Not all books are created equal. Our “Good Books” list contains books that are, well, “more equal than others?!” Seriously, every homeschooling parent (and eventually the kids as well) should explore the wealth of information that’s been published on homeschooling. From educational philosophy to home-spun wisdom, these materials have a lot to offer.
We picked some of our favorites, arranged them alphabetically by author, and provided a brief overview of the writers and their books. Choose those that intrigue you the most, and dig in. You won’t be disappointed.
David Albert writes a regular column, “My Word!” for Home Education Magazine. He sagely notes that “The best education I ever received I got from my kids.” Also the author of And The Skylark Sings With Me: Adventures in Homeschooling and Community-Based Education, David was the keynote speaker at the 2005 MHA Annual Conference.
Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery: A Journal of Original Seeking. In this unique and witty collection of essays, Mr. Albert reminds us that “learning must ultimately begin from within rather than from without.”
ISBN: 1567512321 Find at your library
Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. is a psychologist, learning specialist, and consultant to educational groups around the world. He has written for numerous magazines, and is the author of nine books. He was the keynote speaker at MHA’s Annual Conference in 2004.
In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child’s Multiple Intelligences. Children learn in multiple ways, and Dr. Armstrong has shown hundreds of thousands of parents and teachers how to locate those unique areas in each of our children where learning and creativity seem to flow with special vigor. In this fully updated classic on multiple intelligences, Armstrong sheds new light on the “eight ways to bloom,” or the eight kinds of “multiple intelligences.”
ISBN:1585420514 Find at your library
Cafi Cohen is a well-known homeschooling advocate whose marvelous work has helped many people “stay the course” and homeschool through high school. She and her husband homeschooled two children, with both sailing on to college without a traditional high school diploma.
And What About College? How Homeschooling Can Lead to Admissions to the Best Colleges & Universities. Cafi Cohen addresses the “getting into college” questions raised by parents that are homeschooling older children. “How do we work up a set of transcripts?” “How do we get them into college without a recognized degree?” “What choices in education do we have?” Her answers are practical and proven.
ISBN: 0913677116 Find at your library
John Taylor Gatto was named New York City Teacher of the year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991. That same year, he wrote a letter announcing his retirement to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, saying that he did not want to “hurt children anymore.” He specifically promotes unschooling. Mr. Gatto was the keynote speaker at MHA’s Annual Conference in 2001.
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. A true classic in homeschooling literature, Dumbing Us Down reveals the deadening heart of compulsory state schooling: assumptions and structures that stamp out the self-knowledge, curiosity, concentration and solitude essential to real learning. This book is a must-read.
ISBN: 0865714487 Find at your library
Mary Griffith has written extensively on the homeschooling and unschooling movements, and has a gift for explaining the world of homeschooling in ways that everyone can understand. She was the keynote speaker at MHA’s Annual Conference in 2002, and is also the author of The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World as Your Child’s Classroom.
The Homeschooling Handbook. Written in an easy-to-read format, this book has chapters leading the reader from “Does Homeschooling Really Work?” to “Legal Stuff, or Can We Really Do This?” through “The Teen Years: Finding a Direction.” Regarded by many as one of the best introductory books on modern homeschooling.
ISBN: 0761517278 Find at your library
John Holt is one of the “founders” of modern homeschooling (as are Raymond and Dorothy Moore, listed below). His acute classroom observations and life experience convinced him that children have an innate desire to learn, and will learn what they need to know if they’re not prevented from doing so. One of his concerns was that institutional schools actually prevent them from doing so!
How Children Learn. Through numerous examples and gentle persuasion, John shows us that children really do know how to learn. We don’t need to force them to do it, and efforts to “teach” them how to do it are often counterproductive. One of John Holt’s several classics in the field of child development.
ISBN: 0201484048 Find at your libraryHow Children Fail. This remarkable book is a collection of memos and essays written by Holt in the late 1950s and early 1960s. John was able to show how and why many of modern schooling’s methods work against children’s efforts to learn. Reading this book, you have to wonder why information that was freely available 50 years ago is still regarded as revolutionary today.
ISBN: 0201484021 Find at your libraryTeach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling. This is a re-release of John Holt’s classic, Teach Your Own, with additional commentary from Pat Farenga, the keynote speaker at MHA’s 2003 Annual Conference. The book weaves back and forth from Holt’s original text to the modern inserts by Farenga. By the time the original Teach Your Own was published in 1982, Holt had given up all hope of meaningful public school reform, and was openly advocating homeschooling. This book will help you understand why.
ISBN: 0738206946 Find at your library
Grace Llewellyn is a former English teacher who became a staunch homeschooling advocate after reading the works of John Holt. The author of several books and founder of Not Back To School Camp, Grace was a featured speaker at MHA’s 2005 Annual Conference.
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education. This is the classic “teen unschooling” book. Ms. Llewellyn describes why conventional schooling is not in the best interests of many, many people, and suggests other ways to get a better education and a better life. When teens or adults pick up this book, they have a hard time putting it down.
ISBN: 0962959170 Find at your library
Raymond and Dorothy Moore are giants in the world of modern homeschooling. They paid careful attention to their own children when they homeschooled them while living overseas. This led to research in optometry, neurophysiology, sociology, and other disciplines. Ultimately, they concluded that children are being forced into institutional schools years before they are physically and emotionally ready for the demands schooling puts on them.
The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook: A Creative and Stress-Free Approach to Homeschooling. The Moores lay out a formula for success that encourages families to keep their children at home with a stay-at-home mother from infancy through school age. Because of their research, they strongly discourage efforts to force children to learn to read before age 8, and also suggest delaying any other formal lessons until age 8. The Moores write from a Christian perspective, but stress that there’s no one right formula, curriculum or method for success.
ISBN: 0785281754 Find at your library
Mary Pipher, Ph.D., the author of Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, is a psychologist who takes issue with certain aspects of American culture. She’s the only writer on our “Good Books” list whose book is not about education in general or homeschooling in particular. However, her work has resonated with many homeschoolers, who readily appreciate her insights.
The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding Our Families. This frank and sometimes unsettling book posits that our culture is “at war” with families. Dr. Pipher’s descriptions of the impact of mass media and commercialism on family life are chilling. Midway through the book, she profiles a homeschooling family and concludes that they are making the right choices: filtering out the most destructive aspects of our culture to creat a strong nuclear family, while also ensuring their children will function well in the outside world.
ISBN: 0345406036 Find at your library