is homeschooling right for me?

Quote on families and their importance

"Christian
homes and churches are the only institutions in which our children will learn to find themselves in God's story. When they are united more by the trends of pop culture than by the faith and practice of the whole church in all times and places, our youth become victims of our sloth. We should not be surprised that over half of those reared in evangelical homes and churches today do not join or even attend a church regularly when they go off to college. If we are going to see our children grow up into Christ instead of abandoning the church, our
spiritual life at home and in the church must incorporate them into the teaching and fellowship of the apostolic faith. They can find "ministry opportunities" through United Way, the Peace Corps, or Habitat for Humanity. They can find friends at the fraternity or sorority. They can find intellectual stimulation in class. And they can find a sense of meaning and purpose in their vocations. If their home churches exchanged the ministry of preaching and teaching the apostles' doctrine for a variety of ministries and activities that they could find legitimate versions of in the world, then it is difficult to come up with a reasonable answer when they ask, "Why do I need the church?"

--Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World

Starting Point

If I could only recommend one resource for getting started on your homeschool adventure, it would be  a liitle 50 page booklet called, The Starting Point, Diana Johnson it can be purcahsed for $2.95 at:

http://www.thescroll.org/hschool/begin.html

Rabbits

Happy New Year and a recipe for ginger tea - good for healing

It has been a long time since I have posted.  I guess I have ended up using facebook much more than my blog these days.  It is quicker for one thing.

I wanted to share a recipe that we love for dealing with colds, flu, etc.  Twice now I have drank this tea and within 24 hours averted a sore throat and all that comes with that.  This is ginger-honey-lemon tea.  Grate a piece of fresh ginger so you have several teaspoons.  Put this in the bottom of a 2 quart thermos.  Pour in 2-3 tbsp. of lemon juice and 2-3 tbsp. of honey.  Then fill the thermos with boiling water and put the lid on.  AFter 20 minutes you can start to drink the tea.  Keep it in the thermos and the tea will be good for 2-3 days if it lasts that  long.  Great stuff.  We got this from www.herbmentor.com.

Thinking About Homeschooling

These links allow you to request free information to help you in making an informed Biblically based decision on whether or not to homeschool.

You Can Homeschool

http://consideringhomeschooling.org/freedvd.html

 These sites have online information

http://www.waymarks.com/homeschool/

 Are you considering taking your child out of PUBLIC SCHOOL?

I would srongly encourage you to go over the following matterial while making your  decision.

Be sure to ask for Education in Today's Culture when you request information from Considering Homeschooling. (above link)

Richard "Little Bear" Wheeler's book, Warning Public Schools Aren't For Christians . It can be viewed and copied free online.

http://www2.whidbey.net/jmboyes/warn1.htm

Are You Considering Homeschooling a HIGH SCHOOLER. The link to HSLDA has information to help you.

http://www.hslda.org/highschool/newsletter.asp

Advent Reflections

A new family member

We acquired two new family members over the last few days.  My MIL came to live with us on SAturday.  We are delighted to have her here.  She is mostly settled into her space on our first floor and although there are still things to do, like give her better heating, she is reasonably comfortable by her own admission. 

The other new family member was totally unexpected.  While finishing up our math today we saw a hamster run across the dining room floor.  So of course we investigated and found him to be friendly and tame.  We caught him and moved him into the hermit crab cage, which has been empty for a month or two since the last of the crabs died.  We still have our wheel and food from when we had a hamster (two years ago).  It is quite a mystery how he got here.  But he appears to be in good health and is not afraid of people.  So I guess God sent him (although we have been praying for a dog, not a hamster).  My dc are not about to part with this unexpected pet.  Life is not dull around here!!!

It's Here!!

Tomorrow is the big day when my husband's mother moves in.  We have been preparing for this for some time now, but of course we still aren't really ready.  We don't have adequate heat to her quarters although we are much closer to being finished with what needs to happen to have adequate heat.   And after praying and talking to about 3 different people my dh finally found someone who actually got here and cut our the side of the tub so she will be able to walk into the tub and use it.  He is now in the process of finished off the cut out place so it looks good and cannot cut anyone. 

She of course has been preparing for longer and has her things packed.  I am sure there are a few odds and ends that will just be thrown into a box.  But here we are.  Exciting and sobering and challenging and most of all clearly God's blessing is on this. 

To me it is much like the blessing of another child.  There is much responsibility and much joy in the transition.  Although she is an adult who can still care for herself and whose faculties are intact she is clearly aging.  I will be responsible for overseeing her health care and her finances.  That will require both time and wisdom.  I trust God will provide what I need.    He always has before.

