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The Self-Propelled Advantage: The Parent's Guide to Raising Independent, Motivated Kids Who Learn with Excellence
A home education expert and mother of eight shares her experiences and insights into harnessing a child's natural desire to learn.Joanne Calderwood has been a popular magazine columnist for several years and has become a popular speaker at home-education conferences across the country. Her self-propelled philosophy of education has transformed lives across the nation and around the world. In The Self-Propelled Advantage, Calderwood shares her wisdom, experience, and philosophy of education and parenting, as borne out in the lives of her own exceptional children.Informative and inspiring, The Self-Propelled Advantage is for any parent who places a high value on their children's education. Detailing her methods for raising inquisitive, diligent, self-motivated children, Calderwood also shares valuable information on preparing for college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT. Having taught one SAT perfect scorer, one near-perfect scorer, and four students who have gone to college on full academic scholarships, Calderwood has proven how successful her methods can be.
248 pages, ebook
First published October 1, 2012
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February 27, 2026
A momentous book. Homeschooling for developing complete, responsible adults.
Calderwood's three-part metaphor is a bicycle. The front wheel is self-mastery, the rear wheel the mastery mindset, and the cyclist himself, self-teaching. Here's how it unfolds.
First a child need master his or her self. As toddlers they start out learning how to feed themselves, how to go to the potty, and how to recognize the limits on their behavior. No means no, and tantrums are not allowed. As they grow up, the list expands. Children are expected to clean up after themselves, plan their own activities to some extent, and most especially, adhere to some standards of behavior. Those standards include respect for their parents, respect for each other, honesty and integrity. These elements of character are fundamental to homeschooling, and in fact, any education and in the undertaking of life.
A fundamental truth which public schools overlook, even willfully ignore, is that students learn, rather than teachers teach. A student has to actively create knowledge in his own brain. The teacher can help, the teacher can guide, but the student has to do it him or herself.
The self-propelled advantage is the recognition of this fact. In order for students to build knowledge they need to first have self-mastery. They need some be in control of their own lives, disciplined enough to go about the business of studying without somebody constantly at their elbow nudging them along. A teacher who prods and pushes the student is going to be unsuccessful in any case. As any teacher will tell you, a student who actively resists learning can defeat any teacher.
The first objective then is motivation. Get the child motivated to want to learn. Fortunately, every infant is born with a great desire to learn all about the world about himself. Their little eyes examine everything they see; their little hands touch everything. They want to learn things and they want to please their parents. There is nothing more thrilling than to watch a toddler go through this development.
The magic is in keeping it alive. It takes a lot of energy for a parent to respond to the toddler's enthusiasm for learning and to feed it. It can be turned off by shutting the child up, parking the child in front of a television, or ignoring him. And, later on, putting them in public school where the teachers will do the same.
Calderwood was trained as a public school teacher. She speaks more kindly of the profession than many. She observes that any public school teacher has a class of 20 or so students on average, and does not have time to work with individual children. This means that some move ahead quicker than others. The inevitable effect is that some children do not achieve mastery. If the children are learning arithmetic, some of them get it quickly and become bored, and others struggle.
Regardless of where the individual students are, the whole classroom of 20 must move forward according to the day's curriculum. This results in frustration for those who haven't mastered the subject, and boredom for those who master it quickly. The frustration compounds itself because most subjects are cumulative. In other words, if you have not mastered double digit addition, you will be unable to do double digit subtraction; the processes are related. The deficit accumulates until the kid gives up and says "I'm not interested in math; I can't do math."
Mastery is one of the topics that Calderwood pushes the hardest. You should not move on until the child has mastered a particular unit. If you have a set of spelling words that the child is supposed to master, or a set of vocabulary, do not move on until the child has thoroughly learned all of that vocabulary. Sixty or seventy percent is not good enough. Once you have taught a word, you should have the right to expect that that word is a part of the child's vocabulary.
This works well in the homeschooling environment. You can simply stay on the subject until it is done, because there is no press from any quarter to move on at a pace that is uncomfortable for the student. Conversely, if the student gets things quickly, you can move ahead much faster.
