One of the challenges facing home-school parents is finding a wealth of suitable reading material for their children as they grow. Although we used the Robinson curriculum, which supplies us with K-18 books to print, they are American and not all were suitable for us in the UK. Plus all families will add and subtract from any list, according to their interests and standards. Here are some books that we have enjoyed. We were very particular about the drawings in the books we chose. We didn't like distortions of people (Made in God's image, so we felt these were not God-honouring), so didn't give our children books with comic/modern style pictures. The literature we choose is a model to our children of our standards. It forms their minds. If they get a taste for entertainment style books, it is difficult to change them to more serious things later on. Good quality writing and good quality art work were a must for us as well as suitable content and no witchcraft. For this reason we were happy for them to choose fairly freely from the non-fiction department at the library, but rarely let them choose fiction books from there. All books had to pass our test. As they grew we explained our reasoning and what was wrong with the books we avoided. They never complained, as they had learnt not to judge a book by it's cover and some of our best stories have come in the most old and battered covers! As our children have got older we have encouraged them away from fiction to more profitable reading as we didn't want them to be addicted to fiction as they entered adult hood, as that too can be a form of entertainment and often unwholesome. Therefore, our fiction was mainly 'with a purpose'; stories woven around history, or of missionaries, rather than fantasy. Some of these books might be available free on-line. Hwoever we personally have never encouraged the reading of e-books, feeling that real books are a better reading experience as overreliance on screens is not a good thing to encourage; we respect others may feel differently on this subject, especially if on-line copies are all you can access. We always print them out, copyright allowing. For Bible reading, we always use the Authorised Bible, not because we are dinosaurs, but because: it is the most accurate translation from the original texts; it is easy to read; it is the best standard of language for our children to emulate; it is easily memorable and doesn't keep changing; it has stood the test of time, which most other translations have not, soon passing out of fashion; it is discreet in it's reference to more intimate subjects. It has never been a problem with our children who have been trained to use it since they were tiny. If you don't understand something you can always look it up and learn in the process. Even God's Word has been dumbed down. Let's not accept second best!
Build your own God-honouring library. Surround your children with good books and remove distracting screens. Teach them to read. Watch them blossom and flourish!
For more articles on understanding the times and how to choose books wisely see here: