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

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A clear and magical account of how David and Ellen helped their daughters find new ways to take charge of their education. . . . A treat you should not miss." -- John Taylor Gatto, 1991 New York Teacher of the Year and author of Dumbing Us Down

Product Description

A clear and magical account of how David and Ellen helped their daughters find new ways to take charge of their education... A treat you should not miss.?John Taylor Gatto, 1991 New York Teacher of the Year and author of Dumbing Us Down
Progressive-minded parents considering homeschooling their children but turned off by fundamentalist or unschooling approaches will be inspired by this engaging account of home-directed community-based education.
Acting on their conviction that to educate a child well is to enable her to find her destiny, David Albert and his partner Ellen listened carefully, with respect and with love, to how their children expressed their own learning needs. Leaving traditional homeschooling methods behind, they followed their daughters' unique knowledge quests - from astronomy and botany, to opera and mythology - and then went about finding the resources and opportunities to meet those needs within their community. And the Skylark Sings with Me is reassuring to any parent who feels they must have an education background before homeschooling their children. While Albert pays special attention to science and nature - the subjects parents feel the most inadequately prepared to teach - he humbly admits that despite a "fancy" education, his knowledge areas rarely overlapped his daughters' evolving interests. The real challenge is not to "teach," but to find new ways to access the community - its people, its resources - as a flexible learning institution.
Gracefully written, And the Skylark Sings with Me passionately illustrates that real learning is much richer and more mysterious than any school can encompass.

"I recently received the copy of And the Skylark Sings With Me, and am savoring it. I love reading about your daughters' musical progressions. Reading them aloud is very encouraging to my musically-oriented 6 y.o. Thank you!
"As I read your educational philosophy, I feel affirmed and stretched at the same time. Affirmed, because you articulate so well what had been for me a nebulous sort of gut-feeling. Stretched, because you prompt me to expand that further. This is the same kind of response I've heard from a few other people who are reading your

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: New Society Publishers (September 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865714010
• ISBN-13: 978-0865714014
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #633,335 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars And the Skylark Sings with Ali, July 5, 2001

By A Customer

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.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing, July 30, 2003

By A Customer

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.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, May 23, 2001

By A Customer

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.