I recently devoured in a weekend Ray & Donna Reish's book, The Well Trained Heart: A Guide to the Relational Approach to Homeschooling.  I have loved Shepherding a Child's Heart and found this book to be a good, practical complement to a lot of what Ted Tripp talks about.  Their honest stories of how their parenting philosophies and techniques have changed over the course of their seven children were a blessing, and often quite humorous. 

It is always humbling to be reminded that the areas we most dislike in our children are often the traits that we struggle with and dislike in ourselves.  They remind parents that the first step in training your children is to train yourself in righteousness.  Their practical advice on prioritizing, establishing rules and a means for appeals to those rules, training children to have empathy and a servant's heart were so helpful.  It's not enough to just "shelter" them from the outside world - we need to give them something to replace it with.  Homeschoolers can tend to fill their children's heads with information so we can "show off" how well we've taught them, but head knowledge is not enough.  We also need to train their hearts.  We need to establish relationships that give them more than what a peer can give.  I am looking forward to going back through the book again, taking notes & praying, and then using it to prioritize some of the areas we most want to work with our kids in the coming year.

As for the kids, Girl8 has really fallen in love with Nancy Drew mysteries.  I've also requested some books from the Bobbsey Twins series for her.  We are also reading the Secret Garden and Pollyanna together during her reading time.  We are continuing to read the Great Brain series at night as a family.

The kids have also discovered and are really enjoying Paws & Tales.  It is an audio series from Chuck Swindoll's Insight for Living.  A new episode is featured weekly online so yesterday the kids sat around the living room while listening through the computer - great alternative to watching movies all summer.  Since we have a new CD player in the van, they are having fun listening to them in there too.

We are wrapping up the school year this week though we will continue the 3R's through most of the summer.  The kids begin swim lessons next week so we will be at the pool most of the time the next few weeks.  Their lessons are at 11:45 so I'm planning to bring a lunch and hang out until the youngest needs a nap.  I am really looking forward to some down time from the academics and a chance to focus a little more on some character issues that have cropped up lately.  I am also trying to schedule a week to do what will probably be my last season of potty training(After almost 9 straight years with a child in diapers, I think I'm ready).

What are you reading & listening to this summer?

Blessings!

-J