One-to-one: A Practical Guide to Learning at Home Age 0-11

"As communications officer for the Steiner Waldorf Schools' Fellowship, please allow me to correct the comment made by Bobbathejobba in his review, as follows:

"His basis that starting late is beneficial is based on Rudolf Steiner
schools, which perform "at least as well as other any other schoolchildren".
Given that there are three such schools in this country whose percentages
(according to the DfES) achieving 5+ A*-C's at age 15 in 2003 were 16%, 10%
and 0% and those achieving no passes were 32%, 38% and 89% - this claim is
simply not true."

Bobbathejobba is clearly unaware that Steiner school pupils do not on the whole take their GCSEs at the age of 15, but one year later, hence their results are not included in the DCSF figures. In fact, academic results for Steiner pupils are well above the national average, as has been shown in numerous independent academic studies - the latest being the Cambridge Primary Review, which, as he doesn't like One-to-one: A Practical Guide to Learning at Home Age 0-11, I recommend to him as alternative reading material."
~ Written on 2008-10-15

"I bought this book in 2002 or so and it states that the authors are Martin Williams, with help from wife Sophie and illustrations by Sarah, Emma and Chris Williams? Maybe this is a pre or post pseudonym copy and will be a collector's item one day!

First of all, this book has been a real eye opener to me and also confirmed some of the ideas I already held about home schooling. I read with some interest the other reviews here, and in particular the 1 star review, which claims the book is out of date. Both my wife and I have had our primary school education in the 70's and abroad (Sweden and Holland respectively) and for both of us, school was not a good experience. We were both teased and found school boring and we wanted something better for our child(ren.)

Some seem to think that the education of children is the government's responsibility, while we hold the view that it is primarily our own as parents. What is a better ratio for teaching the child: 25-30 to 1 at school or one to one at home? Our friend is a primary school teacher and feels as well as the writer of the one star review that she is better qualified to teach children than we would be. However, even some of the views that she holds on things such the authority of the Bible, the Genesis flood, etc, has made us realise that we're probably better authorities on certain subjects. Again the ratio will make a lot of difference and even when you perhaps are not that well educated, I believe that all parents that really want to can teach their child just as well, and probably better than they would learn in a class room situation.

The book gives a good overview of how children learn, what is important, and what is less important. There are excellent sections on a variety of subjects, which are far more "real" than some of the education we have experienced. We loved the section on toys and cooking best.

We also recognize that reading and writing starts far to early in the UK, as we didn't start until about 6 or 7 years of age. There really is no need to learn this so early and I therefore fully agree with the author's viewpoint.

The author appears to have a sympathetic view to the stories in the Bible, which nowadays is an encouragement when compared with the current anti-christian climate in which we appear to live. We, however, are Bible believing Christians and could not place other faith views on the same level as the truth of the Gospel, like the author appears to do. We are required to "train our children in the way they should go..." and that is what we shall do. In our view, if the author would have been a believer, this book could have been even better.

To summarise, this is a good starter book, with lots of really good ideas. I would recommend it to any parent who is considering home schooling, but would know where to start. This book has been an excellent resource for my wife and I.
"
~ Written on 2008-04-11

"I found this a wonderful book when I started home educating. Having never know about the possibilty nad then discovering there was another way other than school I jumped at it. Then I was left wondering what to do and then I found this book, It is great! It has all the ideas laid out simply and easy to follow and without even realising it once I started to read the book our lives changed drastically for the better. We are now loving it at home and adore bewing a home educated family!!"
~ Written on 2006-02-17

