Customer Reviews

I Am Learning All the Time

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Hugh Beagle is five and a half. He lives with his Mom, Dad, and big brother Chas in a green house on North Cedar Street. One day when Hugh, Chas, and their Mom are walking to the park to see some friends, the man at the bus stop asks why the boys are not in school. The reason is that they homeschool. The story goes on to explain how Hugh and Chas get to have a picnic at the park with their homeschooled friends instead of "first day of school" parties, learn at home with Mom instead of going to a classroom, help Mom make lunch instead of eating in a cafeteria, and play in their backyard instead of having recess at the school yard. But do the boys feel deprived and they would rather ride that big yellow bus every day? Hugh will answer those questions.
The U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences reports that both the number and the proportion of students in the United States who were being homeschooled increased between 1999 and 2003. Approximately 1.1 million students were being homeschooled in the United States in the spring of 2003, an increase from the estimated 850,000 students who were being homeschooled in the spring of 1999. In addition, the percentage of the entire student population who were being homeschooled increased from 1.7 percent in 1999 to 2.2 percent in 2003. And it is still growing. Author Rain Perry Fordyce is a homeschooling mom of two sons who lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest.
Hugh himself wonders why he and his brother are being homeschooled. His Mom helps him to go through a process of self-discovery to understand what both the differences and the similarities to his traditionally schooled friends are. Without being judgmental as to whether one kind of schooling is better than the other, the book points out that Hugh is learning all the time, when looking at books on his own, working with his brother or his homeschool friends, and playing with the neighborhood children when they come home from their school. I Am Learning All the Time is a great resource to help homeschooled children appreciate better their own family's choice and also to help others get a clearer picture of what homeschooling is all about. And the full-color illustrations of Audrey Anne Miles Cherney are quite endearing. I think that it is really a great book.

I fell in love with this book and the characters right away. We are a homeschooling family with lots of friends in public school, as well as other homeschooled friends. Our boys are 4 and 7 and love the book because they can relate to the characters in so many ways. I loved the book so much I bought a copy for a mentor of mine. Her 11 year old daughter loved the book very much as well. My friend has recommended it to others, and said she will be giving copies as gifts. I have purchased several copies for gifts to give this week. I am really excited to share them with our friends. We can't wait to see what else this wonderful author and illustrator team will publish for homeschooled families. My boys still like me to read it to them after months of owning the book.

I came across a review of this book in Secular Homeschooling Magazine. Because it had a good review there and because I have never come across ANY other childrens' books for and about homeschoolers, I went on the author's website and bought it. We got our copy promptly and I just adore the book. It is fun and enthusiastic, pointing out how great it is to be a homeschooled kid while still managing to contrast with the main characters' public schooled friends in a totally positive way. I bought it for my almost 4 year old son, but even my 8 year old daughter enjoyed looking at it. The illustrations are wonderful, by the way. I recommended it to my homeschool group and at least one other mom bought and loved the book. I've recommended it to my local childrens' librarian, too. I only wish the author would write another homeschool book, with an older child for a main character :)

This is a fabulous book!

This book is the first of its kind: a children's picture book story that shows what it's actually like to be a homeschooler today! It doesn't poke fun of any type of schooling, yet shows an accurate portrayal of a homeschooler's life in the modern world.

The characters are cute. The family dynamics are superb! My only complaints are that it's not more well known and that it wasn't written until now. :) My kids would have LOVED this book and read it over and over again when they were little. It's very obvious that the author knows what homeschooling is actually like.

For those curious, religion is not mentioned in this book.

My son is a 4 years old very friendly homeschooler. Everywhere that we go he makes conversation with somebody. It never fails, that somebody always asks him if he goes to school and if he is in Kindergarten. I recently heard about "I Am Learning All The Time" from a mom on one of my yahoo homeschool groups. After reviewing the Homeschool Adventure Books website, I thought that it would be a great storybook to help my son understand that he does go to school; he goes to homeschool. I purchased the book and I was right; my son loves the story and the illustrations; he also loves the author's name "Rain". And now when asked, he tells everybody "I go to homeschool". It is an awesome story about a homeschooled boy named Hugh Beagle, who is discovering how and why he is homeschooled. He discovers that there are different kinds of school and different ways of learning. He discovers his differences and similarities to his public schooled friends without judging which is better. This book is a great resource to help homeschooled children appreciate their learning style; and it is also a great resource to help traditionally schooled children better understand homeschoolers. It is also a resource to help other adults, such as grandparents and other family members, appreciate your choice to homeschool your children. This book should be in every public school library and in every public library throughout the country. This is a sustainable book produced using vegetable ink with 100% renewable energy and printed on post-consumer recycled paper. As said in other reviews, I too would love to see more Homeschool Adventure books from this author, but she needs our help. So please buy a copy of "I Am Learning All The Time" for your library, your family members, or your friends; write a review on your blog, message board, facebook, twitter, or your yahoo parents group. Every one of this book that she sells brings her closer to being able to publish another one. I am not connected to the author in any way.

Finally a book for homeschooled children. My daughter loves this book. I agree with the other reviewer who wishes the author would write another book soon. It is great to have a book that puts homeschooling in a positive light without putting down public school.

"I am Learning All the Time" by Rain Fordyce does a beautiful job of showing the difference, without any judgment, of kids that go to school verses children that are schooled at home. The title captures the books essence perfectly. Children are learning all the time. They are full of creativity and adventure! Fordyce's book eloquently shows how giving kids the freedom to be whoever this wish to be can have a most positive affect on our world. The illustrations are fun, comforting and full of happiness. This is a wonderful book for children who attend school to understand home schooled children and vice versa. This book is the first of its kind and is so needed in this day and age to help create harmony and peace in our universe.

