Book Review: Teach Your Own by John Holt and Pat Farenga

Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Home Schooling.

John Holt is widely regarded in the field of Home Education.  As a newcomer/interested-other, I had been recommened to read a John Holt book.  Why Children Fail is often considered a good book to start with, but I decided to start with Teach Your Own.

It is an American book, written by an American Author, for an American audience, but it is still a good read for someone in the UK.  Yes there are chapters on the legal side of things in the States, plus much of the appendices are only really relevant over there, but they can be easily omitted.  Or, if you're like me, you'll read them anyway - just in case.

I found the first half of the book an easier read than the second half.  Maybe it's because I'm not anti-school, and so found the chapters focussing on the children to be much more interesting.  (Maybe I should have read Why Children Fail after all?)  Especially interesting were the discussions about how children learn to read and write (the confusion of b, d, p, q) and learning which is left and which side is right (these were in the chapter entitled Learning Difficulties).

Overall, I would say that if you want to homeschool your children, then this is a good book to read.  If you are still deciding whether to homeschool, then get somebody who has read the book, to pick and choose the appropriate chapters; especially if you are UK based; knowing some of the difficulties faced in the States, could deter you, unnecessarily, from home educating here in Britain.