Posted By Kris in TN

I've been trying to decide whether to close this blog or keep it up. I am no longer homeschooling my children, but I have LOTS of product reviews stored here and I really don't want to take them down in case they might be helpful to someone. Also, I still like to share good sale information or news about good finds related to homeschooling. Someone commented that this blog is only advertising. I don't feel that's true - it's just that I don't have anything to share about homeschooling because I am no longer involved with that as a part of my daily life. So, I will continue to share good finds and leave the product reviews available to those that find them in their Google searches!

Posted By Betsy (coordinator HSN-Tennessee) in events



Have you ever seen the Tennessee Farm and Home Magazine? It's put out by the Tennessee Farm Bureau, but the magazine can be seen on-line too. They have a great array of things to do and see in Tennessee, places to visit, great food to make, helpful garden tips and beautiful Tennessee photographs. I love receiving my magazine each quarter and I think you'll enjoy a visit to their web site.

They also have a quarterly update on lots of fun Events around our state. Visit their pdf file about the Fall Events and Festivals.  Let's enjoy this great season in our own beautiful state!

disclaimer: not all the events listed will be appropriate for all families. Please research the event you choose with your particular family in mind.

Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

"Do Hard Things.” That’s the title of a book by Alex and Brett Harris, twin brothers of Josh Harris of “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” fame.  

If you haven’t read the book, I think you’d find it worth your while. While the book is aimed at teens, it has some real lessons for everyone. I know I stepped away from it reflecting on its lessons for me.

 

The premise of the book is that society sets expectations for teens ridiculously low, that teens are capable of excellence in their spiritual and material lives, and that the revolution – or as the twins like to say, rebelution -- is already underway.

 

The book outlines ways for teens to identify their weaknesses and overcome them and ways they can maximize their strengths. It’s packed with real life examples. Above all, it’s a cheerleader in print – a “you can do it” book.

 

You won’t mistake “Do Hard Things” for C.S. Lewis or Chesterton or any of the deep thinkers of Christianity. It’s more along the lines of the ever popular motivational books that sell by the millions today – but with the twist of simple spiritual substance where many of those books lack it.

 

I think that if my children were still teens and I wanted them to read “Do Hard Things,” I’d want to make it a discussion book, one that all of us would read and talk about. On the other hand, teens in the throes of rebellion or lacking a good relationship with their parents would benefit from a read-alone approach.

 

The book would make a very good gift for public school students who long for something more challenging and meaningful in their lives.

 

Finally, if you read the book yourself, look for the lessons that can apply to our job as parents. Homeschooling can sometimes be one of the very big “hard things” we do in life, and you’ll find help in mustering the courage and tenacity to stick with it as well good examples of what it means to not give up when the going gets tough.

 

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

Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

I was in JoAnn’s this week picking up supplies for a couple of homeschool co-op classes I am teaching and found that my educator discount card was expired!  I sure was glad that I had my teacher ID card with me so they would issue me a new discount card.   

Did you know that you can print a free teacher ID card and ID cards for your kids online?  Here is the site where you will find them. All you need to do is fill out the form on their website and they produce the card and email it to you in pdf format. From there you can print it out or even have it laminated.  

There are A LOT of places that offer a discount for teachers, so be sure to ask wherever you purchase things for your school.  Some of the places I have discount cards are Barnes and Noble, Borders, and JoAnn’s. 

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Here is a great new way to look at History!  America's Greatest Documents and Speeches Lapbook/Unit Study goes through many of the major documents and speeches from the last 400 years. Also included is a time line complete with pictures so that your child can get a good idea of the sequence of these events.

The documents and speeches covered are:

• Mayflower Compact
• Patrick Henry
• Declaration of Independence
• Articles of Confederation
• The Constitution
• Northwest Ordinance
• President George Washington’s Inaugural Speech
• Bill of Rights
• Monroe Doctrine
• Gettysburg Address
• Emancipation Speech
• President Roosevelt Infamy Speech
• Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a Dream” Speech
• President George Bush’s 9/11 speech

For grades 2-7

If you are looking for a colorful and lively resource to enhance your studies you will love this product!  Available in print or E-Book version.

Remember, at the Schoolhouse Store there is always free shipping!

Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Perhaps in your local public school's history text it does, but not according to the Good Book. You may also be surprised to find that Islam is treated as a fact, even in a system that claims to be religion neutral.

Do you know what your child's textbook is teaching him? Want to learn more? Then check out this study, "The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion".

