The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [112]
Deci offers interesting ideas about intrinsic motivation, and how supporting individual autonomy creates motivated learners and workers more effectively than any system of reward and punishment.
Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Basic, 1983.
This book covers scientific evidence for the existence of “multiple intelligences” and the implications of the theory for teaching and learning.
Healy, Jane M. Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think and What We Can Do about It. Touchstone, 1990.
Arguing that brains are literally shaped by experience, Healy asserts that aspects of our media-based culture drastically affect children’s ability to concentrate and to absorb and interpret information.
Kohn, Alfie. No Contest: The Case against Competition. Houghton Mifflin, 1986, and Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes. Houghton Mifflin, 1993.
Kohn’s books, especially popular among unschoolers, are thought-provoking critiques of techniques that educators have used unthinkingly for years. Guaranteed to get you to seriously question many of your assumptions about why we do what we do.
Liedloff, Jean. The Continuum Concept. Addison-Wesley, 1977.
Liedloff’s study of Stone Age child-rearing practices led her to look at how our own practices differ. Basically, she argues that including children in everyday activities allows them to learn about their society by being a natural part of it.
Macaulay, Susan Schaeffer. For the Children’s Sake. Crossway, 1984.
Macaulay advocates and explains the ideas of nineteenth-century educator Charlotte Mason.
Papert, Seymour. The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer. Basic, 1993.
Papert, the creator of the LOGO programming language, looks at how children work with computers and the implications for schools and learning in general.
Papert, Seymour. The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap. Longstreet, 1996.
A friendlier and more basic presentation of ideas from the Children’s Machine, this book also includes Papert’s favorable view of homeschooling.
Resources, Materials, and Curricula
Armstrong, Thomas. Awakening Your Child’s Natural Genius. Tarcher, 1991.
This is a collection of learning activities and techniques suited to different learning styles.
Beechick, Ruth. You Can Teach Your Child Successfully. Arrow, 1992.
Beechick includes specific and practical suggestions for teaching fourth to eighth graders the basics (reading, writing, and arithmetic) and more (science, social studies, music, art, Bible).
Doman, Glenn. How to Teach Your Baby to Read, 4th ed. Avery, 1994.
Doman advocates starting lessons early with this method of teaching reading to infants and toddlers.
Duffy, Cathy. Christian Home Educators’ Curriculum Manual. Home Run Enterprises, 1995.
Two volumes, Elementary Grades and Junior/Senior High, cover learning styles, curriculum planning, and a wealth of recommendations for specific materials, organized by subject area and grade level.
Hendrickson, Borg. How to Write a Low Cost/No Cost Curriculum for Your Child. Mountain Meadow, 1990.
This book can help you figure out your aims and goals for your child’s education and translate them into learning objectives and curriculum plans. It is especially useful if you live in a state that requires a formal curriculum; lots of worksheets lead you through the whole process.
Hubbs, Don. Home Education Resource Guide. Blue Bird, 1994.
This deceptively small resource guide includes listings not found elsewhere.
Kealoha, Anna. Trust the Children: An Activity Guide for Homeschooling and Alternative Learning. Celestial Arts, 1995.
This is an impressive collection of activities in music, math, art, language, logic, nature, and more; the author has been a longtime resource teacher for a public school homeschooling program.
Pride, Mary. The Big Book of Home Learning. Crossway, 1990.
These huge resource books, lately four volumes but currently being revised, are written from a Christian