A friend asked us to go to the zoo with them this past weekend.  So off we went, Brian and me with our four kids, and Melissa with her four kids.  The weather was perfect, the animals were active, and the kids were all well-behaved.  It was a perfect day!

Here are our three girls with their friend Connor.

We saw elephants.....

.....and giraffes.

Just how tall are these adolescent giraffes, anyway?

The kids climbed trees....

.....and bears.

And everyone left later that afternoon, tired but happy.

We've talked about this before.  When you put your child on the school bus, and you've now delegated the responsibility for his safety and well being to someone else, who is that person.? Can you trust them?  Are you sure?  Do you think you should be able to trust them because your tax dollars go to administrators who are supposed to be screening their employees?

Here's another bus driver, indulging on the job and putting those she's been entrusted with in danger.

Keep them home.  Keep them safe.

Deb Turner
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
Featured Graduates and Alumni

This inspiring and imaginative E-Book contains over 80 pages of fall and winter “favorites” from the staff at TOS, which includes crafts, tips, traditions, games, recipes, poetry, and MORE!

If you are interested in reviewing this seasonally fun E-BOOK, please contact Charlotte McKinney, E-Book Manager.

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

I’ve been listening to reports about the current financial “crisis” and the current presidential election and thinking to myself how utterly ridiculous newscasts and reporting have become.

But the newscasts are only a symptom of a serious underlying problem. Few people seem to understand what constitutes substance anymore.

Let’s begin with the election. I heard on the radio yesterday a clip from Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric. Ms. Couric asked Mrs. Palin what newspapers she read, and Mrs. Palin hem-hawed around one way then another. And lots of people were appalled that – it seemed – Mrs. Palin didn’t read any newspapers of significance.

And in the process, everyone missed the more important point – what would a president glean from reading newspapers? He/she certainly isn’t going to count on the New York Times or The Wall Street Journal to find out what’s going on in the world. He certainly isn’t going to take the advice of pundits on how to run the country or conduct foreign policy. If she wants to know the latest poll numbers, we would hope she’d just ask someone and not waste time pouring over the dailies. Maybe Ms. Couric thought Mrs. Palin should be keeping up with Doonesbury.

A substantial answer on the part of Sarah Palin would have been, “Katie, I know how important newspapers are to you, but the president relies on more informed individuals than reporters when educating herself about national and international issues and making decisions.”

The best presidents have also relied on their knowledge of history, because you can learn as much, if not more, about the news from the past as from “experts.”

Now, about the financial crisis. Yesterday I listened to grown people, professional reporters, pronounce in sober tones that 52% of people surveyed supported a federal bail-out to solve the problem. This time I thought, “And nearly 100% of that 52% don’t know a whit what they’re talking about. They have no business having an opinion on what the government should do, and it’s silly beyond belief for pollsters to be asking them and for reporters to be announcing the results as if they mean something.”

So, what’s the lesson in all this for us as homeschoolers? We need to be very careful about how we judge substance. We need to approach education with our brains fully engaged. We need to seize such opportunities as the current economic and political situations to show our children the difference between substance and nonsense and help them apply the lessons to their own thinking.

Tammy Drennan homeschooled her sons from 1985 through 2003. She now works as a writer and tutor and maintains several web sites and blogs, including www.educationconversation.wordpress.com and www.homeschoolstarter.com

The October Module for the Schoolhouse Planner was just released and it goes on sale today!

Don't miss out on this great Module!

E-Book: God's World of Extremes - October 08 Issue 

God created an amazing world for us to enjoy!  Join us as we take a closer look at the wonderful variety He has given us.  God's World of Extremes shows just how different two places can be!   We'll also learn some new games from around the world, take a look at some new languages and more!  God's World of Extremes will allow you to take a trip around the world without ever leaving the comfort of your own living room!
 
This module includes:

• Fun facts from around the world.  Learn about the places that have the most rainfall and the lowest temperature; compare food prices where you live to others around the world, and more!
• A visit to all of the continents and a chance to see famous landmarks from around the world.
• Activity pages (with answer sheets!) that include a vocabulary page, a word search and more!  These will certainly help to reinforce the lessons learned in this module.
• 5 wonderful coloring pages that can't be found anywhere else!
• An extensive resource list that will help enrich your study of the world.
• 8 copywork pages created by Virginia Donahue from Proverbs 22:6 Academy

            It is fulfilling the command of God for Christian parents to be the principle teachers and protectors of our children.  It is making one’s home, a Christ-centered home, one’s never-ending school of life. 

The Homeschool Verse

            “Hear, O Israel:  The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your

            God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all y our strength.  These

            commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them

            on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk

            along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”  (Deut. 6:4-7)

            Here is the mandate that most Christian homeschoolers build their foundation upon.  This verse is uniquely important to Christian homeschool parents and families as it reminds parents that God has specifically given them the responsibility of impressing God’s teachings and His commands upon the hearts of our children – HIS children.  Not a stranger in the building down the street, not Grandma and Grandpa, not even their Sunday School teacher or their pastor.

            There is something special, something lovely and spiritual about the bond between parents and their children.  God has instilled this relationship of love and intimacy between parents and children, particularly Christian parents and children, because, from the beginning, He expects parents and children to spend large amounts of the day with each other.  This is as it was meant to be.  What better way to spend the day then with those that you love?  Who better for a child to learn from than someone who loves them like no other and wants the very best for them?

            As the numbers of homeschoolers grow it is more and more apparent that a growing number of Christian parents are coming to this realization as well.  Jesus said,

            “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like

            his teacher.”  (Luke 6:40)

Mike Farris, of Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), put it this way, “Your children will become the disciples of the person with whom they spend the majority of their time and from whom they receive instruction.  If they spend the majority of their time with their peers, they will become disciples of their peers.  We call it peer pressure.  Should we be surprised when a substantial number of children from solid, believing Christian homes reject their parents’ faith and embrace the life styles and philosophy of the people by whom they have been discipled?” [emphasis mine]

            Parents, not the state, are solely responsible under God for the education their children participate in and learn from.  They either take responsibility or relinquish it to someone else; they choose who it is who surrounds their children, who influences their speech, their mannerisms, their worldview, their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  The justification I hear so many well-meaning, but misguided, Christian parents use while sending their children off to the lion’s den of public school, is that they want their children to be witnesses for Christ.  They trust that their five year old darling or hormonal teen is mature enough in his faith and understanding of Scripture that he can defend the faith and evangelize his classmates without either falling prey to their influence or being sent to detention by the teacher for using language that is banned in the classroom and playground.  Usually, the Name of Jesus Christ while not being used as a curse. 

            One must then remind those parents that there is no place in Scripture where God either delegates the responsibility to teach Christian children to the state or where God tells someone to send their children out to evangelize among the pagans.  That task is left to mature adult Christians.

            Now, someone may say, “What about Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?”  Turning to the Bible we read,

            “Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of            the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility…He was to teach them the       language and literature of the Babylonians.”  (Daniel 1:3 and 4b) [emphasis mine]

            First, they were captives in a foreign land.  They had no choice but to obey the pagans who had captured them…at least, for a while.  Secondly, by God’s grace they had come from a godly home and obviously had been “homeschooled” in the Scriptures before their captivity.  They were forced by that foreign government to learn the ways of the culture.  But, the third detail we find is that their childhood training gave them the godly foundation to stand upon as young men.  Because they were trained by their parents who had impressed God’s commands upon their hearts, and because of their faithfulness to God due to that foundation laid by their parents, God was faithful to them and caused the hearts of many to be turned to Himself…including the king.

Continued Next Week...

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><