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IN ASSOCIATION
WITH
Dumbing Us Down
John Taylor Gatto
Subtitled: The Hidden Curriculum of
Compulsory Schooling. If anyone needs a good reason to homeschool their children, this
book provides it. John Taylor Gatto, the New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991,
begins this book by describing the seven-lesson school teacher (and reading, writing, and
arithmetic are not included among them): confusion, class position, indifference,
emotional dependency, intellectual dependency, provisional self-esteem, and the final
lesson: the knowledge that one cannot hide. This is a brilliant analysis that every parent
with children needs to read.
The Right Choice: Home Schooling
Christopher Klicka
Christopher Klicka is Senior
Counsel of the Home School Legal Defense Association with scores of court cases and over
3,000 legal conflicts resolved on behalf of homeschooling families to his credit. In this
book he describes the incredible failure of public education; the hope of homeschooling,
inlcuding the Biblical principles for parent-directed education; the history and
advantages of homeschooling; the homeschooling hall of fame; attacks of social workers,
school officals, and teacher’s unions against homeschooling families (this contains
one of the most helpful chapters in the book: the Myth of Teacher Qualifications); the
legal arguments for a parents’ right to homeschool under the Constitution; conserving
the freedom to homeschool; and an excellent resources and appendices section (the
difference between Christian and Humanistic education, colleges that accept homeschoolers,
homeschooling organizations, fifteen reasons to homeschool teenagers, and more).
Additional chapters by Christian homeschooling expert Gregg Harris include applying
Biblical principles, and how to start a home school. An excellent resource for new
homeschoolers.
The Future of Home Schooling
Michael Farris
As homeschooling comes of age, take
advantage of what other homeschoolers have learned: why homeschooling offers a better
education in less time than public education; how a new extensive national study shows
homeschoolers scoring in standardized achievement tests compared to publically-educated
students (it’s far above the national average); the strengths and weaknesses of
existing homeschool curricula; why we should revive the classical curriculum for modern
American children (with a few thoughts on what needs to happen to make it a viable
alternative for homeschoolers); answers to the ten most frequently asked questions about
homeschooling, and more. Chapters include: Overview of the Homeschooling Phenomenon,
Classical Education Comes Home; Broadening Our Political Horizons; Support Groups of the
Future; High-Tech Learning; Home School Friendly Churches; Equal Access to Public School
Activities (is it a good thing or not?); Apprenticeship Becomes a Real Choice; Ten Most
Commonly Asked Questions; Homeschooling Reference Guide; Homeschool Organizations; and
Homeschool Laws of the United States.
How to Homeschool: a Practical Approach
Gayle Graham
Okay, so now you have ample reason to
homeschool, and you believe it is what God wants for your family. How do people
homeschool, anyway? This practical guide provides essential help for new homeschoolers, or
inspired ideas for veterans. Contains suggestions for planning and organizing your
homeschool day, evaluating and selecting curriculum, the all-important record- keeping
question, detailed suggestions for teaching the three R’s (some of which conflict
with classical theory), and more.
For the Children’s Sake
Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
“Every parent and teacher
wants to give their children the best education possible. Everyone would like education to
be a joyous adventure and celebration of life, as well as a solid preparation for living.
... For the Children’s Sake is a book about what education can be ... based
first on a Christian understanding of what it means to be human ... and on the Christian
meaning of life. At the same time it is deeply practical. Many of the central ideas have
been tried and proven true over a century in almost every kind of educational situation.
... It is a book which can help every parent and teacher awaken the young minds of their
children and give them a new richness, stability, and joy for living.” --Publisher.
Susan Schaeffer Macaulay discusses Charlotte Mason’s philosophy, treating children
with respect, a child’s need for: both real education and real play,
“living” ideas (or truth), “living” books with literary power,
Biblical authority, boundaries, and freedom, and the development of right habits; a
philosophy of education (a small part of which is not consistent with classical education,
but the great majority is) concerned with giving each child the knowledge of God, of man,
and of the universe; and more. A unique book whose ideas you will not find duplicated
anywhere else.