Most homeschoolers feel that their children have more potential than the public schools allow for. Even if not any smarter than the average kid in public school, they're smart enough to learn at a faster pace than the public schools. Public schools have a tremendous amount of wasted time built into the day: time to transition between classes, time traveling to and from school, and time in the classroom at the end of the period when the slower students are finishing work, as the quicker students are sitting bored, chatting, giggling and fiddling with whatever electronic gadgets they have smuggled into the classroom.
A homeschooling education is vastly more efficient in its use of time.
Calderwood goes on to observe that when students get in the habit of mastering material with the tutelage of a parent, they pretty soon get to the point of wanting to do it themselves. In other words, after they have finished doing one set of math problems, they may look ahead in the book at the next set. They become curious, and they slake their curiosity by going ahead in the next two or three lessons and finishing the chapter. This is that same curiosity that we observed the toddler, translated into education. That is, unless we have allowed the process of education, the rigid, stultifying structure imposed by the education establishment, to beat this curiosity out of a kid. What leads to is the child setting their own educational objectives? Instead of giving them lessons day by day, you soon get to the point mapping out a week, or a semester's work in advance, and letting them work at their own pace.
Another aspect of self-mastery is that instead of testing them on each unit, you allow the kids to test themselves. This is how it works. If you're working from a standard textbook you find that their answers in the back of the box. You can get a teacher's edition of almost any textbook. Rather than you, the teacher, testing the kids to see if they know it, you get the kids in the habit of testing themselves. So they can make their own progress through the book and tell you how they are doing. You need to supervise, of course, stepping in periodically to make sure that they are reporting their progress honestly, but if they're using the testing process themselves, they are in control of their education. It takes less of your time, and makes them self-confident, and most important it puts them in charge of the learning process. As an adult that's exactly how they're going to have to be. Functional, effective adults are people who continue to learn, on their own, without anybody to correct them as they go.
Most parents are comfortable teaching their children through grammar school and perhaps through junior high school. Very few of us are confident enough to teach any high school subject. This leads some parents to question whether or not they can homeschool at this level. The answer is, yes! Once the children are in the habit of teaching themselves, you find that they can teach themselves things that you the parent don't know. In fact, to your delight, you can probably let them teach you things that you wish you knew. For me this will be the new findings in chemistry, all about the energy levels of electrons, which was known when I was a kid, and the intricacies of cellular metabolism. What a thrill it is for a kid to teach you!
Also, if you as a parent can do it, you can find a network of parents one of them can. One of the raps against homeschooling is that the kids don't get socialized. I have met a number of homeschoolers myself, and I'll have to agree with Calderwood that they are the nicest, best socialized kids that I know. They are comfortable interacting with adults, and they have not been perverted by the youth culture to the point that they no longer trust adults.
You can probably find a network in your neighborhood, certainly somebody who can help them with material that you don't know yourself, and you can certainly find people over Skype to help almost anything. This again empowers the child to do their own research. To look for mentors, to build bridges into the adult world. They are not trapped into the passive role of the students when they should be coming should be growing into the role of active, results-oriented adults.
Calderwood talks about her kids and how well they did on the SATs, and the fact that the first four of them won scholarships to college. She attributes it to homeschooling. I demur just a little bit. SAT scores are quite highly correlated with intelligence. Her eldest child got a perfect score on the SATs. This certainly couldn't be done without motivation, self-mastery, dedication to learning, and all of the benefits that she extols about home education. However, on the other hand, it could likewise not be done without intelligence. According to the website I found a perfect score of 1600 on the SAT indicates an IQ in the range of 150. Her child may or may not be that smart, but I'm quite sure he is no dummy.
The results that you get from homeschooling cannot negate a shortcoming in native capability. What it does is to ensure that you get the most mileage out of whatever God gave the kids in the first place. To me this is vitally important. I have observed that the childhood friends of my grown family, all bright kids, have achieved spotty results in the adult world because they are not motivated. Calderwood's approach promises the optimization, the maximization of the results that can be achieved with the child's innate potential.
