subtitle- a creative and stress-free approach to homeschooling
I found this book to be a good read. I only read the first half of it and not the testimonials from different homeschool families around the country. I prefer right now to have more a philosophical encouragement than "here's exactly how to do it" type of literature. I found their advice on lesson planning (basically make a journal of the day AFTER the day is done) and on organization - simple is better! - to be helpful. They do seem to lean more toward unschooling than I would prefer. So much "unschool" stuff is stressed that someone might get the wrong idea without keeping in balance their thoughts on "guided" freedom of the student. Once again they stressed studies and personal experience to uphold their motto of "better late than early" although thankfully this book did not go to the nth degree to prove that point (as did Better Late Than Early (as one would expect) and School Can Wait) The testimony of the how the Moore family began homeschooling was helpful as well as the "Moore Formula" that they encourage which is a balance of work, service and academics. That idea is very appealing to me and goes along well with Charlotte Mason's philosophy of "Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life" (though it doesn't correspond exactly). Also encouraging was Ms. Moore's advice to take into account "real life" such as house cleaning and cooking meals, etc. Often times I feel bad that I must clean and cook instead of just concentrating on the children's "education". When I really think about those things are part and parcel of their education. Chapter 10 on encouraging family health was also helpful (though not earth-shattering in content). Seems to me we do a great disservice to our children and ourselves when we neglect to think of the "big picture" of life. There is much in Mason's writings about health and even the types of food we feed our children. Good stuff that I'm always thinking about.
