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At-A-Glance

Rating 4.5/5  

Length: Under 200 pages (Could read in a few short sessions)

What’s it about? I rarely hear the word “wisdom” heard in the modern world. But if you are working toward raising a thriving thinker, our understanding of this ancient word matters. Brett McCracken provides a simple visual framework for growing in wisdom without drowning in shallow knowledge in his book The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World. He uses the image of a pyramid to convey sources of a healthy information diet, building on a solid base of objective truth at the bottom, and moving upward to sources that require discernment and limits (or they lead quickly to folly).

McCracken’s works begins in Part 1 by painting a picture of the truth and knowledge crisis we are in and how it has led to mental and physical illness. In Part 2 he walks step by step through the pyramid model and throughout the text he defines wisdom, where it comes from, the benefits of wisdom, and how wisdom orients our minds, hearts, and souls in the right direction.

In a world where people are easily lost in the digital doldrums, this book can set us on the right path.

This Book is Best for: Parents (and their teenagers) who want a faith-rooted framework to build wisdom in an age of information overload. This book applies to parents and their children because it describes how the content we absorb impacts the wisdom we are able to pour out. It is not specifically a parenting book, but it can help parents and teachers to model healthy information consumption and provide a living example of wisdom in their own homes.

Why I Picked it Up

I heard Brett McCracken speak at our local church during a conference on Wisdom in the Age of Information. McCracken. He walked us through The Wisdom Pyramid and provided additional references to his book Scrolling Ourselves to Death.

The purpose of Thriving Little Thinkers is to help parents raise thinkers through sharing low-cost, high-impact resources and ideas for teaching and training in everyday life. This book articulately describes the dire need for thinkers in today’s age, particularly thinkers who are rooted in truth and are not easily swayed by deep fakes, viral social media posts, or the latest marketing strategy. It also gives us an image of Godly wisdom, which is a much greater goal to attain than academic success or being perceived as knowledgeable.

I am also intrigued by the overlap between McCracken’s wisdom pyramid and the backbone of classical Christian education: wisdom is cultivated, not consumed. The pyramid has a hierarchy of scripture, community, nature, books, and beauty that is weightier than the noise of the online world. Similarly, classical education has been described as a way to “order our loves,” to learn to love things that are good, true, and beautiful. Classical education is oriented toward virtue and the wisdom pyramid is oriented toward God as a source of wisdom, truth, good, and beauty. Classical Christian education also prioritizes wisdom over knowledge (applying knowledge rightly rather than just “knowing” facts).

3 Key Takeaways for Parents Who Want to Raise Thinkers:

1. Build the base before you add the top.
   • A central premise of the book is that there is a hierarchy in sources of knowledge and wisdom—some sources are inherently better for living a wise life.
   • Design your day with the building blocks of wisdom first and let the tech/screen time/AI filter in last. If you start at the foundation of the pyramid and work to construct those blocks into your daily rhythms, they naturally fill much of your time, and therefore the top of the pyramid is practically limited (by intention).
2. Your attention and mental capacity is incredibly important and “unlocks” the power of the wisdom sources.
   • The top of the pyramid depletes your capacity to engage in the lower building blocks and should be used with intention and caution.
3. Choose physical and permanent sources of wisdom over digital or shifting sources of knowledge.
   • Today’s digital content is endlessly “updatable.” Real world, spiritual, beautiful experiences in physical community offer rare stability and historical continuity.

What I’d Change/Limitations:

1) The book is more of “why” than a “how to.” The pyramid is memorable and helpful for sorting your information consumption in daily life, but this book isn’t intended to be an all inclusive tech guide for families.

2) This book predates the generative AI tsunami that is absolutely essential to consider in the context of information consumption. It doesn’t claim to be about AI, and in the pyramid framework it should only occur at the very top of the pyramid which is to “use sparingly.” For more information on AI for parents, check out Your Brain on ChatGPT: The MIT Study EVery Parent Should Know About or ChatGPT: A Practical Guide for Curious Parents. 