Calderwood drops hints of faith here and there. The tone of the book tells you that this is a believing family. I find this to be very comforting and encouraging. I offer the observation that even if a one doesn't believe, some of the practices that she talks about are very relevant. The fifth commandment is to "honor your father and mother." This is the foundation for learning; if kids do not respect their mother and father, and their elders, they will not respect the learning process and they will not learn as effectively. The religious foundation simply makes it easy because it lays the rules out in black and white, beyond questioning by the kids.
Another element is prayer. She talks about family meetings, and individual counseling with the kids when there's a problem that needs be straightened out. All of this is done in a businesslike way, although certainly with mutual love, but it may end with a prayer. The prayer is a commitment to the process. In my words, not hers, it doesn't really matter whether there is a God listening to that prayer. The prayer represents the mutually expressed hope of the people within the group that are praying.
The most valuable part of the book, in my view, has nothing to do with home schooling. The first pages of her chapter on self-mastery have to do with establishing discipline. It starts young, with a toddler. She writes that the parents have to be in control, and "We are not in control if our children repeatedly:
* yell or scream
* do not obey the first time they're asked to do something
* whine or complain
* fight with siblings
* slam doors out of anger
* throw things out of anger
* lie
* talk back to parents or others
* ignore parents or others
* regularly do things they know are not allowed"
This is absolutely key, and kids start to manipulate their parents well before the age of one year. A parent needs to have the self-assurance that, per Calderwood's web site, "You are the mom." If you do not establish a harmonious family environment by requiring some discipline on the part of your kids, you are setting yourself up for long-term headaches and heartaches. By being too lazy, irresolute or indecisive to take charge in the beginning, you make your lifetime job much harder, and the results immeasurably worse.
That's enough for a review! You need to buy the book! It is destined to be a classic. On a personal note, I sent my grown family through Maryland's best public and private schools. The results were unsatisfying. My new son, now a toddler, will be schooled largely in accord with Calderwood's plan.
Calderwood's three-part metaphor is a bicycle. The front wheel is self-mastery, the rear wheel the mastery mindset, and the cyclist himself, self-teaching. Here's how it unfolds.
First a child need master his or her self. As toddlers they start out learning how to feed themselves, how to go to the potty, and how to recognize the limits on their behavior. No means no, and tantrums are not allowed. As they grow up, the list expands. Children are expected to clean up after themselves, plan their own activities to some extent, and most especially, adhere to some standards of behavior. Those standards include respect for their parents, respect for each other, honesty and integrity. These elements of character are fundamental to homeschooling, and in fact, any education and in the undertaking of life.
A fundamental truth which public schools overlook, even willfully ignore, is that students learn, rather than teachers teach. A student has to actively create knowledge in his own brain. The teacher can help, the teacher can guide, but the student has to do it him or herself.
The self-propelled advantage is the recognition of this fact. In order for students to build knowledge they need to first have self-mastery. They need some be in control of their own lives, disciplined enough to go about the business of studying without somebody constantly at their elbow nudging them along. A teacher who prods and pushes the student is going to be unsuccessful in any case. As any teacher will tell you, a student who actively resists learning can defeat any teacher.
The first objective then is motivation. Get the child motivated to want to learn. Fortunately, every infant is born with a great desire to learn all about the world about himself. Their little eyes examine everything they see; their little hands touch everything. They want to learn things and they want to please their parents. There is nothing more thrilling than to watch a toddler go through this development.
The magic is in keeping it alive. It takes a lot of energy for a parent to respond to the toddler's enthusiasm for learning and to feed it. It can be turned off by shutting the child up, parking the child in front of a television, or ignoring him. And, later on, putting them in public school where the teachers will do the same.
Calderwood was trained as a public school teacher. She speaks more kindly of the profession than many. She observes that any public school teacher has a class of 20 or so students on average, and does not have time to work with individual children. This means that some move ahead quicker than others. The inevitable effect is that some children do not achieve mastery. If the children are learning arithmetic, some of them get it quickly and become bored, and others struggle.
