Ninwaii's Castle
• Dec. 24, 2009 - No Homeschooling, No Christmas for the Johansson Family
Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
As you celebrate Christmas this year, please remember all the parents who are still fighting for their right to homeschool, and for parents who have had their children taken from them by force without just cause because they homeschooled their children--like the Johansson family of Sweden. This Christmas we can rest easy knowing that the gifts that we bought for our children will help further their education or offer a new way for your family to have fun together. The Johanssons have been denied Christmas with their only child, and so much more.
Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB |
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• Dec. 24, 2009 - Communication Corner ~ Last Few Days of my Video Countdown to Christmas!
I've done this each year for a few years now. These are the final days of my Video Countdown to Christmas that started on December 15th. Each day I'm uploading an inspirational or comedic video that shares the spirit of Christmas with my readers. Check it out on Communication FUNdamentals!
And Merry CHRISTmas everyone! |
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• Dec. 23, 2009 - Homeschooling Through High School ~ Merry Christmas!
 Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!
I want to share a couple of video clips which I located on YouTube...they are from a Public Television show that I have seen many Decembers over, titled, "Rick Steve's Christmas in Europe." These two clips share my favorite parts of the show. I love the peacefulness, the simplicity, and the picture of the family generations coming together. I hope you enjoy it, too!
Rick Steve's Christmas in Europe ~ Part 9
Rick Steve's Christmas in Europe ~ Part 10
May God bless you and your families as you focus on the beauty of God's plan for His children, and all that "Emmanuel" means to you.
~Lori
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• Dec. 20, 2009 - I've been to the year 2009. Not much has changed, but they lived underwater...
Well, the year 2009 is almost up. For me, 2009 was full of fun times and many lessons, and I thought that I would share the highlights of my year with you all:
January 1st: I wrote a letter to myself about areas that I wanted to grow in over the year. These included learning to better share my faith, learning to build new relationships (as opposed to staying with my comfortable old ones), and learning if songwriting was something that God wanted me to pursue.
January 28th: I finished my Driver’s Education!
February 28th: I conquered my fears on a FIFTY-FOOT swing!!! I also wrote two songs, one about trusting God enough to let go of your comfort zone (entitled “Free-Fall”), and one about how we as Christians are called to be lights in this dark world (entitled “Meant To Be (A Light)”).
March 28th-April 5th: I went back to Orofino, Idaho on my Youth Group’s second Mission Trip there. In addition to having a great week full of service projects, Bible Studies, and sharing God’s love with people, God taught me a lot. He showed me some sin that I needed to get rid of, and He began to show me a big part of my spiritual gifting (but I didn’t realize it at the time. I’ll talk more about this later).
May 15th: I got my Driver's License!!!!!!!!! :-D
June 16th(ish): I finished my first year going to a community college!
Summer: Over the whole summer I was busy working as a Junior Intern at my Youth Group’s Whitewater Rafting Camps. I had a blast the whole time, rafting, hanging out on the beach, doing Bible Studies, working my tail-end off, sleeping under the stars, etc. God used these weeks to teach me many important things: what True Humility looks like, that all self-love is sin, that I had an idol I needed to get rid of, and that a big part of my spiritual gifting is to listen. God showed me that I don’t always need to talk (even when I really want to), that sometimes people just need someone to listen and empathize with them, and He showed me that I’m meant to do that.
August 26th: I changed my blogging strategy (although it didn’t seem to help me blog more, it did help me to straighten out things in my mind and to encourage other people more).
September 21st: School started back up, (yippie!) (that was half-sarcasm, half-true).
October 3rd: I officially became an “adult”!!
November 5th-8th: The Youth Group from Orofino turned the tables and came here for service projects! I had a WHOLE lot of fun seeing them all again, as well as getting to serve in my own community alongside them!
December 17th-18th: Mini-Retreat for those in Bible Read-Thru. I got to get to know two of my friends a lot better and Rob (our Youth Leader) led us all in two great “rap sessions” (kinda like Bible Studies, only focusing more on a question that one of us had).
December 20th: I looked back on my fun year and now I feel almost sad to see it leaving me, but I also feel really excited about this next year approaching me! Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year, everybody!!!!! :-D
~SeaChel
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• Dec. 19, 2009 - "What's worth the price is always worth the fight."
