Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

My wife had been homeschooling, or perhaps unschooling, our kids for years now. I go back and forth on how I feel about it. These kinds of books help me keep things in perspective. Nancy Wallaces first book was about how she got her kid out of public school in the 80s when that was a thing in the states. We don't have that problem now. It was beneficial to see her going through the same troubles I have and wondering if they are doing enough. I kept wondering how these kids would survive in show more 2020s. We'll I emailed one of them and asked. To my surprise I got a reply same day. I still have a hard time thinking of art as a meaningful career, even more so now that I feel my oldest is going down that path, but if I support and let her make hey own friends with people of all ages, she'll do just fine. show less

Mina, an anthropomorphic rabbit, has many questions about stars so her mother suggests they take a few friends to visit the "star museum." At the museum, they learn all kinds of information about outer space.

I had been looking forward to using this book for a storytime but immediately saw it would not work for that. There's A LOT of text on every page, and that's before getting into the extra fact snippets that make up 'sidebar' material. Although it's nominally a picture book, this book show more reads more like an informational book with just the slightest hint of a story's trapping.

The illustrations are mostly pretty neat, with what looks like paper cutouts of the animals overlaid on photographic images of planets, galaxies, etc. The first page of the book has text typed over the child's yellow-and-white striped bedroom wall, which makes it blinding to read and a very poor graphic design choice.

Despite its title, this book covers more than just stars. Throughout the book are little prompts for children to work on projects of their own, such as making a star-themed dinner or writing a star poem.

Because this book is lengthier and chockful of information, I'd recommend it for elementary school ages rather than preschool and younger. However, the bunny aspect might seem 'babyish' to kids in the upper elementary grades, so this might be limited to those in kindergarten through second grade. show less

I first read this in the 1990s when we were in the United States for a couple of years; at the time it was eye-opening, describing as it does a family educating their children at home. Published in the 1980s, it was something of a milestone in an era when homeschooling, even in the US, was mostly unknown and in many cases highly regulated.

The book is written well, outlining both day-to-day life and the family's philosophy of parenting and education, which inevitably grows and changes along show more with the children. There are sections on maths, reading and also music, which was of immense importance to the children. The parents learn to relax, as their children learn in a mixture of leaps and plateaux.

Inevitably the book is now somewhat dated. The legalities have changed, and there are far more facilities for home educating families in the US. Widespread use of technology has changed the way most families live, and has increased significantly the available resources.

However, the way the family's son Ishmael struggled with the regulations and expectations of classroom education is relevant to many, and the authors' honesty about their own mistakes is refreshing. As a piece of home education history, and as an interesting picture of family life, this is well worth reading. show less

Planting Seeds is a wonderful concept boardbook based on the premise of a rabbits’ garden from planting to harvest. An increasing number of rabbits plant, tend, and harvest their garden in steps one through ten, one number for each double page spread, and the book is successful as a counting book. However, with the premise of the garden there is also much more to the book than counting; it can be read over and over again with a focus on colors, different types of small animals, even family show more members. Despite its concept richness, the book has a very clean design, and the illustrations are clear and soothing, not busy. Each page has minimal text and the use of patterned language makes for a predictable read that young children will enjoy. The rabbit family, cut out from origami and other found papers, are the main focus of each illustration, but there are plenty of other objects to count on each page: clouds, birds, and garden tools also make an appearance, making for varied, colorful pages. Because of the illustration technique, some readers may miss highly detailed faces, but overall this does not detract from the satisfying conclusion. As a bonus, the back page includes a counting chart using carrots. Highly recommended. show less