Homeschool Open House

I'll keep it simple...if you liked Homeschooling:A Patchwork of Days, you will at least like, if not love, Homeschool Open House. Not only does it do a five year follow-up on the original homeschooling families, but it has interviews with many more homeschooling families, from Alaska to Zimbabwe, some with one child, others with seven. I was inspired by some families, while I cringed at some of the unschoolers' choices. I am certainly looking forward to the next five-year follow up!

Having decided to homeschool but needing a pep-talk, I chose this book because I wanted to know about the day-to-day of what homeschool life was like. This book was exactly the thing because it's like being a fly on the wall in 55 homes. The things I took away from it are: (1) homeschooling, however you do it, is as much work as you think it will be so get ready, and (2) there are infinite ways to homeschool so go ahead and craft a lifestyle that is right for your family-- your kids will learn and thrive even if you don't do it exactly like the curriculum specifies. A very inspiring, very useful, very truthful book. Buy it and recommend it to your friends!

This is a superb book for three groups of people: Anyone who's THINKING about homeschooling, anyone who is ALREADY homeschooling and anyone who wants to KNOW more about it. It gives a detailed look at 55 very different families who homeschool. The families have VERY different approaches. The author doesn't try to espouse one particular technique, rather, she lets the viewer see the realities of how homeschooling looks with the individual overlays of each unique home life. This is not sanitized; it's a honest view of how different families have made it work or are struggling to make it work. The author is not judgemental about the vast differences that occur among families, and she includes more than just the standard "conservative" perspective on the subject. Homeschooling is NOT for everyone and this book helps readers determine whether they're cut out for it, or gives new ways of handling challenges. The author does ask some penetrating questions in the first few chapters. The book is full of innovative ideas and specific techniques from families all over the world who share their hard-earned 'secrets' to the thorny problems that arise. I found it compelling and think this is a 'must read'.

"What's remarkable to me, besides the awesome task of envisioning, designing, organizing, interviewing, drawing, questioning, thinking, typing, and finally publishing, was that even thought the spine of the book and the research topic is about homeschooling (and does not really effect my life one way or another), I couldn't put the book down. It's so HUMAN. So BROAD. So interesting because it's about PEOPLE. Their dreams. Their 'ideas.' Their Day. But, mostly, I was in awe of the strength, resourcefulness and sheer revolutionary energy needed to go one's own way."

In this sequel to "Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days," Nancy Lande has once again opened up the lives of homeschooling families so that anyone can see that homeschooling is not only doable, but being done, and being done very successfully. What is most valuable for the person who wants to know about homeschooling in general is that there are 55 families here, each using a somewhat different style of homeschooling, but each family seems to be getting along just fine. One family, in which the parents are both long-haul truck drivers, talk about their adventures "On the Road." Some of the families, such as in the "Never O'Clock" and "Teacher Didn't Shave Today" chapters (which are in the section of follow-ups from "Patchwork") are willing to talk warts and all. There is a good balance of families that are religious, not so religious, and not religious at all. There are families that are more or less going it alone, and others that have teamed up with learning cooperatives or that take advantage of some part of a public school program. Only children; small families; big families; rural areas; big cities; working parents; single parents; the United States, Australia, Africa, Canada, the United Kingdom; extremely structured and very free and easy. It's all here!Recommended to journalists who want an overview of homeschooling philosophy; families considering the homeschooling adventure; skeptical relatives; anyone who likes to eavesdrop on other people's lives!