Brook Farm Books

Homeschooling TYPICAL COURSE OF STUDY. Available for the U.S. and Canada. This small booklet is not a step-by-step guide. It will provide general guidelines compiled from an analysis of many educational programs. Each grade level has a listing of general goals for social studies, science, language arts, health and safety, and mathematics. If you want more specifics see the Core Knowledge Series. This is free from World Book International, Educational Products Dept., 14333 Ash Ave., Flushing, NY 11355-2110, or World Book Educational Products of Canada, Georgetown Warehouse, 34 Armstrong Avenue, Georgetown, ON L7G 4R9. Online at www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum.

Homeschooling LIVING IS LEARNING curriculum guides are designed to be useful to all homeschoolers. These guides have all the basic information about what is usually taught for a particular age group. What makes them different from the World Book guides (free and listed below) is that Nancy Plent has included many good resources for finding the information you want to teach and special suggestions for unschooled learning, such as how to do it, how to keep useful records (for yourself and for school or state), and much more. Nancy offers a multitude of other good materials as well, so ask about her other pre-K through high school resources. From Nancy Plent, Unschoolers Network, 2 Smith St., Farmingdale, NJ 07727.

Homeschooling HOME LEARNING YEAR BY YEAR, by Rebecca Rupp, is good guide for creating your own curriculum for grades pre-K through high school. This book follows the public model but will allow you to tailor your homeschool to your child’s needs. I think it will allow you to create a compromise between recreating a “public school” atmosphere at home and the unstructured “unschooling” approach. Becky includes a useful listing of resources to support her suggestions. $14.95.

Homeschooling FUNDAMENTALS OF HOMESCHOOLING: Notes on Successful Family Living, by Ann Lahrson-Fisher. Ann continues her legacy of practical approaches to homeschooling in this book, which follows her first, Homeschooling in Oregon (still available from Ann at ann@nettlepatch.net), in which she basically says “relax.” Ann stresses (is that the right word to use after telling you to relax?) the importance of play — children playing and parents playing with their children. Her advice about talking together and listening to each other is a theme that runs throughout the book. She explores family issues and good ways to cope with them at various ages. All her main points show you how to connect within your family and with the community around you. You will also find good resources listed that you won’t find anyplace else and practical ways to use them. Reading this book will add new depth to your homeschooling experience.

I was reading the other day about some kids whose mom had decided not to engage them in the rat race. No after-school activities, no music lessons, no playdates, and only one hour of TV a day. After an initial period of the “I don’t know what to do’s” her kids learned to play — really play. They invented their own games and read and told stories, rode their bikes, played ball, and just hung out — happily. I wouldn’t go so far as to drop time with friends or the music lessons if the kids enjoy them, but I agree that the time to just play or do nothing is valuable. It’s part of childhood, or should be. I can remember days when time seemed elastic and the afternoons would stretch out seemingly forever, and not in a bad way. I don’t seem to have that sort of time as an adult. This is going to sound oxymoronic, but perhaps even now, as an adult, I should schedule in some time to do nothing or just lie outside and watch the clouds. $19.95.

Homeschooling THE UNSCHOOLING HANDBOOK: How to Use the Whole World as Your Child’s Classroom, by Mary Griffith. This book kept me awake even at a very late hour. I enjoyed and learned from the creative ideas presented by her many contributors about how they expanded their children’s knowledge and enjoyment in their learning activities. I liked her broad definition of a classroom. This book begins with suggestions and thoughts about unschooling that can help you decide if it’s something you want to do — and can do. It continues on to cover all the subjects expected by schools and interesting unschooling approaches used by her contributors. The variety of approaches adds depth and interest and offers good suggestions. At the end of each chapter is an example of how that chapter’s subject would be covered throughout an unschooling day, along with a list of very good resource books. $16.95.

Homeschooling HAVE FUN. LEARN STUFF. GROW. is also by David Albert. When I first picked up this book I thought it was another homeschooling book when I read the title. Well it is, and then again it isn’t, and then again, it is. It begins with a glass-half-full–half-empty metaphor. This should make you stop and think right there. We all develop, consciously or not, an outlook on life and relationships, and the fact that this challenge is right up front is appropriate. Those with the (half) empty outlook will either think more about it or retreat.
This book is a delightful mix of philosophy, metaphor, storytelling, and how to homeschool in freedom, and it’s not just about freedom for the kids.

The chapters about math and spelling should be mandatory for all parents and teachers. As a self-confessed math phobic I dearly wish someone had figured out the “best” way to not teach math when I was “doing time” in the public school system. I’m going to have to try the unspelling myself. If it will work with me it will work with anyone. I have always learned best from my failures.

