Dedicated to Your Homeschooling Journey
Free Stuff 4U
We've gathered and created tons of FREE resources to help support you on your homeschooling journey, and we are always adding more. I f you're just starting out check out our list of recommended books below.
On the next page discover the different types of learning styles to see how your child might learn best.
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The websites we have listed are great supplements to the curriculum and activities you may already be working with. If you're looking for more in-depth guidance, check out our Individualized Homeschooling Plans.
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Homeschooling4U stands in solidarity with BIPOC in the fight for racial justice and equality. We strive to provide homeschooling resources that are inclusive, diverse, and anti-racist.
Books About Homeschooling
Traditional schooling systems are proving to be sub-optimal learning environments for many students of color. Black parents bear witness to the myriad of problems their children face at school and are becoming increasingly frustrated with the inability to implement positive and constructive change. Homeschooling is fraught with myths and misconceptions and with this how-to guide, memoir fusion, Haley and Myiesha offer insight and enlighten readers on the “real deal” of homeschooling. Primarily that homeschooling is a mindset—a mindset that can be incorporated into all aspects of child-rearing. There are many options and opportunities to incorporate a homeschooling mindset, even if a family utilizes the public school system.
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In Free to Learn, developmental psychologist Peter Gray argues that in order to foster children who will thrive in today's constantly changing world, we must entrust them to steer their own learning and development. Drawing on evidence from anthropology, psychology, and history, he demonstrates that free play is the primary means by which children learn to control their lives, solve problems, get along with peers, and become emotionally resilient. A brave, counterintuitive proposal for freeing our children from the shackles of the curiosity-killing institution we call school, Free to Learn suggests that it's time to stop asking what's wrong with our children, and start asking what's wrong with the system.
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How to Transition to Homeschooling: 5 things You Need to Know
Making the transition into homeschooling can be extremely challenging. If you're feeling the slightest bit overwhelmed at the thought of educating your child at home, you're not the only one. This book will give you specific actionable steps that you can do immediately to successfully transition into homeschooling. It is the key to you finding your happy homeschool lifestyle.
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African American Families: Why We Homeschool
In this book, you will meet nine African American families that made the ultimate decision to homeschool. Some families yield to homeschooling because of racial discrimination and harassment, while others desired an educational experience without walls. This book is a must-read for any African American family that is considering homeschooling or having difficulty in the traditional educational system.
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Yes You Can: A Beginners Guide to Homeschooling Your Black Child
There are 1.7 million children in the US that are homeschooled according to a 2016 study of that number 136,000 of those children are black. Black Homeschoolers are also said to be the fastest growing population of homeschoolers. This book is a starting point for those who are interested in learning more and gaining confidence. Part one lays the groundwork, by reviewing the history of education in the black community. While part 2 is a step-by-step guide to set up your homeschool experience. Alisia Joy Is a mother of 4 homeschooled children. She has decades of experience working in public schools and private home education environments. She is uniquely qualified to guide other families on their path to Educational Freedom.
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Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
Thirty years of teaching in the public school system led John Taylor Gatto to the sad conclusion that compulsory governmental schooling is to blame, accomplishing little but to teach young people to follow orders like cogs in an industrial machine. He became a fierce advocate of families and young people taking back education and learning, arguing that "genius is as common as dirt," but that conventional schooling is driving out the natural curiosity and problem-solving skills we're born with, replacing it with rule-following, fragmented time, and disillusionment. Gatto's radical treatise on public education, bangs the drum for an unshackling of children and learning from formal schooling. Now, in an ever-more-rapidly changing world with an explosion of alternative routes to learning, it's poised to continue to shake the world of institutional education for many more years.
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The Call of the Wild and Free: Reclaiming Wonder in Your Child's Education
Inspired by the spirit of Henry David Thoreau—”All good things are wild and free”—mother of five Ainsley Arment founded Wild + Free. This growing online community of mothers and families want their children to receive a quality education at home by challenging their intellectual abilities and nurturing their sense of curiosity, joy and awe—the essence of a positive childhood. The Call of the Wild and Free offers advice, information, and positive encouragement for parents considering homeschooling, those currently in the trenches looking for inspiration, as well as parents, educators, and caregivers who want supplementary resources to enhance their kids’ traditional educations.
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Wild and Free Handcrafts: 32 Activities to Build Confidence, Creativity, and Skill
A beautiful, four-color resource book for parents, educators, and caregivers to enjoy doing hands-on activities with kids. A handcraft engages one’s hands, requires a level of learned skill, encourages children to do their best work, and produces an end product that is useful. It has been used in homeschool settings for decades as one way to encourage them to work with their hands and discover a skillful craft they love to practice.
