The heart of Whole Heart Ministries is our books and resources. We are excited about the possibilities for expanding our publishing into new areas, moving into ebook and digital book publishing, and beginning to use Print On Demand (POD) to offer more titles than ever before.

For all of you who requested… here ’tis! And for all of you who didn’t, well, have fun anyway. You can never know about too many good books now can you? I began this list for the talks I did at the WHM conferences this year. I tend to talk too quickly in my speeches for people to write everything down, so here is the list in its completed glory:

Picture Books

1. When I Was Young In the Mountains (Cynthia Rylant)
2. When the Relatives Came (Cynthia Rylant)
3. Bunny Bungalow (Cynthia Rylant)
4. Miss Rumphius (Barbara Cooney)
5. Roxaboxen (Barbara Cooney)
6. Only Opal (Barbara Cooney)
7. The Brambly Hedge Series (Jill Barklem)
8. The Boy Who Held Back the Sea (Thomas Locker)
9. The Young Artist (Thomas Locker)
10. Fritz and the Beautiful Horses (Jan Brett)
11. The Bear Who Heard Crying (Natalie Kinsey Warnock)
12. All the Places to Love (Patricia MacLachlan)
13. A Song for Lena (Hilary Horder Hippely)
14. Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown)
15. Make Way For the Ducklings (Robert McCloskey)

Children’s Classics

1. Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie)
2. The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame)
3. The Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
4. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
5. The Tales of Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne)
6. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Beatrix Potter)
7. The Anne Series (L.M. Montgomery)
8. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
9. Little Men (Louisa May Alcott)
10. Kidnapped (Robert Louis Stevenson)
11. Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)
12. The Water Babies (Charles Kingsley)
13. The Railway Children (E. Nesbit)
14. The Treasure Seekers (E. Nesbit)
15. Heidi (Johanna Spyri)

Children’s Fiction

1. The Little Britches Series (Ralph Moody)
2. All of A Kind Family (Sydney Taylor)
3. Caddie Woodlawn (Carol Ryrie Brink)
4. The Winter Cottage (Carol Ryrie Brink)
5. Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes)
6. The Good Master (Kate Seredy)
7. Carry On Mr. Bowditch (Jean Lee Latham)
8. Ellen (E.M. Almedingen)
9. Across Five Aprils (Irene Hunt)
10. I, Juan de Pareja (Elizabeth Borton de Trevino)
11. The Journeyman (Elizabeth Yates)
12. Escape from Warsaw (Julian Padowicz)
13. The Trumpeter of Krakow (Eric Kelly)
14. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Joan Aiken)
15. Because of Winn Dixie (Kate DiCamillo)

Fairy Tale/Fantasy

1. The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis)
2. The Princess and the Goblins (George MacDonald)
3. The Princess and the Curdie (George MacDonald)
4. At the Back of the North Wind (George MacDonald)
5. The Light Princess (George MacDonald)
6. The Lost Princess (George MacDonald)
7. Tales of Hans Christian Andersen
8. The Redwall Series (Brian Jacques)
9. Dangerous Journey (John Bunyan)

One of the highlights of my year was seeing Sarah, my first child, graduate this past spring. With close friends and family gathered in our living room to celebrate and share in the occasion, Sarah displayed some of the unique qualities and skills God has graciously built into her life. She played several of her favorite piano pieces, read a chapter of a book she is writing, discussed some of the more influential authors and books in her life, gave a short talk about what God had been teaching her, and shared what she hoped to do with the rest of her life. Of course, I was so proud and blessed to see what a lovely young woman my daughter was becoming.

But the highlight for me was not that her education had been “completed.” Rather, it was knowing that her life had really just begun, and that God had used me to give her His life. She graduated not just from our home school, but into her own life and walk with God. By God’s grace, and in spite of the academic holes I have left in her education, she seems “well equipped for every good work.” God called me to the higher goal of giving Sarah life, not just giving her an education, and it pleases me greatly that I see not only her sharp mind, but her growing heart full of life and love for God.

Since that special graduation weekend, I have reflected often on what it means to be a life-giving mother. By God’s design, I have the unique privilege of giving the “life” that I have been given by God, to the children that God has given life to by me. God has called me to partner with Him in the spirit of the first mother, Eve, whom Adam called “the mother of all the living.” I am called by my loving God to give life to my children’s relationships so they will love as He loved. I am called by my sovereign God to give life to their spirits as they learn about God, His word, and His greatness and purpose for our lives. I am called by my wise God to give life to their minds, that they might think clearly and draw from a deep well of knowledge and understanding. I am called by my true God to give life to their appetites, values, traditions, and work habits. I am called by my powerful God to give life to their own visions for how God might use them in His kingdom work, and even how He might use them to shape history by building in their homes another generation of godly children. I am called by the living God to give life to my children.

Being a life-giving mother truly encompasses all that is about me and stretches all that is within me. It uses all of my gifts. It pushes me to depend on God for unanswerable questions. It expands my ability to be unselfish. It requires the best I have to give in every area. But it blesses me with showers of undeserved and generous love given by my children, and fills me with a deep sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.

