Is it a waste of time?
Waste of Time or Not?
Last night I was surfing Amazon for some books about homeschooling. Specifically, I was looking for something to help me plan out the year and make homeschooling most effective for my son so I don’t waste a lot of time doing things unnecessarily. There were only five days from the time that I decided to research homeschooling to the time that I took the plunge, got his materials, and withdrew him from public school. So there was very little planning involved and we scrambled to get started. Now that the mad rush is over, I want to make sure I do the best for him that I possibly can.
While surfing, I found a book called, Don’t Waste Your Time Homeschooling: 72 Things I Wish I’d Known
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Quick Read
- Helpful Resources
- Helpful Tips
- Honest Experience
- No Fluff
Cons
- Deceiving Title
- Too Short
Overview
Traci Matt provides a bunch of really helpful tips and resources for such a short book. The book was 72 pages long and took less than an hour for me to read. The author was very direct and to-the-point so there wasn’t any fluff in the book just to fill space. I liked that. Spoiler alert: she homeschooled all three of her children and was not advising against homeschooling, which was the impression that I got from the title. That’s okay though, it got me to buy the book and I’m glad I did. I now have two other books on my Wish list as well as some other resources to check into.
Target Audience
This book is clearly intended for anybody who is currently or is considering homeschooling their children. It gives a lot of things that are just good to know when getting started and gives you ideas for how to handle certain situations.
Price
This is an eBook that you can download to your Kindle and sells for $2.99. However, I was able to download this book free as I am a subscriber of Kindle Unlimited
Final Opinion
5 Star Rating!
I would definitely recommend this book to other parents considering homeschooling. From legal references to differences between children, you’re sure to find at least a few useful tips in this book and you can’t beat the price.
Additional Recommendations
Being a university student, we have to read a lot of books with so much fluff. So it is nice to hear that this one actually get right to the point.
When I first read the title of that book I definitely thought that she was against homeschooling lol
Have you home-schooled any kids of your own? Did this book shed light on any of the problems or obstacles that you have run into?
Hi Evan,
Yes, exactly! Skip the fluff and get right to the good stuff, we’re all busy. I started homeschooling my son on 1/18/2015, so we’re on our second week of homeschooling this week. It was a spur of the moment thing that I didn’t have time to really plan for. He’s 12 and the public school system has just destroyed his spirit. So I pulled him out in order to do damage control and build him back up to be a confident young man while homeschooling him. Since it happened spur of the moment, I’m doing some reading on the topic to gain any knowledge to help make the journey most efficient for him. Being so new to it, I haven’t run into any problems yet, but the book has definitely prepared me for some that may come down the road.
Hi Kris
Well funny you should mention the title because I too thought your review was going to be against home schooling. Maybe it was some kind of marketing ploy because most parents are against homeschooling their children?
Either way it sounds like a great read. I have read so many benefits of homeschooling your children particularly when they are subject to teenage peer pressure! A Kindle membership sounds like a good plan.
Ethan
Hi Ethan,
Yeah, I’m thinking it was a marketing ploy. It definitely worked on me. LOL
It was a pretty good read. I’ve heard both pros and cons to homeschooling. Really, there’s good and bad sides to everything. I think it just depends on the family and whether the good outweighs the bad. My son is disabled and is high risk for bullying and suicidal thoughts…therefore, it’s probably best for me to have more control over what he’s exposed to in an “educational” environment.
Good job not overselling it and getting to the point, like the author of the book did. The only thing that I saw was that you said a Pro was that it was a Quick Read and that a Con was that it was too short. I would pick one or the other to give less confusion to the reader whether then length of it is a good or bad thing.
Hi Nick,
Thank you, I appreciate the feedback. I will go back and clarify. I liked that it was a quick read, but I wished the author had elaborated and provided more detail in certain areas as opposed to being so short with her points. I will update that to avoid confusion. Thanks again!
I homeschooled one of my kids and I still read almost anything I can that’s related to it. I like to stay on top of things, and I have my first grandbaby on the way… so I know that I will, at the very least, be in charge of the enrichment at home. Even though I have experience, I love knowing what’s current. Would you say that this book has something to offer those of us that have done it but still want to keep in the know?
Hi Nicki,
Congrats on the new grandbaby coming! I’m not sure that it would offer you much new wisdom as you have already been through it. That being said, it’s cheap enough that if I were in your shoes, I would probably read it to see if maybe they offered anything you’ve forgotten or hadn’t thought of along the way. There were 72 tips in the book, most of them just with one small paragraph with a little bit of detail. So it certainly won’t offer you much that you haven’t already figured out in your own experience. I think that my two biggest takeaways from it were to relax, it’s not so important to stick to a real strict schedule and be sure to keep track of the legal requirements and stay on top of tracking. I hope that helps and best of luck to you!
~Kris
Kris, thank you so much for your honest review of my book. I had no idea when I published this thing that it would have any sort of positive impact on parents and it thrills my heart to know it has helped. The title was most certainly meant to be a provocative marketing ploy (I am a marketing copywriter), and the most entertaining reviews are those that state how I must have made a horrible grammatical error. It was certainly not meant to deceive anyone into buying the book, as you can see from the product description that it is pro-homeschooling. I love your two takeaways mentioned above. Please reach out via email or social media if I can answer any specific questions for you. God bless as you continue educating your son.
Hi Traci,
Thank you for reading and commenting on my review! I feel honored that you took the time to do that. I think the title was very clever, I only list it as a negative because I know that some people get really bothered by that sort of thing. It was certainly that title that grabbed my attention and ultimately led to my reading the book. It was well worth my time and helped me not feel so overwhelmed by the sudden decision to homeschool. Thank you for taking the time to write it!
~Kris M.