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Three R's at Home

Three R's At Home by Howard & Susan Richman, $7.95, 228 pp (ISBN: 0920446003). This book tells how the Richmans homeschooled from a young age and helps you see how you can homeschool younger children in a way that grows right out of reading to your children. These methods work! Two of the Richmans' always-homeschooled children got complete academic scholarships to college (Jesse and Molly), a third (Jacob) graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in computer science is now programming for Microsoft, and the fourth (Hannah) is still in high school at home.

The entire book can now be read online:

And here is how our family looked 15 years later:

Here's what others have written about The Three R's at Home

I would recommend it to anybody who likes humanity and likes growth. I got wonderful practical ideas from it which I put into use right away. It reads very nicely and it's difficult to put down, but I'm forcing myself to put it down because I want it to last longer!--Megan Tash

I feel this book is well worth the money. It is warmly written, as if the Richmans are sitting across the kitchen table from you... I guess it's the next best thing to being able to do just that! Sit down with your highlighter and enjoy.--Nancy Goodson in The Voice of the Alabama Home Educators.

This book provides an honest, detailed look into the life of one homeschooling family and provides enough generalization about learning to enable another family to use the ideas in the book to create their own "best way" to learn at home.--Colorado Homeschooling Network Newsletter.

I liked finding out how the Richmans solved the common questions of getting organized, finding time for Dad and the kids, giving Mom time off, etc., for themselves, often through trial and error, just as we all must. The book leaves you with a positive feeling that each of us can succeed in educating our children well through homeschooling.--Wendy Wartes in Washington State's Teaching Parents Association Newsletter.

There is so much warm support and refreshing good sense to be gained from this book. It is a must for every homeschooling family. Chapter headings include: reading to children, first steps toward reading, learning phonics, helping children learn to read, first steps toward writing, becoming a writer, math, tests and records, writing your own curriculum, getting organized, and finally, what we have learned (which is reading aloud is the foundation, first steps must not be rushed, finding a regular rhythm, keep sessions enjoyable, use real life situations, recognize accomplishments, establish a partners in learning relationship).--from the Winter 1989 Learning at Home Catalog.

I just finished your book, The Three R's at Home, and wanted to let you know how much I appreciated it. Partly it gives a very detailed real picture of day by day homeschooling that so many people first starting out or considering homeschooling need to know about. Also it made me feel so good to read about someone who's homeschooling so much like we are. We live in Alabama surrounded by families homeschooling for very different reasons and using very "schoolish" methods of teaching, while I've discovered all homeschooling families have experiences and goals in common to some extent, their approaches can be so different as to make real sharing awkward. We are one who use no "canned curriculum," and find ourselves constantly on the defensive at homeschooling get togethers about this, or at least the objects of good natured curiosity.--Barbara Smith

Veteran home schoolers Susan and Howard Richman share their earthy educational philosophy along with tons of stories about how they and their friends 'did it.' ... A really fun book to read.--Mary Pride

The Three R's at Home by Howard and Susan Richman is packed full of anecdotes and practical advice gleaned from these two educators' experience homeschooling their four children.--Gifted Children Monthly

I have been reading and re-reading and using your Three R's at Home as my main inspiration and resource for this entire first year (first "official" year) of homeschooling. There have been some difficult and frustrating days that were actually turned around totally after I read a few choice pages from your book. I have given this book as a gift to homeschooling friends and it is a treasure to them, too. Thanks for so much!--Cindy Truman

Your book The Three R's at Home was pressed into my hands by a friend from New Jersey who found out about it when she lived in Pennsylvania. We were on vacation at the time, and I read the book in the car constantly, risking serious carsickness! And even got up early to read a few more pages before "the troops" woke up. I kept it as long as I dared after we returned home, and it hurt to wrap it in brown paper and mail it back to my friend in Jersey! We're homeschooling our two children who are Tim (almost 5) and Debby (almost 3). Reading The Three R's at Home is almost like watching your home school in action, only better, because we not only hear about what you've done, but also why you've done it, and how it worked. I really need my own copy of the book, so my order and check are enclosed. Thanks for writing it--your experience is valuable, so valuable, to us novices.--from Elizabeth Messick

Thank you for your wonderful book, The Three R's at Home. It revitalized our homeschooling! I mean I've subscribed to GWS [Growing Without Schooling Magazine] for almost 9 years, read about every other book on homeschooling, known ever since my first born was a baby (almost nine years ago) that I was never going to send my children to school, but your book is the first one to give me practical workable ideas and has renewed my faith that homeschooling will work.--from Elaine Williamson