Review Date: 3/15/2012

Interesting mix of recipes, lore and true stories all about Alaska and sourdough. Designed to look like a handwritten account includes drawings done by the authoress.

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Review Date: 9/18/2013

Helpful Score: 3

It's not awful but it's not great either. When I read it I was one young person who had walked away from church, not from God just church-as-we-know-it. One key element when I got to the book was glaringly missing. Why I left and what I felt why it was not worth my time going back. The kinds of churches I had grown up in and was attending loved God and the bible they had just forgotten the core heart of the gospel. God loves/loved us so much He took on human form to come and suffer to death for the love of us. For all the churches I had been around God was a stern judge-king, holy and untouchable, the gospel was something you used to get the lost through the Jesus door and Jesus was a moralizing teachers giving sermons bout being good obedient children. it was not until I stood on the verge of walking away from God as well as the church that I found the truth. The gospel isn't the tactic you use to get the lost saved and on the road of strict obedience, keeping score of good deeds and paying penance for the bad ones. The gospel is while we were yet sinners Christ died for us and once we put our faith I Him we are fully adopted by the Father and God the Father is not a child abuser trading His love for the rites and habits of "holy" Christian living.
Sorry for the sermon but I have heard my story repeated many times over by those who left church, some leave the faith totally, others leave the trappings called church. Sadly the author and the survey-research do not know this vital aspect of church leaving.

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Review Date: 8/31/2011

Helpful Score: 1

A very good book for those interested in what the Charlotte Mason method is and who she was. One mothers foray into applying Mason's writing to her own homeschool. I found it helpful and charming.

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Review Date: 9/6/2011

This is a book for the Christian who is wondering why the life promised in the bible doesn't match up with the life they have in their church and daily walk. Bob George clears away the confusion and gives hope to those who wonder what happened to the spark they felt when they were first saved. My favorite chapter explains that most American Christians have been given a divided salvation message. Jesus really did do it all and there is nothing left for us to do to be accepted to God. Our good works, deeds and personal disciplines are not currency to buy favor from God but the result of our gratitude for the unmerited blessings we have through Christ.

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Review Date: 7/12/2011

This book has made a big difference in my life. I idenitifed with the author's frustration with his spiritual walk and I too wondered if there was more. I finished the book realizing that all the pieces what I had been taught about being a Christian finally fit together and made sense.

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Review Date: 7/12/2011

The chapter on the three types of male personalities are great! That really helps you see why your man reacts to things the way he does, why some things bother him and other things don't. That chapter is worth the price of the book.
The main drawbacks that I have found among the women I know that have read it is that the book implies fast results and that one person can turn a bad marriage glorious. Fast isn't always going to happen when you or your husband have intrenched bad habits or hurt feelings to overcome. It also takes two people to make a mess of a marriage and good behavior from one does not always mean a trouble free or glorious union. But for the basic well meaning couple who just doesn't always communicate well or women who may be weeding out feminism this book is worth your time, as long as your believe that the bible is God's true word.

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Review Date: 12/28/2012

Helpful Score: 1

It was ok. For the most part I found most of the information nothing new in this area. If you have read around on this topic of how to pass on your faith, especially from a homeschooling perspective there really isn't much new.
I did find the authors description of how a father should spiritualy lead his family somewhat boxed in. I came away with the feeling that if a dad is not doing a mini church service with his family each day the author wouldn't really see that as "leading" spiritualy. My husband is a lot more organic and casual in how he teaches and interacts with our children. Yet he is passing on our faith quite well.

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Review Date: 12/29/2011

A very good starter book for gluten-free or wheat -free cooks. Yes the recipes are mostly refined starches but they are low cost, very simple to make and hard to mess up. When I first had to eat wheat free I was intimidated by the expensive flours and flour blends of other books plus I couldn't find some in my area. Fiber and nutrients can be found in other foods with a little thought beforehand you will be able to keep your diet balanced, healthy and safe.

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Review Date: 6/12/2012

No I haven't read the book but I see a glaring scriptural error right in the lengthy description. In context, the water that Jesus spoke of to Nicodemus was the water of human birth not anything else. Reading both passages where Jesus uses that phrase in that conversation the water of human birth is the only non contrived interpretation.

