The Homeschool Lady

Make learning come alive for your students

2011-11-13T14:27:00.001-05:00

"My childhood was filled with warm and wonderful memories. None of these memories, however, took place inside a schoolhouse." Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens really didn't like school. When he was 12, his parents finally allowed him to quit and he began work in a printing shop.

One day as he was leaving the office, a piece of paper from a book about Joan of Arc wrapped around his leg. He enjoyed it so much that he began reading every history book he could find.

This is called Living History. Regardless of their school setting, make learning REAL for your kids. Don't rely on paragraphs here and there in textbooks to get them interested in various subjects. Introduce your children to the real people, places and events of history!

Sonya : )

Judge rules students can be banned from wearing American flag t-shirts

2011-11-13T14:03:00.000-05:00

Here is another example of our disappearing freedoms...

On Cinco de Mayo (May 5, 2010), a principal told three students that they had either had to turn their American flag t-shirts inside out or go home. He said he did this to prevent violence from Mexican American students who were celebrating the Mexican holiday.

Last week, a judge ruled that Mexican American students are allowed to wear Mexican flags and colors on the Mexican holiday, but school officials CAN prohibit students from wearing the American flag or colors as they might entice violence. This is simply wrong. Why not honor the First Amendment by allowing freedom of expression and punish those who start or participate in violence rather than showing minorities that they are allowed to celebrate THEIR heritage while American patriotism is disallowed?

The problem with this ruling is that it IS discrimination. If the principal was truly afraid of violence, he should have either canceled the celebrations altogether or kept an eye out for problems and punished the specific students who were causing problems. The wearing of the American flag is NOT the problem. The fact that some students would cause problems over it IS. As part of freedom of speech, you can't discriminate against some parties and not others. If they prohibited all flags from being worn, that would be different, but they didn't. The judge specifically said the American flag couldn't be worn on this date.

A few years ago, when The Homeschooler's Book of Lists (Bethany House, 2007) was released, our local county library scheduled a book signing with me (the author). When the superintendent heard of this, he discussed the "issue" with the county mayor who then told the librarians (under his jurisdiction) that they could NOT have a book signing at the library that involved a homeschool book. His reason was that homeschoolers "take money away from" public schools. (While this is not true, I won't go into that discussion right now.) There are frequently book signings at the public library. These events are not held to sell books or make money for the author. The events are held for the benefit of the public. It allows readers to meet authors and discuss book content in a setting that interests most avid readers - the library. Book signings also inform readers by providing a forum where they can learn about various subjects that might interest them. Because the mayor said he would allow other authors to do book signings there, but not a "homeschool author" about a "homeschool book," this was considered viewpoint discrimination. It is constitutional to say something like "all t-shirts are banned" or "students must wear uniforms," but you can't say some students can wear flag shirts and others can't. This is discrimination against a particular group and it is unconstitutional.

These cases are so frustrating because it's scary that any judge would ever rule that viewpoint discrimination is acceptable. It is the first step toward another Civil War or another Holocaust.

Here is a link to one of the articles about this issue:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/11/BA2N1LU0HC.DTL

Sonya

Sarah's first writing assignment

2011-11-05T22:27:00.002-04:00

I've told people for many years that we teach a little differently than most. I tend to have a more traditional way of teaching and when I say traditional, I mean TRADITIONAL - as in following the practices common in the 1700 and 1800s before government schooling was common in the United States.

What does this mean? Basically we spend the first five or six years simply focusing on discipline, character development and spending time together. This is what parents did before the advent of public schooling. They spent TIME with their children, taught them right from wrong, and read aloud - a lot. Without constant interruptions of televisions, computers, i-pods, etc., children worked, studied, and tried to better themselves. Rather than zoning out and killing brain cells in their free time, they learned languages, practiced musical instruments and read great books.

Then, when they were old enough to take on adult responsibilities (around age 12), they were allowed to pursue academic interests of their own. They found ways to borrow the books they needed and they begged for apprenticeships that would help them pursue their dreams.

Children didn't start school when they were two or three years old, reciting poems, multiplication tables and state capitals until they're blue in the face - and bored to death! They didn't begin writing essays until they had a sufficient knowledge of GREAT writing rather than simply writing a few lines about their summer vacation in third grade.

Feel free to share your thoughts. I realize many people are going to completely disagree with our philosophy of education and that's ok. It works for us and the children are all very bright so that's all that matters. I respect other people's right to educate their children in their chosen manner and only ask the same. But I do enjoy hearing your thoughts anyway.

Sonya

(Below is the essay)

One of the most important decisions most students make during high school is which language to study. Not only for personal benefit (knowing another language can be very helpful and rewarding in today’s society), but also because most colleges consider foreign language experience during the admissions process. Most (more than 50%) of students choose Spanish, 13% choose French and 6% choose German. I chose German for many reasons, including grammar, popularity of the language, and historical importance.

Modern English has its roots in German and thus, many words and also the grammatical rules and sentence structures of both languages have remained mostly the same. Because of this, German (especially written German) is very easy for the English-speaker to understand.

German is one of the ten most spoken languages around the globe with over 100 million speakers; that is the equivalent of about one- third of the current population of the United States. Germany also has the largest economy in the European Union and the third largest in the world, making its language an important tool in the hands (or rather mouths) of endeavoring businessmen and women.

German is the native language of many of the greatest scholars and intellectuals this world has seen. Learning German can give you a great insight into their minds and lives and a unique opportunity to explore the world through their eyes. To read great works of literature and poetry in their original form is a very rewarding experience. Although many people say that German is a “harsh” language, only those who can read and speak it know its true beauty and flow.

Anyway, I've had so many people tell me over the years that they would be interested to see if my theories about teaching would really work. I was really trying something that hasn't been commonly done for a couple hundred years. In the early years, we focus more on giving a child the skills he or she needs to succeed. And we read aloud a LOT. Gradually we introduce age appropriate academic material. And read aloud - a LOT. Throughout this time, we encourage the child to find ways to study the subject matter that interests him or her the most. (If a child wants to be a doctor, let him study the Merck manual or ask questions about the latest ways to cure disease. If a child wants to be an engineer, let him build bridges on the kitchen table and see which designs work best.) Then, when the child is around age 13 or 14, it's time to start focusing on academics. The benefit to this is that the child isn't bored to death from nine years of school. (And I'm not saying that all school is bad or that all kids will be bored, but it has been my experience that way too many are!) With this method, the kids actually BEG to do schoolwork!

So we really started doing academics with Sarah about two years ago, when she entered ninth grade. (This really translates to when people in the 1800s would have entered "university.") We worked with her at home for the first year (ninth grade) and then last year (tenth grade), she began taking a class at Milligan College through dual enrollment. She missed having the highest average in the class for the year by hundredths of a point. This year she is working hard to achieve that coveted honor!

I told Sarah that this year we would begin working on her essay writing skills. Yesterday I gave her first assignment. She was instructed to write an essay on one topic, with only three points to support the topic and it could only be one page long. I wanted to see how she did with this before going to the next assignments. I'm going to have her write a persuasive essay, argumentative essay, descriptive essay, compare and contrast essay, and critical essay. I want her to have the basic ideas of each TYPE of essay in a short format (about one page). This is November. We'll have all the essays covered before the end of November, then we'll move on to longer essays and then a research paper.

I have no doubt that by next summer, Sarah will be able to write EXCELLENT research papers because we have gradually given her the skills necessary to do so. She developed her vocabulary skills by listening to great books being read aloud to her and then reading those books herself. As she grew older, she began to pay more attention to the form and content of writing. She noticed it and absorbed GOOD writing without even knowing she was doing so. But we haven't asked her to do this herself until now. This is literally the FIRST writing assignment I have EVER given her - EVER. Seriously. No kidding.

So let's see what you think. And please remember - this is not only the first assignment, but it's the first draft as well. I didn't think she really had anything that needed to be changed so I didn't have her rewrite it. Plus, keep in mind that I did tell her to keep it to only one page so that's why it's so short. She really wanted to make it longer, but I think it's important for a person to write well with fewer words before moving on to longer assignments.

A few things I should let you know... First off, I did not help Sarah with this at all. I gave her the assignment last night and she just sent it to me a little while ago. I was so impressed that I wanted to share the results of her first assignment with the WORLD! :) Second, she was supposed to write about something that interested her and then support her ideas. I did tell her that she would need to have an introductory paragraph, supporting ideas and a conclusion. The third thing she had to do was put her thesis in bold.

Although I can understand why most people choose Spanish or French as a second language, I am infinitely pleased with my choice to learn German instead of following in the footsteps of so many others. I am lucky enough to have a teacher who is passionate about his subject and encourages his students to get the most out of their learning experience, but I know that that is not always the case.

The importance of choosing a foreign language is emphasized in one of my favorite quotes by Frank Smith: “One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” I think that is a very accurate representation of the opportunities in life that come from study and determination of a language. Any person can study a second language, but it takes that rare individual to really learn it.

Journey Into the Unknown

2011-11-05T16:59:00.004-04:00

I don't really know how to begin so I guess I'll just start writing and see where it takes me. In the past, I've shared some of our story - my health issues, downsizing to pay medical bills, etc. I thought the past eight years must be the hardest times of our lives. I've endured countless hours of unbearable pain. The children have learned to be self-sufficient because there have been many times when I've simply had to tell them to do it on their own. At the same time, they are compassionate, loving children - partly because I tell them every day how precious life is and how much I cherish our time together. When I first became sick, Chris had numerous responsibilities. He was helping with the children, cooking dinner each night, taking care of the house to the best of his ability, and working a full time job.

As the years have passed, we've had our ups and downs. I've felt better or worse. I've been in and out of the hospital and I've spent countless hours in doctors' offices. We've tried more medicines than I can remember; some have worked and some haven't. I really thought those would be the worst years of my life. It sure seemed like it. I guess I may have been wrong.

A couple of years ago, I began to notice that Chris was becoming increasingly confused. If I asked him to pass the salt, he would hand me the pepper. If I told him to go right, he would go left. If I asked him a question, his answer would make no sense. As I saw him become more confused and disoriented, I would complain and tell him he needed to pay more attention. We began to fight more often and this is something we just never did, especially in front of the children. (We still try never to do this.) Finally, I started asking him if he was having problems at work. I figured if he was that confused at home, surely he was having difficulty at work as well. He denied having any problems at work. He insisted that everything at work was fine.

Last month, he called me from work one day and told me that he had been "terminated." I replied, "What in the world does that mean?" He has done the same job for over 20 years and he has worked at the same place for 18 years. We didn't make a lot of money, but we made enough to keep our heads barely above water (with occasional help from family and friends). More importantly to us, his job provided us with health insurance and our children would have been eligible for free college tuition (since he worked at a private Christian college). Last month we lost not only his income, but the benefits as well.

The next day, I went to the social security office and the health department. I very quickly found out that we weren’t eligible for anything yet because he still had “income.” Although he had been terminated, we had several problems. First, we had to take a voluntary resignation in order to keep our health insurance for three more months. If we had not done this, we would have lost our health insurance that day. With all my health problems, that was not a choice at all. We needed to talk with my doctors and try to come up with a plan about how to ensure that I would be able to get medicine, manage my clotting disorder, etc. We figured we could also use those three months to try to figure out what was wrong with Chris. Did he have some hormonal imbalance? A brain tumor? Lack of minerals that was causing confusion? Or did he simply need a break? (He had been working for several years with no more than two or three days off at a time and frequently had at least two weeks of vacation left at the end of the fiscal year.)

Because we took the “resignation” instead of “termination,” he would not qualify for unemployment. That was one thing we found out immediately. This is one way they “get you.” The system is set up so that you can work for three or four months and then do a horrible job somewhere and get FIRED, even though you may even deserve it, and you can draw unemployment. (And I realize there are many people who have been fired through no fault of their own who need and deserve unemployment, but there are also many who shouldn’t be allowed to have it.) But in a situation like ours, we really didn’t have a choice since I needed that health insurance. And we were at least grateful that he would have this for a few more months.

The second thing we figured out very quickly is that it’s also very difficult to get any kind of help from anywhere. You drive 20 or 30 minutes each way, spend $15 in gas and then you find out that for SOME reason you don’t qualify. Over the past month, we’ve been trying to figure out what resources are available. I’ll tell you about just the past few days.

Wednesday I drove 25 minutes to a local food pantry. After I filled out paperwork, the man told me to drive around to the side of the building and he brought me out a box of food – ONE BOX of food. There were about 10 cans of vegetables, a loaf of bread on top, a box of hamburger helper, and a few other miscellaneous items. I cooked half that food that evening. It was GONE within a matter of a few hours. How long do you seriously think one box of food is going to last seven people – including two adults, two TEENAGERS, two preteens, and one elementary age child? These kids eat like crazy! And no, they’re not a bit overweight. They just eat a lot.

Anyway, I explained our situation to the lady and she gave me a list of agencies and phone numbers. She recommended that I call them and find out what other resources might be available for us. She said to call right away.

I also called a few of the agencies to see what services they provide. I was mainly looking for food and advice. We seriously need advice at this point. We’re not used to living in the “system.” We have never wanted to be in the system and we’ve done everything in our power to stay out of it. Thankfully, we’ve had very little, but we’ve made it work for us. Now there is just no way we’re going to be able to make it. I wanted to find out if anyone had any recommendations I hadn’t already considered.

I called one food pantry about TWO MILES from my house and asked about getting a food box. The lady asked me my zip code. I told her it was 37659. She said we HAVE to have a 37615 zip code to get food from the food pantry. I told her who it was and she knows who I am. (That particular food pantry is run through the local library and we go there a lot.) She said it didn't really matter who I was, if my zip code wasn't 37615, then she couldn't help me. The food pantry with MY zip code is a 30-35 minute drive from my house because we live in a weird place where our zip code is way out in the middle of nowhere. We are right next to Gray, but our zip code is for Jonesborough. Again, another problem with the system. Let's make people who already don't have any money drive all the way ACROSS town to make sure that they are using the correct food pantry with the right zip code. It's insane!!

I called a couple more places and of the three places I called, I decided to make an appointment at only one. The main reason for this was to save gas. I thought this place could help the most because they could offer some practical advice and a food box. The appointment was for Friday afternoon.

Friday morning I received a call from the place I just mentioned. The lady wanted to let me know that I couldn’t come in for food or advice because I had just received “services” on Wednesday from the other place. I explained to her that (a) that lady was the one who told me to call her and (b) it’s not like anyone tells you the rules. She was nice and we decided that perhaps I could talk with her next week.

After I talked with her, I had to drive my oldest daughter to class. She takes a German class at Milligan College. She is an excellent student and has one of the highest averages in the class. Since all this started, she has been begging for me to let her get a job at the local Food City. They will hire workers as young as 14 so she has this plan that she and her younger brother (who will turn 14 in November) can work as many hours as they’re allowed and they’ll take care of us and all the bills. I’ve tried to explain to her that I will not allow this for many reasons. First, I appreciate the fact that she is willing, but it isn’t her responsibility to do this. Right now she needs to focus on HER life. These kids are brilliant. She wants to study linguistics and I will not allow her to be sidetracked when there are so many people out there getting all kinds of money from the government who never even try to help themselves. I want her to feel free to go to school and study and pursue her dreams. She wants more than anything to study languages and travel overseas to volunteer and/or work in an orphanage.

Our oldest son will be 14 in November and he potentially work as well. Micah has been a true scientist since he was born. He has always tested, questioned, theorized, tested some more, etc. since he was old enough to do so. I still remember when he was about 18 months old and I walked into the kitchen to find Micah “cooking” eggs in a skillet on the kitchen floor. He had gotten out the skillet, a spatula, and two eggs. He was stirring them around in the skillet when I walked in. He told me he was making breakfast. Our friends call him “the professor” and he has always been the child that I’ve said could discover some amazing new source of energy. His skills in science are astounding.

Christopher is 12 and he knows more about medicine than the average adult. He can listen to your symptoms and frequently make the correct diagnosis – from hepatitis to preeclampsia. It’s amazing. Our ten-year-old wants to be a writer and we all love to read his stories. And our youngest is only eight, but at this point, she is interested in being a mommy and having a lot of children.

I share this information because it’s important to know the people involved in this story. These are REAL children. They are very INTELLIGENT children. They are incredibly SWEET children. They’ve worked for what they have in life. We’ve always taught them that it’s better to do without than take a handout. Unfortunately, over the past eight years, we’ve had to have a lot of help with our doctor bills, but they know that this is a gift from friends and fellow believers who have helped because the Lord led them to do so.

This brings us to today. I’ve tried to keep the severity of this situation away from the children. Do I tell them or not tell them? Do we start packing or not? Should I put the house on the market? Make plans to move? Where in the world would I move anyway? Most people don’t have room to take in a family of seven and I positively will not break up our family.

Some people might suggest downsizing. We already did that. Four years ago we sold about 2/3 of our belongings, our furniture, even our home. We were trying to pay medical bills. We were paying about $700 in medical bills. I was averaging around $300 in current bills and we had about $400 a month in past medical bills. We worked as diligently as possible to pay these bills, but this is kind of hard to do when you make less than $50,000 a year for seven people and 1/3 of that is automatically taken by your house payment. Anyway, despite selling our house and most of our belongings, we still didn’t have enough to pay the medical bills and after a couple more years of struggling to do this, we filed bankruptcy two years ago. This freed up the $400 a month in past medical bills, but we still had anywhere from $100 to $300 each month in current medical bills that I incurred each month. This was frustrating. Even our church, who had helped us extensively, wondered why we never seemed to have enough money to make ends meet. It was so difficult when every time we would adjust our budget, gas prices would go up, food prices would go up, taxes would go up, etc. We simply didn’t make enough money.

Fortunately, friends stepped in again and helped us through the difficult times. Early last summer, we seemed to have everything under control and then I ended up back in the hospital. Two iron infusions left me with $1,000 co-pays each. I spent the summer trying to stay well and ended up back in the hospital in December having tests run. I had more blood clots. I was feeling better by February and took Hannah out for a special day. She wanted to ride horses and my good friend offered to let us ride. Of course, as my luck goes, I ended up coming away with a broken knee and spent the next five months on crutches. That was after a horrifying surgery and more pain than most people can imagine. Honestly, if most people had to live with the pain I endure on a daily basis, they would have given up long ago. It’s horrible. Thankfully, I am able to take blood thinners and after much trial and error, we found a pain medication that worked for me. Now I function well enough and I’m grateful for every day.

Despite the health issues I was dealing with, I felt well enough that Chris and I decided to do foster care again last fall. We had our first placement this summer and those months were heaven! We adored the little baby boy we cared for. He left a couple of months ago, but we’ve been able to take care of a few children since then on a short term basis. We always hope we’ll have another placement soon. Having children in the house is a huge blessing to us. Chris and the children and I just adore kids and we spend every moment of every day playing with them, holding them, feeding them, etc. It’s good for us and for them.

Back to Chris… After numerous tests, thus far everything has come back normal. This isn’t necessarily good news. It might have been better if something had come back positive. At least with hormone problems, vitamin deficiencies, even cancer, there are treatments available. Instead, it’s looking more and more like Chris may have Early Onset Alzheimer’s. He will be 44 in two weeks. He has been showing symptoms for about two years. Experts have developed a list of “Seven Stages of Alzheimer’s.” Based on the information at hand and Chris’ behaviors, it looks like he is in stage three. This means that when others talk with him, frequently they say things like, “He seems just fine to me!” My daughter and I just look at each other and shrug. It doesn’t really matter what they say. WE live with him. WE see the differences. WE know that his personality has changed, that he is having a lot of difficulty completing tasks that once came easily to him, that he seems unaware of the passage of time, that his personality has changed, and that he seems confused sometimes when you talk with him. Sure, if he tries really hard, he can follow along when he is having the short diagnostic tests and when he is seeing someone we haven’t seen in a while. Then it looks like I’m just making all of this up, but yet we’re the ones who see Chris forgetting things he shouldn’t be forgetting or getting confused when he shouldn’t be getting confused.

We’ll have a definitive diagnosis on November 21. Chris goes in for some more testing in two weeks and we’ll have the results a few days after that. At this point, since everything else has come back negative, I don’t really know what we’re going to do if the doctor doesn’t diagnose Alzheimer’s. Obviously that’s the last thing we want. But at the same time, if he has a diagnosis, we can count on two things. (1) There may be medications that can help slow the progression of the disease and possibly reverse some of the symptoms he is currently having. That would be great. (2) If Chris is having difficulty doing the same job he has done for 18 years, I don’t really think he’s going to be able to do another job. If that’s the case, we need to apply for disability or something. Unless there is a disability there, what are we supposed to say?!?

Regardless of what the doctor says, I SEE the problems Chris is having. I am very concerned about him and I want desperately to help, but can’t seem to do anything. Over the past year, I’ve gradually reduced his responsibilities. The kids and I have tried to take over more and more of the household tasks, financial responsibilities like paying bills, taking care of the yard, etc. When we have a foster child, this is very good for Chris. He smiles and he loves helping with the little ones, as we all do. He has always been a great father and I know he’ll be able to continue doing this for a while. Changing diapers, feeding little ones, and simply comforting a sad child comes naturally to him. It gives him something to do, it’s something he enjoys and the foster children adore him as much as he adores them. So that’s at least one good thing.

I better stop writing or this is going to turn into a book. Now that I have all the basic information put out there, I’ll just add to this blog as I find out more. Chris and I have always been very open about our lives. We agreed a long time ago that if something in our lives can be a blessing in some way to others, then we should share openly. The only thing about that now is that sometimes I think the main way we’re a blessing is because people really need to be thankful that they’re not in our shoes!! J Seriously, I’ve had many friends tell me how they thought THEY had it bad until they talk with us and whatever is going on always seems worse. But even with that, I always remind them that we are very grateful for our many blessings. We live in a FREE country. I may not agree with all that is going on and I think there are a lot of politicians who are disgracing our Constitution. They have no idea what it means or what it stands for, but we do still live in a great country. I am proud of that. And for the fact that even our homeless have more opportunities than people who live in a great percentage of the world where they may die from dirty water, lack of medical care, exposure, war, etc. I can’t imagine watching my children die from starvation because there is no food. I know without a doubt that our friends are not going to let us starve to death.

Despite our circumstances, there is much to be thankful for. One of the main things is that we have the blessing of knowing our savior. God sent his SON so that we could spend eternity with him. Regardless of anything that may happen during this lifetime, all we have to do is accept the gift of eternal life and those sorrows will be left behind once we leave this earth. What an amazing thing! And how much more amazing that this gift is offered to all of us. Not one of us is deserving. Not one. Yet we can all enjoy a relationship with the Holy Spirit. The only reason I’m not freaking out more than I am is because the Lord comforts me. I know He is there. It’s a wonderful feeling. He is in control.

Do I wish God would just come right down here and give me all the answers? Sure! Do I wish he would heal Chris? Absolutely. Do I wish I didn’t have to live in constant pain? YES! I have begged God for many years to take away the pain I endure on a daily basis, but he hasn’t answered this prayer. I know there must be a reason he continues to allow me to suffer this way. It’s not because of something I’ve “done” or not done. God doesn’t punish us that way. There are consequences to actions for sure, but sometimes good things DO happen to bad people. That’s just the way it is because we live in a sinful world. Our bodies are deteriorating. People frequently choose sin and this sometimes leads to consequences for others. If God made sure nothing bad ever happened to “good” people, then salvation would be meaningless. It would look like some people were good enough to get to heaven and others weren’t. Who should he heal? Or protect?

There are so many difficult questions and I don’t presume to have all the answers. Honestly, at this point I don’t think I have any answers! All I know is that this is happening for a reason. Sometimes I wonder if God wants us to rely on HIM to see us through this. I trust that He could do this, but honestly I do not trust other Christians enough. This is sad to say, but people simply do not live their lives in a Biblical manner any more. Part of this isn’t their fault. If the government wouldn’t tax us and then give that money out to people with no accountability, believers would be left with a greater amount of money to help the needy. Then, if someone wastes that money, abuses drugs, etc., they could counsel them, help them stop addictions (tobacco, alcohol, drugs, pornography), etc. or take away the funds helping them to fund bad behaviors. But instead, the government takes a good portion of our money to fund public assistance where there is little if any accountability. People abuse these programs all the time. And they’re usually never caught. Many of the counselors will even TELL you how to apply so that you “get around” the rules. That’s still a form of lying. If you say that you live at one address and your husband lives at another so you can report different incomes, yet you really still live together, that’s dishonest. If you sell your food stamp card so that you can have cash to buy your Xanax, that’s not only dishonest, but it’s illegal and you have a drug problem! The people helping you do this are also committing a crime. Personally I think they should invest more time and energy into stopping these kinds of behaviors and we’d all have more money freed up to help those truly in need or to keep in our own pockets for a rainy day. I’m tired of seeing money just handed out to people who won’t work, who don’t try and who sit around looking for another program they can get money from.

