The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas: 500+ Fun and Creative Learning Activities for Kids Ages 3-12 (Paperback)

by Linda Dobson (Author) "Imagine growing up with the entire world's information instrantaneously available, literally at your fingertips..." (more)
Key Phrases: homeschooling families, school mind, education mind, New York, Let's Get, British Columbia (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Praise for The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas:
"This book is much more than a well-organized list of creative things to do on a rainy day! It's a complete resource?the kind of information you'd find in the best 'how-to' homeschool manual." ? Jane Boswell, Home Educator's Family Times
"This book is truly a mother lode of ideas for learning! Whether you're struggling with teaching a particular subject or just looking for something new and different to spice up your experience, you'll find enough family-tested ideas here to keep you busy for years." ? Laura Derrick, president, National Home Education Network
"Each idea reaffirms the joy of learning as a family and reinforces the fact that homeschooling parents are creative, confident, and competent educators for their children." ? Tammy Rosenblatt, founder and director, The Family Resource Center -- Review

Review
Praise for The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas:
"This book is much more than a well-organized list of creative things to do on a rainy day! It's a complete resource—the kind of information you'd find in the best 'how-to' homeschool manual." — Jane Boswell, Home Educator's Family Times
"This book is truly a mother lode of ideas for learning! Whether you're struggling with teaching a particular subject or just looking for something new and different to spice up your experience, you'll find enough family-tested ideas here to keep you busy for years." — Laura Derrick, president, National Home Education Network
"Each idea reaffirms the joy of learning as a family and reinforces the fact that homeschooling parents are creative, confident, and competent educators for their children." — Tammy Rosenblatt, founder and director, The Family Resource Center

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (November 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761563601
• ISBN-13: 978-0761563600
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,218 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful source for educational family activities, January 10, 2003

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Written with kids age 3-12 in mind, The Ultimate Book Of Homeschooling Ideas presents over 500 creative and enjoyable learning activities specifically designed for use by homeschooling parents. The learning activities range from flash card games, to a pocket alphabet banner for pre-readers, to learning the basics about DNA, to a math game using Legos. Each of these original, innovative, and practical ideas consists of a brief overview and general suggestions; with the specifics of application being implied or left up to the home-based parental educator. The Ultimate Book Of Homeschooling Ideas is warmly commended as being an excellent resource for enriching young minds by homeschoolers (and equally recommended for those parents whose youngsters attend public or private schools), as well as a wonderful source for educational family activities during school holidays and summer vacations.

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for homeschooling, and education in general, June 3, 2004

By	Henry Cate III (CA. United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Linda Dobson is well known in homeschooling circles. She has written several books; she is invited to speak at homeschooling conferences; and she has been homeschooling her own children for years. Most of the books she has written are very targeted at the homeschooling market. The title of this book indicates the same trend, but the reality is this book is for any family who wants to help their children learn and understand more in their education.

Her first chapter does focus homeschooling, as she talks about some key factors between public schools and homeschooling. She calls these the "school mind" and the "education mind." The "school mind" is more concerned about preserving the public school system than in educating the students. The "education mind" is focused on trying to help children learn.

The rest of the book is a wonderful collection of ideas on how to help children learn, from reading, to math, to character building, to other facets of a children's education. This is a great resource for rainy days, for when a child is bored, or for when a student is struggling with a particular subject.

If you are looking for ways to educate your children, this is a good book to have.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning is Fun-damental!, May 6, 2004

By	A. L. Hermitt "ahermitt" (, GA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Just when I was beginning to think that Linda Dobsons books were a little dull and technical, I came across this one. The Ultimate book of Homeschooling Ideas (500+ fun and creative learning activities age 3-12) Is truly a gem. Though she consistently gives books titles as long as paragraphs, this book, which I believe is her latest has lifted my opinion of her credibility and book writing skill. Copy written in 2002, it shows how far the author has come since she started writing homeschooling books almost 2 decades ago.

I borrowed this book from the Library to review along with 12 other books on homeschooling, and now will be purchasing it immediately to keep one on my shelf as a reference book. I just dare one of my kids to say to me " Mom. I'm bored". I have at least 500 activities I am just waiting to introduce to them. Actually because of their ages, I only have about 400 because some of the games are too juvenile for them, but that is still more than one learning experience in a day.

In her usual tradition of book writing, this book by Linda Dobson is another compilation book, with different games and activities submitted from hundreds of homeschooling moms around the country. They are as creative and different as there are people on the earth.

The book's first few chapters are devoted to homeschooling philosophies as usual and introduces terms that are new to me like school mind vs. education mind. The concept is very simple, yet very intelligent and it helps the reader to make a distinction between the way a child is taught at school vs. the ways you can teach a child at home.

The book is also divided up into subject with appropriate games and activities listed in each section that it most closely relates to, thus helping a parent with record keeping because each game or activity counts as a lesson in any particular subject. For example, in the Math chapter, listed are familiar games like math and dominoes, but also new ideas like edible manipulatives and pizza fraction game. Likewise, in the chapter on Language we find old favorites like word bingo, as well as new ideas like read the TV (turn off sound and read closed captioning).

These ideas have me truly excited about homeschooling. We are sure to start playing these games long before our homeschooling start date of June 1, and will use this book for many years to come.