Mini Book Review #16: Awaking Wonder: Opening Your Child’s Heart to the Beauty of Learning, by Sally Clarkson.
Awaking Wonder is Sally Clarkson’s educational philosophy. It’s an interesting and thought-provoking read.
Sally has a more textbook style of writing in some of these chapters than her normal conversational style. Her gentle spirit comes through, though, as she encourages mothers of young children that not all family traditions and rich table conversations come about at once—they take years of patient growth. She looks back upon her decades of homeschooling and rejoices in the labor she did while wishing she had worried less and “and been more at ease in the process.” (P. 213) “Home building takes many years…” (174). She discusses her family’s routines and the ways they awakened their children to the wonder of learning. She also spends significant time talking about virtue, passing on faith, and building character.
Inspiring Quotes from Awaking Wonder
“In taking responsibility for influencing my children’s lives, I had to make goals of growth and maturity for my personal life. My passing on a legacy of wisdom meant I had to be seeking and storing up wisdom for myself. If I wanted to pass on faith in God, I had to grow in faith through my own systematic reading, studying, praying, and engaging in faith every day.”
Sally Clarkson, p. 45-6.
“And yet, from the moment children are born, we are shaping deep brain patterns for the ways and values of life. If children are spoken to and read to an early age, their intellectual ability will thrive and grow. If children are touched, kissed, and embraced, they are much more likely to become strong, healthy, and confident. There is no neutral time of child development. The foundational influence of what is valued, practiced, perceived, given emotionally, and understood at home before the age of four stays with a person for life.”
Sally Clarkson, p. 51.
“As a mother I realized that if I was going to model Jesus to my children, I would need to [say], “I am to be a servant leader to my children. As I follow Him I understand it will cost me my life. I am to give myself as He so generously gave Himself.” Teaching my children was not ultimately to please them or to deserve their affirmation. It was out of worship to Christ, to serve Him and emulate Him.”
Sally Clarkson, p. 66.
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