These parenting and homeschool book reviews represent a small collection of our favourite books that have been useful to us over the years as we have parented and homeschooled our children. Many other homeschoolers have also recommended these same books!
Homeschooling Book Reviews
Homeschooling the Primary Years, Shirley Erwee
This is your guide to starting your homeschooling adventure with young children. It provides info about choosing curriculum, common mistakes to avoid, the differences between school and home education, legal issues, socialisation, sport, teaching tips, helping children with special needs and more.
Homeschooling the Primary Years highlights that home education is ideally not school-at-home and it will help you to make the mindshift needed to choose a different learning model for your family.
Homeschooling High School, Shirley Erwee
A comprehensive guide to the various matric options and alternatives for South African high school-aged homeschoolers, focusing on how to pursue each one: where to find curriculum suppliers, how to source text books, estimated costs, contact details, university admissions information and everything you need to help you plot the path ahead into the future.
Educating the Whole Hearted Child, Clay and Sally Clarkson
Whether you are new to homeschooling or an old hand, this book will be a valuable addition to your bookshelf. The Clarkson’s have created a handbook for parents which covers almost every concern and aspect of homeschooling.
Charlotte Mason Companion, Karen Andreola
If you want to dig into the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling without reading her original works, then there is no better book than this. Karen Andreola writes with frank candor and grace as she shares the most pertinent points of a Charlotte Mason education and fleshes it out with her living experience.
The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook, Dr Raymond and Dorothy Moore
Written by the ‘grandparents’ of the homeschooling movement in the USA, the Moore’s book will show you how to make homeschooling an easy-to-live-with family adventure in learning. No matter what your circumstances or family structure, they give real life examples that show how others have succeeded. This low-stress, low-cost program shows you how to build a curriculum around your child’s needs and interests – and around a realistic family schedule. Instead of a cut-and-dried approach, you’ll discover the freedom of a flexible program that encourages creativity and initiative.
Better Late Than Early, Raymond and Dorothy Moore
The Moores present a wealth of evidence from multi-disciplinary studies which all indicate that early schooling or formal learning activities, introduces a host of fateful “iatrogenic”- disturbances or school-induced problems. This book explains why it is critical to allow children to reach a more mature stage in their development before beginning structured educational processes and how to stimulate learning in more age appropriate ways until they reach that stage. This is an important book for parents of children under 12 years.
T
he Three R’s, Ruth Beechick
Three resources in one: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Dr Beechick explains how to follow a homegrown, natural way of teaching that does not require costly curriculum materials and that is tailor-made for you and your child.
She gives practical tips and guidelines for what to do for each step or each age group. This book will raise your confidence levels as a teacher, as well as inform you about how to teach the three R’s effectively. A great investment for any parent who wants to teach their child!
Spiritual Power of a Mother, Michael Farris
Michael Farris is a dad to 10 children and this book is a collection of letters he has written to homeschooling moms in his capacity as the chairman of the legal defense for homeschoolers in the States. If you want encouragement from a seasoned father and homeschooler who says: “Mom, YOU are the greatest” then give it a try.
A Mom Just Like You, Vickie Farris
Michael Farris’s (see above) wife, teams up with their second of 10 children to write this encouraging book for moms who are homeschooling. She shares her years of wisdom and grace so that you are left feeling encouraged and inspired in your role as mom.
Parenting Book Reviews
Grace Based Parenting, Tim Kimmel
While most parenting books and courses deal with guidelines, regulations and boundaries, this book is a refreshing change. Dr Kimmel offers parents a gentle, Godly way to raise children in a grace-based home.
5 Love Languages of Children, Gary Chapman, Ross Campbell
Parenting can sometimes feel like guesswork when you are faced with a child training situation that you cannot understand. This book helps you to know your child and speak their “love language”.
Mission of Motherhood, Sally Clarkson
After a few years of parenting little ones, moms know how much it can take to stay on an even keel, continually love and serve their families, and some may end up asking: “Why am I doing this?” This book offers the perspective and answers to many of those kind of questions.
Age of Opportunity, Paul David Tripp
When we begin to dread the teen years instead of seeing them as a continuation of valuable time to build relationship with our teens, we miss out on many opportunities to enjoy the wonderful years from 13 – 19 as our children grow and mature. This book will help you rid yourself of old mindsets about the teen years and show you, in practical ways, how to handle some of the challenges that could present themselves.
Parenting is Heart Work, Dr Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller
This book will revolutionise your parenting strategies and show you how to touch your child’s heart to teach and train him. Instead of merely punishing your children, you will discover how to build a strong relationship with each child in your family. A great parenting tool.
Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining and Bad Attitudes in You and Your Kids!, Dr Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller
This book will help you to establish honour and respect as the basis for all family relationships in your home. It gives practical tips and suggestions to help you achieve this goal and change the way everyone behaviours. It will help you to identify the issues of the heart that trigger inappropriate responses and behaviour, for every age group!
Good and Angry: Exchanging Frustration for Character in You and Your Kids!, Dr Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller
Anger is a normal emotional response when a person has been wronged by someone else. Both parents and children may experience anger.
This book highlights how to avoid the damaging effects of unbridled anger and how to rather channel this emotion and use it in a positive way.
This book gives strategies for how to handle unwanted childish behaviour and use opportunities for teaching the appropriate behaviour, without losing your cool!