Books on Homeschooling: Must Reads for a Successful Start

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Getting started with homeschooling can be overwhelming. I knew for a long time it was something I wanted to explore for our family, and I spent time researching and reading several books on homeschooling before I started in earnest, when they were school age. Not everyone has the luxury of researching teaching methods or fine tuning a mission statement before the teaching starts, but finding time to read a few books along the way can be a great way to find your own style and confidence as a homeschool teacher. Consider it professional development in your career as a homeschool teacher.

Homeschooling outside the box kids can take extra energy and patience. Each of these books on homeschooling cover teaching at home in general. I have another book list of my suggestions for parenting outside the box kids that I would recommend as well. There are hundreds of books on homeschooling available, but these are the ones that I personally have read and enjoyed. Each of them as influenced our schooling in some way. Perhaps the largest idea they all share is to stretch what the modern idea of school and learning is, giving us permission to relax and enjoy discovering information as family and to not be confined to grade levels and standards.

Homeschool 101: A Guide to Getting Started

Erica is the author of Confessions of a Homeschooler and a few years ahead of me in the homeschool life. I found her blog when we were starting out preschool and used many of her resources in the early years. Homeschool 101: A Guide to Getting Started, is a well laid out basic introduction to the homeschool world. She does an excellent job of answering questions about how to decide what to use, and how to mix teaching with parenting. She has taught 4 students through homeschooling which adds value to her writing as someone who has the experience to share. This book provided a good anchor for my research and homeschool learning. It allowed me a starting point to know what my options were to research further as they interested me.

Teaching From Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace

Host of the Read Aloud Revival Podcast. Sarah Mackenzie was first a writer before she started her successful podcast. Teaching From Rest comes from a Christian perspective encouraging homeschool parents to not try to do it all and to have a long term perspective on their homeschool. She encourages prioritizing your parent child relationship always over being teacher. Trusting that a bad school day can be saved with a good story and some extra snuggles. One of my favorite quotes from the book is “Curriculum isn’t something we buy. It’s something we teach. Something we embody. Something we love. It is the form and content of our children’s learning experiences.”

For the Children’s Sake

For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay was suggested reading with a curriculum we used early in our homeschool years. That program included a parenting or homeschool book for the parent in addition to the materials for the student. It is an introduction to Charlotte Mason’s ideas about education and teaching. Her ideas are what I identify most strongly with in my own teaching philosophy but we do not exclusively follow her methods.

One of my favorite ideas is that “Children are persons” From an early age we should trust that they have ideas and are curious. As homeschoolers, our goal is not to pour information into an empty brain, but to encourage and teach our kids how to explore the world and gain information on how it works. We get to come alongside that exploration as parents and teacher to guide and assist in their quest for knowledge.

Better Together, Pam Barnhill

Reading about homeschool philosophy is great but isn’t always the most helpful in the tedious moments. Pam Barnhill is my favorite for practical ideas and support. She is a master at schedules and planning. I have gotten many ideas about how we structure our morning time from her podcast and her website. Better Together is all about learning as family through morning time. Each chapter ends with a real family and what morning time looks like for them at their current homeschool stage. There is also an appendix with books for homeschooling everyone together to get you started with ideas for starting your own morning time.

Brave Learner, Julie Bogart

Julie Bogart leads a homeschool writing community build around a program she created called BraveWriter. I found the program as I was struggling to find the “right” way to teach my kids to do formal writing. What I found was a teaching philosophy so much bigger than writing and one that has changed the little ways we do school. Her book The Brave Learner includes ideas like creating wonder and enchantment with your learning. A favorite is throwing a themed party when you finish a family read aloud the celebrate. As the kids come up with the details for the party you can count it as their book report project. Another popular idea is putting on a cup of tea to sip with cookies while you read poetry. It’s about creating experiences together as a family, that just happen to have some learning to them.

One of the ideas I have taken from BraveWriter is how to teach an emerging writer. The first thing is to be their scribe. They can usually tell a much better story than they have the ability to write down due to handwriting or spelling. So offer to write or type their story as they tell it to you. Seeing their story on paper brings them great joy. It tells them they aren’t too young to have something to say. The second part is when they do write out their own story, ask them to read it to you instead of reading it to them. Then you can appreciate their content and not stumble over any phonetical spellings or errors.

Call it Professional Development

Homeschooling is a worthy investment. Finding books to read about the topic is an easy and simple way to build your skills. Professional development is important in the workplace and it’s just as important as a parent and teacher. Do you have a favorite resource for homeschooling advice? Share it in the comments.