Featured Company:

Hard Times in Paradise

Today's shopping tips: "Be wise in purchasing ..... find best value one"

---

Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
List Price: $29.00
Our Price: $14.35
You Save: $ 14.65 ( 51% )
(prices subject to change)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Average Ratings:

An account of one family's life in a redwood forest describes how the Colfax's lived without electricity, running water, or a phone, and how they educated their sons, three of whom were accepted to Harvard on full scholarships.


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 979.424
EAN: 9780446514897
ISBN: 0446514896
Label: Grand Central Publishing
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 284
Publication Date: 1992-07-17
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Studio: Grand Central Publishing


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• Homeschooling for Excellence
• Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense
• The Duggars: 20 and Counting!: Raising One of America's Largest Families--How they Do It
• And the Skylark Sings with Me - Adventures in Homeschooling and Community-Based Education
• A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Relevant, uplifting, engrossing!
Comment: Couldn't put the book down. Throughout the story of their family's survival in the country with all the challenges of actually living off the land - dealing with the elements, living without amenities, having no money to buy decent equipment, and needing even the small children to contribute to make it work - I felt I was right there with the Colfax's. It made me laugh and cry as I lived through the challenges with them, watching each child grow stronger with each set-back, seeing each one's individual strengths emerge, and the tremendous sense of self-confidence that came with it. What a way to grow up! I know their book has inspired generations of home-schoolers. I didn't expect it to be such a fresh and enlivening experience to read even today. I feel so grateful to the Colfax's for telling their story.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Comment: I absolutely loved this book. When we got the book, my husband and 3 children and I were already homesteading and I had started to homeschool my children. Our experiences were slightly different, but at the same time some were very similar. I could relate to their struggles. And I also remember the '70's when they started their adventure. Homesteading and homeschooling is so much more acceptable now! They were pioneers for the rest of us!

Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting, if rather smug, book
Comment: I agree 100% with Kenneth Robinson's comments on this book. It is definitely a "good read;" it was almost a page-turner. Many times I was amazed by, and sometimes I greatly admired, the authors' risk-taking, fortitude, and adventurous spirit. Certainly I could understand the importance they placed on family, and the way they valued learning by doing, which is something I believe we in the mainstream society have come to appreciate more over the years. However, I was less than charmed by their bitterness, strangely judgmental and superior outlook toward anyone who was different than them, and economic view of the animal kingdom. (I was also amused that they acted as if they were the first, and only, individuals on the planet to discover cooking from scratch, organic gardening, 4H, farming, etc.: many others do it, some with far less educational advantages, out of necessity, and to these multitudes it simply a natural way of life, not some grandiose philosophy.) I was left wondering why, considering their values and background, they so prized their sons entry into Harvard? And why did they bite their tongues regarding their politics when they wanted to take advantage of a neighbor to get water?

Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent first-hand account of the evolution of a homeschoo
Comment: This book is well worth the money, if you want to learn what the Colfax kids really did to become the students that were accepted at Harvard. All the real life learning, hands-on projects that were essential to survival in the CA mountains, and learning to think, improvise and make it work! However, the Colfax's are just as proud of their fourth son, who didn't attend Harvard. Read in conjunction with "Homeschooling for Excellence" you get the whole picture of one way to provide a well-rounded education for your homeschooled kids.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Amusing, Light reading
Comment: This is not a how-to manual or a Thoreau-like discourse on the philosophy of agrarian self-reliant living. It's an amusing, anecdotal story of their homesteading endeavors.

I found the Colfaxs' perseverance in the face of often great adversity inspiring and admirable. On the other hand, I found their martyr complex extremely tiresome. David Colfax was denied tenure at a couple of colleges allegedly due to their heavy involvement in left-wing causes. I find it perplexing why a man who espouses self-reliance believes that he has a right to tenure--which is welfare for those with a PhD. and a willingness to jump through the hoops.

Still, this is a fine, light read--if you get the book at the library or in the bargain bin. It's certainly not worth paying for a new copy.

---

NOTE: All online transactions are processed at Amazon.com's secure server, using the latest technology on internet's secure transactions.
| Children's Books | Children Education | Parenting |