The School of the Family

The School of the Family was written by a young Catholic wife and mom. It's primarily about her life and how family interactions impacted her upbringing. She dives even further back into history telling some of the upbringing of her own mother to show her family background.

I have to admit I was disappointed in this work as I was expecting it to be a book about the nitty-gritty of homeschooling but that was not the primary focus. Throughout the text the words "school of the family" were written in bold to emphasize how family is school which is true since we do learn so much from our family and through interaction with our family but there was little written about the actual adventures of homeschooling.

I tend to enjoy books more when I can relate to the author but other than the basics of Catholic homeschooling mom, we are so very very different. Howard is young enough to be my daughter and is an avid outdoors man and athlete; she was a competitive gymnast as a youth and enjoys rugged backwoods skiing. She is also an advocate of a more simplistic rural lifestyle - one where families depend more on themselves through gardening, hunting, fishing and survival skills. There is no doubt she's a devout Catholic, it's just that we just have different approaches to living our faith in the 21st century.

Although the book didn't grab my attention, I know a few moms in my homeschool group that would enjoy this book. Hoping to pass it on to one of them who is a speaker at Catholic homeschool conferences. I know there are plenty of other folks out there that will enjoy this book by a devout young Catholic mom about a lifestyle that suits many.

I wrote this review of The School of the Family for the free Catholic Book review program, created by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods. Aquinas and More is the largest on-line Catholic bookstore. I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.