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Review Date: 10/6/2011

Helpful Score: 1

In reading the book Home Grown Kids I can see some of the wisdom they teach in more contemporary writings on parenting and homeschooling. Yes some of their breastfeeding and general information about digestion are outdated but not much else is. The section about each age is very helpful as it is based upon research not personal opinion and really breaks down what a child is capable of and what is beyond them for now. It only covers up to age nine however. There are true gems of wisdom in here not found many other places. The home education parts remind me of very relaxed homeschooling. The most heavy handed part is about how children really need their mothers at home mothering them especially if the parents desire their values and worldview passed on successfully. Christian yes but quietly so. I found it a balanced book in a land of extremes.

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Review Date: 6/18/2012

This is a very encouraging book full of first hand accounts of home school expeirences. The majority of the stories take place in the late 70's when homeschooling was alomst unknown and sometimes illegal. It is interesting to see what has changed on the world of home education and what has stayed the same.
Even thought the acounts are around 30 years old they give a honest peek into home schools where the parents have embraced the best interests of their children despite social and school pressures to not do so.

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Review Date: 8/29/2011

I disagree with the author's doctrine about Christian living. While her explanations and leading questions about femininity and marriage are good her view of general Christian living is wrong. Our good works or the lack of them do not earn us anything with God because Jesus blood paid it all. Good works should be our gift of thankfulness to God not our currency to obtain anything. The author's view is that a messy house is a sin because God is orderly and that how "good" we are each day influences God's acceptance of us. If I had purchased this book I would have returned it for a refund.

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Review Date: 7/5/2011

Helpful Score: 2

I have mixed feelings about this book. The general information that challenges the "politically correct nutrition" is very good. Most of that makes sense. I really couldn't get into most of the recipes however. They are either extremely time consuming, boring(tasteless) or too exotic/strange for a house full of children. My children are use to "real" food and this was too much for them. The dessert section was banned by my husband who is usually very tolerant of my forays into "healthy" cooking. I wish they could revamp the teaching parts and combine them with family tested, short on time/money recipes.

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Review Date: 9/19/2013

Helpful Score: 1

At best it might work for an already tightly scheduled family combined with a relaxed easy going baby. I am anything but scheduled and all my children are high strung. It was completely impractical to implement. It would have required that both my children and I become people we are not created to be.

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Review Date: 9/5/2011

This book hasn't worked very well for any of my children. While the "say-it-fast" game may work for some children mine were bored and just wanted to get on with really learning how to read.

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Review Date: 5/29/2012

I have not read this book(planning on it) but wish to clarify something written by another reviewer
"It uses the deceiving term "unschooling" which really means dropping out of out school (and your child will be seen as a drop out no matter what term the author uses).
Unschooling is a legitimate home education method that is nothing like being a uneducated school drop-out you just go about gaining your education in a very different manner than is commonly done. I do not know in what context this book uses the word unschooling but the above reviewer is misinformed as to what unschooling really is.

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Review Date: 9/18/2013

The author is very unclear in most places in the book as to which age of child he is talking about. So you are left wondering if you are supposed to apply the method to an infant, toddler or older child. Much is to be desired in the cookie cutter application as well. According the author child training via swats and spankings are THE only biblical and reasonable way to avoid raising self centered brats. I first purchased this book twelve years ago. I will admit to only half heartedly attempting to follow the methodology laid out in the book. Unless you are a very peaceful person with the patience of a saint it is impossible to follow the confusing instructions without losing your temper and doing what the author cautions about train/swat/spank in anger.
Attempted to follow? Due to my quick temper and my inability to be that hyper perfectly consistent I never could apply the method in the way it is written out in this book. That should have been a red flag for me but I naively thought that the bible actually taught this in the "rod" verses. No truly biblical method will put a normal, high strung yes but normal, parent at risk for inflicting abuse upon their children. The method in this book is not infrequent spankings given for serious misdeeds but daily if not hourly training "swats" that redden the skin and must cause tears of repentance from a child to be "effective".
We are not to provoke our children to anger but that is what this method does unless you push on to a broken and submissive spirit in your child. I do not want broken children. I do not even want submissive children. I want to raise people with healthy inter-personal boundaries who are exactly who God created them to be.

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