Book Review: Homeschooling Take a Deep Breath, You Can do This!

Hi wonderful blog readers! 

I hope you have had a great day and have enjoyed checking out our (very early stages) Pinterest and Twitter accounts that I started for you guys to get more connected with us today.

Anyways, getting back on topic! When Tris and I first started talking about homeschooling Bug, and the reasons and beginnings will be a separate blog post later, I did what I always do. I went and started pinning everything I could find, searching for blogs, joined some wonderful homeschool co-op groups (Which will likely be a blog topic too!), and went to the local library. I checked out somewhere in the ball park of fifty books and placed more on hold.

The first book I picked up, started to read, take notes from, and finish within a day (my usual speed) was a little gem by Terrie Lynn Bittner called Homeschooling Take a Deep Breath, You can do This! This little gem was so personable and broke it down in a way that I personally could really connect with.

The second chapter was one of the best I have read in a homeschooling book so far. It was not some amazing planning tip or anything like that, but it was an entire chapter devoted to overcoming some common reasons as to why you feel you *can't* homeschool you child/ren.

The next chapter has some really good tips and advice on how to not only bring up homeschooling to all relevant parties, but also how to "convince" them that it is a good idea, or at the very least convince them why you feel it is such a good idea. This is so pertinent to us as we have split custody of our precious Bug & the very first reason (okay, the second) for looking into homeschooling her comes from a very long standing disagreement about who should have primary custody and decision making skills when she starts school. She included a segment about how to bring this up with another parent with whom you have split custody with.

I feel like it was the first book that realized there were homeschoolers who are not married with a stay at home mom, which I am sure many of you can comment and link other books which are not so narrow minded, and I also am mid way through another book that has a much more 'contemporary' take on homeschooling as well.

I digress! So in chapter 5 Bittner goes into some details about how to get started organizing your life as a homeschooling parent. I especially liked the little subsections about what you need to buy and finding enough time. As a mom who also works outside of the home, as blogging ventures, as well as homeschools her child (with lots of help from Dad! *I LOVE YOU TRIS!*) I already have felt like I don't have enough time as it stands to exercise or to get meal planning under my belt. It's definitely nice to read somewhere that there are people who feel just like me!

Chapter 6 may well have been a life saver and the start of how I started to use my handy dandy year round curriculum planner (AKA my re-purposed three ring binder). So lays out some ideas of what you should keep in your binder, how to track attendance and even has some awesome examples of curriculum descriptions. Really this whole chapter makes me want to purchase the book just so I have a copy on hand when ever I want to reference it.

I can't (read shouldn't) go through chapter by chapter, so I am going to attempt to group like chapters together.

Chapters 7, 8, and 9 are all really good overviews of what the various types of the 'typical' homeschooling families and how it may look with one child vs many, when only one stays home, when you only homeschool part time or after-school, and even how it looks when you homeschool on the road!

Chapter 10 is really good if you are looking at how to do this on a budget, and I adore finding great deals. Chapter 11 is a good one to read when you are starting to think about your teaching style and your child/ren's learning style.

Some parents choose to homeschool their kid/s due to being behind their peers or a learning difficulty and thus this chapter is for them. I have been really lucky so far that Bug is advanced for her age and seems to pick up things pretty quick, so I skimmed those parts just in case I have a child who meets those criteria in the future. Alternatively this chapter also has bits about how to handle it if you have a gifted child, so I read those just in case my hopes for Bug come true (as are almost every parents wishes for their offspring!).

Chapters 30, 14, and 15 are centered around curriculum. Of course you can purchase your own or create it, and you also could create unit studies. I personally use free resources and create a semi unit study while still making sure to touch on topics that I have laid out to  touch on. I will start posting some in depth details about what we do in each week soon, and hopefully I will create a few pages myself!

Chapter 16 was so relevant to me because it is about how to teach your child math when you cant even do percentages. In other words when you are so unsure of your own math skills, how can you teach your child math, especially when they get to the higher (harder) math!? It has great advice like conquering your phobia (fear), and then goes on about different way to teach your child. I think that getting over my math fears were well worth it since Bug has started to grasp what 2+1 is already! What a lot of people may not know is that once your child gets older you can even enroll them into a community college to take lab sciences and math  courses you may want them to learn from some one who specializes in that. Alternatively you can teach yourself and learn with your child!

Chapter 17 covers reading, and 18 is all about history, chapter 19 which is about science, then those chapters are followed up by chapter 20 (of course) which is all about written reports and such. The next chapter is about electives like religion and such. I especially love how that chapter touches on the importance of your child/ren learning other perspectives.

Chapter 22 reads in such a positive light about how you've done it, decided to homeschool, research and convinced all relevant people and then to get down and homeschool! Followed up by chapter 23- So, Did They Learn Anything? This chapter talks about how testing is not necessarily the best way to find out if your kiddo has learned anything, but how talking and evaluating what your child learns is better.

Chapter 24 is about homeschooling through high school and to college, and I personally am so shocked that my baby is FOUR now that I cannot even imagine her being in high school or beyond yet. Perhaps I am just in denial! But I know not everyone starts with a preschooler and I feel that the chapter is very valuable.

The final chapters (25-28) are all about how to answer questions, the good stuff and the bad stuff, an then takes a look at how homeschooling can (and likely will) strengthen your family. I love that the book ends on such a positive note, and I also love how at the end of each chapter Terrie lists relevant resources to read more on.

Over all I am glad I chose this book as the first one to read since it is so positive and written in a language that feels like you are chatting with her in person. I highly recommend it. I hope this review was helpful!!

<3