I remember the day my daughter realized homeschooling meant she would never ride the big yellow bus.
It wasn’t that she saw other kids on our street joyfully piling in. Most of our neighbors were in their eighties. We had the only school-aged kids on the block. But she had seen picture books about school, and every one of them featured happy-faced kids on a yellow bus.
Well, my daughter got over the bus (eventually), and we have really enjoyed homeschooling (most days). But what I wouldn’t have given for a picture book about homeschooling!
Well, here it is!
This Is My Home, This Is My School is one of the very few traditionally published picture books about homeschooling (at this time). And it is FANTASTIC!
Jonathan Bean does an amazing job showing the real, wonderful, messy, playful goodness of homeschooling. My kids especially love that the children in the book are the same genders/birth order they are. In fact, this is now my 4-year old’s favorite book.
To top it off, the author/illustrator was homeschooled himself. He includes some old photos and descriptions of his own life as a homeschooler in the end pages.
Jonathan Bean has several other delightful books including Big Snow and Building Our House, based on his parent’s experience of building their own house (the same house you see pictured in This Is My Home, This Is My School).
I’m sure it’s not on the same level as this book, but Charlie Goes to School by Ree Drummond (Charlie the Ranch Dog series) is about the dog’s response to the children being homeschooled. It’s one of the few other mainstream press portrayals that I’ve seen.
Yes, that’s actually the only other one I’ve seen! I’d love to see more picture books featuring homeschooled kids.