Two cows and simple econmics

I copied this off the internet after I saw it in our local paper.  REad on.  It is very funny and too apt.

SOCIALISM: You have two cows. State takes one and give it to someone else.

COMMUNISM: You have two cows. State takes both of them and gives you milk.

FASCISM: You have two cows. State takes both of them and sell you milk.

NAZISM: You have two cows. State takes both of them and shoot you.

BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. State takes both of them, kill one and spill the milk in system of sewage.

CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Alternative: A COWSMIC VIEW OF WORLD ORGANIZATION

FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and as many eggs as the regulations say you should need.

FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

SINGAPORE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. The government fines you for keeping two unlicensed animals in an apartment.

MILITARIANISM: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: The government promises to give you two cows if you vote for it. After the election, the president is impeached for speculating in cow futures. The press dubs the affair "Cowgate".

BRITISH DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. You feed them sheep's brains and they go mad. The government doesn't do anything.

BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. After that it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors kill you and take the cows.

CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

HONG KONG CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax deduction for keeping five cows. The milk rights of six cows are transferred via a Panamanian intermediary to a Cayman Islands company secretly owned by the majority shareholder, who sells the rights to all seven cows' milk back to the listed company. The annual report says that the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. Meanwhile, you kill the two cows because the Feng Shui is bad.

ENVIRONMENTALISM: You have two cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them.

FEMINISM: You have two cows. They get married and adopt a veal calf.

TOTALITARIANISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: You are associated with (the concept of "ownership"is a symbol of the phallo-centric, war-mongering, intolerant past) two differently-aged (but no less valuable to society) bovines of non-specified gender.

COUNTER CULTURE: Wow, dude, there's like... these two cows, man. You got to have some of this milk. Far out! Awesome!

SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

JAPANESE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. You give the milk to gangsters so they don't ask any awkward questions about who you're giving the milk to.

EUROPEAN FEDERALISM: You have two cows which cost too much money to care for because everybody is buying milk imported from some cheap east-European country and would never pay the fortune you'd have to ask for your cows' milk. So you apply for financial aid from the European Union to subsidise your cows and are granted enough subsidies. You then sell your milk at the former elevated price to some government-owned distributor which then dumps your milk onto the market at east-European prices to make Europe competitive. You spend the money you got as a subsidy on two new cows and then go on a demonstration to Brussels complaining that the European farm-policy is going drive you out of your job.

EASTERN EUROPEAN DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. You sell the milk (diluted with some water) at a high price to the neighbors or to anyone at the open-air market. If somebody asks for receipt, you charge for a two times higher price, so nobody will request an invoice. For concerned families with small babies you claim that the milk is "bio", though you collect the grass for feeding at the side of the highway and you keep the milk in plastic barrels used previously as containers of dangerous chemicals. Later, your neighbor or anybody from town will steal the cows and will buy their meat for a high price, and if you ask for a receipt, you will be charged for a two times higher price.

FINNISH SOCIALISM: You have two cows. Soon you have to kill one of them because in the Netherlands there is an overproduction of milk and the European Union rules say so. When you do so, you realize that it was not necessary, only the system was too slow in getting you the up-to-date news. From the stress, you get an ulcer in your stomach so you go to a doctor. The doctor realizes that this ulcer is a serious one, so you need an urgent treatment. Therefore, you soon get a call to the local hospital. The call's date is for 3 months later, because there is a queue with more urgent cases. Then your ulcer becomes even more serious because you remember that 40 percent of your income is taken for social tax.

A Small Tragedy

We had a small tragedy yesterday, but a tragedy none the less.  One of our two bunnies was killed by some wild animals or bird.  The 2 rabbits got out of their cage because the door was closed but not latched and Butterscotch the large rabbit knows how to open the door.  My dh found the cage open in the morning and found Butterscotch,  But after the kids came out to help my son found the other rabbit (Marble) managled body on our hill.  We surmise something (owl?) took part of the body but not all, perhaps scared away or something.  Anyway it was a very sad morning when this was discovered and lots of tears and hugs happened.  We have had lots of time to discuss why God allowed this and how to think about it.  And we hope to get another rabbit in the next week or so to replace our dear little Marble.  And also to keep Butterscotch company.  As it gets colder the two rabbits would snuggle together to keep warm and we need to get another friend for Butterscotch. 

Such are the hard things of life and I am grateful that I can be here to help guide our children through them.  The next death might be much harder to handle.  This is just a rabbit.  God is gracious in all things.