A Foundation that Handles the Hard Times: Part 1
I’ve spent some time, lately, thinking back over our homeschooling years and comparing how we fared with the stories of other homeschoolers I’ve known and worked with. Inevitably, these thoughts led me to one basic question. What did we do, and what have others done,.. |
A Foundation that Handles the Hard Times: Part 2
In Matthew 7:24-25, Jesus likens a man who hears
His sayings and does them to a man who built his house on a rock. This
house, built on the proper foundation, withstood flood, wind, rain—all
that life’s storms could throw at it. Likewise, the man who hears
Jesus’ sayings and does not do them is.. |
A Foundation that Handles the Hard Times: Part 3
Most homeschoolers are fully aware of the
importance of family; I would dare say it has a lot to do with why most
of us homeschool. Unfortunately, in too many instances, homeschoolers
are as likely as the next person to forget how vital the husband-wife
relationship is to family health,.. |
A Foundation that Handles the Hard Times: Part 4
In parts one through three of this series we
discussed the importance of keeping our priorities in order and the
absolute necessity of God being first and our spouse being second. In
this article, we cover the rest of the list – children, church, and
homeschooling/job/family business... |
A Real Life Education
I’m a member of multiple homeschool lists, and I
see one question repeated fairly often. Oh, it comes phrased in myriad
ways, but the basic question remains the same: “What do you do when
life interrupts homeschooling?”
I’ve seen numerous answers to this question... |
Appreciating Our Strengths
Pastor Ty Bean, this is my official thank you. [grin]
My church was privileged, recently, to have Pastor Ty Bean fill our pulpit as a guest minister. Our pastor told us early on that though we may never have heard of him before this man would quickly become one of our favorite speakers;.. |
Commitment
Honesty requires me to say it.
After nearly ten years of actively working with homeschoolers, after singing to
the heavens the praises of this special group of people, I must confess that if
there's one unhealthy trait all too many of us seem to share,.. |
Confession Time
This has been, perhaps, the hardest piece of writing I've ever worked
on. I've begun it more times than I care to think about. I even wrote one
complete article and tossed it because it didn't say what I felt needed
saying. Some would ask why I've bothered with it at all,.. |
Ebook Revolution
“There is no way electronic books will ever replace real books.”
Even those who are perfect, which I am not, eventually face a
situation where they have to eat their words. I am eating mine now, and
actually not minding it all that much.
Back when electronic books (AKA ebooks,.. |
Exhibit Hall Survival Skills
Exhibit hall...book fair...vendor room&... Whatever you
call it, it's the place to be when you're ready to do your homeschool
shopping. The exhibit hall can be the most exciting of places. It
can also be the most intimidating and financially dangerous,.. |
Exploring the Future: I Want to Be A...?
Some children seem to enter this world knowing exactly what they want to be when they grow up, while others still can’t decide even when they’re fifty. Still others, sure about their futures, head straight into a college degree in their chosen field only to realize later that the uniform they’ve pur.. |
FrontPorch History: Telling the Tale
I close my eyes and drift on
clouds of memory. Do I know where I am going? Perhaps. I may return to an
oft-visited time, or I may stumble upon a memory long forgotten.
This is one way of pulling your own stories out of a
sometimes elusive past... |
FrontPorch History
He sat rocking idly, the soft lamplight accentuating lines
worn deeply into his face by years of laughter and tears. His eyes glistened as
the clock struck another late hour and his grandchildren begged once again,
“Just one more, Grandaddy... |
Games in the “Classroom”
Consider This. You’re a student who’s been
learning about the California gold rush. One day you and a few others
enter a room to find a huge pile of books in the middle of the floor
and a desk set up off to the side. Your teacher explains that you are a
gold miner and this is your mountain... |
Getting the Most from Reading Aloud to Your Children
In my previous article, I shared about the importance of reading aloud to your children, both as "parent" and as "teacher." The rewards are great even when you simply read your child's favorite picture books to him regularly. Invest a little more effort,.. |
Helping the Newbie
The following is a brief list of things I’ve
learned from over a decade of helping new homeschoolers and homeschool
wannabes. They are things you should bear in mind as people come to you
for help in beginning their homeschool journey. And if you’ve only just
begun yourself?.. |
Illustrations
"Well,
yes... it's a lovely illustration. But for the cover of the support group's
brochure, we need something that says 'education.' I mean, this only shows a
mother holding her daughter. Instead, why don't we look for one with the
daughter doing her schoolwork or... |
Lasting Memories
Can you see yourself in this picture? Your
family just completed the unit study of your dreams. You’re at the end,
and you’re thinking there must be more. What can you do with all of the
fabulous projects, the stack of photos, and your memories of the fun?
