Painful medical procedures, embarrassing moments with toddlers, tweens, and teenagers? Times when my nearest and dearest try my patience beyond endurance, or I try theirs, and they let me know? It’s all a lot easier to bear if I can see the funny side, and there almost always is one.
What I’m not, or, at least, try my best not to be is snarky and mean.I’m more of an Erma Bombeck/Phyllis Diller-type. Yeah, I mention a few times that my family is driving me crazy. So did Erma. But I go on to say that I know that I drive them crazy too.
Most of the writing in my first three books came from the years that we unschooled. A few people have asked me if I’ll still write now that both of my kids are in college and mostly out of the house. (One wonders if they’ve forgotten that I’ve also had Geekdaddy to write about for 36 years. He hasn’t moved out. Yet.)
Free on 26th Dec 16
SALMAN RUSHDIE: Surviving the 2022 Assassination Attempt
Scrubs and Dreams: A Nursing Student's Journey
When the Bugle Calls: A Soldier's Memoir
Reviews:
"It is good, but nothing outstanding. Its audience - homeschoolers and their parents - would find it useful..."
Reviewer: Reader for Bookangel.
It was the table of contents that caught my eye: "Is death by arachnophobia insecticide?" (Nitpickers will say no, spiders are arthropods, but it is good for a quick chuckle).
Unschooling seems to be an American type of homeschooling, and I was sceptical when I first heard about it. However Lill is the type of parent whose children are learning, and to her chagrin outstripping their parent is several places. The one thing that does come across is that she does a lot of work to make it happen. Unfortunately, read in a single go through, a distinct pattern begins to emerge: Something funny happens, parent uses it as lesson basis, positive comment about unschooling.
However this is less a continuous book or story, and more a collection of separate short articles. Each short anecdote is scattered with amusing incidents and lessons about homeschooling from the author's point of view. For homeschoolers, or parents looking to educate kids in their free time, this could be a useful book. It isn't just amusing, it contains a lot of resources and links where homeschoolers can find resources. The resources are all linked, and most can be found online. However many are tailored to the American school system, so may be less use to British parents. The stories themselves are more the type of funny-child-stories that can be found in a lot of places: e.g. people acting inappropriately in a restaurant getting commented on. There's nothing that makes it stand out.
It is good, but nothing outstanding. Its audience - homeschoolers and their parents - would find it useful, but that audience is rather limited as homeschooling is far less widespread over here.
It is a three.
Rating: 3
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Discussion
rz3300 (23 September 2016)
I have always been intrigued by and curious about the homeschooling option, so this might be a good way to get a good look at it. It sounds like it might not really be your conventional point of view, but I think that this is a good thing for me and a good way to gain some perspective.
clair02 (23 September 2016)
I have a six year old who was home-schooled until now so I guess this is one that I have to read. And the fact that it's full of links to helpful resources makes it even more appealing to me. I know homeschooling isn't very popular at the moment, but I was home-schooled until I was six years old and it paid off in a big way.
More people should look into the option of home-schooling their children, at least for the first couple of years, then they can enrol them into a school. This will have such a positive impact on their ability to learn.
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2016-02-21
