Resources to Explore

Congratulations! You've read the only book you'll ever need about learning and education.

Okay, maybe not. This is our story and our perspective. And we arrived here with help from many sources—our own educators, our community of parents, and teachers we've learned from through their books and learning materials.

We're blessed to live in an era where the world's best educators and experts are a click away. But as we've stressed throughout this playbook, learning isn't theoretical or cognitive—it's everything mixed together. It must be leavened with experience.

With that said, here are books, articles, and resources we've found useful, thought-provoking, and interesting—even when we didn't agree with everything in them. Think of this as us passing you a dog-eared book across the table saying, "This one changed how we think. See what you make of it."

How Children Learn by John Holt

Published in 1967, this book has become the gateway text for generations of homeschoolers and alternative educators. A former teacher with no formal education training, Holt spent years simply observing how children actually learn when left to their own devices. The result is a collection of astonishing insights that remain as fresh and relevant today as they were over 50 years ago. What makes this book special is Holt's keen eye for the small moments most adults miss: a child figuring out mathematical concepts through play, another teaching herself to read through meaningful engagement with text. These observations led him to a revolutionary conclusion: children learn best when they decide the what, when, and how, driven by curiosity, not external demands. For many families questioning conventional education, Holt's book is often their first exposure to the radical idea that maybe schools aren't the problem, maybe schooling itself is.

Free to Learn by Peter Gray

If Holt is our gentle guide, Peter Gray is our enthusiastic cheerleader armed with research. Gray argues that for most of human history, children educated themselves through self-directed play and exploration. He shows how profoundly capable they are of steering their own learning. This book gave us courage to grant more autonomy to our kids.

We have forgotten that children are designed by nature to learn through self-directed play and exploration, and so, more and more, we deprive them of freedom to learn, subjecting them instead to the tedious and painfully slow learning methods devised by those who run the schools. — Peter Gray, Free To Learn

The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik

Gopnik uses a beautiful metaphor: Traditional parents (and teachers) often act like carpenters, trying to chisel kids into a specific shape. But we should be gardeners – creating a rich environment and letting children grow in their own quirky ways. This captures the Comini ethos perfectly: we prepare the soil and pull the weeds, but we don't predetermine what kind of flower or magnificent tree sprouts.

So our job as parents is not to make a particular kind of child. Instead, our job is to provide a protected space of love, safety, and stability in which children of many unpredictable kinds can flourish. Our job is not to shape our children's minds; it's to let those minds explore all the possibilities that the world allows. Our job is not to tell children how to play; it's to give them the toys and pick the toys up again after the kids are done. We can't make children learn, but we can let them learn. — Alison Gopnik, The Gardener and the Carpenter

Every Child Can by Kiran Bir Sethi

Sethi, founder of the Riverside School in Ahmedabad, shares a wonderful vision of education that is not only child-centered but also community-changing. What inspired us was seeing how a distinctly Indian educational initiative places such emphasis on empathy, experimentation, and social change. Children need freedom to explore interests. They also need support in making meaningful community contributions. Sethi's work demonstrates both.

Journey of the Mind by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam

We can't leave this one out, as it's written by one of us (Sai). But humor aside, this book has profoundly shaped our thinking about learning. It lays out a systems perspective of neuroscience, showing that real learning isn't about accumulating facts but building a web of experiences, which shape us, help us grow, and become. What was profound wasn't just the book itself, but the process of putting it together, which compelled a deep dive into learning in order to tell a story. That process built deeper, richer connections than any curriculum could have prescribed, demonstrating in a very personal way how the mind grows through exploration, not instruction.

Making Learning Whole by David Perkins

Perkins challenges the fragmented approach of conventional curriculum with a powerful alternative: start with the whole game. Instead of drilling isolated skills, let children experience simplified versions of the real thing. Whether it's cricket or chemistry, children engage more deeply when they see the purpose behind what they're learning. Perkins writes, "A certain amount of learning about, just like a certain amount of elements first, is fine. The problem is overdoing it. The problem is endless learning about something without ever getting better at doing it." This idea transformed how we structure our themes and projects at Comini, focusing on meaningful wholes rather than disconnected parts.

Lifelong Kindergarten by Mitchel Resnick

Resnick leads MIT's research on how children learn through what he calls the 4Ps: Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play. These four elements have become central to how we think about learning at Comini. His research shows that even serious STEM learning works best when it's driven by children's interests, involves making things, happens in community, and maintains a spirit of playfulness. Resnick observes, "Most schools in most countries place a higher priority on teaching students to follow instructions and rules (becoming A students) than on helping students develop their own ideas, goals, and strategies." His framework gives us confidence to prioritize creativity over compliance.

