Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Book Review: The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child
This book, by Linda Dobson, I enjoyed. As much as I have been reading about homeschooling lately, I'm not sure there was much in it that was new to me, but what is really nice about this book, is that is liberally sprinkled throughout with the words of homeschoolers of every stripe and background.
I really like the chapter entitled "A Week in the Life" which offers a look into the homeschools of several different families. There is a traditional school at home family, a classical family, a Charlotte Mason family, A unit studies family, an eclectic family, and an unschooling family. There is also a family that belongs to a learning cooperative, a family that homeschools at school, so to speak, and a family that utilizes online learning programs. Some are Christian families and some are not. There are, of course many differences among the families. The similarities among them, though, are the biggies: family time together, flexibility, an enriched learning-focused lifestyle, parents and children actively involved with each other's lives, not watching from the outside.
Another valuable section of this book are the two sections that address homeschooling from the beginning versus homeschooling after the child has been in an institutional school. The primary bit of advice for the former is to let the child "play school" and the primary bit of advice for the latter is to allow the child "decompression time.".
This would be the perfect first or second book to read for those thinking about or planning to begin homeschooling. I bet that it would be as valuable to re-read about half way through your first year of homeschooling for the encouragement and to gain the sense that everyone else has been through this or that rough spot, too.
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