How Children Learn at Home Paperback – Illustrated, 31 Jan. 2008

I homeschooled my daughter for a year. This book was invaluable. Would highly recommend.

I'm a Dad of three little kids who are coming on very well, and I can see how much they have picked up "informally", as the authors of this book put it - in other words, they learn to think and read and count by some kind of natural absorption process, and they constantly soak up new ideas and skills from their parents and others around them. This all happens at a young age, and the authors of this book make a case for saying that such learning does not have to stop. But it often does because school intervenes and starts imposing a rigid framework where kids are force-fed a set curriculum. This book explains how kids can keep learning and developing without such a structure. And it is clearly intended to champion this kind of "unschooling". (This is not homeschooling, where the child is taught at home, but rather giving the child zero instruction unless s/he actively seeks it).This is all a terribly attractive philosophy and it clearly works, at least for some. However, as a parent I find I would need to know a lot more before taking such an orthodox path, since you don't want to take risks with your children's wellbeing. The first point is that there is no obvious effort in this book to explore any attempts at unschooling that didn't work. The interviews (as mentioned by the authors) were all with families that favoured this approach. But I wonder if there many "casualties" who didn't want to talk about their experience? And I also wondered if there were some hidden pitfalls of this informal method. School may be overly structued, but at least it is meant to give you an education that is rigorous and fairly complete. If kids are left to their own devices, it seems to me there's a good chance that many, even most, will grow up with some big gaps in their knowledge. And what about friends? School is not just about studying.The authors are so pro informal learning that I was slightly wondering if they thought there was anything good about school at all, or if they thought every kid could and should be informally educated nowadays. It's an open question, and I would have been interested to know what they thought on that score.

My one criticism of this book is the incomplete title. I would like to see it re-named 'How children learn at home and anywhere else they happen to find themselves.' This book, a celebration and confirmation of the quality of informal learning, is relevant to children everywhere and at all ages and stages.This book should be required reading for every adult who has any degree of relationship, authority or decision-making role in relation to children's learning opportunities - every parent, every grandparent, aunt or uncle, every childcare professional, every Guide or Scout or other children's club leader, every home educator, every school teacher.What a win for children if every relevant adult read and took notice of the fascinating but - in our highly-structured society - inconvenient truth imbedded between the covers of this book.We would all be deafened by the huge collective sigh of relief which would eminate from the Western World's children as they found themselves freed up to get on with what they've all been programmed to do since birth or earlier - largely independently extracting all the learning they need from the culture and environment into which they have been born, each picking out his or her unique path towards adulthood.

I'm sure this was groundbreaking at the time and makes some good points but there are more recent books that I've read now that meant this fell a bit flat.Much has changed since 2007/8 especially in terms of online learning options. So interesting and validating in terms of unschooling etc but not really helpful from my perspective.

This approachable and accessible book covers most aspects of informal and self-directed learning at home.The authors interviewed 26, mostly British, home-schooling families, and their outcomes go some way towards rebutting conventional arguments that education cannot exist beyond the structure of schools, curricula, and testing.Sections on the acquisition of literacy and numeracy are particularly well researched. The children concerned learn almost by accident through their everyday experiences, when they feel like it and are ready for it. Some of them receive input from their parents, while others learn with complete autonomy.The families and the authors describe how the majority of the children observed are actively engaged in their own learning and, therefore, establish their own learning agendas guided by what suits them best. The removal of competition, restrictive curricula and the time-wasting built into the school day create the space for children to develop their self-motivation and thereby enable them to learn more efficiently.As a retired teacher with thirty years experience, I find that this book provides me with evidence of the value of home schooling and throws out a powerful challenge to the skeptics.