the network for radical unschooling families

Books for young kids that "advertise" homeschooling

A friend of mine is complaining that her 4 year old says she wants to go to school next year because of all the school propaganda in the kids' magazine she reads. I mentioned to her that there are at least two "homeschool propaganda" books (by that I just mean: books where the main characters are homeschooled):

Freya and Heath are home educated
http://www.lulu.com/content/563010

and

Adventures of the Homeschoolers: The Genie in the Teapot
http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Homeschoolers-GENIE-TEAPOT/dp/1847...
or
http://www.lulu.com/content/695583

by Liz Pilley

does anybody know of any other such books?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rain Fordyce on August 21, 2009 at 7:59am: I wrote such a story :) In fact the characters are unschooled, though the wording doesn't exactly say so. Actions speak louder, however!

Go to homeschooladventurebooks.com
If you write a message to me that you found me on familyrun I will sign it for free to your child :)

smiles and joy,
Rain

PS thanks Shaina!!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Radical Mama on August 24, 2009 at 7:47pm: Ironically, I just asked for some books from another group that I am in, and I got this response:

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan. It's our absolute favorite unschooling friendly book. Great book!
Chicken Friend by Nicola Morgan was okay too, but my kids couldn't relate to the main character very well. They've never been in school so they couldn't understand why it was so important for her to be friends with the "popular" girls if she didn't really like them, or why she would ever want to go back to school. It may not be appropriate for all kids though, so you might want to read it first before you read it to your kids.
It's difficult to find fiction with unschooling or homeschooling characters. They are often filled with steretypes or are just nothing like the way we live. But here are a few others that we've found and like okay:
the Monsters in the Mailbox series by Dian Curtis Regan (Monster of the Month Club, Monsters in the Attic, etc.)
The Ruby Slipper School series by Stacy Towle Morgan
Shouldn't You Be In School? by Angelina Hart (not the best book, but written by and illustrated by a homeschooling family)

And these books were recommended to me, but I haven't found all of them yet:

The Adventures of Lil' Wolf, Twinkie, Toes, and Flower Girl in the Homeschool Forest by Jacqueline Campos

Cross Country Treasure Hunt (and the Mystery That Followed) by Gwen Lepkowski

Baby Kong or Grumpy Mr. Grady by Scott Stroud

Stargirl and Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Alice, I Think by Susan Juby

Jess (an American Girl Today book) by Mary Casanova

The Homeschool Liberation League by Lucy Frank

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield

No More School by Meg Harper; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Hema A Bharadwaj on August 28, 2009 at 9:42pm: Bea,
Thanks for this thread. I never thought to ask or search for such books.
It reminds me of a book i found about 3 years ago... and i can't remember the title... so anyone know of this please do chime in.

Description: A soft-cover illustrated book. Shows the start of an RV journey taken by a family in Australia. There are 3 children. The parents decide to take a sabbatical from work and travel around the periphery, by the coast, except for one or 2 paths leading towards the middle of Australia. The illustrations beautifully depict famous ports etc that they stop at. and there are little jokes written like blurbs all around the edges of a page. One of them Raghu, who was then 3, still remembers: A pelican's beak can hold more than its belly can. :-)

I shall ask Arun over at the parenting pit... perhaps an Australian parent would know this book. Its more a homeschooling rather than an unschooling book i think. Shall get back to you if i find the title. Hema; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sarah Dickinson on August 30, 2009 at 9:42am: I wrote this for my boys - I wanted something about self-directed learning and it had to have dragons and mice (I didn't quite manage to get guinea pigs in too!).

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/dragons-dont-go-to-schoo...

To be honest I haven't thought that much about making it appealing to others so you'll have to judge yourself! But what they wanted wasn't out there so I made it, ah the wonders of the internet!

I haven't even had my test-copy yet so apologies if there are major typos or anything!

The Freya and Heath books went down quite well but didn't have dragons :)

Sarah; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Amanda on August 31, 2009 at 8:31pm: What an awesome idea! I never thought really about getting a homeschooling book for DD. Definitely going to get a few of these! Thanks :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lisa M. Cottrell-Bentley on October 18, 2009 at 5:09am: I, too, wrote such a story. :) I have written a series of children's chapter books about a homeschooling family (unschooled, actually) who live in an RV and travel the USA. Each book is set in a different state with a different fun theme. The series is called "Wright on Time". The first book, "Wright on Time: Arizona, Book 1" came out in August 2009. The second, "Wright on Time: Utah, Book 2", comes out in December 2009.

Check out www.WrightOnTimeBooks.com to see what the series is all about! :)

-Lisa; ▶ Reply to This