10 MORE Homeschool Books You Should Read

I don't know about you, but I'm a big believer in continuing to develop my skills and understanding to help my role as both a mother and an educator. I've read many books over the years and have found them to be invaluable. Right in your hand, you're able to peek inside the brains of experts within the field of education and parenting to take benefit from them without even needing to leave the comfort of your home. 

In my last post I mentioned how important it is for us to continue our own professional development as home educators throughout our whole educating and parenting career not only at the beginning when we first jump in.

Even if you're not a homeschooler, as a parent this idea of professional development is still incredibly important so you can continue to grow as your children do.

In that post I shared ten books you should read if you're a home educator or looking to find out more about homeschool.

Reading is a resourceful way to give yourself almost like a university-level self-education on a budget, by picking out the books written by the experts in various fields.

 Today I want to share ten more that will help to develop an understanding of how children learn, and how we can reach them as parents as we mentor and coach them through their own learning journey. 

Again, like I mentioned in the earlier post, these are all secular books. So be aware of anything that is not aligned with Islamic values that might pop up.

So in no particular order, let's begin...

Mindset - Dr Carol S. Dweck

I'm starting with a book that actually is not specifically about homeschool or parenting, but covers a topic that is massively important to the success of your homeschool or the way you parent.

I've shared with the attendees of my Homeschool With Confidence course, that when it comes to the long term success of your homeschool, only about 20% of it is down to the actual work you and your children do. The remaining 80% is down to your perception and how you feel about it all. It is the stuff that is in your head. 

If you are stressed and anxious, it honestly won't matter how many amazing things your children do because you simply won't see it. You will see all the things that you perceive as going wrong, and blow up small molehills into huge mountains.

That's why getting your mindset right is so incredibly important. This book, Mindset, provides a brilliant look into the effects of having a fixed and growth mindset. Mindset is so much more than just thinking negatively or positively. It is about finding solutions to obstacles and being kinder to yourself and others. It's about working to reach your personal best and helping others to reach their best too.

You'll find the chapters explore mindset in relation to various areas of life, work and education. The chapter for Parents, Teachers and Coaches is excellent and will help show you how important your role is in helping your children learn and grow. 

Mindshift - Barbara Oakley 

Mindshift follows on nicely from Minset above. Again, this is not a homeschool or parenting book, however I feel is hugely beneficial in helping you within these roles.

What you'll learn through this book is how to get over challenges that set you back so that you can reach your best insha'Allah. As well as providing you with an understanding of how to make that transformation yourself, you'll read from the experiences of a number of people who have found ways to overcome personal difficulties to uncover a whole new direction for themselves in relation to what they are capable of. 

I've included this title here simply because, as I explained in the previous review, how you view yourself and your capabilities will significantly impact how you see your role as mum and educator. You need to focus on your own goals as well as helping meet the goals of your family. Not only that, understanding how you can make breakthroughs yourself, will help you tremendously in helping your children to power through to make theirs.

The Growth Mindset Coach - Annie Brock and Heather Hundley

This is another fantastic book that I think every house should have, regardless of whether or not you home educate.
The Growth Mindset Coach is actually written intended for teachers in the classroom, providing a year-long plan to help you learn and teach mindset to students. However, it works brilliantly in the home.

This is the book I used to start teaching my children the importance of mindset and I have to tell you, I saw a massive change in my kids attitudes to what they felt they were capable of doing and how they handled making mistakes (my kids were known to rip out pages from books when they made a mistake...everything had to be perfect until discovering mindset).

You'll find a month by month guide of information and lessons to implement with the kids, offering practical hands-on activities to really understand the power of the brain and the difference mindset can make.

I remember reading about a study (I think it might have been in Carol Dweks Mindset above) that children who were taught about mindset alongside their regular revision lessons, did better in exams than those who didn't.

The activities in this book are really easy to follow and even if your children are in school, you could easily do these as a fun family activity every weekend.

The WholeBrain Child - Dr Daniel J. Siegel and Dr Tina Payne Bryson 

Written by a neuroscientist and a (secular) parenting expert, The Whole-Brain Child shares with us the science behind the growing child's brain together with clear direction in helping to explain the strategies discussed with your child. 

Children are learning all the time about themselves and their place in this world. It is easy for them to get carried away in the midst of their emotions or immediate wanting demands. As a parent, I have to confess I haven't always known how to handle this. Even now with a teen, I'm still learning and developing my skill level within this. 

What I've benefited from this book, is the practical examples it provides that walk you through talking with your child in various situations, ranging from the tantruming toddler who doesn't want to get dressed, through to a tween who is fixated worrying about something that is going to happen. 

Knowing how to help our children come out of heavy feelings, worries, struggles or even their demands, so that they understand how they can take control and see the bigger picture outside of themselves, is such a valuable skill to have. This book helps show us how to do that, together with an understanding of how their brain is working. 

