Recommended Reading from Author Tamora Pierce

For some reason, Tamora Pierce has a list of recommended reading for homeschoolers on her web site. It's geared toward teens planning on college.

Cool!

The best part? You have to scroll to the bottom for the list of authors/books Ms. Pierce included out of a sense of obligation but doesn't actually like. Surely you'll find something there that you were forced to read and didn't enjoy. (For me, it's The Pearl by John Steinbeck.)

And it just goes to show that you never know where you're going to run into homeschooling....

Catholic Homeschooling Mom's Blog

I've started jumping in and exploring some homeschooling blogs, and I've really been enjoying Castle of the Immaculate. She has interesting things to say about homeschooling, literature, and being Catholic. She's also participated in a homeschooling book meme that's going around and is, I think, most interesting for librarians seeking to serve homeschoolers.

Some other homeschooling bloggers doing the meme:
By Sun and Candlelight
Karen Edmisten
The Bookworm
The Lilting House
The Common Room
The Cabbage Patch
Life in a Nutshell
Studeo
My Thoughtful Spot
Fast Times @ Homeschool High

Check It Out!

Amazon has a homeschooling store. This shouldn't surprise me, of course; it was only a matter of time.

Many thanks to Cathy Henderson for the link!

The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith

"It's hard to watch your children learn to walk, learn to understand and use language, and learn to get into anything and everything within reach, without believing that they are capable of learning about anything they are curious about."
-The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World as Your Child's Classroom by Mary Griffith

If you’re looking for one book to give you a solid and unintimidating introduction to unschooling, look no further. Griffith provides a brief history of homeschooling with a particular emphasis on unschooling. Then she shows how unschooling works in different families, including lots of quotes and anecdotes from real homescholers. Griffith does a nice job spanning the range of unschoolers: from those who believe that adults are generally best seen and not heard to those who mostly unschool but do incorporate some more formal teaching methods here and there. Griffith makes unschooling sound both appealing and completely possible, covering everything from how children learn to how families can make unschooling economically feasible. The resource lists that end each chapter are uniformly excellent, relevant, and interesting. This is a must-read for librarians who want to learn more about homeschooling and a must-have for library collections.

Mary Griffith also blogs, although it looks like she's been taking a break. We'll hope she comes back soon.... :)

Long-Overdue Fun

Videos by a homeschooled girl.

Way addictive. Way fun.