Book Review - The Educated Child

I give this book an 8/10. I liked it and thought it was a good place for me to begin my homeschool journey. I feel, after having finished it, that I have a good preschool base from which to begin with Amita. It was not specifically written for home schoolers, but rather for parents who are want to make sure that their children are getting the best education possible whether it be in public, private, or homeschool. If you are interested in buying it, it can be found here.

It is written in several sections: Preschool years, Core Curriculum for Elementary and Middle School, and a section called "Making it Work". Each section has subsections that cover everything from the necessity of preschool (whether it is needed or not) to "Good books for Junior High". It covers everything a parent would need to know (academically, socially, and emotionally) from birth through eighth grade. Much of it is very good information and I enjoyed learning a few new things. Ideally, one would buy this book and keep it on a shelf for reference and only read the pertinent parts during those years. 

The preschool section specifically had useful information for me: kindergarten preparedness, book lists, getting ready to write, read, speak, and listen well, preparing for music, science, and math, and how to build character. Even though it is out of date, I feel like these are skills that are still needed for kindergarten and it was good to give me some long-range goals to work with as I preschool.

Because I'm ALWAYS looking for book recommendations, I really enjoyed the Classic Book list they included. Here it is: 

Classic Books Every Preschooler Should Read:

1. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Judith Viorst
2. Are You My Mother?, P.D. Eastman
3. Ask Mr. Bear, Marjorie Flack
4. Caps For Sale, Esphyr Slobodkina
5. The Carrot Seed, Ruth Krauss
6. The Cat in the Hat, and other books by Dr. Seuss
7. A Child's Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson
8. Corduroy, Don Freeman
9. Curious George, Hans Rey
10. Danny and the Dinosaur, Syd Hoff
11. Frog and Toad Are Friends, Arnold Lobel
12. Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown
13. Harry the Dirty Dog, Gene Zion
14. If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Laura J. Numeroff
15. Little Bear, Else Holmelund Minarik
16. The Little Engine That Could, Watty Piper
17. The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keats
18. Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans
19. Make Way For Ducklings, Robert McCloskey
20. The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg
21. Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever, Richard Scarry
22. The Runaway Bunny, Margaret Wise Brown
23. The Story of Babar, Jean de Brunhoff
24. The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter
25. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
26. There's a Nightmare in My Closet, Mercer Mayer
27. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, Simms Taback
28. Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
29. Where's Spot, Eric Hill
30. Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne

This is NOT my list. It belongs to The Educated Child.

There were a few things I did not like about this book, hence my 8/10 book review. The first thing is that it is copyrighted in 1999 and woefully out of date about what is going on in the public schools, which it spent a lot of time discussing. I also felt it highlighted the problems of public schools instead of focusing on how to work within the system a little more, for parents who choose to go that route. 

That being said, I felt it still had some really good information and helped me feel more prepared to teach preschool to my kids, so I give it an 8!