Learning All The Time

I usually love John Holt, but this one was pretty preachy. It seems like he wrote this in his 'frustrated period.' I got the point of the book pretty quickly, which I do agree with, but then he hammered it home for the rest. If you're looking for a better Holt read, start with 'How Children Learn'

This book is absolutely wonderful and one I recommend often. I always keep an extra copy around the house to give away to someone who needs it. I highly recommend this for anyone with children in their lives, but particularly for those seeking to educate their own children. Anything by John Holt is wonderful, but this book is probably his shortest! That makes it easier for me to find enough time for!

I had to stop reading because there are SO many grammatical errors. I can get past a few but this one is like they didn’t even re-read before submitting! It really is terrible.

This classic book on delight directed homeschooling is one I wish I had before I began homeschooling my daughter. The study of children and their learning behaviors over a lifetime by the author provides incredible insights and "secrets" to successfully bringing up children to love learning. Which, it turns out all children do naturally before we ruin it by institutionalizing education. Must read for all parents, not just homeschoolers.

Anything written by John Holt is just a great read. I realize some of the ideas are dated, but you can easily adapt them to modern times. John Holt I feel truly has the right idea and his books have really helped guide our homeschool journey. You do not need a boxed curriculum to be successful teaching your children at home.

I would rather spend my free time getting lost in a fictional character, but I do force myself to read as much as I can about education, teaching my children, and homeschooling, often just skimming pages or chapters that seem to be interesting or relevant to me. But, reviews of John Holt's books drew me to read this one. As with a thriller or a mystery novel, I couldn't put it down, and I have begun reading another of his books, "How Children Learn". Holt's observations throughout his years as an educator are spot on and so pertinent to the education (or lack of) that children receive today in organized, educational institutions. Even though his work was during the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, his observations and recommendations are pertinent today. I shudder to think what he would have observed in our 21st century schools. I am taking many of his ideas and incorporating them into my lessons with my children, in the hopes that they will learn quickly and effectively and that they will develop a love of life-long learning. I wish I had read this book when my children were babies, but this book is informational for any parent (or grandparent) with children under the age of 10 or so, whether you are homeschooling or not.

I admit it: I am in love with John Holt. I realize that he's deceased, and I am happily married, but it's ok because my husband is falling in love with him too. We are both sad that we didn't get an opportunity to hear him speak when he was alive. Thank God he wrote so many books.We started by reading "How Children Learn," and then moved on to "How Children Fail," at which point we decided to read everything this man has ever written. We're working on it."Learning All the Time" is a fascinating book. In it, John Holt, a former schoolteacher and eventual homeschooling advocate, discusses how kids learn and how adults relate to them. Most of us adults don't give kids enough credit for how much they want to learn and how much they CAN learn, at earlier ages than we would have dreamed possible. He challenges everything we've been taught about the allegedly short attention span of very young children, and, since we have the privilege of observing such children in our home on a daily basis, we can see that he is right!His philosophy involves making interesting learning materials available to kids and avoiding the two extremes of (a) frustrating them by pushing them into areas where they don't have aptitude or interest; and (b) limiting them by underestimating just how much they can learn, and how fast. Basically, he really LIKES children and respects them as human beings.John Holt was trained as, and worked as, a teacher in the 1950's and 1960's. The more time he spent in the classroom, the more he came to believe that traditional methods of teaching were wasting a lot of children's potential and failing to keep their attention.He has a tremendous respect for children. He has a lot of insight into the fact that many adults don't understand, respect, or, quite frankly, even like children.We have applied his philosophy with our own young children, with delightful results. For example, neither of us are fluent in Spanish, but my two-year-old and I are learning it together. I resist the urge to "play teacher" in favor of learning alongside my child, and I am amazed at how much she is able to learn and retain. We have also used his approach towards potty training. When we resisted pushing, our daughter took ownership of the process. Sooner than we would have thought she would, she announced to us that she was a big girl and didn't want to wear diapers. A few weeks later (we expected that it would be many months), she announced that she would not be wearing diapers at night either. She has been true to her word! These are just small examples of how we have asked ourselves, with a little irony but in a mostly serious fashion, "What would John Holt do?" Generally, the answer is to be real with our kids, offer as many learning opportunities as we reasonably can, and pay attention to what they are learning -- and marvel at them.In the book, he gives concrete examples of kids who could easily have been considered failures in a "cookie cutter" classroom situation. In Holt's opinion, even many kids who are considered learning disabled would do just fine (or at least much better) if they were allowed to reach their potential without an excess of testing and time-wasting "learning" activities.Holt's writing has influenced us to seriously consider homeschooling our children. Even if we don't, I think that our parenting is being enriched by his approach, and I would recommend this book to any parent or educator.

This is one of the books that makes you think for a long time. I think its concept is quite like Montesorri's, encourages that the kids in one class should be of different ages ranging from 3 to 6. In this way, the older ones learn to take care of the younger, the younger ones learn easily from the big kids. This reduces a lot learning barriers that coming from the traditional school class. I love it. I am from China that adopts one-child policy, which created a lot of problems. Kid as the only attention focus for the whole family does not have the opportunity to learn from their bothers and sisters. The key point of this book is, it told you that "learning" is not a big and heavy yet boring task that you can only fulfill at school. Keep the learning and open attitude, everything in life will become a much better teaching tool for your kids. This is an inspiring book for parents that have kids from new born to 6 years old. Myself is also the translator of its Chinese edition. This book was published in China, and sold well.

Being a new home educator of my 8 year old son, I am enjoying the informative and practical style of John Holt's book. What comes through is that just because we tell someone something, does not mean they understand or agree. Unlike school, home education allows one to one tuition which enables the child the chance to reiterate and discuss the subject matter at hand. As highlighted in this book, the parent or tutor has the opportunity to give instant feedback. Also he highlights that the sky is the limit and getting there can be a whole lot of fun; now that is how a child can grow to love learning.

Such a disservice to John Holt to publish on Kindle an unedited book, and to then charge for it! The content is great but the publishers should be ashamed of themselves.

What a brilliant, attuned mind. I've loved all of his books.I think I'm going to go for it and home school.

great book with useful information

Brilliant book ... Highly recommended for all parents