Posted By Pip
Someone should write a book of prompts for blogposts. I literally sat here for five minutes without rational musings or logical bits of brilliance leaping to my fingers. *wild laughter* I've read way too many blogs with dull openings; the first sentence should create an impression that represents the post as a whole. But enough of this blah. Due to the disgracefully un-recent date to the last ramble on here, I have decided to once again haunt the cyber public. *shoves on nerdy glasses and gives her Reader a toothpaste commercial smile with sparkles and a blast of classical music*
The past two weeks have been a whirl of activity; the Jack Tale Players have had multiple performances which all require rehearsals and lengthy trips in a very old van. The director has also been running several performances of his Christmas play and I was one of the volunteers he had serving in the 'dinner' section of the dinner theatre. I've never tried my hand at waitressing, so it was a bit WOOOOOoooh at first but I warmed up to dashing back and forth with coffee and iced tea pitchers. Both Camirryn and Dadsy were waiters at one time, so I got some pointers in that regard. December has also brought me a singularly thrilling/terrifying experience: movie audition. *watches the Reader fall over dead* Paramount is remaking 'True Grit', an old John Wayne western, and they were having an open casting call for the state I live in. I prayed about it and my parents and I eventually came to the same conclusion that hey, I might as well. So Dadsy drove me up to the theatre they were holding the audition at and we stood in line for, I kid you not, three hours. Two cups of coffee were consumed in those three hours spent hopping around to ward off the cutting winds, not to mention an actual alley stretching out from our slow-moving meander to the glass double doors and a ton of normal girls who could honestly care less whether they made a professional impression (which they didn't to us, the ever-innocent bystanders). They had me fill out a form, rant at a casting director about who I was and why they should consider me (the rant lasting for a grand total of thirty seconds), and then we struck off on the long, snowy road back home. Drive for three hours, stand in line for three hours, talk for thirty seconds, drive for three hours. It was an eventful day. But I had a blast, despite unexplainable breathlessness and shaky legs as we walked out of the theatre, my eyes still scorched from the casting director's stony glare. *grins* I'm glad I was able to try out; I can technically claim to have auditioned for the lead role in a Hollywood movie.
I was asked by Momsie last week about the topic of a persuasion paper that would address one of the cultural issues I found lacking in justice. Years of observation has shown me an extremely troubling truth, one of those nasty little details that modern culture strives to cover with weak arguments which, shockingly enough, had been embraced by the crushing majority. Call me dramatic but this is one of those things which lurks behind prejudice! I'm speaking of the immediate assumption people make that homeschoolers are stupid. Count yourself fortunate if you've never had this blatantcy tossed in your face. I once heard these obstacle aptly described as a cross to be borne. One doesn't think about preconceived notions against the value of home educating when they think of persecution, but think about it: Johnny is educated outside of the government-financed school systems, he's not accepting the generous educational standards offered by the public school systems, thereby obviously not getting the correct or sufficient education he requires/deserves/shouldhavehad, so Johnny is stupid. Nice logic, huh? Not. I'm not out to flame public school systems, only state my opinion because I believe it should be addressed. If I were to write a persuasion paper, this would probably be the topic because no good argument can thrive without passionate belief in your viewpoint. Personally, I think that unless circumstances are such that the parents cannot educate their own child, communication between family members and the standard of education would be higher if Johnny was taught by his own parents, learning their world views and building his own based on the biblical values so savagely discarded from mainstream education. We lose ourselves to the constant stream of what beneficial citizens should behave like and discover that home educating is generally discouraged. Because of course, Johnny would learn better in a big classroom surrounded by detached peers, taught by an impartial teacher with an 'approved' curriculum (approved by whom, I might add? Is it possible that these teachers and the writers of their textbooks have world views which might conflict with the world view Johnny's parents wish to install within his heart and mind?), drenched in the cultural norm day after day instead of staying home and developing good character and a strong relationship with his family. I've noticed that when a homeschooler makes some sort of mistake, blame automatically falls on his parents for having raised him in such a fashion, or on the fact that he was homeschooled. And then when a public schooled or culturally accepted person messes something up, people are quick to make excuses because he was shoved into the ever-encompassing Flow. I thought the world owes us nothing. Apparently conformity is owed much! Why is it that those who set their gaze on heaven, rather than earth, are the ones to whom nothing is owed? Homeschoolers aren't robots without emotions, that the norm may slap a label bearing 'STOOPID' on and then throw away for useless. This rant shall now be ended. On a fringe note for this segment, I'd love to hear your opinion on this. The Hideaway has been very silent lately; what are your thoughts? Is there such a thing as an ideal mind, a cerebral level that a 'beneficial citizen' might chase after? If so, is it reached by public school systems, personal soul-searching, homeschooling or something else? Feel free to bash anything I've said. Opposition builds determination, does it not?
Our plans to go Christmas shopping were dramatically altered when it began snowing early this afternoon...and never stopped. The flakes are coming down in lashing sheets! In the almost-four years we've lived in this house, we've never had so much fluffy, milky, beautiful snow! The Girls and I were thrilled, running from one window to another and squeaking with delight at how much the drifts had grown since our last window-check. Falling snow is insanely inspiring. Which is a good thing, because my writing has recently dragged me through a laundry wringer, then chained me to a persnickety computer and shoved a leaky pen into my weary fingers. Exaggeration? I think not. I get into these weird moods where I doubt I'm even qualified to call myself a writer, and begin begging God to either blast me away with mad inspiration or distract me so I will quit worrying. I seriously can't imagine NOT writing, seeing as how when I don't write much of anything for a single day (*gasp*), I get all scared that maybe the words will one day just dry up and my fingers will curl idly around the handle of my cup brimming with tepid tea. Lately my writing has really suffered, whether from lack of time/inspiration, or from sheer exhaustion in trying to glean words from a scene where nothing.is.happening. This book is...a tad slow. So I threw in a rather violent curve of plot, which seemed to help. I am back on track and happily banging away the hours, loosely following my outline (*frowns at the wild laughter from her Reader and ahems*) towards a twelve-year-skip-ahead. My satisfaction is fragile when it comes to this particular book; it's given me way too much trouble sofar for me to say I'm now on safe ground.
