OK, I'm SO far off my list that I proposed to follow when I started this Spring Reading Thing with Katrina but I AM proud of how much reading I've gotten done! LOL
I got Homeschooling for Dummies and A Complete Idiot's Guide to Homeschooling at the same time via Ebay. Without going into how DaHubby and I REALLY dislike this "Dummies" and "Idiot's Guide" thing, let me say this: I read "Homeschooling for Dummies" cover to cover and probably have 30+ sticky notes working as tabs at the top of the book for things I'll go back and use. That is not the case so far with the other.
There are seven "chapters" or parts: Heading to Homeschooling, Tackling Kids of Any Age, Basic Curriculum Options, Nailing Down the Details, Making Your Year Sing With Extras, the Part of Tens (10 educational games and 10 most common homeschooling fears), and the worth-their-weight-in-gold appendixes on curriculum, resources, associations, and glossary of "education-speak" that drives non-teacher-trained (as well as teacher-trained) folks insane.
The parts that will at first glance help me the most right now are pages on arguments for people claiming my kids won't be socialized, lowering costs, helping me find the proper legal resources so I know my rights and responsibilities, public domain/copyright/fair use issues, and organizational ideas.
This is easy to read, well-organized, and simple to understand. It addresses homeschooling from different perspectives in terms of why you are homeschooling and what you will teach in a way that's inclusive. It covers the spectrum from school-at-home classical curriculum to unschooling.
If you are at the beginning of your home schooling research like I am, I'd suggest picking up a used copy of this book. Don't know that I would have spent $20 for this book but since a "very good" copy can be purchased at Half.com for under $7 not including media mail shipping, I'd jump on it.
If you would like to see some of the books the other 270+ people are reading, there are a list of participants here and some of the reviews here.
Monday, May 14, 2007
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3 comments:
Another good one is The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell. Visiting the HSLDA website was useful in figuring out what I need to do for legality's sake.
My mom homeschooled my younger siblings in NY so I know what support group/co-op I'll probably join if DH let's me do this beyond preschool. I feel like I still need to prove myself as an efficient manager of the home before he'll really trust that I can handle all the work involved.
For pre-school, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing in this very informal way: lots of reading aloud, crafts, singing, sorting, playing, observing, walks around the neighborhood, looking at bugs, answering all the "what's this, mama?"'s.
How old is Flicka? Jack is about 2 1/2.
That's so funny your hubby doesn't like the "dummies" series. My husband doesn't either!
But I read them;)
Beautiful little article. Very much needed & appreciated. **SMILES
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