Wholehearted Homeschooling

I am so thankful that Mark and I see eye to eye on so much! One of those things is homeschooling. Homeschooling our children has always been our plan - I think we even discussed it before we were married! We had no desire to trust our children's education to someone else, or to send them off to spend the bulk of their time away from us. We want to enjoy our kids to the fullest!

So almost as soon as Eliza was born, I was researching methods and curriculums. I came upon the Charlotte Mason approach, which I really liked, and a curriculum called Heart of Wisdom which used a unit study based 4-year cycle and honored the Biblical Feasts and Hebrew way of thought (vs. Greek).

One of my all-time favorite authors is Sally Clarkson. She has authored many books on motherhood and homeschooling, and her husband Clay wrote the book that was the most instrumental for us in deciding how to parent our children (more on that in a later post). We bought her and Clay's book, Educating the Wholehearted Child, a couple of years ago. I enjoyed it then, but now our first year of homeschooling is coming to a close, and I just reread much of it in preparation for next year. It is such a good book, and so inspiring! They break down the areas of study into these categories:

Discipleship Studies (character and Bible study)
Disciplined Studies (math, reading, writing)
Discussion Studies (literature, history, fine arts)
Discovery Studies (science, creative arts)
Discretionary Studies (additional things important to your child/family)

I really like the way each area of study is explained. Discipleship, Discussion, Discovery - these are words that get to the core of how these subjects are best learned, and makes it easier for me to look at our school plans and keep us on task. Am I encouraging my children in their relationship with HaShem (or just telling them stories)? Are we discussing enough (or just reading)? Are we discovering the world around us (or just doing worksheets)?

I am re-energized and excited about the new school year ahead of us, and can't wait to see how my children (and I) grow in this upcoming year!

~ Judy