This wraps up my month-spanning summary. I could bore you with piddling details, such as the fact that I now own an actual black cloak (*pleased smirk*) that I'm soon going to freak Wal-Mart employees out with, or the fact that I've already done a year's schoolwork, or the pros and cons of being iced in for a couple days so that we find it necessary to walk down our very long driveway to the mailbox (pro being the beautiful scenery and a nice sister-sister talk with Katsy, con being there was no mail on account of the crazy amount of snow we got this afternoon)...but what is imagination for? I hope your own life is going as colorfully.
Merry CHRISTmas! |
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• Dec. 18, 2009 - Featured Blogger ~ TOSAffiliatesCorner
How many of you are TOS Affiliates? Ever think about becoming one? I'm sure you have a lot of questions about it. Let's find out with this week's Featured Blogger the TOS Affiliates Corner!
How do you become a TOS affiliate? Find the answer on the first blog post, Welcome to the TOS Affiliate Blog!
If you become an affiliate, what kinds of ads have to go on your blog? Check out the latest TOS promotion for When I Grow Up I Wanna Be A Police Officer.
As a TOS affiliate you won't always be asking your readers to buy something. TOS loves go give away freebies! While you don't make any money off of these promotions being able to tell your readers about free gifts is always a bonus!
So if you aren't a TOS affiliate yet, what are you waiting for? Christmas break is a great time to get started because in 2010 TOS has a lot of great products coming out!
Say hi to Cheryl, the TOS affiliate coordinator and if you have any questions you can ask her in a comment.
Would you like to nominate a HSB blogger for Featured Blogger of the Week? Email me at tlinschied@thehomeschoolmagazine.com. Please keep in mind that Featured Bloggers must be at least 18 years of age and their blog must be encouraging, uplifting, and/or inspiring.
Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB |
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• Dec. 18, 2009 - Special Words for Special Needs ~ A Beautiful Christmas Project
Merry Christmas (very soon)!! It's time to talk about Christmas!
How do you run your homeschooling around Christmas? The season has plenty to do, but my kids demand structure. This time of year I tend to turn to my Christmas unit study. The art time in the afternoon will get turned into present making time or ornament making time. Though being Christmas time I search for more meaning in our days.
This time of year I also try to fit in outside service projects. In talking with a homeschooling mom recently she shared how they use this season to help train their children in service to others and keep it Jesus focused.
The day after Thanksgiving she and her family settle on a family that is in great need. They each give part of their Christmas gifts to feed and care for this family. Then a week before Christmas they drop this package off at the needy family's home.
You may say well there are groups out there that do that. Yes, there are. I would argue though that it is our duty as Christians to help others and what better way than just a simple exchange in love and covered in prayer. You show very clearly to your children that it IS better to give than to receive.
Thank you my friend for sharing that with me!
Think of a way you can share the love of Christ with others. What does your family do at Christmas to make Christ an active, real part?
I pray blessings to you and may your Christmas time be productive for the Lord!
Heather lives in West Virginia. She and her husband have been homeschooling their 5 children for 8 years. Due to a genetic disorder their children have multiple special needs. Heather is also dealing with personal health difficulties. Living life to the fullest for the glory of God is their goal! Visit Heather's page at www.homeschoolblogger.com/gfcfmomofmany/ or at Special Needs Homeschooling. |
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• Dec. 17, 2009 - Special Needs Children: Bring Them Home Where They Belong
Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
More abusive teachers are in the news, this time two teachers tortured and abused several special needs children in their care--children who couldn't speak out about what was happening to them.
Parents, even your special needs children deserve to be at home where it is safe, and where you can be there to protect them. Homeschooling special needs children can be done!
Check out these resources to start:
You can find many more resources by searching online, and don't be afraid to ask questions! Trust is a huge thing for children with special needs. Your child trusts and needs you, not a person that neither you nor your child has never met before. You wouldn't just leave your child with strangers otherwise, why do so just because that stranger works for a public school?
Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB |
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• Dec. 17, 2009 - Communication Corner ~ Countdown To Christmas!
• Dec. 16, 2009 - Background Checks for Homeschoolers?
Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
World Net Daily reports that just may become the case for British parents who wish to homeschool their children. The law stems, in part, to a problem that some parents are using homeschooling as a way to disguise abuse. However, what the law doesn't stipulate is what is required to pass a background check, it invades the rights and privacy of parents, and presumes them guilty until proven innocent.
As I've said before, there are already laws in place--in both Britain and the U.S.--in regards to child abuse. Government agencies are refusing to back those laws up. While there are several homeschool parents in Britain who are in agreement with making tighter restrictions on themselves in order to get rid of the few who give them a bad name, they need to recognize that this bill isn't really about protecting them. It's about a government trying to find ways to slow homeschooling down--period. Find out which parties and agencies are backing this bill and I think you'll find they aren't, and never have been, friendly to homeschooling.
Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB |
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