Homeschool moms' time is at a premium since we juggle so many vocations all at the same time!  Wife, mother, daughter, sister (perhaps), teacher to our children, friend, and others!  For me that means that I need to consolidate my efforts often.

I LOVE The Old Schoolhouse Magazine because it's many things all in one.  It provides encouragement, information, support, resources, continuing teacher education, laughs, and a dose of reality, all from "regular" homeschool moms just like we are.

TOS is providing leaders with an incentive to share information with their groups via their electronic means of communication.  This incentive is in the form of some gifts along with the opportunity to win a laptop!  Wouldn't that be fun!? I shared this information with you because I wanted to be completely up front about this.  However, even if they weren't providing those marvelous incentives, I would share their offer with you because I just flat out believe that TOS is the best homeschooling magazine available today and we recommend it to other homeschool families often.

I have appreciated TOS's generosity in sharing with the homeschooling community in various ways.  Let me share with you how they've blessed people I'm involved with. 

I coordinate the CHEC High School Seminars and have requested magazines from TOS to share with the attendees.  TOS has generously shared -- completely free to us! -- their high school edition, published in Fall 2006. 

In my capacity as Support Group Leader Liaison with my husband, Mike, for CHEC, we've also shared with leaders near and far the helpful special learning needs edition, again provided free from TOS, published in Summer 2007.

These resources have blessed countless homeschool families throughout Colorado!

Please consider TOS's subscription offer below.

This link will show you the pictures of your free gifts plus give you all the details - it's over $500 worth of FREE curriculum items for you when you subscribe. The magazine sold out two months early last promo. Last year you had to buy a two year sub to get the gifts - this year you pay less - just a one year sub gets you IN. Hurry if you want to claim your stuff! They started out with 3000 packages and more than 1/3 sold out already.

What are you waiting for?  Head on over and get your subscription today!

My time as the leader of HOME is drawing to a close. I have been grateful for the guidance the Lord has provided through various ladies in leadership. Their caring, giving spirits have been Christ-focused, and their counsel discerning and wise. I trust in their continued faithfulness to this group and its members under the helm of Carolyn Martin. I pray that you will give them the opportunity to establish their own way without comparisons to the past. This is the leadership that God has provided for this time, and I pray you will be grateful for their sacrificial service to HOME and its members.  Colossians 3:15 ~ Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body; and be thankful.

Linda Kracht has served HOME in various capacities throughout the years.  She has been the Field Trip coordinator, Veterans Day coordinator, Talent Show coordinator, and HartS coordinator, among other fields of service.  She has also served as Vice-President these last three years.  Her energy and positive attitude are contagious and inspiring to others.  Linda is retiring from leadership, but will still serve as the HartS coordinator.  I hope you will take the time to let Linda know how you’ve appreciated the many ways she has served HOME and its members throughout the years.

My thanks to those who have taken the time to express their hopes and prayers and appreciation to me and the other leaders.  Since we live in the temporal world, we have need of encouragement and I thank you for it!

Each of the leaders has families who give also, so that they can serve you through HOME.  Mine is no different, and I am indebted to them for their support which has enabled me to serve HOME.

To God Be the Glory – Great Things He Hath Done – He so loved the world that He gave us His Son!

Paula Anderson

Philippians 1:3-7 ~ I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.

Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved

Barbara Frank has a wonderful post about a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill who is using his position to spout his position about life.

We are all God's creation, even those with Down's Syndrome.  That professor's opinion is heinous!

Joseph Farah, who writes for World Net Daily, has an article out that I believe is worth your time to read.  It's about the sad state of affairs in Britain and America where real historical people are mistaken for fictional characters, and where fictional characters are mistaken for historical figures.

God, our Father, loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die in our stead to give us eternal life.  As Christians we are familiar with many facets of love, all expressing themselves in a myriad of ways — each helping to reflect the love of Christ.

Familial love is a facet of love that develops when families experience daily life together.  That richness of time that homeschool familes are blessed to spend with each other helps to develop the deep and abiding love within our families.

The great commandment of Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves is a  facet of love that develops when families come together as support groups, growing and encouraging each other along the way.

Servant leadership is another expression of love that we see in those who volunteer for various responsibilities within our support group.

There are areas within our support group where we are in need of servant-minded volunteers.  These areas are:  Talent-Show Coordinator,  Promotion Day Coordinator, Yearbook Coordinator, and Field Trip Coordinator.  If you are led by the Holy Spirit to contribute your time and talents to these areas, please contact Paula.  A general description of the positions is available if that will help you as you pray about whether this is an area of service that you can assume.

All volunteers for HOME must be able to agree with and embrace our Statement of Faith and complete a volunteer application.

May God bless each of your homeschool efforts with His abundant and sufficient grace and love!  (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Paula Anderson, President of HOME

1 John 3:1a and 11  Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!   For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another…

Copyright January 2008, all rights reserved by Paula Anderson

A few sections of this article really piqued our interest.

