Customer Reviews

Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow.: Homeschooling and the Curriculum of Love

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David Albert is without a doubt, one of the most refreshing voices in the alternative education movement. He shows you what is possible in educating our children; and does it with infectious joy and good humor. Life should be fun! Learning should be fun! Why do we make such a drudgery out of it? Why do we torture our children so? I am speaking mostly to myself here, lest anyone take offense. David's book are the first ones I grab off the shelf when I am having a drag out the workbooks and sample tests kind of day. I just pray that I will have the courage to keep fighting against (and it is a fight) the old tired ways of doing things that I was subjected to. I hated it; and David's books help me remember that. I am lending, and/or buying copies for all my homeschooling friends. God Bless you David.

As a homeschooling mom, I always find David Albert's writing nourishing and inspiring in a way that 'how-to' books never are. Do you ever have those grey days of burnout, where you feel like you're just fitting your feet in yesterday's footprints? Ever feel like you're running your life like a triage station, trying to decide between this crisis, that crisis, the laundry, your work, and -- oh yes, the kids? If so, then you'll find your focus and inspiration again with David's book. He doesn't give readers a long list of learning outcomes or lesson plans for us to force on our children. Instead, with wit and thoughtfulness, he lights our imaginations again so that we can forge ahead.

Imagine the revolution in parenting and education that would occur if our society took heed of David Albert's assertion that "childhood is not a problem to be solved, or an illness to be cured, but the germ of power straining to be unleashed." From the medicalization of childbirth to the pathologization of curiosity and rambunctiousness, today's child is assaulted on every side by experts trying to cure him of the disease of being young. Take all that expert intervention away, though, and what are you left with? How about learning? Fun? Growth? A curriculum, if you will, of love:

"The curriculum of love is not about externals. It is about what is essential in each individual human being, and in every child. Its watchwords are communication, inquisitiveness, acceptance, joy, honesty, courage, and curiously, perhaps above all, intimacy.It is about surprises, unveilings, moments of spontaneous recognition, journeys completed and new ones waiting to be undertaken. It is about being at home - in oneself - and going home - to a larger world that awaits us all."

This curriculum of love is not something you can order from a catalog or buy at the local teachers' store. It's different for every family, and even for different children in the same family. It's easy to talk about, but difficult to describe, and it doesn't lend itself to handy subject divisions or lesson plans. It's as easy as simply living and as hard as truly listening. The essays that Albert has collected in Have Fun, Learn Stuff, Grow are a good place to begin to get a taste of it.

Many of these essays have previously appeared in the pages of Home Education Magazine, and longtime readers of his columns will already have a feel for Albert's wide-ranging curiosity about not only children (including his own two daughters) and how they learn, but music, history, world cultures, storytelling, and much more. Not all of the essays bear directly on the topic of homeschooling, but the digressions are always interesting and worthwhile. Albert's special skill as an essayist is to look at any topic with the fresh curiosity of a child, turning it upside and shaking it until something surprising falls out, whether it's a new perspective on the ancient story of Noah, a different way of looking at the appeal of video games, or a jaundiced view of spelling bee success.

Such "moments of spontaneous recognition" come only to those who are free to think and learn in their own way, unburdened by the pressure to stay small, color in the lines, think inside the box. "Have fun. Learn stuff. Grow." It sounds so simple. Maybe childhood, maybe all of life, should be that simple.

David Albert has written perhaps his most important book yet about children and learning. His gift is to capture the complicated in a simple way, describe the complex in understandable terms, lighten the onerous with humor and unmask the obvious truths in the obfuscations of the so-called "experts". David understands that education is a personal and often private matter, which can't properly be accomplished with the interference of other people's agendas (no matter how well meaning or professionally vetted), standardized tests, grading and all the other managerial tools foisted on kids in the name of systematized education. So he eloquently describes a better way. The essays in Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow. communicate the essence of how parents can lovingly nurture their children in life and in learning, and that is to recognize them for whom they are and to take them seriously. Feel able to do that, and you and your children are well equipped to embark on the adventure of education without school.

