Large margins make this edition a pleasure read or study.

      Do you remember your first visit to where the wild things are? How about curling up for hours on end to discover the secret of the Sorcerer’s Stone? Combining clear, practical advice with inspiration, wisdom, tips, and curated reading lists, How to Raise a Reader shows you how to instill the joy and time-stopping pleasure of reading.   Divided into four sections, from baby through teen, and each illustrated by a different artist, this book offers something useful on every page, whether it’s how to develop rituals around reading or build a family library, or ways to engage a reluctant reader. A fifth section, “More Books to Love: By Theme and Reading Level,” is chockful of expert recommendations. Throughout, the authors debunk common myths, assuage parental fears, and deliver invaluable lessons in a positive and easy-to-act-on way.

    With wit and wisdom gleaned from years of experience, Debra Bell sets forth a compelling vision for the joys of home-based learning and the essential tools for success. The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling is a great tool for those who are merely thinking about homeschooling, as well as for veteran homeschoolers.

    When author Nancy Lande started homeschooling more than 10 years ago, this is the book she wanted that didn't exist. What better way to create your homeschool than reading about others and picking and choosing the styles that appeal to you? Lande has corralled a variety of homeschoolers and, with some deft editing, allowed them to speak for themselves. Every chapter features a different household on any given day. Many of the writers are mothers, but a stay-at-home dad and several children tell their tales as well. Their detailed descriptions start in the waking hours of morning and get down to the nitty-gritty information of everyday life in a homeschool: how moms fit in showers, how chores are divvied up, how reading and research are gently initiated, how parents set aside time for themselves. These writers invite the reader into their homes and advise, "Don't mind the mess." Their passages are often funny and unflinchingly honest. They aren't embarrassed to tell you they whipped out SpaghettiOs for a hurried lunch or stole a peek at CNN while ignoring the chaos in the playroom. Some of the families have created highly structured school environments within their homes, with desks and sharpened pencils. Others promote freestyle learning, with their children sprawled across the house working on projects or reading in between walking the dog, playing games, and riding bikes. The majority of families here live in Pennsylvania, the author's home state, but one writes from as far away as Scotland, another lives on a mountain in Alaska, and yet another checks in from a college town in Texas. Their learning logs, reading lists, and journal entries, along with family photos, help illustrate the book. The quilt they piece together is a great service to those wondering how to approach homeschooling. --Jodi Mailander Farrell

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR: In the mid-1990's, Deborah Taylor-Hough set up one of the first Charlotte Mason homeschooling websites and edited The Charlotte Mason Monthly ezine. Debi currently edits The Charlotte Mason eMagazine and blogs at CharlotteMasonHome.com

    Featuring sixteen pages of full-color illustrations, a bolder, easier-to-follow format, and a thoroughly updated curriculum, What Your Third Grader Needs to Know is designed for parents and teachers to enjoy with children. Hundreds of thousands of children have benefited from the Core Knowledge Series. This edition, featuring a new Introduction, gives today’s generation of third graders the advantage they need to make progress in school and to establish an approach to learning that will last a lifetime. In this book you’ll discover   • Favorite poems—old and new, from the traditional rhyme “For Want of Nail” to Lewis Carroll’s whimsical poem “The Crocodile” • Literature—including Native American stories, African folktales, European fairy tales, classic myths from ancient Greece, stories from ancient Rome, and more • Learning about language—the basics of written English, including sentence structure, parts of speech, and a first look at writing a report or letter • World and American history and geography—journey down the great rivers of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, visit ancient Rome, and experience the earliest days of America with the Pilgrims and Native Americans • Visual arts—an introduction to masterworks by Rembrandt, Henri Matisse, Mary Cassatt, and others, with full-color reproductions and fun, do-it-yourself activities • Music—the fundamentals of appreciating, reading, and making music, plus great composers, instruments, and sing-along lyrics for songs such as “Bicycle Built for Two” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” • Math—stimulating lessons ranging from counting money to solving division problems, numbers through 100,000, graphs, and the metric system • Science—fascinating discussions on the natural world, the cycles of life, the human body and its systems, and the environment, with accompanying activities and stories about famous scientists such as Copernicus and Alexander Graham Bell

    Without bells, schedules, and rules about what to do and when, the knowledge they gain through mindful living and exploration is absorbed more easily and enthusiastically. Learning is a natural, inborn impulse, and the world is rich with lessons to be learned and puzzles to be solved.Successful unschooling parents know how to stimulate and direct their children's learning impulse. Once you read this book, so will you!