This is long. I’m sorry. I didn’t know where I was going to start, but once I get going, I can’t stop! I want to share this journey. I don’t anticipate that this is going to be easy and there may be days or weeks when I have no desire to share what’s going on, but I think SOMEONE needs to speak out! What happens when you have an average family who end up in this situation? How easy is it to get help? What are our options? Will people help enough to make it possible for us to stay in our house until disability kicks in? Even then, will we have enough to stay there? Are the kids going to have to go to work? What will I do without my medicine? How in the world are we going to make this work?

Check back for the next installment of “Our Journey Into the Unknown.” We have a counseling appointment on Monday and I’ll be talking with an attorney (who is graciously offering some free advice anonymously). I’ll let you all know what happens with those two appointments.

Sonya Haskins, wife of 17 years to Chris and mom to Sarah (15), Micah (14 this month), Christopher (12), Daniel (10), and Hannah (8)

Expert Advice: Encouraging or Discouraging?

2010-11-14T13:11:00.004-05:00

This is an excerpt from my newest book, Homeschooling for the Rest of Us (Bethany House, 2010). This topic was on my mind today and I thought perhaps it would bring encouragement to some of you. Sonya :)

Homeschoolers tell me about the pressure they sometimes feel from the homeschooling experts. Instead of feeling encouraged through various books, conferences, seminars, or other programs, many homeschoolers feel intimidated. A number of these experts travel from conference to conference with their polite children (who have perfected their math skills by helping sell products from the family business). It’s difficult not to envy these families. Trust me, I know because I have!

On the other hand, I’ve been on the other side of all of this. At times moms comment to me, “I would never be able to take care of the household, teach my children, cook, do all the other things I need to do, and write books like you do!” The fact is I can’t do all these things either. When I’m finishing a big project like a book, other things have to wait—including a clean house and fresh-cooked meals.

God has given us all individual gifts. Some people are good at things like organization, public speaking, or writing, and have used these gifts to help other homeschooling families. But God has given homeschooling moms and dads many gifts to minister to others in needed ways: hospitality, cooking skills, musical talent, sports abilities; the list goes on and on.

So, rather than being intimidated by the experts, look in the mirror and recognize the many wonderful talents God has bestowed on that person looking back at you. Use your gifts to bless others.

If you’re still feeling pressure because experts or others tell you to “do it this way” or “if you’d only follow my plan, your life will be perfect, your children will obey, and they will love learning” or any other “just do it my way” kinds of statements, my advice is simple: Find different experts!

Fantastic resources regarding National Parks

2010-11-09T01:30:00.003-05:00

Some of you know about our trip out west a few years ago. It was the BEST time of my entire life. I think the children concur (about their own lives of course!). It was such an amazing, special time. We would like to do this again before Sarah graduates.

Anyway, we're trying to plan ahead and prepare for some wonderful activities as we would want to make the most of our trip if we get to go again. I think Sarah is particularly excited now that she is old enough to do most of the planning. I think it will be a great skill for her to help with the itinerary, navigation, activities, etc. Last time we also took an activity book with us that we made just for the trip. It highlighted locations we would visit, had information about historic sites along our route, etc. This time we're planning to do more advance planning - with Sarah's help. Last time we wanted to do that, but everyone was just too young and I was overwhelmed with planning it all, much less trying to do everything before the trip. This time, since the children will be helping a lot more, we will be able to do more advance work - studying about the places we plan to go, etc. I can't wait!

This past week, Sarah has been looking through the National Park Service website and other related websites. We already knew that the National Park Service had great activities for children, but we didn't realize how neat their internet activities were. The in-park activities are called "The Junior Ranger Program." On the internet, they basically have it set up so that you can do TONS of activities online to prepare for visits to national parks, learn more about what rangers do, learn about park and animal safety, etc. It's really neat.

I would encourage anyone to consider integrating this really neat website into your child's educational time. We always try to make "computer time" at least somewhat educational and this definitely meets the requirements! There are over 50 games ranging from easy to difficult and all of them are educational in some manner.

Here's the link: http://www.webrangers.us/index.cfm

I hope you find it as fun as we have!

If you haven't read about our trip out west, you can read about it on my website. There are a lots of interesting stories, tons of photos, etc. It's fun to read for anyone, but if you're planning to travel out west, we have lots of great tips on what we really enjoyed and what didn't work so well - for our family at least. :) Here's the link: http://www.sonyahaskins.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=95:our-trip-out-west-part-1&catid=60:traveling-with-children&Itemid=50

Enjoy!
Sonya :)

New Microsoft ad features homeschool family

2010-11-03T15:15:00.001-04:00

This isn't something you see very often... a multi-million dollar company using a homeschool family to promote their products. This is a great ad. I hope you'll share it with your friends as well. And a huge thank you to Microsoft for allowing a homeschool family to feature this new product! Sonya :)

http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/us/details/1d4036b3-8c89-4a06-846b-5e3ec01a9c7a

TIPS: How to reuse old keys

2010-11-03T13:28:00.000-04:00

All of us have some of them lying around somewhere. I'm talking about old keys - car keys, house keys, box keys, locket keys, etc. There are keys for just about anything and while they are necessary, there comes a time when we no longer need a particular key. Over time, they seem to build up and you have a pile of keys that you don't know what to do with. Here are some suggestions:

- My older children enjoy playing with keys. They play pretend. If I give them my old keys (especially on a keychain - they love that!), they will use it to play pretend when they play house or restaurant or driving or whatever. Those keys can be used just like we use ours. (I wouldn't recommend this for toddlers or babies, but they should be fine for children over four). They'll have fun with this!
- Some people use old keys to create artwork or decorative items. They might glue them to lamp shades or make a sculpture from keys. Some artists melt them down and use them for metal work. You just have to ask around and see if anyone would like your old keys for this purpose.
- Keys for Kindness collects old keys, turns them in to the recycling place and then uses the money they earn to support research for Multiple Sclerosis. You just mail them your old keys. Here is there web address: http://www.keysforkindness.com/
- Find someone who makes homemade jewelry and ask if they want them. Keys are popular as jewelry items. If a particular key is special to you, have it turned into a charm for a necklace or bracelet. It's simply a matter of adding some spray paint or other decoration or you could use it as is.
- Let the children decorate them (with paint, glitter, etc.), put a hook on the little hole most keys have and use them as Christmas tree ornaments. (There are LOTS of ways to save on Christmas tree ornaments. You do NOT need to spend money on expensive, fancy ornaments.)
- Make some wind chimes and give these as gifts. This is especially nice if the keys meant something to the recipient. (Or keep the chimes for yourself.)
- For homeschoolers, trace each key on a paper with a bunch of other traced keys. Then, give the paper and the keys to your child and have them match each key to the one on the paper. :)

- Finally, my best suggestion, I think. I came up with this one when thinking about how our family could reuse the keys.

If you need to do a drawing for something and only have a small number of people (probably less than 50) or you do family drawings sometimes to see who goes first, who gets to pick the movie for family movie night, etc., use keys instead of tickets.

First, use a Sharpie to mark two sets of keys with a unique number (1 to 50, for example). So you'll have two keys marked "1," two keys marked "2," two keys marked "3," and so on. For each person who participates in the drawing, give them those two keys with the same number. They drop one key into the drawing bucket and keep the other key.

Then, when you do the drawing, the person who has the key that matches the number you drew, they win.

This is a fun way to save trees because they won't have to make paper tickets AND you'll be recycling the keys! You can even have participants dump all their keys back into the bucket at the end of the event, sort them for your next drawing and then do the same thing all over again.

As always, feel free to share your ideas, too!
Sonya :)

__._

TIPS: How to save water (and thus save on your water bill!)

2010-11-03T13:27:00.002-04:00

Here are my tips for ways to save / reuse / recycle water.

- When we give the younger children baths, we start with the dirtiest and then use the same water for every subsequent child.

- If I'm not too tired after giving the children baths, we use that same water to then bathe our cats (you could bathe your dogs, etc.).

- I do not pour out fresh water. We use even small leftover cups of water. You can pour this in the cat water bowl. We put it in our chickens' water containers. Or, now that I keep water on the wood stove for humidity, I can even put leftover water in that pot and I don't have to run water out of our faucet.

- Keep the faucet turned OFF when brushing teeth. Only turn it on when rinsing.

- Collect rain water and use it for whatever you need.

- For particularly soiled clothes that need to be soaked, rather than soaking them in a tub of water or in the washer, put them in your bathtub and let the water run over them while you shower. If the clothes are that soiled, they're probably work or play clothes anyway so it's not like you're going to hurt them even if you stand on them while you shower.

- Rather than wasting the water from my pasta or other things that only use water to cook (like steaming veggies), I pour this into a container and reuse it to water plants and, depending on what the water was, I might also cook with it. I use water off steamed veggies, for example, in soups. It's VERY healthy water with lots of vitamins and minerals.

- If you're cleaning and the water gets so dirty that you need fresh cleaning water, sometimes you can pour the top water into another bucket and then dispose of the water at the bottom of the container. Then, just use the water you saved as your "fresh" water. Most of the sediment goes to the bottom so even though the water might be cloudy, it's unlikely to have as much muck in it.

- This might sound disgusting to some, but we are SERIOUS about saving water. At bedtime, when we know everyone is going to the bathroom anyway, rather than have everyone go and flush it seven times, we let everyone go to the bathroom and THEN flush it one time. (Well, with the exception of Sarah, who IS a 14 year old girl. She would rather die than do this so she is exempted. The three boys - of course - and Hannah, who is only 7, don't care. And I could care less. If you're all taking turns and USING the same toilet anyway, why not flush it all at once.)

- When our washer and dryer broke this spring, we bought an energy efficient set. It's supposed to save us water, but honestly I didn't see even a smidgen of a drop in our bill. That was very disappointing. I'm not sure what's up with that. I'm even washing less laundry now because I'm not having to wash each load twice to get it clean. You think that would really be saving us money, but there has been no difference from this change.

- Our dishwasher broke about six weeks ago and we have been washing all dishes by hand since then. My water bill for the past month came the other day and it was $23 LESS than every other month!! Our normal bill has been $75 / month for water ever since we moved into this house. This past month it was $52. That's an amazing difference and the only change was that we did not use the dishwasher at all. Amazing.

- Put a solid object (brick, bottle of water, etc.) in the back of your toilet so that it reduces the amount of water used in each flush. I have heard this one a lot, but I wonder how safe it is for your toilet. I may try it and see.

- Collect the "warm-up" water. This is a GREAT idea! I'm definitely going to try this. When people shower, they typically don't jump right into the cold water; they wait for it to warm up. I know we do this in our house, especially in the upstairs shower because it literally takes about ten minutes before the water is warm enough to even step into. That shower is about as far away as you can get from our water heater and there are lots of pipes in between. Anyway, the idea is that you put a plastic tub (or something) in the shower while you're waiting for the water to get warm and since that's clean water right out of the faucet, you can use it for anything you want!

Here is another idea for how to use the warm-up water. We recently installed a wood stove (so we could afford to have heat!) and we just LOVE IT!!! We are so very grateful to have it, but I would recommend that everyone save money and try to install a wood stove. It is such a great resource. We have actually been collecting the warm-up water in a large stew pot, then I let it heat up on the wood stove, then I pour that in the sink and that's the water I use for dishes! (We took out our dishwasher about a month ago). This way, I'm not paying extra for the water OR to heat the water to wash dishes. I also save some of the water on the rinse side and rinse the dishes in nice, clean, HOT water. :)

I am so excited about this!

I'm trying to find more uses for leftover cooking water other than the two I mentioned - watering plants and cooking. I would like to be able to cook with MORE of it. And I've wondered if I could use it to water my pets, especially our chickens because they use a lot of water. I'm not sure if it would be healthy for them, though, since some of the cooking water contains natural sodium and other minerals that might harm the chickens.

And of course, if there are any other tips in other areas on saving water, I'd love to hear those as well. I'm sure some of you have some great ideas and I'd like to try them!

Meanwhile, I hope some of you have enjoyed my tips and try some of them. I bet you'll save water and reduce your water bill. :)

Sonya

TIPS: What to do w/ those plastic cereal bags (inside boxes)

2010-11-03T13:27:00.001-04:00

If you buy cereal in boxes, you know that most of the time the cereal is actually in an interior plastic bag. The neat thing about these plastic bags is that they are a type of strong plastic that is much more sturdy than the plastic baggies you can buy for sandwiches and such. Here are some uses for these plastic cereal bags:

- Cut them so that they lay flat and use the bags instead of wax paper. They are essentially the same material.
- Use them to store vegetable seeds. Just cut the bag down to the size you want it and tie it closed at the top with a bread twist.
- You can store small loaves of bread in these bags. They're perfect for this because they're actually more sturdy than regular storage bags and they are meant to keep breaded-type products (cereal) fresh.
- Use them to freeze things like hamburger meat or a little bag of homemade dough. When you take out the meat or dough, it comes right out of the plastic.
- Collect all the little crumbs of cereal in one of these bags and keep it stored in the refrigerator. When it's about 1/3 to 1/2 full, use a rolling pin to roll over all the cereal you have in the bag and you create bread crumbs. These are especially tasty because they're a little sweeter than regular bread crumbs. You can use them on your salads, in soup (in place of crackers), or on casseroles. This is also a good solution for what to do with that tiny bit of leftover cereal that isn't enough for a bowl.

Any other ideas????? Please share with the rest of us!

Sonya :)

My thoughts on where our country is headed...

2010-10-20T09:25:00.000-04:00

Regarding socialism: “What is common to many is least taken care of, for all men have greater regard for what is THEIR OWN than what they possess in common with others.” Aristotle

Regarding our current society, where we've been told that it takes a village to raise a child and we're all responsible for our neighbor (via taxes through the government): "Whether it’s property, a job task, taking care of a child, etc., as a responsibility becomes further removed from an individual, the less accountability that person feels, which makes it much easier to deny responsibility, take care of the property, complete the task, train the child, etc." - That one’s from me so if you use it, please quote it! :)

Sonya Haskins

Bad Luck

2010-10-20T04:08:00.002-04:00

I told you guys I have bad luck. Yesterday I went to Kingsport (using a lot of gasoline!) and DOUBLE checked the time on the business door.... Hours - 7:30 to 4:30 Mon - Thurs. I drove home, realized my product needed slight tweaking, and quickly drove back.

I arrived at 4:03 and the doors were locked, with a different sign that said, "New Hours - 7:30 to 4:00"

@?!M#KLI#**@!!!!! Anyone want to trade places?!?

Singapore math - first grade workbook

2010-09-18T03:25:00.002-04:00

There are several things I really like about the Singapore Approach to math and this workbook in particular.

1. It's all in black and white on the inside pages, which allows the student to focus on the MATH concepts / problems rather than being distracted by lots of flashy color and activities.

2. There is a terrific variety of problem types. Students do basic addition and subtraction in different formats, learn to use picture and bar graphs, figure out how to "translate" items into units, compare numbers, learn to regroup, telling time, counting money, solve basic word problems and much more. Normally I would think this was a bit much for a first grade book, but the concepts are added in a sensible order so that students progress at a reasonable rate.

3. There is plenty of review. Students are not bombarded with the same problems over and over, but the author does include enough review exercises so that the student will not forget the material in previous lessons.

4. The ONLY thing I didn't like about the book were short sections where the student had to write the particular mathematics "rule" for a function. Although I thought this was a bit too much to write for first graders, we got around this problem by simply letting our first grader TELL us the answer out loud (rather than write it down) so the book still gets five stars!

I wish all public schools would use this book. It makes learning math so much easier. As for homeschoolers - you have a choice! Don't hesitate. This is a wonderful product and if you have more than one child close to first grade level, you could let them all work through it together. You don't HAVE to use it just for first grade.

The Ocean by Frank Sherwin (from the Wonders of Creation series by Master Books)

2010-09-18T02:54:00.002-04:00

I was thrilled when a friend gave me this book as I had been wanting it for quite some time. We homeschool and I'm always looking for great materials to use as part of our educational curriculum.

The book pretty much covers all the material an elementary or even junior high age student would need to know about the ocean and the author used a cross-topical approach to the material. In other words, he integrated information, statistics, and supplemental material from other subjects as well. As students learn about oceanic ridges, hydrothermal vents, tides, the oceanic food chain, etc., they're also learning vocabulary, science, geology, geography, math, nutrition, and more. There are maps, diagrams, photographs, and drawings.

All the diversity makes the book appealing to learners of all ages and learning styles.

As other reviewers have mentioned, there is a chapter called "The Genesis Flood." In my opinion, a book about the ocean wouldn't be complete without a mention of this event. What I like about it is the fact that this is not simply another book that mentions the flood and expects you to accept it as fact. The author has actually taken the time to evaluate various arguments for a worldwide flood and examine them from a scientific point of view.

Finally, I really appreciated the conversion charts at the back of the book. This was quite helpful when discussing nautical terms like "fathoms" with my students - my children.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone, but especially for educators wanting to provide their students with some excellent educational material that will hold their interest. This book is ideal for any unit study or homeschool curricula regarding the ocean. You could use it independently or find some fantastic supplemental material in the teacher's guide.

Sonya Haskins

legalizing marijuana

2010-09-16T23:46:00.000-04:00

I was reading a news article (link below) about legalizing marijuana and Micah asked what "Mary - J - You - Anna" is. I told him it was a drug and explained this a little bit. There was a photo of a marijuana leaf there and also a video. Micah asked to watch the video so I clicked play. They started talking about how more many are pushing to legalize the drug and now many civil rights organizations are behind the movement. Why? Because African Americans are more likely to be arrested for possession or intent to sell marijuana, civil rights groups like NAACP are basically saying that it's a racial issue and police are using the opportunity to put black people in jail.

Micah sat there quietly and then he said, "That's all just so silly. Maybe the black people just eat more marijuana than white people!"

I LOVE homeschooling - and innocent children - and a preteen who has enough sense to know that not EVERYTHING is linked to racism. Sometimes people make bad choices and a crime shouldn't be legalized simply because most people committing the crime are of a certain race. Give me a BREAK!

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/09/16/legalizing-marijuana-a-civil-right/?test=latestnews

Sonya

Outward versus Inward Obedience - follow up post

2010-09-16T09:35:00.001-04:00

Following the article I posted about Outward versus Inward Obedience, someone posed the question about how to handle a teen / preteen who was lying. I thought perhaps my comments to them might be helpful to someone else as well. Below is the response.

I wouldn't hesitate to spank a preteen for lying. Generally I think spanking should be reserved for younger children and direct disobedience, but there are circumstances where I do think it's appropriate to spank a preteen for lyi...ng. (I probably would not spank a teenager. At that point, I think there are other things you can do and besides, I believe they are accountable for themselves at that age and you have to appeal to them in a different way. Biblically I think teenagers are adults and not only should be treated as such, but should have appropriate consequences, which do NOT include spanking, but might include a breech of trust, for example. If you can't trust him/her and the child asks to do something that involves trust (like going somewhere with a friend), well, the answer would be NO until that child can regain your trust.

I would also keep the following in mind...

First, WHY is the child lying? Is he afraid he is going to get in TROUBLE? We've always made it VERY clear to our kids that they'll get in a whole heck of a lot more trouble if they lie. Make it to their advantage to tell you the truth. : ) If parents haven't done this in the past, I don't think it's ever too late to start. Just have a chat w/ your children, lay the new ground rules and go from there.

Second, WHEN is the child lying? Does he/she lie more to mom or dad or when siblings / friends are present, etc.? Try to make note of this and avoid that situation.

Many parents put their children on the spot and for some kids, they just speak before they think. Give your kids an opportunity to THINK about what they want to say and then answer your question. For example, if you think your child did something and you go to them and say, "Did you do this?!?" A lot of children will lie automatically. If you go to them and say, "You know... I want to talk with you about something, but I do NOT want you to answer right now. Since you've had some difficulty with being honest lately (be honest with them about this!!), I think it would be best if you let me ask you this question and then you sit here and think about it for a few minutes. I will come back in about five minutes, unless you would like to come to me first, and ask you again. What I'm wondering about is whether you hit your brother. If you tell me the truth, you will NOT be punished, but you will still have to apologize and make restitution (always - an apology and restitution are NOT negotiable). If you lie about it and I find out that you've lied, you will not only receive a spanking (younger kids), but you will also lose your computer and tv time for a week."

Finally, I think some parents forget to approach children with a kind tone in a non-aggressive manner. Be gentle. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Even if you KNOW they did it (as parents often do), give them the opportunity to be HONEST with you, confess their sins, and ask forgiveness. This will create a better relationship than if the parent automatically accuses the child, which many parents do when they already know if the child did it. Even children respond defensively when parents do this... like most adults would.

Those are mostly more tips on avoiding the lying in the first place. I just think prevention is much better than punishment after the fact. And truly, I believe that if you do most of these things, the lying will be reduced. I'm not saying that no kid will lie, but certainly we've found even with other children who stay with us who lie a lot, they tend not to lie when we present them with these options. They LIKE to be in control of their own destiny. If you let THEM choose whether to be punished or not punished, most will choose not to lie about something.

Now, with all that said ... let's say you KNOW your child did something because you have the evidence. Let's say you told them not to get on the computer, but you go to the history and find out that they were on the computer and to top it off, they were on a bad website! You ask them about it, give them time to think about their answer, and then they STILL lie to you. If they were younger, I'd spank them. Regardless of age, I would show them the evidence - pull up the history. Show them that you KNOW they were on it. (And be sure no one else had access to the computer in your home. Make sure your dh or no one else accessed that computer.) Then see what they say. Regardless of what they say, if you know they did it, punishment is necessary. For something like that, I would not allow them to be on the computer for at least a week. If they were on a "bad" website, I wouldn't let them on for a MONTH! I'm not kidding. And even then, I would make sure the parent did their part, too - putting safety controls on computer, etc. And then monitor computer time. You don't want your child developing an addition to something like pornography just because the parent didn't want to take the time to address the issue. (And of course I'm not talking about YOU. I know you would address it.)

Basically just as you would for any transgression, try to make the punishment fit the "crime" as much as possible. If they've lied about getting on the computer, then don't allow them access t...o the computer. If they lie about completing chores, give them extra chores - an unpleasant one! If they lie about where they are going, then they have to have a parent or other trustworthy escort in the future until you trust them again. If their lies are about basic stuff - who drank the last milk and put the container back in the fridge or who took someone's candy, etc. ... generally on these types of issues, I think the child lies because the parent has overreacted in the past. Let him/her KNOW that you are NOT going to do that!!!

Yesterday I opened the fridge and there was a gallon of milk in there. I pulled it out to mash potatoes and there was not even a DROP of milk in the container. I yelled out to the children and said, "Guys, who just drank all the milk and put the empty container back in the fridge?!?" Christopher came in the kitchen and said he had done that. He was HONEST. He told the TRUTH. Rather than go into a tirade about how irresponsible that was, how he shouldn't do that, etc., I just gently reminded him that it's best if he takes it out to the trash can and then... well, I had him TAKE IT OUT to the trash can! In other words, he had to do what he was trying to avoid in the first place, but no amount of yelling or no punishment would have made a difference as much as simply letting him do what he should have done to begin with. I think parents just get worked up over ridiculous things sometimes and if they'd just remember what it's like to be a kid and encourage their children rather than tearing them down, we'd all be a lot happier.

So my answer to your question... in addition to all the things I said above (LOL!!)... is to try and find the reason they are lying. Praise them when they tell the truth. Ensure them that you will punish them either way, but the punishment will be much worse if they lie about it. And then make sure you follow through with what you've said. Do not punish them as severely if they do tell the truth. Sometimes it takes kids a while to develop that trust again. Much of this depends on why they are lying so I would definitely consider all the issues I said in the last post - situation, previous punishments, person they're talking to, etc. WHY are they lying to you???

