Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School [Paperback]

Grace Llewellyn (Author), Amy Silver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 3, 2001

GUERRILLA LEARNING IS CREATING A HOME ENVIRONMENT THAT FILLS YOUR CHILD WITH THE JOY OF LEARNING

Let your daughter read her library books instead of finishing her homework . Ask your eleven-year-old's beloved third grade teacher to comment on his poetry. Invite a massage therapist to dinner because your daughter wants to go to massage school instead of college. Give your child the freedom to pursue his interests, develop her strengths, cultivate self-discipline, and discover the joy of learning throughout life.

If you've ever felt that your child wasn't flourishing in school or simply needs something the professionals aren't supplying, you're ready to become a "guerrilla educator." Revolutionary and inspiring, Guerrilla Learning explains what's wrong (and what's useful) about our traditional schools and shows you how to take charge of your family's education to raise thinking, creative young people despite the constraints of traditional schooling.

Filled with fun and exciting exercises and projects to do with children of all ages, this remarkable approach to childhood, education, and life will help you release your child's innate abilities and empower him or her in the wider world that awaits beyond the school walls.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Llewellyn, a lecturer on the subject of home schooling and author of the classic Teenage Liberation Handbook, and Silver, who teaches parenting workshops, have come together to write this how-to book for parents who want to become more involved in their children's education whether through home schooling or by supplementing traditional instruction. The authors offer five fundamental principles opportunity, timing, freedom, interest, and support that, they claim, will transform the way we relate to our children and greatly assist them in growing up to be joyful, passionate creators. Useful for parents and teachers alike, this valuable book closely examines how young people learn and illuminates its practical advice with many stories that make for both insightful and enjoyable reading. Whatever schooling venue parents choose, this book will help them instill a lifelong love of learning in their children. For large public and school libraries. Samuel T. Huang, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A new school year is a lot like New Year's Day; it offers the chance to wipe the slate clean and make a fresh start, the chance to move ahead in new and productive ways and the chance to work harder and do better than you did the year before. If you've made a new school year "resolution" to help your child succeed in school this fall, you'll need to some homework. Here is a new book to put in your backpack before the first bell rings.
"...In Guerilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School Grace Llewellyn and Amy Silver focus on homeschooling, or education outside the traditional classroom, but they too contend that when adults embrace life with wonder and excitement, the children observing them as role models will be more likely to as well. Guerilla Learning means "taking responsibility for your own education" and supporting your children as they learn to do the same." (Linda Stankard, BookPage, August 2001)

Llewellyn, a lecturer on the subject of home schooling and author of the classic Teenage Liberation Handbook, who teaches parenting workshops, have come together to write this how-to book for parents who want to become more involved in their children's education--whether through home schooling or by supplementing traditional instruction. The authors offer five fundamental principles--opportunity, timing, freedom, interest, and support--that, they claim, will transform the way we relate to our children and greatly assist them in growing up to be joyful, passionate creators. Useful for parents and teachers alike, this valuable book closely examines how young people learn and illuminates its practical advice with many stories that make for both insightful and enjoyable learning. Whatever schooling venue parents choose, this book will help them instill a lifelong love of learning in their children. For large public and school libraries. --Samuel T. Huang, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson (Library Journal, September 2001)

"One of the most important books yet written on education and our current school-child crisis." (Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of Magical Child)

"...it is a good, calming read..." (Adoption Today, April 2002)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471349607
• ISBN-13: 978-0471349600
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #85,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real learning despite school, January 11, 2002

By 

Paul Lappen (Manchester, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School (Paperback)

School is a place where young people are fed all sorts of meaningless information and forced to give it back on equally meaningless tests. This book aims to change that.

The authors show how parents can help their children can get a real education by helping the child find something about which they are interested, and proceed from there. The process includes five phases:
OPPORTUNITY-Don't just expose your kids to life's possibilities (arts, science, history, community, etc.) without overdoing it, the parent should also stay passionate and involved in learning. The enthusiasm will be contagious.
TIMING-If your child is not progressing according to some school bureaucrat's schedule, don't panic. Not every child learns at the same speed. Early bloomers may need extra stimulation to keep them interested. Late bloomers may simply need time and extra help.
INTEREST-Honor your child's passions, even if it something of which you disapprove. Children are her to grow into the best person they can be, not what the parent or anyone else thinks they should be. Also know when to back off.
FREEDOM-Give the child the chance to take on projects and solve problems. Make it clear that promises are expected to be kept, and also make clear the consequnces for broken promises.
SUPPORT-Be there for your kids. Supporting children does not equal martyrdom. Check to see how much support they need or want. Make sure their goals stay theirs. Well-being is most important.

I learned a lot from this book. It easily reaches the level of Highly Recommended, especially for any parent whose child is having problems in school.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written ... for anyone with kids, June 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School (Paperback)

"This book helped me relax and do less about my kid--less worrying, less trying to cram information into him when he wasn't responding as I wanted him to. Using the approaches recommended by Llewellyn and Silver, I now have fun observing my little boy, guiding him gently, and enjoying his forays into the world as he explores and learns on his own."

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Guerrilla Learning" celebrates loving life and learning, October 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School (Paperback)

While the book is about HOW your child(ren) can begin to love life and learning, whether enrolled in school or not, loving learning is presented in a much larger context: transforming your family relationships so that they themselves are based on love, trust, responsibility, and the love of learning. The authors lay out the characteristics of a child who is uninspired in or has been "turned off" by school. Because loving to learn develops in a family context, adult readers are asked to consider their own experiences as children when their own expressions of creativity were thwarted or interrupted. They are even encouraged to resume their own love-of-learning project. In five chapters, adults are quietly introduced to what it takes to support their childrens' innate curiosity and love of learning. The book does not preach, cajole, or seek to proselytize. Instead, it "merely" lays out some options for the characteristics of family life in which it is asserted that children learn and grow and love it. The book is beautifully written and some of the vignettes of real families taking a stand for their childrens' love of life and learning are inspirational. Finally, the authors say something important about the "standards" movement sweeping the country's schools: the tests which are implementing that movement have little or nothing to do with your kid's education. Of course, they, the authors, have a special definition of education and ask the reader to consider the schools' definitions. The pages of the book are poorly formatted, a matter I hope the publisher will correct in subsequent editions.