A Book Review of a New Title by Julie Polanco, God Schooling: How God Intended Children to Learn

For Homeschool Review Crew, I received and was delighted to read a copy of the book God Schooling How God Intended Children to Learn by Julie Polanco. While reading the first pages and through every chapter, I have been creating a gift list of those I'd like to share this title with.

First, a bit of an upfront disclosure.. As a home school mom in Chicago-land, Julie and I have crossed paths on occasion over the years. We met early on in our parenting journeys at a friend's house for a play date with our little ones, later at a home school mom's book group that met at Julie's home and once again at a Special Olympics gymnastics meet. It has now been several years since and though over those years we didn't spend enough time in each other's company to develop a closer friendship, we did both develop a similar homeschooling approach. Our children's interests have led us down different paths, with fewer opportunities to meet, but with a shared understanding of learning.

It has also been a while since I've read a book from cover to cover about education and learning generally, or even homeschooling specifically. In the early days of our family's homeschooling journey, I devoured books about homeschooling from cover to cover late into many nights. John Holt, John Taylor Gatto and David and Micki Colfax, were a few of those who truly spoke to me and reassured me about my own observations and our approach to guiding learning in our home, with our children.

Julie's book falls in line with these authors, who's observations resonated with me then and still today. This is the homeschooling genre that I have read and collected from early on, these are the writings and the views that sustained me, they will always remain in my collection. I think Julie will be pleased to read that her book will join those authors on my shelf.

Learning all the time, natural learning, free range learning, child led, are all descriptive phrases that have been used in an attempt to explain an approach that takes the child into full consideration as their adult teachers and mentors guide them through a topic of interest. It is from a child's own innate curiosity that leads a child into a greater understanding and to continue through the study of any subject matter.

Julie takes a reader through her understanding of this approach, how she has developed a deeper appreciation of a plan bigger than her own for her children. In her well organized writing she reveals her Christian faith as the basis for her approach to homeschooling.

http://www.juliepolancobooks.com/

Julie discusses topics that I have often considered while on this journey, not just of homeschooling but of parenting. My desire to increase the chances of my children maintaining their love of learning and internal drive to continue to acquire new skills and learn throughout life led me to books like Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn. Julie references Kohn's book as well. She sums it up with this statement "The extent to which the environment is controlling through rewards/punishment, threats, survveillance, evaluation, deadlines, being ordered around or by competition is the extent to which a person will lose their intrinsic motivation." Julie Polanco
I think she would appreciate the story of my oldest learning to ride a bike with onlooking neighbors. To their dismay, I did not cheer in excited positive exclamations as my first born rode a bike down our suburban sidewalk for the first time. Without fanfare, I was pleased, I did smile and he did continue to ride a two wheeler!

Julie gives similar examples from her own family. She describes the evolution of her own journey and provides us with a clear and deep understanding of learning and the benefits of following God's lead, as seen in the blossoming of those in our care. This book is a welcome bridge between the many homeschooling communities that I have been aware of in Chicago-land, from the undisciplined unschoolers to the strictly book work, no nonsense scholars, Julie's book could help us see our similarities, in our hopes and in God's plan for our children. Easy to access and easy to share, I am glad Julie followed the calling to put it all into a published book. I will be sharing this title with the gift list I began while reading the very first chapter. I hope you will, too. It is also available in e-book format for half price through August 22nd.

God Schooling How God Intended Children to Learn by Julie Polanco

To read more reviews of Julie's book, click the banner below.

Where they lead...

As parents, no matter the plans we have for our families and specifically each of our children, their ideas, talents and interests are their own and the more they are allowed to develop them and their own thinking the more we may find ourselves in unknown territory, assisting them in accessing the resources and training they need to explore and develop their own unique gifts and talents.

It is an adventure to see where our children, in the developing of their own unique gifts, might lead us as we explore, learn and enjoy the world together.

With our boys, providing for physical activity was always a priority, allowing for exploration and the opportunity to develop the physical skills they wanted to possess meant being outdoors and active; learning to ride tricycles, bicycles, skates, skateboards. It meant sports, organized and unorganized, golf courses, driving ranges and many summers at the baseball field; community sports, travel team sports, and athletic teams in the local public school.

Our daughter, our youngest, could have followed in their footsteps, and she did in a family backyard playground, kind of way. However, when it came time to participate in an organized activity, she declined. There are many girls in our community who play baseball and many who play softball, but apparently, she had had enough of running the bases. She was interested in dance and gymnastics. Her pursuit of gymnastics and invitations to join competitive teams led us to finding and her receiving excellent training. We traveled to regional and national competitions. She found one of her passions. She accomplished so much. She developed relationships with other dedicated girls who became her best friends. And then...


