The homeschooling life can be a lonely one, despite being surrounded by (small) people all day! I have found the books below to be welcome company for this journey– I’ve come to see many of these authors as mentors and they’ve encouraged me along my way. I hope they do the same for you!

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The Basics/I’m New, Help!

The Call of the Wild and Free: Reclaiming Wonder in Your Child’s Education by Ainsley Arment. This is a beautiful primer for new homeschoolers or anyone needing encouragement and refreshed vision. It’s broken down into sections titled The Mission, The Myths, The Manner, The Method, and it’s truly inspirational!

Plan Your Year: Homeschool Planning for Purpose and Peace by Pam Barnhill. This is also an excellent primer and at the top of my list for new homeschoolers asking, “But HOW?!” Pam walks you through the basics- philosophies, schedules, lesson plans, how to choose curriculum and how to adapt it. This guide is very actionable and at the same time encouraging. Pam is your cheerleader and your organizer!

Playful Learning: Develop Your Child’s Sense of Joy and Wonder by Mariah Bruehl. I’ve read this several times as my kids have reached different learning stages. It is such a handy resource! Included are inspiring but doable ideas for creating “playful learning spaces” at home and simple activities that can layer on top of other learning, whether in traditional school or homeschool setting. My favorite part, however, is the developmental overview of writing, reading, math, science, and art. With photos of student samples at each developmental stage, this has helped me immensely to identify what to expect from my growing learners. If you’re a parent without a background in early years/elementary education you may find this an insightful read!

Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children by Angela J. Hanscom. Although this might better fit in the general parenting category below, I include it here in the Basics because it was one of the most influential books in my early years of homeschooling, and its echoes have shaped our homeschool to this day. The author is a pediatric occupational therapist, and she shares research about the impact of unstructured outdoor play on a child’s development.

Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace. I pretty much love everything Sarah Mackenzie does, from her Read Aloud Revival resources to this book, to her more recent The Read Aloud Family. She is such a relateable homeschooling mama of 6 who just infuses joy to the homeschooling relationship, through READING! In this guide she provides encouragement for Christian mamas to find their grounding in Jesus as they teach their children. I read this at least once a year, if not twice. Oh, and it’s short. 🙂

The Homegrown Preschooler . The introduction to this had me in (good) tears and inspired me to examine the “homeschooling option” which I hadn’t been formerly considering! (I was really just investigating preschool options that wouldn’t set my son behind when we put him in public school for K… that didn’t quite pan out as I am starting his second grade year at home and his little brother’s kindergarten year, without any enrollment in our local schools.)  The authors of this created an early years curriculum which we followed, A Year of Playing Skillfully. I have the most treasured memories from those years, and I feel that both my children and myself received an incredible foundation from that curriculum. I learned the value of play and child-led learning, within a masterfully fluid structure. You can read more about our experience and what I mean in my post here.

Philosophies & How To

Better Together: Strengthen Your Family, Simplify Your Homeschool, and Savor the Subjects that Matter Most by Pam Barnhill. If you’ve been around the homeschooling world, you’ve likely heard of “Morning Time.” This is a term that refers to a special slice of your homeschool day when you focus on enriching your family’s bonds with truth, beauty, and goodness– this can be art study, composer study, beautiful books, poetry, Shakespeare, or as it includes in my home- a good dance party to start the day! ⁣This book is a wealth of resources to inspire you to bring the joy back into your homeschool, not just checking the boxes of your daily curriculum.

Charlotte Mason Method Books:

A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning and For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School. I had never heard of the Charlotte Mason method/philosophy of education prior to a few years ago, but it has greatly impacted the way I teach! Both these books were eye opening and life giving! For a larger picture, Charlotte Mason’s original writings are phenomenal as well, The Home Education Series (a 6 volume series, start with book one- always good advice HA!). They are dense but incredible if you’re really interested in getting grounded in the CM philosophy.

Know and Tell: The Art of Narration by Karen Glass. Narration is an essential element of the Charlotte Mason method, but certainly applicable to much wider audiences. This book is a guide to the method, explaining how “telling” is the foundation for higher-level thinking and writing; with student examples throughout, you get an excellent tour of how to use narration in your homeschool. I found this especially helpful as my firstborn was coming out of the “learning to read” stage and into “reading to learn.”

The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. This is an intimidating book at over 800 pages in length, but it’s an indispensable resource if you’re considering classical education. I re-read this periodically and always glean something new, especially as I consider the “trivium” as I look toward my children’s growth– from the “grammar stage” (elementary age), the “logic stage” (middle school), and the “rhetoric stage” (high school); this resource has hefty booklists, schedules, and tips for each stage.

Educating the Whole Hearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson.  This is a thorough volume that was especially great when I was considering teaching philosophies and reorienting myself to the perspective shift from public school (educated and educator) to homeschool. Sally Clarkson is a name to know in the Christian homeschooling world- such an encouragement as a mentor-figure, with four grown children who are homeschool graduates and incredible humans. (See below for three books by her kids! Caught Up in a Story; Book Girl; Different.)

Memoir/Mentor

These titles are written by the most genuine homeschool moms, sharing their journey and how they homeschool:

Books About Books

Honey for a Child’s Heart and Give Your Child the World are both “booklist books” with such a heart! They are great resources to go back to over and over for book recommendations, but the authors are also like trusted mentor/advisers who are just so encouraging of homeschooling around books and shared reading.

Caught Up in a Story: Fostering a Storyformed Life of Great Books & Imagination with Your Children and Book Girl: A Journey Through Treasures and Transforming Power of a Reading Life are written by Sally Clarkson’s daughter (the latter co-authored with her). It’s fun reading a homeschool graduate’s books for that perspective!

The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction by Meghan Cox Gurdon.  If you need some research-based encouragement to READ to your kids, no matter their age, or to read to your aging parents, or to anyone for that matter, pick up this book! I’m a librarian and I still learned quite a bit from this book. ⁣One quick take away I’ll share is that I’m not rushing my kids to chapter books. Even when they can read fluently and independently, I will continue to read engaging picture books. The brain research that we have access to now reveals the power of pictures beside text, particularly in a close reading environment (on a loved one’s lap, for example). Isn’t it nice when someone in a lab somewhere tells you what you love to do is in fact a life giving practice? ⁣

The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids by Sarah Mackenzie. As a librarian and reader of many hours worth of books per day, I shouldn’t have gotten much out of this… but I did! Not just preaching to the choir here– Sarah offers encouragement but also how-to’s, from stellar questions to ask about ANY book, to booklists for every age.

General Parenting Books That Apply to Homeschool

I hope you’ve found some new treasures to encourage you on your homeschooling journey! What would you add to this list? Connect with me on my Instagram or Facebook accounts!

You might find this page helpful, my index of my homeschooling posts: