Using the Tuttle Twins in Your Homeschool

Why the Tuttle Twins Work So Well for Homeschoolers

Homeschool families have an enormous advantage over traditional schooling in one specific area: they can teach the things schools won't. Economics, civics rooted in natural rights, entrepreneurship, and the philosophical foundations of freedom are either absent from most school curricula or treated superficially. For families who believe these subjects are essential — and they are — the question is how to teach them well.

The Tuttle Twins series was built for exactly this gap. Created by Connor Boyack, each book adapts a classic work of economic or political philosophy into an engaging story for children. The series isn't a textbook — it's a story-first curriculum that treats children as capable of understanding real ideas when they're presented at the right level.

What makes it particularly useful for homeschoolers is that the series has multiple tracks. The illustrated books (ages 5–11) are perfect for early elementary. The activity workbooks extend each book into structured exercises. The guidebooks take things further with analytical content appropriate for upper elementary and middle school. And the Teen series and Choose Your Consequence books carry older students into high school territory.

Grade-Level Overview: What to Use When

The Tuttle Twins series maps naturally onto grade levels, though the ranges are flexible — a particularly mature nine-year-old might be ready for content aimed at eleven-year-olds, and that's fine. Use the following as a guide, not a rule.

Early Elementary (K–2nd Grade)

The illustrated Tuttle Twins books are at their best here. At this age, you're reading aloud and using the stories as conversation starters rather than formal lessons. The goal is to build a mental map of key ideas — fairness, rules, trade, helping others — that more formal economics education will later hang on.

How to Use the Books at This Stage

Read one book over the course of a week — either one sitting or split across two or three days. After you finish, don't quiz your child. Instead, have a brief (five to ten minute) conversation using the discussion questions in the back of each book. Then move on.

The workbooks are available for many titles, but at this age they're optional. Use them if your child is interested. Don't force them if it turns reading into work.

Suggested K–2nd Grade Reading Order

1. The Tuttle Twins Learn About the Law — rules, authority, and fairness
2. The Tuttle Twins and the Miraculous Pencil — specialization and trade
3. The Tuttle Twins and the Golden Rule — voluntary cooperation vs. coercion
4. The Tuttle Twins and the Road to Surfdom — central planning and markets
5. The Tuttle Twins and the Creature from Jekyll Island — money and banking (simplified)

Don't worry about perfect comprehension. At this age, you're building familiarity with the vocabulary of freedom — and a growing sense that these ideas are interesting and worth thinking about.

Upper Elementary (3rd–5th Grade)

By third grade, most children can read the Tuttle Twins books independently. This is also when the activity workbooks become genuinely valuable — they're designed to extend the ideas in each book through age-appropriate exercises that build analytical thinking alongside subject knowledge.

The Workbook Strategy That Actually Works

Don't assign the workbook as homework. Do it together, or at minimum, review it together afterward. The most valuable thing about the workbooks isn't the written exercises — it's the discussion they prompt. When your child writes an answer to "What do you think would happen if the government set all prices?", their answer is the beginning of a conversation, not the end of a lesson.

Key Books for 3rd–5th Grade

At this stage, the books that involve entrepreneurship and economics are especially well-suited. Children this age are just starting to understand that their choices have consequences in the real world — and the series meets them there.

• The Tuttle Twins and their Spectacular Show Business — profit, loss, entrepreneurship
• The Tuttle Twins and the Search for Atlas — productivity and value creation
• The Tuttle Twins and the Messed Up Market — supply, demand, and price signals
• The Tuttle Twins Lessons from Ronald Reagan — real history with economic context
• America's History — a narrative history of freedom in America

Essential for Upper Elementary

Tuttle Twins Guidebook Bundle

The guidebook bundle includes the activity workbooks that turn each Tuttle Twins story into a two-week unit. Includes comprehension exercises, critical thinking questions, vocabulary work, and application activities. This is where the books go from good reads to a genuine curriculum.

Get the Guidebook Bundle →

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Middle School (6th–8th Grade)

Middle school is the best time to shift from story-based learning to principle-based learning. Your student can now read a chapter of a book and identify the underlying argument. They can debate a position they don't personally hold. They can write a coherent paragraph defending an economic claim. The Tuttle Twins guidebooks at this level — combined with the graphic novels and begin to read original sources — are ideal.

Introducing Original Sources Alongside the Tuttle Twins

Each Tuttle Twins book is based on a classic text. By sixth or seventh grade, your student can start reading short excerpts of those original works alongside the children's version. This creates a powerful compare-and-contrast exercise: "Here's what Bastiat actually said — how did the book translate it? What did it simplify? What did it keep?"

Good pairings for middle school:

• The Tuttle Twins Learn About the Law + excerpts from Bastiat's The Law
• The Tuttle Twins and the Road to Surfdom + Hayek's preface to The Road to Serfdom
• The Tuttle Twins and their Spectacular Show Business + chapter from Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson

These aren't assigned for full comprehension — they're assigned to show your student that there's a world of serious thought behind the stories they've already enjoyed. The curiosity that creates is the point.

Writing Projects for Middle School

Each Tuttle Twins unit at this level should include a written component. The goal isn't a formal essay every time — it's the discipline of writing down an economic or civic argument. Good prompts:

• "Explain in your own words why price controls usually make shortages worse."
• "Write a letter from the perspective of a business owner explaining why a new regulation is helping or hurting you."
• "Pick one decision a character made in this book. Argue that they were right or wrong, using evidence from the story."
• "Find one news story this week that connects to an idea in the book. Write a paragraph explaining the connection."

High School (9th–12th Grade)

By high school, a student who has grown up with the Tuttle Twins series has something most high schoolers don't: a working conceptual vocabulary for economics and political philosophy. They know what spontaneous order means. They understand price signals. They can explain the broken window fallacy. Now the job is to deepen and challenge that foundation.

The Tuttle Twins Teen Series

The Teen series is written for ages 14–18. These books are longer, more complex, and designed for students who are thinking seriously about their worldview, their future, and how the world works. They work as standalone texts or as the capstone to the younger series.

The Choose Your Consequence books take a different approach — they're interactive narratives where the reader's choices determine the outcome. This format is unusually effective for teenagers who want agency in their learning. The economic and civic consequences of different choices play out in real time, making abstract principles feel immediate and personal.

Building a High School Economics Course Around the Tuttle Twins

Here is a sample one-semester framework for a high school economics course that uses the Tuttle Twins Teen series alongside original source texts:

Cross-Subject Connections

One of the greatest strengths of the Tuttle Twins series for homeschoolers is how naturally it connects to other subjects. You don't have to treat it as a separate "economics class" — it integrates into history, reading, writing, math, and even social studies across all age levels.

Which Bundle Should You Start With?

If you're new to the Tuttle Twins and want to start with a solid foundation for your homeschool, here's how to think about the options:

Best for Homeschool Families

The Mega Bundle

The most cost-effective way to get the full illustrated series. If you have children spanning multiple age groups, or if you're planning to work through the series systematically, the Mega Bundle is the right starting point. It gives you the full story library without needing to purchase individual titles. Add workbooks as you work through each book.

Get the Mega Bundle →

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Best for Structured Learning

The Guidebook Bundle

If you want a more structured homeschool curriculum with built-in exercises and activities, add the Guidebook Bundle to the core series. This is especially valuable for upper elementary and middle school students who benefit from the analytical extension the workbooks provide. Together, the books and guidebooks form a complete economics and civics curriculum for grades 3 through 8.

Get the Guidebook Bundle →

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Frequently Asked Questions