Over the past 30 years, I have read over 100 books on how to homeschool. After all, shouldn't you keep growing in  your career as a wife, mom, homemaker, and homeschool mom? 

I have read so many great books over the years that have enriched my life and home school. I will blog the next time on the top 20 books I've read on homeschooling. 

Today, however, I just want to focus on the ones that instilled confidence and resonated with my heart in a deep way. 

When I read Educating the Wholehearted Child, I found myself saying over and over again, "They are kindred spirits. They get me!" Now I've never met Clay and Sally Clarkson, but their book on homeschooling ministered deeply to my heart. My copy is falling apart from all the times, I've flipped through it's pages again or reread a section. 

Let Us Highly Resolve: Families Living for Jesus in the 21st Century by David and Shirley Quine is amazing! David and Shirley introduce us to the biblical worldview and challenge us to live that Christian worldview out in our daily lives and our educational choices. I was so inspired by this book! And, I can tell you, it influenced my curriculum choices and teaching from that moment on! This book challenged me to life for Jesus in every area of life and to teach my children to do the same. I have heeded their call to build into my children so that they can base their life on truths and absolutes from the Word of God! Wow! This book is awesome! 

I also never met Dr. Ruth Beechick in person, but I love, love, love her heart. As a young mom, I finished reading The Three R's booklets and You Can Teach Your Child Successfully and thought, "I can do this!" She broke educating children down to bite-sized pieces and instilled confidence. I read so many of her articles over the years. Adam and His Kin and Finding Our Roots in Genesis were family favorites in our home, so when she came out with another book on homeschooling, A Biblical Home Education, I had to read it right away! It was another huge blessing! Again, I felt like we were on the same page and I was so thankful to be encouraged in my heart. Of course, for the heart's purpose to come to pass, there must be a practical walking out. Ruth Beechick is full of practical wisdom. 

Gregg Harris's book, The Christian Home School, is precious to me because my husband read it and loved it! It put us on the same page as I was investigating homeschooling. He introduced delight-directed studies and raising arrows pointed for life to me. This book just covered all the basics in such a Christ-honoring way. 

Finally, For the Children's Sake: Foundation for Home and School by the daughter of one of my heroines (Edith Schaeffer), Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. This book is not light reading. She applies the Charlotte Mason method and like her mother, she goes deep. She has such a passion for Jesus and educating for His glory. There is also so much to ponder in every chapter. I was inspired and encouraged by this book! 

Let's look at each of these books. 

All of us, young or old, have endured moments or days or years where we felt like we didn't fit in, like we were, well, like we were the ugly duckling. 

The Ugly Duckling is an old fairy tale written by Danish author and Christian Hans Christian Anderson. All of his tales are enchanting. Some have happy endings. Some have bittersweeet endings. 

The Ugly Duckling ends happy, but it sure starts out sad. 

You see, an ugly little bird is born at the farm. No one is sure where he came from and everyone makes fun of him. He wanders away from the farm to live with ducks and geese, but they are scattered by a hunter. As, you can guess, he moves place to place, but never fits in. 

Of course, you and I both know that he's an "ugly" duckling because he's not a duckling at all. He grows up to be a graceful, beautiful swan to his own delight and the complete shock of the other animals. 

You’ve heard that homeschooled kids are smart.

What about your kids?

Are they smart enough? Do they measure up? How can you tell if you are doing a good job homeschooling? How can you tell if they are learning what they need to learn?

When I was a nurse, I had to take vital signs on all my patients every shift. I had to check their temperature, pulse, respiration rate, and blood pressure. This was just a quick way to check their overall health. If the patient in 202B had an infection, his temperature would rise. If my post-op patient was in pain, her blood pressure might be high. 

As a mom, I like to assess my children’s academic health by looking at 5 key factors that reveal their academic progress. These are the tools of learning my child needs for a lifetime of success.

Reading

“Jimmy can you read this page aloud to me while I fix dinner?" I hand him a book that is a little harder to read than he is used to. This gives me a picture of his reading ability.

“Shine, did you like Wuthering Heights? Tell me about it." This gives me insight into her reading comprehension.

Math

This is easy. When I grade their math work, I see how many answers they get wrong. I see if there is a pattern. Are they getting the same type of problem wrong each time? Are they making careless mistakes or are they missing the concept.
​
Communication​

​Bertie’s War by Barbara Tifft Blakey takes you back in time to the early 1960’s when America was facing the Cuban Missile Crisis.