As I traveled throughout the U.S. this past year, I was struck with how tired and weary and discouraged many of the home schooling mothers were. Indeed, this task of nurturing, discipling and educating my children at home is more demanding than I ever could have imagined. Yet, I know it is God’s best for my family. I have such a renewed desire to refresh and encourage these precious mothers to help them understand how strategic every day of their work at home is. They are building for the next generation a righteous leadership whose hearts are devoted to God. If children are not trained and loved and nurtured and protected in their own homes, by their very own parents, then who is there to give them the life they so long for in their hearts, that we as mothers are designed by God to give? No one else can do for them what God designed you to do.

I believe we all, as home schooling moms, need the constant renewing of our vision for being life-giving mothers for our children. That is what will sustain us through the difficult times so that we are able finish the race God has laid before us. And not just finish by falling over the line in exhaustion, but by finishing confident and strong! I want to cross that line, hear the cheers, and then listen to the great stories in heaven of countless children whose lives were shaped by faithful, life-giving moms who gave their lives for their children. I want to hear your story, and rejoice with you to see the fruit of life given to your children.

Practical Home Schooling Issue #39

Let’s talk personalities for a minute. You’ve probably noticed each of your children has one. And if your family is anything like ours, you’ve probably noticed there is a wide variety of personality in your children. One boy is building forts on the hill, one is building websites in the den, and one is building castles in his mind. One girl is playing mommy in her bedroom, one is playing Juliet through the banister rails, and one is playing Olympic archer in the backyard. If all our children had the same personality, child-raising would be easy. But God doesn’t want it to be easy: He wants it to be fun!

We’ve studied personality type for many years around our house. We all speak the language of one particular personality theory (MBTI) which has helped us, adults and children alike, understand and appreciate our God-designed differences. What I want you to see in this short column, though, is one small aspect of personality that can really help you find the fun that God wants you to have in child-raising. I can guarantee your children will remember it for the rest of their lives!

These are my own personality labels (no psycho-techie talk), but let’s just say there are two kinds of people in the world; those who are “time” oriented, and those who are “experience” oriented. Those who orient to life based on time need predictability and order. They don’t like surprises. Those who orient to life based on experience love surprises. They need to live with their options open.

My experience has been that most us as active, in-control home schooling parents feel the need to try to live an orderly, scheduled life. The pressure to get the school work completed, to go to lessons and classes, to keep the house straight, to get the chores done, and to fit a little recreation in there, too, drives us to live with a “time” orientation. Even if, as parents, we are “experience” oriented, life forces us, and our children, into the time mode.

Here’s the problem. Younger children (14 and under) need a healthy dose of both kinds of orientation in order to help them differentiate what will become their own personality. They may exhibit signs of one or the other, but it takes both time and experience before they will decide as they come into young adulthood what they really are. But the problem is that they get a lot of emphasis on orienting to “time” in a home school, but not nearly enough emphasis on orienting to “experience.” All year long you’re “tying up loose ends,” which is a time orientation. But you need to balance that with a liberal dose of “loosening up tied ends.” You need to just experience life, not always control it.

And that’s where summer comes in! It’s the time to really flex those unused personality muscles of experience for the benefit of your children. If you are naturally experience oriented, it’ll be easy and you’ll love it. If you’re naturally time oriented, it won’t be as easy, and in fact it might be uncomfortable for you, but you’ll love it even so. Here are a few suggestions for giving your children a summer of learning to orient to experience.

GO AND STOP DAY

Pile everyone into the car (or the home school bus) and just take out on the roads around your town. Whenever someone says, “Stop! I want to see that,” you stop and experience that thing. Then you get back in the car and GO until there is another STOP. No preplanning or itinerary allowed.

FLASHLIGHT TAG

Buy everyone a good flashlight and play flashlight tag some evening. Make up your own rules. Hiding behind bushes in the dark was a memorable experience for our kids (we paired younger children with older).

KIDS RULE DAY

No, this is not kids “rebel” day, but just a day when you let your children set the agenda. Sit down in the morning and let them decide what the family will do, eat, talk about, and such. You’re still in authority, but they’re in control.

LARK & WHIM DAY

“Is there anything you’ve ever wanted to do but just didn’t feel you could?” Ask that question and see if it leads to a spontaneous experience. Let your imagination go and see where it leads.

MOVIE MARATHON

If you’re house is like ours, watching a movie is a “big deal.” A movie marathon would be totally out of character. But it would make a great memory. So get several of the best family movies, spread out the bedrolls, pop the corn, pour the soft drinks, and tube out. Your kids will think you’re great.

GO FOR IT!

We analyze everything to death around our house. Analysis-paralysis has kept us from boldly going where we’ve never gone before more than once. So, this summer, we’ll talk about doing something outside our comfort zone that will open up new experiences; climbing a mountain, meeting someone famous, making a CD.

If you need permission to step outside the boundaries of your time-oriented life to explore some experiences, then go ahead; it’s okay. Trying to keep all your loose ends tied up eventually just ties you up in knots. And your children get all knotted up in the process. So, for their sakes, use this summer to loosen up some of those tied ends. Your children will be more balanced because of it, and you’ll have more fun as a parent…just what God intended. You can’t lose when you start to loose.

Practical Home Schooling Issue #41