Basic Steps to Successful Homeschooling

It seems that in the early stages of the homeschool movement, every participating parent wrote at least one book on the subject. Vicki Brady wasn't exactly one of the pioneers, but she came early enough to get in on the book-writing trend. The Basic Steps to Successful Homeschoolingis her highly practical guide to getting started from the perspective of a mother who taught a number of children, including a special needs daughter.

She starts where men writing a similar book would never think to—by demonstrating how housework, child-rearing and homeschooling canbe successfully juggled through efficient organization and planning. She encourages mothers to write out menus, lesson plans, lists of chores, etc., and then to actually follow their own schedules.

From there she tackles everything from legal issues to learning styles to streamlining your budget to make room for school books. Brady does a pretty good job of balancing theory and practice, interspersing stories from her family's own experience to illustrate important points. Which is an interesting story in its own right, as it turns out—the Bradys have homeschooled their kids in the United States and in New Zealand where they were missionaries.

Two weaknesses stand out. First of all, while Brady wrote her book in 1996 after the pioneer period of homeschooling, the rest of the world was still in the Stone Age when it came to digital technology; she consistently references books, publishers and catalogs (many of which are now defunct or unavailable) without web addresses.

The second problem is a little more serious. Often, when purporting to offer various sides of a topic, Brady's coverage is incomplete despite her assumption that the information she offers is exhaustive. For instance, in the chapter on educational approaches she basically says there's the structured approach and the relaxed approach and parents must choose between the two. Obviously there are far more options, but unsuspecting readers may be easily led astray by Brady's false dichotomy.

There's plenty of good here, though. The Basic Steps to Successful Homeschoolingwould make a strong introduction for a family just getting started, though we'd suggest moving on to something like Heart & Mindby Ruth Beechick or For the Children's Sakeby Susan Schaeffer Macaulay for a more ideological foundation. Brady never tries to convince anyone to homeschool, she simply helps those who want to get started, and her experiential wisdom is useful far beyond her outdated references and occasionally nearsighted approach.