{"id":3711,"date":"2019-09-30T00:01:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T04:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sawpublishing.com\/?p=3711"},"modified":"2019-10-02T15:37:01","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T19:37:01","slug":"your-forgotten-homeschooling-resource","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawpublishing.com\/your-forgotten-homeschooling-resource\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Forgotten Homeschooling Resource"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"You\u2019veWhich homeschooling resource is doing the best job of teaching your students this year?<\/p>\n

When I started writing this post, a certain memory came to my mind of a student at summer school. He didn\u2019t know he was at summer school, of course. Neither did most of the people who saw him. They thought, and he<\/em> thought, that he was just curled up on the floor of a church library, on a warm afternoon in July, deep in a story book while his parents were busy chatting after the service.<\/p>\n

But he was, nonetheless, at summer school.<\/p>\n

I am not prepared to state what subject he was studying, because I didn\u2019t go over and look at the book. But I am firmly confident that his education was going on, and that in addition to English vocabulary, punctuation, and grammar, he was silently absorbing some other lessons that will have an influence, one way or another, on the course of his life.<\/p>\n

\"You\u2019veEducation Doesn\u2019t Stop with School Hours<\/strong><\/h5>\n

We are all aware that children learn a lot when we aren\u2019t consciously teaching them. They learn from their environment. They learn from our example. They learn from the books that they read.<\/p>\n

Remember last time your baby dropped its soother, and your four-year-old scooped it up, dusted it off nonchalantly on her skirt, and handed it back to the baby, without missing a beat in her conversation the whole time? You didn\u2019t teach her to do that. She just saw someone else do it (we won\u2019t suggest who, but it probably wasn\u2019t a first-time-mom). She observed it. And she learned.<\/p>\n

We all acknowledge this phenomenon of unintentional education\u2014but what we sometimes fail to realize is that extracurricular instruction doesn\u2019t have to be quite as unintentional as it is.<\/p>\n

Books Are Powerful Teachers<\/strong><\/h5>\n

I\u2019m always torn when I come to discuss the topic of \u201cneutral\u201d literature. There\u2019s part of me that wants to say, \u201cThere is absolutely no such thing as a morally neutral book.\u201d Then I think about Peterson\u2019s Field Guide to Wildflowers<\/em> (or some such kindred volume, or class of volumes), and I\u2019m not quite so sure again.<\/p>\n

What I am sure about, is that there are very, very few neutral children\u2019s stories. They all teach some kind of lesson\u2014intentional or otherwise. If you child is reading, they are learning. It\u2019s simply a fact of life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This can be a bit of a frightening idea. After all, you\u2019re responsible, in the long run, for whether they\u2019re learning good or bad. And some children have an absolutely insatiable appetite for books! Those kids are learning just about every waking hour!<\/p>\n

Choosing the Books on Your Shelves<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Rather than feeling paralyzed by the power of the tool we\u2019re holding, let\u2019s embrace the magnificent potential of this incredible homeschooling resource. A well-stocked bookshelf can do more for your child\u2019s education than hours spent in curriculum research, lesson preparation, and worksheets.<\/p>\n

So what does the ideal homeschooling library look like? Here are a few pointers on the type of books that will make the most of the powerful resource in your hands:<\/p>\n