This book has had a positive impact on my child rearing. My children are 4, 2, and 3 months. My 4 year old attends a Christian Montessori school where they support the kind of rich learning evironment that Lucy Calkins describes in her book. I have encouraged it at home too: little television, lots of books, free play, use of the imagination, puppets etc. and I am pleased with my daughters overall love for learning. This book is not related to Montessori, but it confirmed a lot of what they do. Well worth the read. I didn't give it 5 stars because I would have liked an appendix of suggested readings she made.

Calkins makes the case for embracing a child's natural curiosity and encouraging their interests into definable disciplines. She spends a lot of time on how to approach writing. She gently points out that it is not initially a fine motor skill to be mastered but an avenue for the child to record his or her own stories and experiences. Her constant message is how to encourage rather than perfect the child's ability which is refreshing in a world of standardize testing. Through sharing of her own experiences she provides ideas on how to help further develop a child's natural inventiveness into lessons on reading, writing, science and math. This is not a hard line method to expose a child to everything available but rather an encouragement based approach to explore ideas with your child.

_Raising Lifelong Learners: A Parent's Guide_ is full of practical suggestions, many of which are helpful to teachers as well as to parents. The book's principal author, Lucy Calkins, is a teacher educator, yet she considers the teaching of her two young sons to be her most important work. Calkins relates many vivid examples from her own experience.

Although Calkins discusses things parents can do to maximize school success, _Raising Lifelong Learners_ is not a book about helping children with their homework. Instead it tells how to make the home a rich learning environment, how to arouse children's curiosity in all academic areas. Calkins says, " . . . the qualities that matter most in science and math, reading and writing -- initiative, thoughtfulness, curiosity, resourcefulness, perseverance, and imagination -- are best nurtured through the everydayness of our shared lives at home."

Calkins believes in leading children very gradually along the path of learning in all academic areas. She says, "My rule of thumb is to help the child do today what she will be able to do tomorrow. I don't want my assistance to be too far beyond the child's independent abilities or she will be put in a dependent position, always waiting for and wanting assistance."

Calkins places heavy emphasis on both work and play. The latter provides an opportunity for children to develop imagination, resourcefulness, and language skills. Calkins believes that parents, not schools, have the primary responsibility for developing a work ethic in children. This is cultivated through hobbies and projects as well as through chores.

After Calkins discusses the nurturing of language arts, math, science, and social studies as children progress from infancy through middle school, Lydia Bellino, a reading specialist and school principal, addresses school issues in half a dozen appendices. Most of these, such as curricular choices and various assessment methods, can also apply to the homeschool situation.