*****
I just finished reading The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. This book solidified my belief that children grow and develop at different paces and that if given an opportunity to master a skill, they will ultimately be more ready to move on to the next task. Making sure that ALL students understand a given task is difficult for a classroom teacher as there are so many students at so many different levels.
I agree that children in a homeschool environment, able to explore and learn at a pace that suits them will promote self esteem, self awareness and a lifelong love of learning.
This book gave me the confidence that I could do this! Jessie Wise did this in the early 1970s when hardly anyone was doing it--and she did it at the advice of a child psychologist! Now, there are a lot of wonderful resources, coops, listservs and websites for parents, making the task a lot less overwhelming. But even without the road having been paved, Jessie's children succeeded!
My only complaint about this book was that they seemed to want to sell the curriculum developed by Susan Wise Bauer.
I think anyone considering homeschooling should read this book. IF we do decide to go ahead with the idea of homeschooling, I would take some of the advice in this book.
