Homeschooling: The Early Years by Linda Dobson

Spread the love


Stars: ***1/2

I was excited to read this book which is for homeschooling ages 3-8 because of course I’ve started basic homeschooling with my 21 month old and wanted to be ready for more instruction when my child gets older.

However I must say this book didn’t live up to my expectations. The best part of the book was the ideas on teaching Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmetic and the books and websites listed in the resources at the back of each chapter. The information itself is pretty good but the writing style is a little nonsensical. I don’t feel the author stayed on the topic she was talking about in each section.

The book is based on the results of a questionnaire of 66 homeschooling parents. Each section is talked about based on the results and quotes are given from the different parents about the subjects. I enjoyed the quotes directly from homeschooling families as I think this is the best advice you can get. (ie. directly from the source.) Although some of the statistics were interesting, a lot of it wasn’t very much help.

I wouldn’t recommend this book as a first one to turn to about homeschooling but if you have read quite a few already and want some ideas on teaching the early years, then pick up this book. All the more if it’s from the library. I did copy down quite a few books from the resources that I’d like to read and although some of the websites were no longer available (as is expected since the web changes so frequently) there were some good ones listed that I know have bookmarked.

This post is Copyright 2001-2012 SMS Book Reviews. Do not reproduce anything without permission.
About Kathleen

I've been a nonfiction lover for as long as I can remember. I love children's nonfiction as well and love to share my knowledge and the books I gained them from, with the world. I wish more people would give nonfiction a chance.