Foundations for a Spiritual Education: Research of the Baha'i Writings
Prepared by the National Baha'i Education Task Force

As I am a Baha'i and believe that the Baha'i teachings reveal God's will and are the standard for all that I do, this book is the foundation and standard by which I judge all other resources, choose curriculum, and decided which direction to take in teaching and training my children. This book is simply a compilation of Baha'i Writings on the subject of education. It is very well-organized and includes topics such as: purpose of spiritual education, content of spiritual education, methods of discipline, etc. - the how, when, why, and what of training children to achieve their full potential as both a physical and spiritual being.

Living Values Activities for Children Ages 3-7
By Diane Tillman and Diana Hsu

This book has age-appropriate activities to teach the values of : peace, respect, love, responsibility, happiness, cooperation, honesty, humility, tolerance, simplicity, and unity. There are stories, games, art projects and songs. I find it's a fun way to work with my children on their moral development.

The Family Virtues Guide: Simple Ways to Bring Out the Best in Our Children and Ourselves
By Linda Kavelin Popov, Dan Popov, and John Kavelin

A practical guide to help families work together to develop spiritual qualities such as: Love, Responsibility, Self-Discipline, Trustworthiness, Truthfulness, Respect, and Consideration. The book contains 52 virtues to learn about and practice, one for each week of the year. This book is great for children of all ages.

Homeschooling: The Early Years
By Linda Dobson

This book is a good starting place for those who are starting out. It summarizes the findings of a questionnaire about how people homeschool. It illustrates the diversity of homeschooling methods, as well as the lessons learned as people gained experience as homeschoolers. It includes lots of helpful ideas. It directs you to lots of good resources (books and internet sites). It teaches you how to be a relaxed homeschooler (how to get started). It helps to remove your fears and anxieties and can give you the confidence to start.

The Well-Trained Mind
By Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer

An excellent resource for anyone wanting to learn how to provide a classical education. This book tells you exactly how to do it (what to teach, when to teach it, and how to teach it), what resources to use to teach absolutely everything from preschool to grade 12, and where to find the resources you will need.

The Read-Aloud Handbook
By Jim Trelease

This book talks about the importance of reading-aloud to your children from pre-birth to "as old as they'll listen to you". It cites many studies and much research into literacy and the who's and why's of early-readers and smart high-academic achievers. It also includes lists of recommended age-appropriate books. After reading this book, you might think that homeschooling is as easy as reading to your children everyday on a variety of subjects.

Phonics Pathways
By Dolores G. Hiskes

An excellent resource for teaching your child to read and spell using phonics.

How to Teach Your Baby to Read
By Glenn Doman and Janet Doman

This is the place to start, whether your child is a newborn or a toddler. It sounds crazy but thousands have succeeded, including us. It includes extremely simple steps to follow. It teaches you how to make the materials yourself at home. It takes only a few minutes a day.

How to Teach Your Baby Math
By Glenn Doman and Janet Doman

Believe it or not, you can start with a newborn. We're starting with our son at the age of 2, it's been a little challenging but we've just learned to really be intuitive about when and what he wants to learn. This book also contains extremely easy steps to follow and takes very little time out of your day. This book teaches quantity recognition (instantly knowing how many objects up to 100) all the way up to 4 number equations such as: 120 ÷ 15 x 6 + 34 = 82.

How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence: More Gentle Revolution
By Glenn Doman and Janet Doman

This book is: How to Teach Your Baby to Read, How to Teach Your Baby Math, and How to Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge all rolled into one. This book is ideal for someone who is interested in learning more about this "Revolution" but doesn't want to buy all the books. This book includes everything you need to know to teach these skills and make the materials but omits the age-specific learning techniques.

How to Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge
By Glenn Doman, Janet Doman, and Susan Aisen

This book shows you how to present any form of knowledge to your children in a way that is easy for them to understand. This book gives simple guidelines to creating quality materials to teach your child any type of fact. The production of these materials can be expensive and very time consuming. Be careful not to get too excited about this process and burn yourself out trying to make these materials.

How to Teach Your Baby to Be Physically Superb
By Glenn Doman and Douglas Doman

Teaching Montessori in the Home:The Pre-school Years
By Elizabeth G. Hainstock and Lee Havis

Instead of paying money to send Justice to a Montessori school, I bought this book and teach him at home. For social skills, I take him to the elementary school near our house and he plays with the kids at recess and lunch. He has also made a few friends in the neighbourhood and occasionally goes to a playgroup. I've found that Justice has discovered most of the things they teach in this book on his own by fiddling with things he finds around the house. I'm not as organized as the book recommends but the skills are learned nonetheless.

Animal Antics: Level One: Short Vowel Sounds (Now I'm Reading)
By Nora Gaydos

I highly, highly recommend this set of first readers. My son could read these books after only a few phonics lessons. The first few books contain mostly words with short vowel sounds (and a couple of sight words like: the). They are also beautifully illustrated. I DO NOT recommend the Bob Books (as so many other people seem to). I was not impressed with the black and white line drawings (for $18!!!) and the words in the book didn't seem like practical first reading words. I have looked high and low for good first readers - this set is the ONLY good one I've found so far.