Book Review: 'Another Way to Learn?'
This is a brief book review for parents who are thinking about, or actually embarking upon, home-education. I have recently read Molly Ashton’s wonderful book; ‘Another Way to Learn?’ Her book is a selection of personal testimonies from various parents who have bravely stepped out of the British education system to teach their children themselves.
It is a lovely handbook to enlighten those of you out there who feel the necessity to take control of your child’s learning, development, wellbeing and their future. The prospect of home-educating can be terrifying, daunting and somewhat intimidating to most parents but Molly understands that no parent takes this step lightly or without much consideration.
‘Let me be clear, I really enjoyed our first year of home education. For all intents and purposes, I was happy and content to have had the privilege of offering my son an idyllic childhood that I could have only dreamed of. I enjoyed learning alongside him, watching his curiosity and confidence blossom and the connection between us deepen.’
You can read more about the contributors to the book here:
https://www.anotherwaytolearn.co.uk/authors
The book is packed full of practical advice and a useful resource list, this book takes you through the daily rhythms of home education.
Some of the chapters include:
- Finding freedom to follow a unique path
- The early years: Building good foundations
- Exploring delight-led learning in the teen years
- Socially speaking: understanding the home-educated child as a social being
- Additional needs: Making room for disabilities, disorders, difficulties and differences.
- Home education: Is it for Dads too?
- Help! My grandchildren are being home-educated: Home education and the wider family.
As a tutor, this was an inspirational read and I think it is a must read for parents considering home education. The help is out there and also here at Tip Top Tutoring. We are already tutoring several home-educated students; it’s a privilege to be able to work with the individual learner, their parents and to meet their specific needs. We all want our children to be happy as they learn and grow and sadly, the British school system is not equipped to do this for all children.
On page 42 the book includes a poignant poem to inspire all of us who step away from the beaten track:
The Road Not Taken
(by Robert Frost 1874-1963)
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Review by Cristoir Csorba 29th August 2023
