The Best Homeschooling Booklists

The Online Homeschooling Community

You have to respect the people who school their kids at home. It's challenging enough being a parent to your child without being a teacher as well.

At present, there isn't much on this site intended for the exclusive use of school-at-homers. For that reason, I began to look at homeschool sites and blogs.

Like anything else on the web, most of them didn't seem to offer much.

Too many of the blogs tend to focus on day-to-day family life rather than actual education, and too many of the sites seem to focus on separating you from your money without offering much in return!

The purpose of this page is to introduce you to some of the few sites I feel I can recommend. I asked each of the site's authors to come up with a homeschooler's booklist.

Take a look at the list and then go ahead and link to their site!

I'm also providing a form at the bottom of this page for others with homeschool sites and blogs to bring to my attention. If I like your site I'll post your booklist! (And hopefully you can provide a return link to a page on this site that you like.)

• Homeschooler: Maria Miller
• Site: Homeschool Math
• A comprehensive site for homeschooling parents and teachers: find free worksheets, math ebooks for elementary grades, extensive link list of games, interactive tutorials & quizzes, curriculum guide, and teaching tips articles. Maria keeps a blog as well.

List Name:

Maria's Recommended Math Books for Homeschoolers

1) RightStart Geometry by Dr. Joan A. Cotter

Learn geometry by doing it, lots of it. Textbooks make geometry out to be a dull, disconnected subject matter that starts here and ends there as if there were nothing more to it. Here you study a complete course of geometry altogether, with plenty of fascinating tidbits, and learn it all by drawing. For middle school.

2) HomeschoolMath.net Math Ebooks (by Maria herself!)

A series of math worktexts for elementary grades in electronic form so as to be very affordable. Great care is put into the explanations and understanding of concepts.

3) Mathematics: The Science of Patterns by Keith Devlin

4) The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat by Theoni Pappas

• Homeschooler: Anna Marie
• Site: Essential "Extras" of Homeschool-Living
• Offers encouragement, free worksheets, and practical knowledgeabout electives (especially p.e. and art), temperaments, discipline, recommended reading, holiday and co-op games and activities, gleaned from 19 years of homeschooling experience.

List Name:

Historical Fiction with Wholesome Heroes

1) The Silver Chalice by Thomas B. Costain

In ancient Jerusalem and Rome, Basil, a young Greek silversmith, struggles to complete an unlikely mission. On his quest, he encounters Caesar, Luke the Physician, Simon the Magician and other historical characters.

2) Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter

3) Swiss Family Robinson by J. D. Wyss

• Homeschooler: Shirley Erwee
• Site: Shirley's Preschool Activities
• A homeschooling mom since 1997, Shirley's site focuses on the young ones, with an eye to activities that enrich. I never put the words "curriculum" and "preschooler" together until I visited Shirley's site!

List Name:

Best South African Picture Books

1) An African Christmas Cloth by Reviva Schermbrucker

Aunty Apples tours the South African countryside, taking readers on a scenic journey. On Christmas morning she presents her nephew and niecewith a beautiful handmade embroidered cloth, a crafted journal of her trip. The book is magnificently illustrated with highly detailed embroidered pictures, each 'painted' in thread.

2) Fly, Eagle, Fly! by Niki Daly

3) Jock of the Bushveld as retold by Phillida Brooke-Simons

• Homeschooler: Carolyn Morrison
• Site: Guilt-Free Homeschooling
• Whether you have a question, need advice, or could just use some encouragement, Guilt-Free Homeschooling offers help, comfort, and advice to new or struggling homeschool parents, assuring them that homeschooling can be manageable, successful, guilt-free, and glorifying to God.

List Name:

Top 3 Reference Books for the Homeschool Library

1) The ABC's and All Their Tricks by Margaret M. Bishop

An invaluable resource, explaining the origins of spelling patterns and showing a wide assortment of words using each pattern. Don't teach phonics or spelling without it!

2) North American Wildlife from Reader's Digest

3) A large dictionary (bigger the better!)

• Homeschooler: Hilary Lynch
• Site: Home School Curriculum Adviser
• Benefit from Hilary's experience homeschooling four children. Find comprehensive curriculum summaries and reviews. Compare curricula in just a few clicks, not a few hours!

1) Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye

This is a great resource to help those reluctant writers enjoy the writing process. I have found my child feels good about himself and his writing after doing one of these exercises.

2) The Illustrated Flag Handbook by Maria Constantino

• Homeschooler: Marianne Vanderkolk
• Site: Design Your Homeschool
• Let Marianne show you how to design your own approach to learning by writing a tailor made program to fit your children's needs, abilities and personalities, an approach that fits you and complements your lifestyle.

1) Educating the Wholehearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson

This book contains a wealth of information to help the homeschooling family use real books and real life and make their home a center of living and learning. Great to study in a homeschool support or discussion group.

2) Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

2) A Biblical Home Education: Building Your Homeschool on the Foundation of God's Word by Ruth Beechick

Here's what Amazon turns up when you enter Homeschooling.

The Children's Books By Category page.

Best Children's Books - Find, Read or Write home page.