TOS Review: Educating the WholeHearted Child

Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson from Apologia Press has recently released it's 3rd edition.  First published in 1994 and again in 1996, Educating the WholeHearted Child has been a trusted guide for homeschooling families.  The newest edition is not simply a reprint with a new cover, the book has been extensively revised and expanded to include over 100 pages of new material with a large percentage of old material rewritten as content and references needed to be updated and God as updated the Clarkson family.  This book provides a solid biblical foundation for educating and nurturing your child's hearts, minds, and souls.

The purpose of Educating the WholeHearted Child is not to give you an absolute of the curriculum you must use, books you must read, or an educational program you must implement and maintain to have a successful homeschool.  Instead, this book gives you a larger vision for , "what God can do in your home and to provide a model of home education that gives you the freedom to follow the Holy Spirit for what your children need most."  God didn't forget school in His biblical design for raising children.  Home education should be a natural expression of what God had planned for parents and children.  What you will find in this book is a homeschooling model that makes sense using: Discipleship Studies, Disciplined Studies, Discussion Studies, Discovery Studies, and Discretionary Studies.

Whether you are a veteran homeschool mom, brand new to homeschooling, or somewhere in between, this guide will equip and empower you for your journey of faith as a family.  You will discover how to:

• Make your home and family the heart of your children's education
• Train your children to become creative, self directed learners
• Enrich life and education with living books
• Identify and work with each child's learning style
• Help your children love to learn as naturally as they love to play
• Gain confidence to teach with practical, commonsense methods

Educating the  WholeHearted Child has sections on: Home, Learning, Methods, and Living.  It also contains a Preface, Introduction, and Postscript.  You will also find additional resources including: Books for the WholeHearted Family, Books for WholeHearted Learning, and Forms for WholeHearted Learning. 


To view a sample chapter click here.

To view the Table of Contents click here.


Educating the WholeHearted Child is a large paperback book that is 373 pages long.  The cost is $22.00 and you can order by clicking here.

This is THE book every homeschool family should buy!  Educating the WholeHearted Child should not just be read, but high lighted, underlined, doggy eared, and kept as a much loved reference to refer back to again and again.  This is what I want for my family to use my home to nurture, disciple, and educate my children to have their spirits long for god, their hearts live for God and their minds to learn for God.  I want school and home to go naturally together, not have a line drawn between the two.  I want my children to develop a lifelong love of learning!  As I mentioned above, this book does not tell you the right or wrong way to homeschool or what curriculum you should use to achieve the best results in your homeschool.  Instead, it provides the framework and ideas for a learning model that can and should look different in every homeschool, using whole, living books.  The section on The WholeHearted Learning Youth: Beyond the WholeHearted Child really spoke to me as I have entered into these uncharted waters with a teenager in our house.  In addition to the ideas and basics for the WholeHearted Learning Model, there is a wealth of information, encouragement, and support for homeschooling moms and dads and even practical advice for keeping your home and homeschool in order.  I loved the idea of home management "by the box."  This is something that I have never heard of before but believe it would be a huge blessing in my homeschool. 

The sheer size and amount of information in Educating the WholeHearted Child may make it seem a bit intimidating.  The authors do not intend for you to implement every one of their ideas in your homeschool.  That is the beauty of it.  You are free to educate your children in the way the Holy Spirit guides you.  If the idea of reading all 373 pages overwhelms you, start with reading a section that you may need help or encouragement in most.

To see what other crew mates have to say click here.

I received a complimentary copy of Educating the WholeHearted Child for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation.

NOTE:  There is a companion book that is mentioned called Read for the Heart written by Sarah Clarkson (daughter to Clay and Sally.) The TOS Crew reviewed Read For the Heart last year.  You can find my review on it here and here is the link to the crew blog and other crew mates reviews.