I think the point that she is trying to sell books is a good one. And she has gotten quite a bit of attention writing this provocative little article! I've seen this now posted on 3 different boards I visit.

I think as parents, unless you are 100% unschooling, we all require different things for our kids to do. It's a matter of tone and degree. I homeschool and I have been on unschooling boards. People post every single day that they are failing at unschooling and their lives have become utter chaos. BUT there are absolutely families for which that choice will be the right one. I think it require a certain kind of adult and a certain personality of child to be really successful. By degree we are laid back homeschoolers. I require some math, writing, and reading daily. But we aren't doing things like latin for an hour every day. Some homeschooling families are nose to the grindstone for 6 to 8 hours a day and that seems to work for them.

I have kids that would try or do very little without quite a bit of encouragement, at least at the preschool/early elementary ages. My brand of "encouragement" looks almost nothing like this article. I have a child working on piano, and he worked on pieces of similar difficulty at age 7. If he would have a hard time with something (physically or even just the mental angst of trying something different or hard), I would have made a deal that we would work on small passages and try the same passage 5 or 10X a day for a few minutes and be done. I might have played the other hand with him. I made have made funny donkey noises while we did it! My kids bask and really enjoy their successes. But really do need help getting over the initial hump. They both tend to be highly sensitive and dramatic and they need someone to remind them that change and trying something new might feel strange and uncomfortable, but it's important to try anyway. If my kids try something and absolutely end up hating it, I back off. I was a child that was paralyzed by my own fears of trying something new and it's not a good feeling. At age 10, my son has become much better at facing his fears and anxiety on his own. I was not doing the same at age 10.

I just think we need to know our own children. I think it's amazing if you have an entirely self motivated child who challenges themselves, but that is definitely not who my kids are.