"A wonderful support book for parents who want their child to experience a real education, without their love of books and learning being destroyed by the pressure to fit into the National Curriculum Key Stage mould. There is a very definite, and welcome, bias towards a more humane kind of education ie. home education. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who has a child in school though, as there are many tips on supporting them and believing in them. Goethe didn't learn to read until he was ten.
The book is beautifully illustrated throughout by the author's children and is a pleasure to read. It has easy-to-make healthy recipes which are well thought out and introduce valuable skills well within the capabilities of young children. There is an excellent section on gardening which we have used to great effect on our allotment. Other comprehensive sections include Maths, English, the most beautiful handwriting lesson, art, history and some excellent crafts. There is also a wonderful section on the toys your child will really get years of fun from.
Buy this book and get to know and respect you child again.
I also highly recommend 'Unqualified Education' by the same author and aimed at 11 to 18 year olds."
~ Written on 2005-01-30

"As a maths teacher with over 10 years teaching experience and a 4 year old daughter who is eager to learn, I bought this guide hoping that the "games and activities" referred to by another reviewer would quench my daughter's thirst. I could not have been more wrong.

The basic premise underlying Mr Lewis' philosophy is that schools "force" children to learn things before they are ready. However, instead of focussing on how to create an environment that fosters a desire to learn (as covered extensively in the excellent book: "How to Raise a Brighter Child" by Joan Beck), he chooses to go to the other extreme of not teaching anything (other than art & craft) until the child is at least 6 or 7.

This is contrary to his quote that the "earlier a child learns to read the better they do at school". His view is that this leads to pushy parents and so should be avoided. Joan Beck's book is more astute saying that if your child knows that your love is not contingent on their performance, that you respond to the child's interests and that the child is having fun then you're not being "pushy". I perish to think what he would make of my daughter who is at a Year 6 standard (and extremely happy) simply by encouraging her and playing learning games and activities with her.

His basis that starting late is beneficial is based on Rudolf Steiner schools, which perform "at least as well as other any other schoolchildren". Given that there are three such schools in this country whose percentages (according to the DfES) achieving 5+ A*-C's at age 15 in 2003 were 16%, 10% and 0% and those achieving no passes were 32%, 38% and 89% - this claim is simply not true.

This aside, are the activities themselves any good?

To be fair the sections on gardening, cooking and craft are good (with 30 pages of ideas on each) and the star is for these.

However, the sections on reading, writing and maths are poor. Given that Mr Lewis trained as a teacher over 22 years ago and left mainstream education over 10 years ago, he has missed much of the ground-breaking research (much by King's College, London) which have revolutionised teaching at the primary level. In particular, the focus in the numeracy strategy on practical hands-on activities puts his "arithmetic methods" to shame (which have no attempt to justify how they work or the many steps that lead up to them and is indicative of the 70's education that terrified many). Similarly, the reading sections that state there's no point teaching them until they can write and no point teaching writing until they can use a fountain pen and do joined up writing is out-of-date and educational inferior to the excellent phonics based system now used.

To be fair there are some card and dice games to play, however the numeracy strategy and the books by Peggy Kaye (listed below) have these and so much more.

Finally, science, technology, geography and history each receive less than 2 pages and are woefully inadequate.

In addition, Mr Lewis' well-meaning advice for parents whose children do go to school of refusing homework and keeping them home whenever they don't want to go to school will, from personal experience, lead to the children playing off the school against the parent. Avoid! It's a shame he didn't advocate getting more involved in the schooling by going in and being a parent helper (thereby ensuring that you are involved in your child's learning and can build on the latest methods being used).

So what books do have great activites for learning?

For reading, writing and maths, I recommend the books by Peggy Kaye: "Games for Learning", "Games for Reading", "Games for Writing" and "Games for Math". All of these have cracking learning games that have been tried-and-tested with many children. She also has her head screwed on when it comes to ensuring that they remain fun.

For science, I highly recommend the "First Science Experiments Series" by Shar Levine & Leslie Johnstone, for example the brilliant "Wonderful Weather".

For a step-by-step phonics method of teaching reading at home "Teach your child to read" by Siegfield Engelmann is simply the best.

Joan Beck's book "How to Raise a Brighter Child" is also full of great activities as well as the latest research on how to promote learning (but without pushing)."
~ Written on 2004-07-21