The Homeschooling Book of Answers: The 88 Most Important Questions Answered by Homeschooling's Most Respected Voice: Amazon.ca: Linda Dobson: Books

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This how-to guide offers the collective wisdom of six dozen homeschoolers, their children, and noted writers on the subject. Written in a question-and-answer format, it leaves no stone unturned, with chapters on everything from socialization ("But what about the prom?") to the tricky teen years ("How will my child learn the tough subjects, like algebra and chemistry, if I don't understand them?"). There's also practical advice on how to handle critical relatives and friends, how to succeed at the college admissions process, and how to correspond with the governmental agencies that may oversee homeschooling in your state. The writing is authoritative and often humorous, with anywhere from two to five responses to each question from different homes across the country. One chapter exclusively features responses from homeschooled children. A lengthy appendix of resources provides national and state support groups, books, magazines, sources for learning materials, Internet sites, mailing lists, and newsletters. And, unlike many books on this subject, a helpful list of state-by-state requirements for homeschoolers is provided.

Linda Dobson, the author who corralled these voices, is the news editor and columnist for Home Education Magazine, and a homeschooler since 1985. Primarily written for families considering homeschooling, the guide would also benefit educators, researchers, politicians, and writers. Despite its comprehensiveness, however, the book does gloss over the subject of minorities in homeschooling (only one parent of color is among the contributors), and traditional schools come in for quite a bit of abuse at homeschoolers' expense. But for someone looking for advice from those in the know, this is the book. --Jodi Mailander Farrell

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21 Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book, but not really helpful to me..., Nov 6 2006

By

CanadianMother (Ontario) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Homeschooling Book of Answers: The 88 Most Important Questions Answered by Homeschooling's Most Respected Voice (Paperback)

As I am considering homeschooling my daughter, I recently picked up a number of books on homeschooling. I wanted to find out more, to get the whole picture of what homeschooling entails to a family.

Although this book was interesting, it was ultimately disappointing.

For one thing, I did not like the format in which it was written. One question is asked, and then multiple "experts" give their answers--answers which are often almost complete repeats of each other. I felt like I was wasting time reading the chopped up text containing the same comments over and over.

For another thing, the book paints in my opinion too rosy a picture of the homeschooling life. I went to this book looking for answers about the difficult parts of homeschooling, because I want to be well informed before I make a choice about it. However this book glosses over the challenges of homeschooling. The overall purpose of the book seems to be to "sell" homeschooling to the doubting crowd, and it made me feel like I was watching an infomercial at times.

Third, I was hoping that due to its fairly thick size this book might contain helpful advice and ideas for setting up your home school, once the decision has been made. But it contains very little useful information for people who are already homeschooling. The overall message of the book is simply "Come on, give homeschooling a chance, it's awesome, trust us!" With not much further than that.

And last, as other reviewers have pointed out the writers in the book are heavily biased towards unschooling. Not all potential homeschoolers are comfortable with this radical idea and it would have been nice to see more varied points of view.

So overall the book left a bad taste in my mouth. I felt like in reading it I had been merely preached to by the unschooling crowd rather than having actuall learned anything useful.

A book which I found to contain MUCH more useful, complete and unbiased information for those considering homeschooling is Homeschooling Step-by-Step: 100+ Simple Solutions fo Homeschooling's Toughest Problems, by Gold & Zielinski. That book presents a completely unbiased explanation of ALL the different philosophies of homeschooling, as well as lots of great info on different teaching methods and learning styles. I also felt that it presenting a more unbiased view of homeschooling itself.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, May 24 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Homeschooling Book of Answers: The 88 Most Important Questions Answered by Homeschooling's Most Respected Voice (Paperback)

This book is chock full of good information and inspiration on the various aspects of homeschooling -- everything from socialization to high school years to cost to assessments to the place of TV. Dobson lets the parents and homeschooled kids give the answers. It's creative, educational and enjoyable to read. We've been homeschooling for 10 years and I still find myself dipping into the wisdom found in this book. Whether you homeschool or not, or just want to know more about some aspect of homeschooling, this book is well worth reading -- or just dipping into. I highly recommend it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite homeschooling book by far..., Feb 24 2003

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Sobriquett (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Homeschooling Book of Answers: The 88 Most Important Questions Answered by Homeschooling's Most Respected Voice (Paperback)

Until I read this book cover to cover I didn't know why I felt so much pressure as a new homeschooling mother. This book took all the guilt out of it for me. I realized, through so many varied opinions, that homeschooling is a joy, not a task and that I didn't need to wake up at 7am and crack the whip, standing before a homemade chalk board. I realized I am an unschooler who follows a VERY flexable cirriculum through reading this book. Thank you to the authors of it. It really eased my mind and help me find my way. I have set my fear aside and won't allow others who do not homeschool try to instill THEIR paranoid fears into us. I truly realized now that my children will learn and I don't have to get all bent out of shape over it. I feel free, thank God.

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars An valuable but incomplete picture
Some previous reviews notwithstanding, this book does not provide a sufficiently complete overview of homeschooling as practiced today. Read more

Published on Oct 23 2001 by Joan

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful resource for those new to homeschooling...
My husband and I were on the fence about whether or not to homeschool our kids until we read this book. Now we know that it is the right choice for us! Ms. Read more

Published on Jun 11 2001 by Juliet Capulet