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The Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, Learning, and Life
Parents who are deeply invested in their children's education can be hard on themselves and their kids. When exhausted parents are living the day-to-day grind, it can seem impossible to muster enough energy to make learning fun or interesting. How do parents nurture a love of learning amid childhood chaos, parental self-doubt, the flu, and state academic standards? In this book, Julie Bogart distills decades of experience--homeschooling her five now grown children, developing curricula, and training homeschooling families around the world--to show parents how to make education an exciting, even enchanting, experience for their kids, whether they're in elementary or high school.
Books about Homeschooling Styles
Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book Of Homeschooling (Unschooling)
Today more than one and a half million children are being taught at home by their own parents. In this expanded edition of the book that helped launch the whole movement, Pat Farenga has distilled John Holt's timeless understanding of the ways children come to understand the world and added up-to-the-moment legal, financial, and logistical advice. No parent even considering homeschooling should be without this wise and unique reference.
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Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom
Education has become synonymous with schooling, but it doesn’t have to be. As schooling becomes increasingly standardized and test driven, occupying more of childhood than ever before, parents and educators are questioning the role of schooling in society. Many are now exploring and creating alternatives. In a compelling narrative that introduces historical and contemporary research on self-directed education, Unschooled also spotlights how a diverse group of individuals and organizations are evolving an old schooling model of education. These innovators challenge the myth that children need to be taught in order to learn. They are parents who saw firsthand how schooling can dull children’s natural curiosity and exuberance and others who decided early on to enable their children to learn without school.
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The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think and How School Should Teach
Merging cognitive science with educational agenda, Gardner makes an eloquent case for restructuring our schools by showing just how ill-suited our minds and natural patterns of learning are to the prevailing modes of education
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In Home Grown, Hewitt shows us how small, mindful decisions about day-to-day life can lead to greater awareness of the world in our backyards and beyond. In telling the story of his sons’ unconventional education in the fields and forests surrounding his family’s farm, he demonstrates that the sparks of learning are all around us, just waiting to be discovered. Learning is a lifelong process—and the best education is never confined to a classroom.
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Up early for class and up late for homework. Outdated, overcrowded schools are taking up our children’s time and taking away from valuable life experiences. There’s a better way to learn—and The 5-Hour School Week is how we hacked homeschool so we could enjoy our life and our kids! When Aaron and Kaleena Amuchastegui took their kids out of school to travel the globe and educate them through experiences, their children became more engaged, self-aware, curious, and passionate about learning. Now, they share their inspiring successes and practical advice to give you the tools you need to create your own unconventional education plan.
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The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids
The stories we read--and the conversations we have about them--help shape family traditions, create lifelong memories, and become part of our legacy. Reading aloud not only has the power to change a family--it has the power to change the world. But we all know that connecting deeply with our families can be difficult in our busy, technology-driven society. Reading aloud is one of the best ways to be fully present with our children, even after they can read themselves, but it isn't always easy to do.
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By placing the child at the center, Maria Montessori revolutionized elementary education. In Montessori schools, children are given freedom to develop their own skills at their own pace--and, as a result, they flourish beyond their traditionally-schooled peers. "The Montessori Method" is Dr. Montessori's most complete account of the history, philosophy, and practice of her teaching method. It is an essential work for teachers, parents, and all those interested in unleashing human potential for the betterment of our world.
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This book is not about "school at home"--it is about something better. It is about Real Learning. Homeschooling pioneer Charlotte Mason wrote with great wisdom about providing young minds with a living books education. She urged teachers to present great ideas and stand back, allowing students to form relationships with the ideas. Elizabeth Foss carries Miss Mason's philosophy from the ideal to the real.
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A Charlotte Mason Education: A Home Schooling How-To Manual
The immensely popular ideas of Charlotte Mason have inspired educators for many decades. Her unique methodology as written about in her six-volume series established the necessary protocols for an education above and beyond that which can be found in traditional classroom settings. In A Charlotte Mason Education, Catherine Levison has collected the key points of Charlotte Mason's methods and presents them in a simple, straightforward way that will allow families to quickly maximize the opportunities of home schooling.
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Homeschool Bravely: How to Squash Doubt, Trust God and Teach your Child with Confidence
Homeschool Bravely teaches you to see homeschooling as a calling, helps you overthrow the tyranny of impossible expectations, and guides you through the common bumps in the road. Reclaim your hope, renew your purpose, and transform your homeschool. Because the truth is: God will use every part of your homeschool, even your fears, faults, and failures, to weave good plans for your kids.
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The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education
In the past, correct spelling, the multiplication tables, the names of the state capitals and the American presidents were basics that all children were taught in school. Today, many children graduate without this essential knowledge. Most curricula today follow a haphazard sampling of topics with a focus on political correctness instead of teaching students how to study. Leigh Bortins, a leading figure in the homeschooling community, is having none of it. She believes that there are core areas of knowledge that are essential to master.
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