Guess I shouldn’t judge a book by its corny title.

Well, this book was totally not what I expected. There’s a particular genre of book about certain home-related endeavors…I guess I would call it the “Christian blogger” genre. I’m a Christian and I read plenty of blogs, in fact, you could say that some of my best friends are Christian bloggers so obviously I couldn’t possibly have a bias against them – but I still find the entire genre incredibly uninspiring. You can find them about marriage, organizing, homeschooling, parenting, even home decor – do you want to feel happier in your home? More organized? More Godly? I’ve been avoiding this book for a while because for some regrettable reason I thought this was one of those that mistakenly found its way onto my to-read list. Probably the cheesy title did it.

What I got, actually, was a fantastically written, hilarious, honest and real book about the author’s experimental year homeschooling her daughter (I won’t spoil whether they decide to continue after the year). I loved this book so much I read it way too slowly, considering how close the end of this Cannonball is looming, but I wanted to savor it. I was homeschooled (well…really, I wasn’t schooled at all, but that’s another story for another day) and if everything goes as planned, I want to homeschool my daughter in a few years (only actually educate her, unlike what my mother did). I’m not new to the theories or debates surrounding homeschooling, but I still have the questions and insecurities that I think any responsible parent considering homeschooling should have – just because I can, does that mean I should? Will we get sick of each other? Will she be missing out on experiences like the prom? What level of outside help like tutors of co-ops am I interested in? What homeschooling “tribe” will I be a part of? Am I too flaky? Am I too bad at math? Am I too lazy? Even if I do a stellar job, will other people’s intrusive questions and judgement make her life unnecessarily hard? Dear God, what about socialization? (Note: if you have loved ones who homeschool, ask them about socialization. Most likely no one ever has before!) Quinn Cummings approaches these questions without bias or defensiveness, and wades into the year willing to either be won over by homeschooling or not.

I think the ideal reader for this book would be someone who is interested in homeschooling but has some questions still, but honestly it’s just a fantastic book all around. Cummings has a wonderful dry sense of humor that I could read all day long.