Regardless of where the individual students are, the whole classroom of 20 must move forward according to the day's curriculum. This results in frustration for those who haven't mastered the subject, and boredom for those who master it quickly. The frustration compounds itself because most subjects are cumulative. In other words, if you have not mastered double digit addition, you will be unable to do double digit subtraction; the processes are related. The deficit accumulates until the kid gives up and says "I'm not interested in math; I can't do math."
Mastery is one of the topics that Calderwood pushes the hardest. You should not move on until the child has mastered a particular unit. If you have a set of spelling words that the child is supposed to master, or a set of vocabulary, do not move on until the child has thoroughly learned all of that vocabulary. Sixty or seventy percent is not good enough. Once you have taught a word, you should have the right to expect that that word is a part of the child's vocabulary.
This works well in the homeschooling environment. You can simply stay on the subject until it is done, because there is no press from any quarter to move on at a pace that is uncomfortable for the student. Conversely, if the student gets things quickly, you can move ahead much faster.
Most homeschoolers feel that their children have more potential than the public schools allow for. Even if not any smarter than the average kid in public school, they're smart enough to learn at a faster pace than the public schools. Public schools have a tremendous amount of wasted time built into the day: time to transition between classes, time traveling to and from school, and time in the classroom at the end of the period when the slower students are finishing work, as the quicker students are sitting bored, chatting, giggling and fiddling with whatever electronic gadgets they have smuggled into the classroom.
A homeschooling education is vastly more efficient in its use of time.
Calderwood goes on to observe that when students get in the habit of mastering material with the tutelage of a parent, they pretty soon get to the point of wanting to do it themselves. In other words, after they have finished doing one set of math problems, they may look ahead in the book at the next set. They become curious, and they slake their curiosity by going ahead in the next two or three lessons and finishing the chapter. This is that same curiosity that we observed the toddler, translated into education. That is, unless we have allowed the process of education, the rigid, stultifying structure imposed by the education establishment, to beat this curiosity out of a kid. What leads to is the child setting their own educational objectives? Instead of giving them lessons day by day, you soon get to the point mapping out a week, or a semester's work in advance, and letting them work at their own pace.
Another aspect of self-mastery is that instead of testing them on each unit, you allow the kids to test themselves. This is how it works. If you're working from a standard textbook you find that their answers in the back of the box. You can get a teacher's edition of almost any textbook. Rather than you, the teacher, testing the kids to see if they know it, you get the kids in the habit of testing themselves. So they can make their own progress through the book and tell you how they are doing. You need to supervise, of course, stepping in periodically to make sure that they are reporting their progress honestly, but if they're using the testing process themselves, they are in control of their education. It takes less of your time, and makes them self-confident, and most important it puts them in charge of the learning process. As an adult that's exactly how they're going to have to be. Functional, effective adults are people who continue to learn, on their own, without anybody to correct them as they go.
Most parents are comfortable teaching their children through grammar school and perhaps through junior high school. Very few of us are confident enough to teach any high school subject. This leads some parents to question whether or not they can homeschool at this level. The answer is, yes! Once the children are in the habit of teaching themselves, you find that they can teach themselves things that you the parent don't know. In fact, to your delight, you can probably let them teach you things that you wish you knew. For me this will be the new findings in chemistry, all about the energy levels of electrons, which was known when I was a kid, and the intricacies of cellular metabolism. What a thrill it is for a kid to teach you!
Also, if you as a parent can do it, you can find a network of parents one of them can. One of the raps against homeschooling is that the kids don't get socialized. I have met a number of homeschoolers myself, and I'll have to agree with Calderwood that they are the nicest, best socialized kids that I know. They are comfortable interacting with adults, and they have not been perverted by the youth culture to the point that they no longer trust adults.