You could simply set it aside and walk.. |
Live in the Moment
I watched a reality TV program a
few months back and, contrary to what I might have expected, God used
it to cement a valuable lesson in the very first episode. In this show,
The Monastery, a group of men with issues had agreed to spend a certain
amount of time living in a monastery with Benedic.. |
Loving History: Part I
I love history!
How many of us were able to say this in high school? I’m not saying
my teachers didn’t try, but only one positively brilliant American
history teacher managed to take me beyond the boring,
three-paragraphs-per-person history texts... |
Loving History: Part II
In part one of this series, I
discussed methods and resources that can make for a more rewarding
history experience. In this article, I will discuss the fun extras that
can take your history explorations to a higher level. Some of these are
things that may not come readily to mind when you think.. |
Making Lemonade
A few years ago, life handed us a bowl of lemons. In the beginning,
they were lovely to look at and wonderful to eat, bringing pleasure to
both taste buds and eyes. After a while the novelty paled. We no longer
cared to look at them and no longer savored their tangy meat... |
Purchasing 101: Forget the Curriculum; What Else Do I Buy!?
What do I buy? It's a question that both excites
and intimidates the new homeschooler. Curriculum purchases are hard
enough, but what about everything else? What will you really need in
your homeschool?
One of the best tips I received that first year was,.. |
Release the Creativity
For a little extra fun, take a minute before you read this article, pull out pen and paper, and do an exercise.
Take exactly sixty seconds.
Write down three attributes of God.
Done?
Okay, if this were a workshop, I would have everyone
read their lists of attributes aloud and we would t.. |
Scrapbooking
I’m a compulsive hobbyist. Through the years I have crocheted,
tooled leather, decoupaged, cross stitched, scherenschnitted (is
that a verb?), stenciled, and more. When I once mentioned an interest
in ceramics,.. |
Setting Examples
You know, you really never do stop learning.
Just this morning I was marveling over how much I learned from a friend
I stayed with last week. She never had any idea she was teaching me by
her example. Truly, I had been in her home two or three days before I
consciously recognized what I was seei.. |
Simple Fellowship
Our local homeschool co-op had a
planning meeting this week. After a summer off, it's time to start a new
session and our hodge podge group of moms (and one dad!) gathered at a local
restaurant Tuesday night for tidbits and talk. (Okay, so I had more than a few
tidbits... |
Sour Grapes or Turned Around Truth?
“You get so much done because you’re
homeschooled. I don’t have as much time to work on it as you do.” Words
similar to these were spoken to Thomas, my oldest, a few years ago when
he earned a special Royal Rangers’ award - one that no other boy in our
outpost had ever earned... |
Strive for Significance
The advice I find myself giving most often these
days, especially to the parents of older children, is to strive for
significance in your child’s studies wherever possible. It’s a proven
fact that we all learn faster and retain more when the “it” that we are
learning is significant to us... |
The Importance of Knowing the Scriptures
Scripture memorization
Does the phrase bother you? Have you, perhaps, come out of a
system
that emphasizes pointless memorization and as a result, you tend to
avoid the word completely?
I’m ashamed to say that I did, when my children were
young... |
The Most Important Thing to Do to Help Your Child Become a Good Reader and Why It Works
I was a voracious reader pretty much from the day that all those black dots (printed letters) started making sense. When I had children, it was only natural to read aloud to them from picture books, poetry books, and more. Then, when our youngest was able to read to himself,.. |
Theft by Any Other Name
Visit any of the used curriculum boards and what
will you find? You will find, for sale, consumable workbooks that have
supposedly never been used. Yes, some of them truly haven’t
been used –
perhaps the curriculum, when it arrived,.. |
Too Busy?
Admit it. As soon as you read the title, you nodded your head and answered, “Oh yeah,” or something close.
Almost all of us are too busy. We live in a world that is too busy.
Busy-ness is so common in our lives that we’ve begun to accept that to
be “normal” is to be “too busy.”
What are.. |
Transition
Ask any woman who has given birth what the most
challenging part of labor is and she will likely say, "Transition."
Transition is that time of change during which reason is most likely to
flee—and when she will quite possibly grow touchy enough to start
yelling at her husband and anyone else who.. |
Walking in Harmony
"Wherever we go, whatever we do, we're gonna do it together."
I wonder if I could talk my oldest son into doing that duet with
me in a talent show sometime?
Thomas is fifteen. Almost three years ago our church's sanctuary
choir was opened up to thirteen yea.. |
Watch Your Words
From the beginning of time, God has demonstrated
the power of the spoken word. He has also given us the ability to tap
into that power – and the responsibility to use it correctly. When God
said, “Let there be light,” light was. When Jesus said, “Lazarus,.. |
We Need the Supernatural
I grow weary of the continual discussion of whether this movie
or that book is good or evil. It's the Lord of the Rings
battle that finally tipped the scales, I think. No, it was a
phone call I received the other day,.. |