If this is something you'd rather discuss more privately, feel free to e-mail me. Otherwise, I hope these more detailed answers have helped you a little more.

Sonya Haskins
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Outward versus Inward Obedience

2010-09-16T09:34:00.002-04:00

This is a bit long, but I think it's important if you can take the time to read it. Sonya

In my newest book, Homeschooling for the Rest of Us (Bethany House, 2010), I talk about outward versus inward obedience. When parents write to ask me questions, one of the most common questions I receive is exactly HOW to train your child to have inward obedience with a cheerful heart versus the outward appearance of obedience when there really is no compliance there.

This is probably the most difficult thing to understand and to enforce as a parent, I think, because we cannot SEE our children's hearts. I will tell you, though, that I do believe this is one of the best reasons to homeschool - you know your children better. I positively KNOW when my children are trying to be deceptive. We haven't ever had an issue with blatant lying, but from time to time they will not tell the whole story (which, yes, we still consider a lie, but they know this and are appropriately punished.) They don't do this very often either, but that's because we've emphasized time and again how bad lying is. I think it's the foundation of sin actually... Satan lied to Adam and Eve. They lied to themselves about the consequences, etc. It's just always best to be truthful.

For younger children, you just have to start NOW in training the child to have inward obedience. As a mom, for the most part, it's very easy to tell when younger children are lying. They might say they didn't take the cookie, but they have chocolate all over their faces. LOL If that happens, you not only have to punish the child, but you also have to discuss with him / her the dangers of lying. What sort of punishment am I talking about? For lying, I think with little children you have to make sure they know what lie is. Certainly by the age of three I think they do. At that point, I would spank a child if he/she lied to me. We do NOT spank for a lot of transgressions, but blatant disobedience or lying will always get you a spanking. And at the same time, I think it's important to encourage them NOT to lie. If our children do something and they tell the TRUTH, they receive an alternate punishment, NOT a spanking - ever. We never want to punish truthfulness. They still have to be punished for the thing they did wrong. Let's say they took that cookie on the counter that you told them not to touch. Well, their punishment might be that they don't get any dessert at dinner when everyone else IS having dessert. Kids even as young as two WILL accept this punishment and they WILL associate it with their own "crime," so to speak. If they told the truth, I think that's sufficient punishment. If they lied, however, and they understand what a lie is, then I think a spanking is in order and still they lose their dessert.

One thing to remember is that good behavior CAN be modeled. Be honest with your children. Of course when they're as young as your children, you can't tell them everything, but as they get older, expose your OWN heart to them. If you yell at them one day for no reason other than you felt bad, take the time to apologize for that. This is something a lot of Christian "leaders" will tell you not to do - don't EVER expose yourself to your child. Don't EVER let them think you're anything but perfect. While I do respect their viewpoint and certainly they have the right to think this, I totally disagree. Only one person who walked this earth was ever perfect and it certainly wasn't me. Children will eventually figure this out anyway and if you have LIED to them by making them think you are perfect, well... this actually creates the exact situation you wanted to avoid, which is that they then think it's ok to deceive people. Once deception starts, it's easier to convince yourself that everything is ok - from your right to HAVE an item (stealing) to your right to listen to bad music, do drugs, have sex, etc.

Practical answers???

- Be truthful WITH your children.

- Expect truth FROM your children.

- Punish your children if they lie.

- Punish your child's sin if they tell the truth, but I recommend not using spanking. Take away privileges for the fact that they did something wrong, but reserve spanking only for lies. If they tell the truth, be willing to give a little.

- Read stories of people who do bad things and suffer bad consequences, who make good choices in various situations, who model GOOD behavior (character building stories). - Point out examples of bad behavior when you can. If you see a child at the supermarket screaming and kicking because he WANTS THAT TOY!!!!, point the behavior out to your children. Ask them what's wrong with the picture. Let THEM learn to see these things for themselves rather than YOU telling them - don't yell and kick at the supermarket (or anywhere else). They might say something like, "That boy is being loud and rude." Then you can say, "That's right. Why shouldn't he do that?" ... It's disturbing other customers. He is disrespecting his mom / dad. He is yelling for a toy, but it will probably break in a week anyway and it certainly is NOT worth getting that upset over. : ) You get the idea. Let THEM come up with ideas and then add in some that they might miss. - PRAISE your children for good choices.

- Model good behavior. You probably don't smoke, but some parents do. Their children are very likely to smoke. The "do as I say and not as I do" doesn't work well with kids. Do as you would like for them to do.

- Serve others and allow your children time to serve others as well. Allow older siblings to help with younger ones, but certainly do NOT expect them to be your little babysitters. (I say this because I've seen parents do this and it seems to create animosity. I am NOT talking about the buddy system. That's a great way to encourage relationships and also to have older children and teens develop the ability to help with younger children so that they will be better prepared for their own families. I'm talking about when parents just constantly expect the older sibling to occupy the younger one so that mom/dad can be on the computer, cell phone, etc. THAT creates animosity toward the younger sibling and the parent.)

- Encourage your children to play together and play WITH them. This gives you an opportunity to point out behaviors as they happen, not later, through second-hand tattling. Of course you can't always be right there, but definitely I think parents should be with young children as much as possible. If you can instill the values while they are little, then your life will be MUCH easier when they are bigger. - Read GOOD books to your children. Watch GOOD quality movies w/ your children. Make sure your children have access to friends, but friends with parents who have similar values to yours. If they let their child run around and hit other kids in the head during the whole play date, it's likely that your child will go home and bonk a younger sibling in the head.

While most of these practical tips may sound like discipline issues rather than "heart" issues, it all ties very closely together. If you focus on discipline and obedience when your children are younger, then it's much easier to KNOW your child and also to redirect him/her as the child grows older. This in itself will help you and your child have the kind of relationship where you can redirect his/her heart. If your child knows he can trust you, for example, to be fair, then he is more likely to tell the truth. If your child does not trust you, he is a lot more likely to try to hide the truth, get away with sneaky behavior, allow his friends (or the tv or computer or whatever) to become his main source of advice, etc. All of those things can cause huge problems and certainly they're focused on outward behavior. So the single best thing you can do to encourage inward obedience with a cheerful attitude is to KNOW your child. Encourage him when he makes good choices and punish him appropriately (not unfairly or overly so) when he makes bad choices (knowingly). I would never punish a child simply for childish behavior or "mistakes," such as spilling a glass of milk on the floor. Now if he threw it across the room, that would be different, but I think too many parents yell at their children when they have accidents and this only serves to tear down the relationship so that the child no longer trusts that adult.

You must also focus on LOVE. When I talk about developing a relationship with your child, I'm not only talking about spending time with that child, but you are showing the child that you can be trusted, that you LOVE him, that you are there for him. Too many parents are just ... well, just not "present" today. They're too busy with their own activities, their own concerns, their worries, their games, their chat rooms, etc. I believe everyone sees time as love to an extent, but certainly children do. If you do not take the TIME to show them you LOVE them, then you will lose this in your relationship. The best way to develop trust and thus have the authority to direct their hearts when they're having a difficult time and making tough choices is by establishing a firm foundation in the relationship.

As for resources, the best resource I know that actually addresses this particular issue is Educating the WholeHearted Child, by Clay and Sally Clarkson. I found it early in my homeschooling journey and I'm so thankful for that.

So to summarize how to encourage inward obedience, spend the first few years of your child's life focusing on discipline and obedience - "slow obedience is NOT obedience." Praise your child for good choices and talk with him or her in areas where the child is struggling. Be honest with your child. LOVE your child. Spend time with your child. Expose your child to positive FRIENDSHIPS and others whom you trust to also help your child develop the values you want to instill in your child.

Sonya

Me and My Flying Machine by Marianna Mayer - children's book review

2010-09-12T01:00:00.002-04:00

This is a very imaginative story about a young boy who builds a flying machine and then, in a dream, imagines all the fantastic things he can create and do with his flying machine, from delivering mail to Eskimos to letting birds rest on his wings. It's a very precious story by Marianna Mayer that makes use of Mercer Mayer's delightful illustrations.

The only thing I didn't like about the story is the ending. Please do not SPAM my review based on this simple comment. It's an ADORABLE story that has value for kids of all ages and for generations in the past and in the future. My comment isn't negative so much as the fact that I wanted the story to continue. Since he ended with a destroyed flying machine and made plans instead to build a rowboat, I would like to have seen a follow up volume with the rowboat! :)

Sonya Haskins
author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us: How Your One-of-a-Kind Family Can Make Homeschooling and Real Life Work (Bethany House, 2010)

author: Marianna Mayer
publisher: Parents' Magazine Press
publication date: 1971

P.B. Bear: The Snowy Ride - children's book review

2010-09-12T00:53:00.003-04:00

There are many things I love about this adorable children's book, including:

- the story is engaging
- the pictures are absolutely precious, creative, and almost tell the story themselves through the poses of the characters (the bear and his dog) and the scenery
- the way they use the layout of the text to "illustrate" what is going on in the story. This is difficult to explain if you haven't seen the book, but the words are occasionally bent to go up and down, etc. when the characters are jumping off a hill or falling off their sled, etc.

This is a hardcover book with thicker than average pages that will stand up to being turned by little fingers that haven't developed dexterity. Finally, as the cover says, "Read Aloud," "Read Along," "Read Alone" - it's great for all!

I would highly recommend this book as an addition to any children's book collection.

Sonya Haskins
author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us: How Your One-of-a-Kind Family Can Make Homeschooling and Real Life Work (Bethany House, 2010)

author: Lee Davis
publisher: Dorling Kindersley
publication date: 1997

Ridgewood Grammar: The Language Connection

2010-09-06T23:18:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I think it's tempting to purchase more "flashy" curricula with lots of colors, pictures, and long, drawn out explanations of simple concepts, but often this ends up being a distraction to students. Besides that, it's just unnecessary. Ridgewood Grammar: The Language Connection covers all the basics of grammar, including:
- nouns
- verbs
- pronouns
- adverbs
- conjunctions
- prepositions
- adjectives and more.

The book is basically designed as a workbook and it covers every grammatical topic necessary for elementary grammar. You could also use this workbook as review for the older student who needs supplemental grammar exercises. The explanations are short and easy to understand. The examples are clear and concise. Each concept is followed with a variety of exercises (fill in the blank, answer short questions, choose the correct answer, etc.).

While you could use this with one student in a specific grade, it could also be used in a multi-grade homeschool setting as well. I'm using it this year with my three sons, who are being homeschooled in grades 4, 5 and 7.

Sonya Haskins
author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us (Bethany House, 2010)

Some thoughts about sharing other people's posts

2010-05-13T01:21:00.001-04:00

Last week I posted something on one of my sites and I saw basically my exact thoughts on someone else's page later that day. I was thinking about how (a) perhaps it was coincidence, (b) they were trying to reword my thoughts into their own or (c) they blatantly stole what I was saying and just shared it on their own site.

I know one day a friend of mine mentioned that I had posted something from her Facebook page on my own and I had NO idea what she was talking about because I didn't get it off her page; it came from my aunt's page. It was one of those things that's just spread around over and over... most likely no one will ever know the original source and it's more of just a fun thing rather than anything important and it certainly has completely lost any connection with the original author. (But I also thought that if people had left the original attribution there from whoever wrote it in the first place, we WOULD know who said it originally.) One thing I did learn from that, however... no matter how innocent the post, I will ALWAYS say where I got it from if they aren't my own original thoughts. This was the only time I recall forwarding something without saying where it came from and I regretted that afterward.

So anyway, based on that conversation w/ my friend, I do know that sometimes it can seem like something came off your own page when it really didn't. We all have access to a LOT of information - "dangerous diversions," I suppose Obama would say - and so obviously some of us are going to share the same things.

If it were the second option, that my friend was simply trying to take my thoughts and reword them into their own thoughts, that's something else people frequently do. There's nothing really "wrong" with this, but generally I think it's polite to at least mention that you got the idea from "so and so" (whoever so and so is...). After all, it wasn't really YOUR original thought - it was someone else's. The least you could do is give them credit.

If their intention was truly just to "steal" what I wrote and post it on their own page, well, all of us could probably (maybe???) agree that this is wrong. In today's world, I wouldn't be shocked if there were those out there who still said this was OK. I had students in my college English class who told me quite frankly that their high school English teachers didn't care when they bought papers off the Internet or copied them from another student, so why should I?!? Well, let me give you alllll the reasons... Just kidding. I'll save that for another day. : )

Anyway, when I write things, you may have noticed that I frequently share LINKS with my comments - often to the original news source. I always try to use the original news source when possible. One reason for this is that typically when you go to the original source, you're more likely to have a more accurate version of the story. Second, I think the person or news outlet who went through the trouble of sharing the story initially should get the credit for covering it. They DO keep track of hits and they monitor these things to see which stories receive ratings. I would like for them to see higher ratings on things that interest me so they would continue to cover those topics.

If another social networking friend or homeschooler or whoever sends me a link, I ALWAYS say that the link was sent to me from someone else and post the person's name out of courtesy. I love it when people share links with me or send me information that I might not have seen. While I do try to stay on top of political issues - especially as they relate to homeschooling, general education issues and other "ridiculous" news of our day - sometimes I miss things. If you send me news of this nature, I'll share it! If you don't want me to mention that the link came from you, however, then just let me know and I'll leave off your name. I do realize that sometimes people don't want to be associated with something, but they still would like to let others know about it.

Finally, if you really enjoy the things I post and you share them with others, please just do a "share," post a link to my original blog post, or let others know where your material came from. I had someone write me earlier this week and say that they couldn't believe I wrote something myself!! Well, you know... there are days when that's about all I CAN do. And one thing I can do is write. Even if you don't believe it, yep, sometimes I can actually write pretty well and say something intelligent. : ) Tonight I have a horrible headache (at the base of my skull - it feels like another of what I call "blood thinner" headaches and they're AWFUL!!) and my legs are feeling like they need to be chopped off again. It's after midnight and despite two hours in bed, I couldn't sleep because I feel too bad! So... yep, here I am - writing. It seems that the Lord has given me the ability to write even when I'm accomplishing much of nothing else. Perhaps it's good that He has given me this ability. It serves as a diversion from the pain and sometimes I can't tell you how badly I need that!!!

Also, writing is how I make my living. It would be nice to sell books. I am not physically able to get out there as much as I would like and promote the books all across the US. I would love to speak at conferences, but it's very difficult to find an opening. I'd very much enjoy traveling and speaking while promoting the books at the same time as I've done in the past, but right now finances don't make this possible. So basically my means of communication with the outside world is through blogs and other things I post.

Of course I don't make much money writing and I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. When people have wanted to share my articles and such in the past in publications, I've always allowed them to do this, for free. The Lord frequently places something on my heart that I feel needs to be shared and if that's the case, then who am I to say how it should be used. If I saved it in a file and never shared it with anyone else, I wouldn't be obeying the Lord very well to share what he has given me! On the other hand, it is a general courtesy of others to at least mention where they obtained the material, especially since I do not ask for compensation. : ) I think credit should be given simply because it's GOOD MANNERS.

I realize that there are going to be many times when there are hundreds of people talking about the same thing at the same time, but I just think if someone is going to use someone else's post (whether it's one line or several paragraphs), people should have the decency to provide credit to their source. We do live in an age where this "politeness" has largely been overlooked due to the rapid advancement of technology and people honestly don't think twice about plagiarism these days, but that doesn't mean it's right. And it boils down to this... plagiarism isn't just a direct quoting of someone without citation. Plagiarism also includes changing someone else's words slightly or copying someone's thoughts or ideas and pass them as your own.

Chris and I were talking about this tonight as he told me about a report (that I haven't read yet) about how we are wasting billions of tax dollars each year educating students AGAIN in remedial classes in college after we've already put them through twelve years of government school before college. While lack of high academic standards is a problem, when you take character or morals out of the picture (as we largely have in most government schools), the outlook will REMAIN bleak and most likely GET WORSE. If a student knows he can cheat (copy, lie, etc.) without it being a problem, then why should he bother to "waste" his time studying. For some students, it's more of a challenge to spend their time finding ways to beat the system.

If you're a parent, be an example for your children on social networking sites and blogs: DON'T copy someone else's work!

If you're a student, be original. I'd much rather hear what YOU have to say than a regurgitation of someone else's thoughts. : )

Sonya Haskins
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

back in contest, please vote again

2010-05-12T14:16:00.001-04:00

Since there were people cheating in the Pigeon Forge contest, we weren't sure we were going to continue participating. They postponed voting for a few days and fixed the issue so that people can only vote once. Now we really need MORE people to vote once each day. Could you please bookmark the page and just go on each day, sort by votes, and click on our family (listed as "Sonya H - Jonesborough, TN, 4/14/2010"). It's easiest to find us if you sort by vote. Hopefully we'll stay on the first page!

We MUST be in the top ten to win for the month of May. Could you please vote and ask your friends and family to vote for us as well? We'd really appreciate it.

Here is the link: http://www.mypigeonforge.com/savingvacations/Story/Page1

Thanks so much!!

Sonya :)

P.S. If you'd like to find more about our family, please visit my website - www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

more children slaughtered in China

2010-05-12T00:47:00.001-04:00

Do you all remember my post a couple of weeks ago about all the attacks against children in China? I wrote that post on April 29. The next day, a farmer in Shandong attacked children w/ a hammer - injuring five children.

And earlier today, Wednesday, May 12, a man in Hanzhong killed seven kindergartners and injured 20 others.

Again, I ask... how can this possibly be a coincidence??? And if it isn't - they're claiming "copycat" killers are doing this due to "social inequality" - do they really have that many people who would be willing to MURDER children as young as four years old for no apparent reason whatsoever ... or because they aren't receiving "social justice"?!? After all, that's what they're claiming - that people are so upset about social inequality that they're murdering kindergartners. And if we had social justice, as we're trying to achieve in the United States (gag there), all these poor little children wouldn't be dying. Doesn't this sound like a HUGE conspiracy to anyone other than myself ???? As I asked before, "What is going on in China?!?" Even if one incident was linked to "social inequality," I find it difficult to believe that this many unrelated men in unrelated situations and locations would just suddenly decide to hack some little children to death because they think life's not fair! Especially in a country where children are held so dear.

The link I'm posting below has a Beijing Associated Press article about the latest attack.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/7-children-killed-in-latest-attack-at-chinese-kindergarten/article1565685/?cmpid=rss1

Here was my original blog post from April 29 about all the attacks:
http://thehomeschoollady.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-in-world-is-going-on-in-china.html

How incredibly sad...
Sonya

Sinkhole swallows part of village, including home and family

2010-05-11T22:35:00.001-04:00

I've heard of stories of sinkholes and landslides before, but people usually know when to anticipate them and leave the location for safety. Yesterday a huge sinkhole opened up in Canada, swallowed up part of a village, including one huge house and the family within. All have been found and are confirmed dead. It's sad how many more of these stories we're seeing and how much damage is being done. Here is the link from the original news source, where you can see an aerial photo. It's not the best, but it gives you an idea of the devastation.

http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100511/100511_landslide/20100511/?hub=CP24Home

Sonya

No longer a Christian nation??

2010-05-11T10:59:00.001-04:00

Just thought everyone should know that I had a very long chat w/ my uncle last night. Actually, that's not what you need to know. :) He is a missionary in the Czech Republic and he has been here on furlough for six months. He is returning on Friday and we spent some time chatting before he has to leave. He has served the people of the Czech Republic for about 8 years now. It's very difficult work because a majority of the population there is atheist. They just have no concept of "God." They just do not believe a God exists AT ALL.

While I was wishing him the best and telling him that I will continue to pray for his family and the work they're doing there to bring people to Christ, he said that he appreciates it, but after this six month furlough, he is much more concerned about our country - the United States of America. He said it has changed so much from when he was growing up and even from 8 years ago, when he first went overseas. He said it seems more like an Islamic nation now rather than a Christian nation. What he said is true and it just broke my heart.

He is in Europe trying to minister to and preach to a people who don't even believe God exists, but meanwhile, the country where he was born is rapidly transforming into a nation that no longer worships the Living God. He said he may be called back one day, but for now he believes the Lord wants his family in the Czech Republic.

My uncle discussed the fact that Europe is rapidly being taken over by Muslims. Here is one map where you can see the extent of the Muslim religion: http://btw.imb.org/news_map.asp

The Bible tells us that there will be the spread of FALSE PROPHETS and I believe this is what we're seeing, but it is sad to witness our nation - a CHRISTIAN nation - turns its back on God. But then... you can't really have a "Christian nation," can you? Being a Christian means someone is in an intimate, personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. A nation can't do that. We probably came closer than any other, since our founders established this nation on principles of personal accountability, just as we're personally accountable in our relationship with the Lord.

But we have been complacent. We have not shared the Gospel with friends and family. We have been "nice" and "fair" and allowed others to come in and take over our schools and our government. They come in the name of "freedom of religion," but they are still spreading their religion! These people have given "meat" to hungry souls, but the problem is that the meat they've shared is spoiled. And now - as a nation - our people are rotting from the food of the false prophets. Our unborn are being murdered. Our children are being led astray. Our young adults are given drugs and alcohol and unprecedented freedom that has led to sin and then we bail them out with more drugs, counseling, welfare checks. Adults are tired, sick, frustrated, lonely, divorced, immoral ... Everyone is SEEKING PEACE, yet they are seeking in the wrong places.

The Lord said that if we seek, we will find; if we knock, the door will be opened. This is the message we need to be sharing.

Sonya

Mosque at Ground Zero??

2010-05-11T10:22:00.001-04:00

I had been watching the news on this, but didn't realize a vote had taken place last week. I'll just paste the Eagle Forum writer's comments below. He says pretty much everything that needs to be said. It's sickening. And as always, if you don't receive these reports, I'd recommend you click on the link at the bottom of the e-mail and sign up.

Sonya

Exclusive: Spitting in the Face of Everyone Murdered on 9/11

Gadi Adelman

Well, it’s official, we have all lost our minds.

I read about this last December, plans for a mosque at Ground Zero, but like a fool, I assumed that New Yorkers would never let this come to pass. A mosque just 600 feet from where the World Trade Center towers once stood. I thought to myself; no way will New York or anyone with a heart or soul, not to mention just plain common sense, ever allow a mosque to be built anywhere near Ground Zero. But, as I said, I am a fool.

The project of a community center /mosque is being proposed by two organizations, the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) and their sister organization, the Cordoba Initiative. This past Wednesday night they made their presentation to the Community Board of lower Manhattan (CB1). Twelve people sit on the board and would you like to guess what the final vote was? Get ready to grab a barf bag … the 12 members voted unanimously to support the project. Yes, it’s not a typo, it was unanimous, all were in favor and, to give you an idea of how excited the board members were, they applauded during the presentation.

In an article in the New York Daily News on Thursday, retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches said,

"I realize it's not all of them, but I don't want to have to go down to a memorial where my son died on 9/11 and look at a mosque. If you ask me, it's a religion of hate." Deputy Chief Riches lost his son Jim, a firefighter, on 9/11.

Also quoted in the article was Rosemary Cain of Massapequa, L.I., whose son, firefighter George Cain, 35, was killed in the 2001 attacks, she called the project,

"a slap in the face. I think it's despicable. That's sacred ground," said Cain, "How could anybody give them permission to build a mosque there? It tarnishes the area."

The mosque would be located in a former Burlington Coat Factory outlet which is just 2 blocks or 600 feet from where the World Trade Towers once stood. I find it ironic that the building has been mostly abandoned since 9/11 because the landing gear of one of the hijacked airplanes crashed through its roof.

The leader and co-founder of the project, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, paid $4.85 million dollars for the building in December last year.

In a Fox NY channel 5 interview on Thursday, a 9/11 firefighter Tim Brown described the mosque project as,

"a Trojan horse being rolled into our most sacred ground". He asked the mosque's imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, where did Rauf get the reported $4.85 million in cash to purchase the building?

Needless to say, that question was never answered in full; Rauf would say only that the cash came from “members of the community.”

Tim Brown is a former NY firefighter and one of the few 9/11 survivors to survive the collapse of both WTC towers. He was also a first responder to the 1993 WTC bombing, also executed by a group of Islamic terrorists. He is the founder of the website thebravest.com.

