off the BOOKshelf

Over the years, a stack of books on the topic of parenting/training children/education/schooling/unschooling has accumulated on my bookshelf, witness to my desire, my quest to discover the best way to bring up my children.
They have ranged from inspiring to challenging to informative to hardly-bad-but-hardly-worth-reading-either to downright nonsense.
I find it difficult with many books to decide whether they are “parenting” books or “education” books ~ there is a lot of overlap in these areas….and so I am going to lump them all in together as “books-that-people-who-are-interested-in-mentoring-children” might want to consider reading, even if it’s just to discover that you don’t agree with them!

But first, one website:
Arts and Letters Daily

And books I’ve read, but don’t own:
The Heart of Homeschooling by Chris Klicka
Honey for a Child’s Heart by
Say Goodbye to Whining……
Romancing Your Child’s Heart by Monte Swan
The Heart of Anger
The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff

Useful Books About Life:
The Overload Syndrome
Margin
Your Life As Art

So You Wanna Be A Parent?:
Hints on Child Training
The Duties of Parents
What Is A Family?
Let’s Make A Memory
(The Continuum Concept - see above)
Proverbs for Parenting
Shepherding A Child’s Heart
Parenting Isn’t For Cowards
There’s No Place Like Home

Useful for Thinking About Home Education:
A Thomas Jefferson Education - hubby’s initial reaction
Core and Love of Learning by Oliver and Rachel DeMille
A Thomas Jefferson Education In Our Home by Rachel DeMille
Dumbing Us Down
Endangered Minds
(The Heart of Homeschooling by Chris Klicka - see above)
Onto the Yellow School Bus
Christian Unschooling
Homeschooling for Excellence
(Romancing Your Child’s Heart by Monte Swan - see above)
For The Family’s Sake
Scholar Phase booklet by Oliver Van DeMille
Syllabus for the Season of Re-education and Renewing of the Mind
Educating The Whole-hearted Child
A Charlotte Mason Companion
The Relaxed Homeschool

Useful Homemaking Books (this IS education!!!!):
Living More With Less
Is There Life After Housework?
The Messies Manual
Obsessions of An Organised Housewife
The Creative Homemaker

Useful, particularly for Under-Eight-Year-Olds:
The Hurried Child
Endangered Minds
Small Beginnings
Better Late Than Early
Home Grown Kids
Babies Need Books
Five to Eight
From Playpen to Podium
Know Your Child
Entertaining and Educating Babies and Toddlers
Things To Make And Do With Preschoolers
Parenting in the Pew
The Booklet Building Book
The Homeschool Jumpstart Navigator

More Useful for Over-Eight-Year-Olds:
A Home Start in Reading
An Easy Start in Arithmetic
A Strong Start in Language
Reaping the Harvest
Dreamers, Discoverers and Dynamos
Discover Your Child’s Learning Style
The Great Niche Hunt
The Merchant Maiden
Senior High: A Home Designed Form-U-La

Useful Books About Books:
A Landscape With Dragons
(Honey for a Child’s Heart fits in this category, although I don’t yet own it)
How To Read A Book
The Well-Educated Mind
Babies Need Books
Five to Eight

The Wonderful Charlotte Mason Books:
1. Home Education
2. Parents and Children
3. School Education
4. Ourselves
5. Formation of Character
6. A Philosophy of Education

Novels With A Family/Education Message:
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The Chosen by Chaim Potok

A Random Collection of Other Books:
Across the Kitchen Table
The Phonics Handbook
Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning
Beautiful Girlhood
A Maiden In Waiting
Postmodern Children’s Ministry
The Origins and Growth of Modern Education
The Cause of Christian Education
A Case for Christian Education