Change is inevitable and when our daughter chose to focus on dance training, we were in for another learning experience. So much to learn while following another potential passion; ballet, variations, modern, contemporary, and shoes, shoes, and more shoes, pointe, flat, jazz, and character shoes.

Ballet class leads to ballet performances and stage time, individually and as a group. Those performances lead to behind the scenes parent volunteer time and more learning opportunities for family members in unexpected places.


In homeschooling families, the learning of a particular subject matter often carries over to siblings as they watch and support one another. Her older brothers have attended (and actually enjoyed) more ballet performances then any of us would have ever anticpated.

The learning, thankfully never ends and based on our youngest's participation as a dancer, we are headed into another new experience this summer. The same daughter, on the verge of  becoming a young woman, will be attending a many week summer dance intensive, away from home! As a homeschooling family, (if you are one, you'll get this) we have very rarely even spent overnights away from each other. This is a wonderful opportunity, it is an exciting adventure, that puts her, as a student on her path to independence, a little sooner than we might have predicted. We are headed, once again, into uncharted territory. For her, a summer of new and advanced training, a summer of hard work and learning away from family. For us, a summer with many days apart from our youngest, still a teen.

Wish me well as we hit the road, to take her to this exciting new adventure. I'll be coming back home to an almost "empty nest". I'll be coming back to work on some long neglected projects and passions of my own. There are so many, I won't know where to begin!

What unexpected learning, adventures and travel have your children led you to? Leave me some comments, I'm going to need the company!

A Round Up of Ideas for Summer

Parenting Made Practical - A Parent's Night Out Video Review

Parenting Made Practical offers a collection of video and print materials to assist parents in the journey of bringing up children into adults. My husband and I were provided a DVD to view from the A Parent's Night Out Series, produced by Parenting Made Practical. The title Taming the Lecture Bug grabbed my attention, as I think, it will many parents. The series is presented by Joey and Carla Link who are experienced parents, as well as, professionals with experience working with youth and families.

Ideas to avoid the lecture trap.

It's the little things.

According to Joey and Carla Link, when it comes to guiding our children through the process of thinking and acting correctly, all of the little things matter. Does how our teen helps with the chores matter? Do they accomplished requested tasks with the attention to detail parents have asked for? Was the shirt folded as instructed? I'm not a total buy in on the ultimate importance of every nuance, however, in the video, Joey makes a strong argument for his approach and had me listening. He explains and both, he and Carla, have first hand examples to share.

Teachers and others.

Carla addresses a common parental reaction to the behavior of our children when it comes into question by other adults whom we have given authority to for teaching or coaching. Carla described, in detail, a situation in which she was asked to meet with a teacher of one of her children. I have to admit, based on how I suspect I would approach such a situation, as well as the response I would suspect from many of my parenting peers, Carla's approach sounded unique. Carla, despite her parenting experience, or most probably because of it, went into the conference assuming there was a correction her child needed to make. Not the other way around! That is a refreshing take, that I think all of us, as parents, could consider more often. (Do I hear cheering from the teacher section?)

Joey expanded on the topic and acknowledged how hard it can be for us as parents to look at the weaknesses of our children. I appreciate his view and his understanding of the nature of the relationship between parent and child. This example gave me a new view to consider along with acknowledgement and understanding.

The couple went on to describe basic temperament types; the strengths and weaknesses of each and the parenting joys and challenges they each present. Before the end of their lecture on temperaments, I had all my children and myself pegged!

Parenting Validation and Encouragement

One strong point of their presentation was very validating to me, as a mom. It was the specific encouragement to be a student of your child, to study them, to know them. The reminders to look in a child's eyes, to watch his or her body language and really listen to their speech. All important and valuable reminders, that even as parents, we have to learn and develop the the best way to guide each child. They also presented a series of questions to ask when in dialog with a child that creates more understanding and gives parents more to work with in disciplining a child and providing further guidance.

Joey and Carla are veteran parents who have obviously evaluated, thought about and applied technique and love to guiding their own children and offering encouragement to other's as they grow to adulthood. It is on my list to view this video again, for the repetition of the ideas presented and understanding the applications for interacting with my own children better. As I find that my video watching attention span is waning these days, and really wanting the option of returning in bite size pieces to the Link's tools, I do think owning a copy of the companion book to this video would be beneficial. Also, given that Parenting Made Practical has an entire collection of these useful videos, I  plan to watch their DVD titled "Why Can't I Get My Kids To Behave." (Not that my kids misbehave or anything!)

More useful videos here!

(More words than pictures in this review because the last thing you want to see is myself and my husband, in front of a tv screen at the end of the day!)