David sorted out for me the roots of the “video” obsession some kids have. It’s bothered me for some time but I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it. Control is the issue. It makes sense. I am grateful that he put it all in perspective too. Who wants their kids playing violent games, even if they are “only” games? It’s an oxymoron, but I am fiercely opposed to teaching or supporting violence (should we add intolerance here too?) in any way.

In reading this book I came away feeling that as a parent, homeschooling or otherwise, one of the best teaching/learning tools available is how to learn within the context of your own life. $14.95.

Homeschooling AND THE SKYLARK SINGS WITH ME: Adventures in Homeschooling and Community-Based Education, by David H. Albert. David’s astute observations and comments about modern educational methods used in the public schools are important, but they aren’t what impressed me most. The Alberts, more than the families in any other homeschooling accounts I’ve read, integrated their freestyle homeschooling with other people and resources in their surrounding community. This called for a change in lifestyle, and David calls that “hard work.” Their striving to connect their children with people who were passionate about what they were doing, and who were willing to share and foster the interest of young children, demanded that they expand their network of friends and acquaintances and explore options through newspapers and by calling strangers. This wasn’t always easy, but the results were immensely rewarding. The children’s interests were respected and their horizons expanded. Their intellectual growth flourished, and because this learning took place within the family and expanded into the community at large, the children formed relationships with people of all ages based on common interests and needs, as opposed to the public school standard of peers based solely on age. Many books emphasize “values,” but mostly within the family. David and his wife talk about imparting the values of community interaction — not just for social contact with people outside the family, but because this interaction makes activities outside the family more than just isolated incidents: They become a foundation and model for the future.

While David is cognizant of the precocity of his own children (and you will be well aware of this too), you will quickly see that the most important aspect of his story is how he and his wife labored to observe, respect, encourage, and only occasionally direct their children. The observations, ideas, and suggestions given for encouraging personal and intellectual growth are worthy models for all of us.

You’ll find insightful comments about how children learn throughout the book. I heartily endorse his suggestion that you read James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me and Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States so that you can incorporate varied perspectives about history and its depiction into your own presentation of the subject. I agree with David’s idea of repeatedly making math relevant to young children, thereby enabling them to discover its usefulness in making sense of their world. I particularly liked his statements about encouraging early reading and the use of phonics: “Having kids read at ever-younger ages may be high on the agenda of parents with heady images of escorting their sons and daughters off to Harvard, but given the content of most young children’s reading material, learning to read is small potatoes compared with the fascination of an anthill.” He goes on to point out that the choice of whether to use a whole-language or phonics approach to reading should be determined by each child’s need at the time — and that this may change over time. He points out that his daughter Meera was not interested in having a word sounded out phonetically, but wanted the word said and explained (if necessary). She would then memorize it if it was useful. “What I am cautiously suggesting is that heavy emphasis on phonics might get some children to read earlier, but not necessarily better, provided ‘late’ readers are not stigmatized and their self-confidence damaged for not reading on someone else’s time schedule. The problem with either phonics or whole language approaches to reading is that they are each all too often tied to both a timetable and a content not of the child’s own devising.”

David disagrees with using E.D. Hirsch’s cultural literacy and Core Knowledge books as standards for yearly content, and while I feel strongly that a common cultural knowledge is important, I agree that these books can become simply another set of artificial standards with emphasized data unrelated to a child’s life, which makes the content just something to be regurgitated, not an integrated relevant set of useful knowledge.

At the end of the book he concludes that “to educate a child well is to enable her to find her destiny as well as our own. This can only be accomplished successfully, I am persuaded, by allowing her to find the freedom to listen to and be exhilarated by the harmony of her own inner voices and those of the world around her so that, like Blake’s schoolboy, she comes to know that ‘the skylark sings with me.’”

This is a book to inspire you throughout your homeschooling journey. An added bonus is a list, at the end of each chapter, of resources the Alberts found most useful. $16.95