    In this indispensable guide, author and homeschooler Sherri Linsenbach provides you with the encouragement, inspiration, and ideas you need to explore this option for your family. It's packed full of ideas to make the experience easy, affordable, and, most of all, fun. Even veteran homeschoolers will find new ideas and techniques that help keep home education interesting and exciting.This edition includes completely new material on:Updated curriculum resources, strategies, and methods.Fresh educational activities for grades K-12.Information on specific learning styles and special needs.Ideas for tackling social issues and social skills in today's world.Typical homeschool days, schedules, and activities.The author, a homeschool veteran of more than eighteen years, presents real-life examples and inspiring success stories from families across the country. This all-new edition of an Everything bestseller is the only reference you'll need to ensure your children's success--at any age!

    Home schooling well may be the salvation of our entire society.

    Now an updated edition of So You’re Thinking About Home Schooling by Lisa Whelchel—herself a homeschooling mother of three—introduces to readers fifteen composite portraits of homeschooling families who show how every family can successfully face the unique challenges of its situation. The story-based approach deals with common questions of time management, teaching weaknesses, and outside responsibilities, as well as children’s age variations, social and sports involvement, learning disabilities, and boredom. Seeing a wide variety of homeschooling families in action gives parents the information and confidence they need to make their own decisions about home-based education. Includes a new chapter from Lisa and an all-new resource guide with recommendations from real-life homeschooling families! [Banner across upper left corner of back cover]: New, Updated Edition! “I’m Thinking About Homeschooling” You’re also probably thinking, But can I really teach my children? Where do I start? What if I need to work outside the home? Must I have twelve children, raise goats, and bake my own bread? And what about socialization? I could tell you the answers to these questions, but I would rather show you. Beginning with my own, I want to introduce you to fifteen families in fifteen unique situations who have all chosen to homeschool for different reasons, using a variety of learning methods. So… let’s rap lightly on the homeschool door and peek inside before we decide if we are ready to move in! —Lisa “Deciding if homeschooling is right for your family just got easier with this warm, entertaining, information-packed portrayal of its flexibility, diversity, triumphs, and challenges. Grab a cup of tea and enjoy!” —Linda Dobson, author of The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child Story Behind the Book“My hope is that by the end of the book, and a stroll through the neighborhood, you will feel more confident as you identify a family situation and teaching method that resonates with your personality and philosophy of education. From there, you can simply look to the end of each chapter to find a sample schedule for the homsechool day and list of curriculum suggestions for that particular teaching method.”

    It is designed as a step-by-step course for parents who want to teach their young children to read at home. The teaching method is based on phonics and key-word recognition, and with its innovative and guided approach, the 20 step-by-step lessons provide an easy-to-follow recipe for teaching children to read. Developed by pediatrician Michael Levin, the program has also been used successfully for children with disabilities.How do I use the Reading Lesson?There are twenty lessons in this book. Each lesson takes about two weeks to complete (with about 15 minutes of study per day). Before starting a lesson, we suggest that you read the instructions for that lesson. Each lesson begins with an introduction and a description of how to proceed. For example, lesson two introduces the letters “m”, “d”, and “r”. At the beginning of the lesson, there is an introduction with some words of advice and thoughts on how to go through the sounds of those letters and how to read them in words.Each lesson consists of words, exercises and short stories. When reading the words, ask the child to tell you what the word means. Before you read the story, read the title and talk a little bit about the content of the story. Approximately 300 key words form the basis of reading skills in this course. Each lesson introduces a set of key words. Your child should learn them well before you proceed to the next lesson, since these words are used in later lessons.For many young readers (including children who are familiar with the alphabet), the letters in words seem to melt together. The instructions in Lesson One teach the child basic sound blending. The special typography and font style the book uses will help your child to identify and separate the letters she already knows. These bars, dots, and special graphics are there as guides and are used to blend the sounds into words. This process is called “sounding out”. At first, blending is difficult for most children. You will need to help the child but he will get better at it with practice.How fast should I go through the book? The length and the pace of the daily lessons will vary with your child's age and abilities. We suggest the following schedule: For children under five, one page per day will suffice and maintain their concentration on the lesson. For children between five and six, two to three pages per day will be sufficient. For children over six, three or more pages per day will be fine.Children have a very short attention span. Try to keep each lesson under fifteen minutes, and spend no more than five to seven minutes per page. If your child is young, don't rush! Work at a leisurely and comfortable pace. Remember: you have plenty of time to complete the course and, if necessary, to go back and repeat the course before your child starts reading instruction in school.How old should my child be when we start the Reading Lesson? The book is meant for children between the ages of 3 and 8. We do not suggest that you try to teach a child under the age of three to read. Contrary to some books that suggest that you can teach infants to read, there is no proof that such a thing is possible. Children need certain developmental skills before they can read. Flashing cards with letters and words at a baby is a fun thing to do and makes us feel like good parents, but it does not work!The Reading Lesson is a totally developmentally appropriate course that is easy to follow, and makes learning to read fun for parents and kids. The book is an easy and cheap solution to teaching your children to read at home, and has been a success with families all around the world. Give it a try – you’re sure to love it.

