Disclaimer: No book, apart from the Holy Scriptures of God, is wholly pure. I have personally read each of the books listed here and found them to be chiefly wholesome, uplifting, and doctrinally sound. If I have reservations about a specific book I have included them in bold type.
Would you like to recommend your own favorite educational books or books on educational philosophy? Please email me.
Don’t forget to visit the other sections of the Bibliotheca for exciting historic narratives, natural history, biographies, and even grammar guides. All of these books are not only highly entertaining but widely educational.The following titles are only those that teach a philosophy or method of education, address mind development in relation to learning, or are actual school lessons and texts.
nonfiction
Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds—and What We Can Do About It, Jane M. Healy, Ph.D
Are computers and television actually an appropriate medium for educating children? How does the virtual world affect cognitive and mechanical development in young children? What is the difference between knowledge acquired through virtual learning and knowledge gained by manipulating real objects in a real context?
How Children Learn, John Holt ✭✭✭✭✭
This was my introduction to John Holt, known as the father of the un-schooling movement. I was prepared to be skeptical but was immediately disarmed by Mr. Holt’s sensitivity and humility as he explores the wonderful way children learn. This is an account at once personal and universal; Mr. Holt uses his own relationships and interactions with young children to describe the intelligence and curiosity of every child. His respect, love, and admiration for these young people is evident in every page, and I found his wonder and enthusiasm such a refreshment. This book is one I highly recommend and will be adding to my personal library.
Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain, Renate Nummela Caine and Geoffrey Caine
[193 p]
The Original Home Schooling Series, Charlotte M. Mason ✭✭✭✭✭
Miss Mason’s philosophy of education provided children with a distinctly abundant and diverse exposure to the cultural arts: fine literature, music, art, poetry, and Shakespeare. The love of learning and the love of beauty are instilled at a young age.
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Home Education: Training and Educating Children Under Nine
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[352 p]
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Parents and Children: The Role of the Parent in the Education of the Child
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[290 p]
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School Education: Developing a Curriculum
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[247 p]
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Ourselves: Improving Character and Conscience
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[202 p]
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Formation of Character: Shaping the Child’s Personality
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[428 p]
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Towards a Philosophy of Education: Curiosity is the Pathway to Learning
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[348 p]
Many of us have lost a precious childlike wonder of nature: we have fallen into familiarity with the marvels wrought by God on earth. “The Sense of Wonder” is a lyrical essay teaching parents how to guard and encourage their child’s sense of wonder so that it will last them a lifetime. She writes, “If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused—a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love—then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting meaning. It is more important to pave the way for a child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.” “Exploring nature with your child is largely a matter of becoming receptive to what lies all around you. It is learning again to use your eyes, ears, nostrils and finger tips, opening up the disused channels of sensory impression.” I do not always agree with Carson’s perceptions, but I think she has shared many valuable insights as well as practical examples. The new edition pictured is amply illustrated with the beautiful nature photographs of Nick Kelsh.
When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy for Today, Elaine Cooper, General Editor
Children are naturally inquisitive and love to learn, yet the “traditional” school system stifles true learning and transforms it into a dreaded chore. Are children really learning and knowing when they memorize dry and fragmented facts? No they are not!—and here is a practical way to change that, whether you are a home-school mother or a “school-teacher.” Here, various school teachers review Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy. The distinctives of this philosophy are reviewed: living books, narration, picture studies, nature walks, music appreciation, and more. Education becomes not only a discipline, but an atmosphere and a life-style. When children love to learn, they will excel in unexpected areas. [254 p and index]
additional literature
While I consider the above titles staples or special favorites, the following list is comprised of books which give additional support, encouragement, or practical information.
