about when they begin.   The most important thing, in my opinion is to be convinced in your own mind about what it is you do analways be willing to respect the differences of others along the way.  And to remember, you can have all the knowledge in the universe there is about everything, but if you have not love... you've missed the point of life itself. 

The secret to the success of homeschooling may very well be, LOVE.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in the tongues of men and angels,
but have not love,
I have become sounding brass or a clanging symbol. 
And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains,
but have not love, 
I am nothing. 
 
And if I dole out all my goods to the poor, and
if I deliver my body to be burned that I may boast
but have not love, 
nothing I am profited.
 
Love is long-suffering,
love is kind,
it is not jealous,
love does not boast,
it is not inflated.
It is not discourteous,
it is not selfish,
it is not irritable,
it does not enumerate the evil.
It does not rejoice over the wrong, but rejoices in the truth 
 
Love covers all things,
it believes all things,
it hopes all things,
it endures all things.
Love never falls...
 .....

These three remain  faith, hope, love, 
 

but the greatest of these is love.
.