First, let me give a
summary of "The Harding Family Method." After reading the book in a
few sittings, I gleaned these basic points for achieving college ready by age
12:
- Teach kids to read between 4 and 5
- Acquire home school curricula of your choice
- Teach them math at an accelerated pace (Lisa writes
that she didn't get hung up on whether they knew 7 x 8 before moving on to
more advanced concepts)
- Journal every day, starting by a parent writing what
the child says and eventually having the child write
- Teach grammar by correcting their journal entries
- Read history and science related books each day
- Allow kids to read for pleasure after math, writing and
history/science reading is completed
- Ask the child what they want to be when they grow up
- Based on their answer, give them high school or college
level textbooks for that subject to peruse
- Fill out child's high school transcripts like a
checklist rather than in chronological order
- Begin ACT prep around age 8, with the goal of passing
the minimum entry requirement for whichever college is close to home and
has a program that matches the child's interest
- Shoot for the minimum entry requirement
- Dual enroll in a community college as early as
possible, using loopholes or downplaying the child's age while applying
While Mona Lisa does
write at length about how she juggled so many different children and how she
kept a close watch over her tweens as they attended college, she is a little
bit vague on her actual teaching methods. I guess this is because she did rely
heavily on home school materials and educational websites to do a lot of the
teaching. As someone who is not really planning to home school, I still found
some good inspiration from this book.
Here's what I liked:
The Hardings emphasize
helping a child find his or her passion and really running with it. They tailor
the child's lessons for an actual career of the child's choosing. They see each
of their children as individuals and promote each family member as their resident
expert in something. Home schooling's biggest benefit, in my mind, is that
students are not bound to study "core" material that would obscure
their passion for a particular subject or bog down the process of honing their
natural abilities. In addition, teaching key skills in a way that links them to
the child's dream job seems like a great way to motivate them to work hard and
see the importance of learning.
The emphasis on teaching
children to learn on their own was another highlight. Lisa admitted she never
did science experiments because the materials seemed too costly and potentially
dangerous, but she is a big fan of responding to her kids' curiosity by telling
them to "Google it and come back and tell me the answer." Probably
when ten children are asking questions, this is the most efficient way to
satisfy their curiosity without going crazy finding all the answers yourself.
But I also think that teaching children to search out their own answers is
important. I would also add that children should be taught how to discern
whether an online source is credible.
Daily reading and
journaling also struck me as the antithesis to the glut of busywork that I
remember from my public school education. To be lifelong learners, children
need to love reading. Helping them find quality literature and nonfiction from
a young age can kindle that love. As a journalist, I also think that as
children get older, it would be incorporate current events into that daily diet
by encouraging children to read news stories about their areas of interest.
Keeping a journal of things learned is useful on so many levels. Children learn
to distill large amounts of information into a single page and they can admire
their progress by looking back at previous entries. I've been working with
Stephen to keep a journal of books from the library. He draws a picture and
copies the title or writes a few words to describe what he's drawn. Then, I ask
him to tell me the story in a few sentences and I copy them onto the page.
Eventually, he will be able to write more on his own. We also have a
"STEM" journal for science and nature observations, though right now
it's mostly filled with Stephen's drawings of various Wild Kratts
episodes.
What I didn't like:
Though I agreed with the
above approaches, I did have some qualms.
The book is poorly
written, organized and edited. I'll cut Mona Lisa some slack on her writing
style and lack of focus on many of the books chapters, with ten kids and all :)
The book never
convincingly explains why getting through college by 17 or 15 is so beneficial.
One Amazon reviewer suggested the real aim was to skip from the innocence of
childhood to the responsibility of adulthood while cutting out the potential
rebellious phase of adolescence. I'm not quite so cynical, but I found the Harding's argument that it made sense financially (as college tuition costs are rising every
year!) to be less than compelling. Why not allow children to pursue their
passion at a more standard pace and help them to go to the best program for
their field? As a writing tutor, I know that some college students write at a
grade-school level. I feel that pushing children to a no-name college at a early
age is not necessarily a testament to their academic prowess. Rather, it might
reveal the weakness of the college. Will any college degree do for achieving
one's dreams? Will all colleges offer the same quality of education? And what will a college grad do at age 15 when they are too young to be hired or even drive? Oh yeah: get a master's degree.
The chapter written for
those who aren't homeschooling begins encouragingly enough by saying that there
are many things parents can do for their public or private schooled children.
However, the list of practical suggestions is thin and quickly tilts toward
suggesting that one should home school after all. I got the impression that the
publisher required the Hardings to include this chapter to broaden the market
for the book, and the authors obliged them by cobbling together some random
thoughts to show that such a chapter doesn't belong in their book.
Many times, the book
feels like a platform for other purposes besides outlining the
"Method." In particular, for promoting the Hardings' particular brand
of quiver-full Christianity, for bragging about their fleeting moments of
would-be stardom, and for promoting their phone consultation business and
skiing website. It's their book, so they should be free to share their beliefs
and promote themselves, but I felt that the addition of so many recommended
resources (Harding Hip Hop Dance Party Playlist anyone?) really cluttered up the main idea of the book.
Finally, I have a beef
with the authorship of the book. Kip's name is listed first, but from what I
can tell the book was mainly written by Mona Lisa and padded up with essays
from the kids. Kip is the one working on a doctorate in education, so ideally,
he'd be showing how educational theory supports or enriches this approach. Instead, Kip writes a "chapter" near the end of the book that's
basically a sappy group thank you note to his wife and ten children.
The Take-Away:
If you are home
schooling and like watching the Duggars, you might enjoy reading this book for
the stories Mona Lisa tells and to glean God-centered ideas for balancing the busyness
that comes with educating a big family. However, I've pretty much summarized the main
educational content of the book in the first section of this review. For that
reason, I don’t really recommend buying this book, as I didn't feel it was
really worth the $10 Kindle price. On the other hand, I often wag my finger at my husband
for his purchases, so I might be biased. Perhaps I can get Joe to weigh in as
well.
