Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Well-adjusted Child

My kids have always learned at home, so with my oldest being 12 I feel like we have been at this for awhile. Whenever someone new to homelearning has asked me about it I always suggest that the first thing they read is Marty Layne's treasure of a book. Reading it really gave me a sense of how I wanted our life of learning to look and, more importantly, how I wanted it to feel. When I read her book I felt as though I was sitting down for coffee at the kitchen table of a wise friend, someone who was able to gently guide me to where I wanted to go...even though I didn't even know that place existed yet. She gave me a real insight to how gentle, loving, fulfilling and natural learning at home could be...for my kids and for myself.

A couple weeks ago I ordered The Well-adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling from our library and now, whenever someone new to learning at home asks me for some book recommendations, I will tell them about this one as well. What a fantastic book for someone new to learning at home... and also for someone who has been at it for years. I think it covers every cause for concern someone (or someone's relative) could ever have. It is a very empowering book, it gives all kinds of supportive information in a very straight-forward, clear manner as well as lots of stories from homelearners themselves.

One of my favourite parts is the story the author tells in the introduction, it starts out "Once upon a time, all children were homeschooled." Something that our society seems to have forgotten.

4 comments:

Joanne said...

Yay...thanks Heather, I always love your book recommendations and I haven't read either of these!

Penelope said...

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll have to check these out.

Anonymous said...

Ooooh, the Well Adjusted Child sure looks like a good one, I have to check that one out. I love Marty Layne's book, too. One I've read many times and probably will many more. Do you know, she contacted me a while back because she had been reading my blog (she's from here) and asked if I'd be willing to contribute to another book she's got on the go? Can I just say I was over the moon!? I hope I get an opportunity to work with her and contribute a bit of writing and photos.... She has such an amazing philosophy on parenting. Definitely a welcome influence on me!

denise said...

Oh, I love both of those books. I have thought about passing the second one along to a few select family members...if ya know what I mean. ;)