As Wikipedia states, Bibliophilia is the love of books and a bibliophile is a lover of books.  The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire, and collect books, often nurturing a large and specialized collection. As an example of a bibliophile, Samuel Pepys, at his death, had more than 3,000 volumes. They form one of the most important surviving 17th century private libraries.

Almost every single homeschooler I’ve come across has been a bibliophile, either needing to have and keep their own library of books, or at the very least, collecting an extensive library of the classics. I am definitely in the bibliophile camp!

I want to address must-have books for those homeschooling. As the old email adage goes, your mileage may vary, so take what sparks your interest, perhaps research those tomes that you’ve not seen before, and then make your own must-have list. My focus will be good-basic-how-to homeschool books.

First off, I have to mention two wonderful authors:  Ruth Beechick and Mary Hood. I can almost guarantee you that anything by either author will be a good read and most helpful in your homeschooling journey.

Starting my list would be 401 Ways to Get Your Children to Work at Home, by Bonnie Runyan McCullough & Susan Walker Monson (ISBN:  0-312-30147-2). This book has extremely helpful lists, especially if you have only one child! They are life skills that a child needs to have by the time they are 18. The lists have the chore listed, then says at what age one could start work on this chore and what age one should have it mastered. It’s helpful for those HOO because, at least in my own case, I didn’t have a clue that I could have allowed my 6 year old to use a table knife to make his own peanut butter & jelly sandwich. I started him at 9 only due to a friend making a comment. With one, we don’t always know when they are capable of working on something. These lists include Personal & Clothing Care; Household, Cooking, Money, Navigation & Auto Skills, as well as a category for Other Skills (such as how to swim, making an emergency call, first-aid procedures, plan a pantry, hang something on the wall, repair wall holes, and arrange for services needed, trash or extermination, etc.) A great handy book for every family!

A Survivor's Guide to Home Schooling by Luanne Shackelford and Susan White (ISBN:  0891075038) This book has humor infused within its pages and is practical as well as informative.  A great book for those beginning this journey, but also a good one to help the veteran overcome any doldrums.

How to Home School by Gayle Graham (ISBN:  1880892405) — this book was the best book I found for the actual nuts and bolts of teaching at home when I first began. There is plenty of margin space and I’ve filled my copy with my own notes. Mrs. Graham’s writing style is easy to read and follow. She has many children and so I did have to adapt it, leaving some suggestions for those who have more children, but it was a wonderful resource!

Beyond Survival: A Guide to Abundant-Life Homeschooling by Diana Waring (ISBN:  1883002370) is a great study. Helpful and engaging to get beyond day-to-day homeschool survival.

The Relaxed Home School: A Family Production by Mary Hood (ISBN:  0963974009), as well as her The Joyful Homeschooler, The Enthusiastic Home Schooler, and anything else she’s written. She shows you don’t have to recreate school at home; mom is not “teacher” and dad is not the “principal.” Your home is a home and not a “school.” Your role of mom & dad are enough to encompass the teaching roles without you having to “change hats” as it were.

Teach Me Lord That I May Teach: What We Learned Homeschooling the Kids by Douglas and Barbara Smith (ISBN:  187814006X) This book is an excellent Bible study of Nehemiah for the homeschooling parent.

Both Teaching Children: A Curriculum Guide to What Children Need to Know at Each Level Through Sixth Grade by Diane Lopez (ISBN:  0891074899) and What Your Child Needs to Know When: According to the Bible/According to the State by Robin Scarlata Sampson (ISBN:  0970181612) are helpful books to help you get a feel for what the majority of children are learning at what grade level. Another great free resource is from the World Book Encyclopedia people, called A Typical Course of Study. You can receive this booklet, with no obligation to listen to a sales person, by looking in your local phone book under businesses, “World Book” — call a representative and ask for it by name. Another helpful book about what children are learning at what grade is What Your “Xth” Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch (6th grader: ISBN:  0385314671). This book is more detailed, although you might still need to find actual books from the library or to buy to cover the subjects a bit more in depth. But the What Your Grader series is a wonderful supplement for your normal curricula. I used 1st thru 6th Grade as an “on the shelf” resource ready for Mike to peruse on his own time. He loved reading the literature it provided as well as exploring the science and geography sections.

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!

There are few books out there dealing with homeschooling one student, so I would be remiss in not mentioning my own book, Homeschooling Only One (ISBN:  0-9747591-0-4). I cover a lot of basic information on homeschooling, but bring it into the focus of those who home educate only one:  how to adapt curriculum that is geared for a classroom of students, finding a support group, how a typical day may look, and so forth. Lots of information (book lists, suppliers, etc.) listed in the appendix.

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!

Donna Conner lives in Fort Worth, TX with her husband, Glenn, their son, Mike, Donna's mother, Charlotte, and their dog, Lucia. Donna and Glenn have been homeschooling their son since the beginning of his education. Mike completed his homeschooling in the fall of 2008. Donna is an artist and has always enjoyed writing. She wrote Homeschooling Only One in 2003, after discovering that there were many other families homeschooling only one child. Her website is devoted to those with only one student in their homeschool, with listings of online resources. You can find these free resources, including a message board for those who HOO, on her website at  http://donnac.com and read her blog at: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DonnaC

copyright © 2009 Donna Conner ~~ All rights reserved. Content may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of author, except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and articles where the title and author are listed.

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