Training Happy Hearts: A Wonderful Book for Homeschool Mamas {A Review}

Have you been seeking encouragement, perspective, or a chat with a veteran homeschooler? You may enjoy God Schooling: How God Intended Children to Learn by Julie Polanco.

Julie is a homeschooling mom of four who has already graduated one child and is still in the trenches with her other children. During her homeschool journey, she has learned to let God lead the way and has also taken to sharing the wisdom she has learned.

Her work has appeared in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, Home Education Magazine, and many trade publications. She has also developed a high school botany course for www.schoolhouseteachers.com and, of course, written the book I have been blessed to read this past month - God Schooling.

In a nutshell, in God Schooling, Julie shares the struggles and soul searching she faced at the beginning of her homeschool journey and, then, moves on to elaborate upon the unschooling approach she chose to follow. As she does, she offers stories, insights, and food for thought for homeschoolers of all kinds - unschoolers, relaxed homeschoolers, and traditional homeschoolers. (Relaxes homeshcoolers and unschoolers, however, will likely appreciate the book the most.)

The book is divided into two parts:

Part 1: Dispelling Myths
Part 2: Practice

In Part 1 - which is two chapters long, Julie encourages you to help your children learn naturally, as "God intended"* and offers plenty of Scripture to support her point of view.

In Part 2 - which is 7 chapter long, Julie dives into how to teach children under eight years old, those between the ages of eight and 12, and teens, attending to their development needs, building character, focusing on relationships, and guiding children to be who God calls them to be.

Julie also tells you how to get started on child-led, natural learning, addresses common questions and answers, and shares ideas for keeping records of non-traditional learning in a world that so often demands proof of academic progress.

At the end of each chapter are questions to help you further digest, reflect upon, and discuss the ideas in the book and how to apply them to your family's homeschool journey.
*I put as "God intended" in quotes, because, although I agree with many things Julie shares, I do not believe that God intends all homeschoolers to be unschoolers, and, I think that, at times, Julie writes in such a way that more traditional homeschoolers might miss some gems of wisdom while dismissing some things as "well, that works for her, but not for me and mine" or bristling about feeling that their more traditional homeschooling approach being considered not God's intention.

That said, I do not think Julie is saying other approaches are wrong or that God might not have different plans for different people's approaches. I just wonder if uber-structured homeschoolers might feel Julie does, and, therefore miss some of the wonderful gems of wisdom in the book - and, gems are aplenty!

My Thoughts on the Book

God Schooling encouraging you to put God at the center of your homeschooling endeavors and to ask Him to lead you to what works for your family. It also reminds you to work on character and relationships before academics.

From its earliest pages, the book offers food for thought. For example:

"Curriculum can be a great tool as long as it doesn’t become our religion." (p. 6)

So often, at this time of year, decisions center around what curricula or curriculum activities will be done in the fall. That makes it easy to lose sight of the WHY of our homeschooling journey while focusing on the what. Those words brought me back to a truth I already knew.

"If God has prepared…works for your child to do, then won’t He make sure she is adequately prepared for them?" (p. 11)

All three of my children are in very different places with their learning styles and their actual skills. This can be challenging. Even more challenging is the constant chatter in my brain that wonders if I am doing the right things right now to lead my children to the future God has prepared for them.

When I read the words above, I felt so encouraged, remembering that no matter what I do, God is in control, not me. Yes, I need to do my part, but, in the end, He has a call for each of my children, and He will ensure they are ready to meet it.

"The one thing we can do and are admonished to do is to…train our children in righteousness." (p. 13)

Of course, the day I began reading the book was "one of those days" when I was feeling the tug between tasks that needed to be done at home, commitments we had with others, where my children are at with their skills, and what had overcome my children and turned them into less-than-virtuous young humans that day.

The words above - although not sharing a new concept with me - reminded me to just pause everything and work on character. ALWAYS, guiding my children toward virtue should trump everything else.

This same idea was echoed later in the book, - and "needed" by me each time.

In fact, there were so many portion of the book that "spoke" to me, I believe God put God Schooling in my hands right now to help guide me toward guiding my oldest child' next phase of development.

You see, I've been in a place recently where I am debating what direction to go with homeschooling my three very different learners, and, especially, my oldest.

A traditional curriculum-in-a-box approach has never worked for my children nor me. So, through the years, we've leaned toward eclectic, with some inspiration from Montessori, Charlotte Mason, unschooling and more.

To date, this has worked for us for the most part. However, now my oldest is middle school age, and I have been praying and thinking about whether to gear up more with traditional curriculum-type learning for him, to embrace a Charlotte Mason approach more faithfully, or, to finally, just "let go and let God" by diving into true unschooling approach for him.

Truth be told, my son would love to be an unchooler, and my husband has said he thinks it might be the best approach for him. I agree - to a point - but have reservations. I am a former school teacher and a recovering Type A personality, so it is hard for me to to let go 100% from conventional approaches. I am also running in a lot of directions with responsibilities to home, homeschool, work, and more, and, therefore, I admit I have a bit of fear that I won't have the time to unschool well. I might not have time and focus to keep up with my son's child-led learning...

So, yep, I have a ways to go with my thoughts and have found God Schooling quit encouraging. Reading it affirmed for me that if, indeed, God is calling me to unschool my oldest, it will be okay!

The book may have a different message for you. Read it and see. It is well worth reading, and God will surely speak to you through parts of it!