|
|
Are you looking for a great big fat book to help you get started with home schooling? Well, The Home School Manual is definitely big and definitely fat--all 542 wonderfully helpful pages of it! :-)
This book has more information
than one can easily digest in one reading. Believe me--I read it
cover to cover. But the really, really cool thing is that Ted Wade
provides tours. So, you don't have to read the whole book cover to
cover; you read a "tour" which is the portion of the book that most closely
fits your reading objectives. Here's a description of the tours:
| Tour A | For those investigating the idea of home schooling |
| Tour B | For the education of young or preschool children |
| Tour C | For people who are new to home schooling and are planning elementary school teaching. |
| Tour D | For parents with a year or more experience who are continuing at the elementary school level. |
| Tour E | For those interested in high school at home. |
| Tour F | For teachers of children with handicaps. |
| Tour G | For teaching gifted children. |
Some of the chapters are listed as part of more than one Tour. And Tour F and Tour G a noticeably shorter than the other Tours. If Tours F and G are your main interest, please take note that The Home School Manual covers these topics only lightly. The tour feature: convenient, efficient, seriously innovative.
There are 62 chapters (about 360 pages) and 26 Appendices (about 180 pages). There are five sections:
- Principles of Home Education
- Areas of Learning
- Theory Into Practice
- Appendices--Resource Information
- Forms for Keeping Records
- Parents and Education
- When not to Try Home Schooling
- Keeping Peace With School Authorities
- Helping Your Child Learn
- Inspiring Motivation
- Support Groups
- Developing an Educational Framework
- Thinking Responsibly
- Planning for the Early Years
- Developing Strength of Character
- Teaching Reading (and a chapter for each of the other subjects)
- Teenagers Taught at Home
- Preparing for College
- Social Success
- Organize to Survive
- Selecting Learning Materials
- Teaching Several Children
- more!
The appendices are plentiful--one for every letter in the alphabet. And these appendices are more than just lists, they included valuable reviews and comments by Ted Wade. Some of the topics included are: schools in which to enroll your children; high school correspondence schools; home schooling information for the U. S., Canada, a few other countries; a typical K-12 curriculum; 57 ideas that work; reviews of books teaching "how-to" home school; home schooling periodicals; religious instruction and ministry; testing services; and suppliers. Also included in the appendices are reviews of instructional materials reviewed by Ted Wade (some by Lorinda Lasher). Are all the addresses, phone numbers, and URLs perfectly up to date? No, but many of them seem to be as I peruse them. Appendices: small print jamming in lots of info, broad coverage, almost a book inside a book.
I did have a little bit of a problem with some of the references to the appendices. For example: on page 55, the reader is referred to Appendix L for "Ideas That Work," but Appendix L is entitled, "General Periodicals." I had to search through the Appendices hunting for Appendix L. This isn't a big deal, but it happened a couple of other times also. Minor point, I know.
The forms section, while not exhaustive, is substantial. Forms included are Master Schedule, Daily Responsibilities, Individual Evaluation, Curriculum Sources, Curriculum Calendar, Weekly Plans and Progress, Weekly Studies Log, Household Responsibilities, you get the idea. You'll probably make your own forms since it's not so easy to find a form that gives you a perfect fit, but these forms will definitely give you something to start with or a foundation to build on.
Now, Ted Wade didn't write this whole book by himself--even though as a home schooling father and educator, he could have. He has asked a lot of other folks to contribute to this tome by writing specific chapters on their own specialty. By adding their expertise, Ted Wade has given us a broader and fuller picture of home education. However, I think I wouldn't mind hearing a little more from Ted Wade. While I can't say I agree with everything he says, I appreciate his perspective which has been influenced by his years teaching internationally, teaching his own children, and teaching at the college level.
So who are these other authors anyway? Well, here's an incomplete list: Barbara Getty, Brian Ray, Donna Faturos, Velma Woodruff, David and Laurie Lanier, Marilyn Rockett, Jackie Wellwood, Laura Coker, Meg Johnson, Kay Kuzma, Jonathan Lindvall, Ruth Beechick. Some of those I'd heard of before, but I hadn't heard of most of them. These folks are all home schooling advocates, and most are home schoolers themselves.
Overall, the book has a "school at home" flavor. That would mean that it's approach seems to be rather textbook based. So if you are looking to "child-led learning" or "unschooling," you'll want to skip this book and look more at something like The Homeschooling Book of Answers. While it seems to be that The Home School Manual has a more traditional bent to it, it doesn't advocate force feeding of any subject; structure and freedom are tied together and promoted as an appropriate methodology.
The Home School Manual is decidedly Christian. So for those seeking that type of guidance, you should be quite pleased. However, Ted Wade has tried to make this book helpful to all home schoolers regardless of their religious leanings, if any. He says, on page 11, "Here and there we mention a Bible principle, but we have tried to minimize elaboration, leaving you to draw your own conclusions." If you're looking for a book devoid of religious instruction, please try something else because some of the comments will most likely irritate. Although, if you don't mind reading a book based on Christian principles, this book might be just right for you since a lot of the content is strictly about home schooling.
There were a number of things that I appreciated or enjoyed about The Home School Manual. One was that anything that should have been footnoted was footnoted. I really appreciate being able to see the source for the information. Plus there was still stuff (yeah, stuff) in it that we could use even though we've been home schooling since 1992. Additionally, as someone that is often left wondering how to apply (sometimes) vague ideas, The Home School Manual included exactly what I need a lot of: specific examples illustrating *how* home schooling works.
If you're thinking about home schooling, The Home School Manual would be a good starting point. If you're a newer home schooler, this would be a handy manual for you to have on your shelf. If you've been home schooling for three or four years, this book would be a good refresher course.
Overall, The Home School Manual is a useful book. Watch for the CD that's supposed to be coming out soon!
Award Winners at Amazon
Other
Getting Started
Reviews
- You Can Teach Your Child Successfully
- Christian Home Educators' Curriculum Manual
- The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook
- The Three R's
- What Your Nth Grader Needs to Know