I spoke with Matt Dunning, the Associate Editor of the Tribeca Trib newspaper on the telephone on Sunday. The Tribeca Trib is a monthly newspaper that covers lower Manhattan. Unlike most publications today, they actually report the news. Mr. Dunning explained to me that they “do not even do editorials for that reason”, they report on facts. He was at the CB1 board meeting Wednesday night. We spoke about his article on the meeting and I must say I was shocked when Dunning told me that “not one person from the community came to the meeting was in opposition. If someone had been, we would have reported it.”

This was a public board meeting, and no one who lives or works in this area even showed up to voice his or her opinion that they opposed the mosque? Have we actually arrived at the point in this country where forgiveness or ignorance overrides sense and responsibility?

Back on December 16^th, 2009, in an article written shortly after the purchase of the building, Youssef M. Ibrahim wrote the following in Hudson NY

“As a former New York Times and Wall Street Journal correspondent, and as a New York Sun columnist who covered Islamic fundamentalism extensively overseas and in the USA, I find the facts oddly lacking. The story as reported fails to answer, and avoids asking, so many pertinent questions.

The source of money matters as a significant part of the hundreds of mosques being built and already erected in this country double up as cultural Islamic centers for distributing literature-- Islamist propaganda in fact—from Bay Ridge Brooklyn to Detroit, and for schools growing Muslim minorities. They house Imams of unknown origin and education, many of whom do not speak a word of English but preach in Arabic and Urdu -- radical messages, it often turns out.

As a reporter familiar with the Arab communities of the USA, I doubt the faithful fork out all that money for mega mosques, and if they did, the mayor’s office should prove it, not merely accept someone’s say so. It is an established fact that a significant percentage of the mosques built in the USA in the past two decades are receiving a disproportionate amount of their funds not only from the Saudis, but also the UAE, Qatar and Iran -- all problematic Islamists activist nations. The government just discontinued work on a major Iranian-funded mosque and center in New York City, which had operated under the radar since the days of the good old Shah of Iran under the auspices of the Pahlavi Foundation, and has been owned since 1979 by the Mullahs of Iran.

The context here is that 15 of the 19 perpetrators of the attacks -- on the very site where this new mosque shall rise -- came from Saudi Arabia.”

He ended his article with “One would hope for a follow-up story or stories, and that New York City and its citizens at least ask harder questions, rather than submit to being misled in the interest of political correctness.”

The estimated cost for the 13 story building is $100 million dollars. According to page 8 of the ASMA website financial statements for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009 they have “temporarily restricted net assets” as follows:

UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) $ 53,664

MDG3 Fund (Millennium Development Goals) $481,942

Hunt Alternatives Fund $15,000

Carnegie Corporation of N.Y. $ 144,752

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund $50,000

Qatar government fund $576,312

Interestingly, I had no trouble locating all of the groups as linked above, except for the Qatar government fund, which donated over half a million dollars to ASMA in 2009.

The fact that the UN has a hand in this really comes as no surprise given that just last week they embraced the Islamic Republic of Iran by allowing them to become a member of The Commission on the Status of Women, as I wrote about in my article “Even if it were a joke, it wouldn’t be funny”.

Also, according to the same financial statement, on page 10 of the report they list their “Expenditure report for the period October 13, 2008 to June 30, 2009” leaving ASMA with a balance of $988,586.00 when converted from Euros to Dollars using the conversion noted on the same page.

So, assuming this “independent” audit is correct they ended their fiscal year on 6-30-09 with a balance of almost 1 million dollars. I wonder then, where is the money for a 100 million dollar mosque coming from?

As Youssef M. Ibrahim wrote in his article “It is an established fact that a significant percentage of the mosques built in the USA in the past two decades are receiving a disproportionate amount of their funds not only from the Saudis, but also the UAE, Qatar and Iran -- all problematic Islamists activist nations.”

Does anyone have the sense to connect the dots and follow the money trail? Is it not enough that the terrorists who were responsible for 9/11 are from the same country that is funding mosques all over our country, that we have to allow them to fund the building of a mosque in the very location where they committed the most heinous act in American history?

Using this analogy, had the bomb last week in Times Square actually exploded, we would be planning a mosque in Times Square right now. Have we lost our minds so much that we have moved to erecting monuments to perpetrators and not victims?

Currently, in the U.S. there are over 1200 mosques, with at least one in each state. I don’t see the need to build a new mosque at the same location where nearly 3000 people were murdered by terrorists who followed an Islamic ideology that will be preached inside this new one.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Gadi Adelman is a freelance writer and lecturer on the history of terrorism and counterterrorism. He grew up in Israel, studying terrorism and Islam for 35 years after surviving a terrorist bomb in Jerusalem in which 7 children were killed. Since returning to the U. S., Gadi teaches and lectures to law enforcement agencies as well as high schools and colleges. He is currently writing his first book, "Terrorism; Understanding the Threat". He can be reached through his website http://gadiadelman.com

Source: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.6177/pub_detail.asp

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Obama talks about technology

2010-05-10T17:06:00.001-04:00

Obama was fine with technology until everyone started recognizing - and talking about - his deception and manipulation. And even with the topic of technology, he can't avoid pulling the "race card," with words like "empowerment" and "emancipation." Regardless of one's race, those words sound great to a largely uneducated audience (thanks to the government school system), who are looking for someone to bail them out of all their woes. In other words, they cling to words like "empowerment" and "emancipation" and I believe they would throw their electronic devices off a cliff, and possibly jump themselves, if Obama said to do so. After all, he is the "savior."

Our Founding Fathers decided that their leader would be called a "president" and did not allow him to rise to the title of "king" or "dictator" for a reason - to preserve the integrity of our system of checks and balances and to ensure an individual's right to life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness. They never guaranteed that we would have these things, but if we work hard and keep our leaders in check, then our country provides more opportunity than any other for the tired, the poor, the wretched, the huddled masses YEARNING to breathe free.

It breaks my heart to see the things going on in this country. I believe Obama will use this new push against technology to suspend the flow of information as we know it, which is a direct violation of the First Amendment. If this happens, we will no longer have a chance against a tyrannical government. After all, the First Amendment protects ALL speech for a reason. Obama can claim that others are spreading lies, but without freedom of speech, we wouldn't be able to deny that or point out all his discrepancies of speech. It also seems ironic to me that suddenly Oprah has started an anti-cell phone campaign and Obama seemingly has started an anti-technology campaign.

Obama's real complaint can be found in his comments to the graduating class, when he stated that the students were "coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter." In reality, I think Obama is worried that those of us who are diligent will continue to find errors in his statements and expose his lies, his deception, and his blatant intent to transform our country from the republic it once was to a pure socialist state where justice, money, property, and everything else is "distributed" under the control of a strong central government, thus removing the rights of the individual altogether!

Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us

Need advice about getting a dog

2010-05-09T13:15:00.002-04:00

OK... It your turn to give me advice. I enjoy sharing news, information, advice, etc., but sometimes I need help as well! This is one of those times. :)

Our son Daniel, who will be nine next weekend, has wanted a dog since he was a toddler. He LOVES dogs. He just adores them. He has asked for a dog EVERY year for his birthday and Christmas. Last year he wrote us a letter and told us the ONLY thing he wanted for Christmas was a dog - no presents or anything. He even said he'd get a job to pay for the food if we would let him get a dog.

So the perseverance is definitely there. This is not a passing phase. His birthday is coming this weekend and what does he want ... the same thing he has wanted for the past seven years! A dog. He has researched dog breeds and came up with about 20 selections that would "match" well with our "family dynamics." I'm not kidding. The kid is smart. He went through and looked at the dogs' needs based on family size, climate, food requirements, size of dog, temperament, etc. He gave me a list and said that IF I were going to get him a dog, these would be the best ones to consider. :)

My problem is this. I do NOT like dogs!! Ask any of my friends who have seen me around dogs and they'll tell you that I just don't like dogs. They seem to like me. Every time I'm around a dog, the goofy things try to sit in my lap, stand next to me, want to be petted, etc. They definitely want my attention, but I just don't like the furry little things. They seem to KNOW what you're thinking - like when you're happy or sad, etc. (You should also know that it's not just that I'm weird. I was attacked by a dog when I was 12 and had numerous bites all over my legs before someone saved me from the attacking creature! So I actually have a reason not to trust dogs.)

So here is my dilemma... Do we allow Daniel to have a dog and try to force me to overcome my doggy fear? Or do we just tell him no on the ONE thing he has wanted most in his life and just tell him he can have a dog when he leaves home? It's not like we're talking about a pony or even a kid who wants something "bad." We're just talking about a dog and I don't want Daniel to grow up thinking that the ONE thing he wanted as a kid he could never have. I know there are valid reasons why someone would say no to a "simple" request, for example, such as if a mom is allergic to cats, then it would make sense to tell the child that cats are OUT of the question. I am not allergic to dogs. I just don't like them.

I've thought about the possibility of telling him he could have an outside dog. We do already have a dog cage. (We were using if for our chickens.) :) With the outside cage, we could keep the dog in the cage at night, which might help protect against some of the predators we have out here - coyotes, raccoons, opossums, etc. Then, each day, Daniel could go out and play with his dog.

You should know a little about Daniel before you comment. He is my quietest child. He rarely talks. He enjoys books and reading and words (as in what they mean and using the right word, but not necessarily the use of a LOT of words). :) He is definitely a thinker and I was hoping that a dog would help him come out of his shell a little. I am not worried about his ability to care for the dog. That's not even an issue. He is very responsible and I know he would care for the dog and play with the dog and enjoy the dog. I am more worried about my ability to accept the dog.

Please share your thoughts.

Thanks!
Sonya :)

P.S. Also, we are NOT looking for advice about where to get a dog. If we do get one, we'll get it from the animal shelter.

DNA research may discover if Lost Colony settlers integrated w/ local Indian tribe

2010-05-09T11:43:00.002-04:00

A British group - in conjunction with scientists in USA - is going to do an investigation to see if descendants of the Croatoan tribe show DNA likeness to relatives of settlers who came to Roanoke - the Lost Colony - in 1587. Later settlers found the original Lost Colony settlers gone and the only clue was a word, "Croatoan," carved into a tree. I've always thought this was such an amazing mystery and wished someone would do DNA research on this. It should be relatively easy to tell if the blue-eyed Indians reported on the East Coast were actually descendants of Indians who had married the English settlers. This would be a wonderful finding if they were able to come to conclusive results. It will probably be some time before we know anything else, but I thought some of you might want to read this if you haven't heard about the research yet.

Here's the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/06/bideford-devon-america-lost-colony

Sonya :)

Comments

You can follow our progress here:

http://the-lost-colony.blogspot.com/

Ten seconds of your time - and we're not trying to sell you anything!!

2010-05-08T01:05:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine nominated my family for a contest where we could potentially win a vacation to Pigeon Forge plus $15,000 toward our mortgage payment!! It would be an amazing thing. How do we win? All we have to do is get the most votes. I thought - WOW!! Homeschoolers are the MOST loyal people in the world. I think we could actually do this. So I asked people to vote. We have a bunch of friends, even more acquaintances, and interact with hundreds of other people on a not-as-regular basis so I thought this wouldn't be too bad. Unfortunately we've seen handfuls of votes each day.

With that in mind, my friend was wondering why people don't take the time to vote. It's not just that they're voting for OTHER people, but they're barely voting at all! I wondered if people were apathetic. One of my other friends suggested that perhaps people were jealous that we had been nominated. (I can't imagine that - since anyone can be nominated. It would be silly to be jealous.) Are people just lazy? Do people think they'd be tracked and don't have to register? (You do NOT have to register. You just click on the link, find our name, and vote.)

Honestly, I don't know what the issue is. I figure perhaps people are just too busy. I really think that's the reason. So even thought it would only take about TEN SECONDS of people's time each day, they don't to spend ten seconds to do something that could make a world of difference in our lives. It's sad. I've really been kind of down about the whole thing.

So anyway, it would mean so much to us to win this contest and it really only takes a few moments. All we need is for people to click on the link, sort by votes, find our name and click VOTE. This is four steps, but literally takes about 7 seconds - I TIMED it. LOL

I think we can keep us on the first page if people vote enough so that we'd be easier to find. Just click on sort by "vote" and then we're currently on page one under "Sonya H. - Jonesborough, TN, 4/14/2010."

Also, PLEASE, place a request to your FB page, My Space, or other e-mail loops and ask your friends and family to vote every day until the end of July. Even if they'd vote for the next month, we'd appreciate it, but if they could just vote each day - ten seconds - until the end of July, we would be so grateful! Our family works diligently to serve the homeschool community and we rarely ask for or receive anything in return for that. We serve because the Lord has called us to serve. We are grateful that our friend nominated us for this contest and we do believe that this is an opportunity that would help us tremendously with the medical debt that I face on a monthly basis. (My monthly medicines and bills run over $250 - EVERY month. I realize some people have worse bills than that, but we receive no public assistance, no Medicaid, etc. It's just me and my husband working like crazy while homeschooling our five children and doing what we can to help others. That's how we like it.) :)

OK, enough with the pity party! Would you please vote each day until the end of July? And please - ask your friends and family if they would do the same? Forward this - or portions of it - to your pages or websites. Share the link and share our information so they'll vote for our family. If you want to know more about us, please ask. Or, please feel free to read or post my website - www.thehomeschooladvocate.com. We would be happy to share any information you might need to make a decision if you'd like to vote for us. We would really appreciate it!!

Thanks for reading and thanks for VOTING!!!! Here's the link:
http://www.mypigeonforge.com/savingvacations/Story/Page1

Sonya
on behalf of the Haskins family - Chris, Sarah (14), Micah (12),
Christopher (10), Daniel (who will be 9 next weekend), and Hannah (7)

teacher sues for right to give failing grades

2010-05-08T01:02:00.000-04:00

In Louisiana, a teacher has sued for the right to fail students after she was told to give no grade lower than "D" - regardless of performance. And people wonder why kids are graduating who can't read or count, who don't know history or can't identify Asia on a map... Administrators and unions have taken over public education in the United States. It's time to TAKE THE EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN BACK. Whether your children are in public, private or homeschool, we need to make sure students have an opportunity to learn and students who don't learn should not continue to advance.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/92569189.html

Sonya

What in the world is going on in China???

2010-04-29T13:39:00.003-04:00

Based on the comments I’ve read in international papers, the attitude about THREE mass attacks on children in a month could be described as “gee… how sad.” Are you kidding me?!?

In recent weeks, China has receiving renewed international criticism about their “one child” policies and renewed attempts to sterilize families so that they will be forced to submit to the “no more children” rule. They’ve even said that they would “back off” the policy.

But then, suddenly, you have three different people who just decide to go insane around the same time and attack CHILDREN??? Doesn’t anyone else think this is a little bit STRANGE?!? They aren’t setting off bombs at a café or stabbing people at random in a shopping center. They are going to primary schools and attacking CHILDREN.

- Today in Eastern China, a knife-wielding man entered a Chinese kindergarten and wounded 28 children and three adults. Most of the children were four-years-old and several of them are in critical condition.

- On Wednesday, a man broke into a primary school in southern China and wounded 15 students and a teacher.

- On March 23, a doctor killed eight children at an elementary school in the Jiangsu province. He admitted to the killings and was actually executed earlier this week – on Wednesday, the day the 15 students and teacher were wounded. (On a side note, I do appreciate China’s system of swift justice. He murdered eight children and admitted to it. In the United States, he would have been given food, shelter, and job training for the next 30 years and then let out on parole…)

What’s really sad is that many Americans look at China with disdain. People think they hate children and therefore these acts are simply another effect of a society that kills their unborn, leaves newborn girls to die, and allows children to be adopted by other countries because they don’t want more children themselves. In fact, the Chinese adore their children. The one-child policy enforced in many provinces make the Chinese child a precious gift and the parents’ only hope for the future. Most assuredly, these children who were killed were dearly loved and most probably their parents’ one and only offspring.

So what is causing this spree of child attacks? I don’t know. But we can speculate.

Perhaps the attackers want to cause the most damage to their society by taking away one of their most precious commodities – their children. Perhaps there is more going on here than we can understand and since the government has backed off on the sterilization of parents, they have found another way to incite attacks against children. After all, even though individual parents deeply love their children, the Chinese government looks at the bigger picture, such as population growth, overuse of resources, etc. Maybe they’ve found a way to take care of the population problem without sterilization… just kill some of the children who are already here.

Ultimately, I don’t know if these three cases are related or not, but you have to admit that it seems more than a coincidence that three unrelated men in three different areas of China would go into the same place (a primary school setting) and do the same thing (attack children with a KNIFE).

The whole situation is incredibly sad. We should pray not only for the physical healing of those children who are still in critical condition, but also the emotional healing for all the children who attend these schools and also for the families who have lost their precious children.

Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us

Discussing the Development of Surnames with Your Child

2010-04-25T14:53:00.001-04:00

Have you ever thought of where your name comes from? I’m not talking about your first name, the one your parents chose for you when you were a baby. There are hundreds of books on the market that explain what your first name “means.” Some names are symbolic of flowers or trees, a certain personality trait, a physical trait, a blessing, a saying, etc. Most people are aware that their first name has a “meaning” and often, they know the meaning. I’m wondering if you’ve thought about where your last name comes from.

When humans first began walking on this earth, they typically had one name, such as “Adam” and “Eve.” With so few people in various communities, it was easy to recognize everyone by one name. Even if someone in another community had the same name, this wasn’t an issue since there was not constant contact. After all, it might take days to reach another community and there was no communication through telephones or e-mail. Even the earliest peoples had names and our earliest recorded writings indicate that throughout history, we gradually developed the use of a second name as our communities grew, the population expanded, and contact between communities became easier and more developed (with the development of roads, the invention of paper, etc.)

Here are some ideas to discuss with your children in regards to the development of last names.

Patronymic Names
Patronymic names are names that come from your father or “pater.” MOST names were created this way. Take the name David Johnson. A few hundred years ago, this person would have been called “David, son of John.” It was shortened to “David, John’s son.” Then it was shortened to “David Johnson.” What about “David Johns”? This is simply a more shortened version of the same name.

If you see a name with “son” at the end of it, the name originated from the idea of “the son of…”. Usually, if you have a name with an “s” at the end, it has the same origin. Someone along the way has shortened the “son” to simply “s.” For example, “Williamson” has been changed to “Williams” in many cases. It still has the same origin – “son of William.”

Take Haskins, for example. I knew that Chris’ family was of Norwegian origin. I only recently discovered that the name Haskins actually originated from the first name “Ásketil.” This was a first name that was converted to “Haskin” in English. So where did the “s” come from? Again, take Chris Haskins. This would have originally been, “Chris, son of Ásketil,” which was converted to “Chris, Ásketil’s son” and then eventually converted to English “Chris, Haskin’s son” and then it changed to “Chris Haskins” over time as the “on” was dropped from “son.”

Since patronymic names are common in every culture, we have borrowed many of these from other cultures. I have given one example above from our own family. Think of these names: “Petersen,” (Peter’s son in German), Williamson (William’s son in German), Rodriguez (son of Rodrigo in Spanish), O’Conner (son of Conner in Scottish or Irish), etc. Each language has its own way of expressing patronymic names, but they all have a way. It’s very fascinating!

Descriptive Last Names
There are also large numbers of last names that developed as a result of description. Descriptive last names would include names that describe an occupation (Baker), where the person lives (Hill), characteristics (Short) or even a personality trait (Doolittle).

Occupation
Smith is one of the most common names for a reason. When people began to assign surnames as populations grew, around the 15th century, almost every community – whether large or small – had a blacksmith, often known as the “smith,” “smithy,” “smither,” etc. All these names originated from the same occupation of blacksmith. As communities grew and became more complex, the names Baker, Carpenter, Miller, Cook and Taylor began to appear.

Sometimes we see names that like “Brewer” and we know this originated from the town brewer. When we see a name such as “Brauer,” however, many people might not realize that this is the SAME name, simply in a different language. Most cultures have last names that equate to the most common English names because those were the occupations and even the descriptions that were the most popular.

What about if there was more than one blacksmith in a town? That’s where we developed such names as “Goodsmith” (the blacksmith who is a good man).

Location
Names that developed as a result of where people live are easy to figure out. If your name is “Field,” “Feld,” or “Fieldman,” this originated from someone who lived near a pasture or open country. If your last name is Lake, you can use the same reasoning.

It was very common in Europe to name families after the family where the fathers were from. Thus, you have names such as “Berlin" or "Moscow."

Characteristic
What about names such as “Black,” “Longfellow,” or “Lytle.” These people would be (in order) dark-skinned, tall, and short. Names such as this are based on obvious physical characteristics. Some are a little more difficult. Take the name “Redd.” This would have referred to an ancestor with red hair. If this was a unique trait to the community, it would have been an easy way to identify someone.

There are other characteristic names based more on personality. The name “Fox,” for example, would have been assigned to someone who was “sly as a fox.” Others might have been given names that mean “handsome,” “strong,” or “brave” in their language, which have come down to English with foreign names.

Additional Thoughts
Some religious names are taken from our ancestors’ occupations or their heritage. Take Levi, Bishop, Priest, or Abbot as examples.

Some names are more difficult to figure out simply because we don’t know the meaning of the words any more. Cooper, for example, is a common English surname, but many people today do not realize that the word “cooper” means “one who makes barrels.” In medieval society, this was an important occupation.

While many freemen began to take surnames around the 15th or 16th century and those have been passed down through the generations, some cultures didn’t begin to take surnames until later. Africans who were brought to the states and Europe as slaves, for example, lived in a culture where they still used first names or the patronymic names such as “Kamili, son of Ebo” (of course it wouldn’t be said that way in the African language, but this is for your understanding. The two names I’ve given are real, however. “Kamili” means “perfection” and “Ebo” means “born on Tuesday.”) As slaves began to integrate into American society, they began to take on surnames that were usually affiliated with their owners. A slave that belonged to “Davis” took the last name “Davis.” Some slaves or former slaves took on descriptive names such as “Black” or “Brown,” based on their color. Other slaves choose their own name, such as “Booker T. Washington,” who named himself after our nation’s first president. For many descendants of slaves, it is difficult to trace their roots due to the lack of surnames. Some descendants, however, have wonderful oral histories that have given them clues to their background.

Exceptions
There are exceptions to the above “rules.” In our culture in particular, you have many names that developed from other languages so the name might have one of several meanings. Take the name “Bell,” for example. This last name could mean “the one who rings the bell in the tower,” “the one who lives beside the bell tower,” “one who makes bells,” or it could even originate from the French, “belle,” which means beautiful.

Another example is the last name “Moreland.” In our language, we might assume that “Moreland” means a person who had more land than other people in the community. The word “more” in English developed from the Anglo-Saxon word “moor,” which was an open, frequently grassy, sometimes wet area of soil that is usually uncultivated. The surname “Moreland” literally means “dweller by the moor-land.”

Discussion Questions

Here are some things to review with your students.

1. If last names were largely created based on occupations, why do we not see last names like “Electrician,” “Podiatrist,” or “Cashier”? These occupations didn’t exist during the centuries when we were developing last names.
2. Why do you think “Smith,” “Farmer,” and “Carter” are common names? (“Carter” means “one who drives “carts.”) These names are all related to work that would have been necessary in every community.
3. Look up the definition of “patronymic.” This is a terrific vocabulary word! Make sure students can spell it, say it, and know what it means.
4. Research the origin of your own surname and discuss this with your family.
5. If you didn’t already have a surname, what would be some names others might assign to your family?

For example, in my family, my son Micah, might be known as:
Micah, son of Chris… Micah, Chris’s son… Micah Chrisson
Micah, son of writer…. Micah, son of author….. Micah, author’s son…. Micah, Authorson
Christopher has the same name as Chris so it would be odd to call him “Chris, Chris’ son.”
He might be known as:
Christopher, the tall one… Christopher Tallone… Christopher Tall
Christopher, the tall fellow… Christopher TallFellow
Christopher, the darker skinned child… Christopher the darker… Christopher Dark
Here are some more ideas:
Daniel, from the homeschool family in Gray … Daniel in Gray… Daniel Gray
Hannah, the youngest child… Hannah, the youngest… Hannah Young

The point here is to see the development of the names. Help your children think of names that would work for your family based on these same ideas.

Arizona Immigration Reform

2010-04-24T10:43:00.003-04:00

Photos of Arizona immigration reform protesters show many carrying posters stating "SIN FRONTERAS!!" Do you know what this means??? It means "NO BORDERS!!"