It was a stressful time for everyone, but especially for our protagonist, Bertie, the youngest of three children. Her father is strict and Bertie tries very hard to please him, but it is the threat of missiles pointed at the United States that is hard for Bertie to understand.

When her father builds a bomb shelter for her grandparents, she is baffled. Why isn’t her father protecting his wife and children too?

Barbara takes us inside Bertie’s heart to feel her struggles and fears. We see the world through her eyes. We meet the people she loves and those she struggles to relate to. Children and young adults reading the book will relate to Bertie and her inner thoughts. 

​When Sarah's Wish by Jim Baumgardner arrived to be reviewed, I decided to read the book and found myself immediately involved in Sarah's life and dreams.

Emotionally involved, I wanted her to find a family, to help her friends escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad, and to protect her from the evil slave catchers that made her life miserable.

I felt scared with Sarah sometimes and, other times, found myself laughing aloud at her antics.

When I finished the book, I wanted to read more about Sarah, to stay involved in her life. I felt like I had made a new friend. ​

"Read this one, please," Katie Beth's chubby hands held the book up to me. I adjusted Julianna who had finished nursing and was asleep on my lap. I opened the lovely Christmas picture book and began to read aloud. Katie Beth and I smiled at each other and the baby slept peacefully.

Fast forward 20 years. My baby is a grown up lady. Katie Beth and my third baby, Jenny Rose, are cuddled up on the couch reading Anne of Green Gables aloud. They have both read the book several times, but there is something wonderful about reading a good book together aloud.

This summer I went to visit my aunt with two of my daughters. The four of us enjoyed an Agatha Christie short story together. We took turns reading aloud. My aunt wrote me a note the next week about how much she had enjoyed that sweet time reading aloud together.

What is it about reading aloud that is so wonderful? Is it the story? Is it the sound of someone you love reading aloud? Or is it the sense of togetherness? There are several Christmas picture books out there. Which are the best for reading aloud?

Last time, in Building Your Homeschool Library I, we talked about shopping for children's picture books, classic literature, Christian literature, and historic fiction. Today, we will talk about more genres to add to your growing homeschool library.  The following categories of books will make great additions to your homeschool library, so be sure to investigate these genres. Talk to other homeschool moms about their library suggestions.

Biographies

This is my favorite way to learn about people from other times and places. Biographies, like historical fiction, introduce us to the time and place we are studying by seeing it through the eyes of one person, the subject of the biography. When I close a biography, I feel like I have a new friend. Of course, usually this new friend lives somewhere far away and is no longer alive! When I was a little girl I read every single Childhood of Famous Americans, a series of biographies written for children, that I could get my hands on. Soon after he learned to read, my son Jimmy gobbled them up too. Autobiographies are biographies written about the author. Two autobiographies that our family enjoys are Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin. Closely related are diaries and journals. We read The Log of Christopher Columbus in US History class, his personal account of his famous voyage across the Atlantic in 1492.

Inspirational Books

These books are for all ages and help us grow closer to the Lord. Purpose Driven Life and Prayer of Jabez and wonderful examples of this category of books. My children have a deep desire to grow in their walks with Jesus in their teen years. They have enjoyed some of my favorite books and have discovered their own favorites. Here are some more Curtis favorites, both classic and modern, to inspire spiritual growth: A Christian's Secret to a Happy Life by Hannah Whittal Smith, Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hannard, Authentic Beauty by Leslie Ludy, I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Josh Harris, Prison to Praise by Marlin Carothers, Improving Your Serve by Charles Swindoll, Victory over Darkness by Neil Anderson, and Search for Significance by Robert McGee.

Cookbooks

Cookbooks are always fun, especially historical or geographical ones with recipes you can use to supplement history class. We have enjoyed The U.S. History Cookbook:  Delicious Recipes and Exciting Events from the Past by Joan D'Amico and Karen Eich Drummond. I have created a cookbook to go along with Ancient Times for those studying world history, Time Travel in the Kitchen: Ancient History Cookbook. Another great E-book cookbook is Aunt Sarah's Alaskan Cookbook. Cookbooks usually have interesting food facts and history tidbits to spice them up. Don't underestimate their value in the homeschool library.

