Check out these fabulous books at the best prices and most with free delivery, no matter where you live in the world.
If you are interested in teaching a particular subject then click on a link. Otherwise, scroll down for recommended book titles on the general subject of home education.
For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. A important book for your bookshelf and a home education classic; it gives a short introduction to the philosophy and practical application of learning at home. The author inspires with her warmth and gentle attitude; she covers each subject with comments and thoughts. This book is the antithesis to the high pressure, exam-related, politically correct stress of school learning, and focuses on learning as a pleasurable activity which will last a lifetime. Many people would say that this is the book every home educator should start by reading and should have on their shelf. I tend to agree with them.
Homeschooling on a Shoe String by Melissa L. Morgan & Judith Waite Allee. Here’s a book written by a homeschooling parent which stands out from the crowd. I like the way that this book offers inspiration, ideas and encouragement on homeschooling, and the suggestions pour off the pages, reassuring readers that not only is homeschooling a reasonable lifestyle choice, it’s also not an expensive one and not one restricted to the comfortably off. Chapter titles include topics like choosing curriculum, computing on a shoestring, simplifying home and your life, budget ideas, enrichment, character building, and more.
Educating Children at Home by Alan Thomas. This is an absolutely fabulous book; it is not so much a ‘how to’ book as an exploration of how home education works. It’s a useful and encouraging book with answers for some of those difficult questions that people sometimes have,and that home educating parents are often asked by family and friends, about how home education compares with school education. The author looks at the theory of teaching and learning, and the reasons why people choose home education. All of this in the context of families he has visited and studied. Then he considers how certain subjects are taught, or how they are learnt by the children.
Here’s a little example of the writing, in the chapter on literacy: page 109. “The finding that some children do not learn to read until they are between 8 and 10 years old without experiencing any adverse effect, challenges the almost general belief that it is essential for children to learn to read by the age of 7. Although most of the parents of the ‘late’ readers were understandably worried, their children were not.”
I wish I could quote a lot more; this book is a mine of useful information which will make home educating parents feel much more secure in the educational and parenting choices they are making.
How Children Learn at Home by Alan Thomas. In this book, Alan Thomas discusses his research among home educators in Australia and Great Britain. He noticed that the more experienced homeschoolers gravitated towards an informal style of education, very different from school education, and he saw the children developing their learning agendas. This book was republished last year, and I think it deserves a place on every home educator’s bookshelf; it’s an ideal book to refer to and to show to sceptical family members.
Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax. This book was published over twenty years ago and tells the story of how this couple homeschooled their children in an unschooling style, and how the boys were accepted at Havard University. A truly inspirational story.
The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Raymond & Dorothy Moore
The Original Homeschooling Series by Charlotte Mason
The Three Rs by Ruth Beechick
You Can Teach Your Child Successfully by Ruth Beechick
Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie
