This book has many strengths. It goes into a good amount of depth as to how one actually unschools, something I have yet to find in a home-schooling book. The anecdotes also give more insight into unschooling families and how all that works. But one of the greatest strengths is the explanation of the philosophies behind unschooling--why people choose to unschool, why it works, what its strengths are, what its meant to accomplish. Those philosophies are the biggest message that I'll take from this book.

The other significant strength is the resources. Griffith lists her resources at the end of each chapter, from websites to magazines to books. I am very pleased by this and will be making use of many of the resources she's listed.

The weakness in this book, and it's a significant one for someone like me, is that there is no scientific/statistical backing for any of the claims she makes. I have yet to find someone who actually knows a family who successfully unschooled. I do not doubt that they exist, but I haven't met one yet, nor has anyone I know. This makes it harder to believe claims that unschooling is the right way to educate your children, particularly when combined with the lack of data surrounding unschooling. How many unschooled children attend college? How many do so successfully? How many unschooled children are not successful, either at college or in life? How do those numbers compare to other conventionally and unconventionally schooled children?

Griffith's bias towards unschooling is apparent in this book. While I don't mind that, particularly since she's upfront about it, it means that the full picture is not presented since there are gaps of information, particularly information that might be at all damaging to unschooling.

However, that is the only weak point in the book. If you're looking for educational philosophies and ideas and are willing to be a critical reader, then I definitely recommend this book. If you're looking for resources, I also recommend this book. If you're someone who will be taken in by anything, then I caution you to read it with a critical eye. There is a lot of good information in this book that home-schoolers of any variety can use, but if you're easily swayed by what you read, this may not be the best book for you since it doesn't present the entire picture. ( )

Excellent intro to the subject, great bibliography. ( )

This is a really nice introduction to homeschooling -- clear and straight-forward. ( )