You can probably find a network in your neighborhood, certainly somebody who can help them with material that you don't know yourself, and you can certainly find people over Skype to help almost anything. This again empowers the child to do their own research. To look for mentors, to build bridges into the adult world. They are not trapped into the passive role of the students when they should be coming should be growing into the role of active, results-oriented adults.
Calderwood talks about her kids and how well they did on the SATs, and the fact that the first four of them won scholarships to college. She attributes it to homeschooling. I demur just a little bit. SAT scores are quite highly correlated with intelligence. Her eldest child got a perfect score on the SATs. This certainly couldn't be done without motivation, self-mastery, dedication to learning, and all of the benefits that she extols about home education. However, on the other hand, it could likewise not be done without intelligence. According to the website I found a perfect score of 1600 on the SAT indicates an IQ in the range of 150. Her child may or may not be that smart, but I'm quite sure he is no dummy.
The results that you get from homeschooling cannot negate a shortcoming in native capability. What it does is to ensure that you get the most mileage out of whatever God gave the kids in the first place. To me this is vitally important. I have observed that the childhood friends of my grown family, all bright kids, have achieved spotty results in the adult world because they are not motivated. Calderwood's approach promises the optimization, the maximization of the results that can be achieved with the child's innate potential.
Calderwood drops hints of faith here and there. The tone of the book tells you that this is a believing family. I find this to be very comforting and encouraging. I offer the observation that even if a one doesn't believe, some of the practices that she talks about are very relevant. The fifth commandment is to "honor your father and mother." This is the foundation for learning; if kids do not respect their mother and father, and their elders, they will not respect the learning process and they will not learn as effectively. The religious foundation simply makes it easy because it lays the rules out in black and white, beyond questioning by the kids.
Another element is prayer. She talks about family meetings, and individual counseling with the kids when there's a problem that needs be straightened out. All of this is done in a businesslike way, although certainly with mutual love, but it may end with a prayer. The prayer is a commitment to the process. In my words, not hers, it doesn't really matter whether there is a God listening to that prayer. The prayer represents the mutually expressed hope of the people within the group that are praying.
The most valuable part of the book, in my view, has nothing to do with home schooling. The first pages of her chapter on self-mastery have to do with establishing discipline. It starts young, with a toddler. She writes that the parents have to be in control, and "We are not in control if our children repeatedly:
* yell or scream
* do not obey the first time they're asked to do something
* whine or complain
* fight with siblings
* slam doors out of anger
* throw things out of anger
* lie
* talk back to parents or others
* ignore parents or others
* regularly do things they know are not allowed"
This is absolutely key, and kids start to manipulate their parents well before the age of one year. A parent needs to have the self-assurance that, per Calderwood's web site, "You are the mom." If you do not establish a harmonious family environment by requiring some discipline on the part of your kids, you are setting yourself up for long-term headaches and heartaches. By being too lazy, irresolute or indecisive to take charge in the beginning, you make your lifetime job much harder, and the results immeasurably worse.
That's enough for a review! You need to buy the book! It is destined to be a classic. On a personal note, I sent my grown family through Maryland's best public and private schools. The results were unsatisfying. My new son, now a toddler, will be schooled largely in accord with Calderwood's plan.
August 11, 2013
Somehow I picked up this book at the library without realizing it is written by a homeschool mom, primarily for homeschool families. I wasn't really in the market for another how-to-improve-your-homeschool book, but this one does take a different tack. Calderwood advocates the idea of self-teaching or self-learning, starting around fourth grade. Not everyone will apply this principle to the same extent as the Calderwoods, but there's a lot of solid advice to glean here. I especially appreciated the fact that this book goes into detail about implementing methods of self-learning. It fleshes out some of the good ideas many of us already have about encouraging our maturing students to gain more initiative and independence.
One gripe is that the author seems to be one of those people who can just keep on (and on) talking, or in this case writing. Thankfully the writing is skillful and pleasant, just verbose at times. I still consider this book worth the time to read. I know our homeschool experience will benefit from some of the insights and examples.
One gripe is that the author seems to be one of those people who can just keep on (and on) talking, or in this case writing. Thankfully the writing is skillful and pleasant, just verbose at times. I still consider this book worth the time to read. I know our homeschool experience will benefit from some of the insights and examples.
