Currently Available Books - Natural Life Books

Our Currently Available Books

	New: It Hasn't Shut Me Up: A Memoir by Wendy Priesnitz. A memoir of mothering and daughtering in prose, poetry, and photographs. This is a highly personal piece of writing about overcoming our own oppressive and silencing parenting in order to offer our children a relationship that respects, honors, and trusts them to grow and develop with dignity. It is rooted in Wendy Priesnitz's childhood, but also in her growth as a woman and a mother who has learned from her past to honor her mother while nurturing her daughters. PDF digital format only, optimized for tablets or computers. Go here for more information about the book.

	Beyond School: Living As If School Doesn't Exist by Wendy Priesnitz. This is a long-awaited fourth book about life learning (also known as unschooling, radical unschooling, whole life unschooling, or self-education) by unschooling pioneer Wendy Priesnitz. Beyond School is a collection of seventeen essays about how families and individuals can live and learn without coercion or struggles, and with trust, respect, dignity...as if school doesn't exist. Together, they create an impassioned but well reasoned case for a different way of helping children and young people learn about today's world while becoming equipped to live in tomorrow's. PDF digital format only, optimized for tablets or computers. Go here for more information about the book.

	Food and Fellowship: Projects and Recipes to Feed a Community by Andrea Belcham. Save money, eat well, have fun, build community. This new book will save you money many times over by helping you to start and manage a food buying club and a batch cooking group. Includes detailed instructions and tips from the author's personal experience; 100 vegan recipes for your batch cook-ins; helpful tips for bulk buying, economizing, storing, and cooking whole foods; templates for recruiting, funding, and planning your food buying club and batch cooking group. This is the second title in the Natural Life Magazine Green Living Series. 222 pages. Softcover and E-book editions. Go here for more information about the book.

	Natural Life Magazine's Green & Healthy Homes by Wendy Priesnitz. The first in the Natural Life Magazine Green Living Series, this book will help you and your family make your home greener and healthier, and save money too. Includes tips on making your own cleaning supplies, advice about energy retrofits, how to avoid and clean up mold, sorting out the plastic controversy, conserving water, avoiding dangerous household chemicals, using organic cotton and hemp textiles for your home, doing a green home reno, understanding threats like electromagnetic radiation and radon, and much more. Updated and expanded natural family living information from the pages of Natural Life Magazine. 160 pages. Softcover and E-book editions. Go here for more information about the book.

	What Really Matters by David H. Albert & Joyce Reed (Introduction by Wendy Priesnitz, Foreword by John Taylor Gatto) - A treasury of intelligent, penetrating, heartfelt, and often good-humored conversations about children and education. David Albert and Joyce Reed are deeply experienced homeschooling parents and a delightful pair of writers. In this collection of essays, they share their thoughts and experiences, playing off each others' experiences with and ruminations about society, schools, children and learning...and showing by example how children and young people thrive when trusted to learn from life. This is the second book in the Natural Life Magazine Natural Parenting Series. 176 pages. Softcover and E-book editions. Go here for more information about the book.

	For the Sake of Our Children by Léandre Bergeron, translated by Pamela Levac (foreword by John Taylor Gatto) - A fascinating, informative and inspirational memoir in the form of a journal of a year in the life of a rural Quebec family that lives, works and learns together, from home birth through the self-directed learning of three teenaged girls. Léandre Bergeron is a well-known French Canadian author and activist who is a tireless champion for the underdog and has long advocated for educational, political and social reform and advises parents about homeschooling their own children. This is the first book in the Natural Life Magazine Natural Parenting Book Series. 128 pages. Softcover and E-book editions. Go here for more information about the book.

	Life Learning: Lessons from the Educational Frontier edited by Wendy Priesnitz - A unique collection of 30 essays about the philosophy and the experience of living the unschoolng lifestyle. A great introduction to this progressive style of education, written by parents and young people who have experienced it first hand. Includes learning to read and do math without being taught, the importance of unstructured play, learning when you’re ready, what’s wrong with curriculum, trusting children to do their best naturally, a grandparent’s reaction to unstructured homeschooling, learning in the real world, parents as role models, self-reliance in life and learning, and much more. 192 pages. Softcover and E-book editions. Go here for more information about the book, including a list of essays and authors.

	Challenging Assumptions in Education: From Institutionalized Education to a Learning Society by Wendy Priesnitz - Why our assumptions about children and how they learn aren't preparing them for life in the 21st Century. And what parents and policy makers can do to change the situation for the better. This controversial book explains why unschoolers (also known as life learners) help their children live and learn without schooling, and provides inspiration and support for families who have chosen that exciting path. It also challenges progressive-minded non-unschooling readers – including teachers, parents, and legislators – to revolutionize the public education system, using what homeschoolers know about how children learn. 128 pages. Softcover and E-book editions. Go here for more information about the book, including an excerpt and recommendation by John Taylor Gatto.

	School Free – The Homeschooling Handbook by Wendy Priesnitz - A completely revised, e-book edition has just been published of this best-selling home-based learning handbook that was first written in 1987 by an internationally known and respected unschooling pioneer. All you need to know to help your children learn at home. Homeschooling topics covered include: legalities, guiding self-directed learning, assessment, writing and/or choosing curriculum (or not using it all), computers and learning, dealing with objections, socialization, going to high school after unschooling, getting support, dealing with school officials, and much more. An extremely useful, one-of-a-kind guide to home-based, independent learning. Earlier editions of this book have received dozens of enthusiastic reviews and hundreds of unsolicited testimonials from parents. 140 pages. E-book edition (An unrevised print edition is available in limited quantities.) Go here for more information about the book, including excerpts from some reviews and a table of contents.

	Bringing It Home – A Home Business Start-Up Guide by Wendy Priesnitz - A goldmine of ideas and insight from Natural Life Magazine's owner and editor, who also founded the Home Business Network and who has worked at home for over thirty-five years and trained women home business owners for ten years. Hundreds of tips on how to research and start a successful home business – and how to run it profitably, efficiently, and enjoyably. Learn the least stressful way to operate a business that's right for you...from your home. Included is how-to information about generating business ideas, recognizing opportunities, conducting market research, writing a Business Plan, designing your home workspace, motivating yourself, juggling family and work, setting prices and managing finances, establishing a professional business identity, marketing your product or service and much more. PDF digital format only, optimized for tablets or computers. Go here for more information about the book, including a table of contents and excerpt.

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Natural Life Books specializes in adult non-fiction about ways that families and individuals can live and learn on Planet Earth in a healthy, socially responsible, environmentally sound, self-reliant manner. We are the retail division of The Alternate Press, an imprint of Life Media, an independent, family-owned book and magazine publishing house established in 1976. We are proud to publish some of the most progressive books and other information products about homeschooling and life learning (also known as unschooling) in the world.

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