Activity Books

Books, books, and more books! That's the way life is for homeschooling families. Every good school has a good library and home schools are no exception. But what books should you line your shelves with? Here's a quick overview of what kind of books will benefit your children and you during your family's homeschool adventure. 

Remember you can build a library slowly. Don't rush out and buy everything. Look for sales and become a frequent shopper at used book stores and thrift stores. I have picked up many classic books for 25 cents. My favorite place to get books is at public library sales. The libraries often toss out older, more conservative books to make way for modern silliness. That's great for us!  We can pick up expensive classic books for a song.

Here are the kinds of books that you should purchase with examples of quality reading material in each category.

Picture Books for Young Children and Early Readers

Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman was my husband's favorite book as a child. It's on our shelves too and my children enjoy it just as much as he did back in the sixties. A picture book purchase should be based on the story and the illustrations. There are picture books in our library that are practically works of art. There is a list of our family's favorite picture books on our website, Joyful and Successful Homeschooling.

Picture Books for Older Children

These books are wonderful for read aloud in unit studies. Do you know that no one is too old to read a well-written, beautifully illustrated picture book? But there are actually picture books written for older children that our family uses for unit studies. The Library of Alexandria by Kelly Trumble is a lovely book about the largest library of the ancient world. The oldest living story, Gilgamesh, is available as a picture book, Gilgamesh, the Hero by Geraldine McCaughrean, that our family has been delighted to listen to as mom reads aloud.

Classic Literature for Children

"Geography?  I don't remember ever learning much about geography. I'm not even sure what hemisphere the Mediterranean Sea is in," the mom of four elementary age boys bemoaned.  We were both watching our children play on the playground.

"I'm a terrible writer. I don't know where to begin to teach my child to write well," a young mother with two babies on her lap admitted to me over lunch.

"I don't know a thing about good art or good music. How on earth can I teach my children to appreciate fine art and fine music?" a mom who was considering homeschooling asked me as we discussed the possibilities for taking her children out of public school.

The biggest problem we face as homeschooling moms is not our ability to teach our children, but our confidence level in our ability to teach our children. We all have areas where we feel inadequate simply because no one can know all there is to know. In educating our children, we lay a foundation of knowledge in several areas and give them the tools of learning so that they can learn anything they need to learn.

So, know for the question, "How do I teach IT if I don't understand IT myself? That is a great question. Almost all homeschooling parents will encounter this dilemma. It might be that you've learned it, but forgotten it. Or it could be a gap in your education. Either way, there is an easy solution!

The solution to teaching something, that you don't know or don't understand yourself, is to delegate it to someone else or to learn about the subject quickly. I seldom delegate for this reason because I love to learn and I look at this situation as an opportunity to learn more! (I usually delegate because I just don't enjoy teaching something...like science experiments! smile).

Delegating

"Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just outside where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with Alders and Ladies' Eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow, it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherfores thereof," (Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, opening paragraph)

From the moment we read this paragraph, we are hooked! To the little town of Avonlea we go, across the Lake of Shining Waters, greeting beloved folk, especially the inhabitants of Green Gables. Literature takes us to delightful places such as Prince Edward Island.

All people in all places around the world love stories. It must be because our Creator is the Master Storyteller and we live in anticipation of His final climax: His Glorious Return and the final destruction of our enemy and all those in his bondage. As we gather together with extended family, there are always stories, "I remember when I met your mother..." "The first time he ever..." "When I was your age...." Once we hear the beginning of a good story, we are hooked, wanting to hear the rest of the tale.

We teach our children to read so that they can read the Bible, drawing closer to their Savior and Redeemer, Jesus. That is the most important reason. We also want them to read to learn. They will read all kinds of writing that brings knowledge and information. There is a third reason we teach our children to read: we give them a passport. This passport can take them on any adventure they would like to embark on, to places where they can meet people they've dreamed of meeting, or to any place in the entire world, real or imaginary.

When children are young, teach them to value reading as a treat and privilege--something they look forward to! If your child is always having to write a book report or read books he doesn't like, reading may not be a great joy in his life. If television is always on, he will most likely choose it because watching television is a passive activity that requires no mental exertion! Remove the computer and the television as competitors by limiting their use. You might have television-free and computer-free hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.