But what to do with those “really good resources?” Some families are fortunate enough to have an extra room that can be devoted to their home learning. This is nice, but not necessary. Many families do just fine seated around the dining room table, although that makes storing the necessary materials a bit trickier.

Speaking of storage…let’s break it down and see what we can come up with.

Books first. How many books do you have? Are you trying to build an at home library? Do you visit the public library regularly? How about magazines, do you have lots or not that many?

A bookcase is a good idea. The number of books you have and how large you want to grow your library will determine the size and amount of the cases you will need. If you have magazines you can invest in some magazine holders and devote a shelf of your bookcase to them. This works well for catalogs too. I would suggest not letting either your catalog or your magazine collection grow too large. They can all too quickly overwhelm you. Replace old catalogs with new ones as soon as they arrive. And I would save no more than a year's worth of a particular magazine. You can donate your old ones to your local library, thrift store, or Doctor’s office it you don’t want to throw them away.

It’s also a good idea to keep a shelf for those checked out library books. Make it a family rule that all library books will be stored there. When one is used another cannot be taken until the used one has been replaced. This will help you to keep track of those books and avoid fines! Another thing I do is to keep a post it note by the computer to remind me when my books are due. Some people make sure they go to the library on the same day each week so they will not loose track of their due dates.