Recommended Books for Parents

July 8, 2009 by Turtel · 1 Comment
Filed under: Books For Parents 

The following books give you a thorough overview of K-12 education for your kids, home-schooling, education techniques to use, legal issues, teaching methods and materials that have worked for other parents, how to use the computer for home-schooling, and many other helpful topics.


Armstrong, Thomas. In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child’s Personal Learning Style (J. P. Tarcher, 1987). Offers practical ideas on discovering and working with your children’s particular learning styles. Also, Armstrong, Thomas. Seven Kinds of Smart: Identifying and Developing Your Many Intelligences (Plume, 1993).

Blumenfeld, Samuel L.  Homeschooling: A Parents Guide To Teaching Children (Replica Books, 1999). This excellent book describes what home-schooling is all about, and helps parents decide whether home-schooling fits their family lifestyle. It covers important aspects of home-schooling, such as: why parents choose to homeschool, how to create and implement a personal style of education for your kids, what subjects to teach and how to teach them, how to handle the socialization issue, how to deal with school authorities, and much more. The book also gives full-time working parents useful, practical information on how to home-school their children.

Cohen, Cafi.  And What about College? (Holt Associates, 1997). This book is a great help for home-schooling parents seeking college admission for their children. It has practical advice and details on how to describe your child’s homeschool education through model letters, resumes, and transcripts that colleges will accept for admission. It offers great advice on how to put your children’s home-schooling records in the best possible light to greatly increase their chance for admission to college. This is a must book for home-schooling parents and teenagers ready for college.

Deci, Edward L.  Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation (Penguin, 1996). This book is a fascinating discussion of how our reasons for doing things affect our abilities. This book will help you understand how to motivate your children to learn.

Gold, Laura Maery, and Joan M. Zielinski,  Home-School Your Child for Free: More Than 1,200 Smart, Effective, and Practical Resources for Home Education on the Internet and Beyond (Prima, 2000). The Internet is an open door to the biggest library the world has ever seen — and it’s all at your fingertips, free. This book is a great source of information, adventure, and educational experiences for the entire family. You’ll discover online lesson plans arranged by subject, teaching tips, and success stories from other home-schooling parents. The book has complete curriculum plans for a comprehensive education from preschool through high school. It also has legal guidelines and compliance requirements for home educators, and much more. A great resource book.

Griffith, Mary.  The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World as Your Child’s Classroom (Prima, 1998). This wonderful book about “unschooling,” a less programmed form of home-schooling, really does show parents how to use the whole world as their children’s classroom. It has specific sections on teaching your child reading, art, math, science, and history. It has great advice on how to tell whether your child is learning, how to keep records, and ways to get your child into college. A wonderful introduction to home-schooling and unschooling.

Harris, Gregg, and Sono Harris.  The Home School Organizer (Noble, 1995). This is an important book that shows you how to organize and keep track of all your lessons, curriculum, children’s progress, and other home-schooling details. This book is also a must for legal purposes, if or when local school authorities ask for home-schooling progress records.

Holt, John.  How Children Fail (Dell Books, 1964). This is an absolutely brilliant book on how public schools ruin children’s minds and education. Holt shows the many ways public schools destroy children’s love of learning, utterly waste their time, and cripple their creativity and potential.

Holt, John.  How Children Learn (Perseus Publishing, Revised Edition, 1999). This book by Holt gives a fresh and insightful look at how children learn. He shows how learning is a natural process for children, and how parents can best help their children to learn.

Holt, John.  Learning All the Time (Addison-Wesley, 1990). John Holt is one of the “fathers” of home-schooling. This book is one of a series by the same author that discusses how children learn without being “taught.”

Klicka, Christopher J.  The Right Choice: Home Schooling, (Noble, 1995). This terrific book describes not only the great benefits of home-schooling, but the great dangers of keeping your children in a public school. It also makes a brilliant legal and constitutional case for home-schooling and against public schools.

