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- Printable Book List (PDF)
Where do I start? Books…
It is often said that there are as many right ways to homeschool as there are homeschoolers, but it can be hard to start figuring out what that “right way” is for you and your family. One of the most helpful things you can do is to look around at how others have done it and see what resonates with you.
Below is a short list of books to get you started on your search (printable PDF here). If you don’t see something you love right away, keep looking. There are thousands of books on the topic of homeschooling these days, so take a little time and read some of the excerpts offered for free before buying to see if the author’s perspective is generally in line with your own.
Maybe a few blogs…
The internet is also full of homeschooling bloggers from all walks of life creating chronicles of their own experiences with every aspect of homeschooling, as well as sharing lots of ideas for ways to help make your homeschool experience more productive and encouraging.
Experienced homeschoolers who have walked the road ahead of you can be enormously helpful when getting started in the search to finding your own right path to walk on your homeschooling journey. A Google search for “homeschool blog” will return a list some of the most popular blogs.
Now, how do I find curriculum?
There are also questions posed frequently to MHA about how to find curriculum. There are too many curriculum providers to list, but again, the internet is your friend when searching for curriculum.
A few good resources for “seeing what’s out there” are homeschoolreviews.com and homeschoolbuyersco-op.com. If you’re looking for a unit study approach, a popular choice for downloadable content is currclick.com.*
If you find something you think might be good, you can usually also find more information by Googling it and looking at full-length reviews and sometimes even sample pages before purchasing. Just remember to not feel overly pressured to purchase a lot when you are first getting started. It is, in many cases, better to spend a little time on the front end figuring out what your child’s learning style is, then choosing a curriculum that fits them best.
Recommended Books
Making the Decision to Homeschool
- The Homeschooling Option: How to Decide When it’s Right for Your Family by Lisa Rivero
- Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense by David Guterson
- How Children Learn by John Holt
Getting Started
- The Big What Now Book of Learning Styles: A Fresh and Demystifying Approach by Carol Barnier
- Homeschooling Essentials: A Practical Guide to Getting Started by Dianna Broughton
- Suddenly Homeschooling: A Quick-Start Guide to Legally Homeschool in 2 Weeks by Marie-Claire Moreau
- The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child: Your Complete Guide to Getting Off to the Right Start by Linda Dobson
- The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education by Grace Llewellyn
Developing a Plan
- Home Learning Year by Year : How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool through High School by Rebecca Rupp
- Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer
- Creative Home Schooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families by Lisa Rivero
- Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything by Laura Weldon
- The Homeschooler’s Book of Lists: More Than 250 Lists, Charts, and Facts to Make Planning Easier and Faster by Sonya Haskins
*These are just a few popular places to start. MHA does not endorse or have any stake in these sites, nor do we receive any compensation from them for mentioning them on this site. They are provided simply as a service to our members as a few popular resources for researching and learning more.