We are really enjoying this book! Although it is written about a family using a different method of homeschool education it still works for any family. The family is an unschooling family (which, although we are heavily influenced by Holt we are not actually unschooling), very environmentally conscious, secular, close knit, loving family. The parents are an apparent husband & wife team, with the mom home during the day but the dad very involved in his off hours.

My son is going on 4 and we homeschool. Several months ago he asked me when he would be going to school. I was so surprised by his question as he loves "class" and asks to play "class" frequently. He knows we do Mom's Class instead of going to school. But what I hadn't realized until then was that I hadn't actually explained to him that we homeschool, what that means and that we plan to continue to do so. I also had not put him in touch and around other homeschoolers. I am a part of several yahoo groups, go to curriculum fairs, have read a shelf full of books on homeschooling and belong to several support groups that include Mom's Nights Out. Homeschooling and homeschoolers were a part of my world; however, I had not made it a part of his world!

It so happens that even today with homeschooling so popular we do not know any homeschoolers from church or our neighborhood. In addition to explaining to him that we will continue to do "Mom's Class", that this is called homeschooling or learning at home v. learning at school and that different families make various choices, I also began to take him to age appropriate homeschool field trips, host a homeschooling preschool play group at our house and joining homeschool park play days. I made sure to mention that these were all children who learn at home, are homeschooled and do "Mom's Class" (just to make sure i was using the terms he was used to which he was accustomed to make the right connections).

The other thing I did was to search for books written for children about homeschooling or children's books written with positive reference to homeschooling or with homeschooling as the back drop. Now there was a challenge! I only found a handful of books and most were written for mid/upper elementary students. So this is a gem of a book!

We have been reading it now for a little over a week and are really enjoying it. The characters are humanized animals so the illustrator avoids ethnic issues and all children can feel included when they read it (we read books with children of all ethnicities but nice for our diverse little family when the books are neutral - now for some books where the parents do not "match"!).

There are two brothers in the family and they are shown doing activities such as errands with Mom, playing with each other, playing with other homeschoolers, cooking, helping around the house, doing family activities, taking vacations, camping, playing music together, crafts at the table with Mom, cooking, investigating nature, reading, drawing, thinking about things on purpose and lots of free time for imaginative play. Traditional school is contrasted with some of these activities without putting school down or making it seem horrible but the obvious freedom, independence and family interaction seem to put the homeschooling experience in a very positive light! The answer given throughout the book for homeschooling is that the family likes being together and that the child is indeed learning all of the time.

Although there are reasons are many for homeschooling these seem just about like what we share with our son at this time and what is age appropriate and really some of our very most important reasons. I tell my son I am just too selfish to send him to school - I like being with him and I want to have the fun of teaching him and the joy (and responsibility) of being his teacher! And, really, when it comes right down to it, these are the core reasons.

The book is high quality in language, illustration and as well as in the construction and materials used.

There are a few things of note about the book:

First, while the family is obviously very environmentally aware and lives a green lifestyle the book does not preach or even outright teach an environmental message. If you are not an environmentalist the book will still not be out of place in your library as the book just demonstrates good stewardship practices that blend into the background.

Secondly, while this is a secular homeschooling book, nothing about any religion is mentioned, pro, con or other. Just skips all religious mention. As a Christian, I have lots of books that don't specifically mention Christianity to my children and I an always explain how nice it is that we have the freedom pray any time during our day and the freedom share thoughts about Jesus, the Bible, etc., during our day without restrictions unlike those who attend public school. However, at this age I really don't want to let him know such restrictions are out there so wouldn't really want a book to mention some of these more mature themes and reasons for homeschooling. This is aimed at the preschool-2nd grader I would assume.

Third, there are a few things that some Christians might not enjoy about the book. The two that come to mind are a scene of the two brothers playing in the back yard with a pretend (and very creatively homemade) dinosaur. That doesn't bother us in the least as son will learn all about the dinosaurs as part of life that has lived on this earth. However, aspects of evolution and their origin and demise will be taught differently in our home than what is typically taught in the public schools (and I have a geology background so please no comments on that - it is an educated decision!)

The other thing mentioned is on a page describing the main character's creation of his own book, in which he wrote and drew stories of "daring brave knights and powerful magical wizards". The book's illustrator drew a book containing a child's drawing of a knight and a wizard. Since my son is not yet reading I simply took creative license to handle the situation and changed the wizard to a king which fit with the knight and somewhat with the illustration. If he were older and could read that for himself I would still keep the book and just give him an explanation about the wizard, our opinion of that sort of thing and how that is again an example of families making different choices for their children (and then wish it weren't in there!). The author had chosen another theme for the child's book if she were thinking about the book appealing to all audiences.

However, it is a great book in an area were there are very few books! I look forward to more books by this author/illustrator team as well as for books geared toward homeschooled children to grow. This is a genre just waiting to explode with growth as the homeschooling population continues to grow!

Our children (ages 6 & 3) love this book and I do too! It's great to have a book that speaks directly to them and helps them to feel normal. All children should be learning "all the time" whether they are taught at school, home or a combination thereof. A great book and I highly recommend it.

Finally a childrens book on the market that relates to homeschoolers! Great illustrations, nicely made and straight to the point with NO biases either way. Very cute!!! We NEED more of these kinds of books out there...since there are 2 MILLION homeschooled children in the US these days!