Such as these two lines:

"Responsible for "getting the law to favor parental rights?"

Since when did the Constitution not favor parental rights?"

Good reading for those who just don't understand why we must remain vigilant in protecting our rights to homeschool and our rights as parents.

As they say at Independence Institute, beware, the legislature is in session!

For information about homeschool issues and parental issues being addressed in the current legislative session please visit Treon's blog.

Helping Other Parents Educate (HOPE) Workshops

By encouraging one another along the way…

The end of January and beginning of February is a traditional time of discouragement for homeschool families. 

HOME has gathered some incredible local speakers to encourage and uplift Christian homeschool families on Saturday, February 2, 2008 from 9 am—3 pm. The HOPE Workshops will be held at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Fellowship Hall, 2215 N. Wahsatch Ave, Colorado Springs

There will be three tracks.

Especially for Dads Track

Encouragement for Homeschooling Dads with Kevin Swanson

Men Leading in the Home and Leading in the Movement with Mike Cheney

Transition or Commission with Bill Roach

Communicating between Generations with Keith Dorscht

Homeschool Parents Track

Automaticity, Learning Foundations for Success with Bridget Mosley and Peggy Wilbur

An Introduction to Lapbooking and Notebooking with Amy Brown

The History of Homeschooling in Colorado with Treon Goossen

High School Track

Real Life Civics with Sarah Anderson

Christian Ethics in the Business World with Gary Holden

High School Formula, a Record Keeping System for High School with Lesli Selk

Panel of Graduates answers your questions

Treon Goossen will end the workshops with a talk on Current Colorado Legislative Issues.

There is a $10 family registration fee when you register by January 21st ($20 after Jan. 21st).  Lunch will not be provided. Feel free to bring your lunch and eat during the lunch-time Q & A focusing on beginning homeschooling and testing/evaluation options.

We encourage teenagers to attend, but unfortunately cannot provide child care for younger children.  Nursing children less than one year of age would be allowed.

Volunteers needed! Please contact Tina at hickmans(at)comcast{dot}net if you can help!

 Please Copy and paste the following registration form, or email Paula at HOMEinColoSpgs(at)hotmail{dot}com to obtain a PDF form of the registration or a brochure to share with others.

Anyone taking a cursory glance at my day-timer this past month would have seen a wild riot of colors and activities and probably would have surmised that by now, at month’s end, I am running near empty.  And that assumption would be correct.

At times like these, when things slow again, I do my usual reassessment of how to manage my time.  I hope you won’t mind me sharing with you some of my thoughts on that.

Luke 10:41-42 is a vivid reminder that as we fill our days, and day-timers with activities, there is only “one thing needed.”  Focusing on the Lord by daily drinking in His Word, praying, and seeking His forgiveness are the first items I should be penciling in.  These are things that keep me on track with the other responsibilities I have and give me the fuel to carry through my days with His grace.  Matthew 14:23 emphasizes setting aside regular time to be with God as Jesus did.  That sounds like great advice!

Our every need has been supplied by our Loving Father as Philippians 4:19 points out.  There can be a lot of energy spent on seeing to the needs of our families.  What joy it is to have someone to exhort you to remember that God has already done that.  (Matthew 10:27-31, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 31:15.)  I love my vocation as wife and mother and serving my family in His name.  My prayer each morning is that I am a loving example of a redeemed sinner who, with the help of the Holy Spirit, relies upon God for her every need.

The Lord fills me up with His peace (Colossians 1:19-23, 2 Thessalonians 3:16), His love (John 3:16-17, Romans 5:8, 1 John 2:2) His mercy (1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 118:1) and His forgiveness (Ephesians 1:7-10, Colossians 1:13-14) so that I can tackle whatever He has placed before me.  Does that mean my calendar will have more white space next month?  Not necessarily.  But it does mean that as I go about doing those things, He is always with me (Matthew 28:20).

Paula Anderson, President of H.O.M.E.

Psalm 18:1-2

Copyright October 2007, all rights reserved

The Fraser Institute in Canada has just released a study indicating that homeschooling works, especially for those who are taught by parents who have not received post-high school education. 

The study found that "Poorly educated parents who choose to teach their children at home produce better academic results for their children than public schools."

Another quote from the news release about the study:

"Hepburn said evidence clearly demonstrates that home education may help reduce the negative effects of some background factors that many educators believe affects a child’s ability to learn, such as low family income, low parental educational attainment, parents not having formal training as teachers, race or ethnicity of the student, gender of the student, not having a computer in the home, and infrequent usage of public libraries.
 
“The research shows that the level of education of a child’s parents, gender of the child, and income of family has less to do with a child’s academic achievement than it does in public schools.”

The study also reports that students educated at home outperform their peers on most academic tests and are involved in a broad mix of social activities outside the home."

Just thought you'd want to know and perhaps share the news release with those doubting Thomases that sometimes crop up around you as you journey down the path of parent directed education for your child(ren).

There's an intriguining new movie coming out about scientists who question Darwinism and the severe consequences they pay for thinking that way.