December 30, 2020
This book is one that I wish I had read years ago when I started homeschooling! I would highly recommend this book to ALL homeschooling parents, veterans and newbies alike. This book will challenge your thinking and cause you to strive for better results!
Throughout this book, Calderwood presents her proven method and philosophy of training your children to become independent learners and self-teachers who will consequently develop a strong love for learning. She emphasizes three elements of a self-propelled student: Self-Mastery (training your child's character), Mastery Mindset (learning everything to a mastery level), and Self-Teaching (being able to independently teach yourself).
We have been trained to think that because the public school system uses a particular method/mindset of education, it must be correct. We think of education only from one perspective and often never even ask ourselves the reasons behind how we educate our children. Throughout this book, the author presented several concepts that go against traditional education practices and initially cause the reader to question the validity of the author's claims. Yet, Calderwood gives repeated testimony and arguments that clearly demonstrate a better mindset concerning education that makes logical sense, actually works, and consequently produces better results. A self-propelled student is able to pick up a textbook, set goals for himself, and then learn the information to a mastery level every single time (all with parental guidance as needed).
There is so much I could say about this book - I took page after page of notes! I cannot recommend this book enough!
Throughout this book, Calderwood presents her proven method and philosophy of training your children to become independent learners and self-teachers who will consequently develop a strong love for learning. She emphasizes three elements of a self-propelled student: Self-Mastery (training your child's character), Mastery Mindset (learning everything to a mastery level), and Self-Teaching (being able to independently teach yourself).
We have been trained to think that because the public school system uses a particular method/mindset of education, it must be correct. We think of education only from one perspective and often never even ask ourselves the reasons behind how we educate our children. Throughout this book, the author presented several concepts that go against traditional education practices and initially cause the reader to question the validity of the author's claims. Yet, Calderwood gives repeated testimony and arguments that clearly demonstrate a better mindset concerning education that makes logical sense, actually works, and consequently produces better results. A self-propelled student is able to pick up a textbook, set goals for himself, and then learn the information to a mastery level every single time (all with parental guidance as needed).
There is so much I could say about this book - I took page after page of notes! I cannot recommend this book enough!
Because we are conditioned to think that kids need a teacher as a mediator between knowledge and their young brains, we do not trust children to learn independently. In the realm of home education, many parents never let go of the bicycle once the child understands the fundamental rules of the road. (p. 15)
Why do we move on when a child makes a C on a test and obviously did not understand all of the material? (p. 117) An A is not the goal. However, it should be the outcome of mastery learning every single time. ... Accepting less than A-level work from our children sends them the message that either the material isn't important enough to be learned, that it isn't important to do your best, or that excellence isn't worth the trouble. We must fight against the "a B or C is ok" mentality! (p. 118)
The goal is for the student to learn and to be self-disciplined enough to learn despite the fact that the material may not thrill him. It still must be done and be done well. (p. 169)
While it can be useful, the "learning style" concept is overrated. People have learning preferences, but must learn to adapt to all learning styles. A college professor does not care about a student's learning style, neither does an employer. Rather a child should be taught to adapt and work through weaker areas to achieve mastery learning. (p. 179)
A student does not need you to understand physics for him. If he is a self-learner, he will be able to work through it himself. (p. 186)
June 22, 2021
I like the basic idea, but the book felt like padding. Too much of it was making the case for things which have already been decided here. Should you consign your child to daycare? Or stay at home? After you've made that decision, we'll continue. What are the different schooling options? Homeschooling is one of them. Should you do that? Here are some reasons why it's good. And finally, after you've made that decision, we'll move on with the book.
The curriculum section is brief and not especially inspiring - instead of offering a variety of options, it mostly lists what this one particular family actually used (which is mostly A Beka). But I wasn't looking to this book for curriculum suggestions. Then there is the student planner, which is extolled as being "equally as important as your curriculum" (I dispute this) - the author has designed these planners and sells them - but we don't even get a single sample picture in the book. I would have liked to see much more on this, in support of the hyperbole.
