Reclaiming Education: Teach Your Child to Be a Confident Learner

by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias, Mary Jo Dean

Are you satisfied that your children’s current educational environment is bringing out their best potential?

In a world where traditional education systems make little or no accommodation for individual learning styles (such as auditory or visual learning), and they’re failing to teach even the basics, it’s time for parents to take charge of their children’s education.

In Reclaiming Education , parents are equipped with practical and immediately useful tools to work in partnership with their children to identify and develop their learning styles and strengths. If you want to help learners build the kind of confidence that inspires lifelong learning, get them involved in the solutions for their own success.

In this book, both parents and children can learn how to

A great faith-based parenting resource for anyone who feels like the traditional education system has failed their children, and for anyone interested in homeschooling or simply helping their children to succeed in any type of school setting.

Say goodbye to a one-size-fits-all education and unlock your child's full learning potential.

133 pages, Paperback

Published March 19, 2024

About the author

Cynthia Tobias received her Master’s Degree from Seattle Pacific University. Her successful background includes 25 years of private practice, 8 years of teaching public high school, and 6 years in law enforcement. She is a best-selling author of 9 books, a featured guest on radio and television, a popular presenter for business, government agencies, churches and schools throughout the U.S. and the world and is the busy mother of twin sons, now in college. Cynthia and her husband live in the Seattle, WA area.

Reviews

[Jennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This new soon to release book Reclaiming Education – Teach Your Child to Be a Confident Learner by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias; Mary Jo Dean is for parents to help them weed through education decisions for our children. If you are Christian, you know that children are a blessing from the Lord! We are to be their first teachers, their first line of defense, so we need to take an active role in helping them.

I have many highlighted sections, even some pages in the book, so you know it is good. This was more of a refresher for me since I am already 10 years into homeschooling, so this book would have been more helpful for me when we were deciding. However, I did learn a bit more about learning styles and some new statistics.

“There are roughly 960 Saturdays between birth and high school graduation. The time you spend with your kids is brief and precious.”

“When it’s time to begin their formal schooling, how you choose to educate your children matters more than you can possibly imaging.”

The book shows the pros and cons, along with statistics on what is currently going on with in our public education, which shows it is failing our children. Not only are math and reading scores down, but also how we are viewing the world has changed, and as Christians that should matter to us, we should have a biblical worldview. The author understands that not all parents can homeschool, so it goes into ideas and strategies to help your children in public school. This section is one that all parents can benefit from. Seeing how the majority of children are acting is not good, we parents can’t blame the schools, we need to take responsibility and take the time to parent our children, not just hand them over.

I like that this book also goes into physical environments and different learning styles, and then shows how to use those to best help students learn. I have two children, and I can tell you they both learn differently, and so I use different material and some different curriculum between the two of them to help them learn at their best. Most schools/classrooms are set for analytic learners, so the rest are not learning at their best if they don’t learn analytical.

The last section of this book is about homeschooling, the why, and the new options that are available to homeschoolers. Not many know that homeschoolers can participate in sports, classes, prom, etc…

Overall, this book provides great information on the school systems and how children learn, which will help you to make the best decision for your family. So I highly recommend it for those parents wondering if they should send their children to public school, christian school, or homeschool.

[Michelle Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Negative Negative Negative
Much better books on education out there. This is heavily right-wing, Christian, homeschool only.
As a homeschooling Christian, I was appalled by her approach to education. We should be uplifting parents in all walks to take charge of their child's education, not shaming them.

[Sarah Poling · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have learned and read many of the books written by this author. I have recommended them to others. Reading the first pages of the book, makes me want to go back and see if the negative tone I picked up was present before or if something changed. It just quickly felt like there was no hope for any type of education and that there were too many limits and issues. The middle section of the book, on learning styles, has some excellent elements and lists. But again there was a negative undercurrent. The book's premise from the start is that homeschooling is best. I have sent my children to private Christian schools, public schools, online schools, and true homeschooling. My husband and I have made changes based on the personality, needs, strengths, and weaknesses of each child.

I do not think that the negative undercurrent that kept appearing throughout this book has been present in other books by this author. But I also feel like her research is not up to date on the school systems and opportunities that parents have. I feel like her theories are not relevant to all public schools. I do live in Iowa, and I do have some concerns about our public schools, but my concerns are more about how the schools function and how behavior is managed in the school setting. But Iowa is a state that made school choice available, meaning that we can chose to enroll in a private school and the state will pay the dollar amount the public school would have gotten to a school of our choice.

I read an advance copy that had placeholders for images and the ranking opportunities given made that aspect of reading all the more frustrating. Thankful that I was able to read an arc. These thoughts are mine and not at all what I would have guessed based on the author. Thankful to Netgalley for the opportunity to review.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got me excited for my homeschooling journey. We have six kids and have decided to homeschool our last two—starting high school and middle school—this year. Very practical book with easy and encouraging information.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every parent should read!!

[Kendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a former public school teacher and myself the product of the public school system, but the facts are undeniable: public schools in the United States are failing America’s kids, both academically (many graduate without basic reading and math skills) and spiritually, with curriculum and prevailing ideologies that are overtly anti-Biblical. As Christian parents, it’s important for us to be intentional about how our children are educated; this could mean getting more involved in our kids’ schools (whether public or private) OR it might mean taking it upon ourselves to teach them at home. In this book, a learning-styles pro and a homeschool veteran team up to show parents how to work WITH our kids’ unique abilities and needs to ensure they get the best possible education. In simple, actionable chapters, the authors identify the various learning styles and types of learning environments, with tools for helping identify our kids’ needs and preferences and ideas for adopting these into our schooling. And while the authors present ideas for adapting these strategies to the classroom, they make a strong case for schooling at home, presenting valuable advice for those who might be considering homeschooling for their family (with many quotes from seasoned homeschoolers sharing their experiences and their “why”).

As a homeschool mom, I’m clearly biased on this issue. I don’t need any persuading that our own family’s schooling model is what is best for us, but I appreciated the statistics and reminders of WHY we’ve chosen this path. I found the specific tools extremely helpful (the quizzes helped me identify the learning styles of each of my three older kiddos [they each have a different one!] and gave me ideas for how to better meet their learning needs), and the reminders that learning is not one-size-fits-all (even within the same family) were invaluable.

My Rating: 4 Stars // Book Format: Print

[Maritza Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book left me feeling like my education was stolen. As I embark the journey of homeschooling I am educating myself so much and what I am finding out it’s kind blowing. I am grateful I came across this book.