Customer Reviews

And the Skylark Sings with Me - Adventures in Homeschooling and Community-Based Education

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A lot of people think this is a very good book, and it does have some useful things to say about the process of homeschooling. However, we (a parent and 13-year-old) were not enthralled with it and write this review for others out there like us. The adult reader was not able to finish this book. The teenage reader finished it but had similar objections: 1) It is very politically correct. 2) It is imbued with the romantic notion that children are born perfect and remain that way unless we corrupt them with our preconceptions and negative influences. We generally avoid books like this, and if there are other curmudgeons out there like us, be forewarned. 3) We can bear only so many anecdotes about any given child's precocious words and deeds, or lists of things she has done and learned about that we apparently have not. 4) The skylark does not seem to sing nearly so much with the younger daughter, and we hope she is going to get her own book someday. 5) We disagree strongly with some of the author's views, for example, the blanket criticism of early reading. The teen reviewer was a self-motivated and passionate early reader, and has never regretted it. 6) The adult reviewer is not happy to have paid this much for a book that has not been adequately edited or proofread.

I found And the Skylark Sings with Me to be very disappointing. Several fellow homeschoolers, as well as rave reviews in homeschooling magazines, encouraged me to read this book. First of all, I do not care for Albert's style of writing. It is incredibly self-congratulatory. Second, the near absence of a voice to the children's mother is very surprising. Also, I find it interesting that most of the book is about his daughter doing precocious things, and then the book ends when she is about 12. He continues to homeschool, but perhaps because playing a violin at age 12 doesn't seem that remarkable, he felt it was a good time to write a book. The best thing that I could glean from this book was to not be shy in using resources in the community to help your children. Since most homeschoolers I know already do this, this book is not worth that measly bit of advice. A far better book is Family Matter: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense by David Guterson.

As a new homeschooler, I was looking forward to this much vaunted book. I was disappointed to find that it had little to offer me in terms of either inspiration or practical advice. As a beautiful tribute from a father to an extraordinary daughter, perhaps it has merit. But the "definitive work on homeschooling" (as claimed on the back) it is not.

I bought this book after hearing the author give a talk to a homeschooling group. His talk was one of the most inspiring I have ever heard in my years of homeschooling, and I've heard many!

But I've often been disappointed by books of authors I've heard speak. Not this time! The voice of this book -- friendly, insightful, occasionally self-deprecating, commonsensical, thoughtful, and downright helpful -- is the same voice I heard at the talk. I couldn't put it down, and read it in one sitting. I own many homeschooling books. Usually, I read them once and then they sit on my shelf. Not this one though. I'll go back to this one for ideas and inspiration, though if I start loaning it to friends, I might never get it back.

David also has a wonderful column in Home Education Magazine. If your group is planning a gathering any time soon, invite him as a speaker. You will come away changed, and your family (and homeschooling group) will come away with new ideas and new perspectives that will re-energize you and re-ignite your passion in the homeschooling adventure.

I LOVE this book. It is a terrific story, and filled with so many ideas that I can use with my children that I hardly know where to start. And yet it almost reads like a novel, with humor, insight, and wonderful characters. This book will also be useful for parents whose children attend school, though the author's critique of public education will cause them to think hard about what they are doing. The resource lists are great, too. No listings of curricula, just ways to help parents and children engage the world with a new sense of discovery. Joseph Chilton Pearce calls this the best book on homeschooling, and I think he is right. I'm going to get a bunch to give as Christmas gifts.

There are some decent ideas here, but I agree with the reviewer below who mentioned the self-congratulatory style. It was really distracting, so much so that I gave up reading it through and just skimmed the resources at the end of the chapters.

This book has gotten more hype than it should! It is well written and there are certainly interesting experiences set forth by the author, the problem is that it lacks any sort of reality mostly because it blantantly neglects 2 members of the family (the mother and the younger daughter - he does acknowledge this to some extent but his reasoning just doesn't fly). This omission leaves you with the impression that somehow his wife and youngest daughter lack the extraordinary achievements of the oldest daughter therefore do not merit more than a mention. Imo, this is a huge problem and gives the book the underpinning of ego i.e. achievement and recognition as the end-all, and misses the point of growth and learning as a way of life which is inseparable from the family as a whole. In a nutshell, this book lacks context, something which lies at the heart of this sort of educational option. There ar better books to add to your personal library so i would recommend borrowing this one and save your money for books which aren't so accolade driven.

As a home-schooling parent myself I can affirm that this book and its empowering story is 'right-on'... We all have much to learn from the experiences of parents like David and Ellen. This is a liberating experience of the highest order... one that shows that anything is possible if we have faith, love and energy for our children and focus on these as the touch-stones of our children's (and our own) education and lives... BUY THIS BOOK! AND GIVE IT TO YOUR FRIENDS!

This is one of the best homeschooling books I've seen. The author focuses on the many ways a homeschooling family can utilize the resources within their own family and the wider community by paying close attention to their children's expressed needs and interests.

And the Skylark Sings with Me is an engaging and inspiring story. It would make a wonderful gift for any homeschooling family.

What I like best about this book is the degree to which the author makes clear he didn't go into homeschooling with all the answers, and how much he had to trust to find them along the way. On one page, he lists more than a hundred things he didn't know anything about before he encountering them in educating his daughters (the book focuses on the older one, which is sensible, given that the younger one was only 6 when the book ends.)

Yes, he does give himself a pat on the back, just as any homeschooling parent would when finding something that really works with his or her child. His daughter is undeniably very gifted, but what comes through is how much work he and his wife put in to enable that giftedness to express itself. I learned lots from this book, mainly that I can trust myself and my children to find our own way.