Over the course of the book there is some useful information, but I wish I could read a distilled version that cut to the chase.
The curriculum section is brief and not especially inspiring - instead of offering a variety of options, it mostly lists what this one particular family actually used (which is mostly A Beka). But I wasn't looking to this book for curriculum suggestions. Then there is the student planner, which is extolled as being "equally as important as your curriculum" (I dispute this) - the author has designed these planners and sells them - but we don't even get a single sample picture in the book. I would have liked to see much more on this, in support of the hyperbole.
Over the course of the book there is some useful information, but I wish I could read a distilled version that cut to the chase.
January 20, 2019
Excellent Read! Couldn't put it down
This book touched me, and is what I have needed to read. Lots of valuable, affirming information on discipline and character-building in addition to the information about self-teaching and the mastery concept. It affirms to me that I have been moving in the right direction with our homeschool. I enjoyed the very detailed information about learning to mastery, and now I feel I am ready to let that solutions manual free and begin the check-ups! Thanks, Joanne, for writing this book!
This book touched me, and is what I have needed to read. Lots of valuable, affirming information on discipline and character-building in addition to the information about self-teaching and the mastery concept. It affirms to me that I have been moving in the right direction with our homeschool. I enjoyed the very detailed information about learning to mastery, and now I feel I am ready to let that solutions manual free and begin the check-ups! Thanks, Joanne, for writing this book!
June 23, 2022
I would absolutely recommend this book to any homeschool parent. Such a great perspective on how kids they’ve when they learn independently.
June 13, 2023
Very good in theory. Before you can implement much of it, you have to “have your child’s heart”…they pretty much need to be good natured and compliant.
February 8, 2013
Have you heard the old proverb which says that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish you feed him for a lifetime? That same principle applies to education in general. Either we can spoon-feed kids facts which will last until they regurgitate them on a test or we can teach them how to learn on their own. In The Self-Propelled Advantage, homeschooling mother Joanne Calderwood, a popular magazine columnist and speaker at home-education conferences across the country, provides a strategy for doing the latter. Didn’t poet William Butler Yeats say that education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire? This is an idea that many homeschooling parents have learned and seek to implement in their home education.
Calderwood’s “three-pronged secret that will propel your student down the road of self-discovery” involves first self-mastery, then a mastery mindset, and finally self-teaching. She discusses how to implement these practices with both younger and older children, even through high school and beyond. While Calderwood is a passionate practitioner and promoter of homeschooling, making a good case for its superiority, she also makes suggestions as to how parents of children in traditional public and private schools can utilize her program as well. And for homeschoolers, she identifies curricula that she has used or believes will work well with her self-teaching method. Finally, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Not only does the book cite examples from her own children, one an SAT perfect scorer, one near-perfect scorer, and four who have gone to college on full academic scholarships, throughout, but it also contains a chapter, “Calderwood Kids Speak,” which gives their own first-hand testimony to the effectiveness of the system.
Christian parents have certain goals for the education of their children. With regard to the importance of self-mastery, Calderwood writes, “My husband and I desire to train our children’s hearts first and foremost, and then the educational pieces of the puzzle will fall into place.” And the results? “We’ve raised our young children with a distinctive worldview that will enable them as adults to hold to those values and thrive amidst a culture which tends to make destructive choices.” There are many other good quotes that I jotted down and could give if I had room, but you can get the idea. In addition, valuable information on preparing for college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT can be found. The book seems to be a revised, updated, and expanded version of Calderwood’s earlier work The Self-Teaching Manual (I'm the Mom; I Don't Have to Know Calculus!). All parents can benefit from this material, but those who are homeschooling, or even thinking about homeschooling, will find it especially helpful.