Learning How To Learn - Barbara Oakley and Terrace Sejnowski

I. LOVE. THIS. BOOK.

This is an awesome read, and a great one to read together with your family actually. It is written directly to children and teens so is intended for them to read themselves, however it is a book I've benefitted from greatly. 

Like the title Learning How To Learn suggests, it explains to us how our brain learns....and because it was written with kids in mind as the intended audience, it makes it a super easy read for layman like me!

I see understanding how we learn to be as important as learning new information. Because when we have that understanding and awareness, it aid us in forging effective approaches that help us to take in and retain that new information we want to pursue. 

This book will show you the science behind learning in a really simple and easy to understand format, providing you with effective tools to help. As a parent and educator, knowing how your child's brain learns and what can help it, will allow you to build strategies for learning into your homeschool day.
Honestly, every home should have a copy of this book whether you're a homeschool family or not. As parents, we all have an invested interest in helping our children succeed in their education. This is a book that not only has helped me but my children also. 

A Gracious Space  Julie Bogart

I'm including this as one book recommendation...although it is three! 

A Gracious Space is a three-part series, written by the same author as The Brave Learner, who is the creator of the Brave Writer Curriculum. 

Each tittle packs a collection of 50 short essays intended to serve as a short daily reading that provides homeschool motivation and wisdom offered from a homeschool veteran.

If you need a quick boost and a gentle voice to tell you everything will be okay, these are the books for you. They cover a whole range of topics from getting to know your children, to motherhood, to the way we communicate with the kids, to writing myths, to getting stuff done, to sustaining homeschool and so much more.

They are short, sharp pieces of wisdom that may only be a couple of pages each, but pack a mighty powerful punch.

The Learning Brain - Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and Uta Frith

The Learning Brain walks you through brain development and how that affects different areas of learning, from early speech and facial recognition to writing, spatial awareness, memory, numeracy and learning differences such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, and ADHD.

It is an interesting read though not quite as light as some of the other books mentioned. I enjoy reading before bed, but I feel this is more of a day time read with a cup of tea and a pencil.

What I found particularly interesting is the reference it makes to how competently a child is able to narrate (a child telling what he knows) and how that directly relates to his ability to read and write.
The art of narration is a skill I often hear being practiced by many homeschool families. To be honest, I think whether you homeschool or not, if you are an interested and engaged parent you will do this naturally with your children as you encourage them to talk to you about experiences you've had together, books you've read and what their interests are.

 It isn't a book that provides strategies or how-to's, but rather, a little basic background information to the different stages of brain development, what can affect that, and what can be expected from a child.

What I have taken from this, is perhaps some encouragement toward understanding my children are growing, and that it is a process that sometimes can not always be hurried.

How To Talk So Kids Can Learn At Home And In School - Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

I've read a couple of other books by the same authors in their How To Talk series. How To Talk So Kids Can Learn is presented in the same style as the others, offering a whole host of experiences from a range of parents and teachers in dealing with children together with direct how-to examples.

The authors provide practical examples of how to talk to children in different situations, looking at feelings that can inhibit learning, skills that help children to cooperate, self-discipline, partnership between the parent and child, and praise among other key points.

Parenting and educating is not something that has come naturally to me. It is something that I really have to pay attention to and work on. I find the examples in this book really helpful in giving me some gentle guidelines and almost helps me to look at similar situations with my own children from a birdseye perspective; objectively.

If you want something to help you formulate dialogue and help your children to make sense of their feelings so they can learn, this is the book for you.

The Miracle Morning For Parents And Families - Hal Elrod and Mike & Lindsay McCarthy

I came across this book after reading The Miracle Morning and felt I benefited from it. The Miracle Morning For Parents and Families is essentially a parenting book that sets out how to get the best out of your family so you can all reach your full potential. To be honest a lot of it is common sense stuff, but sometimes we forget common sense and need a reminder!

It helps to show you how to take control as a parent of your family, taking into consideration the importance of adequate rest and nutrition - something rarely spoken about when it comes to discussing how to better manage children.
It provides practical guidance to become more productive and get all your ducks in a row so you can take responsibility for your actions in order to help your children thrive.

The 5 Love Languages Of Children - Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell

All children are different, and we know that children respond differently to different ways of communication. I look at my own children and I know that they each get lit up by different things.

The 5 Love Languages Of Children walks us through 5 different methods of communication that children commonly may ascribe to: words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, receiving gifts and acts of service.  Knowing which our children respond to can help us to be more effective in the way we communicate with them and let them feel loved.

This is an incredibly insightful read that can help you to get to know your children more and understand what they need from you to get their emotional tank filled. And when a child's emotional tank is filled, they are usually more responsive and eager to engage.

So there we have it, 10 (technically 12) more books to help you on your homeschool and parenting adventure.