Customer Reviews

Real-Life Homeschooling: The Stories of 21 Families Who Teach Their Children at Home

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

 

 

The author interviewed 21 American families and then the author wrote a summary of how they homeschool. Because the author did the writing, the writing style and length of each chapter is consistent throughout the book. However I felt that lost in this process was a real emotional voice of each family. Half way through the book I didn't even want to finish it (but I persevered hoping it would get better). For example sometimes they tell why they homeschool but there just is no real emotion there. I was unable to really feel the flavor of some of the families and I had trouble feeling empathy for them. Each chapter is more like a summary of what some key points are in their lives (religious beliefs and if that affects homeschooling, curriculum used, what style of homeschooling they consider themselves, etc.).

Another reason I was disappointed is that it is mentioned which curriculum is used but the reasons for choosing that brand over another is often not given. Also reasons for not using other brands is missing as well as if they tried a brand and it didn't work out and they switched brands.

The majority of the families in this book had 4 children and more, one had 9 children and two families have 11 children. Completely lacking in all the chapters is anything that really acknowledges what life with so many kids is really like. I have two children and honestly cannot even imagine life with 11 children let alone homeschooling 11 children! I wanted to hear more details, more real information and perhaps why and how a family comes to a decision to have so many children. Other mysteries to me are how they can afford to have so many children on one income and if the parents plan to fund their college educations or, if the children do go to college will they make the students pay their own way?

The introduction to the book promised to reveal to us what life is really like for these families. I did read the book through to the end but was left without a real feeling but rather a nicely packaged summary of specific points of information was given. Sometimes a major focus took up a chapter, such as one families court struggles to fight to homeschool with $10K in legal bills and was living virtually paycheck to paycheck and the father in jail, then the author reveals it was the wife's mother who turned them in but not a morsel of comment afterward about how the family dealt with that and how they even had a relationship after that happened! All the build up about the trial and then we get the blow that the children's grandmother was the source of the problem and then not to tell us what happened from there...the subject was just dropped! Another family's chapter was loaded with information about the family's musical lifestyle, which I thought was excessive (and uninteresting) while describing regular homeschooling life with these 11 children was not really addressed.

Some of the families are religious and some are not. A great deal of time is spent explaining on family's religion of Judaism, as if the readers know nothing about it. On the other hand with the Christians it is assumed that we all know about it, disappointing that the two religions were not treated equally with regard to scope of explanation.

The families represent a variety of homeschooling styles from Charlotte Mason to unschooling. I thought the unschoolers were portrayed a bit less intelligent than I am sure they are, with not much explanation about why they choose that method of learning (which I can assure you, the unschooling parents I know of, do put a lot of thought into it and usually have strong opinions on why it is the best route for learning for their children). Better stories of unschoolers can be found in past issues of the now defunct magazine Growing Without Schooling and in some articles published in Home Education Magazine.

The families are all American and one family is posted with the military on an island in the Pacific. I found that no matter where they lived in the country there were more similarities aligned with their homeschooling style and/or religious beliefs rather than it mattering where they live geographically which was interesting.

I liked that the beginning of each chapter had a photo and highlights of their favorite resources, best advice received, worst advice received and favorite quote, but these are lists and no explanation for why they like a certain resource is given which was disappointing to me.

As a comparison to other books on the market that tell stories about homeschooling families: Nancy Lande has two books, the first is "Homeschooling: a patchwork of days" in which 30 families wrote their own chapter of a day in their life. The sequel by Nancy Lande is "Homeschool Open House" in which 30 new families are featured with a 5-year follow up of an additional 27 families. Lande's two books have smaller font and lots of more detail. Those who read Lande's books and felt there was too much detail would probably like this book very much. Those who loved all the detail of Lande's books will probably find "Real-life homeschooling" a fast read, short, and lacking in depth of information. One thing I loved about Lande's books was that the families usually said why they like a certain math curriculum over another, which they tried and disliked, which is good for a certain learning style and other great information that is hard to find in homeschooling catalogs or from the curriculum vendors themselves!

Another great book loaded with detail written by an unschooling mother is "Learning at Home: a mother's guide to homeschooling, revised edition" by Marty Layne. As with the Lande books this goes into detail about how she taught her children to read, what resources she likes and dislikes and why and other useful information such as preventing homeschooling-mother burnout.

If you have not yet read a book that discusses how homeschoolers spend their time perhaps this would be a good book to read. If after reading this you are left craving more detail then move on to Nancy Lande's books and Marty Layne's book.