Calderwood’s “three-pronged secret that will propel your student down the road of self-discovery” involves first self-mastery, then a mastery mindset, and finally self-teaching. She discusses how to implement these practices with both younger and older children, even through high school and beyond. While Calderwood is a passionate practitioner and promoter of homeschooling, making a good case for its superiority, she also makes suggestions as to how parents of children in traditional public and private schools can utilize her program as well. And for homeschoolers, she identifies curricula that she has used or believes will work well with her self-teaching method. Finally, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Not only does the book cite examples from her own children, one an SAT perfect scorer, one near-perfect scorer, and four who have gone to college on full academic scholarships, throughout, but it also contains a chapter, “Calderwood Kids Speak,” which gives their own first-hand testimony to the effectiveness of the system.
Christian parents have certain goals for the education of their children. With regard to the importance of self-mastery, Calderwood writes, “My husband and I desire to train our children’s hearts first and foremost, and then the educational pieces of the puzzle will fall into place.” And the results? “We’ve raised our young children with a distinctive worldview that will enable them as adults to hold to those values and thrive amidst a culture which tends to make destructive choices.” There are many other good quotes that I jotted down and could give if I had room, but you can get the idea. In addition, valuable information on preparing for college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT can be found. The book seems to be a revised, updated, and expanded version of Calderwood’s earlier work The Self-Teaching Manual (I'm the Mom; I Don't Have to Know Calculus!). All parents can benefit from this material, but those who are homeschooling, or even thinking about homeschooling, will find it especially helpful.
November 26, 2013
Calderwood, mother of 8, promotes self-learning in her home schooled children and shows how brilliant the results can be. When a mom is so successful in facilitating success for so many children, I take notice and want to know what tips she has. If she didn't post her curricula list in chapter 9, I would have wondered if she was using the Robinson Curriculum. Either way the results are the same: Loving, attentive parents who can teach children in the younger years (birth to about grade 3) and prepare them to go independently at home (grade 4-12) enable them to continue to fly successfully as adults on their own.
I didn't read the ebook, I checked this baby out from the library, but it's definitely a resource that would be good to have at home. And loan out to all the people who ask how you do it!
I didn't read the ebook, I checked this baby out from the library, but it's definitely a resource that would be good to have at home. And loan out to all the people who ask how you do it!
August 2, 2013
A random selection from the library...the title caught my eye and I am glad I read this although the sucess of self propelled learning seems very much geared towards home schooling which I can certainly appreciate the benefits of for students to be able to work at their own pace until they have thoroughly grasped their subjects. This book would be good to read if you were considering home schooling.
I have seen with my own young children when you encourage them to make choices in their learning they are much more engaged and motivated and proud of the outcomes. My son has just started school in New Zealand and I am pleased to see that he has already been involved in the termly goal setting process for his own unique learning outcomes appropriate for his level.
I have seen with my own young children when you encourage them to make choices in their learning they are much more engaged and motivated and proud of the outcomes. My son has just started school in New Zealand and I am pleased to see that he has already been involved in the termly goal setting process for his own unique learning outcomes appropriate for his level.
May 14, 2014
Must read for home school Moms!
Must read for home school Moms!
This book has given me such inspiration for our next year of home school and beyond! Especially if you are feeling overwhelmed or burnt out, you have to get this book and read it. I truly believe it will change you and your children's life for the better. Thank you, Joanne Calderwald!
Must read for home school Moms!
This book has given me such inspiration for our next year of home school and beyond! Especially if you are feeling overwhelmed or burnt out, you have to get this book and read it. I truly believe it will change you and your children's life for the better. Thank you, Joanne Calderwald!
June 22, 2013
Yes! Completely changed my life! I do school at home differently with my student who is reading and there is so much less whining and so much more is getting done and it's so much better for her.
March 21, 2015
Love this book, I really should give it four stars because there are a few things I am do not agree with but over all I really love it, and have implemented it in our home and it works well. I defiantly recommend it to all.
July 9, 2013
Lots of concrete information, some of which I intend to use as we continue homeschooling next year.
August 24, 2013
Lots of "why" not a bit if practical advice. I felt it was preachy, and I kept waiting for the chapter on how to put this in practice but it never came. Disappointed!
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