Contributed by Denise McGill, Catalogs.com Top 10 Guru

Homeschooling is the option many parents are choosing to give their children the education they need.

From the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic to the latest in software, today’s homeschooling parent must be aware of the education resources available to them.

Homeschooling should be as rewarding and fun to the parent as it is their children. These five online stores help assure the success of your child’s education through learning, exploring, and interactive “hands-on” activities.

Books of all kinds

Fascinating reads

Need to supplement the literature requirements for your homeschooler? Looking for a book that brings history or science to life? Dover Publications has the educational resources for all kinds of interesting reads! Give your child access to fascinating biographies, fiction to stir the imagination, cooking, history and more. Best of all, Dover keeps their books affordable so the home taught child gets a well-rounded education without breaking the family budget.

A big plus? Dover’s prices are so low you can afford to include books you might not have considered at a full price bookstore. Accidental learning at its best!

Homeschooling workbooks

Covering every subject

A school supply store should have the education resources you need for teaching your child at home. They even carry flash cards that teach a second language! They also supplies the workbooks and activity books to make the homeschooling parent’s job easier. The workbooks cover a complete range of subjects from Math to Science. Many of the items found are “hands-on” to help your child retain what they learn.

Critical thinking tools

Don’t just memorize

If we teach children to think, their knowledge is limitless! With this concept in mind, evaluate successful educational programs. Programs such as the “Reading Detective” series help your homeschooler understand and retain information by analyzing what he or she is learning. They also promise higher test scores on achievement tests such as ACTs, and SATs. Your child will have a greater chance of continuing their education once their homeschooling years are done!

The gift of logic

Building a ground for thinking clearly

One of the subjects that’s sadly neglected in public education is logic. Students just aren’t thought to think through a problem or situation using clear, step-by-step thinking. And the result? Too many people making critical life choices, political choices and other decisions based solely on emotion, public sentiment or what someone told them. Fortunately, in homeschooling, there’s time to incorporate the the tools of logical decision making into the curriculum year after year. Look for the logic books, activities and tools you need to teach your kids how to evaluate a problem rationally, and make choices based on facts instead of opinions.

Great lectures, great ideas

Bringing endless eduction home

One of the challenges of homeschooling is finding engaging, inspiring materials for complex subjects. Of course, you can always enroll them in online classes through colleges and universities, but the pace can be too much for even a bright middle schooler or high school student. And then there’s the cost!

Fortunately, many teaching resource developers have solved that problem by offering some of today’s best lecturers and teachers on affordable video and audio. That means your student can listen or watch, pause, go back and listen or watch again. There’s no time pressure, no competition. It’s just you, your student and some amazing learning.

Homeschooling is all about giving kids the kind of quality education they just can’t get in a public school classroom. Spend time checking out the resources you use to make sure they meet that goal, and enhance learning instead of just filling time.