And I thought it was just another homeschooling book. Not here! Have Fun. Learn Stuff, Grow. is a delightful mix of philosophy, metaphor, and storytelling. But it's not just about or for the kids. Albert challenges you to think about your outlook toward living and then gently, sometimes playfully, often deeply, exposes ways for you to grow.
For readers specifically looking for information about sane attitudes and approaches to math and spelling (and other "school" subjects), there is entertaining reading that is informative and should be mandatory for all parents and teachers. Read this book if you've ever wondered about the power of video games or listened to parents debate their value.
This book will force you to stretch your thinking and expand the context within which you consider your own family's learning endeavors.
Jean Reed, Author, The Home School Source Book, 3rd edition

I am a life-long educator, with many years experience as Assoc. Dean in an Ivy League institution. I am also the parent of five home-schooled college graduates. My heart leaps up with anticipation when I read David Albert's writing. The wealth of his experience embroiders and highlights the essentially simple, pure-hearted truth he expresses: the value of respect and honor for the minds of young people, fresh beings grappling with this very complicated and often difficult world. Most important to me is his compassionate vision of the possibilities for learning, for relationships that are available to beings of all ages on this planet, and his romping enthusiasm and exuberance about the joys of learning -- for all of us, everywhere.

The ideas in this book, and the encouragement to look at my children's education from a different perspective, are motivating me to make some changes in our homeschooling lives! I'd recommend this book for everyone who homeschools, or is thinking about it, particularly if you're looking for some refreshment, and encouragement.

One of the most dynamic and prolific homeschooling writers today is David Albert, homeschooling father of two, popular speaker at conferences across the nation, regular columnist for two major homeschooling publications, and author of two of the most highly acclaimed homeschooling books ever published - And the Skylark Sings With Me and Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery. Now David has written a book he titles, in a very no-nonsense manner, Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow. Homeschooling and the Curriculum of Love.

The title says it all. Almost. David doesn't just write about homeschooling your children. He pokes and prods and questions and insists that you join him in analyzing the whys and wherefores of what you and your kids are doing every day. He wraps his writing in a warm sense of humor and adds plenty of his own life experiences, and somewhere in the middle of reading one of his books you start wondering why it feels as though you are reading the writings of an old friend. It's a comfortable feeling; encouraging, reassuring. Words have power, and David Albert knows how to harness that power and use it to help you help your children become who they are meant to be.

"Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow." You'll do all three with David's newest book on homeschooling.

-- Helen Hegener, Editor and Publisher, Home Education Magazine

When I recently decided to take my 12-yr-old out of school, I hit the book stores. I combed the homeschooling sections only to become more and more frustrated. Surely there was someone to inspire me that wouldn't assume that I was a fundamentalist Christian who asserts that a belief in evolution is a pathway to Hell! Surely there was someone who would not say things like, "Step One: Find an area in your house to use exclusively for homeschooling and clean the area thoroughly. Get on your work clothes and grab a bucket of soapy water......" Are you kidding me?!?

Then along came Mr. Albert. What a relief! I was sitting cross-legged in the aisle unable to put the book down.

I think that this book should be the first of David's that one reads. While it's not a "how to" (nor should it be) it's more stripped down to his fundamentals, if you will. The others are equally masterful but they seem to crescendo after this one, regardless of the order in which they were written. I'm inspired to subscribe to Home Education Magazine just to be sure I won't miss anything he has to say!

As if channeled from the highest archangel, David Albert's new book Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow offers a fresh, crystal-clear look at the very essence of love and learning, and the critical importance of love for nurturing learning. Insightful, unique, and perceptive, this book is a gift for all homeschooling families and those considering it for the first time.

Jan Hunt, author of The Natural Child: Parenting from the Heart and A Gift for Baby - Un Regalo Para Bebe; co-editor of The Unschooling Unmanual