The Learning Coach: Inspire, Encourage, and Guide Your Child Toward Greater Success in School and in Life

Dobson, an educator and author of What the Rest of Us Can Learn from Homeschooling, urges parents to help their children develop their own natural talents and passions and then utilize them to make information, skills and self-knowledge stick. Her mantra, ""Curiosity creates interest, interest increases attention to the task at hand, and attention gives rise to learning,"" which she encourages readers to print out in ""large type"" and stick to the fridge, encapsulates Dobson's philosophy that a child's learning doesn't begin and end at the schoolhouse gates, and it's a parent's duty to learn how their child learns, and then customize homelife accordingly so it's a continually educational experience. A self-described homeschooling ""veteran,"" Dobson repeatedly flogs public and private schooling while touting the benefits of homeschooling, often with unintentionally comic or heavy-handed anecdotes that distract from her worthwhile tips on stimulating a child's learning. Some of Dobson's ideas are too involved for busy parents, but the many doable tips, how-to's and the dozens of Websites referenced should provide most parents with options they didn't know were available.