Using the Wisdom Pyramid At Home

Here are a few ways we address the sources of wisdom at the Mumbower house:

• Bible   
  • There are books and articles galore on why the Bible is the foundation of wisdom, so I won’t attempt to restate those arguments here. McCracken champions scripture as our base of truth very well: “In a world where information is fleeting and unreliable, the Bible is an ancient book that endures in every age–the bestselling book of history that has been read, preached, probed, and treasured by billions across centuries. An in a world of “to each their own” truth, where one’s inner compass is supposedly a trustworthy guide, the Bible represents an infinitely more reliable source of knowledge and truth: God himself.”
  • We start our day with Morning Time by Brighter Day Press, which includes scripture reading, scripture memory, hymns, and catechism. It also includes weekly art study, poetry, and read-aloud book recommendations (a one stop shop to hit multiple key building blocks of The Wisdom Pyramid). We aim to study scripture individually as parents and as a family. We study the Word at church and in a group bible study setting.

• Church  
  • We aim to attend weekly IN PERSON services at our local church. We utilize remote service streaming during times of illness and travel, but we think the physical embodied gathering of God’s people is a crucial family rhythm. Chapter 5 of McCracken’s book is all about the church’s role in growing us in timeless wisdom. We invest in other local communities so that we have people to challenge and encourage us and that we can mutually serve, too. For more about the physical gathering of community, I also recommend Justin Whitmel Early’s book The Body Teaches the Soul.

• Nature  
  • In the last 5 years we have worked toward the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge. We have only hit the 1000 hour target once, but the hundreds and hundreds of hours spent outdoors working toward it have built habits and rhythms that help our whole family prioritize time in nature. We often eat outside, do school work outside, and of course play and explore outside. I admit this challenged me at first–I’d much rather be in the AC with a book and a cup of hot coffee when it’s 98 degrees and humid. But the more we practice, the more it becomes habit and the easier it feels to “conquer the doorstep mile” and head out on a microadventure.

• Books
  • No matter what approach your family takes to education, books are an essential resource for knowledge and wisdom. Reading books enhances cognitive development, builds growth mindset, and is potentially neuroprotective. We read books together daily, have read-alouds, visit our local library, buy books for birthdays and holidays, and have quiet time each afternoon for either physical books or audiobooks (shout out to our Yoto players for keeping our kids engaged for a 12 hour car ride a few weeks ago with no screens!).
  • An important note: choose physical print books for children under five years old rather than screen based digital reading. Audiobooks are great, but remove the quick dopamine hit of the screens and stick with paper and board books while they are little and their brains are still making massive connections to reading and language.
  • Just the presence of physical books around your home has academic and cognitive benefits. In a research study of more than 70,000 families from 27 countries, children growing up in homes with physical books (“a scholarly culture”) gained “3 more years of schooling than children with bookless homes, independent of parents’ education, occupation, and class.”
  • In the age of AI and endless digital book options, physical books can’t be hacked, edited, or tracked. There is no algorithm, no update, no shift in what our children may encounter. Reading older, timeless books in physical form taps into ancient wisdom. If my kids pick up Little Women from our bookshelf, it says the same thing every single time.

• Beauty (Art, Music)
  • Beauty if one of the languages of wisdom. While I love the brain and I can lean hard on the cognitive side of wisdom, beauty is powerful because it is affective. It can grab our minds and hearts and “move us viscerally, sometimes more powerfully than logic or reason” (McCracken, 2021).
  • Adding music and art to your life doesn’t have to be expensive–you can access high-resolution classical art in the public domain for free and checkout or stream classical music from your local library’s app. In our family, as I mentioned above, we use Morning Time by Brighter Day Press after breakfast each morning. It includes a new piece of artwork to study each week along with a hymn and a classical composer to learn about. The art is printed and right at my fingertips, the hymn lyrics are included, and we stream music by the composer for that week as we drive or clean or play. This way, we are incorporating beauty frequently and it’s already gathered together and laid out for me. The easier, the better in this busy season of young kiddos!
  • We visit our local art museum on free days and try to focus on only one section at a time. We encourage our kids to bring notebooks and draw or write down notes as we move through the exhibit.
  • We attend at least one ballet or orchestra performance with our school aged kids. Our library system also hosts free events by our city orchestra.
  • For more on beauty, check out my post What Can Beauty Teach Us?