Spring Means Baseball

For our family, organized sports participation began with our children when our oldest was seven. It was a late start by our local community standards, but it wasn't long before we were all in. My husband initially became more involved by "helping out" with team practices. His involvement grew year by year and a few springs later he was managing and coaching a Little League team. 

At the Little League World Series

Both of our sons have continued to play baseball most of their young lives. My husband continued to coach into our son's travel team participation. Family summer time activities were dictated by game schedules and team practices. As a homeschooling family, the baseball field is where we developed relationships with other parents in our suburban neighborhood. Family vacations even included trips to watch Little League championship games in Williamsport, PA. (A great family vacation destination, by the way.)

Many hours were spent at one field or another. Whether as parent spectator, coach or player we each enjoyed being outdoors through the spring and summer. As a family we have many wonderful baseball related memories from on and off the field.

I especially loved seeing my husband work with all of the young players. Our sons were observing his leadership first hand and up close in a context outside of our family. I am beyond proud of the integrity he demonstrated for them to emulate one day. Their relationship with each other has been enhanced because of their shared interest and participation. They will always cherish the memories of those extended moments practicing and developing skills together. 

Every family will determine their own level of involvement and their goals for "extra curricular" activities. We have seen many benefits of participating in non-academic pursuits, specifically sports. Each of our children has come away from sports participation with a realistic understanding of what it takes to excel in any endeavor.

Organization skills or how to
take care of your own equipment
has been a sports participation benefit.

• Discipline
• Work Ethic
• Commitment
• Self awareness
• Compassion
• Team work 

As parents, we all have high hopes for our offspring. We have seen more then our fair share of extreme commitment from parents in the hope of great lifetime success in a sport. We want to provide opportunities that weren't available to us. We are all susceptible to attempts at living unrealized dreams of our own through our children. There is a fine balance between recognizing the talents of our children and our expectations for them of utilizing those talents. Being realistic without trampling on their dreams, it is important as parents to be realistic about the possibilities of sports greatness.

Learning to play by the rules.

And respect for authority.

At every level of sports participation the numbers decrease dramatically. Many community team players never have a chance to play in high school. According to www.scholarshipstats.com, only 7% of high school athletes (all sports) play in college and from there to professional sports the numbers are reduced even more dramatically.

Our oldest ended his participation on a team as an 18 year old, after a knee injury. College academics took precedence over an athletic come back. Our second son is still playing. As a high school senior, this is his last season as a high school player. As parents, we have made an effort to keep all of the sports participation in perspective. We are glad to have developed connections to community members that are rooted in the mutual goal of supporting our children and teaching them the values of hard work and being a team player. We have wonderful family memories of cheering and winning and losing. Our children have an appreciation and respect for competition. They also have personal understanding of the benefits of health and physical fitness. All things that they will utilize in all areas of their lives.

All gains - no matter our son's future in baseball. For the moment - we are enjoying the game!

After four years of developing team spirit and comradery,
our son's days of  high school baseball are coming to a close.

Homeschooling Works - We Have Proof!

We didn't start our parenting journey with a plan to homeschool. Honestly, I don't even really remember when it became our plan. In many ways, it kind of just happened. When our oldest was five, it just seemed that no one in our family was ready for the leap into schooling as we typically know it. By then, our family had pretty much become a happy, well functioning, unit of daily enjoyment, learning and living.

Enjoying the company of my young boys, I wasn't ready to give up the routines we'd established together. I didn't think my two year old was ready to give up the entertainment and mentoring provided by his older brother and most importantly, the older brother himself really didn't seem quite ready for an extended block of time away from us. So we entered into a homeschooling lifestyle - one year at a time. And so, as they say, the rest is history. And yes, the years go by fast, kindergarten became high school in the blink of an eye, much sooner then we as young parents could imagine. And we are still homeschooling - one year at a time.

So this spring, for the first time, our oldest participated in an official graduation ceremony. His experience attending classes at an institution of higher learning has been a positive and very successful one. Earning an associates degree and graduating with high honors is quite an accomplishment for someone who first entered a classroom as a college student. As a homeschooling mom, I have to admit, I'm just a tad bit proud and honestly, greatly relieved!

Seems like yesterday...

An official graduation ceremony!

Joyful sibling relationships have been
a homeschooling side benefit for our family.

There were occasional days of panic on my part, wondering if we were missing something or if we were covering enough academics, but mostly we all just continued to enjoy learning together. We have many stories, ideas, insights and resources to share from all of those homeschool years, but this post is mostly, simply to say - it worked! This spring, we are celebrating the wonderful results of learning and living those years the way we did!

No risks, no rewards.
Definitely no regrets!