Pajama School - stories from the life of a homeschool graduate [Perfect Paperback]

Natalie Wickham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2009

Do you get to wear your pajamas to school? Do you have recess or snow days? What about socialization? Every homeschooler fields dozens of questions like these. Natalie goes beyond providing simple answers and shares candidly about the experiences that led her to conclude that education is about much more than academics. Whether you have been homeschooling since the days of the New England Primer or are just embarking on this educational adventure, you will find hope, humor, and an ample dose of reality in the pages of Pajama School.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Pajama School is a unique book in the sense that very few books chronicle a school experience beginning as early as the fourth grade. But this book is much more than the story of a school girl progressing through school with all the trials, fun, and games. This book is about a family, and how God blessed this family because of their simple faith that what He says He will do. It will be a tremendous encouragement for any family who wants to obey God, but will especially bless the homeschool mom or child that needs a little encouragement to get through the day, the week, or even the school year. Natalie tells the story with brutal honesty and a refreshing prose. Without appearing to make an effort to lay down principles for living, with story after story, it's like reading one of the parables, but much easier to see the principle that is being taught. This book is for anyone that doesn't mind laughing, crying, and every other emotion all in one page. The bottom line is that after you finish reading, you will say: "Natalie, when are you going to write your next book? I can't wait." --Mike Smith, President, HSLDA

Pajama School is one of those rare books which allows readers full and generous access to the thoughts and judgments of a girl becoming a woman. It s also a comprehensive record of Cornerstone School, where Natalie, Nicole, Nadine, Noelle, Naomi, and Joey Wickham learned their ABCs and much else under the direction of their parents (and one another). Homeschooling takes many forms these days in America, but while the author is an eloquent advocate of her own experience, everyone who sets his or her own particular preference aside long enough to read Pajama School with an open mind will take real value from Miss Wickham's observations. You ll like this book, I feel certain. --John Taylor Gatto, Author, Dumbing Us Down and Weapons of Mass Instruction

Natalie writes convincingly and cheerfully of the other side of homeschooling - that of the student. I enjoyed the honest, inside look at a homeschooling family navigating through the turbulent waters of modern day life. But beyond the humor is Natalie's heart for living for the Lord as an adult. This book will be an inspirational resource for all those others who, like Natalie, have finished homeschooling and are seeking God's will. This is a welcome addition to all the books on homeschooling! --Jan Bloom, Veteran Homeschool Mom of 3 and Author of Who Should We Then Read?

About the Author

Natalie Wickham was homeschooled through college alongside her five siblings. She has a passion for challenging and equipping upcoming generations of homeschoolers to be godly leaders. Natalie owns and operates a successful piano studio and music educator s blog and is the current Director of Adventures in Character.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Sibro Publishing; First edition (April 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982182805
• ISBN-13: 978-0982182802
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #625,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Natalie Wickham was homeschooled through college alongside her five siblings. She has a passion for challenging and equipping upcoming generations of homeschoolers to be godly leaders. Natalie owns and operates a successful piano studio and music educator's blog and is the current Director of Adventures in Character.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not about homeschooling, June 24, 2010

By 

Kelley Riggs (Round Rock, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pajama School - stories from the life of a homeschool graduate (Perfect Paperback)

Just to avoid confusion, this is not a book about homeschooling, as I had expected when I got it. Instead it's about one young woman's Christian beliefs. References to her schooling are few and far between, as compared to her other experiences, and homeschooling in and of itself plays a small role in both the book and the development of her life as she describes it. I just want to correct the impression given by the title so that it is aimed at the right audience.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Motivating to excellence, July 16, 2009

By 

J. Hager - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pajama School - stories from the life of a homeschool graduate (Perfect Paperback)

This is the personal biography of a very Godly young woman. She shows how God has used homeschooling, her parents, and the community to shape her life and make her into an incredibly useful woman for Him. From a very young age, she began having unique experiences which are incredible to read about. I found myself wanting the same for my daughters, and setting the book on the coffee table is all it took for them to pick it up and read it! As I read, I feel motivated by Natalie's example to find opportunities and foster attitudes which will prepare myself and my daughters for a life with eternal significance.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Homeschool Grad's Spiritual Memoir, September 9, 2010

By 

Rachel Starr Thomson (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pajama School - stories from the life of a homeschool graduate (Perfect Paperback)

Once upon a time, a blonde and blue-eyed family of girls (three, to be exact, all with names starting with "N") left old ways behind and lined up at the foot of the stairs for their first school picture as a homeschooling family. They had desks, organized bookshelves, maps and pictures on the walls, and a placard proclaiming "School Room."

Well, most of us homeschoolers know how that goes. The Wickham family soon gave up trying to be like a school and got more focused on being a home that teaches, and Pajama School -- Natalie Wickham's memoir of homeschooling, getting to know God, and learning to lead -- was born.

I came away from Pajama School feeling like I'd gotten to know Natalie, who is just a little older than I am and has had a journey in some ways like mine and in other ways very different. The book is steeped in the perspective not just of a homeschooler, but of a homeschooler who grew up connected to ATI (Bill Gothard's Advanced Training Institute), which is a subculture all its own. In many ways I enjoyed that aspect, which reminded me of dear friends who were also brought up in ATI and who, like Natalie, found places of service within that ministry as young adults.

In fact, Pajama School focuses far more on those experiences of service as a young adult -- with ATI in Children's Institutes and at the beginning stages of the Character First! program, in politics, in running a tea shop, and in teaching -- than it does on the childhood experiences I expected from the title. This is less a homeschooling book and more the record of one homeschooler's spiritual journey. More than anything, Pajama School is a memoir of Natalie's walk with God -- a memoir that is honest, humorous, and insightful.

Natalie has spent many of her years as a young adult teaching, whether in public-school classrooms as part of the Character First! program, in assemblies at big homeschool conferences, or in her own piano studio. I found her emphasis on teaching methods and experimentation slightly ironic for a "homeschooling book," but also very inspiring. She's implemented some fantastic ideas, and anyone who works with children will find something to encourage them here! In fact, I passed the book on to my partner in Soli Deo Gloria Ballet, as we're developing summer camp ideas.

For homeschool grads and older teens, parents who want to see how homeschooling can play out in their student's life, and anyone who enjoys good, clean, thought-provoking memoir, Pajama School is well worth reading.