These protesters do not want immigration REFORM or legal immigration. They want to TAKE OVER OUR COUNTRY.

Legal immigration is OUR right - the right of United States CITIZENS - just as it is the right of every other country on earth to protect their borders!

What is the big deal with this and why are so many liberals in our country dead set on DESTROYING our country, eliminating boarders, ignoring the laws of our land, etc.?!? If they want to live with a different government, then go to a different country. For me, I would prefer to stay here and respect our Constitution and boot out those who are trying to dismantle it.

We need to take back our country and enforce the Constitution our forefathers died to protect!

Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us

AMG's Dan Penwell passes away after battle with cancer

2010-04-23T23:00:00.001-04:00

I was so saddened to learn of the death of Dan Penwell earlier this week. I met Mr. Penwell several years ago - when I was first searching for publishers. He was so incredibly nice and encouraging. While AMG did not end up publishing my book, he did encourage me to continue sending them material and he was personally encouraging about my work. Even though we know our friends in Christ are going to be with the Lord, it's so sad for those of us left here to know that a Christian soldier is gone. I knew him only very casually, but was VERY impressed with his integrity the few times we met.

Sonya

Here is an announcement from the AMG website:

Beloved Servant to Christian Publishing, Dan Penwell, Goes to Be with the Lord.

Monday, April 19, 2010
AMG Publishers|
Chattanooga, TN

The Christian publishing community has lost a dear servant this past weekend. Dan Penwell passed away at his home Sunday morning at the age of 68, after a long, courageous battle with cancer and other illnesses.

In an illustrious career spanning four decades, Dan served the Christian publishing industry in sales, marketing, acquisitions, and editorial production. Most recently he served as Director of New Products and Acquisitions at AMG Publishers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. During the eight years Dan was editorial director at AMG, the company saw it’s annual production increase to over thirty new titles.

After graduating from Great Lakes Christian College in 1964, Dan married his college sweetheart, Gloria, and went on to get his seminary degree at Lincoln Christian Seminary. His Christian retail career took off while working for Family Christian Stores, where he managed a Family bookstore from 1972–1978. He continued to work for Family as Director of Marketing and Purchasing from 1978–1989.

Dan’s career took a different turn when he accepted the position of Manager of Product Development/Acquisitions for World Bible Publishers (1989–1996). His stint with World led him to a similar position with Hendrickson Publishers (CBD), where he served from 1996–2001.

While at Hendrickson and later at AMG Publishers, Dan became a popular Christian writers conference teacher and mentor. More than half of the people he signed to author agreements during this time came as a result of contacts made at these conferences. Dan never seemed to grow weary of one-on-one appointments with prospective authors and had a remarkable reputation for providing encouragement and help for literally thousands of writers he met all across America—even writers he ultimately turned down. It has been said countless times that no one ever wrote a friendlier and more encouraging rejection letter than Dan Penwell.

While finishing his final year at Hendrickson, Dan was diagnosed with prostate cancer. For nearly a decade, he pressed on in spite of his health struggles. In 2001, Dan joined the team at AMG Publishers at the request of long-time friend and industry colleague, Dale Anderson, AMG’s executive publisher. His veteran leadership provided a welcome an immediate impact upon AMG, as he managed the production of thirty to forty titles a year and traveled to numerous conferences and trade shows. In July 2005, Dan was honored with the Advance Writers and Speakers Association (AWSA) Golden Scroll Award as the Editor of the Year. As 2008 came to a close, Dan announced he was entering semi-retirement. Throughout 2009, in spite of numerous hospitalizations, Dan continued to assist AMG with editorial production while working from home. Also in 2009, CLASSeminars honored Dan for the many years he invested in the lives of aspiring authors by announcing that a full tuition scholarship fund would be established in his name. The Dan Penwell Scholarship is awarded annually to three worthy recipients and pays all or part of their fees to attend the CLASS Christian Writers Conference in New Mexico.

Dan has authored a number of books, including: 101 Things to Do in the Year 2000 (Honor Books), Bible Brain Quest (Workman Publishing), and he co-compiled the massive AMG’s Handi-Reference World Religions encyclopedia.

Dan leaves behind a dear wife of forty-six years, Gloria, and a loving family. He also leaves behind a legacy that will live on in the countless number of lives he touched throughout his storied career in Christian publishing. Dan had a heart for furthering God’s kingdom, and his impact on others will be felt for generations to come.

It's not about SALT. It's about FREEDOM!!

2010-04-20T09:13:00.000-04:00

Another side effect of GOVERNMENT health care... If they are "GIVING" you something (such as health care), they ARE going to regulate it. Nothing comes w/out a price. Government regulators will now tell you when and how you can get treated for various ailments, who deserves treatment, and just today, an announcement ...that they will be regulating the amount of salt that goes into food. While I agree that we eat too much salt, it's a FREE country. Freedom means the ability to CHOOSE a healthy lifestyle or NOT choose one. But when someone is GIVING you health care, they WILL expect to be able to tell you how to live, how to eat, how much to exercise, when you can go to the doctor, etc. This is another fine example of big brother at his BIGGEST.

Do I encourage healthy eating?? Of course. But I also exercised regularly until I developed the clotting problem. I don't drink alcohol, take illegal drugs or SMOKE, which is a big one. The single BIGGEST thing the government could do to help people's health in the United States would be to completely ban smoking. While I can see this might be a good idea, again, people should be wise enough to make this decision (or not eat too much salt) without a government regulator at their door!! But you know why they don't do this single biggest thing and just ban smoking to help w/ health care issues??? Because then they would have riots across the whole country, government offices would be destroyed, politicians attacked, etc.

I come from a small country town in Tennessee and even many of my Christian friends there are addicted to cigarettes. Not only does just about everyone there smoke, but kids start smoking in elementary school. No, I'm not kidding!! Many parents even let the kids smoke! If the government were to ban smoking, I think even my mom - in her frail health - would be among those pushing down the doors to the political offices - DEMANDING their cigarettes back.

This is what we need to do. We need to start demanding that the politicians leave us alone and give us back our country. After all, it's not about SALT. It's about FREEDOM.

These politicians are smart. They know where to push and where to back off... at least until later.

But trust me, it WILL come later. This is only the beginning of our loss of freedoms in the area of health care. They WILL regulate how you exercise. Perhaps you'll have to turn in how much you've exercised each week in order to receive medical care... They WILL regulate the food we're allowed to have. They WILL tell you when you can go to the doctor and where. That is socialized medicine. Even if it's not exactly like that in other countries. America is different. Our politicians want to set an example for everyone else and, unfortunately, tends to go overboard. Big Brother WILL get to decide what you will have access to!

Sonya

P.S. If you'd like to read the "salt" article from Reuters, here's the link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63J0JN20100420

Great Games for Family Fun

2010-04-14T00:51:00.001-04:00

Since most families are struggling financially these days, many are seeking alternative forms of entertainment that won’t cost a fortune. Additionally, it seems that a lot of people are re-evaluating their priorities and realizing that they would like more family time. While there are lots of great activities for family time – going on hikes, riding bikes, passing ball, etc. – one of the best ways to have great family entertainment, save money, and spend time together is to play games. Some people do Family Game Night.

We play games several times per week and on the weekends, we typically spend several hours playing games. ANY family can and should have terrific fun playing games, but as homeschoolers, we count most of our game time toward mandatory school hours. Many of these games are quite educational.

I’ve divided the games into categories for board games, dice games, card games and action games. I’ve also added the games from my previous “game list” so that you’ll have them all in one place. There are also notes about the difficulty of the games, recommended ages, recommended number of players, which skills are necessary to play the games (reading, counting, etc.), etc.

I hope you’ll find the following list useful as you decide which games to play with your family. There are definitely some great suggestions!

Have fun!
Sonya

Dice Games

Yatzhee
Ages 8 and up
For one or more players
Time: time increases depending on how many players. It takes about 10 minutes for one player and add an additional 5 minutes for each player.
Yes, this is the classic we played as kids! It’s still a great game. Younger children can learn to play, but they will need help filling in their score pad. I prefer to wait until the child is a “reader” before letting them play Yatzhee. We do, however, let younger children participate by pairing up with an older player and being the “dice roller.”

Backgammon
Any age, but it’s a complex game – recommended for 8 and up
2 players
This is a strategy game that many people play before transitioning to chess. Daniel (8) says it involves “strategy and luck.” It encourages thinking skills. It’s actually on a “board,” but it’s more of a dice game.

Farkle
Just about any age if player can roll dice and make decisions based on their roll.
Players – two or more (We’ve played with almost a dozen people at a time. You can go up as high as you want.)
Time: depends on the number of players you have.
This is a true dice game. You get scores based on the combination of dice you roll. The tricky part of the game is that you have to make choices (gamble) about whether to KEEP your score or continue rolling and risk losing ALL your points for that round (that’s called a Farkle). This is a very fun game! We especially enjoy it since even the oldest of us enjoy it and even the youngest are able to play it. As a matter of fact, she usually gambles less and ends up beating us!

Card Games

Set
Basically any age could play if they’re able to match cards.
Various numbers of players, most fun with two to three players
This is almost like the old “matching games” for little kids, but it’s a more adult version. The matches are VERY difficult to make. Also, the cards are face UP where you can see them, but you have to match three colors with different shapes, all the same shape and color or all different colors… There are several combinations you can make, but I never play this game well. Our kids almost always find the sets before Chris and I can find them. Christopher (10) says this game is “the funnest game on earth.”

Zigity
Ages 7 and up (need to be able to read)
Best with three to four players
a Cranium game
This is somewhat like Uno, but you have various “activities” to do while you play: Creative Cat, Star Performer, Data Head, and Word Worm. You have to match items on the cards and try to make sets to get rid of all your cards first.

Uno
Ages 7 to adult
2 to 10 players
Time: 15 minutes
I think most everyone has heard of or played Uno at some point in time. This is a classic card game. Younger players can practice identifying numbers and trying to use beginning strategy skills to get rid of all your cards first.

In a Pickle
Ages 10 and up
2 to 6 players
Time: 20 to 30 minutes
Gamewright

Maya Madness
Ages 10 and up
2 to 4 players
Time: about 20 minutes
Gamewright
This is a card game that encourages math skills. My two youngest boys especially enjoy it. Players have to add and subtract the right combination of cards to claim the secret number token. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up in the world of “negative numbers.” You collect tokens to win. (My only caution about this game is that the game is based around “the ancient world of Maya numerology.” This isn’t

Mille Borne
Ages 6 and up (Players need to be able to read.)
2 to 5 players
Time: approx. 15 to 20 minutes
This is a very fun game that involves a lot of luck, but also strategy. Basically, the premise of the game is that you’re “traveling” and the cards tell you what to do. For example, if you have a flat tire or other thing that would stop you, you have to wait for a gasoline card, a “go” card, and a mileage card. The objective of the game is to get to “mille borne” – a “thousand miles.” For families interested in bringing in an educational component, many of the cards use French words and the very basis of the game is centered around stone mile markers used every thousand miles on French roads. Chris and I have had this game since before we had children. We enjoyed playing it alone and then taught the children to play as soon as they could read. It’s a great game.

Ruckus
Ages 7 to adult
2 to 4 players
Time: “less than 4 minutes per hand”
This is a game that involves taking other players’ cards and trying to take matches, but then other players can take those cards back if they have another card to play on the set. It’s a fast paced game that involves luck and paying attention. There are also beginning strategy skills and patience since you have to learn to wait before you take cards.

Rook
Ages 8 and up
2 to 6 players
Time: 15 minutes
This is a great game to practice “strategy” skills. You have to be careful not to bid to high or too low so you have to pay attention to the cards and learn to play it safe.

Dutch Blitz
Ages 8 and up
Two to four players
Time: approx. 5 to 10 minutes per round, but you’ll play several rounds to a pre-set winning point based on how many points each player receives.
Some friends of ours introduced us to this card game a few years ago. It’s a terrific game, although I’ve come away from many games with scrapes and scratches across my hands. It’s a difficult game to describe in writing, but basically your goal is to get as many cards as possible before everyone else gets them. The game is multi-tasking to the extreme and teens/preteens seem to particularly enjoy it.

Hoopla
Adults and teens
Two or more players (more fun with more players than two)
Time: 20 minutes

Board Games

Sorry
Ages 6 to adult
2 to 4 players
Time: 30 minutes
Hasbro
This is another classic from when we were young. This is another game that younger children can play as long as they have a little help reading the cards (which aren’t very difficult). This is a great game to reinforce counting skills in younger children.

Go to the Head of the Class
Ages 7 to adult
2 to 5 players
Time: approx. 45 minutes
Hasbro
This is an older classic and you’d probably have to find it at yard sales or on e-bay. My children love to play this game. This is the kind of thing we would do in lieu of schoolwork. The premise of the game is that you start at “kindergarten” and work your way through each grade level to the head of the class. There are three different levels of

Cadoo
Ages 7 and up
2 or more players
Cranium Game

Blockus
Ages 5 and up
2 to 4 players
Time: 15 minutes
Mattel
I love this game! It’s a strategy game where you try to put down pieces in such an arrangement to block your opponents, but allow yourself an “escape route” so that you can go to other areas of the board. It’s a lot of fun and requires you to think. I enjoy brain games best.

Mancala
Ages 6 and up (Younger could play if they could count well enough.)
Two players
Time: 25 minutes
This is an old game that Chris and I started playing when we were dating. It’s an African stone counting game and it will really test your math skills. Even though it’s a very simple game, it requires strategy and counting.

Apples to Apples, Jr.
Ages 9 and up
Four to ten people
Time: less than 30 minutes
Mattel Games
You play cards with vocabulary words or “concepts” on them and then each player tries to play other cards that are similar to the other card. For example, if one person plays “cloud,” another player might play “storm” or “puddle” for a comparison card. It helps kids learn vocabulary and have fun at the same time.

Apples to Apples
Ages 12 and up
Four to ten players
Time: less than 30 minutes
Mattel Games
This is an “adult” version of the kids Apples to Apples game. I do like the premise of this game – have fun with vocabulary words, but I prefer the younger kids’ version. This edition, even though it’s supposed to be for ages 12 and up, has material that we would consider inappropriate for a 12-yr-old. For example, some vocabulary cards have “sexy,” “sultry,” “AIDS,” etc. That’s just not something we want exposure to when we’re playing a GAME. Even my oldest children prefer the Junior version.

Othello
Ages 8 and up
Two players
Time: 10 or 15 minutes
Chris plays Othello with our children all the time and they love it. I do know it is a strategy game and also encourages math skills. It reminds me of a precursor to chess or something like that, but my children just love it.

Monopoly
Ages 8 to adult
2 to 8 players
Time: 2 days (according to my son! LOL)
Parker Brothers
I’m sure everyone has heard of this family favorite. Monopoly is a terrific game for teaching math skills, taking turns, dealing with stocks and money, buying and selling, and money-related terminology such as stocks, bonds, bank, bankrupt, and mortgage. We love to play Monopoly when time isn’t a factor and we can just sit around for hours and have fun.

Stay Alive
Ages 8 to adult
2 to 4 players
Time: 10 to 15 minutes
I used to play this game when I was a child. It’s a great game. You have to put marbles on a game board that has holes under it. As you pull the sticks on the game board back and forth, marbles MIGHT stay on the board or they might fall through the holes, depending on the placement of your marbles. It is a relatively quick game, but requires a lot of strategy. It’s great fun!

Life
Recommended for ages 8 and up (We play with children as young as five and just read for them.)
2 to 6 players (more fun with more players)
Time: 60 minutes
I remember playing Life when I was a young girl. I LOVED getting as many children as I could. I would fill up my car and then if anyone else didn’t want their children, I would pile their kids in my car as well. The cars seat 6 people - 2 adults and 4 children. I would always put the mom in the driver seat, dad in the passenger seat, then I’d end up with about 8 children in the back. They don’t have seatbelts for Life so inevitably my little plastic children would fall across the board each time I moved my vehicle.

Anyway, this is another great game to practice using math skills. You also have the opportunity to bring up discussions about goals, family, occupations, and how choices affect your real life. Like many of these great board games, let even your youngest family members roll their own dice or (in the case of Life), spin the spinner themselves, count their spaces, etc.

Cranium for Kids
Ages 4 and up
2 to 4 players
Time: 20 minutes
Cranium Games
This is a cooperative game (meaning everyone is playing against the game to open the “treasure chest”). Children pull cards, which then allow them to open doors and you might or might not get a ball behind the doors. Once all six balls are found, you win the game.

Clue
Ages 8 and up
3 to 6 players
Time: 45 minutes
Parker Brothers
Children learn to use skills of discernment while trying to figure out who murdered whom with what weapon. Reading and writing skills are also used in Clue. This was another one of my favorite games when I was a child and my own children enjoy it now. For some reason, this hasn’t received good online ratings in recent years. I wonder if people just don’t have the patience any more to play a game that requires much more mental skill and less physical activity (other than drawing cards and rolling dice). Anyway, we really enjoy it!

Risk
Ages 10 and up
2 to 6 players
Time: 2 hours
This is a very complex game. It’s a war game that involves cards, dice and placing your pieces on the board strategically. Our boys sometimes just play with the board (that’s like a huge map) and the pieces (little soldiers) and make up their own game.

Whoonu
Ages 8 to adult
3 to 6 players
Time: 30 minutes – more if you have a lot of people
The point of this game is to try to guess things about the other people playing the game and win little token chips. You’ll be surprised what you find out about those you think you know best, thus the name “Whoono.” You use cards to identify what you think the other person (who is “it” for that round) likes. For example, when I play, someone might give me a card for books and reading, but someone might also give me a card for “shopping.” That person wouldn’t get any tokens, though, because I would put “shopping” at the BOTTOM of my list! This is a wonderful ice breaker game or a good game to play with people when you just need to renew relationships and learn how to have fun together again.

Scrabble
Ages 10 and up
2 to 4 players
Time: 90 minutes
Even my youngest children enjoy playing Scrabble! Everyone knows you can learn vocabulary by playing this game, but did you know that you can also change the rules and allow dictionary use to encourage spelling skills, vocabulary skills, and reference skills? We also allow foreign words when we play so that also reinforces any foreign language vocabulary that your child may be learning.

Upwards
Ages 6 and up (Players need to know how to read and have the ability to spell.)
2 to 4 players
Time: approx. 30 minutes
This is a very fun spin-off of Scrabble. You put words on the board, just like you do in Scrabble, but then the fun starts. You can CHANGE the words that are already on the board by building UP. For example, if the word “box” is on the board and you have the letters f, e, s, t, q, b, you could change the “b” to an “f” and end up with “fox,” then add the “e” and “s” and end up with “foxes.” Then you could play your “b” in the next round and you’d have “boxes.” It’s a lot of fun. We always keep a dictionary handy so that we can verify spellings. When we play as a family, we also allow foreign words.

Scattegories
Two to four players
Ages 8 and up
Time: 45 minutes
I just love this game. You are given a category (let’s say “kitchen gadgets”) and a letter (S for this example). Then you have to list words in that category, preferably with the given letter (you get points for words that start with other letters, but not as many points. Also, you don’t get ANY points if someone else guesses the same word as you. So I would guess spatula for this example and if no one else got that, then I’d get points.

Cranium
Ages 13 and up (Our younger children play this with no problem. Public votes give recommendations of ages 10 and up.)
4 to 16 players (You can play on teams.)
Time: 60 minutes
This is a hands-on, fun-filled, intellectually stimulating game for older children and adults. It’s meant for ages 12 and up, but we’ve played it with our middle children as well. It’s loads of fun and requires you to use many different skills to create clay sculptures, decide whether a statement is true or false, answer a trivia question, act out a clue, sketch a clue, imitate a famous person, etc.

Cranium Family Fun
Ages 8 to adult
Recommended 4 players teams
Cranium game
This is much like the regular Cranium games, where families build, sketch, sculpt, guess, etc. to get the correct answers.

Trivial Pursuit
Ages 8 and up
Two to four players or teams
Can be very long games – from one to two hours
Hasbro
There are a whole bunch of varieties of this game – including versions for particular years, versions for younger children, games that cover particular topics (like music, art, specific television shows, etc.), and other specialized games. We play the general Trivial Pursuit game, which includes questions on various categories. Players can play individually or break into teams. You try to get all the little wedges for each category before the other players / teams. When you get all the wedges, you win. This is a great game to test facts and knowledge.

Settlers of Catan
Ages 10 and up
3 to 4 players
Time: 50-60 minutes
You collect resource cards and try to “settle” on the board with roads, buildings, settlements, etc. You earn victory points when you make settlements or do some other good thing. If you have larger armies or develop your area better, you get special cards and more points. When you have ten victory points, you win.

Pandemic
Two to four players (We play this as an entire family. You can play with individual players or you can even have some groups. One “team” can have one player while another team has two players. It really doesn’t matter since everyone is fighting against the board.)
Ages 10 plus
Time: 45 minutes
Z-Man Games
Everyone playing the game is trying to keep diseases from rampaging the earth. This is a VERY difficult game and if you don’t like to lose, you shouldn’t play it. Christopher (10) says it’s “the hardest game on earth.” We’ve played numerous times and we’ve only beat the game one time so far! And you can play repeatedly because you have different diseases attacking different areas at different times so it’s always a new challenge.

Ticket to Ride
Ages 8 and up
2 to 5 players
Time: 30 to 60 minutes
You are supposed to get points by building train routes. We haven’t been incredibly impressed with this game.

Checkers
2 players
Even young children can play

Chinese Checkers
This is a lot like regular checkers, except that you have a board with holes and you play with marbles.

Action Games

Hullabaloo
Ages 4 and up
2 to 6 players, but it can be played with ONLY ONE
Time: 10 minutes
This fun action game is meant for younger players. Our children have most enjoyed this game between ages four and ten, but older children enjoy playing sometimes, too. Players have to wiggle, dance, hop, step, etc. to a colored pad. Players can share pads and while they are learning to share, there is also an element of cooperative play. Colors, shapes, and names of animals, foods, and musical instruments are reinforced during this action-filled game. I like the fact that children can play this game with friends, siblings or even alone!

Twister
Ages 6 and up
2 to 4 players (more fun with three or four!)
Time: ten minutes
This is an easy game most of you are probably familiar with. There is a mat on the floor with various colored dots. You choose a person to be in charge of the spinner – who does not play the game – and they will tell you where to put your hands and feet. As you try to find a place to put your hands and feet, you become tangled with the other players. It’s a great game for families.

The Bilderberg Group

2010-04-14T00:41:00.001-04:00

"The Bilderberg Group, Bilderberg conference, or Bilderberg Club is an annual, unofficial, invitation-only conference of around 130 guests, most of whom are persons of influence in the fields of politics, banking, business, the military and media. Each conference is closed to the public and the press." (From Wikipedia)

This group has met every year since 1954.

Is it a coincidence that our textbooks started using REVISIONIST history a few years later???

Is it a coincidence that the Civil Rights Movements took place several years later???

Is it a coincidence that our Constitutional Rights have been eroded, freedoms revoked and nationality destroyed since the first Bilderberg Group meeting????

Well, perhaps. But considering the fact that these are some of the most liberal people in the world who attend the meeting. AND considering the fact that some of the members have openly stated that they are seeking an era of "post-nationalism," when humans can come together as the "race of humankind" or the "children of the earth," then well... no, I'd say it's not a coincidence. I'd say it's all part of a greater plan.

And this plan is much more sinister than Hitler's of Nazi Germany because this plan doesn't involve turning the citizens or children of Germany into little soldiers to promote the Arian race. Nope.

I believe THIS group plans to force everyone into a one world government where we do not pledge allegiance to our country or where we do not worship God with our individual religions or where we do not enjoy and celebrate our differences with something as simple as being a MALE or a FEMALE. They would prefer that we all commit to ONE WORLD, ONE MANKIND, ONE GENDER, ONE GOD (the "no" god concept), etc.

Now, does all THAT sound familiar????

It's something to think about!

Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us

Math formulas to determine area

2010-04-10T12:18:00.000-04:00

We were trying to figure out how to determine the area of something yesterday and I found the following websites. I am sure there are others that have formulas for areas, but these pretty much give you all the information you need. I like the second link a little better, but if you simply need to PRINT out the formulas, the first one will work.