Finnish Lessons by Pasi Sahlberg

Finland's education system has become world-renowned, and Sahlberg's book explains why. Their approach—less testing, more play, later start to formal academics, high teacher autonomy—has created not just high achievement but high well-being. What struck us most was how Finland trusts teachers as professionals and values childhood as a time for development, not just academic preparation. While we can't transplant their system wholesale, their success gives us confidence that our child-centered, play-based approach has been proven to work at a national scale. Sahlberg shows that high standards and child-friendly practices aren't opposites—they're partners.

This collection of essays offers perspectives from parents and grown unschoolers about learning without school. The standout piece, "Schooling: The Hidden Agenda" by Daniel Quinn, gets to the heart of why conventional education often feels so disconnected from real learning. Quinn argues that traditional schooling isn't primarily about knowledge acquisition but about training children to accept certain authority structures and worldviews. This provocative essay helped us understand why simply improving curriculum isn't enough—we need to reimagine the entire relationship between adults, children, and learning.

Grit by Angela Duckworth

Duckworth explores what makes some people persist in the face of challenges while others give up. Her research on "grit"—a combination of passion and perseverance—has given us language to talk about what we observe at Comini: children who follow their genuine interests develop remarkable staying power. What we value about Duckworth's work isn't just her findings, but her emphasis on the importance of purpose. When children connect their efforts to something meaningful, they develop the resilience that no gold star system can create.

Mindset by Carol Dweck

Dweck's research on fixed versus growth mindset revolutionized how we think about praising children. Rather than telling them they're "smart," we focus on their efforts, strategies, and persistence. This simple shift helps children see challenges as opportunities to grow rather than threats to their identity. At Comini, we've seen how children who believe their abilities can develop through dedication and hard work take on harder challenges and recover more quickly from setbacks.

Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn

Kohn's thesis is simple but powerful: Dangling rewards (or threats of punishment) in front of kids might get short-term compliance, but it kills true learning. Even a casual "Good job!" or gold star can undermine a child's interest by turning their focus to the reward. We've seen it in action: when our kids take on challenges, it's because they want to, not because we've offered candy or praise.

The School of Life by Alain de Botton

While not specifically about childhood education, de Botton's work has influenced how we think about the purpose of learning. He argues that education should prepare us not just for work but for life—helping us navigate relationships, understand ourselves, and find meaning. This broader vision of education aligns perfectly with our whole-child approach at Comini. It reminds us that academic skills matter, but so do emotional intelligence, self-knowledge, and the capacity for joy.

Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp

For parents concerned about whether their children are "keeping up," Rupp offers a comprehensive guide to what children typically learn at different ages. What we appreciate about her approach is that she presents this information not as a rigid checklist but as a flexible resource.

We're often asked what materials we recommend for home learning spaces. The truth is, you don't need fancy educational toys or expensive kits. Some of the most engaging materials are surprisingly simple:

These colorful magnetic building tiles have become a staple in our learning space. They invite spatial reasoning, architectural thinking, pattern creation, and collaborative building. We've watched children create everything from simple houses to elaborate castles, learning about geometry, stability, and symmetry along the way. Unlike some construction toys, they work well across age groups – from toddlers making simple shapes to older children building complex 3D structures.

There's something almost magical about a collection of smooth stones. Children sort them, count them, create patterns with them, use them as characters in stories, or incorporate them into art. Unlike plastic counters, pebbles connect mathematics to nature – each one unique in shape, weight, and texture while still part of a countable set. When a child holds three pebbles and says "I have three," they're experiencing the concept of "three-ness" through touch, sight, and movement. No worksheet can match that kind of embodied learning.

Games offer rich opportunities for strategic thinking, social negotiation, and mathematical reasoning. We love Settlers of Catan for older children, Hexpert for spatial thinking, and themed trump cards (animals, vehicles, landmarks) that spark comparison and discussion. These games develop thinking skills more effectively than drill-based "educational" games. The best ones have simple rules but deep possibilities and create natural contexts for both competition and cooperation.

We've shared books that shaped our thinking, communities that inspired us, and materials that support rich exploration. But the most important resource isn't on any list. It's you – the adult who chooses to see children with fresh eyes, to trust their natural drive to learn, to create spaces where curiosity can flourish.

What children need most isn't a perfect curriculum or expensive materials. It's relationships with people who pay attention and believe in their capacity. That's something any parent, any teacher, anyone who cares about children can offer.

We built Comini because we believe learning can and should be playful, joyful, and meaningful. These aren't just nice words or educational buzzwords – they're qualities that make life itself worth living. When children experience learning as a natural extension of their whole being rather than as something imposed from outside, they become more fully alive humans who approach the world with openness and engagement.

If we can create education that embodies these qualities – that makes space for play, that honors joy, that connects to what matters – we're not just preparing children for some future life. We're helping them live well now, and we're showing them by example that life itself can be approached with the same spirit of adventure and delight.

Thank you for joining us on this journey.