Sunday, January 3, 2010

Another Great Book



To anyone who is a current or prospective homeschooler, this book is a great place to start. I received a signed copy at the start of my second year of homeschooling, and it revolutionized my approach to homeschooling. While there are many styles of homeschooling out there, this book adheres to the classical approach, which asserts that while creativity is important, it should not take place of a solid foundation of factual knowledge from which children can later branch out. This is something I intuitively knew, yet with the public school curriculum I was given my first year of homeschooling, was never able to incorporate into my homeschool. I really like the way the author defines the "grammar stage" and the importance of filling a child's mind with factual knowledge during this time. Forget the fluff, children need to be given facts. They can develop their own style of creativity from there. I never was big on schools who seemed to want to give children all sorts of room for "creativity" and "expression"... yet never really seemed to be teaching them anything. As Bauer states, a child who never made it through his or her science book will not really suffer long-term. However, a child who was never taught the basics in reading or math will always struggle. That is why I like classical education- it emphasizes the importance of pure, basic knowledge. Anyhow, if you find yourself even remotely toying with the idea of homeschooling, you need to read this book. The decision, I believe, will come easily after that.

1 comment:

  1. I want to read that book...You are like the 3rd person I've heard in the last year or so that has really like it.

    I'm going to reserve it at the library right now.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete