Polished Cornerstones

Raising daughters requires both spiritual wisdom and practical knowledge. Pam Forster has raised three, and wrote this book as a personal aide when they were young to help set goals and ensure she taught them what they would need to become successful and virtuous wives and mothers themselves someday. Not just a workbook or checklist, Polished Cornerstones uses Proverbs 31 as a model for teaching Christian character and the duties and skills of a capable housewife. Practical and theoretical, this is truly a course for the whole woman.

Primarily a compendium of activities and projects for mothers to complete with their daughters, each section illuminates a verse from Proverbs 31 and the virtue or skill it describes. Activities are organized by difficulty (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and range from Bible study to cooking meals and sewing clothes to interviewing older women about their Christian walk or matters of home economics; if they relate to one or more school subject, each related academic study is listed beside the activity to help homeschoolers integrate projects into the daily curriculum.

A variety of charts and tables are included either to be used in activities or to gauge progress—the text is reproducible for use within one family, so you only need one text for all your daughters. There are hundreds of projects described here, and the author expects no one to complete all of them, or even half of them, encouraging mothers to select only those which she deems appropriate for her daughters or that cover topics requiring special attention for their situation. Not all of these are practical activities—many are focused solely on cultivating godly character in young women.

This text ably combines theological instruction with practical guidance in a way that is rare among both character and home economics courses. None of the activities are useless (no making knickknacks or letting kids run rampant in the kitchen here) so that no matter which you choose to complete your daughters will be gaining important skills and acquiring deeper knowledge of Christ and Christian virtue. In an age when girls rely increasingly on department stores and TV dinners when they get married, Polished Cornerstones will help you raise daughters that are the kind of women godly men will want to marry.

Improvements to the new edition include:

• Easier-to-read, updated text and layout
• Easier-to assign projects (now divided into beginning, intermediate, and advanced)
• More help with choosing and planning projects, with sample lesson plans and step-by-step instructions
• More projects for younger girls ages 4 through 9
• Up-to-date recommendations for other character-building books and media
• Insights from 12 more years of parenting experience

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.