Children and mothers never truly part -Bound in the beating of each other's heart. -- Charlotte Gray(Yipes! New quote! I had a confused moment and thought I was posting a quote by Margaret Sangster who was quite the champion of hearth and home and an altogether different woman from Margaret Sanger.)
I find that my age comes with great blessing. For many years, I have labored, prayed, invested, cried, laughed with Clay as we sought to build our children into godly young adults. I hoped that in my home, I would be raising, for Christ's sake, a generation of children who would become adults who would carry on His purposes in a new generation. I find it deeply heartening that, in spite of our inexperience, the Holy Spirit was using our acts of faith and diligence to stir up in our children a heart for Him, a heart for home and a heart for His kingdom.
This week marks another milestone for our family as Sarah, my 25 year old daughter, officially carries the torch into her own arena for an area our family has valued for many years--the importance of soul formation through reading great literature, developing deep thoughts and a great moral soul, by exposing children to the best thinkers, authors and leaders and biographies of great people who have left a legacy of righteousness, goodness and truth on the world.
Sarah, herself, is a reflection of this philosophy, as her mind and soul have fed on excellence and true thoughts from the time she was a wee toddler. But even more, I believe that God created her with an incredible capacity to think clearly, discern wisdom and craft words into life-changing messages. She is truly one of the most intelligent people I know. She is a gifted writer and artist with words and has a deep understanding of important issues in our day. Having read literally thousands of books, Sarah became a sort of authority on Children's literature. When our friends, the Carmans, of Apologia, heard Sarah speak on literature a few years ago, they immediately approached her about writing a book for them, because they felt it was so important. So, now, here is the product!
Sarah Clarkson's newest book
This book, all 370 pages of it (!), will inspire, guide, convict and provide hours of inspiration and encouragement to anyone who has an interest or heart for the issues of education formation for families. And for this large book, the price is only $17 at this time! What a deal! She has provided an overview of the development of children's literature, the damage and ill effects of media on a child's brain and a plan for helping develop children into life-long readers and learners, and much more. There are over 1500 recommendations of books. It will be available December 6, so it would be a great Christmas present for anyone interested in the education of their children.
You can find out more about this book at her blog, here.
You can order the book, here
We are having lots of fun and celebrating the harvest of her diligent work.
On Saturday, December 12, here in Monument, I will be hosting two sittings of a book party for Sarah, where she will be speaking on her book, doing Christmas readings from some of her favorite stories, and all who attend will receive a card with a book quotation, sticky toffee pudding and wassail and some fun surprises. If you live in Colorado and would like to come, please send a request to Sarah at her email.
It will be $5 per person, as we hoping to help Sarah be able to do a book tour throughout the US and do speaking and readings for others in the months ahead. This will help her to be able to move ahead on this and her projects to help train more families. We can only hold so many in our home, so please make your reservation soon. The times will be 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. We look so forward to seeing many of you here.
We are looking so forward to seeing many of you at these celebrations at our home and also at the mom's conferences where Sarah will be speaking and signing her book. So if you can't come now, be sure to see her and hear her speak at one of the mom's conferences coming up. We are so excited about all that is shaping up for some wonderful times of encouragement and inspiration in the months ahead. For more information about the conferences where she will be speaking, you can go here
Happy reading!