Leppert, Mary, and Michael Leppert.   Home-schooling Almanac, 2002—2003: How to Start, What to Do, Where to Go, Who to Call, Web Sites, Products, Catalogs, Teaching Supplies, Support Groups, Conferences, and More! (Prima, 2001, 688 pages). This comprehensive guide for new home-schooling parents is divided into three main sections: “Nuts and Bolts” helps identify the learning style of your children. It reviews teaching styles, and uses an easy, question-and-answer format that gives information on commonly asked home-schooling topics. The “Products” section sorts educational teaching materials by subject, rather than age or skill level, which makes it easy to find various products. The “Resource Guide” gives contact information for home-schooling conferences and organizations in every state, and homeschool certification requirements for all states.

Llewellyn, Grace.   Freedom Challenge: African-American Homeschoolers (Lowry House, 1996). This book is a collection of essays by African-American and other minority parents about their experiences in home-schooling and unschooling their children.

Llewellyn, Grace.   The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education (Lowry House, 1991). A great book for any parent who wants to get her teenage children excited about life and learning. It thoroughly covers many ideas about unschooling and home-schooling and has many resources for further study.

Orr, Tamra B.   A Parent’s Guide to Home Schooling (Mars, 2002). Lively and readable, and includes a huge amount of information on home-schooling. Includes essays and practical advice by both experts and home-schooling parents “in the trenches.” Orr is also the author of 101 Ways to Make Your Library Home-schooling Friendly and 125 Things Homeschoolers Can Do on the Internet.

Papert, Seymour.  The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap (Longstreet Press, 1996). The author talks about many ways to use the computer to teach your children different subjects. It’s aimed at parents who have no previous computer knowledge.

Perelman, Lewis J.   School’s Out: Hyperlearning, the New Technology, and the End of Education (Avon Books, 1993). This book enthusiastically and thoroughly explains how the computer can be a great resource for teaching your child at home.

Pride, Mary.  The Big Book of Home Learning: Preschool and Elementary, vol. 2 (Alpha Omega, 1999, 590 pages). This thorough resource book on home-schooling for preschool and elementary grade children covers resource material, lesson plans, and curriculums for reading and other subjects.

Reed, Donn.  The Home School Source Book (Brook Farm Books, 1991). A great resource book that is part catalog, part essays about teaching your children at home. Contains many teaching resource ideas.

Rupp, Rebecca.  The Complete Home Learning Source Book: The Essential Resource Guide for Homeschoolers, Parents, and Educators Covering Every Subject from Arithmetic to Zoology (Three Rivers Press, 1998, 752 pages).  A comprehensive source book that gives parents and teachers information on all the resources needed to plan a well-balanced curriculum for the home or the classroom, from preschool through high school. It is a thorough reference guide for home-schooling, including teaching material, curriculum, books, magazines, lesson plans, learning kits, hands-on materials, and much more.

Rupp, Rebecca.  Good Stuff: Learning Tools for All Ages (Holt Associates, 1997). This book lists a wide variety of nontextbook learning materials for home-schooling, such as games, cards, posters, books, and catalogs, all divided into different subjects.

Rupp, Rebecca.  Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool through High School (Three Rivers Press, 2000). This book gives a comprehensive guide to designing a homeschool curriculum, from one of the country’s leading home-schooling experts, Rebecca Rupp. The book presents a structured plan to ensure that your children learn what they need to know, at the right time, from preschool through high school.

Walberg, Herbert and Bast, Joseph L.  Education and Capitalism: How Overcoming Our Fear of Markets and Economics Can Improve America’s Schools (Hoover Institute Press, 2003). This enlightening book shows how a free-market education system can improve our schools and give children a superior education.

Ward, Ann. Learning at Home: Preschool and Kindergarten, (Noble, 1995).  This is one of a series of learning-at-home books by Ann Ward, previously an experienced elementary school teacher before she became a home-schooling mom. She offers her own step-by-step curriculum packed with daily teaching plans for up to ten subjects. Thorough and easy to use; a great resource for new home-schooling parents.

Wise, Jessie, and Susan Wise Bauer.  The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (W. W. Norton, 1999). One of the best, most thorough (764 pages) books on home-schooling your children. Gives a wealth of information, specific advice, curriculum material, and lesson plans for math, reading, and other subjects, and can be a parent’s constant guide for home-schooling children of all ages.

