Vendor Name: Apologia
Vendor Contact: Apologia Contact Page
Name of Product: Educating the WholeHearted Child
Price: $22.00
Age Range: moms and dads, those who need help and inspiration for homeschooling
Other Products Available: How to Have H.E.A.R.T for your Kids, Elementary Science series, Junior High and High School science, Apologia Academy, and more
- Have you started your homeschooling journey but just aren’t sure where to begin?
- Have questions but don’t know where to turn?
- Are you a seasoned homeschooler who needs some inspiration to keep going on those days that you don’t want to keep going?
- Are you a parent who has heard about crazy homeschoolers but then again think we may be on to something?
Well then have I got the book for you! This book will give you practically all the education you’ll need in educating your child or children yourself and doing it whole-heartedly (yes, I know it’s not technically a word). This isn’t a book you’ll read once and shelf it – you’ll keep coming back for it as a continual resource probably until you’ve highlighted it all or the pages are falling out.
This is the third edition and it has over 100 pages of all new, never before seen material and a good proportion of the book from the old version has been rewritten to give it a new lease on life. The book covers the following areas: home, learning, methods, living, postscript and resources. 376 pages of encouragement for moms and dads who are choosing to bring their children up and teach them in the Lord. It isn’t all about education or the 3 R’s but it’s about gaining your children’s hearts and giving them a Christian education that centers on Christ, discipleship, and then planning the education around that.
The books subtitle is: Discipleship, Whole Books, and Real Life! WholeHearted Christian Home Education for Ages 4-14, it’s quite a mouth full but sums up the book in a few words. You’ll see the breakdown of schools such as public, private, independent and homeschooling and what each entails. The one that isn’t mentioned and is gaining ground is the online virtual schools which could fall into the public or the independent genre of school but by definition not parent directed homeschooling. Different curricula, approaches, child-centered, home-centered methods are all outlined in detail.
I wish I had more space and infinite time to go about this wonderful book, but there is so much to it that it would take me days of writing to tell you the wonderful things about this book. If you buy only one book for homeschooling, I could not recommend this book alone enough. My only disagreement with it is the encouragement to get involved in a support group. I know they serve a purpose and some families thrive in them, however after being in a group or groups for 3+ years I no longer feel they are a necessity to our homeschooling life. This is my personal opinion though but we have gotten so much work done and have had more fun in these few months than we did in the last three years without a group! I do understand though what the author is saying though in regards to support groups and there is a time and place for them.
While I love the whole book, I think my most favorite part is the resource section. The resources are as follows:
- Books for the WholeHearted Family (divided into genres/time periods,etc)
- Books for WholeHearted Learning (divided into subject like Young Men and Women or Devotions and Discipleship)
- Forms for WholeHearted Learning (learning agenda, reading records, book reports, Godly character charts, devotional planner, calendars and more)
I cannot stress enough how much I think this book needs to be on every homeschooling families shelf. This book is a go-to resource for everything from beginning homeschooling, to figuring out what learning style your child is so you can better train and educate them, to everything in between and then some. The book is an encouragement and may even be a balm to someone’s heart and soul as they renew their homeschooling endeavors after a rough patch. The best thing though isn’t the forms or the methodologies but it’s the fact that the authors keep Christ at the center and remind the reader time after time that Christ and our children’s souls are what truly matters in homeschooling.
**If you’d like to read more reviews by homeschoolers about this book please visit The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.
**This is a TOS Crew review. I was provided a copy of this book from Apologia in exchange for my honest review, no other compensation was given.
GrowingForChrist 