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

    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!

    What is it that homeschoolers do that the public schools can’t or won’t? There are at least as many answers as there are studies. But nothing can capture the homeschooling experience in all its richness like the story of a real family that homeschools its children in middleclass America. Homeschooling: A Family’s Journey is the perfect book for those millions of Americans who may know someone who homeschools, who may have read about it, thought about it, and wondered whether homeschooling is right for them. Sharing the concerns of committed parents everywhere, authors Gregory and Martine Millman are consistently practical, informed, caring, and no-nonsense in their approach. They pay special attention to homeschooling and college, the economics of home-learning, and how a parent can really handle a child’s full education. Homeschooling opens a window on an exciting, important way of education—and, even more, a way of life—that can make all the difference in your family’s world.

    Parents will turn to curriculum chapters again and again. Features interviews and tips from many home school parents as well as long lists of resources. 430 pages of tips and tools!

    This book is a compilation of Mason's writings on the topics of Nature Study, teaching natural philosophy, and the importance of children being out-of-doors.

    Is American education preparing the future leaders our nation needs, or merely struggling to teach basic literacy and job skills? Without leadership education, are we settling for an inadequate system that delivers educational, industrial, governmental and societal mediocrity? In A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century, Oliver DeMille presents a new educational vision based on proven methods that really work! Teachers, students, parents, educators, legislators, leaders and everyone who cares about America's future must read this compelling book.

    What curriculum do I choose? What if we can’t afford all the books? How do I schedule our time? Will my children become socially awkward recluses? What if I screw up my kids’ education?! Lorilee Lippincott, a seasoned homeschooling mom, shows just how simple homeschooling can be. She and her husband taught their two kids in a one-bedroom apartment before picking up and moving the whole family to China. They’ve discovered that they don’t need rooms full of books, educational toys, and other teaching tools, nor do they need schedules packed full of extracurricular activities, field trips, and social events. Perhaps even more importantly, they don’t need to panic about making sure their kids turn out okay. It’s actually all pretty simple, she tells readers.But homeschooling well does require some planning and dedication, and a book like The Homeschooling Handbook to be your guide. Here you’ll find all your questions answered in Lippincott’s straightforward, warm, and witty style. Topics covered include:How to instill curiosity and a love of learningTypes of homeschoolingYour socialization fears assuagedHow to create simple schedules and stick to themTips for keeping costs downTeaching kids with disabilitiesThe benefits of play timeLegal requirementsHow to avoid burnoutAnd much more!Full of anecdotes, interviews with other homeschooling families, and wisdom, this is a must-have for any family considering the homeschooling life.

    Trusted homeschool expert with 25 years of experience homeschooling her own eight children, Durenda Wilson offers a better way and promises that you already have what it takes to give your child a healthy, successful future. In The Four-Hour School Day, she unpacks the lifelong advantages of home education, both for the health of your family and your child's future. With inspiring stories about parents just like you, she demystifies homeschooling and addresses common fears like, what if I'm not qualified, how can I homeschool as a single parent, and what if I don't have enough time? Packed with encouragement and practical advice, this resource equips you with all the information you need to create a sustainable homeschooling plan customized to your child's needs. Wilson will help you to:Work with your child's interests and passions for an enjoyable learning experienceCultivate independent learning in your child so you have more time and your child develops more curiosityNavigate the different schooling stages your child will go throughFind an engaged community so that you can start this adventure with all the support you need. Explore the rich and wonderful world of homeschooling because it's not only more doable than you think, but far more beneficial than you can imagine.

    Everyone would like education to be a joyous adventure and celebration of life, as well as a solid preparation for living. Sadly, most education today falls far short of this goal.But as Susan Schaeffer Macaulay shows it doesn't have to be this way. Education can be a wonderful, life-enriching, joyous experience.For the Children's Sake is a book about what education can be--for your child, in your home, and in your school. It is based first on a Christian understanding of what it means to be human--to be a child, a parent, a teacher--and on the Christian meaning of life. At the same time it is deeply practical. Many of the central ideas have been tried and proven true over a century in almost every kind of educational situation. The ideas are in fact so true that they can be applied equally at home, in different schools, in Africa, in the inner city, and in your own community. But they are also ideas which Susan and her husband Ranald Macaulay have tried and proven in their own family and school experience.For the Children's Sake is a book which can help every parent and teacher awaken the young minds of their children and give them a new richness, stability, and joy for living.

