Kids come into the world with natural curiosity and a passion to learn, but sadly many will lose their love of learning by the time they leave public school. If you're like me, your own childhood education probably revolved around attending public school, doing homework, and taking tests. That model of schooling doesn't work well for many, often resulting in:
kids who think they hate math or science or reading (or whatever subject),
kids believing that their own self-worth is tied to their performance on tests, what grade they are in, or how popular they are,
kids becoming afraid to take risks and losing their curiosity to learn new things, and/or
kids doing the bare minimum just to pass.
Homeschoolers want better outcomes, but how can you do things differently when public school is all you know?
What's Worked for Successful Homeschoolers?
Instead of using trial-and-error, it can be a huge help to learn more about what has worked well for other homeschoolers. I'm a bit of a research-geek😋, so in our 12+ years of homeschooling, I've read many books on the subject. Some books led me down the path to burnout and overwhelm, while other books filled me up with inspiration and tools for success.
Here's my short list of the Top 5 best books on homeschooling, plus one bonus mentoring resource for parents.
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto
A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century by Oliver DeMille
Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning by Oliver and Rachel DeMille
Hero Education: A Scholar Phase Guidebook for Teens, Parents, and Mentors by Oliver DeMille
BONUS: Mentoring in the Classics monthly tutoring program for homeschooling parents
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
If we don't understand the problem, how can we solve it? This book illuminates many of the problems with the public school model of education.
John Taylor Gatto, the author of Dumbing Us Down, was a public schoolteacher for 30 years who was named the NY City and NY State Teacher of the Year. He shares his vast experience with just how broken the public school system is and the negative lessons it teaches the students.
The first time I read this book, it made me cringe as I reflected on my own experiences in public school and realized just how true Gatto's criticisms of the school system were. This book made me look at schooling in a whole new light; it helped me realize that there was much from the school environment which I did not want to replicate in our home school.
When I read the book again a few years later, I cringed as I realized that many of the negative aspects of public school were still infiltrating our homeschool. Re-reading this book every few years has helped me to continually course-correct to ensure that I'm letting go of my public school hangover while continuing to improve our homeschool environment.
A quote from the introduction:
"...I've come to believe that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us... I began to wonder, reluctantly, whether it was possible that being in school itself was what was dumbing them down. Was it possible I was hired not to enlarge children's power, but to diminish it?
"That seemed crazy on the face of it, but slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior...
"I began to devise guerrilla exercises to allow as many of the kids I taught as possible the raw material people have always used to educate themselves: privacy, choice, freedom from surveillance, and as broad a range of situations and human associations as my limited power and resources could manage...
"What I do that is right is simple to understand: I get out of kids' way, I give them space and time and respect. What I do that is wrong, however, is strange, complex, and frightening. Let me begin to show you what that is."
Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century
Whereas Dumbing Us Down shows us the problem, A Thomas Jefferson Education shows us the solution. This book led to a paradigm shift in my understanding of education.
Before reading this book, I thought the purpose of education was to learn specific concepts, to check-off-the-boxes of learning specific information at specific ages. In our homeschool, this meant that I was focusing on trying to replicate specific grade content in our learning time. This type of schooling is also known as the Conveyor Belt model of education.
Through reading A Thomas Jefferson Education, my views of education were broadened and expanded; I realized that I was teaching my kids what to think instead of how to think.
To quote from A Thomas Jefferson Education,
In conveyor belt education, "the goal is to give students the same ideas, and to grade or rank them according to their conformity with these ideas... Only in the last seventy years has [public school] become the predominant system...
"Almost everybody in America today is getting the kind of education that has historically been reserved for those who simply had no other options."
A Thomas Jefferson Education is not a step-by-step guide on how to homeschool, but it sets the philosophical ground work for an expanded vision of education. Instead of focusing on details of what to teach, it looks at the overall big picture and purpose of education.
"Leadership Education has three primary goals: "to train thinkers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and statesmen - individuals with the character, competence, and capacity to do the right thing and do it well... The second goal is to perpetuate freedom, to prepare people who know what freedom is, what is required to maintain it, and who exert the will to do what is required. These two goals are accomplished by the third: teaching students how to think...
"...leadership education is based on several powerful traditions: student-driven learning, great teachers, mentors, classics, and hard work.
Don't be turned off by the idea of "Leadership Education." We are all called to be leaders in some way, whether in our own homes and families or on a larger scale in business or community roles.
In my own homeschool, this book gave me an expanded vision to aim for my kids to love learning, take ownership of their educations, see learning as a joyful lifelong pursuit, and be prepared for self-directing their educations in the high school years and beyond.
Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life
Peter Gray is a developmental psychologist who studies education from a biological perspective. In his book Free to Learn, he dives into an understanding of how learning occurred in hunter-gatherer cultures (which were the norm for 99% of human's history), looks deeply at our modern educational system, and draws conclusions about the role of play in education.
This book was foundational to my understanding of my children's learning and education. It helped me understand just how important their play and explorations are for teaching them what they need to know and leading them to find their own true passions.
This book gave me a deep knowing that, by limiting free play time through more structured time and activities, I was actually weakening my children's educations.
A quote from the prologue,
"Children come into the world burning to learn and genetically programmed with extraordinary capacities for learning... Within their first four years or so they absorb an unfathomable amount of information and skills without any instruction. They learn to walk, run, jump, and climb. They learn to understand and speak the language of the culture into which they are born...
