The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach focuses on putting God first, in your life and in your school day. The author's faith and reliance on God shine through every chapter. The purpose of the Heart of Wisdom Teaching approach is to encourage students and parents to follow biblical directives to put God's kingdom first by giving families tools, resources, and concrete examples. The meat of this teaching approach comes in the last three sections on methods, directions, and resources.

The Methods section outlines a different approach to learning styles, based on the work of Dr. Bernice McCarthy, and a four-step method that teaches to every one of the four styles. The different kinds of learners are discussed as background for establishing her "Four Steps to Learning." This innovative process consists of four steps, Excite, Examine, Expand, and Excel, that encompass all her teaching. This process is clearly explained using biblical and real-life examples. Chapters are devoted to a number of educational philosophies, such as delight-directed learning, Charlotte Mason, and unit studies. The last chapter of the section presents the author's unconventional views on logic, rhetoric, and critical thinking.

The Directions section starts with an overview of the curriculum. A two-sided base supports everything that follows. Direct study of God's word begins every school day. Mrs. Sampson stresses that our children will follow our example when it comes to Bible study. She also includes a list of Bible study aids that would benefit everyone. Bible study is centered on a chronological reading of the Scriptures; you would schedule to read through both testaments in a set period, i.e., one or two years. Examples of the four-steps are given, along with approximate time allowances, to further explain her plan. Derived study of God's world follows the daily Bible study, both in the schedule and importance. The plan integrates language skills, both writing and mechanics, into the studies of Bible, History, Science and Life Skills. Each student utilizes several notebooks for writing assignments. History is taught chronologically following a four-year, repeating pattern. Science studies follow the order of the days of creation. As usual with a unit-study curriculum, you must pursue math separately.

The Resources section begins with a discussion of the relative merits of purchasing or making your own unit studies. The balance of this section comprises detailed instructions for building unit studies. The book gives a seven-phase outline for creating a unit study. Building a home library, using the Internet, and videos are discussed. Following this are lists of resources for history and science sorted by topic and by age level.

I will add three cautions. The first is that sections one and two contain some unconventional theology and are written in a tone that made me pretty uncomfortable. While these two sections contain some interesting and challenging ideas, the author’s credentials don’t include Hebraic, Greek or Classical studies to support her opinions. A quick check of the endnotes reveals an obvious bias toward the Hebraic model. Of the 115 resources listed in chapters 5-10, 26 were classified as Hebrew/Jewish and 3 were classified as Classical/Greek. I read these chapters from the viewpoint of “this is the opinion of an experienced homeschool mom.” That allowed me to search for the good and ignore the rest. The second caution concerns how many times Mrs. Sampson refers to the unit-studies, or other resources, that Heart of Wisdom sells. This does come up frequently; however, these are generally couched as suggestions. The third caution concerns the number of mechanical and grammatical errors. I found the errors distracting and annoying. As you would with any book, other than the Bible, read this book with discernment, but I found encouragement, support and some great ideas.

Editor’s Note:
This review has been revised following a request by the author of The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach: Bible-Based Homeschooling that we provide supporting information for claims made in the review. In her words, she felt the reviewer “resents my revealing the differences between classical and Hebraic education.” EHO does not promote or defend any particular method of homeschooling beyond eclectic homeschooling. We do promote accuracy and truth in the discussion of homeschool methods and resources. Mrs. Sampson has chosen to create a straw man version of Christian classical homeschooling, which she vigorously bats down. This distracts from the beneficial portions of her book.

The statement, “The comparison/contrast of Hebraic and Classical educational models were quite different from the information found in more documented sources.” was corrected to read, “A quick check of the endnotes reveals an obvious bias toward the Hebraic model. Of the 115 resources listed in chapters 5-10, 26 were classified as Hebrew/Jewish and 3 were classified as Classical/Greek.” We agree that The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach: Bible-Based Homeschooling is well documented. Our problem lies in the bias of that documentation.

We have provided additional information here including extended remarks from the reviewer, examples from the book on the non-standard approach to the comparison and contrast of Hebraic and classical educational models, and information about the sources quoted in the book. John Mark Reynolds offers his own criticism of the false distinction between Hebrew and Greek thought at The Scriptorium Daily.