The Brainy Bunch

                In June, The Brainy Bunch was released.  It is about a large homeschooling family that was able to get their kids in college by age 12.  I expected the book to be similar to the Tiger Mother, but it wasn't. They seemed fairly laid back. 

                There are parts that I could do without.  For instance, the family seems extremely religious.  I understand that most homeschooling families are, but that isn't the perspective I am interested in for my family.  One part really irritated me because there was a few pages of talking about how they couldn't understand how people can have small families.  How if you have a small family you could be preventing the next Mozart or Einstein from being born.  I took this hard because they didn't acknowledge health reasons as being OK for small families.  They just were down on people deciding not to have more children.  Since I am one of the women that cannot have more children because it would be dangerous, I took this hard. 

                There were a lot of parts that would be great for families that send their children to public school as well.  Reading the book got my wheels turning.  It was able to give me a new perspective on how to teach my child.  They give a lot of examples on how you can “after-school” your children.  I think this book will help any parent become more motivated when it comes to being personally involved in their child’s education.

                Another aspect that I really liked was that every few chapters there were a few pages written by one of the children.  These were written at different ages, so the quality of the writing varies.  It was nice to see how each child views their education, and how it impacted their life.

                Towards the end of the book they would give examples of their homeschooling approach (unschooling for the most part).  I have had a hard time wrapping my head around how this approach could possibly work.  They gave a fantastic idea for a science experiment that could have come up in an everyday conversation.  They suggested asking your child to find out what the city adds to our water.  Then you can take a bottle of water, and put a few drops onto a slide.  You also add a few drops of tap water onto another slide.  Then you examine the two slides, and go from there.  I would never have thought of doing something like this, but it seems so fun!  I guess you just get better at finding ideas as you go. 

                Overall, this was a good book to read.  It kept my attention fairly well.  It offered a plethora of ideas for families to try.  In the back there is a helpful section where they list their different curriculum and gave examples of their transcripts.  All very handy for new homeschooling families like mine.