• Blumenfeld, Samuel L., How To Tutor, The Paridigm Co., 1973

• Blumenfeld, Samuel L., Homeschooling: A Parents Guide To Teaching Children, Carol Publishing Group, 1997

• Colfax, David and Micki, Homeschooling For Excellence, Warner Books, 1988.

• Gorn, Elliot J., editor, The McGuffey Readers, Selections from the 1879 Edition, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 1998

• Griffith, Mary, The Unschooling Handbook: How To Use the Whole World As Your Child’s Classroom, Prima Publishing, 1998.

•  Carmen McGuinness,  Reading Reflex,  Simon & Schuster, 1998 — This book has a unique phonics system for teaching your children to read.

The following books will open your eyes to the sorry and scary state of today’s public schools:

•  Rudolf Flesch,  Why Johnny Can’t Read: And What You Can Do About It, Harper Paperbacks, 1986

•  Joel Turtel,  Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children,  Liberty Books, 2006.

• Fortkamp, Frank E., Ph.D., The Case Against Government Schools, American Media, 1979.

• Gatto, John Taylor, Dumbing Us Down, New Society Publishers, 1992.

• Gatto, John Taylor, The Underground History of American Education, The Oxford Village Press, 2000.

• Goldberg, Bruce, Why Schools Fail, Cato Institute, 1996.

• Gross, Martin L., The Conspiracy of Ignorance, HarperCollins, 1999.

• Holt, John, How Children Fail, Pitman Publishing, 1964.

• Holt, John, How Children Learn, Penguin Books, 1967.

• Holt, John, The Underachieving School, Delta Books, 1969.

• Kilpatrick, William, Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong, Touchstone Books, 1992.

• Kjos, Berit, Brave New Schools, Harvest House Publishers, 1995

• Klicka, Christopher J., The Right Choice: Home Schooling, Noble Publishing Associates, 1995.

• Kozol, Jonathan, Savage Inequalities: Children In America’s Schools, HarperPerennial, 1992.

• Kramer, Rita, Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America’s Teachers, Backinprint.com Book, 1991.

• Lieberman, Myron, Public Education: An Autopsy, Harvard University Press, 1993.

• Lieberman, Myron, The Teacher Unions, The Free Press, 1997.

• Moo, G. Gregory, Power Grab:How the National Education Association is Betraying Our Children, Regnery Publishing, 1999.

• National Education Association, 2000-2001 Handbook, National Education Association, 2000.

• Richman, Sheldon, Separating School and State, Future of Freedom Foundation, 1994.

• Rickenbacker, William F., editor, The Twelve-Year Sentence: Radical Views On Compulsory Schooling, Fox & Wilkes Publishers, 1974.

• Rothbard, Murray N., Education: Free & Compulsory, Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1971.

• Ruwart, Dr. Mary J., Healing Our World, SunStar Press, 1992.

• Schlafly, Phyllis, Chld Abuse In The Classroom, Pere Marquette Press, 1984.

• Armstrong, Thomas, The Myth of the A.D.D. Child, Plume Books, 1997.

• Breggin, Peter R., M.D., Talking Back To Ritalin, Perseus Publishing, 2001.

• Sommer, Carl, Schools In Crisis: Training For Success or Failure?, Cahill Publishing Co., 1984.

•  Sowell, Thomas, Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas, The Free Press, 1993.

• Sowell, Thomas, Education: Assumptions Versus History, Hoover Institution Press, 1986.

• Stormer, John A., None Dare Call It Education, Liberty Bell Press, 1999.

• Sykes, Charles J., Dumbing Down Our Kids, St. Martins Press, 1995.

• Walberg, Herbert J., and Bast, Joseph L., Education and Capitalism, Hoover Institution Press, 2003.

• Adams, Charles, For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes On the Course of Civilisation, Madison Books, 1993.

• Coulson, Andrew J., Market Education: The Unknown History, Transaction Publishers, 1999.

• Diller, Lawrence H., M.D., Running On Ritalin, Bantam Books, 1998.


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