    There were class clowns, ruthless bullies, teacher’s pets, popular kids, and students no one wanted to be around. What if we admitted to ourselves that the public school system is tragically flawed, instead of blindly relying on the same misguided, decrepit bureaucracy for our precious children? “Because that’s how I grew up,” just doesn’t cut it anymore. Our children deserve better than to be institutionalized in an education system developed during the Industrial Age. School shootings, homework, and failing grades are all on the rise. Even school administrators admit that their students are falling farther behind. Politicians throw money at the problem and implement unproven and illogical new “standards,” while the teachers' unions contribute to their campaigns and protect their own. Sam Sorbo knows there is a better way… As a mom of three and the wife of Kevin Sorbo, an actor who travels frequently, Sam struggled with simply relying on the status quo for their young children’s public school education. On an extended trip for one of Kevin’s film shoots, Sam discovered she was playing a role herself, as the “substitute teacher.” Nobody likes the sub! Public school was forming a wedge between her and her young ones. It was this sobering recognition that launched her remarkable journey into home education. Home schooling provides a safer, sounder, and more spirit-centered didactic alternative, even for busy parents, and it's not as difficult as our bloated, entrenched education establishment wants you to believe. With extensive data and many shudder-worthy examples, Sam explores the systemic inadequacies plaguing the public education system. They may leave you wondering why any discerning parent still puts her faith in public school. Once you understand the disintegration behind the classroom door, the solution becomes clear. This book then guides you through implementing a better educational approach for your family, one that is tried and true. Sam’s extraordinary story, her discoveries, challenges, and triumphs, will encourage you to embrace the wonderful benefits and incredible possibilities of home education for your beloved children. * Concerned for the future of your children? * Think you can’t home school because you work full-time? * Frustrated with your child’s so-called teachers? * Anxious about schoolyard bullies? * Too scared to even consider home schooling your children? Be a hero to your children, skip the school drop-off lines and fund-raisers, and enjoy a better kind of parent-teacher meeting – the one in the mirror! This book can show you how.

    , Rebecca Rupp presents a structured plan to ensure that your children will learn what they need to know when they need to know it, from preschool through high school. Based on the traditional pre-K through 12th-grade structure, Home Learning Year by Year features:The integral subjects to be covered within each grade Standards for knowledge that should be acquired by your child at each levelRecommended books to use as texts for every subjectGuidelines for the importance of each topic: which knowledge is essential and which is best for more expansive study based on your child's personal interestsSuggestions for how to sensitively approach less academic subjects, such as sex education and physical fitness

    From taking the plunge to tapping into the myriad homeschooling resources, parents will discover: -- The ten essential steps to homeschool success-- Curriculum options organized by grade level, religious preference, and Educational philosophy-- Help for homeschooling both challenged and gifted children-- Inspirational vignettes about successful homeschooling-- Resources for planning and record keeping -- and teaching tips galore!

    Beyond Survival offers practical help with the real questions of homeschooling and provides an extensive list of proven resources. With confidence and compassionate humor, this in- demand homeschool conference speaker leads veteran and beginners on a joy-filled educational journey.

    Parents will be inspired to break free of conventions, unleash their child's unique creative genius, cultivate determination, and create an authentic atmosphere of learning.

    Yet recent research indicates that experiences in nature are essential for healthy growth. Regular exposure to nature can help relieve stress, depression, and attention deficits. It can reduce bullying, combat illness, and boost academic scores. Most critical of all, abundant time in nature seems to yield long-term benefits in kids’ cognitive, emotional, and social development. Yet teachers, parents, and other caregivers lack a basic understanding of how to engender a meaningful, lasting connection between children and the natural world. How to Raise a Wild Child offers a timely and engaging antidote, showing how kids’ connection to nature changes as they mature. Distilling the latest research in multiple disciplines, Sampson reveals how adults can help kids fall in love with nature—enlisting technology as an ally, taking advantage of urban nature, and instilling a sense of place along the way.