Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My complaints about this book are the same as others who gave it one or two stars - it's inflexible and intolerant of a child's interests and aptitudes, it doesn't give enough emphasis (compared to most other homeschooling curriculum) on PE, the arts, or sciences. To be successful at this program, your child needs to be heavily word-oriented, and have a disposition that allows for hours of sitting still and absorbing written information. (Not my boy, I knew right away). I also thought the lesson on logical fallicies was a bit condescending and inappropriate for the book. Their philosophy is also one that the kids should be forced to accept this sort of instruction, the most telling comment in the book being in the footnote on pg 37 "The reasonable response is: Eat one every time I serve them, and you'll learn to like them." The authors are also very prejudiced against "child-led" schooling philosophies, in the socialization chapter warning parents to avoid exposing their kids to "unschoolers". Heaven forbid the kids see that other homeschoolers are having fun and seem to be as well educated (although they probably wouldn't know the names of all the Egyptian pharaohs or have suffered through years of Latin in the elementary grades)! The people I think who would best benefit from this book are those who are pretty sure they want to homeschool, have read several general books on the subject, and are now researching various programs. I could see how having a weekly schedule there as a base would give confidence, let parents have some idea about how long it would take to accomplish what they're recommending. I have confidence any parent with sense would know to disregard it. The best part, I think, are the references for each subject for each grade level. I haven't investigated them, but the book will stay on my bookshelf for that purpose.