Educating the WholeHearted Child - Discussion of Preface and Introduction

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I love the introduction to Educating the WholeHearted Child. I wish I had read it 13 years ago when we started homeschooling. With one child graduated, I still have much to learn on how best to disciple our daughter. It seems for years we struggled to find our “stride” because I was trying to hard to fit our homeschool into the traditional school model and not following God’s design for our home.

Clay Clarkson writes, “Men designed schools, but God designed the home.”

Youch! That hit home for me. The first three years of our homeschooling, I was trying to make our home a traditional school classroom. And I felt guilty when, in my eyes, I failed to accomplish a traditional classroom.

Because mine was a generation that grew up in a traditional school setting, I didn’t stop to think too much about what God's design is for the family. I was praying for His guidance and to help me not miss anything crucial in son's education. I wasn't listening to God.

Instead, I was asking questions like, “If we start at 8:30, how much time should I schedule for three math worksheets?” and “Why can’t my son sit still for cursive? I was doing cursive in 3rd grade?”

The Clarksons point out that “there is no distinction in our homeschool between home and school—we are living to learn and learning to live, all at the same time.” P. 14

All of this designed by God.

It seems so simple, but somehow many of us starting out in homeschooling completely miss this. We spend years feeling guilty because we aren’t spending 60 minutes a day on math, followed by 25 minutes for spelling, and 45 minutes of phonics. Nor are we finishing the entire spelling book by day 180 of school (the mandatory number of days in our state you must hold school).

I remember a school teacher at church cornering my son every opportunity she had and drilling him about the courses he was taking and our exact schedule. “So, what time do you start each morning?” “How much time do you spend on math?” I used to prep him on how to respond and would run to intervene when I saw her cornering him in the fellowship hall after the service—all because I felt like I was a failure because we weren’t recreating the traditional classroom at home and here was this teacher and anti-homeschooling person about to expose me as a scheduling failure! But more on all of that when I cover Chapter 2.

Just the introduction to this book has me expanding my vision of homeschooling—even after 13 years and even after embracing a more relaxed approach—there is much to learn from, and I look forward to the coming chapters!