Homeschooling: The Early Years - Your Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling the 3- to 8- Year-Old Child

A Fantastic Resource and A Great Inspiration!

This is not yet another mere 'your child should 'x' at 'y' age' handbook focusing on academics, but a traveler's guide to creating a family's own itinerary for the homeschooling journey. It offers an expansive view of the home education landscape, with mountains of ideas and personal experiences contributed by fellow explorers, wellsprings of inspiration, and stockpiles of resources. Like Linda Dobson's other books, 'Homeschooling: The Early Years' takes parents outside the box of 'school at home' thinking, encouraging families to use their whole world as a 'classroom' and to recognize that learning happens all the time-even when not regimented according to grade level or chopped into subject areas. In addition, the book instills confidence in parents of children who don't 'measure up' to grade level marks by providing lively pictures of children who developed at their own pace and turned out ok anyway. These facets can help parents find an individualized homeschooling style that is relaxed and enjoyable for the whole family. What could be better than that? The author invites readers to leaf through homeschooling's goodie basket, to taste the benefits that lie beyond academic measures. These include the luxury of spending 'extra' time exploring areas of interest, homeschooling's power to strengthen the family bond and instill positive socialization and its flexibility in meeting the needs of any schedule or lifestyle, and the joy and pleasure of homeschooling while cuddling together in your jammies. 'Early Years' maps a remarkably wide territory for one modest book. It covers how to tune into your child's unique learning needs, incorporating learning with young children's natural tendencies, and overcoming fears and doubts. Included in this volume are money-saving ideas, including discovering educational materials you already have at home; homeschoolers' favorite software, helping you make good choices from among the tremendous number of materials available; in-depth information on the 3 R's; information on a variety of homeschooling methods; resources, such as periodicals, other books, Web sites and more; help for parents of special needs children, single parents, ways to include younger siblings; organizing; and even 'part-time homeschooling' as a supplement to school. Having homeschooled my now 13 year-old and 10 year-old children their whole lives, I believe 'Homeschooling: The Early Years' is a fantastic resource, an inspiration, and even a quiet revolution. This book helps parents learn to trust themselves and their own perceptions, rather than always looking to 'experts,' because nobody knows a child better than does the parent-and that may be the most important homeschooling idea of all.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Definitely not as good as other books out there.

I was all excited to get Linda Dobson's books. This, as well as most of the others, have been a disappointment. I hardly ever refer to them now. They weren't all that helpful at all. Her books (including this one) lack 'meat' and are way too vague. I suppose it's a good, VERY basic, rather shallow introduction. But that's about it. The main thing that I did not appreciate about the author is her heavy unschooling bias. Not everyone is into unschooling. To the new homeschooler, that can be a real turn-off.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Kate

Me.

Anno

Okay

Kat

Has anyone seen beth?

Sean

Im not homeschooled i just have o.s.s today.

Chey

Hey guys

Alex

Ill try to be on somtime this week

A Waste of Time and Money

I am new to homeschooling, and I purchased this book because of the great reviews it recieved. However, I was so disappointed! I have only read about 3 books on homeschooling prior to this one, and boy, it was a waste of my time. There is nothing in this book that someone with common sense would not already know, not to mention a parent(s) who are already homeschooling or thinking about it. I was looking for in depth information. This had none. Don't waste you money on this one!

This book is useful to all parents of young children

Whether or not you decide to homeschool your child, this book is a great guide to how young children learn. For parents of young children, bookstore shelves are filled with books on parenting advice dealing with developmental stages, health questions, etc. but few books offer parents the opportunity to open up the world of home learning for their children as this latest book from Homeschooling Expert Linda Dobson. As parents, we are our children's first teachers and this book provides practical information on how to enhance home learning that will carry our children throughout their early childhood years. Given the state of schools and public education funding in this country, even if their kids go to preschool or public kindergarten-third grade, parents are finding themselves having to provide some home instruction, whether for enrichment or remediation. (Part of the reason I decided to homeschool is that I was already having to do a lot of home teaching even though my children were in a top-notch public school.) This book provided me with a wealth of hints, tips, and guidance during the early years.

Linda Dobson Books Help Tremendously

This Homeschooling The Early Years book is one I loan out constantly. It's full of practical get-through-the-day ideas as well as big-picture support for homeschooling. While the books are instructive, one thing I love about Dobson's writing is that she encourages the parent to create her own vision of what will work best for her family.