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

The Old Schoolhouse is always looking for a new one-room schoolhouse photo to grace the magazine's cover. We need a 9 x 11 photo, or a negative, or digital image (300 dpi), and the schoolhouse needs to be dead-centered with natural surroundings. The front or front/side view is best.

If your photograph is used, we will pay you $50, feature your name as cover photographer and send you two copies of the magazine. Send a digital image to publisher@thehomeschoolmagazine.com or mail it with details to Cover Photo Search, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, P.O. Box 8426, Gray, TN 37615. Be sure to include your name, email address, and phone number.

Not sure if a one-room schoolhouse is located near you? Check out the One-Room Schoolhouse Center. It's a working list of existing one-room schoolhouses in the U.S.

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Homeschooling: A Revival

            “He decreed statutes…He commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.  Then they would put their trust in God and      would not forget His deeds but would keep His commands.” (Psalm 78:5-7) 

Many homeschool parents look upon the rising numbers of homeschoolers in the United States as a revival.  A revival of godly families raising up their children for the future…to be godly parents themselves and to be the leaders of the future.  Homeschool parents are picking up the baton of godly education that those before them dropped.  And when the baton was dropped in this country (in the 1840’s when the first Government-funded public schools opened their doors[1]) it slowly started to roll…away.  It picked up speed in the 1960s when prayer was taken out of public schools[2], a little faster in the 1970s when authority was taken away from teachers and principals to discipline students[3].  And faster and faster through the 1990s and the beginning of the twenty-first century when immorality and violence have become so rampant in our public schools that parents must wonder if they will ever see their children again after they walk out the front door to school.

It will take a revival to reverse these trends.  Trends set by those of influence in the public school leadership who think little children who, having been influenced by the love and care of their mothers, are “sick” because they hold godly values.  Harvard Professor Dr. Chester M. Pierce of The Association For Childhood Education International, boldly displayed his disgust of traditional values and families when he admonished teachers in saying:  “Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances toward…his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being…It’s up to you teachers to make all of these sick children well by creating the international children of the future[4].”

Homeschoolers understand this undermining of God’s plan for the Christian family.  Not only are they building their children’s education on the foundation of God’s commands (Deut. 6:4-7, above), but they are creating and cultivating a Biblical mind-set in their children.  As Chris Klicka says in his book, Home Schooling – The Right Choice, “[H]ome schooling parents, aware of the anti-God curriculum and complete lack of absolute values in the public schools, cannot sacrifice their children to such a system[5].”

Because of the command of God in Deut. 6:4-7, how can we not see that God requires truth be taught to our children…by the parents.  We know that God specifically says that, regarding His commandments (or “words” in the NASV), parents are to talk of them all through the day:  sitting at home…walking along the road…when we lie down and when we get up.  How can parents do that if they are separated from their children and teens a minimum of six to eight hours a day, five days a week?  That doesn’t even include time spent on the bus.  Parents are sending their children to a place that does not teach God’s thoughts, but man’s thoughts, for 35 hours a week.  Can any thinking, rational parent conclude that all will be cured with a mere one or two hours in church on Sunday morning to turn the tide of bombardment of daily indoctrination of evolutionary theory (taught as fact, of course), of negative peer pressure, of the outlawing of the mention of God – how much more the Name of Jesus?  But, our culture and society has certainly shown us that, yes, so many parents are simply conditioned by our culture to believe it.

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK...

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

We are looking for 10 parents of special needs children who are NOT in this current book to give us their “testimony” in 500 words or less about how having that special child in their home has actually ENRICHED their lives. Why would life not be as good without him/her in their household? We want to know the joy and blessing behind having this wonderful child in the homeschool.

The ten who we choose will get a free ebook when finished – that is the only compensation.

Please do not turn in your testimonies direct – first email Charlotte McKinney and give her a short sentence or two why they should be chosen as one of the ten to go into this E-Book.

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

If one teacher's union leader in the UK gets her way, then the answer is no. Others agree because they feel it ruins the teacher's life. Please note that the article points out that "consensual" relations is between a 16 year old student, or older, and a teacher.

There are those who are in opposition of this point of view but a judge recently agreed and let one teacher off with just 12 months probation. Never mind that it does ruin children's lives. Never mind that the teacher abused her authority.

This year the consenting age is 16. What will it be in the next five years? 15? 14? 13?  

I know when I was 16 I "thought" I knew what I was doing. I was an idiot and I wasn't alone. If 16 year olds are so mature why don't they just go ahead and say they can join the military, be tried as an adult in all cases, and go off and live on their own?

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB