Educating the WholeHearted Child

I am so thankful for the homeschooling resources the Lord has put across my path lately.

Recently, I had the privilege of reviewing Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson. It is published by Apologia Press and once again, they have put out an outstanding resource.

This book is geared towards homeschooling families and is an excellent resource. You will definitely get a wealth of information in this book.

To give you an idea of what it is about, here's an excerpt from page 115. "The WholeHearted Learning model is a discipleship-based, home-centered, whole-book approach to Christian home education that integrates real books, real life, and real relationships in a life-giving expression of God's biblical design for the family."

Clay says he and his wife "wrote this book to give homeschooling parents a lens to see their homes and lives in a whole new way--a wholehearted way." "If homeschooling is only an educational formula to follow, then we no longer have to live that part of our lives by faith or walk each day as a homeschooling parent in the power of the Holy Spirit....God is much more concerned that you learn how to nurture, disciple and educate your children by faith, in the power of his Holy Spirit, than He is about what curriculum or methodology you choose."

This book is such a tremendous resource! It is most helpful if you have children ages 4-14 will help you identify your child's particular learning style, will give you confidence to teach with practical, tried and true methods and will give you a renewed vigor to make your home and family vibrant with living educational methods.

The Clarksons teach that WholeHearted Learning is not an educational curriculum, but rather, a model. Thankfully, the curriculum we are using embraces this type of learning that the Clarksons recommend. It is so much more fun to teach and to learn when we use methods that go beyond the traditional worksheet/fact retention approach that most of us grew up with. It creates a thirst for learning, not just academically, but spiritually as well.

Educating the WholeHearted Child is in its third edition and even if you've read it before, it has had so much information added to it that it'd be worth reading again.

I'd encourage you to check this resource out. I think it will be a blessing to you whether you are new to homeschooling, a long-term homeschooler who needs a fresh vision, or just simply sensing you need to change the direction your homeschooling.

It has some great ideas and I love that at the heart of it is the goal to make sure we are leading our children to Christ.

Whether you homeschool or not, I hope this is your desire: "Like a shepherd who leads his sheep to life-giving water and pasture, your first responsiblity as a parent is to lead your children to the life-giving presence and reality of Christ in your heart and home. Your desire should be to implant a longing in their spirits for God that can be satisfied only with the water and bread of life in Christ." (pg. 45)
The topics covered in this book include chapters dealing with the home, learning, methods and living and includes a resource section as well. Feel free to take a look at the Table of Contents for more details. This great resource retails for $22.

Have you read this book before? If so, I'd love to know what you think about it. If you're not familiar with it and want to see other reviews,feel free to click here.

**Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book to keep in exchange for a candid review.