A how-to book about Homeschooling

Our Pre-homeschool Yahoo group decided to read a book to help us all get informed about homeschooling:

The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child by Linda Dobson

I have to admit that I was a bit hesitant to read this book since I'm not too crazy about how-to books. How-to books often seem watered down since the author is trying to cover so much information. I'm glad I ignored my first instincts and went ahead with this book as it did prove to be helpful.

Dobson discusses homeschooling as it could pertain to many different types of families: families bringing children home from traditional school and families starting with younger children just entering school-age. She discusses the many different types of homeschooling: from traditional homeschooling, involving a traditional school-like setting, all the way across the spectrum to un-schooling homeschooling, which involves complete child-led learning with parents acting only as guides. In addition, Dobson discusses particular hurdles and how to overcome them and even includes a "Week in the life" section that illustrates how different homeschooling families spend their learning time. Peppered throughout the text are many anecdotes from real homeschooling families which help the reader to visualize what their own homeschooling days will be like.

All-in-all I found that reading this book helped me to clarify exactly what my homeschooling goals and values are. By reading about how other families homeschool I have been able imagine how our schooling will progress. Dobson provides a good summary of the first year of homeschooling, valuable to any parent starting out on a homeschooling adventure.