• The Internet/Social Media/AI (use sparingly)
  • The world largely flips the Wisdom Pyramid on its head: many families spend the bulk of their time in the top of the pyramid, immersed in the digital world. I greatly appreciate that McCracken doesn’t suggest getting rid of all technology but rather keeping it in its place and orienting ourselves toward greater sources of wisdom. We still have a young family, so limiting our children’s internet/social media/AI use has been manageable so far…but that is changing by the day. My children have started saying “Can you just ask Google?” when they have a question. My preschooler recently asked before we went to the Houston Space and Rocket Center, “Will there be computers there?” He was referring to the touch screens embedded in many of the museums we have visited lately. I responded, “Yeah maybe buddy, but there will also be a real space shuttle and real astronaut suits!” He said “Okay that’s fine but I’ll probably just play on the computers if they have those…”
  • The degree to which parents spend in this layer of the wisdom pyramid will largely impact the habits of your children. Each family is immersed in digital tech at different levels, at work and at home. I think the key here is intentionally and timing. Do our kids needs skills in how to use tech wisely? Absolutely. Should we be handing them screens when their brains are still growing and making connections as they are actively learning what is true, good, and beautiful by their real surroundings? Let’s not. I’m a big fan of giving them a chance to build brains before we hand them over to digital bots.
    

More Books about Wise Family Media Diets

The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch– household tech practices for faith led, countercultural families. 

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport–If you personally struggle with information overload, read this book and unplug yourself before you try to tackle it with your family. 

The Anxious Generation  by Jonathan Haidt–a research driven case for linking pediatric mental health with smartphone and social media addiction. 

I hope you pick up a copy of The Wisdom Pyramid and apply it in your home with wisdom!

Cheering you on,

References

1. McCracken, Brett. The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World. Crossway, 2021.
2. McCracken, Brett. Scrolling Ourselves to Death.
3. Mumbower, Rachael. “Your Brain on ChatGPT: The MIT Study Every Parent Should Know.”
4. Mumbower, Rachael. “ChatGPT: A Practical Guide for Curious Parents.”
5. Earley, Justin. The Body Teaches the Soul. Zondervan, 2026.
6. 1000 Hours Outside Challenge
7. Humphreys, Alastair. Microadventures: Local Discoveries for Great Escapes. HarperCollins, 2014.
8. Mumbower, Rachael. “Reading Aloud and Your Child’s Brain: The Powerful Science Behind the Magic.”
9. Mumbower, Rachael. “Struggle Stories: Using the Brain’s Love of Books to Build a Growth Mindset.” Thriving Little Thinkers.
10. Wolf, Maryanne. Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World. HarperCollins, 2018.
11. Evans, M., Kelley, J., Sikora, J., & Treiman, D. J. (2010). “Family Scholarly Culture and Educational Success: Books and Schooling in 27 Nations.”Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 28(2), 171–197.
12. Brighter Day Press — “Morning Time” curriculum
13. Mumbower, Rachael. “What Can Beauty Teach Us? 3 Lessons Learned in Italy.“

Can I be honest? The hardest part of homeschooling for me isn’t teaching lessons. It’s managing everyone’s needs and parenting and discipling AND teaching at the same time. I’m currently homeschooling a 2nd grader and a kindergartner with an energetic, adorable 4 year old and a curious 1 year old whose favorite hobby is surprising me by what she can get into next.

I want to raise thriving thinkers and I want to be with my kiddos. I also want our lessons to be enjoyable for the whole family and for my big kids to appreciate the normalcy of having younger siblings around. I think multi-age homeschooling has great benefits. I also practically need to give my older students attention and engagement during some lessons.

Maybe that’s you, too? Or maybe you’re thinking about homeschooling but not sure how you’ll get through a lesson when your toddler is occupying 110% of your focus.

Our homeschool is by no means perfect, but I’ve tested out quite a few strategies for making our lessons a priority and for helping that time stay as “peaceful” as possible. I’m sure I’ll continue to learn as we continue our homeschooling journey, but here are some tactics that have helped me invest in lessons while keeping our littles content.

Note: I don’t think you need to buy anything on this list, and you can certainly use what you already have around your home. To make it easy, I’ve added some Amazon Affiliate links. I’ll gain a small commission from these at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting the mission of Thriving Little Thinkers!

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1. Consistency is key. PRACTICE!

At the risk of stating the obvious, your kids will do their best when they know what to expect from school time and what is expected of them. It will take repetition for everyone to get into the groove of focused lessons and independent play. We’ve been homeschooling for 4 years now, and it is getting better and more enjoyable over time.

2. Are your expectations realistic?

Be prepared to stop for your littles. It’s realistic that they will have needs and that you are available to meet those needs. Yes, we are training them in patience and independent play, but they are small humans with needs and you are there to provide for those needs. That doesn’t mean we give in to every “want” that occurs, but if I’m entering into lessons with open hands toward my littles, I’m much less likely to pop and more likely to model the peace that I want my family to have.

I am inspired by the beautiful images of family style learning around the kitchen table with candles lit, baked treats at an arm’s reach, and gorgeous learning supplies scattered everywhere.

Everyone once in awhile, our family has these moments and they are beautiful!

But I can’t say that’s an everyday occurrence. With littles, it’s okay that there are needs. It’s okay that there are interruptions. It’s okay that the preschooler is so excited to show you their building or art creation. It’s okay that the baby got fussy and needed to go down for a nap, so you paused or gave the big kids some independent work to do.

I’m still growing in this area.

It’s not going to be perfect. It’s going to stretch your capacity and your patience, but in a good way. And it’s going to get better over time. I often remind my big kids that these little siblings are blessings. They remind me of that, too.

Do you have an image in your mind of what your homeschool could look like? Use that inspiration to motivate you, just don’t hold it so tightly that you lose sight of the imperfect reality right in front of you with all the of the messy growth (for them and for you).

3. Take Learning Outside

4. Containment + Snacks (I use these daily.)

Sometimes you just need your youngest safely contained for a short lesson. Here are my go-to containment tactics:

Downstairs safety check and baby gates

Before we begin our lessons I walk through our downstairs and close doors, make sure the stairs are blocked off, and that nothing dangerous is within reach. While I try to position our toddler’s toys and snacks in a close area where I can see her, if she wanders off I don’t have to panic.

We have a playroom that opens to our kitchen with baby gates, so I pull those gates and have her play there when needed. This is a work in progress… my preschooler can play contently in the playroom alone. My 1 year old? We are working towards that in very short spurts.

The High Chair Snack Station

When she isn’t pleased with the playroom situation or feeling cranky, I put my 1-year-old in her high chair with finger snacks. Cheerios, small crackers, cut-up fruit—whatever keeps those little hands busy. Yes, there’s cleanup afterward. But 15 minutes of reading instruction without chasing her? Worth it.

The Hiking Backpack Carrier

5. Special “School Time” Bins

I have a shelf in our office with plastic bins that ONLY come out at school time for our older toddler. Because they are kept special, they are exciting and grab his attention for at least 10 minutes (often way more). Some of these can’t be used by our 1 year old, so our older toddler (2.5-4 years old) brings the bin to the kitchen table or front porch so that they are out of the baby’s reach.

The physical bins were an upfront cost, but we already had many of the toys/supplies around our home and we added some items to our birthday and holiday wish lists. We did not buy all of these fillers at the same time. We don’t have more than 4-5 bins on the shelf at a time. I usually only swap them out of necessity when the contents are missing or dried out or we get a new filler as a gift.

Here’s what is currently in our school bins:

