dafyddclover's reviews
14 reviews

Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling by John Holt, Pat Farenga

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 32%.
The writing style just really doesn't work for my brain, it's all anecdotes. I wanted to read it and appreciate it since so many people seem to find ND inspiration in John Holts work, but it was just obnoxious.
Success Without School: Unschooling My Children from Birth to College by Jean Proffitt Nunnally

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reflective medium-paced

1.5

This is not a book about unschooling or homeschooling, rather it's a poorly written memior about how two kids with a shell oil exec for a father and a crunchy stay at home mom graduated from college. There was a little info, insight, and perspective, near the front half of the book, hence the 1.5 stars. But mostly you'll find details you didn't need about the moms workout routine and how many credit hours the kids took in college. Rather than practical advice on how to work with others she states that their homeschool community "just came together naturally." And there is no reckoning whatsoever with that fact that for tons of kids who can't teach themselves to read, this approach can be a disaster. 
The Genius of Home: Teaching Your Children at Home with the Waldorf Curriculum by Catherine Read

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slow-paced

3.0

This book is barely about his homeschooling, it is primarily about how much the author, an anthroposophist, loves anthroposophy and the Waldorf curriculum. It was interesting but take it with a huge grain of salt.
Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement by Mitchell Stevens

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

This was an interesting look into the history of home education in America, but the nature of the book leaves a lot to be desired. The author takes people at their word which, in a lot of cases, means missing a whole lot of context. He ends of giving a sunny view of some organizations that we know now have advocated for mistreatment of children. So read with a huge grain of salt.
Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

This book was phenomenal. A great, though hard, way to come to better understanding of indigenous displacement in the United States and Canada. I will be recommending it to others.
Trust Kids!: Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy by carla joy bergman

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adventurous challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber, David Wengrow

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Raymond S. Moore, Dorothy N. Moore

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slow-paced

2.0

The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with our Wild Neighbors by Erika Howsare

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emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book was so much lovelier than I expected, what a wonderful read.
Uncultured by Daniella Mestyanek Young

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emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

This book is so intensely personal and is literally what happened to her, so it's difficult to rate, but I think the quality of the story telling is really inconsistent throughout the book. Despite the efforts to create a through line, it felt like two different books, and ultimately glossed over a lot of what I would have been more interested in about her pist-cult life in favor of relitigating disagreements, telling army stories, and praising the military industrial complex even as she calls it a cult. 
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