Customer Reviews

The How and Why of Home Schooling

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Anyone with children should read this book before they make a decision on where to educate their children. This book reviews politics, curriculum, and morality as it applies to public schools in the United States. This has helped me make the switch from preference to conviction. The schools of today are very different from the schools 10 to 20 years ago. They are dangerous, anti-morality focused, and saturated with secular humanism. This book helps clarify those issues and shed light on what happens while the parents aren't looking.

There was a lot of good information, and examples of how children have benefitted from being taught at home. This book can help you make an informed decision about whether homeschooling is right for your family, and shows both sides of the picture: the benefits and the work involved. I found this book very eye-opening!

For a book promising to reveal the why and how of homeschooling, this one does remarkably little of either. The first half of the book is completely taken up with lengthy descriptions of the problems in society and the school system; only after 100 pages do we get into anything resembling practical advice.

What advice is given is often questionable, such as suggesting that the best way for new homeschoolers to begin is with a "self-paced" curriculum like ACE--completely ignoring homeschooling options that don't involve buying a capital-C Curriculum. Sometimes it is just ludicrous (a schedule for a first grader that assumes Dad is going to be teaching science and history five evenings a week).

What I found most disappointing in this book was that the writer and his family were almost completely absent from the story. Adding a personal angle, allowing us to hear their own homeschooling story, would certainly have strengthened the writing.

This may be a useful book for someone who needs to be convinced of the benefits of homeschooling (say a father in law), but that's about it.

I was mislead by the title of the book; I was looking for GENERAL information about the how and whys of home schooling from a non-denominational point of view. I plan on teaching my child about God and religion, but not as part of my home schooling cirriculm. I wish I had known about what the book was really going to discuss.

To me, this book was the author venting about the poor moral condition of public schools; most of us know this :) And while it is a good point to make, I think it failed to provide good methods, statistics and just overall objectivism.. I am very religious, but I'm not homeschooling my kids to hide under a rock.. This book didn't even talk much about the wonderful academic aspect of homeschooling your child. I began this book set on homeschooling, and while reading I thought "I hope I never become one of THESE people." :) Kind of religious fanatical..