While I generally enjoyed reading about different families and their homeschooling lives (particularly that of the single mother homeschooler and those families with special needs children) I would have preferred a more balanced cross-section of perspectives. Most of families interviewed seemed to fall into two camps: 1. the overwhelming majority were conservative Christian, presumably homeschooling for, though perhaps not exclusively, religious reasons (there was only one Jewish homeschooling family--no Muslims, Buddhists, pagans, or atheists, at least they did not identify themselves as such) and 2. "unschooling" secular families. I fall into neither of these groups and I know there are many others like me. As a would-be homeschooling parent interested in home educating for academic, family, and spiritual (though NOT religious) reasons, it would have been helpful to hear from more families that would speak to my/our condition. These two groups--particularly the first--have long had a strong voice in the homeschooling movement and their perspectives have been well documented. Better to seek out the quieter, often-less represented voices of homeschooling families.

The vast majority of the homeschoolers interviewed were fundamentalist Christians using pre-planned curriculum and often rigid scheduling. This was certainly not, by any stretch of the imagination, an example of the rich variety of choices to be found within the homeschool world. There were also some rather pathetic innaccuracies within the text describing the Jewish family. Just one example is the word "sabbath" capitalized as "Sabbath" (for this family, "sabbath" would be a common noun) while the word "Shabbat" is not capitalized (Shabbat is the Jewish sabbath.) I wonder if the families represented were even given an opportunity to check the author's representations of their lives. If you want to read this book, buy a cheap used copy.

Even though I'm an experienced homeschooler, I found this book informative and enjoyable. Barfield worked hard to find a wide spectrum of homeschoolers - they vary in family size, religion, race/ethnicity, reason for homeschooling, location, and homeschooling philosophy. This book is a good introduction for people who want to learn more about homeschooling but are afraid that they aren't "the homeschooling type", because it shows that there is no one homeschooling type.

I loved this book. I am going to start homeschooling my oldest of 4 kids in the fall, and I have been really worried that I will mess it up. This book gave me a lot of direction. I disagree with other reviews that say it's not detailed enough, or that it doesn't discuss specific curriculum enough; I don't think that was the point of the book. And while the majority of families were Christian, I think that's probably somewhat representative of the homeschool community. I thought the author did a fair job showing families of other faiths, some of them non-specific, although she could have included more of these. Although I am technically a Christian, I am not churchy or religious and get real sick of running into really churchy homeschool resources. (I can't imagine how annoying that must be for non-Christians). What little irritation I felt with all the religious ideas in the book was offset by its merits. I recommend it to anyone who is considering homeschooling, even if you're not a Christian. The religious people didn't always go on and on about their faith; it was their methods I focused on.
On a side note, there was at least one REALLY RELIGIOUS family (people most of us would consider weird), but their story was still interesting because the father went to jail to stand up for his right to homeschool. I just skimmed over the religious talk.

I really enjoyed reading about other families from different backgrounds and how they make homeschooling work for them. While the families did not give a lot of information on the curriculum they used, they did share information on why they homeschool and how they feel about structure and socialization. This is a book I would share with someone considering homeschool but were worried about making it work into their lifestyle. Though not a book I would reach to continually for advice, I did learn some tips and tricks while reading that I have implented into our own homeschool routine. If you see it at the library and you have time to fit in an extra read, I would recommend this book.

I enjoyed reading about the different families represented. One of the best aspects of the book is the inclusion of each family's recommended reference books, as well as their favorite and least-favorite advice they'd received. Regarding the reference books: Whenever I felt a connection with one of the families I'd then look to see if I'd read their book recommendations. It was a great way to explore where each family was going with their thoughts. I agree with one of the other reviewers, though, in that there is sort of a detached approach to each family's chapter. Some families I found interesting and a few I did not. But rather than the dry, Here They Are presentation, I would have liked to have been taken further into the families' emotional attachments...how they arrived at the decisions emotionally. One does not buck such a strong system on a whim. Overall, though, a very good read. For anyone considering homeschooling, or for newbies looking for other ideas, this is a very good reference book. I'll be keeping this one!

Although I don't have children, my sister homeschools and so I have an interest in the subject. This is a fascinating book. The author looks at 21 families from all walks of life, representing a good cross-section of the country. I appreciated her details on the Jewish families since their customs are not as familiar to me, along with some of the other situations. In addition to being informative and helpful for homeschooling families, this is just a fascinating book and one you will have trouble putting down. A terrific, five-star book. I hope we hear more from the author.