Most homeschool families do not consider their home's collection of books as a "library." Nevertheless, if you have a lot of books, even if they are all in boxes, you have the makings of a home library.

You may be wondering why you would even want to bother with building a home library. After all, the local library is handy whenever you need books. Well, it is still good to have a variety of different topics of books at your fingertips. They can spontaneously ignite your child's interest whenever they are bored or curious. This self-education is a process that almost guarantees the "right" kind of learning: real learning, feeding your brain's vital parts.

Your child may not even be interested in the topics of books that you purchase. However, if you give it some time you may find that they will become interested in that topic. Well, there is the book for them to pick up and become completely absorbed in. By the time that you get to the library, their interest may have been lost though. The library may not even have books on that topic that are appropriate or they may not have enough books on that topic for your child.

Another wonderful reason for building a home library is so that your children can pass their favorite books down to their own children.

Libraries discard lots of books that are not even outdated or obsolete. The only reason why they get rid of these books is because they have not been checked out for a lengthy period of time. So, books whose covers are not new and attractive get discarded even though they have a lot of relevant information inside of them. You can even find great Newberry award-winning books stamped "discarded." It is a great use of your time to locate these books. All you need to do is call your local library and ask them if they are getting rid of books. Then proceed to ask them to call you whenever they are getting rid of children's books. Oftentimes you can get several boxes of free books just because you are willing to go and pick them up. Another great place to pick up books is from schools that are closing. This is especially true whenever a private school closes. These schools often have very good libraries but they do not have a good plan for letting go of the books whenever they are forced to close their doors. Most librarians would be very happy to know that you are willing to give their books a good home.