A little disclosure... We use affiliate links in some of our posts. If you click and buy a product we might get a few pennies in commission. We'll only ever recommend stuff we like and use ourselves. Thank you from the bottom of our hopefully healthy, most certainly curious and occasionally furious little hearts.
We’ve read many books since we started our home ed journey. Here’s a list of our favourite unschooling and home education book recommendations. They have had a profound effect on us as parents and the way we choose to live our lives.
Changing Our Minds
by Naomi Fisher
In her book, “Changing Our Minds: How Children Can Take Control of Their Own Learning”, Dr. Naomi Fisher takes the idea of “kids should be kids” to the next level and suggests that traditional schooling might actually be holding kids back from being the best version of themselves. Instead of training kids like Pavlov’s dogs, Fisher says we should let them take charge of their own education and trust kids to learn in their own way with the guidance and support of trusted adults and peers.
Dr. Fisher even has tips for parents who want to give their kids more control, but are worried about how to make that work with their busy schedules. So go ahead, let your kids be kids (and also mini-educators) and see where their curiosity takes them!
Every knows that kids brains work at light-speed, so why waste this amazing period of their life on the large platter of irrelevancy that is served in schools.
“Changing Our Minds” is an easy read and our top home education book recommendation. We thoroughly recommend you follow Dr. Naomi Fisher on Facebook too.
Free To Learn
by Peter Gray
In ‘Free to Learn,’ Peter Grey argues that traditional schooling is like trying to teach a fish to climb a tree. It just doesn’t make any sense! Grey says we should let kids be free to follow their own interests and passions. He calls this ‘unschooling,’ which is kind of like homeschooling/home-education, but it tears up the rule books of linear learning and set curricula.
Grey says stresses the important of play for learning and that grades and tests are like handcuffs for kids’ brains. This is something the best performing schools in the world (Scandinavia) recognise. Our opinion is that deep learning only takes place when one is able to play with new knowledge and skills. It’s great to hear that idea has long been supported by such a renowned psychologist and academic.
Grey also talks about how parents can be like personal trainers for their kids’ learning journey and how socialisation isn’t just about making friends at school. As adults we can be facilitators of children’s learning rather than their overlord directors.
He goes in to detail about Sudbury Valley school in Massachusetts, which applies the unschooling principle to a dedicated and democratic learning centre. We’ve taken a lot of inspiration from reading about the Sudbury. One of our longer term goals is to establish our own take of this, here in the UK.
Basically, ‘Free to Learn’ makes the point that school is overrated and we should just let kids be free to explore and learn about the world on their own terms. And if that means they want to spend all day building a giant LEGO city or absorb an entire series of cartoons on TV in one afternoon, then so be it!
Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers
by Gabor Maté and Gordon Neufeld
“Hold on to Your Kids” is a book that will make you laugh, cry, and question everything you thought you knew about parenting. It’s a must-read for any parent who wants to keep their kids from becoming a hot mess in today’s peer-obsessed world. Neufeld and Maté explain why it’s so important to be the most influential person in your child’s life. This book will have you saying, “I wish I had read this years ago!”