13 Good Books from my Homeschooling Shelf

Need ideas for books for you homeschooling shelf? Well listen up!

If you didn't know already, I'm a complete book nut. But really, as a homeschooler, being a book collector comes with the territory. I have a whole bookcase dedicated to homeschooling-related books; not necessarily curriculum, but books that I use in schooling the kids. I love looking through other people's bookshelves, so I thought I'd give you the chance to look over mine.

So with no further ado, here are 13 books (or sets of books as it ended up) from one of my homeschooling shelves — listed from left to right.

1. Story of the World (All 4 volumes: Ancient History, Middle Ages, The Modern Age, and Early Modern Times). We read through these books in two years and my kids have developed a love for history in part because of these books. I highly recommend them as read alouds for elementary-aged kids.

2. My math references: The Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Math, Algebra to Go, Math at Hand, Math on Call, and Math To Know. These are the books I go to when the kids are studying a particular topic in math on which I need to refresh my knowledge. My kids have also used these to review math topics before. These are indispensable!

3. The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. This is the full text that goes along with the New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook: Guided Practice in the Five Basic Skills of Drawing which my son completed earlier this year. I really liked the workbook — it produced great results for Jaden — so Jerah is going to be going through it next.

4. Easy Spanish Step-By-Step. This book is for myself, not the kids. I plan on using Rosetta Stone Spanish for the kids, but until I can afford to buy Rosetta, I can use this book to help me learn a little more Spanish.

5. Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? This is a book about economics that I'll be using with my kids in the next couple of years. I purchased this book mainly based on the recommendation on Cathy Duffy's site for a make-your-own economics curriculum.

6. The Thinking Toolbox and The Fallacy Detective. We read through The Fallacy Detective last year, and the kids and I learned so much. So this year we're going to start reading through The Thinking Toolbox, the semi-sequel to The Fallacy Detective. These books are a great way to introduce logical thinking to kids.

7. The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty. I picked this up at the used book store the other day. I'll be using it with our Beautiful Feet history curriculum next year.

8. Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers, by Patrick Kavanaugh. My husband has had this book since college, so I was excited to see that this was one of the main books used in the Beautiful Feet History of Classical Music curriculum that we're starting in a couple weeks. Excellent book!

9. Scholastic Dictionary Of Idioms, Scholastic Dictionary Of Spelling, and Scholastic Rhyming Dictionary. These three books are well-written reference books that my kids use occasionally. The idioms book is sometimes just fun to sit down and read aloud.

10. You Can Teach Your Child Successfully and The Three R's, by Ruth Beechick. I'm a huge fan of Ruth Beechick's philosophy of education. These books are excellent for beginning homeschoolers and a great resource for veterans as well. I checked these books out of the library when I first started homeschooling and they were a terrific help. You Can Teach Your Child Succesfully is about teaching 4th-8th graders and The Three R's is for K-3rd grade. I highly recommend these books!

11. Geography Bowl (Abeka). This is just a quiz book with various geography facts. The first couple years we used this book to learn the names and locations of various countries around the world. It was an easy way, at the time, for us to have some direction in what to learn on the map.

12. How to Read a Book, by Mortimer J. Adler. I've seen this book as one of the high school reading requirements with several homeschooling programs. It's a super book, one that at the very least, parents should read so they can teach the concepts to their kids.

13. The Magna Charta, by James Daugherty. I picked this book up used at the same time as The Landing of the Pilgrims. We'll be reading this book when we cover Middle Ages in history in a couple years. I've already read a different James Daugherty book, Of Courage Undaunted, (which is part of next year's history curriculum) and really enjoyed his writing. I think my kids will enjoy read his books as well.

Now that you've seen one of my homeschooling shelves, I'd love to see what's on yours. What are some of your favorite books on your shelf?

For more Thursday {Thirteen}, visit Happy to be at Home.