"They acquire an incredible amount of knowledge about the physical and social world around them. All of this is driven by their inborn instincts and drives, their innate playfulness and curiosity. Nature does not turn off this enormous desire and capacity to learn when children turn five or six. We turn it off with our coercive system of schooling. The biggest, most enduring lesson of school is that learning is work, to be avoided when possible...
"I began to study education from a biological perspective... such work led me to understand how children's strong drives to play and explore serve the function of education, not only in hunter-gatherer cultures but in our culture as well. It led to new insights concerning the environmental conditions that optimize children's abilities to educate themselves through their own playful means... This book is about all of that."
Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning
Whereas Dumbing Us Down lays out the problem and A Thomas Jefferson Education creates a vision for something better, then Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning is the do-it-yourself manual. These three books create a trifecta for what's wrong, how things could be different, and how to create a thriving homeschool.
This is my go-to, do-it-yourself manual for homeschooling, I refer back to it several times every year. I've used it so much that the cover is peeling 🤣. Anytime I am looking for inspiration on how to improve our home school or whenever I feel stuck in a rut, this is where I go to find solutions. It is filled with so many great ideas that have aided me in creating a great learning environment for my children.
This book starts with an important overview of children's developmental stages at different ages, including information about how those stages affect learning and the optimal educational environment.
"...children, youth, and adults actually learn differently [and this] must be taken into account in the setup of their educational environment...
"The natural desire to grow up and a natural inclination to exceed one's limitations come with puberty. Before then, the anxiety to go faster and quicker too often results from a pushy and usually insecure (or at the very least, well-intentioned but ignorant) parent or teacher... Continual pushing of a child in scholastic achievement throughout childhood most often results in a rebellious teenager who digs in his heels and refuses to be pushed any more - particularly educationally.
"...the greatest irony in modern education is that we will not let children play when that is practically all our teenagers do. What if children played and worked with their parents more and were lovingly taught about good and bad, right and wrong and true and false? What if youth worked very hard and put in long hours getting a great education and preparing for their life mission? What amazing results could come of making such a reversal in our society!"
The Leadership Education book then dives into the details (or "ingredients") of different techniques, methods, and environmental factors that work together to foster excellent education. Below are a few examples.
Ingredient # 3: Mornings
"...We have historically set aside the morning for school, and this has few guidelines, mostly in the 'not' category. School time is 'not' friend time, video time or sit-and-look-at-Star-Wars-cards-time; just about anything else is fair game. Parental inspiration and individual needs are the ultimate guide as to what activities should and should not be included.
"The older children are naturally more and more interested in academic activities, particularly as they near Scholar Phase [high school age]. During mornings, it is wise to limit interruptions so that they can have a block of time to read of do creative writing, etc...
Ingredient # 4: Kidschool
"'Kidschool' is what we do with our Core [age 0-8yo] and Love of Learning [age 8-13yo] children that looks like 'school.'... Remember the initial premise of Kidschool: 'This is when I [the mother] teach what's mine.'
Thus, we see the importance of a mother pursuing her own education... Even if all you have is a lap and a great book to share, you can give of yourself in ways that are most meaningful for your children for their mission.
Ingredient # 7: The Six Month "No"
"Along with the Six Month Purge of your physical belonging and surroundings, it is important each six months to look inside and compare your real values with how you are spending your time. Every six months, make a thorough list of all you do, and then stop doing about half of it. Just say 'no!'
"The three biggest enemies of most [homeschooling] mothers are chauffeuring, cooking, and cleaning... Some moms spend two hours a day or more in their minivans or SUVs. That could be time spent studying, learning, teaching and building relationships! (By the way: to make the most of the chauffeuring time that remains... get to know your library's selection of audio books. You'll be amazed what a treasure this time can become!)"
Hero Education: A Scholar Phase Guidebook for Teens, Parents, and Mentors
Hero Education is a do-it-yourself guidebook for high school homeschooling with a bigger purpose than just getting ready for a career. This book (combined with The Phases of Learning book) provided a roadmap for how my kids could self-direct their educations in the high school years.
The "world desperately needs more men and women with an education designed for greatness, not just career placement... Reading great books and discussing them changes how people think. It drastically increases their ability to think...
"the true meaning of success is finding one's genuine life purpose, or mission, and truly fulfilling it. This includes being a person of character and serving others... The current education of most youth is not very likely to provide instruction on how to be wise or at peace, nor is it designed to facilitate their preparedness for personal fulfillment, meaningful relationships, or overall life happiness.
"It appears that the education of great souls was sacrificed in order to prepare coming generations to provide for their families..."
Besides the nuts-and-bolts of how to do high school homeschooling, Hero Education also has a fantastic list of 400 classic books for high schoolers. This has been an important tool for us twice a year when my kids plan their studies for the coming semester.
BONUS: Mentoring in the Classics Program
It's not a book, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Mentoring in the Classics program. This monthly subscription helped me tremendously in creating a successful homeschool that is based around Classic books. It has helped me pursue my own education so that I can fill my own cup, thereby having more to share with my kids.
The program uses a wide range of books, from non-fiction to literature, and each month there is another book to study. Before reading each book, there is an audio Introduction with a mentoring prompt of what to focus on while reading. Once you're done reading the book, there is a group book discussion audio which greatly enhances the overall learning from each book.
For the last few years, I have been so incredibly busy with advocacy work that I have not been able to keep up with the monthly readings. Nonetheless, I continue my subscription because the monthly book content has proven to be an excellent resource for my kids in their high school studies.
You can try the first month of the Mentoring in the Classics program for only $1.
What are your favorite books about children's education and home schooling?
If you're just getting started or are stuck in a rut with your homeschooling, here are a few articles that may be helpful:
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