Customer Reviews

A Survivor's Guide to Home Schooling

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Just when I was ready to send my home schooled child back to public school (in Siberia!) Luanne Shackleford's book made me laugh, cry, dance, and jump for joy to be privileged enough to educate my children at home. (Okay, so I didn't really dance.) "A Survivor's Guide to Home Schooling" hits the funny bone and touches the heart string of what home schooling is all about. She has a fresh way of reminding home educators that while ours is the most important job in the world to us, we just have to lighten up a bit sometimes. Now, there's serious stuff in here, too. After all, education is no joke no matter who is doing it (take me for instance). But, thankfully, serious information does not have to read like a technical manual and Luane Shackleford proves it! The nitty gritty is covered here. Several home school moms share their daily schedules with us. The rules and even the "Swat Chart" at the Shackelford home are right there in black and white. Even the author's deep dark secret confession about how she manages the housework around home schooling seven (yes, I counted seven!) kids. Do's and Don'ts of what to tell your mother-in-law (and other well meaning skeptics) about your decision to home school is only one example of practical and usable advice. This book is Christian-based. It is funny. It is good for new and old home schoolers alike. It is hard to put down. It is now on my home school bookshelf (but probably won't stay there long).

The material in this book is very out-of-date. Homeschooling has come a long way since 1988! Back then I would have given the book 5 stars, but I wouldn't recommend it now. There were very few options for homeschool curriculum in 1988, and the internet didn't exist. This book is very "conservative" in its "christian - based" approach. For example, it cautions you that secular math textbooks may have word problems that "...emphasize women in non-traditional roles and other off-the-wall propaganda." Some of the information may be useful, especially the chapter on reading to your children, but I wouldn't buy this book just for that. A better choice would be Lisa Welchel's "So You're Thinking About Homeschooling".

I was looking for advice on how to teach several children while maintaining a clean home. Sadly, this book did not offer such advice. The author uses a live-in housekeeper which is out of our budget. The suggestions she does offer are very generic and not very useful. Not much time is devoted to the scheduling of multiple children. She offers some different schedules from other families, but doesn't really show how you would actually use them.

This book is openly 'Christian'. I am also, but I'm not sure which church she belongs to since many of her beliefs I disagree with. I found myself skipping large portions of the text because it didn't apply to my views or were slightly offensive.

As mentioned by another reviewer, this book is very dated. So many new products are on the market that you really can't use her recommendations. This wouldn't have bothered me if I had been able to cull several good ideas from the rest of the material, but I came away feeling like the book had not been worth my time.

I'm sure the author is a lovely woman and I appreciate her honesty about her life. Yes, homeschooling is great and crazy. I felt like she understood how most of us feel when we go to bed at night with dirty dishes and loads of unclean laundry after having yelled at the kids all day about needing to do their schoolwork. I just wish that she had given me more tools on how to 'overcome it all.' I'll keep looking!

I found this book to be very enlightening and helpful as I prepare to begin homeschooling my 8 year old daughter in the fall of 2000. The authors hit on almost all areas of concern for those starting out, i.e.: Scheduling your curriculum, time-management & testing. As well as alot of invaluable advise from an experienced homeschool mom of 7 kids! I recently attended a local meeting for beginner homeschool parents, and I found that this book had already answered most of my questions already. Most enjoyable was Luanne Shackelford's humorous and honest portrayal of her family and their homeschooling experiences. I could hardly put the book down, and I was dissappointed when I completed the book because I enjoyed reading it so much.

This book is hilarious. Whether you are a newbie or an experienced homeschooler, this is a must read. It deals with the practical side of homeschooling. Things like making them do it & how to keep the house clean in the midst of all the chaos. They also have excellent information on choosing curriculum & scheduling your school day. These women really know what they are talking about. Loved it!!!

This book should have a warning on the cover which states "Most material in this book will offend non-Christians." The author used what could have been a wonderful resource for homeschooling families as a soapbox for her own fanatical religious views.

Because many families do homescool for religious reasons, I have come to expect a religious slant to most books on the subject. Most authors, however, are able to present the material so that their writing is able to relay useful information without infuriating the reader. If I wrote a secular homeschooling guide and ripped apart Christianity the way this author does to non-Christian thinking, I would probably have trouble getting it published and receive bags of Christian hate-mail if it were published.

This one is going out with the recycling as I wouldn't want to subject anyone else. I received no valuable information from this book.

I've homeschooled my children for three years now and was looking for a bit of uplifting and new ideas for us. This book is great and totally filled the spot! Highly recommended even for those of us who have been 'surviving' for a while. :)

I found this book very disappointing. For one thing, the author suggests a creepy method of spanking children, including a chart on the wall of the "discipline" to be administered with a wooden spoon for various offenses. But hey, that's not punishment, maintains the author. If I can't keep my children's interest in the material without hitting them with a spoon, then there is a major problem with the instruction. I'm not going to resell or give this book away. I'm going to throw it out so it doesn't fall into the hands of someone who actually follows her advice.

A quote from page 126: "A good steak dinner laced with strychnine is farm more dangerous than a clearly marked bottle, especially if you are hungry."

Anyone hoping this book will help them understand homeschooling should know that it is a pro-spanking, fundamentalist Christian tome and not even clearly Biblical. "Pain does teach!" and "Spanking is not hitting" take it outside the field of homeschooling, and perhaps Amazon should re-categorize it.

This is my second year of homeschooling, and I really loved this book. I finally realized I wasn't the lone ranger, and I figured out that I was human not some horrible mutant mom. I loved this book so much, I recommended it to a friend who is starting to homeschool this year. She loved it too!!