Books That Changed My Life

(Editor's Note: This is not a reccomended reading list for homeschool students. This is a reading list for mature readers ONLY! Please be certain your student is ready for heavy topics & has your guidance if you choose to allow them to read any book on this list.  As always, the more involved you are in mentoring, the better off your student's reading experience.) 

Let me be clear, this is NOT a list of my favorite books. Many of the books I am about to list would not even make my "top 10" as far as my actual favorite  books go.  By favorite I mean books that I enjoy reading, whether entertaining or instructing, they are books I enjoy again & again.  Books that I totally "geek out" over ... these ARE NOT those kind of books!

What these books ARE???

Game changing. Life altering. Soul wrenching.

These are the books that lifted the rose-colored glasses from my eyes. The books that, once read, changed the way I viewed my world, for better or for worse. 

Not all of these books will be grabbed off the shelf every year and poured over with delight. Actually, some of these books I read just the one time. The Bible being the obvious exception ... that Book is on my TBR list everyday!

I began this list whilst considering what books were important for my children to read before graduation. Some of these books I am still prayerfully considering since they changed me as a person so radically. Some due to their content, or form. Some due to my season of life, or perception of my world at that given time.  In short, please choose with your child considering where they are, and who they are, before suggesting any of the books listed below.  These books changed me ... for good, or worse, jaded, or joyful ... these books will change you.  You must decide if you want, or need to be changed.  

These books stripped away forever the lack of knowledge that I may have possessed,  and that changed how I viewed life. Helped form me as a person. Stories that made me see the truth.

"You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know." 

~ William Wilberforce

•The Bible

•The Diary of Anne Frank

•Gone With the Wind by: Margaret Mitchell

•Frankenstein by: Mary Shelley 

•To Kill A Mockingbird by: Harper Lee

•Les Misérables by: Victor Hugo

•The Giver by: Lowis Lowry

•All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

•1984 by: George Orwell

•East of Eden by: John Steinbeck 

•The Great Gatsby by: F. Scott Fitzgerald 

•The Sun Also Rises by: Earnest Hemingway

•Farenheight 451 by: Ray Bradbury

•Night by: Elie Weisel 

•Flowers for Algernon by: Daniel Keyes

•Middlemarch by: George Elliot

•The Giving Tree by: Shel Silverstien

•La Petit Prince by: Antoine de Saint-Exupery

What are your "Game Changer" books?

Joyfully Learning with You,

The Joyful Socks Mom 

Be sure to keep up with Joyful Socks on Pinterest, Twitter, & Instagram and our IG SHOP
 

** This post may contain affiliate links.  Thank you for your support. You can read my full disclosure policy here.**

Heather's Highly Recommended Helps: 

• Homeschool Mom Winter Summer - A weekend for the tired & overwhelmed home educator to fill-up & get refreshed! See you there!

No School Room, Just Home and Family Please

This is not a school.

This is a home. 

This is where we live.

This is also where we learn.  

Do we, as home educators, really need to recreate a "classroom" environment?

Learning is a part of our everyday life, and not a separate experience.  I find a dangerous bend in our society to constantly compartmentalize every aspect of our lives.  There is a real need in many families to keep every part of their lives separate. Work. Home. Church. Sports. School. All separate from one another. 

The urge to recreate a classroom, I believe, comes from we parents who were educated within the public school system.  We literally have an institutionalized mindset without even realizing.  It has taken me almost our entire homeschool journey to un-learn this mindset!

Why bother to focus on NOT having a school room or classroom in our home?

Really, it comes down to a real heart issue for me. When I am recreating the classroom for my children, I personally begin shifting attentions to an academic focus. 

Well that's a good thing, right?

Nope!!!

Home education is about RELATIONSHIP, not academic training!

We need to reach the hearts, minds & spirits of our children.  Sadly, I see the homeschooling movement shifting its focus toward academic training and away from the heart & soul training of our families.

I am not a homeschool mom that needs a homeschool room. I am a wife, and mother who educates at home, living our daily life is "classroom" enough for me.

Our life is not compartmentalized.

Our family has a life. This life is centered around Christ. That is our classroom.

Joyfully Learning with You,

The Joyful Socks Mom 

Be sure to keep up with Joyful Socks on Pinterest, Twitter, & Instagram and our IG SHOP
 

** This post may contain affiliate links.  Thank you for your support. You can read my full disclosure policy here.**

Heather's Highly Recommended Helps: 

• It is not too early to start planning your weekend at Summit next year . . . Be there!  Homeschool Mom Winter Summer
• Take a journey through Notebooking Success! Best notebooking resource for home educators. . .and beyond.