Homeschooling LEARNING AT HOME: A Mother’s Guide to Homeschooling, by Marty Layne (and recently updated) mother of four homeschooled young adults. Learning at Home is a personal book. Marty’s insights about interacting with her children should be used by all parents and teachers even though it was written primarily for homeschooling parents. What makes this book exceptional are Marty’s observations about the interaction between parents and children. She has an acute awareness of how children learn best and how to help them. Marty shares her insight into how to see and work through the conditioned responses we all subconsciously carry from society, our own upbringing, and our schooling in order to create a harmonious homeschool environment. The book begins by taking a close look at the answer to the very common question “Can I do this — teach my child at home?” You’ll find Marty has the unique capacity to help you sort out your inner thoughts and motivations and recognize your fears (and learn how to deal with them), and to impart confidence. You’ll find numerous comments and suggestions for creating a learning environment to suit yourself and your children, and the emphasis is always on how to relate and respond to your children, and how to best meet their needs and your own. Yes, Mom and Dad, you have to take care of your needs too; that’s a strong part of Marty’s message. Being a good mate and parent presents many challenges. Add teaching (working with, guiding, whatever you want to call it), and you’ve added to those challenges exponentially. Unless you’re superwoman or superman you’re going to find your life, at times, more stressful than is reasonable. Marty’s chapter on burnout — how to recognize it, what to do about it, and (most constructive of all) how to prevent it — is the best I’ve seen. This is a book designed for real people. She recognizes that parents as well as kids have times when they are grumpy, that there are times when the kids get bored or are unhappy, and she offers some interesting observations about why these times happen and some ideas for improving the situation.

Along with all this sagacious writing about critical issues, you’ll find chapters about helping your child learn to read, write, and do arithmetic; the importance of including the arts (music, art, dance, and drama); and using all of life as a curriculum. Many of us have read about homeschoolers becoming accomplished musicians at a young age, going to prestigious colleges, or doing other remarkable things. Marty makes the important point that homeschooling can “allow time to pursue an interest and reveal talent but can’t create it.” Thankfully, Marty recognizes that not all children develop remarkable talents or abiding interests, and points out that there are important talents our society does not recognize: “We tend to recognize only outstanding gifts that fall in recognized categories like art, music, drama, or sports. We are not willing to recognize talent for something like happiness, listening to others, being a warm person, taking delight in a rainy day.” I particularly value this observation because more important than any talent or recognition, living well with ourselves and those around us is one of life’s true goals and rewards. There is so much depth to this book that it’s worth reading and rereading.

If you are considering homeschooling it will help you decide if this is really what you want to do and how to do it successfully. This book also has great value to those who have been homeschooling for a while, because Marty has given so much thought to issues that frequently cause problems in daily homeschooling, and clearly states ways to help you deal with them.

October, 2009: Marty has just updated her book and added a chapter about reading. Her ideas are superb. A great addition to a terrific book.

The end of the book contains several very useful appendices, with a list of read-a-loud books, a bibliography, help in setting goals, and addresses for U.S. and Canadian support. $18.95.

Homeschooling THE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK OF ANSWERS, by Linda Dobson. Amazing! A book with more answers than questions. How can that be? Read on! Drawing from years of experience homeschooling her own family, time spent helping other homeschoolers through workshops, and her extensive body of written work about homeschooling, Linda has posed more than 80 of the most important, most frequently asked questions about homeschooling and asked more than 35 of homeschooling’s most respected voices to contribute answers. Issues of structure, expense, socialization, dealing with officials, resources, and many more are answered here. Reading this book is like attending a homeschooling forum and hearing the most experienced people in the field express their ideas and opinions. Best of all, each question is answered by at least two people so you can consider differing points of view and form your own conclusions. I found it interesting to see where contributors agreed (without any consultation) and where they differed. The greatest value of this book lies not in the number of questions that are answered, but in the rich diversity of answers. You will come away from this book knowing that there are as many ways to homeschool as there are homeschooling families. These “expert” answers come from a combined total of more than 500 years of personal experience, experimentation, observation, and the courage to pursue personal dreams and values. This is a book for all homeschoolers. Reading it will empower you as you experiment and find the best learning style for you and your family. $17.95.

Homeschooling THE FIRST YEAR OF HOMESCHOOLING YOUR CHILD: Your Complete Guide to Getting Off to the Right Start, by Linda Dobson. This book starts off acknowledging all the doubts, fears, and questions you may have about beginning homeschooling. Then it goes on to make you feel comfortable and competent to deal with these uncertainties whether your child has been in school before or you are beginning this journey before your child has attended public school.

Those of us who have homeschooled our children over a long period of time know how important it is to develop a philosophy about learning at home. We understand how important it is to be flexible and recognize each child’s learning style. Linda offers some clear guidelines and sound recommendations to help beginners. There is a very clear overview of a variety of approaches and very practical suggestions for using them.

In this book you will see that it is possible to homeschool children under a variety of circumstances. You’ll find examples of two-income families juggling time and needs, those who choose to homeschool because of medical or other special needs of parents or children. You’ll find stories of families who homeschool for academic reasons or just because they want to spend more time together.

Along with learning from Linda’s years of experience, you’ll learn from many others who contributed their insights into the question “What do I wish someone had told me during my first year of homeschooling?” $16.95.