This book is a game changer!
When we started reading it together in January, one of our first thoughts was, “We’ve got to read this with other parents at Ambleside!” So here we are, eight months later.
In this short book, Justin Whitmel Earley taps into the heart-shaping power of habit and applies a wide range of wisdom to 10 areas of a family’s life together: bedtime, meals, work and play, family devotions and conversation, to name a few.
We’ve all read parenting articles and dejectedly thought “Well great, I guess I’ve messed up my kids!” This book does a really great job of acknowledging that we all mess up and there is no perfect parent other than our good Father in heaven. In light of this, grace permeates every page.
The truly refreshing thing about this book is Earley never mandates, scolds, or puts unrealistic expectations on parents. Instead, he addresses the real things that happen every day in a normal family. He acknowledges the mess and points toward how our work as parents is not simply for our children’s formation but for our own formation. His book shines when showing us how we are discipled by God through our work as parents.
Every part of our family has been touched by this book over the last few months. It is a true outworking of the relational model of education practiced at Ambleside; we are convinced that Charlotte Mason would approve of this book. If every family were to put into practice the habits of this book, I get chills thinking about the way we would be formed as adults and children in community.
We are so excited to go begin meeting as a group and would love for any and all parents to join us in this short season. We are in this together!