A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning, Karen Andreola
Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Arts for Children in the Style of the Great Masters, MaryAnne F. Kohl
These reading lessons for young students were the first in a popular geography series by the remarkable educator Charlotte Mason. “An effort is made,” she wrote in her preface, “to treat the subject with the sort of sympathetic interest and freshness which attracts a child to a new study.” Concepts introduced in this conversational little book include: how the earth’s motion causes day and night, the seasons, and climate, and how to use a compass and map. “Easy verses”—by Jane Taylor, Coleridge, Shakespeare, and others—are included to introduce some of these concepts with “pleasant poetic fancy.” This book contains forty-one reading lessons for Standard II students (Grade 2?). Class I in Mason’s schools (Grades 1-3) had two ten-minute geography lessons weekly. Mason suggests that children go through the book twice. Questions and answers for the lessons are given as a summary. There is some outdated information easily edited. This book is in the public domain. The cover image is my own design, as I am currently updating the text and illustrations for modern students. This is a pleasant “school book” I look forward to using someday with my own children.
Encyclopedia of Bible Truths for School Subjects , Dr. Ruth C. Haycock
This invaluable resource is a topical list of Bible passages that speak directly to subjects commonly taught in schools. Haycock writes in her introduction, “"If we actually believe that the Bible is authoritative in every subject it addresses, in history and science as well as in Christian doctrine, we are obligated to find out what it says about every topic we teach. If we fail to present what God says but teach other aspects of a subject, we shelter pupils from the truth and give them only part of the story... It is not enough that we moralize in Bible classes to teach socially acceptable or even Christian conduct. Neither is it adequate that we use incidents from history, or observations from science, to illustrate spiritual truth. Though history and science furnish many possible object, their use in this fashion is not a true integration of truth from Scripture and truth from other sources. It is not equivalent to searching out what God actually says about money, or capital punishment, or the treatment of animals, and then teaching it as a part of the academic study of that topic... To fail here is to say to young people that the Bible and academic subjects are separate—that only in Bible class do we consider what God says.” Here are God’s principles for the study of history, geography, economics, government, social studies, language arts, grammar, sciences, mathematics, fine arts, and health. The text is interspersed with suggestions for school assignments and helpful quotations from educators and authors. [432 p and index]
The Gift of Dyslexia: Why Some of the Smartest People Can’t Read... and How They Can Learn, Ronald D. Davis with Eldon M. Braun
Laying Down the Rails: A Charlotte Mason Habits Handbook, Sonya Shafer
Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents, Stan Schmidt, Ph.D.
“As Serious as It Needs to Be.” [175 p. and answer key]
More Charlotte Mason Education: A Home Schooling How-To Manual, Catherine Levison
I found especially interesting the chapter on Charlotte Mason education after grade-school. It is wonderful encouragement to mothers who wonder about the adequacy of the method during the high-school years. [169 p and appendixes]
My Country School Diary, Julia Weber (Gordon)
This book was recommended by John Holt and is one of the very few books this miser has purchased without first reading it. What I discovered was a fascinating account of a young schoolteacher who teaches for four years in a rural school. Her desire was to put the delight and responsibility of learning into the children’s own hands, and though it was not always easy, she succeeded in nurturing the interest and self-discipline of the children, many of whom had been failing or indifferent students. This is an inspiring but realistic story of what can be done with limited resources by a motivated teacher who loves her students. It is a collection of diary entries in which Miss Weber recorded good days and bad days, exciting school assignments and specific needs for improvement. Anyone who works with children will benefit from her insight and experience.
Our Mother Tongue: An Introductory Guide to English Grammar, Nancy Wilson
Sections are “The Eight Classes of Words,” “The Sentence,” “The Special Properties of Nouns and Pronounce,” “The Special Properties of Verbs,” “Verbals,” and “The Special Properties of Modifiers.” The book ends with a summary appendix on punctuation. [183 p, an index included]
Simply Grammar: An Illustrated Primer, Charlotte M. Mason, revised and expanded by Karen Andreola
This is Charlotte Mason’s original grammar lessons, revised and expanded by a noted CM home-school teacher and lecturer. The book is designed to be started in the fourth grade, and may prove invaluable even throughout the high school years as a reference. Each lesson is short and addresses a single grammatical concept with plentiful but interesting student exercises. I do have to say that I regret the Victorian illustrations, because I personally find them unnecessarily quaint. It might lead some to dismiss the primer as an irrelevant historic relic. If the addition of illustrations in the revised edition was deemed necessary (it was not, except, perhaps, to secure a copyright), I would have personally preferred the inclusion of more modern subjects (or clothes!). [159 p and appendixes]
