MHEA Reading Resources List

If you would like to find out more about home based education we suggest you look for some of these books. All of them should be available at your library, through inter-library loan, or through your local bookseller. Remember, homeschoolers form a very diverse community and homeschooling methods are as varied as the families practicing them. This list reflects that variety. When exploring these books please, as they say, take what you can use and leave the rest. If you have suggestions for additions or corrections to the information below please e-mail us at [email protected].

General Homeschooling:

The Art of Education: Reclaiming Your Family, Community and Self, Linda Dobson
A thoughtful discussion of why homeschooling is so desperately needed by so many families today if we are to stop the unraveling of our spiritual and intellectual fiber.

Better Than School, Nancy Wallace
One family comes to understand the value of home based education.

Compelling Belief: The Culture of American Schooling, Stephen Arons
How compulsory schooling has changed our view of society and personal achievement for the worse.

Deschooling Our Lives, Matt Hern, Ed.
A collection of short writings, ranging from early ideas and influences to practical issues like single-parent homeschooling. Includes many of the current voices of the homeschooling movement.

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, John Taylor Gatto
Written by a New York State Teacher of the Year, explains why we need less school rather than more.

Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense, David Guterson
Written by a public school teacher/novelist who homeschools, this book gives well reasoned answers to basic questions about homeschooling.

The Homeschool Reader, Ed. Mark and Helen Hegener
A unique collection of some of the best writing that has been published in the last fifteen years about homeschooling. Covers everything from socialization to curricula to legal considerations to higher education, and much, much more.

Insult to Intelligence, Frank Smith
How learning and teaching really work and why school is not the best place to learn.

The Language Wars and other Writings for Homeschoolers, Ruth Beechick
A collection of previously published articles by Christian author Beechick covering a variety of homeschooling issues and themes.

Schooling At Home: Parents, Kids and Learning, Ed. Anne Pederson and Peggy O'Mara
A collection of articles originally published in Mothering magazine. Contributions from a variety of people involved in the homeschooling movement.

Teach Your Own, John Holt
A straightforward explanation of why educating your children from the home is best.

How To:

Alternatives in Education, Mark and Helen Hegener
Lists a wide variety of educational resources.

The Big Book of Home Learning, Mary Pride
Four volumes reviewing many resources available. This book has a Christian perspective but objectively covers all types of material.

The Core Knowledge Series: What Your Kindergartner (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th) Grader Needs to Know, E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Ed., Not intended as a complete curriculum but a broad supplement and general grade by grade resource.

Home School: Taking the First Steps, Borg Hendrickson
Basic information, such as getting started, reading and general resources, and answers to homeschooling questions.

The Home School Manual: Plans, Pointers, Reasons and Resources, Theodore E. Wade, Jr. et al
An overall, A-Z, how-to book of homeschooling information.

Homeschooling for Excellence, David and Micki Colfax
A short, encouraging explanation of how to begin, written by a family that sent three children to Harvard.

I Learn Better By Teaching Myself, Agnes Leistico
A mother's account of her homeschooling family's days. This book provides one very clear picture of what homeschooling really looks like.

Good Stuff: Learning Tools for All Ages, Rebecca Rupp
An excellent collection of educational resources, organized by subject area.

Learning All The Time, John Holt
A wonderful exposition of how through play and the natural "work" of childhood, children learn "the basics" without being coerced or manipulated. Includes detailed descriptions of children's natural acquisition of math, writing, reading, science and music.

School Can Wait, or Better Late Than Early, Raymond and Dorothy Moore
Two titles explaining clearly why young children are physically, emotionally and socially better of being nurtured at home, and why delaying formal education makes the best academic sense in the long run.

Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Preschool Years or Teaching Montessori in the Home: The School Years, Elizabeth G. Hainstock
Montessori for homeschoolers.

Trust the Children, A Manual & Activity Guide for Homeschooling and Alternative Learning, Anna Kealoha
Includes hundreds of activities covering music, math, language, logic, history, creative thinking, computer skills, earth science, movement, and more, most of which require nothing more than the book, some household items and the great outdoors.

The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom, Mary Griffith
This book asks and answers many of the questions that "unschooling" raises, and explains how a child's natural curiosity is the best introduction to the world of learning.

Special Needs:

Everyone Is Able: Exploding the Myth of Learning Disabilities, Susannah Sheffer
Stories from parents and LD specialists. This books offers alternative learning methods.

How Your Child Is Smart, Dawn Markova
Goes beyond "learning styles" to describe characteristic thinking patterns which govern how individuals function. This book is helpful in understanding and appreciating your child's unique approach to learning.

The Learning Mystique: A Critical Look at "Learning Disabilities", Gerald Coles
Describes how schools label children, then fail to give them what they really need.

The Myth of the A.D.D. Child, Thomas Armstrong
Gives real help to parents whose children learn differently. This is a serious discussion of why special education programs don't work.

Teenaged Homeschoolers:

And What About College?: How Homeschooling Leads to Admission to the Best Colleges & Universities, Cafi Cohen
A guidebook for families looking toward college after homeschooling.

Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don't Go to School, Grace Llewellyn
First-hand accounts of worthwhile pursuits from teens who don't go to school.

A Sense of Self: Listening to Homeschooled Adolescent Girls, Susannah Sheffer
How home-based education can help your daughter to maintain a positive and strong self-image.

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education, Grace Llewellyn
How teenagers can explore, discover and do meaningful work.

Magazines and Newsletters:

ALLPIE - Alliance for Parental Involvement in Education Inc., PO Box 59, E. Chatham, NY 12060, email: [email protected], Newsletter.

Drinking Gourd, PO Box 2557, Redmond, WA 98073, Multi-cultural.

Growing Without Schooling, Holt Associates, 2269 Mass Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140-1226, 617-864-3100,
Continuing in the tradition of John Holt, this is a mostly reader written publication with many personal accounts of "unschooling" experiences.

Home Education Magazine, Home Education Press; PO Box 1083, Tonasket, WA 98855, 506-486-1351, 800-236-3278

A bimonthly national magazine featuring book and resource reviews, state and national homeschooling news, personal accounts, commentary on political and legal issues, and much more.

Home Educator's Family Times, P.O. Box 708, Gray, Maine 04039, 207-657-6889 "A free, national publication reaching 75,000 readers with articles benefiting all who want the best for their children."

Homeschool Digest, The quarterly journal for serious homeschoolers, Wisdom's Gage, PO Box 125, Sawyer, MI 49125.

The Link, A Homeschool Newspaper; 587 N. Ventu Park Rd., Suite F-911, Newbury Park, CA 91320, 805-492-1373.

A free, general interest publication for homeschoolers.

The Moore Report, Raymond S. and Dorothy N. Moore Foundation, Box 1, Camas, WA 98607