Here is website that has the formulas for how to determine area for various shapes - triangles, circle, etc.. This one is very basic.

http://www.math.com/tables/geometry/areas.htm

This one has the same formulas, but goes into a little more description on how to actually USE the formula information. I like that and it's helpful for students who haven't done a lot of geometry.

http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/area-formula.html

Sonya

Oppose Obama's Cap and Trade Plan

2010-04-10T11:35:00.002-04:00

Obama: "Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket... whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers."

Say NO to "climate tax"!!! Speak out!!!!

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTxGHn4sH4

We keep our heat turned down and freeze all winter because we already can't afford a high heat bill AND because we're responsible ON OUR OWN - without government interference.

Our house gets so hot in the summer that two years ago our computer motherboard actually MELTED!!! We can't afford a high air conditioning bill and we're responsible ON OUR OWN - without government interference.

Obama has lost his mind! Please help me oppose new taxes - even if they're "hidden taxes." Watch the You Tube interview with Obama above. It's only one minute long.

Speak up. Tell your legislators that you oppose these hidden taxes that will - once again - serve a special interest group and harm the REST OF US.

Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us

Tyranny!

2010-03-31T20:46:00.001-04:00

For the past forty years, the United States government has increasingly passed laws for "the good" of citizens (specific groups in many cases!).

According to C.S. Lewis, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

Our government is no longer a republic under elected leaders who care about our best interests. Instead - we are living under TYRANNY!!!

Sonya Haskins

Trading guns for gift cards

2010-03-27T18:32:00.000-04:00

South Carolina ministers are giving gift cards in exchange for citizens' guns in an attempt to "reduce" the number of guns in the communities.

First, these are liberal churches who apparently don't believe in the second amendment!

Second, it stinks of government involvement.

KEEP YOUR GUNS, GOOD CITIZENS!!! KEEP YOUR GUNS...

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/03/27/south-carolina-ministers-trade-store-gift-cards-guns/?test=latestnews

Radio interview about homeschooling - March 20

2010-03-19T17:49:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone! There will be a really neat discussion of homeschooling on the radio tomorrow that I thought might be of interest to some of you. We already taped tomorrow's show and it will be an HOUR long. We discuss the responsibility of education, how to address the socialization question, misunderstandings about homeschooling, what it means to homeschool (why are we doing this?!?), how to handle the "skeptics," and several other important issues. The lady who did the interview actually homeschooled her children when they were school-age. These are questions that come up a lot as I talk with homeschoolers and it would be great if you would like to let others (especially new homeschoolers or those interested in teaching their children at home) know about the interviews.

You CAN listen live online. The show is Woman to Woman with host Barbara Tompkins on KGMS in Tuscon, Arizona. It will air from 1 - 2:00 PT Saturday so of course this will be 4:00 - 5:00 Eastern Time.

I'll try to get a downloadable file to go on my website later, but I don't know if this will be possible so try to listen on Saturday if you can.

What: Radio interview about homeschooling
Date: Saturday, March 20
Time: 4-5:00 p.m. Eastern time (1-2:00 Pacific time)
Location: Tuscon, Arizona
Format: Taped - radio / internet
Availability: Listen live in Tuscon area. Listen via the Internet from any location.

Link to site where you can listen live: http://kgms.com/index.php (Near the top of the page is a "Listen Live" link.)

I hope some of you will be able to tune in.

Thanks!
Sonya Haskins

6-yr-old suspended from MI public school for making gun gesture w/ hand

2010-03-06T05:57:00.000-05:00

If the student suspended for the cafeteria knife or the two boys suspended last year for a Boy Scout camping utensil set (which contained a "dangerous weapon" - the knife) weren't enough, now a SIX-year-old Michigan student has been suspended for making a gun gesture out of his hand and pointing it at other students. While some of the other students were said to be "uncomfortable" with the gun gesture, rather than suspend the little boy, I would have suggested that they show them how to make gun gestures with their hands as well and point back. After all, a friendly game of "cops and robbers" or "Cowboys and Indians" never hurt Opie Taylor (or me and my brother and all our friends for that matter)!

Of course today, Cowboys and Indians is no longer appropriate because they aren't "Indians" as Columbus mistakenly thought - and we've been trying to correct that for nearly 600 years. They are "Native Americans" and that just doesn't have the same ring to it. Besides, since kids aren't allowed to play with guns any more and any cowboy in his right mind wouldn't be caught DEAD without a gun ... well, actually, that's the problem, a cowboy without a gun was kind of like someone in the Wild West holding up a huge sign saying, "Go ahead, just shoot me. I don't have enough sense to carry a gun to hunt wild animals, protect myself from rattlesnakes, shoot coyotes that try to eat my cattle, etc. so perhaps I just want to be shot." So Cowboys and Indians is out.

And even playing "Cops and Robbers" isn't appropriate any more. You wouldn't want to stage one group of kids against the other, after all, and the "robbers" might be mislabeled. After all, it's not politically correct if their attorneys aren't present and they are innocent until proven guilty so no shooting until ... well, no shooting. They should be able to languish in jail at taxpayers' expense for the next thirty years and then allowed out on parole, again at taxpayers' expense, when they'll be able to get a "fresh start" on life, but be way too old to play cops and robbers any more. The "cops" aren't supposed to use their guns unless absolutely necessary and if you face reality, it's really no fun when you just run around the yard yelling, "Stop, or I'll shoot." Just SHOOT the robber! You already KNOW they're the robbers because you're playing cops and robbers!! What's the harm in letting kids be kids? And whatever happened to um, let's see... imagination?!? It's PRETEND play. It's not supposed to be real!

There is something to be said for letting children play pretend and get it out of their system, but here's another thought. Even though we do have checks and balances (such as a trial by jury of our peers and innocent until proven guilty), I would say that a lot of these old games were great for several reasons. Here are a couple. First off, they were definitely pretend and the kids knew that. We could use more separation between reality and pretend in today's world. Second, there were definite good guys and definite bad guys (who would vary from week to week depending on who wanted to play which role). There was one side or the other. Kids KNEW this and they picked sides! Today everyone is soooo concerned with being politically correct - saying things the right way, doing things the right way, and not offending anyone that we sometimes have a difficult time figuring out who is who any more.

The teenager who walks into the high school carrying a concealed shotgun under his trench coat is doing something BAD. He is a BAD GUY. The six-year-old who pretends to make a gun with his hand and points it at his classmate is doing nothing bad. He is not a bad guy. I'd say he is mostly likely a bored six-year-old who would MUCH RATHER be outside playing cops and robbers than sitting inside a classroom listening to his teacher drone on about some politically correct lesson related to civil rights or evolution.

OK, I guess I should admit here that I could have just said, "There was a boy suspended from public school for making a gun with his hand. If you'd like to read the article, go here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,588183,00.html?test=latestnews"

But I didn't. It's just SO frustrating that I wanted to - in this case - vent a little. I could go on and on forever about how RIDICULOUS this is. If anyone wants to say how boys shouldn't use guns or how was a good decision on the school's part to prevent the future possibility of violence, we could discuss that. We used to say we'd NEVER let our boys play with guns and we'd NEVER own a gun ourselves. Well... you know what they say. Never say "never." Biblically we're admonished to train children in the way they should go. I obviously believe this means to train them toward following Christ and share the gospel, but I also believe this means training them based on the examples we see in the Bible of proper behavior of men and women - taking care of the home, being frugal with money, being of godly character, and YES, even learning to use weapons and being ready and willing to defend their homeland, their property, their families, their values, their right to worship the Lord, their children or anything else that needs defending. Learning to stand up for what is right - and knowing the difference between right and wrong - is something that is just as important to learn as the ABCs or 123s! It's going to be difficult to train young men to stand up for what is right and have the skills to do so if we continue to raise effeminate boys who grow into men with no bearing on how to be manly.

Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us

www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

P.S. The only way to be sure that this doesn't happen to your children is to teach them at home!! : )

Harvest Show - Monday, March 8 - homeschool interview

2010-03-06T02:36:00.001-05:00

I received news tonight that a taped interview I did during the National Religious Broadcasters convention this past week will be on the Harvest Show Monday, March 8. The discussion will be about homeschooling. It's a very short interview - only about seven minutes long, but in addition to other issues, we do discuss the "big" question - socialization.

If the show is available in your area, you can find out viewing times and stations here: http://www.harvest-tv.com/ShowInfo/Viewing-Times.cfm

If you would like to watch online, visit http://www.harvest-tv.com/index.cfm. It will be available online later in the morning after the show airs.

I hope some of you will mark your calendars now and make time to watch it! Also, if you enjoy the program, PLEASE let the producers know that you appreciated the coverage about HOME EDUCATION. Any positive feedback they receive about this will encourage them to develop a positive homeschool-friendly perspective and share programs of interest to homeschoolers.

Thanks!

Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us

The Life of Washington - book review

2010-03-06T01:31:00.002-05:00

If you're looking for an absolutely terrific history book that hasn't been modified to satisfy the liberals trying to force "political correctness," then you need to read this book!

Originally published in 1842, the reprint has retained original spelling and vocabulary (a GREAT way to build vocabulary skills). It shares stories from George Washington's life that integrate his faith and character.

This should be essential reading for all students of American History. It would be especially beneficial for homeschool families (or other educators) who want to integrate original, classic works into their studies.

Sonya Haskins

Publisher: Attic Books / New Leaf Publishing Group (Another wonderful option from New Leaf PG!)

Format: Hardcover

Retail Price: $16.99

Publication Date: reprint of 1842 vintage original text (reprinted in 2

this year's Christian Writer's Guild Operation First Novel winner was homeschooled

2010-03-05T11:48:00.001-05:00

Below is a press release from Tyndale House about this years award-winning Christian novel. The lady was homeschooled all 12 years. Yeah! A lot of you ask me about how to encourage your students who are interested in being published... Share this with them! Visit her website. She talks a lot about how homeschooling influenced her journey. It's encouraging to read news like this.

Sonya :)

Homeschool Graduate Pens Award-winning Christian Novel!

[Lititz, PA] "If it weren't for homeschooling, I wouldn't be where I am today," says C.J. Darlington, a homeschool graduate who started writing her first novel when she was fifteen-years-old. That novel, Thicker than Blood, recently won the Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel contest.

The grand prize included $20,000 and publication by renowned publisher Tyndale House. Thicker than Blood has now hit bookstores across the country and is even being featured in select Walmart stores.

With endorsements from the likes of Jerry B. Jenkins, Rebecca St. James, Susan Meissner, and James Scott Bell, Thicker than Blood tells the story of estranged sisters May and Christy Williams. Booklist has called it a "modern twist on the prodigal son story" and ultimately the novel delivers a message of the forgiving and redemptive power of God available to all those hurting among us.

"I hope my journey encourages homeschool parents to keep the faith and never give up," C.J. says. "You're giving your kids an awesome gift by homeschooling them. I'm living proof that homeschooling works!"

"With Thicker than Blood, C.J. Darlington proves she's a novelist for the long-haul, a strong new voice in Christian fiction. This book speaks to the heart, from the heart, about the heart. Readers will not soon forget it."
---Sibella Giorello, Pulitzer Prize nominee, homeschool mom and award winning author of The Stones Cry Out and The Rivers Run Dry

To request a review copy of Thicker than Blood, or to request an interview with C.J., feel free to e-mail her directly at cj@cjdarlington.com

Her website http://www.cjdarlington.com includes high-res photos, the book trailer, bios, reviews and more.

Visit to National Religious Broadcasters Convention

2010-03-04T16:21:00.004-05:00

After a long weekend, we’re home from the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville. We had a wonderful time and a safe trip so I wanted to say thank you to everyone who prayed for a safe travel. Also, I received several notes from people that you would specifically pray that the Lord would be able to use my words to glorify HIM and help the cause of homeschooling and parental freedoms. I can’t tell you all that was done this weekend – it was just amazing. I had a great time and there were many doors opened! I was able to do several interviews (radio, television and web) so hopefully I’ll be able to post announcements about those in the future. They’ll be aired in the coming months – all are about homeschooling except for the interview I did with Campus Crusade for Christ, which was more of my personal testimony.

I did want to share a couple of funny stories that I thought readers might enjoy.

The interviews I did this time were especially fun because they were with very large media outlets (national in most cases) so in one they actually tried to “fix” my hair, which is basically impossible with naturally curly hair! The lady figured that out after a few minutes of trying to get my curls to go where she wanted them so she finally just sprayed them down with hair spray. : )

Many of you know we don’t have cable at home or watch much television (it’s wasted time and pointless anyway with only two channels!). When we go to hotels, however, we LOVE to watch those “fix your home” type shows. We were watching one of these in the hotel and Micah (12) said, “Look at that sink in the bathroom. It’s almost on the floor!” I said, “Micah, that’s not a sink. It’s called a ‘bidet.’” He still didn’t know what it was so we explained how it works and I said, “It’s like a sink for your bottom.” You should have heard the kids laughing! Life is always a learning experience.

Then, on Sunday, I had finished my interviews so I was waiting for Chris to pick me up. Finally, he drove up in our 15-passenger-van. I walked around to the other side of the van and he started loading my bag, my computer case, etc.. While he was loading things, another lady walked up to him and said, “Is this the shuttle to the mall?” You should have seen his face!! He was so embarrassed. I told him he should have let her join us since we were heading that direction anyway. It was so funny. On the other hand, I pointed out to Chris that if I were paying $220 a night for a hotel room and they tried to pick me up in our van, I would be incredibly upset!!

Among the people I met or saw in Nashville, I ran into Matthew Hill, Ron Ramsey, and a few other leaders or media professionals I've met before. I visited the people from Answers in Genesis (the Creation Museum), met a few authors (doing book signings), and had a TERRIFIC evaluation of my website from a professional website development firm while I was there. I’ll be implementing some of the changes they suggested over the coming weeks so that’s exciting.

I also had lunch with Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson. Well.... not really. : ) What happened was that after I purchased an itty bitty box of Asian food for lunch, which cost $7.50!!, there was not one single table with a chair open where I could eat. There were, however, those tall bar-size tables where people stand to write notes, make phone calls and such. I just stood at one of those and started eating my lunch when Dr. Dobson started to walk by. He was with several people and they stopped and talked right beside my table for about ten minutes. It was enough time for me to finish my lunch so I told the kids I “had lunch” with him. At the end of their conversation, one of the men wanted a picture so I took that for them and then, having my book handy, I took advantage of the moment and thrust it into Dr. Dobson’s hand, telling him I’d like to give it to him. I know many of you were praying for the Lord to open doors as He saw fit. You never know what will become of a “chance” meeting so hopefully he’ll read the book and find in it something he likes. I believe my publicist said Focus on the Family is starting a new program soon specifically for homeschoolers so maybe they will be interested in discussing some of the concepts mentioned in the book – placing the responsibility of learning back on the student, focusing on relationships and obedience early on in the child’s life rather than stuffing them with academics, encouraging homeschool parents to evaluate their relationship with Christ as a priority over everything (including homeschooling), etc.

When I find out more about when any of the interviews will air, I’ll post the information. There was a lot of discussion – from me and others – about the Obama administration, the German homeschool family who is seeking asylum in the United States, homeschool rights and how they link to parental freedoms in general, and much more – from me AND others. It was great to be around so many like-minded individuals who see how important homeschool freedoms are, whether someone wants to homeschool or not. If we lose this right, we WILL lose the right to parent our children as we see fit in every area.

Thanks again for your prayers.

Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us

www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

teachers in trouble for lap dance during pep rally in Canadian high school

2010-02-25T01:51:00.002-05:00

I thought some of you might be interested in this. You will need to make sure you're children are NOT looking over your shoulder. (You can't hear anything inappropriate, but the video is ridiculous.)

Here is the article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/prairies/teachers-lap-dance-a-little-too-far-for-students/article1479114/

I won't paste the whole article here, but it's just disgusting what these teachers were doing. There is actually a video off to the right of the article - until they remove it, which it eventually will be, I'm sure. And it probably should be anyway.

What bothered me about the whole thing was not so much the article about what had happened. That's troubling enough, but if you read the comments, there are literally a few HUNDRED comments and I'd say a good 50% of these are in defense of the teachers' actions!!! That bothered me more than anything. One of the "in defense" comments was from another teacher, which just leads me to think we're going to continue to see many more cases such as this. One of the commentators even stated that "My personal opinion on the matter is that depending on the intent, it may have been in somewhat poor taste, but it was not inappropriate or actionable." Not inappropriate or actionable???? I can't believe anyone could watch the same video I watched and think it was in any way appropriate - or not inappropriate. It's unbelievable and goes to further show the extent to which we've been desensitized.

It is so sad. My heart breaks for these kids who are being exposed to so much that they should NEVER be exposed to - EVER.

Sonya

Skiing / tubing in Eastern United States

2010-02-17T01:19:00.002-05:00

Several people have asked me to share information in regards to discounts for homeschoolers to go skiing, etc. Here’s what I found out…

I did find out that Beech Mountain offers some really good lift ticket specials. You can read those here: http://www.skibeech.com/specials.html On most Mondays, for example, juveniles get free lift tickets.

Also, a few homeschoolers sent me a link to this website: xxxx. This is specifically a homeschool site that offers GROUP discounts if you go with them. It’s a wonderful opportunity to spend the day skiing or snowboarding with fellow homeschoolers. The prices they have are amazing! You’ll probably find the best DEALS here, if your schedule will allow you to go with them. (If you're interested in this, let me know and I'll e-mail you privately with the link to the website.)

I also discovered a terrific website with a whole bunch of ski resorts for the Eastern United States. You can read information about various resorts in NC, West VA, Virginia, etc. The site tells has links to each individual resort and has some wonderful statistics of each, hours of operation, average snowfall, average temperatures, what kinds of entertainment is available (skiing, tubing, etc.), and much more. http://www.skisoutheast.com/default.php

Finally, since most everyone who has asked me for additional information has expressed interest in going to North Carolina, I have listed all the North Carolina ski locations, how far they are from Johnson City, and directions. If you click on the link, there will be a Map Quest map with directions directly to the resort listed. They are each hyperlinked as well so that you can read more about each ski or tubing area before you go.

Appalachian Ski Mountain - 1 hour 29 minutes from Johnson City - Click here for directions.
Cataloochee Ski Area - 1 hour 44 minutes from JC - Click here for directions.
Ski Beech Resort - 1 hour 19 minutes from JC - Click here for directions.
Ski Sapphire Valley - 2 hours 44 minutes from JC - Click here for directions.
Sugar Mountain Resort - 1 hour 14 minutes from JC - Click here for directions.
Wolf Ridge Resort - 48 minutes from JC - Click here for directions.
Beech Mountain - 1 hour 19 minutes from JC. Click here for directions.

With all the wintery weather we’ve been having here and with the Winter Olympic Games going on, I hope some of you will have the opportunity to take advantage of this information.

Your friend,
Sonya Haskins

sonya@sonyahaskins.com

The Man of the House

2010-02-08T10:42:00.002-05:00

I was listening to a radio show recently and the lady being interviewed said that a lot of women have difficulty in relationships because they are trying to be the men. She said, “Do you WANT to be the man or are you willing to be the woman?”

It made me think about my relationship with Chris (my husband) over the past 20 years…

When we were first married, I was looking for a man. After all, I had never had one in my life – no father, my brother and I lived in different houses, I never had a boyfriend, etc.; I really wanted a man, but truthfully, I was probably looking for a man who would fill all those roles, not the role of a husband.; After all, I had never seen how that role was supposed to work with a wife, especially in a Christian home.

My grandmother, who mostly raised me, had a husband and I dearly loved my grandfather, but he would disappear for days at a time when he was staying with his “other women.” Also, he wasn’t a believer, abused my mom and her siblings, and so the example there was less than desirable.

My mom was married four times – to three different alcoholics (one of them twice). These men were so abusive and cruel that I choose not to remember most of my childhood, which once included a two day stint being locked in a roach motel with my younger brother, left alone, while one of the men hid us from my mom to be spiteful. There are many worse memories, things I vowed my children would never experience.

I had a few friends from decent families, but honestly, most “good” people don’t want their children hanging around with poor kids from “trashy trailer park” families. It wasn’t my fault my family was that way, but they didn’t seem to care. It was rare that I was able to hang out with a “good family.” When I did, I studied them intently and the desire to be like them burned in my heart and soul.

Finally, when I grew up, I kind of knew what I wanted … I wanted a man who would allow me to retain my independence, yet who would be the father I never had, the brother I barely knew, a daddy to our own children one day and a husband to me – even though I still had NO idea what “husband” meant. Chris seemed to be all those things and so we were married. (I should probably note here that HE was in love. I honestly think I was being practical – no one else wanted me and he did so it was a perfect arrangement.)

Shortly after we were married, we lived with and cared for an elderly lady dying of cancer. After about seven months, she passed away and that same week, we found out we were pregnant with Sarah. We were never really ever alone in our marriage. We began caring for someone right away and then, for the next seven years, I was pregnant and/or nursing non-stop. I gave birth to five children in a period of six years and one month. All the while, we were also doing foster care and I was beginning to homeschool (even though when they were younger, I didn’t realize this yet!). During this time, I also managed the household (because I was at home), mowed the lawn (because I LOVE to mow!), took care of our finances (because I’m more responsible than Chris), disciplined the children (because I was gentler when needed and firmer when needed), cooked the meals (because that was my job), decided when and where we would take vacations (because I’m a better organizer), led family devotions with the children (because I knew if I didn’t, no one would), and the list could go on and on… You get the picture. I DID IT ALL!!!! And I told Chris what he should do. And he did it. He’s a great follower so this worked out very well for us!

Sadly, I was wrong in my actions… very wrong. I was being the woman of the house, but I was also being the MAN OF THE HOUSE, denying my husband the opportunity to do so.

When I became sick with Hannah, my behavior changed. The Lord really used my illness to show me all the things I couldn’t do on my own. I’m telling you, when you have other people taking care of your children for nearly a year because you can’t get out of bed, it really puts you in your place quickly!

Over the next six years, my relationship with Chris deteriorated more each year. I could no longer be the “man of the house” because I was physically unable, but I resented the fact that he was taking over that role and trying to do my role of being the “woman.” As a matter of fact, he was doing it all and I really resented him for it. I was mad at God that I was so sick. I was mad at Chris because he wasn’t. I was mad at the world because no one seemed to understand my frustration!!! After all, Chris was cooking meals almost each night, reading aloud to the children, cleaning the house, doing devotionals, and everything else I used to do! It was very discouraging to me to see him taking over all my jobs!

The fact is, however, that he wasn’t really taking over my jobs. He was helping me with some of my jobs (like cooking and cleaning), but he was really taking over his jobs – the ones I said he’d never do, or that he’d never do correctly or in a timely manner, and he was doing them well.

These days, I’m feeling much better, but I still have difficult days. I am able to care for my children and we have a very full life – lots of reading, board games, play time, travel, family time, etc. – but there are a lot of days when I have to sit back and watch rather than participate. I cook meals when I can and I still love to clean, but I have to do this on “good” days when I’m feeling well. As for the finances, Chris and I share that responsibility now. It turns out that it works better when you discuss things and work together for the common good. When I became sick and stopped doing devotionals, he actually took over that responsibility and hardly a day goes by that he doesn’t lead family devotionals with our children, without any prodding or reminding from me.

The boys are big enough to mow the lawn now so I’ve even lost that fun job, but honestly, I’m not physically able to do it most of the time and I also want them to have skills that will enable them to be MEN when they grow up. I want them to have practical skills, but also feel like they can accomplish something. Right now, accomplishment for an 11-year-old boy partially means being able to earn sweat from a hard day’s work.

Chris and I now discuss most things – vacations, whether we’ll watch a movie and which one, etc. – together. Before, he would never make a decision, but I see that this is partly because he didn’t have to – I did it for him. The other reason he didn’t is because even if he did, I would disagree and do it my way anyway! I know some of you ladies reading this out there must admit, if you’re honest with yourselves, that you do the same thing. Now, when Chris wants me to do something, even if I don’t want to (like go to a friend’s house to play cards when I have a headache), I do it – to please him. I also do it because before he would never ask me to do anything anyway and it’s wonderful to see that he now makes requests, asks me to do things, or even tells me to do something every now and then.

I guess I’ve learned over the past sixteen years – through trial and error, illness, and a lot of suffering, mostly due to my own stubbornness – that marriage isn’t a relationship with a father or a brother or the perfect husband you dreamed about as a girl. Marriage is a relationship with the man you chose to marry that involves intimacy, sacrifice, and allowing the other person to be the person they were meant to be. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed my role as the man of the house, our marriage has been one hundred percent better since I’ve allowed Chris to take on that responsibility. We are both more in love now than ever!

