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.