From Rob Shearer, of Greenleaf Press, you can view a short clip about the movie here.

The movie website reveals a subtitle, "No intelligence allowed."  What delicious irony that statement is!

Not only does "Ben blow the horn on SUPPRESSION" he has an area where students and leaders can sign-up to become part of a process to help eliminate this suppression from campuses and return universities to the thinking environments they once were. 

Ben Stein's blog entry from August 21 explains his thoughts in bringing a movie like this to the general public.  Reading through several of the comments you can see that those who oppose this movie use not logic, or evidence to support their claims, they simply are interested in slamming down freedom of thought and especially anything that relates to an Intelligent Creator!

I'm looking forward to the February 2008 movie release.

Paula

This video came to me earlier this summer, and I figured since it has come across my email many more times since, I would share it with others!

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W95Y8hNQiH8

The Hearth Fund is a small donor committee that was established in 2004 to help elect Christian candidates that support parents right to choose how to educate their children.  In the 2006 election cycle, 13 out of 16 candidates they supported won their elections.  They have arranged to have several caucus training sessions the first two of which are this weekend.  We hope you will attend and bring your kids, because this is a great civics lesson in how the political process works in Colorado.

Quoting from the email sent out about it, the pertinent information is below:

So the head custodian at Brownstown Elementary School in Southern Illinois is qualified to comment on whether or not home education is a viable option, but parents who home educate their children are "wannabe" teachers and amateurs.

Read the NEA's proposed resolutions for yourself.  What on earth makes homeschooling such a repugnant idea to the NEA?  If they truly are about educating children, shouldn't they be thrilled that homeschooled students are doing so well?

Please be in prayer about this!

We were treated to an uplifting, humble and sweet lady of God last evening at our Parents Meeting.  Her honesty and transparency were such a blessing to us!

With rapt attention from our audience of homeschool moms and dads, she shared about raising children of character and how the Lord taught her through her parenting mistakes a better way, HIS way, to parent and help raise children who seek to serve the Lord and honor their parents.  She also shared about marital lessons learned through the 28 years she and her husband, Bill, have been married.

Please visit her blog here or her family's website here and ask to be added to her Mary's Heart Newsletter.  You'll be encouraged in your homeschool walk and your Christian faith.  Her desire is to especially help young moms.

My great-Uncle Willie ran a lapidary shop.  Uncle Willie really enjoyed making jewelry and knick-knacks out of polished stones.  Uncle Willie and his wife, Grace, took daily walks where they would collect rocks.  It didn’t matter if they were at home in Minnesota, or on vacation somewhere else, they filled their pockets with stones as they strolled along. 

The process of getting the grime off of the stones so that the beauty underneath can be exposed is a long one, requiring a great deal of patience.

The first stage of rock polishing is called the “shaping stage.”  This process mixes stones of different sizes along with grit and COLD water into a tumbling barrel.  This barrel needs to be three-quarters of the way full so that the process of the rocks tumbling around, knocking into each other and into the sides of the barrel reveals the shape of the stone.  The barrel needs to be that crowded and filled with various sizes of stones so that the shaping is true and doesn’t conform to the sides of the barrel.  

Did you know that the rocks need to tumble for five days?  Imagine how many times those stones are knocked around tumbling into each other and the sides of the tumbler!  After tumbling, the stones need to be sifted, and washed so that the grit is completely removed.  It is very important that the grit all be washed off.  Rock tumbling enthusiasts call this process “removing sludge.”

Stages two and three are very similar to stage one, except a more refined grit is used each time.  Both stages require the rocks to tumble eight days each.

Stage four requires a great deal of patience.  After carefully removing the sludge, as even the tiniest amount of grit will not allow the rocks to polish correctly, the rocks are again placed into the tumbler with cerium oxide and water.  The rocks tumble for 48 hours at a time and then are checked.  If they are not polished to your satisfaction, then they are tumbled for another 48 hours.  That process is repeated until when you check on the rocks they shiny.  THEN  -- you put them back in and let them tumble four more days!

Doesn’t this whole process remind you of how the Lord works in our lives?  First, we come into the world as unpolished, grimy stones.  Then, the Lord cleans us up with water and life’s experiences (the tumbler and rocks), which we often need to repeat to really “get it.”   Removing the sludge again and again is the ongoing work of sanctification.

Our strength of character doesn’t just appear one day.  It needs to be tested many times to determine its stamina.  Life’s experiences help to rub away the grime so we can exhibit grace just as we have been graciously granted mercy by our Father in Heaven.

Tumbling along with you,

Paula Anderson, President of HOME

“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. 

Let all you do be done with love.”

1 Corinthians 16:13, 14 NKJV 

Copyright 2007 by Paula Anderson, all rights reserved

For those of us who are mentoring the next generation, I recommend reading this thoughtful post about "Identity Directed Learning at Home."  It's a thoughtful post directed towards those raising their kids into their God-given vocations without being preachy.