Homeschooling Reflections

By Connie Colten

Homeschooling Reflections provides a look at a family of five children as they learn at home. Now four of the children are out in world. The book provides support for those deciding to start their own... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974687405
• ISBN13: 9780974687407
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Colten Creations
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Glad to have read it

After taking a little while to get into the groove of this author's writing style, I found this book to be a gem of honesty and vulnerability. Connie Colten began her homeschooling when there was little or no information and during a time when people were under the threat of arrest at doing so. Her writing style does take a little getting used to, the journal feeling disjointed at times. Newcomers to homeschooling and unschooling in particular, or those who don't know anything about it would do better with a 101 book. This book is for those who are needing more substanance in their advanced reading. Every parent, every student, struggles with education as did the Colten family. Not every homeschooled child becomes a rocket-scientist, and not every public schooled child becomes "square" and boring. My own education left me completely bare when it was time to struggle through college, and my parents had no idea how horrible my education truely was, nor did they realize the severity of some of the relationships with teachers who yelled and belittled children in the classroom. I honor Ms. Colten for being real in her writing. I have also met her, and walked away from that experience thinking that I had finally found a woman who had enough love, experience and hindsight that I could see her as a possible mentor. This book may not be understood by those who are one-sided or biased, and is a gem for families going through similar issues and needing a personal and honest account of them.

Laying It All Out

When I began reading this book, I almost wept, because it brought memories of all the reasons why we decided to homeschool. As we gain experience as homeschoolers, we often lose touch with what it was that inspired us to do it in the first place. Homeschooling is probably the most radical undertaking in our society today. And though I don't really enjoy chronicled or diary type forms of literature, I appreciate Ms Colten's willingness to let us in on this aspect of her and her family's lives. As for the dysfunction that led a previous reviewer to burn the book (good Lord, has the reviewer also burned the book of Psalms?), all I can say is that dysfunction has led to some of the finest and most inspiring art in the world. That isn't to say that I believe the author's family was dysfunctional -- but so what if it was? Nevertheless, sometimes dsyfunction can lead to some of the best humor, as when Ms Colten is dealing with the struggle (and who hasn't gone through it?) of having decided to homeschool, and she finds her child, Chris, crying on the bed. When she asks, "Do you want to go back to school?" the child's reply is "No, I just wish Shawn [a sibling] would go back to school." Such light moments in the midst of intense struggles are worthy of being quoted in any homeschooling magazine -- even The Teaching Home (a fundamentalist Christian homeschooling magazine). I know I will drop that line at every opportunity. Ms Colten gets into her divorce, her home business, the public school shooting in San Diego at Santana High School, abortion discussions, support groups, homeschooling email lists, what sounds to be a cynical mother (who after hearing that Colten was going to write a book, replied with, "Good, now I can finally see how it is you teach."), and challenging the status quo (like when she discovered the baby carrier which straps to one's back, as opposed to the standard stroller; the carrier was far more liberating for her and her child). She gets into TV viewing, divorce (she determined to put the children first by not disrupting the schooling arrangement they had), learning styles (one of her children was a late reader -- something not as unusual as the Zeitgeist would suggest, and something that typically freaks out the average parent, but not Ms Colten), food control, and challenging City Hall (her brother, an ambulance drive, had been killed on a particularly bad highway in Minnesota. Her activism -- daily in the presence of her children -- contributed to highway funding increasing considerably. Not her fist choice, which would have been for the authorities to extend the highway up to Canada, but definitely progress just the same). There is truly something for everybody in this book. Bits and pieces of what most of us have had to endure on this pilgrim's progress. The editing is sloppy in places, but that is to be expected from small presses. Ms Colten has set out a personal homeschooling chronicle and guide which c