Continuing from last week, I am presenting specific, must-have books for those who homeschool. As the old email adage goes, your mileage may vary, so definitely take what sparks your interest, perhaps research those tomes that you’ve not seen before, and then make your own must-have list.

As I wrote last week, anything by Ruth Beechick is extremely helpful. The Three R's - Grades K-3 by Ruth Beechick (ISBN: 0-940319-06-3) and You Can Teach Your Child Successfully: Grades 4-8 by Ruth Beechick (ISBN: 0-940319-04-7) are both books that can help you cover not only the early elementary grades, but thru junior high school also. With these two books, it would be possible to homeschool your child from K thru 8th grade without having to buy any other curricula and using the library as your primary resource. Even if you choose to go with a curriculum for each of those grades (as I did), these are wonderful resources to help you use the curricula you chose. Mrs. Beechick has a style that is easy to read and provides real “nuts & bolts” to the teaching of children.

I used Curriculum Manual: Elementary Grades by Cathy Duffy (ISBN: 092932031) as a resource the first several years of homeschooling, to compare materials from different sources. I didn’t end up using her manual for Junior & Senior Grades, but can wholeheartedly recommend these two books, as well as any of her other books. She gives good, balanced reviews, not like those you might read from a publisher who wants to sell you their line of curricula.

The Way They Learn by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias (ISBN: 1561794147) concerns learning styles. We have a tendency to teach the way we ourselves learn. This book helps you identify your children’s strongest learning style, and helps you to teach them to that style. Young children will be a lot more kinesthetic in their approach to learning—very hands-on, but as they get older, you’ll see one style presenting itself as their strongest. It’s good to approach your teaching in this strongest learning style for the things that they have trouble with, but you don’t want to ignore the other learning styles either. If they have coping measures for these other learning styles, they can become more well-rounded and ready for their future. Most people have one main learning style, but being able to learn with the other methods is a helpful thing. Anyone may find themselves in a situation where they need to be more visually attuned by taking notes, instead of being able to go about a hands-on approach which might be their strongest suit.

A great book to educate yourself is The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto (ISBN: 0945700040). Informative, fairly easy to read, this book is helpful for you to realize how the public school system was created and how it has been quietly adjusting the public’s point of view. It truly shows you that the public school system was a societal experiment. Once you read it, you may want to share it with your parents and/or others who are not homeschooling advocates. It will start a lively discussion and hopefully open some eyes on the way.

All Through the Ages by Christine Miller is a wonderful resource, a extensive book list, to learn about various eras of time through historical fiction. This is the best book list that I’ve ever found and highly recommend it. You can easily find literature that reflects the time frame your child is studying. Quoting from Mrs. Miller’s website: It doesn’t matter whether the children are pre-readers or college-bound seniors; books of every reading level are included for every era, from picture books and beginning readers through the great books of Western Civilization. She even has books listed by geographical location! I can’t say enough about this “book of books” which you can use to buy books or to take with you to the library.

Another great resource to take to the library is Who Should We Then Read by Jan Bloom (ISBN: 0-9709628-1-9). Jan Bloom has profiled Newberry winners and best-selling authors telling the reader who they were and in what they believed. She also included lists of various series (Landmark, Childhood of Famous Americans, First Books, Signature Biographies, etc.), has reading level suggestions and reading interest suggestions, so that you may find good books for your child to read. This is a great resource to take with you to the library!

I hope this list for the last 2 weeks has been helpful to you. These books just scratch the surface of my homeschool library. As I said last week, I am definitely a bibliophile and love both discussing books with others and sharing what books that I’ve come to love, enjoy, and use almost on a daily basis!