Home Grown

Adventures in Parenting off the Beaten Path, Unschooling, and Reconnecting with the Natural World

By: Ben Hewitt

Narrated by: Chris Sorensen

The charming adventures of one family's mission to build a deeper, lasting connection to land and community on their Vermont farm.

When Ben Hewitt and his wife bought a sprawling acreage of field and forest in northern Vermont, they were eager to start a self-sustaining family farm. But over the years, the land became so much more than a building site; it became the birthplace of their two sons, the main source of family income and food, and even a classroom for their children. Through self-directed play, exploration, and experimentation on their farm, Hewitt's children learned how to play and read, test boundaries and challenge themselves, fail and recover. Best of all, this environment allowed their personalities to flourish, fueling further growth.

In Home Grown, Hewitt shows us how small, mindful decisions about day-to-day life can lead to greater awareness of the world in our backyards and beyond. In telling the story of his sons' unconventional education in the fields and forests surrounding his family's farm, he demonstrates that the sparks of learning are all around us, just waiting to be discovered. Learning is a lifelong process - and the best education is never confined to a classroom.

©2014 Ben Hewitt (P)2020 Tantor

Good book but the narrator's voice.....

Great writing but the narrator's voice is torture. such a shame. No one should have to listen to him. Ben is one of my favorite authors and this is a charming story.

Narrator is robotic

The subject is very interesting to me so I will most likely buy the book, but I am struggling to finish the book because the person reading the book is so emotionless and robotic. Sometimes I have to rewind and listen again because the way it’s said makes no sense. Performance is a ZERO!

Great Book, Horrible Narration

I read this book before listening. We got the audio version so mu husband could listen while he drives for work. The narration is SO bad. It sounds computer generated and just really off.

It’s a bummer because I really love this book and always recommend it to any friends considering homeschooling, but I definitely won’t recommend the audio version.

the voice put me to sleep

I struggled at the beginning. the voice of the narrator makes it really difficult to focus on what be is actually saying. if you can get passed that, then you might enjoy the actual book. There is useful and valuable information on unschooling and different ways to go about unschooling. In the end some.geeat advice as well.

Pretty good overall

I wish I could read about how it all ends and whether the kids become productive adults. We’ll written, but this book is not really a how to. So keep that in mind if you ready it.