    But our fears are misplaced, according to Yale early childhood expert Erika Christakis. Children are powerful and inventive; and the tools to reimagine their learning environment are right in front of our eyes.           Children are hardwired to learn in any setting, but they don’t get the support they need when “learning” is defined by strict lessons and dodgy metrics that devalue children’s intelligence while placing unfit requirements on their developing brains. We have confused schooling with learning, and we have altered the very habitat young children occupy. The race for successful outcomes has blinded us to how young children actually process the world, acquire skills, and grow, says Christakis, who powerfully defends the preschool years as a life stage of inherent value and not merely as preparation for a demanding or uncertain future.           In her pathbreaking book, Christakis explores what it’s like to be a young child in America today, in a world designed by and for adults. With school-testing mandates run amok, playfulness squeezed, and young children increasingly pathologized for old-fashioned behaviors like daydreaming and clumsiness, it’s easy to miss what’s important about the crucial years of three to six, and the kind of guidance preschoolers really need. Christakis provides a forensic and far-reaching analysis of today’s whole system of early learning, exploring pedagogy, history, science, policy, and politics. She also offers a wealth of proven strategies about what to do to reimagine the learning environment to suit the child’s real, but often invisible, needs. The ideas range from accommodating children’s sense of time, to decluttering classrooms, to learning how to better observe and listen as children express themselves in pictures and words.           With her strong foundation in the study of child development and early education and her own in-the-trenches classroom experience, Christakis peels back the mystery of early childhood, revealing a place that’s rich with possibility. Her message is energizing and reassuring: Parents have more power (and more knowledge) than they think they do, and young children are inherently creative and will flourish, if we can learn new ways to support them and restore their vital learning habitat.

    Today’s kids have adopted sedentary lifestyles filled with television, video games, and computer screens. But more and more, studies show that children need “rough and tumble” outdoor play in order to develop their sensory, motor, and executive functions. Disturbingly, a lack of movement has been shown to lead to a number of health and cognitive difficulties, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), emotion regulation and sensory processing issues, and aggressiveness at school recess break. So, how can you ensure your child is fully engaging their body, mind, and all of their senses? Using the same philosophy that lies at the heart of her popular TimberNook program—that nature is the ultimate sensory experience, and that psychological and physical health improves for children when they spend time outside on a regular basis—author Angela Hanscom offers several strategies to help your child thrive, even if you live in an urban environment. Today it is rare to find children rolling down hills, climbing trees, or spinning in circles just for fun. We’ve taken away merry-go-rounds, shortened the length of swings, and done away with teeter-totters to keep children safe. Children have fewer opportunities for unstructured outdoor play than ever before, and recess times at school are shrinking due to demanding educational environments. With this book, you’ll discover little things you can do anytime, anywhere to help your kids achieve the movement they need to be happy and healthy in mind, body, and spirit.

    In this greatly expanded treatment of a topic he first dealt with in Rediscovering the Lost Tools of Learning, Douglas Wilson proposes an alternative to government-operated school by advocating a return to classical Christian education with its discipline, hard work, and learning geared to child development stages.As an educator, Wilson is well-equipped to diagnose the cause of America's deteriorating school system and to propose remedies for those committed to their children's best interests in education. He maintains that education is essentially religious because it deals with the basic questions about life that require spiritual answers-reading and writing are simply the tools. Offering a review of classical education and the history of this movement, Wilson also reflects on his own involvement in the process of creating educational institutions that embrace that style of learning. He details elements needed in a useful curriculum, including a list of literary classics. Readers will see that classical education offers the best opportunity for academic achievement, character growth, and spiritual education, and that such quality cannot be duplicated in a religiously-neutral environment.

    It nurtures their imagination and creativity, lets them explore other worlds, and opens their minds to new truths and knowledge in appealing, inspiring ways. But how can we sort through thousands of children's books to discover the really worthwhile ones?Elizabeth Wilson offers us a newly revised, comprehensive guide to the very best in children's literature. Just as in the original volume, she comments on the tone and content of excellently written, captivating books in over two dozen subject areas. Hundreds of new titles have been added while retaining timeless classics and modern favorites-all of which respect traditional values. So that no matter what the children's ages are or whether they love fact or fiction, you can trust these books to share things that you can believe in and kids will delight in.