BOOK REVIEW & B90 DAY 6

HEART OF WISDOM TEACHING APPROACH
WHAT YOUR CHILD NEEDS TO KNOW WHEN

Let me say here and now, I LOVED BOTH OF THESE. They have revolutionized my approach to my "school" day.

This will be more of a double book review as both are by Robin Sampson and both center around the concepts of the Heart of Wisdom teaching method, otherwise known as HOW or HOWTA.

The HOW method uses a biblical foundation as its core approach. It is a blending of styles which include Charlotte Mason, unit studies, and the 4 Matt System. The idea is to teach in two segments: God's Word first, then God's World (i.e. history, science, ect.) Robin provides a 4 year plan which would be repeated 3 times for a total of 12 years (or grade levels).

My humble opinion: Whether you agree with her or not about the opposition to classical teaching (and she makes some very eye opening points about that) you can not deny the soundness of this program. She made me aware of a fact I had not realized I was practicing in my own teaching.

Here I was seperating our "Bible time" from our "school time". Not intentionally, mind you, and the realization of it never occurred to me until I read Robin's books.I had to ask myself why. I could only assume it was because I had a public school mentality, and despite the fact that I thought I was making a conscious effort not to mimic that in my own home educating , still I had not thought of basing my whole approach to our education on God's word.

But that my friends is exactly where it should be.

These books were a real eye opener for me and spoke to my heart. I also learned alot about unit studies and for the first time I am planning on making use of them.

I am undecided as to whether I will incorporate Heart of Wisdom exclusively or tailor it into our own program but it will most definitely be the springboard to a change in my teaching methods.

The only possible con (to some people) might be that HOW is not a step by step put together curriculum. It does require you to choose to some extent what resources you wish to use and how to approach it in your day. Especially since it is also based in a delight directed manner.

Robin has put together some unit studies and the How website is chock full of wonderful links and ideas for tailoring your plan of action.

I recommend at least finding these at your local library and reading them. You may also click on the titles under the pics and it will lead you to the ordering page where you can also get a free excerpt.

I bet you won't walk away without some really good ideas to incorporate.





Day 6 completed! Chapters Exodus 15:19 thru Exodus 28.