Known by their Character

I wanted to encourage you, Sweet Moms, in your lifestyle of learning. As time goes on, and my children grow and mature, I get to see the wonderful fruit blossoming in their lives that I’ve been encouraged to sow because of Lifestyle of Learning™ principles and Marilyn Howshall’s influence in our lives. I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude to Marilyn for showing us the way, and to the Lord for all that He is accomplishing in my maturing children!

I want to tell you some of what they’ve been up to, not to boast, but to encourage you that anyone who earnestly seeks after embracing the message of Lifestyle of Learning™ can have a very similar outcome!

My children have recently been able to be part of the making of a professional movie. It’s a movie about the history of a small town near us called Enumclaw. Here’s a facebook page where you can see a bit about the movie if you have a facebook account.

My kids have been able to be involved in the script editing process, the organization and administration of it, the auditions, the research, the make up and hair, the props, the computer work behind the scenes, the location scouting, and much much more.

The Poling kids have been interested in movie making for several years now, and we’ve been hoping and praying for such a learning opportunity for them. We’ve been very pleased with all the learning they’re gaining from this experience. We’re so glad it is close to home and blessed with how generous the professionals have been with sharing their knowledge and skill for my kids’ learning, inviting them into the process for that very purpose.

What has really blessed me is to get to hear what the professional film makers have been saying about my kids. Their observations and expression show that they are witnessing the fruit of my children’s education. Marilyn has been saying how people said the same sorts of things about her kids too.

Here are some of the things the professionals noticed and commented about our children:

“They’re so creative”—Creativity is something that God has given to all people! I love how a lifestyle of learning education allows for and encourages our children’s natural God-given creativity! Because they’ve been nurturing their creativity for years, they find it flows easily from them. Here’s a blog post with more about creativity in Lifestyle of Learning™ kids.

“They’re so responsible, dependable, and trustworthy”—These character qualities have come from years of focusing on their relational habits and their maturing process so that little by little they’ve learned how to be responsible, dependable, and trustworthy at home toward our family. I’m so glad that the Lifestyle of Learning™ message has encouraged me to focus on what’s really important – their character. Marilyn’s book Develop a Lifestyle Routine is really good for instruction in their character training in day to day life.

“They really work well as a Team”, along with this, they also said, “I’m really impressed with how your kids relate with each other, and treat each other. It’s really sweet and unique.”—This precious fruit comes from taking the time to deal with the issues of their hearts, addressing their attitudes, intentions, and motivations, and helping them to become sacrificial in blessing others, starting with each other. Marilyn’s book Empowering the Transfer of Moral Values and Faith talks about how to lead your children into God’s ways of love.

“They are distinctly lacking in personal agenda and personal offense”—This precious fruit comes from learning to selflessly serve each other at home where there is no glory to be had, and no one to impress. Marilyn’s book Come Home from Homeschool encourages the sort of lifestyle that has the possibility of producing selfless service and the ability to do whatever needs to be done in order to get the job done.

“They’re so resourceful”—Project problem-solving at the big and small level comes from hours of self-initiated projects which present problems that need to be solved. Because of Lifestyle of Learning™, my kids have had years of developing their skills at being resourceful and solving problems. The kids were able to creatively solve so many of their problems, sometimes before the crew even knew they had a problem, it became somewhat of a puzzled pondering—“Why do the Polings have this sort of stuff, and why can they do these sorts of things?”

“They’re so focused and able to focus for a really long time!”—One of the vital signs of a true learning process is focus. They’ve had years of spending long hours at home, focusing on their interests and their projects. This fills them with the skill of being able to be very focused for a long period of time – day after day of 14-17 hour days of work on location for the filming.

“They brought a higher standard of right relating to the whole project”—With our kids involved, the professional film makers sensed that something was different about our kids’ relational ways, and the professionals were compelled from the inside out to swear less, and be more convicted and apologetic about their own normal bad attitudes and bad behaviors. Some commented that they thought this was a good experience for them to be “cleaned up” for the filming days.

“These are not ordinary kids!”— By this statement, it was clear several of the professionals assumed the kids would lack focus, tire easily, get in the way, do nothing, and need to be nagged and constantly told what to do. After working with the kids, they expressed shock at learning our kids’ young ages and lack of formal training compared to their actual maturity and skillful abilities. The kids’ abilities come from being able to specialize in what they’re interested in. Our culture believes that people shouldn’t be able to specialize much until they get to college, but Lifestyle of Learning™ kids get to specialize at much earlier ages, producing experts with a high degree of skill without the need for, expense of, and time it takes to get formal training.

“We want to work with them again some time.”—The kid’s maturity of character and their maturity of skill makes them desirable for future employment and future opportunities. It wasn’t academic accomplishments that caused these professionals to want to hire them in the future. It was their dependable character, relational maturity, creativity and resourcefulness.

All this abundant fruit can be for your family too! I’m hoping you are developing vision for your family’s future, and are encouraged toward the season of life you are in right now, as you sow seeds toward your children’s interests, their Christlike character formation, and the relationships within your family!

Blessings on your process!

~ Barbie

P.S. Here’s a blog post by my daughter Rachel about some of her experiences with the professional film making.