All books below are available in South Africa at LOOT or otherwise at AMAZON.
| Educating the wholehearted child |
This book is well known internationally and is almost always on the list of Books to read recommended for new homeschoolers.
It sure is also on my recommendation list.
I recommend buying the book since there are chapters you want to read when you just start out. Then a year or two later, you need to read other chapters and then even further down the road still other chapters make more sense.
So let me give an overview to let you in on just enough to convince you that you need the book.
This book is a must have on every home school bookshelf!
A wealth of information is contained in these pages, and this book is easy to understand and very well laid out.
The first chapter shows interesting comparisons with the public school setting and will persuade you that home education is the right thing to do.
Following chapters on education and discipleship challenges one to think deeply about what you are about to do with homeschooling.
The Clarksons have mainly followed the Charlotte Mason approach, but they present a Home Centered Learning Model with 5 areas of studies:
to help you plan a curriculum for yourself.
Practical help is shared on to setup your house for such home centered learning. A whole chapter is devoted to sharing what can be done in each subject area if you follow their model.
They have a lot of experience and share such things like
Wholehearted Child also contains information on
Throughout the book snippets of how things are done in their home is interspersed providing valuable practical insight.
At the back of the book lots of planning forms are shared to use as is or redesign for your own purposes.
What I liked most about the book when I started out researching homeschooling years ago, was actually the chapter on home management….and it took me a full year just to organize my home in terms of spaces, time and stuff ‘boxes’!
To get the clutter under control and the routines in place required a lot of energy (I was surprised how much energy), until you can start to really fill the homeschooling ‘box of time’ effectively.
I have found that it is only when other things are under better control that you can start to think through the more important concepts, such as discipleship, and having real vision for your homeschool.
The concept of ‘boxes’ is so simplistic yet so practical to help one organize your home more effectively.
I still believe that every time I get to do with a new mom starting out homeschooling, that effective home management is really a key to better homeschooling.
So many moms try to just fit homeschooling on top of everything they do or have currently – moms, it cannot be done!
You need to rethink your home management and there is a lot of valuable support in this area of need.
| Seasons of a mother’s heart |
This lovely book is a collection of essays to minister to the spiritual needs of mothers who are giving their lives in service to their children.
It is reminder of the importance and yet difficult path of the calling (and sometimes burden) of motherhood.
It is a sharing of heart experiences of victories, defeats, joys, struggles, successes, and failures so you can be encouraged and lifted up.
By choosing to stay home to homeschool you are going against the grain of social norms and will therefore be under attack continuously. In some way one can relate to being persecuted when homeschooling for the right reasons.
Books like these are helping us know we are not alone, and we can do this with the help of the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, comfort and guidance daily.
The book is developed to be used as a ‘study guide’ for personal quiet time, or a discussion guide for fellowship with other mothers.
At the end of each chapter there are scripture references, questions to trigger your own thoughts on the concepts shared as well as ideas for personal and family applications.
The essays have been compiled to correlate to the 4 seasons and what they may involve for us as mothers:
It is a book that one can read again and again – depending on where you feel the season is for you and it is a book that does not have to be read from cover to cover. You can choose essays as it appeals to you. Be encouraged!
| The ministry of motherhood |
This book is about discipling your own children after the model of Jesus.
Sally explains in detail the revelation she had in the process of growing her own children and daily struggles.
Chapters are presented according to the framework of GIFTS as an acronym for giving your children the gifts of Grace, Inspiration, Faith, Training, and Service.
These gifts are principles to keep in mind when interacting with your children as a model of discipleship.
Each gift has been broken down into easy-to-understand concepts as:
It is a must-read for every mother that is ready to understand the ministry of motherhood!
Visit Whole Heart Ministries online for more info on what they do.
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