Review
What are the three little words that children don't hear often enough from parents? According to William Russell, they are "I don't know." In a Family Learning household, parents follow those words with three more: "Let's find out!" Family Learning is looking at the world and asking "why?" or "how?" of the things around us. Despite being organized around typical school subjects (language, math, science, history), this book emphasizes fun, creative, out-of-school learning activities that can be modified for a variety of ages. How about learning geography by hunting for local benchmarks? Or reading aloud with phonetic punctuation ala Victor Borge? Russell provides a calendar of events and birthdays of famous people to link topics to particular days or times of year, but intends that parents and children let their own curiosity determine where Family Learning takes them. In fall, for example, when children ask "Why do leaves change color?" parents can turn to this accurate, well-written text for the answer. Margin symbols quickly guide readers to activities, although it would have been nice to see mom pictured as the group leader sometimes. Russell's approach relies mostly on items already in our homes (e.g., coins, road maps) and on public library books, making it accessible to any concerned parent (or teacher) willing to get involved in active learning. -- From Independent Publisher