He has always been there for me – through better and worse, sickness and health, financial stress and struggles (we’ve never reached the “richer” part!) – and I believe he’ll be there “’til death do us part,” as will I. The only difference now is that for the first fifteen years of our marriage, I was the man of the house. For the remainder of our marriage, I plan to let him be the man and I will be quite content with my role as mother, wife, and woman of the house.

Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us

NC state education leaders consider change to "history" curriculum

2010-02-04T02:34:00.001-05:00

In North Carolina, state education leaders are considering a proposal to replace history with a modernistic, global approach.

Under the current curriculum, North Carolina students study the following:

ninth grade - world history
tenth grade - civics and economics
eleventh grade - United States history going back to the country's FOUNDING

Under the proposed change, high school students would study the following:

ninth grade - global studies, which would focus on issues such as the environment, peace, human rights, etc.
tenth grade - civics and economics (wouldn't change)
eleventh grade - United States history, but ONLY from 1877 onward

Many might argue that it’s silly to fret over this when students have thirteen years of school (including kindergarten) and they surely learn all the basics of U.S. history before high school anyway. This was the defense of Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

Well, let’s take a look at the “history” students learn before high school in North Carolina. (This information has been taken DIRECTLY off the North Carolina Department of Education website. This is the course of study followed in schools throughout the state.) The notes in parenthesis are mine.

Kindergarten – Self and Family / Families Around the World (globalism / social studies, not history)

First Grade - Neighborhoods and Communities Around The World (globalism / social studies, not history)

Second Grade - Regions: Local, State, United States, and World (geography, not history)

Third Grade - Citizenship: People Making A Difference (elementary civics, not history)

Fourth Grade - North Carolina: Geography and History (not U.S. history)

Fifth Grade - United States History, Canada, Mexico, and Central America (There are seven countries in Central America, plus the other three… That’s the history of TEN countries in one year?!?!? Aside from the fact that it’s the year most students are beginning to experience puberty and they’re supposed to concentrate???)

Sixth Grade – South America and Europe
Seventh Grade – Africa, Asia, and Australia
Eighth Grade – North Carolina: Creation and Development of the State

For the middle school years (grades 6, 7 and 8), the standard course of study of the countries listed above is described as follows on the NC Department of Education website:

“As students examine social, economic, and political institutions they analyze similarities and differences among societies. While concepts are drawn from history and the social sciences, the primary discipline is geography, especially cultural geography. This focus provides students with a framework for studying local, regional, national, and global issues that concern them, for understanding the interdependence of the world in which they live, and for making informed judgments as active citizens.”

In other words, students STILL AREN’T STUDYING HISTORY. It’s globalism with a little bit of geography, a spattering of history, and a LOT of politics thrown in! Notice words like global issues and cultural geography.

Before we go any further, it might help to understand a couple of definitions.

History - the study of events that happened in the past, particularly in a chronological order
Globalism – the study of anything that considers the entire world in scope

If you look back at the subjects being taught in North Carolina schools, it’s just another example of curriculum that promotes a globalist approach at the expense of our own culture and heritage. It promotes liberal thinking (such as environmentalism), leads students toward a one-world mindset, and certainly strips them of a true understanding of the principles on which our country was founded.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am increasingly grateful on a daily basis that my children will KNOW that men died to secure their freedoms. They will know WHY. They will READ and UNDERSTAND the Constitution of these United States and why we now say “the” United States instead of “these.” They will visit historic sites and they will study history from the beginning. I’m not just talking about the beginning of the United States, however, but the beginning that was created by the Alpha and the Omega – the beginning that was created by the one who sent his son to die for a bunch of people who don’t even want children to PRAY – the beginning that was created by the one who will signal for the sounding of the trumpets that will signal the end.

I am grateful that even as the leaders in North Carolina consider this change to their curriculum standards, we can once again be thankful for the opportunity to teach our children at home and we can continue to pray for the teachers, students, parents and others who are dealing with the changes in public school settings.

Sonya Haskins

Becoming familiar with authors of the books your children read

2010-02-03T10:54:00.002-05:00

When we read a book, we don't only read the BOOK, but we encourage the children to read the "about the author," "acknowledgements," etc. It's just a form of respect for the person who gave us the book. Oftentimes, we'll find out many interesting facts about the authors. Many times we'll even learn that they're believers.

Before we hand books over to the children, though, I research about the authors myself. When I'm sure that the author would have appropriate material, then I share the information with Chris (who reads aloud to them) and the children. (Or, if it's something they're going to read by themselves, I usually have Sarah read the books first. She's a great filter because she has very strict standards about the material in the books she reads.)

Anyway, researching the author is a great way to learn the CONTEXT of what you're reading. When you know a little bit about the author and the time period the book was written, it truly helps you understand the book better. The other advantage to this is that if the author seems not appropriate, I'll tell Chris not to read the book out loud or, obviously, not pass it along to the children to read themselves.

Frequently, we'll try new books or authors because we're familiar with their name or we've heard about the books, but it's still so very important to monitor the materials. For example, I found a book at a used sale by the author "Dola De Jong." Many of you are familiar with Meindert DeJong, the author of wonderful books like "The Wheel on the School" and "Along Came a Dog." Because their names were so familiar, we figured perhaps she was his daughter. Also, he died in 1991 and she died in 2003. We thought she COULD be his daughter, but when we read his biography, it mentioned no daughter. After much research, she apparently isn't related to him at all. Also, during this research, I discovered that that Dola De Jong was a feminist and her books were considered very racy, with stories of les***ns and love affairs. You get the idea. Of course Meindert DeJong was a fabulous author of beautifully-written stories for children with nothing inappropriate. (I also found out that her name has a space and his doesn't...) Anyway, I will obviously be getting rid of our Dola De Jong books, but I'm just so thankful that we research our authors before we read books to our children.

I know homeschool parents who read every single book before their children are allowed to read the books. I think this is a fabulous and honorable idea, but I just do not have time to do this. My children read about four hours per day and there is no way I could keep up with their voracious reading habits. This is the compromise we've come up with. I don't need to read every single piece of material if I know about the authors they are reading. It works for us and thus far we've had very few bad books filter through. If they do, then Sarah catches them or Chris will catch it as he reads aloud and we get rid of the book.

If any of you are interested in monitoring the books through the authors, I recommend that you read the "about the author" on the book (which can tell you a LOT), the acknowledgements (do they mention God, a publishing goddess, girlfriend/boyfriend, spouse, children etc.??), look up an obituary on the Internet (gives you lots of good information about when they lived, what else they did in their life, etc.), read a review of that particular book online, find a biography about the author (I do this a lot and I can tell you it's a lot faster than reading all their books), Google the author's name, etc. There are many ways you can find information about the authors of the books your children read. I just think it's important that parents take this step. We learned long ago that people's recommendations aren't always appropriate for us. (This is why, when I recommend books, I always try to mention things that I even think parents might find objectionable, such as a bad word here and there or the mention of magic.)

After my experience with DeJong, it was placed upon my heart to share our habit. I hope some of you who don't do it already will take the time to do this. Not only is it a wonderful habit to filter out much of the bad material, but it's a great way to learn about the authors you read and help your child discover how much more enjoyable a book is when you understand the context in which the book was written and also more about the person behind the words.

Enjoy your reading!
Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us

Trying to get into the Air Force Academy

2010-02-02T21:07:00.001-05:00

Sarah is determined that she wants to attend the Air Force Academy when she graduates and we would be honored to see her do so. She is already working diligently toward that goal. (She’s in ninth grade this year.) We’ve worked to compile some resources that we’re using and that also might help the rest of you who have students interested in pursuing this course.

The first thing you should know is that only about 13% of all applicants are accepted so it is a VERY difficult appointment to receive. Based on what I’ve read, students need to start preparing for admittance by their first year of high school. Without high grades throughout their high school career, good ACT or SAT scores, good medical records, and excellent physical training, it’s unlikely that your student will be accepted. It is my understanding that they do look at ALL of these things.

In addition to those “general standards, here are the specific requirements for admission:

- Be a citizen of the United States (or have a nomination from an official of a country invited into the United States by the Dept. of Defense)
- Be unmarried with no dependents
- Be of good moral character
- Be at least 17, but less than 23 years of age by 1 July of the year of entry
- Meet high leadership, academic, medical and physical standards

In addition to the normal application process, all candidates must secure a nomination to the Academy, normally from a United States Senator or U.S. Representative. Each member of Congress and also the Vice President can have five appointees attending the Air Force Academy at any given time.

In the next section, I've included a list of resources that would be helpful to families who have a student interested in attending the Academy. These sites have helped us a lot and hopefully they'll help you as well!

Blessings,
Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us (Bethany House, 2010)

The Civil Air Patrol is probably the best resource to prepare for the Air Force Academy. While students who participate in the program do NOT have to go into the military, nor do they even need to have any desire to do so, for those who do, it’s great preparation. We learned about Civil Air Patrol several years ago when I was working on a book about local resources. Sarah only started to participate this year, though. (You have to be 12 to join.)

In the Civil Air Patrol, you have the opportunity to experience orientation flights (with regular planes and gliders), training in rescue situations, survival training, and much more. It’s an excellent program! I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Students also have regular PT (physical training), uniform checks, testing, promotions (that they have to study for), etc. This makes it an especially good program for homeschoolers since they have exposure to a very structured setting with strict rules and regulations. Their website is: www.gocivilairpatrol.com

We haven’t actually read this book yet, but it’s on my “want” list. Hopefully we’ll be able to get it soon. It’s supposed to be a thorough book about how to apply and be accepted to the Air Force Academy. It has very good reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/Air-Force-Academy-Candidate-Book/dp/0929311078

This is just a short e-how article that I thought had some good, short, simple tips about how to apply for the Air Force Academy – and hopefully ideas that will help you be accepted.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2040260_apply-air-force-academy.html

This is a private site that basically has tips for getting into the Academy. It has cataloged newsletters that you can read, advice, and information about the Academy. It’s definitely worth browsing.
http://www.academyhorizons.com/

This site is a general site about colleges, but it has some really neat statistics about the Air Force Academy. http://www.cappex.com/colleges/United-States-Air-Force-Academy-128328

Whales, dolphins, and homeschooling

2010-01-25T10:13:00.003-05:00

We have a foster teen staying with us for ten days. She's almost 17 and much brighter than most of the foster teens we've hosted.

Last night we were watching a nature documentary for our "family movie time" and this large, beautiful white "whale" came on the screen. At least I thought it was a whale. Daniel (8) informed me that it was a Beluga whale. The foster teen and I both looked at him and we were just glad that someone knew what it was.

Then Daniel mentioned that he liked Narwhals. I had never heard of a Narwhal and neither had our guest, but sure enough, a few moments later, they were showing us a pod of Narwhals navigating through the Arctic ice to richer fishing grounds. Daniel was telling us about their tusks and how they are mammals so they breathe oxygen. This means they must find holes in the ice or they will smother. He told us that they're more closely related to dolphins than whales, though.

The foster teen was fascinated. She said, "Your children are very excentric. They're the smartest kids I've ever seen!"

They are pretty smart. I'll admit that. One of the interesting things about homeschooling is that it is so easy for the students to surpass your knowledge level. Daniel knew all about Narwhals not because I had taught him about them, but because he read about them in a BOOK. This is how parents are able to "teach" children things that they might not be as knowledgeable about. Science isn't my area of expertise, but my 12-year-old son could probably build a functioning rocket ship if he had the materials!

One of the things I tell new homeschoolers is to focus on discipline and obedience first because training is difficult without these two things. Then focus on reading aloud to your child and (at some point) teaching your child how to read. If he or she can read, there is a whole world of information available to him or her. While you would never have time to teach your child everything he needs to know, if he can read, he can learn these things on his own! That's how Daniel knows all about dolphins and whales. It creates so much more freedom for everyone when the child can pursue their own interests and learn at their own pace.

Do you have a story about the joys of homeschooling? Please share it!

Sonya

http://www.amazon.com/Homeschooling-Rest-Us-One-Kind/dp/0764207393/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264432946&sr=8-1

Training Children to Flee From Sin

2010-01-20T11:45:00.001-05:00

"But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness." 1 Timothy 6:11

In 1 Timothy 6, Paul is talking about fleeing from a love of money, but he also addresses other "sins" in the section. Throughout the Bible, it is abundantly clear that we are to FLEE from sin. The word flee means to "run away." It doesn't mean "think about it," "discuss it," "analyze it," etc. It means we are to RUN AWAY FROM SIN.

Other homeschoolers often ask for practical ideas on how to "raise children." I've had this on my mind and wanted to share some thoughts about this from our family.

When our children were little, we taught them that if they saw something "bad" - such as a woman in a bikini ("almost naked!," we would say) - they were to cover their eyes or at least look the other direction. This was originally a habit we developed while out in public as our boys (in particular) were exposed to women who weren't "covered up." We told our children that it was our job to protect them while they were young and one of the ways we protected them was to protect their young hearts. Although a seven-year-old would likely not feel any temptation toward a scantily clad woman, the seventeen-year-old likely would. Even at a very young age, we figured it was better to instill in them values and create habits that reminded them that they needed to FLEE FROM SIN.

We don't have cable in our home, but we can rent movies. We were watching a popular movie the other day - at the recommendation of a friend - and after three or four MINUTES, Chris and I just decided it was NOT something we could watch. The main character lied to her mother about 40 seconds into the movie, there was much name-calling, the daughter complained about doing a chore, and so on... all within a few minutes. Even though we all wanted to watch the movie, sometimes covering your eyes or muting a section of bad language isn't enough. After all, we are told to FLEE from sin, even when we really don't want to.

If your children are still young, train them to cover their eyes immediately if you say to do so. As they grow older, explain to them the reasons you do this. Hopefully one day you'll come to the point where they do this automatically and you will no longer need to remind them.

There is much sin in the world. As parents, find practical ways to teach your children to flee from it. Even as they mature, you can continue to do this. If your daughter says her friends were talking about another girl at co-op, she needs to learn to excuse herself from the discussion - or even find a different group of friends if necessary. Explain the concept of "gossip" and share Bible verses that talk about it.

Train your children to be selective about the movies they watch or the books they read. We've had to return several books to the library that we didn't finish reading because it turned out that they did not reflect our values.

Establish an open line of communication with your children and make sure they feel comfortable coming to you if they have questions about sin. Especially in today's world, despite our most diligent parenting, our children are still going to be exposed to bad things. It's my experience with homeschooled kids that sometimes they don't know what these things are because they have been sheltered. This is a good thing that their exposure occurs at a much later age than most kids, but once they are exposed to certain words, phrases, etc., discuss these things with them and make sure they understand (from a Biblical point of view) what these things are and why they are sinful (if they are ... obviously they will also learn things as they mature that aren't bad, but they simply haven't been exposed to yet).

Now I'm sure someone out there is going to say, "But gee, if kids aren't exposed to the 'real world,' how are they ever going to learn to function in it???"

You could use that same argument against homeschooling and force all children into government-run schools where all children are taught the ways of the world, but you guys know that unless you're living in a CAVE in the middle of nowhere, you still have exposure to the world. It's impossible not to. Children will still have exposure to the world and to be quite honest, that's not even the issue. The Bible is very clear about what our goals should be. Even though others might want our children to be exposed to the "world," the Bible says we are to flee from worldliness and seek a relationship with God.

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12:2

Finally, our greatest example is that of our Savior and Lord. He lived IN this world, but he was not OF it. He walked among the people, worked, preached, ate, rested. I'm sure he also played games, had pleasure, and enjoyed the beauty of creation. He was tempted by Satan, but he resisted sin and thus was an unblemished sacrifice for us all.

Fortunately, our loving God knows that we're sinful, but we can be forgiven! Through his mercy and grace, we are redeemed. Our children are also sinful. They will one day come to the point where they answer for their sins, but as parents, we can give them the best possible start in life by training them to FLEE FROM SIN and instead, seek righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Sonya Haskins, author of Homeschooling for the Rest of Us

Yes, we all lose our minds eventually...

2010-01-14T12:07:00.001-05:00

Micah was being chastized last night and I said, "Micah, you are 10-years-old, old enough to know better and...."

All the children were sitting there staring at me and Micah said, "Um, Mommy, I'm TWELVE now."

Yes, it is true. He is twelve. After a moment's thought, I told them that's all the more reason to listen and obey now because pretty soon I wouldn't remember their names either!!!

Sonya Haskins
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Christmas Traditions

2009-12-13T15:09:00.000-05:00

We really enjoy traditions in our family. Not only are they fun and help create wonderful memories, but I believe traditions pull everyone together and even when our children are grown and have families of their own, I hope that they will always remember our traditions. Even after they leave our homes, I know they will remember the things we did year after year and hopefully they'll have such fond memories that they'll want to carry on some of the traditions themselves.

I would love to know what others do for family holiday traditions. I'm going to list ours below and if you would like, please share yours as well.

Sonya Haskins
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

- During the month of December, we watch Christmas movies together as a family while drinking hot cocoa and eating snacks. We watch The Polar Express, Muppet Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, traditional Christmas classics (like Frosty), Hallmark Christmas movies, Christmas Shoes, and any other kind of movie related to Christmas!

- We used to put up our tree right after Thanksgiving, but now that we're in a tiny house, we usually put up our tree about a week before Christmas. Nonetheless, whenever the tree is put up, our tradition is to lovingly unwrap each ornament and talk about it as we put it on the tree. We have handmade ornaments, gold ornaments, and ornaments that belonged to me and Chris as children. The kids especially enjoy hearing about those. :)

- Chris makes Christmas pancakes on Christmas morning. This was a tradition carried over from his own childhood.

- On Christmas eve, we read aloud the story of Mary and Joseph from the Bible and we read about how they traveled to Bethlehem and had a baby who was born in the night and laid in a manger. The baby was to be our Savior. This is the last thing we do before bedtime and as they go to bed, the children look at our nativity that is set out each Christmas. The nativity lacks one thing - the baby Jesus.

- On Christmas morning, the children wake up to a tree and gifts (modern traditions of society), but even after all the years of doing this, they also look to see if baby Jesus is in his manger. (He has been there every year except for the one year I fell asleep and forgot to make him "born" before morning! We quickly found him and put him in his manger!)

- We normally play a lot of board and card games, but during December and actually throughout winter, we play a lot more indoor games than we do at other times of the year. The children enjoy this and it's a great way to spend time as a family! If you have young children, I would encourage you to start now and try to buy at least one family game each year as a "group gift" and PLAY IT throughout the year, especially on cold, wet days during the winter. If you have older children, it's not too late to start this tradition either. Even if you have all teens, buy the "teen and up" or "adult" games and play with them. You might be surprised how much you learn about your child by playing a game of "Taboo" or Cranium "Whoonu." :)

- One other tradition we have is that we celebrate with stockings. We use homemade stockings that my mom made for each child the year they were born. I have one from my childhood and Chris has his childhood stocking. Since we don't share a lot of big gifts, we always have great stockings! When we've asked the children one of their favorite holiday traditions, one of the things they mention is the fruit, candies, and small gifts they receive in their stockings each year. This is one of my most favorite traditions as well!

Keeping your chickens healthy during the winter months

2009-12-12T17:53:00.001-05:00

Since there have been several posts about chickens for sale or people looking for chickens on the digest this year, I thought some of you might benefit from some tips for taking care of your flock this winter. Chickens can tolerate low temperatures, but once it gets below freezing, they are susceptible to all sorts of problems just like any other animal. I hope the tips are helpful to those of you wondering how you're going to care for your chickens this winter. :)

- First off, "winterize" your coop. Add extra covering (boards, blankets, metal sheeting, etc.) to block the wind. If necessary, fill in cracks with caulk or a similar material to reduce drafts. (We use blankets on the coops that are not in areas where they're going to get soaked if it rains.)

- Chickens need clean, fresh water at all times. If your water is freezing due to the cold weather, you'll need to change water about 3 times a day to ensure that the water isn't frozen. For the past few days, we've changed our water several times per day and each time, the water has already started freezing again. Chickens drink a LOT of water and if they get dehydrated, they can die quickly so keep that water liquid and don't let it freeze. (BTW, if your chickens ever do start to get dehydrated, you can add a little mixture of electrolytes to the drinking water and they'll usually perk up within 12 hours unless they are too far gone. This is available at farm and garden stores in liquid or powder form. We use the powder.) Chickens should never go more than a couple of hours without water. (If you can afford it, some people use submersible water heaters so that you don't have to change the water several times a day to unfreeze it. We can't afford one so we just go out several times and as it starts to freeze, we give them fresh water.)

- Keep chickens together. Their body heat will help them stay a little warmer. If possible, keep larger flocks and let them stay together in the winter.

- Make sure they have plenty of food and, if possible, supplement with grass and even food scraps (NOT meat!). During the winter, we try to pull or clip a little bit of long grass that is left and give it to the chickens, which they love, and also scraps from our food such as the little pieces you pull off oranges, apple peel, etc. In other words, we try to supplement with vitamin rich foods since they aren't getting as many vitamins with the limited daylight hours.

- For younger chickens (less than four months), you'll need to use a heat lamp. If you have to, run an extension cord outside to their coop. They NEED this extra heat or they are likely to die either from the cold or diseases and problems related to being too cold.

- Research your breeds. Some breeds tolerate freezing weather a little better than other breeds. If you have a breed that doesn't tolerate winter weather well, you'll need to be extra sure that your chickens are protected for the winter months.

- Add extra bedding that could help with warmth. Chickens still perch at night if you have perches for them, but extra bedding such as wood shavings, straw or hay. (Do not use these with very young chickens. They'll eat them and the shavings are bad for their digestion at young ages. For our babies, we don't use bedding at all. We have them on plain, flat wood that we clean off regularly and we add a couple of cheap towels for them to sleep on. Once they are older, we add perches, but we prefer that our babies stay in a coop as close to the house as possible and this coop doesn't have perches in it.)

- Remember to keep their living quarters extra clean in the winter months. Since chickens are less able to roam during the winter months, this increases the risk of parasites and diseases so it's important to keep the cage extra clean. (I realize this is difficult since it's so bloomin' cold outside, but we just go out every few days and clean up the droppings and turn the bedding in the cages with bedding. So far we haven't had any difficulty with parasites and it takes only about ten minutes to clean all our cages. We just go out and do this on the "less cold" days!)

- Check bedding daily to make sure it's not wet or frozen, which can cause frostbite. (This is particularly an issue if your water gets knocked over so check this.) You should change the bedding about twice a week, but check it daily for problems.

- Check on your birds often during the winter days. If they are huddled too closely together, not moving much, or chirping loudly, then there is most likely a problem. They are probably too cold. There can be other issues as well. The other day when the wind was blowing at almost 40 miles per hour at our house, we went out to check on our pullets (they're about 4 months old) and they were literally plastered up against the side of the cage because the wind was blowing so hard that they could not move! I felt so bad for them! The board that normally protects them from this had blown away. We quickly added more boards and put up barriers to ensure that the boards wouldn't blow away. This gave the chickens added protection from the wind and they were then able to climb up in their little perch area.

- Predators are more common in the winter due to the shortage of other natural foods so make sure your cage is safe against predators. Consider caging free range chickens during the winter months.

Finally, just remember that your chickens are much more susceptible to the problems associated with cold weather than your other animals (dogs, cats, etc.) because you typically bring in your other animals during the winter, but not your "farm" animals. Please check on your flock regularly and make it part of your homeschool routine during the winter months. Share Proverbs 12:10 with your children: "A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal." Train them to take care of the needs of their animals. During the winter, this will involve more work than other seasons of the year, but if you want to have eggs again in the spring, then caring for your chickens in the winter is essential. :)

Enjoy your flock!
Sonya

www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

A snood

2009-12-09T19:51:00.002-05:00

Chris is currently reading to the children the Childhood of Famous American's biography of Stephen Foster. It's a wonderful book!

Tonight he read that someone was wearing a "snood" and we were all like, "What in the world is a snood?!?" We envisioned it being something like the creatures in a Dr. Seuss book, but it was obvious it was a hair covering, not a little animal of some sort.