• Puffy stickers and blank paper
  • Simple but effective. Puffy stickers are easier for toddler fingers to grab and peel than regular stickers. My 4-year-old can spend 15-20 minutes making sticker masterpieces on paper. We often repeat “Stickers only go on paper” and we remove the sticker bin if I find stickers elsewhere.
• Sensory bin(s)
  • You don’t have to buy anything fancy to make one of these! I’ve made sensory bins with water, ice, rice, beans, corn, or pasta. When I first started homeschooling, I learned everything I know about sensory bins from The Busy Toddler (check out her website for list after list of toddler pre-k activities!) Just like the stickers, if I find the contents of the sensory bin in other places or they have intentionally dumped them, the bin is mine for a few days. We put Dino & Ocean Sensory bin and Outer Space Sensory Bin on our birthday wish lists.
• Crayola Color Wonder paper and markers or sets
  • These are mess-free and toddlers love them! The markers only work on the special paper, so I don’t worry about wall art.
• LEGO®bricks
  • For an entire post on my love of LEGO® bricks, check out 5 Ways LEGO® bricks Promote Learning. I keep a bin of bricks on our shelf for my older toddler to use during lessons. It’s not fancy or sorted, it’s just a bin of classic pieces, mini figures, and baseplates to create with. On many days, this keeps him occupied for the longest of the options listed.
  • LEGO® bricks may not be low cost, but I would consider them high value. Read here for ways to lower the cost and add some basic sets like these to your Amazon wish lists: LEGO Classic Large Creative Brick Box (includes storage) or LEGO Classic Creative Suitcase (includes storage)
  • LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO® Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site.
• Water Wow! Books (Melissa & Doug)
  • These Melissa & Doug books use water to reveal colors, then dry and can be used again. Completely mess-free and endlessly reusable.

In the past our bins have included scratch art pads, play-Doh kits with dough tools (make your own playdough with this recipe), threading activities (make your own with twine and plastic sewing needles), Wikii stix, or brain flakes (doubles as math manipulatives)

6. Parallel learning

7. Be Flexible with Lesson Timing

Typically, by using the strategies I’ve listed above, we are able to knock out our lessons before noon.

But life happens! Kids get sick, or need extra snuggles, or we have trouble making it through without frustration.

On those days, we capitalize on the flexibility of homeschooling by shifting our lessons to:

• Baby’s nap time
• When dad is home from work
• When the littles go to bed
• Weekend mornings (making it a fun mini-adventure to the library or coffee shop)

We can still finish our lessons without changing up our day drastically. This flexibility is one of homeschooling’s greatest gifts…and we use it!

8. Know When to Get Help

My goal for Thriving Little Thinkers is to share low-cost, high-impact ideas. It should not cost an arm and a leg to home educate your children or raise them to be thinkers.

With that being said, it is also valuable to know when to invest in help.

It isn’t always feasible for every circumstance, but having an extra set of hands can be incredibly valuable when getting your feet under you in homeschooling.

Mother’s Day Out Programs

When I first discussed the possibility of homeschooling with my husband, I had doubts. I wanted to test out the waters, but my hands were full! We were thankful that we had access to a local Mother’s Day Out program. For two mornings a week my youngest two at the time had a blast, finished by lunch, and I was able to figure out the basics of how my daughter and I could do this whole homeschooling thing.

Grandparent Help

I have friends who involve available grandparents for similar help: one to two mornings or afternoons a week to watch the littles while the parent and older students focus on schoolwork. Do you have a close neighbor or friend who could give you an hour to focus with your older student?

Mother’s Helpers & Babysitting

A Mother’s Helper is often cheaper than the cost of an older sitter and works great *when you are still present*. A mother’s helper is typically a young person (often a tween or young teen) who wants to learn babysitting skills for the future. They help with light childcare or basic house chores while you’re still home.

I know a family whose young daughter (10) works as a mother’s helper. She helps keep the youngest busy during homeschool time, builds caregiving skills for the future, and earns some money (all before independently babysitting). The family pays less than they would for an experienced sitter, and the mom gets helping hands to keep the youngest occupied during focused lessons. This could be a great low-cost way to not only invest in another young lady, but also get extra hands-on help for a short period of time.

We are in a season where we can have a sitter come three times a month. Sometimes I use that time for a focused school activity and other times I use it for personal projects. That hasn’t always been available to us, and we hold it with open hands. For now, we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have occasional help.

Try it today: Pick ONE strategy!

Starting up your homeschool is challenging. It’s also incredibly rewarding. Your younger children are learning by watching, listening, and soaking in the rhythm and habits of school time.

You don’t need to implement everything at once. Start with one or two tactics, build your confidence, and grow from there. See what works for your family and your homeschool.

Cheering you on,

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What strategies have worked for your family? I’d love to hear what’s helping you manage homeschool with multiple ages! Leave a comment below.