Customer Reviews

A Parent's Guide to Home Schooling (Parent's Guide series)

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

 

 

After having read lots and lots of books on the subject of homeschooling, there are a couple of features which make this book stand out in a growing field. For anyone who has been put off by the overtly (and possibly exclusively) religious overtones of some homeschooling books, A Parent's Guide will come as a breath of fresh air. While including input from people from a variety of faiths and backgrounds, the book comes across as broadly inclusive, which is a major point of interest for those who've ever felt that only "certain types of people" are attracted to homeschooling. This book spotlights the growing diversity of the wider homeschooling community.

The presentation is also fairly unique. Using a number of formats including question and answer as well as essays by both experts and parents "in the trenches", the author manages to share a huge amount of information in a lively and very readable style.

I highly recommend this book for those considering homeschooling as well as those who've been at it for a while. Newcomers will find the majority of their big questions answered and more experienced homeschoolers are bound to find many inspirational gems. This is definitely a book to include in any essential homeschooling library.

This book is a great resource for the beginning homeschooler, and will continue as a great resource throughout your home-learning experience. It answers all the nitty gritty questions that you may be asking (or BE asked by others). Things like "How do I prepare my teen for college and how do I teach things I don't understand myself?" and "What happens when my child doesn't want to homeschool?"

Each chapter is well organized and facilitates reading "cover-to-cover" or finding answers to a specific questions, quickly. Each chapter includes "In the Trenches" (essays from "real life" homeschoolers) and "From the Experts" sections that lend a unique perspective. Comforting and informative. Highly recommended.

While I agree the lack of fundamentalist Christian dogma so ubiquitous to the homeschooling book genre was a big plus, this book is simply too out of date and too poorly written for me to give it more than three stars. There is some good information in this book, but it's hard to slog through all of the "In the Trenches" and "From the Experts" testimonials. While I appreciate hearing the perspectives of real homeschooling parents, these essays have clearly not been edited for anything other than spelling. Obviously not written by professional writers, many of them ramble on and on with no discernible point. Really, the whole book would have benefited significantly from some heavy editing. It's not the worst homeschooling book out there, but I am sure there are many others that are better written and more up-to-date.

This book is the best I've ever read -- down to earth REAL advice and information. It is refreshingly interspersed with real-life testimonials from grown homeschoolers, as well as those still in the trenches.

I just happened upon a used copy -- I have never heard of this particular book in the normal homeschooling circles -- perhaps because it is part of a "Guide" series and has a very plain-Jane type title??

Well, there is nothing plain Jane about this book! Tamra Orr knows her stuff and she is an excellent writer. She has written a LOT -- not just on homeschooling -- but somehow she knows exactly what homeschoolers need to hear. (She DOES homeschool herself!)

Get this book if you only buy ONE guide -- it is not the least bit out-of-date, either, as of 2009.