The Three R’s
Dr. Ruth Beechick
I love Dr. Beechick’s books, because she
is a Christian educator who has accumulated scads of both practical experience and common
sense in the business of teaching children, and is dedicated to the idea of parents
teaching their children at home. She tears the veil in two between parents and the mystery
of teaching, sifts through all the educational fads and its secret language, throwing out
the junk and preserving the nuggets of truth found here and there, and explains it all in
simple, no-nonsense fashion. The Three R’s gives guidance for teaching
reading, writing, and artihmetic in Kindergarten through third grade, explaining the
stages of reading through fluency (which goes beyond just learning the phonics--and her
book contains instructions for a simple but effective method of teaching phonics for
reading to children); the natural method of using literature to teach spelling and writing
mechanics (on which the program Learning Language Arts Through Literature is
based); and the modes of thinking in arithmetic (upon which Ray’s Arithmetic
is based) and what a child should learn about arithmetic through third grade. The set also
includes a wall chart you can put up and use at home. This little set is not a complete
K-3 curriculum, but rather aims to give the parent the confidence and tools needed to
teach K-3 effectively.
You Can Teach Your Child Successfully
Dr. Ruth Beechick
More excellent help and
common sense from Dr. Beechick, this time geared for children in grades 4-8 (although from
the trivium standpoint, the material is more suitable for the grammar stage in general.)
She tackles the three R’s in depth: reading, writing, and arithmetic, and also adds
some thoughts on history and social studies, science and health, music and art, and
teaching the Bible. She includes numerous charts in the text you can use in your own
homeschool: spelling charts, spelling lists, the hundred chart, addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division facts, and percentile ranks. Her short “Letter to
Teaching Parents” in the introduction is like finding gold!
The Language Wars
Dr. Ruth Beechick
Subtitled: And Other Writings for
Homeschoolers. The common sense and priceless wisdom of Dr. Beechick strikes again, this
time as a collection of essays and articles previously published separately. She discusses
the topics of choosing curriculum, using curriculum as a servant, buying encyclopedias,
the insider secrets of publishers (to help homeschoolers and book buyers get the most from
their book budget), a delightful article relating the story of her first year of teaching
and the wisdom learned as a result, the importance of Biblical knowledge, the neglected
period of history (Genesis and ancient ancient history, covering almost half of
man’s existence on the earth, and includes a thought-provoking article on the need to
revise our traditional ancient history timelines), phonics, the language wars, creative
writing, teaching arithmetic, math and music, achievement testing, memory, creativity,
thinking skills, the high road to learning (contrasting behaviorist learning theory with
Biblical learning theory), what is happening in early childhood education, and what is
crucial about the crucial early years. New and old homeschoolers alike will benefit.
Dr. Beechick’s Homeschool Answer Book
Dr. Ruth Beechick; Debbie Strayer, editor
Dr. Beechick has been
asked many questions of homeschoolers throughout her career as a writer on homeschool
topics, a homeschool magazine columnist, and as a homeschool seminar and workshop speaker.
She has chosen her most frequently asked questions, and Debbie Strayer has compiled her
answers to them from her collected writings and seminars. Dr. Beechick dispenses her usual
common sense and gentle wisdom about Preschool, Reading, Spelling, Writing, Math, Bible,
High School, Family Life, Testing, and Special Education.
Let Us Highly Resolve
The Quines challenge families to make
homeschooling more than just an alternative way to educate. They encourage families to
develop a Biblical worldview and to live out vital Christianity in a fallen world through
adopting seven resolutions: 1) To build your family upon the biblical world view; 2) To
establish your children’s lives upon truth and absolutes; 3) To equip your children
to reason; 4) To enter into true spirituality; 5) To be a ‘by faith’ family; 6)
To prepare your children as a ‘Letter of Christ’ to the culture; and 7) To
challenge our culture with the truth of Christianity and the life of Christ. The Quines
quote extensively from the Bible and Dr. Francis Schaeffer in this encouraging and
thought-provoking book.
Is There Life After Housework?
Don Aslett
If anyone needs to get housework
done quickly and efficiently so they have more time for other things, it’s
homeschooling moms. Don Aslett, professional cleaner and owner of a multi-million dollar
cleaning business, cuts through all the cleaning gimmicks and so-called magical solutions
and shows you how the professionals do it. You can cut the time you spend cleaning by 50%
to 75% when you learn to clean like the pros. You’ll learn the right kind of tools
and equipment to use, the fastest way to clean windows, how to get the dust easily, dozens
of ways to prevent housework, how to keep furniture and appliances looking new, the best
way to clean every type of floor, carpet, wall, and ceiling, how to keep bathrooms
sparkling in just 3-1/2 minutes a day, painting ideas that can save hundreds of hours of
cleaning, how to reach high areas safely and easily, and MUCH more. People often ask me
how I have time to homeschool, do my housework, and maintain this webpage. This book and
Aslett’s others (Clutter’s
Last Stand, Not for Packrats
Only, Don
Aslett’s Stainbuster’s Bible, and How to Handle
1,000 Things at Once) are a big part of the answer.
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