I looked it up online and found out that it is the net-like covering that women wear over their hair. We commonly see them in restaurants holding the hair of cooks. Here is a link to a photo of a snood: http://www.moonstruckoriginals.com/snood.JPG

Anyway, I love learning new words and thought some others of you might like to learn this word as well. And if you haven't read the Childhood of Famous American's books, I would definitely recommend them! They are absolutely fabulous. Children enjoy them, too, and don't even realize that they are learning. These are great to teach biographical and historical information more informally, yet more in depth than what students would get from a textbook.

Sonya Haskins

Homeschooling for the Rest of Us will be available in three weeks!

Capitalism is alive and well in the Haskins' household!

2009-12-09T07:54:00.002-05:00

I'm currently finishing a curriculum for the Heritage Foundation to go with their book, The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. As usual, when I'm finishing a project, the children are left to do more learning on their own - basically "unschooling" for a few weeks.

Our eight-year-old, Daniel, wants to be a writer like me. He frequently writes stories, makes little books, and tells stories to his younger sister and older siblings. I guess he has decided that it's about time to make some money from all his hard work and creativity as yesterday I heard him telling Hannah that he wouldn't tell her any more stories unless she gave him all her money.

Hannah initially agreed and went to get her money. I could see her in the bathroom counting it and I think she must have quickly figured out that she wouldn't have any money left if she gave it all to him for one story.

She came back into the kitchen and told Daniel that she would not give him all her money, but she would be willing to pay him one penny for each story. Daniel said that wasn't enough and he wanted ten cents. Hannah said that was too much and offered two. He asked for five. Finally, they settled on three cents per story.

All afternoon, I watched Daniel tell Hannah stories and, true to her word, she paid him three cents for each story he told her. (She had a large collection of pennies.)

Last night after Chris came home from work, Daniel and Hannah were sitting on our bed and he was still making up stories for her. When I explained to Chris what was going on, he said he wasn't sure if he should want to punish Daniel or be proud of him for his ingenuity. "At least they are learning how the free market system works," he said at last, finally settled on being proud.

So the next time you need to take some time off your "official" homeschool work, don't fret over the fact that your children's brain cells are going to die. Give them a chance to surprise you! They might just come up with some activities you never would have thought of ... like telling each other stories, practicing counting money, and even spending time together enjoying one another's company.

Sonya Haskins
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Two Tri-Cities area homeschool families lose mothers to tragic accident

2009-12-05T00:33:00.002-05:00

I am pasting below information about two ladies who died in a tragic accident this week in the Tri-Cities. These women were homeschool moms and they had a total of 17 children between the two of them. I can't imagine the sadness for those little ones and their spouses as they deal with this horrible loss. That's a lot of little ones to wake up without a Mommy and a husband to wake up without his wife....

Please keep these families in your prayers.

Sonya

Sudden and Powerful Storm Takes Lives of Two Bristol, Virginia Women, Members of St. Peter Presbyterian Church

Written by Don Clements

Friday, 04 December 2009 14:17

Two women, both members of St. Peter Presbyterian Church in Mendoata, Va., were killed in an accident caused by powerful storm this past Wednesday night, December 2.

The accident happened when a massive tree fell and crashed on a rural highway in southwest Virginia near the town of Mendota, located about a half-hour’s drive north of Bristol, Va. Stories like this happen many times a day throughout the U.S., but seldom do they have such a deep impact on one church.

The two women were driving in a Ford F-350 multi-passenger van along State Route 622. The Highway Patrol report indicates that 39-year-old Theresa Bullen and 44-year-old Deaun Brockmyre died instantly in the freak accident where a huge and sudden downdraft totally uprooted a large tree which came down directly on the van. Bullen was driving northbound when the tree, at least 70 feet tall and two feet in diameter, fell directly across the front of their van. Brockmyre was in the passenger seat. No one else was in the vehicle, and no other vehicles were involved. The ladies were returning home to Mendota from a shopping trip.

Mrs. Bullen leaves behind a husband and nine children; Mrs. Brockmyre a husband and eight children. Both ladies were members of St. Peter Presbyterian Church, a Confederation of Reformed and Evangelical Churches (CREC) congregation in Mendota, one of a couple of related churches in the area. The Reverend R. C. Sproul, Jr., Director of the nearby HighlandStudyCenter, serves as pastor of one of the churches.

On Thursday, pastors and members of the church were already coming together to help both families cope with their loss. “We are committed to helping these families in any possible way we can and I know both of these families have been a part of our church for a long time and they are confident that they can count on us,“ said Pastor Sproul.

Obituary notices for Mrs. Brockmyre is below, but details for Mrs. Bullen, who will be buried next Tuesday, are still pending. More details will be posted as they are received. (Please note that the Eric Dye shown as a brother to Mrs. Brockmyre is NOT the PCA minister by the same name.)

Deaun Ruth Dye Brockmyre: We mourn the loss of our treasured daughter, wife, mother and friend but give thanks in the assurance that our beloved, Deaun is rejoicing with her Lord and Savior. Deaun Ruth Dye Brockmyre, age 44, went to Heaven on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009, following an automobile accident. Deaun was loved by many for her sweet gentle spirit and generous heart. She was born in Richmond, Va., and had worked as a nurse and case manager at BristolRegionalMedicalCenter before devoting her time to raising and home schooling her children. She was a member of St. Peter Presbyterian Church and a shining example of faith and devotion. She is survived by her husband, Dr. Andrew Brockmyre, MD; five daughters, Heather Bailey and husband Ryan of Lexington, Va., Isabel, Bliss, Maeve and Ellianna Brockmyre; three sons, Calvin, Christopher and Benjamin Brockmyre; her parents, Dr. Daniel and Phyllis Compton Dye of Bristol Tennessee; one brother, Eric Daniel Dye and wife Mandy Mink Dye of Knoxville, Tenn.; and several nieces and nephews. The funeral service will be conducted at 2 p.m.Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009, at FirstBaptistChurch, BristolVirginia, with R.C. Sproul Jr., Laurence Windham, Wayne Hays and Mark Dewey officiating. The committal service and interment will be at 4 p.m. Sunday in RussellMemorialCemetery in Lebanon, Va. The family will receive friends from 6 8 p.m. Saturday at Akard Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Samaritan's Purse, P.O. Box 3000, Boone, NC28607 E-mail condolences may be sent to the family at akardfh@akardfuneralhome.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Akard Funeral Home, 1912 W. State St., Bristol, TN (423) 989-4800, is serving the family of Mrs. Brockmyre.

Ballistics gel dolls

2009-11-19T12:26:00.003-05:00

Yesterday as I was driving the children to church, they were talking about how popular Legos are. We were discussing how long they've been around and how there have been other companies who have tried to imitate Legos throughout the years (Tyco, Mega Blocks, etc.), but we don't like those as well as true Legos.

Christopher said if he could, he would build a machine that would copy the best Lego sets and their instructions so that he could have as many as he wanted, but Micah said that would be copyright infringement. (We have talked a lot about this since we live in an age where it is very easy to steal someone else's ideas. We want the children to know that copyright infringement, plagiarizing, and other forms of illegal copying are bad . Too many people think it's ok to copy other people's ideas, but it isn't.)

After a discussion about the differences between a copyright and a patent, we talked about how the most successful, long-lasting toys throughout the years have been building-type toys. The things that come and go are the fast-paced toys that kids get bored with after a few weeks. They also seem to break more easily and end up increasing our land fills by millions of pounds each year, I'm sure. On the other hand, Blocks, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Legos and other building toys have held their interest for generations. I encouraged the children to think of some type of building toy that they could create and market one day.

They were very thoughtful for a bit and finally Daniel said, "We could make a doll." I was immediately thinking... "Oh, great. I can't wait to see where this goes. How are they going to make a doll into a building toy?"

All at once, everyone was talking...

- "Yeah, and it could have removable parts - arms, legs, hair, and everything."
- "And we could change it's head to different faces!"
- "And it could have different clothes, too."

After a few minutes, Christopher (the future doctor) said, "And we could even make little organs to go inside its body. We could have a liver, kidneys, a stomach, a heart, and other body parts and then we could take those out of the abdomen and study them. Then it would be a toy that would count as schoolwork, too!"

I just KNEW it would come to this...

So then Micah (the future scientist) said, "Yeah, and we could make the whole thing out of ballistics gel and then people could shoot the doll and study what happens to all the organs after you shoot it!"

Of course Hannah (the future Mommy who now loves dolls at age six) was going crazy at this point... "NO! You can't make a doll that you'll shoot. And I don't think you should take its organs out to study them, either!..."

Now I assure you that my children are not sociopaths. They are just very creative children with active imaginations. And I did ask them to think of a toy so I guess it was my own fault, after all. Fortunately, it's not a long drive to our church and we arrived just in time to end the conversation so that the children could go in and converse about something other than ballistics gel dolls, I'm sure.

Sonya Haskins

www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

National Ammo Day - November 19

2009-11-17T11:24:00.000-05:00

I just thought this was interesting. : )

From www.ammoday.com....

A brief explanation - What is National Ammo Day?

November 19 is National Ammo Day.

It is a nationwide BUYcott of ammunition. You buy ammunition. 100 Rounds a person.

The goals of Ammo Day:

The goal of National Ammo Day is to empty the ammunition from the shelves of your local gun store, sporting goods, or hardware store and put that ammunition in the hands of law-abiding citizens. Make your support of the Second Amendment known--by voting with your dollars!

There are an estimated 75 MILLION gun owners in the United States of America. If each gun owner or Second Amendment supporter buys 100 rounds of ammunition, that’s 7.5 BILLION rounds in the hands of law-abiding citizens!

The gun/ammunition manufacturers have been taking the brunt of all the frivolous lawsuits, trying to put these folks out of business. Well, not if we can help it! And we CAN help it by buying ammunition on November 19!

Disney Homeschool Days - January 2010

2009-11-13T07:21:00.001-05:00

The flu has come... with horrible lower back pain

2009-11-01T21:58:00.003-05:00

I left the house around 11:30 on Friday feeling fine. My husband and I only have lunch about once every two months so we had arranged to eat lunch together, then I was going to pay bills and then work on my new book for a few hours. During lunch, the tea tasted way too strong so I didn't drink it and despite my delicious food, I started feeling nauseous so I couldn't eat. I had also started developing a headache so we requested a to-go box. Chris headed back to work and I headed out to pay bills.

Within the hour, I started feeling much worse. A LOT worse!

I quickly paid a few bills and then came home and went straight to bed. It was about 3:00. By the time Chris came home from work at 5:30, I was freezing, every part of my body hurt, I had a horrible headache, and I had developed diarrhea. We checked my temperature and it was 102.5. I had gone from feeling fine to feeling like I might die in just a few short hours. Due to my chronic health condition and lowered immune system, Chris called my doctor and he gave me some Tamiflu - antivirals. I think I would be much sicker now if I hadn't had those.

Friday night I spent the whole night freezing to death while Chris tried to comfort me. My whole body ached and my lower back was absolutely killing me. He tried to rub it, but every time he touched me it hurt.

Yesterday, last night and all day today I've remained miserable so I've been in bed most of the day. Since we're 99.9% certain that I have the flu (as certain as you can be without the official test), I expected the sudden onset, aches and chills, headache, etc., but I never anticipated the horrible pain in my lower back. I didn't know that was associated with influenza so this evening I've felt well enough to stay up a little while and I have found a few other bloggers who have said that one of their main symptoms was lower back pain. Interesting. Anyway, I just thought anyone else who is experiencing this might want to know that yes, it is possible to have horrible lower back pain with the flu. Other than the aches and chills, one of my other main symptoms has been absolutely excruciating stomach pain - like little gnomes are in my whole abdomen dancing with little knife-shaped shoes and poking up into the air with little knife-fingered gloves!

Well, my energy is sapped. I have to rest again. I hope to feel better in a few days, but meanwhile I'm thankful that at least tonight I don't think I'm going to die anymore like I did yesterday and even earlier this morning!

Sonya

If children could pick their parents...

2009-10-30T03:08:00.001-04:00

Hannah and I were cuddling this evening and she said, "Mommy, wouldn't it be wonderful if children could pick out which parents they wanted and then adopt them?"

"Hmmmm. Would you pick me," I asked.

"I would pick you," she giggled, "and then tickle you under the chin and say, 'You're the sweetest Mommy in the world!'"

Even though we're supposed to show our children love like the Father shows us, I think it's the other way around. When I look at my children, I see how much the Father loves us.

Sonya
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Kids' thoughts on Obama

2009-10-30T02:45:00.001-04:00

We were driving along the other day and the children started talking about Obama.

"Did you know that Obama supports health care that could deny coverage to old people so that they'd have to die?"

"Did you know that Obama says the economy is getting better, but it really isn't. Do you think it is, Mommy? We don't even have enough money for gas!"

"Obama says he's going to fix the world, but so far he hasn't done anything and everyone still treats him like a king."

"Did you know that Obama won the Nobel Peace Price even though he hasn't brought any peace?"

"Obama is going to make our country communist with all his beliefs."

I just sat there and listened to them talk, all the while thinking, "Where do you get all this stuff?!?" After all, I don't like Obama, but I certainly don't sit around talking about these things in front of the children. Micah replied with no hesitation, "the news."

The news?!? We don't have cable television, we don't subscribe to any newspapers and I wasn't aware that he was reading the news online. I guess we'll have to start blocking news sites in addition to the "bad" sites we have blocked with our parental blockers on the Internet.

Then he added, "And did you know that when Obama is giving speeches, he talks mostly about himself."

"Yeah," Christopher quickly put in, "He talks about what HE does, what HE already did, or what HE is going to do every few seconds. He talks about himself a lot more than he does anything else."

"And he is always pointed to himself when he is talking about good things," Micah said. "If you watch him give speeches, he points toward himself if he is talking about something good and positive, but if he is talking about something bad, he points out to the people. The masses. His followers."

"Yes, his evil minions," Christopher said.

Ha! I was cracking up. Evil minions.

I'm not sure where they got ALL the information and I guarantee you that I have NEVER taught the children the word "minions." It has never been on any of our spelling or vocabulary lists, but you gotta give them credit for thinking for themselves - and being willing to speak their minds. If homeschooling has accomplished one thing, these children certainly aren't going to be "sheep."

Sonya Haskins
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Program pays teen girls not to get pregnant

2009-10-28T22:21:00.002-04:00

The government requires children to attend school.

The government later introduces health classes that teach children about how the body works. Because the government gradually takes over the role of parenting in many families, some legislators decide they should take it upon themselves to make sure we have sex education in our schools.

Some people claim that abstinence-based programs do not work so students in most states learn about various forms of birth control - "safe sex" programs, but it's STILL SEX.

All of this costs millions of dollars.

And yet, we have higher teen pregnancy rates than any industrialized country. In some of our schools, one in eight teen girls is pregnant. Who pays for the care of these babies? WE DO.

Then some bright persons get the idea that perhaps if we PAID girls not to get pregnant, that would be the answer. So, yes, you heard me right, there is a program in North Carolina - "College Bound Sisters" - that PAYS girls not to get pregnant.

What happens if they get pregnant? They are dropped from the program. But guess what? Then they'll be eligible for food stamps, health care, help with housing, and a host of other socialist programs that require the hard-working taxpayer to give them money regardless of whether they get pregnant or not. Either way, we're paying their bills!

Ridiculous.

If you want to read one of the news articles, it's here: http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=132280&catid=57

From the perspective of the child of a teen mother, my mom did NOT receive any money to help her when she had me. (Those programs didn't exist that long ago.) What she did receive was a lot of prejudice, hard work, and a difficult life trying to raise one baby and then (a few years later) another. She worked her tail off for about 15 years until I was in high school and then she went back to night school to get her GED. And all that time, she worked. None of my family has a lot of money, but we all work, pay our bills, and would appreciate it if we didn't have to give it all to these girls to either (a) not get pregnant or (b) get pregnant and then take care of their babies without having to work. It's not right either way. Let them learn that there are consequences to their actions.

Sex = baby = job, responsibilities, bills, loss of freedom, etc.

Perhaps if we did this, we wouldn't need sex education classes or babysitting in schools anymore. And we could keep more of our tax dollars as teens learn that SEX is more than just a night of fun!

Sonya Haskins

Gather

2009-10-25T10:29:00.004-04:00

Have you ever heard of Gather? It's a social networking site where you can actually earn money for your posts. I'm doing a test to see how well it works. If you're interested in joining, send me your e-mail address and I'll send you an invitation to join. I should get points for that. Then you can invite all your friends and do the same. It's kind of like Amway on steroids for the Internet! : )

Sonya

Today's lesson

2009-10-22T23:42:00.001-04:00

The children learned today that if you pull your skin up and you're dehydrated, your skin will slowly go back into place (slower depending on how dehydrated you are). Their skin popped back into place just like it should have and when I did it, mine sloooowly went back down. Micah said, "EEWWW! That's disgusting. Look how dehydrated you are!" You just gotta love kids. : )

Homeschooling for the Rest of Us - free bookmark, postcard / chance to win a free book!

2009-10-21T15:46:00.003-04:00

Besides trying to balance teaching responsibilities and family life, homeschoolers often face unrealistic expectations from relatives, churches, other homeschoolers, and society at large. There is pressure on homeschoolers to be PERFECT - you know, perfect kids, clean home, wonderful marriage, home business, etc. Well, the REALITY is that most homeschool families are just like you and me - perfectly ordinary families who simply want to do the best for their children. This doesn't mean we'll always agree on homeschool methods, how to raise children, our discipline style, which curriculum to use, or anything else for that matter. But we can agree that we homeschool because we love our children and want the best for them even if it means we're not perfect.

For those of you who currently homeschool or who are interested in homeschooling your children, there is a new book - Homeschooling for the Rest of Us - coming out at the beginning of the year that will address issues faced by ordinary homeschool families. It offers solutions to practical, everyday problems without suggesting that you have to follow any one particular method, curriculum, or set of ideas. Actually, if there is one theme to the book, it's that homeschool families should be encouraged to find and follow their own path - regardless of what others might say.

Homeschooling for the Rest of Us will be released in January 2010, but the promotional materials are ready NOW. Yeah! If you are interested in homeschooling or if you already teach your child at home, I would love to have your help in getting the word out about this book! You can use the bookmarks and postcards yourself, mail them to friends, put them in support group member mailboxes, give them out at homeschool events, drop them by your local homeschool bookstores, or whatever you want... It doesn't matter how or where you share them as long as you help get them into the hands of other homeschoolers. And if you just want a couple for yourself, that's fine, too!

If you'd like to receive promotional materials, please e-mail sonya@sonyahaskins.com with the following information:

- your name and address - whether you'd like postcards, bookmarks or both
- how many you'd like
- the name of your support group (if applicable) and about how many members you have (It's ok if your group is small!)
- how you plan to disperse the materials

Also, from the people who request promotional materials, I will be picking two dozen names to receive a free copy of the book when it is available!

Thanks,
Sonya Haskins

www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

http://www.bethanyhouse.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=0477683E4046471488BD7BAC8DCFB004&nm=&type=PubCom&mod=PubComProductCatalog&mid=BF1316AF9E334B7BA1C33CB61CF48A4E&tier=3&id=1C93027F214E49B9AEC4317EA52D6D26

HSLDA 2009 Essay Contest

2009-10-18T16:50:00.000-04:00

October is the month for HSLDA's annual essay contest. Essays can ONLY be submitted from October 1 through November 1. If the entry is postmarked after November 1, they will not be accepted. This only gives you about three more weeks, but I thought some of you might want to enter. Remember, you can't win unless you try! (And you do not have to be an HSLDA member to enter.)

Here are the categories for this year's contest:

Category 1 (ages 7-10): The Bible talks about God knowing all our days and all the days of time. Why do you think you were born now instead of in another generation?

Category 2 (age 11-14):If you were charged with the task of investing $100,000 how would you invest it and why? Part of the requirement is you cannot give it away or spend it on yourself.

Category 3 (ages 15-19):How does the news media (TV news, newspapers, news websites or blogs) affect your perception of America? Be sure you talk about coverage of both good and bad news.

Here is the website link if you want more information: http://www.hslda.org/Contests/Essay/2009/2009rules.asp

Sonya

Gwen - "Homeless" American Girl doll

2009-10-06T22:36:00.001-04:00

I know many of you have bought American Girl dolls for your daughters. What's special about American Girl dolls is that each one has a story related to some point in history. One of the newest dolls is Gwen. Gwen's story is that she is homeless.

Some are criticizing the American Girl company because the doll costs $95 and no percentage of that is going toward programs to help the homeless. American Girl has issued a statement, however, saying that they do support (in general - not with proceeds from this particular doll) programs that go toward helping the homeless and that the doll helps girls from wealthier families understand homelessness better...

Anyway, I thought some of you might be interested in this. Feel free to leave a comment. : )

Here is a video story about the doll from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/10/05/nr.baldwin.homeless.doll.cnn

And here is a link to the doll at the American Girl website: http://store.americangirl.com/agshop/EndecaForwardServlet?dest=%2Fagshop%2Fhtml%2FProductPage.jsf%2FitemId%2F142095&event=topRecordsReport&sku=F9311

Have a great day!
Sonya

homestead websites

2009-10-03T20:07:00.001-04:00

While we would love to have a few hundred acres with animals, a huge garden, a root cellar and much more, we're trying our best to make the most of the land we have (a little less than an acre) with chickens, a small garden, a few herbs, and plenty of room to run and play. Like many others from my generation, I have not grown up with the skills necessary to can food, build solar panels, take care of farm animals, etc. so I've been researching various resources to help learn some of these things at least.

Here are some really neat homesteading sites I found that I thought some of you might enjoy:http://www.christianhomesteaders.org/index.html ... This is an excellent site, especially for new homesteaders with a Christian worldview. They don't have as much material as I would like, but they do have some great start-up ideas.

http://www.homestead.org/ ... This website has tons of articles and very helpful advice. The only caution I would have is that many of the articles are not from a Christian worldview.

http://www.homesteadernews.com/ ... I really like the set-up of this website. It is so neat and organized that you can find anything in a snap. Also, they specifically mention homeschooling. There are a ton of resources, ideas, articles, etc. There is a section specifically for kids, but right now that area has directions on how to make "vampire bats" out of coffee filters and how to carve pumpkins. Those things are too closely associated with Halloween for us to want to do them, but overall this minimal content doesn't take away from the benefit of the website as a whole.

huge white diamond found in South Africa - teaching ideas

2009-09-30T23:02:00.001-04:00

A white diamond has been dug up at the historic Cullinan mine in South Africa. The diamond weighs 507.55 (101.5 grams) carats. That's a huge diamond! It's actually one of the world's largest. Clarity, grading, and other details will be released after further examination by experts, but they've already stated that it appears to be an exceptional diamond.

If you want to read one of the articles about this, I'd recommend: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/rest-of-world/Spectacular-50755-carat-white-diamond-mined-in-South-Africa/articleshow/5071500.cms

While Chris and the children were sitting here talking about it, a discussion came up about the word "carat." This is a great word to use to discuss synonyms so we used the opportunity to look up the meaning of "carat" and "karat" (we already knew "carrot"! LOL). Anyway, I thought some of the rest of you might like to go over the differences with your children... :)

- carrot ... Of course this is the yummy, crunchy, orange vegetable we enjoy fresh, steamed, boiled, baked, etc.

- carat ... A carat is a unit of measurement for diamonds and other gemstones. One carat equals 200 milligrams. Although I initially thought a "carat" was based on size, a carat is actually unit of weight, which is a little bit different than just "size," which could also imply measurement.

- karat ... A karat is not a unit of weight, but it's a unit of purity. When referring to gold, 24-karat gold refers to pure gold. Since pure gold tends to be too soft for normal use, you'll frequently find lower karats of gold: 14-karat gold, for example. Since each karat is really 1/24th of the whole, a 14-karat gold necklace really means that it's 14 parts gold and 8 parts something else (14 + 8 equals 24 karats). Usually that "something else" is copper or silver or another metal used to make the jewelry or other material since 24 karat gold is too soft.

Since children are typically very interested in superlative topics ("largest," "rarest," "most expensive," etc.), they might be interested in the news about this latest discovery. This is a good example of how to incorporate math (fractions, etc.), language arts (synonyms, spelling, definitions, etc.) science (how do diamonds form, how do you mine for diamonds), geography (where is South Africa, where is the mine), and other academic subjects into an every day discussion so that education is just a part of your lifestyle. : )

Have fun!
Sonya