by Lorraine Curry
Anyone who has started "school at home" only to find themselves disillusioned with homeschooling knows the frustrating let down that occurs when reality is so different from the perfect picture a new homeschooler envisions. Easy Homeschooling Techniques by Lorraine Curry may be the answer for such situations.
Curry's book, released in 1999 and currently in its second edition, is a comprehensive follow-up to her online newsletter, The EasyHomeschooling Journal. Taking many of the ideas from her newsletter and organizing them in a logical format, Curry has published a useful book for anyone already familiar with homeschooling who is looking for a better way. While the book might be overwhelming to a brand new homeschooler, it will bring a breath of fresh air for those who are looking to break free of the textbook method but aren't quite sure how to do so.
With chapters like Starting Up, EasySchool Basics, Making Order, and Mining the Methods, Easy Homeschooling Techniques contains something for everyone. Curry even tackles such topics as Building a Business which gives the basics for starting a home-based business involving the whole family. The book contains several useful appendices, including Authors and Poets (drawing on Curry's love of vintage literature), a sample scope and sequence, and excerpts from a 1907 copy of Home and Health detailing the most important skills and characteristics for young boys and girls to learn. Easy Homeschooling Techniques is also a money-saver, since most of the method Curry advocates uses library books and videos, classic books, and simple tools like pencils, art supplies, and paper.
Although her method is simple, Curry's standards are high. Readers may be left feeling alternately inspired and overwhelmed that the responsibility of homeschooling is so great. Visions of well-behaved children that would make a Victorian mother proud danced in my head as I read parts of the book. While not necessarily a negative, the fact remains that not all of us have daughters that will sit doing needlework while mom reads aloud.
While Curry is uncompromising in her Christian foundation, non-Christians will still find many jewels in the book if they are willing to understand Curry's Christian perspective and simply glean that which is useful to them. I personally did not agree with everything in the book (Curry recommends only using the King James Version of the bible and also mentions that most homeschoolers are Christians), but in spite of that I found Easy Homeschooling Techniques to be a useful tool to get back to the simplicity that homeschooling can and should be. With the popularity of home education growing, it is in the interests of the big curriculum companies to make homeschooling far more complex than it needs to be. Curry's Easy Homeschooling method brings homeschooling back to the basics, reminding the home educator that not only can school be easier but also much less expensive. Whether you are ready to abandon the rigid structure of a textbook curriculum or you just want to try to run an excellent homeschool on a budget, Easy Homeschooling Techniques offers an assortment of good ideas from which you will benefit.
Reviewed by Mary Ann Kelley