Apples of Gold Home School News

Hey friends,

I'm going to make a plug today for a really wonderful new devotional called School isWhere the Home Is - 180 Devotions for Parents, by Melita Mellott (JudsonPress -- http://www.judsonpress.com).

After raising five kids, I'm about to enter my FINAL year of homeschooling. (Well, it's never really final, is it?) My youngest daughter will graduate in 2012. So, you might think I've got it figured out.

Wrong.

Even after two decades I still need encouragement. I still need affirmation from on High. I still need the wisdom of others. It doesn't matter what stage you are in the homeschooling journey, you will always need support. But even if you are just starting out, you also have something to offer to others.

Schoolis Where the Home Is is Melita's offering -- theoretically given as one devotional reading for every day of the school year. Each is about a page long, and addresses a specific topic with a Scripture, some story application, and thoughts for digging deeper. That's the usual layout for a devotional, but I thought the author did a fabulous job of digging into areas specific to us homeschoolers using a unique voice. I've read devotional books for homeschoolers before. This is one with meat. Melita is candid about her own experiences as she shares thoughts on communication, purpose, flexibility, annoyances, customization, heritage, prioritizing, failure, and much more.

The book also contains an index organized categorically into eight sections: A Faith of Their Own, A Child Will Lead Them, Gifts We Give Our Children, Homeschool Basics, Homeschool Foundations, Homeschool and Family, Homeschool and You, and Spiritual Vitamins. If you need a specific boost or reminder, you can zero in on devotions focused on one of those sections.

Today my first Back to School advertisement arrived.(It's still July!) As your thoughts start turning in that direction, consider adding School is Where the Home Is to your book list. It's an apple-a-day for 180 days!

     My kids are not super-achievers, but they're successful homeschoolers graduates. I say that because with so many homeschooled cream-o'-the-crop kids making waves out there in the world, some parents might be tempted to think that they've not done a good job if they aren't raising National Spelling Bee champions or Supreme Court Justices.

     Don't think that way. Terrific, interesting young adults like those dearest to me may be considered good or average students in their youth, but you can bet they're smart, successful, involved, personable individuals whether they become engineers, laborers, or homemakers. Your child may or may not be academically minded. They may or may not want to go to college. They might graduate with the determination never to open another math, science, or literature book again, but instead be anxious to develop a business, serve others, raise a family, join the workforce, write a book, travel, or get involved with missions. They might find new ways to enhance their future development beyond the commonly trod paths.

     Oftentimes kids don't know what they want to do right after they graduate. Some parents think their student should start college anyway and then decide. Others think that it's better to take a year or two to explore and then decide if further schooling is right for them.

     My point being that it shouldn't be cause for intense stress. Prayer will guide the way. Raise a child according to his or her bents -- their interests and personalities -- then trust God and believe in your young adult to want good things for themselves. Faith, time, and their own maturity will lead the way, whether our kids are super-achievers or are simply content to explore each life option as it presents itself.

It's all joy.

Guest poster Kristina Seleshanko offers these doable tips for avoiding library late fees. Her blog Proverbs 31 Woman offers tips and advice pertaining to homemaking, child-rearing, gardening and a host of other helpful topics. Visit her at http://proverbsthirtyonewoman.blogspot.com/

Getting Library Books In On Time by Kristina Seleshanko

     I've seen a rash of posts on other blogs about the woes of overdue book fees. Personally, this has never been a problem for me - unless I check out DVDs, which I can never seem to get back in the 3 days they are due. In such cases, I've always considered my late fee a mini-donation to the library.

     However, there's something to be said for teaching children responsibility with library books, and surely part of this is getting books back on time.

Here are some ideas:

     * Designate one day a week as "library day." If you have young children, make this the same day as library story time.

     * Limit the number of books each person may check out. A little trial and error will tell you how many books your kids can go through in a week's time. If they have to ask for book renewals, then cut back on how many books they're checking out.

     * If possible, let you children have their own library card. At my library, we can just give our phone number and name and the librarian does the rest. My 5 year old is at the age when she needs to know our phone number, anyway, so soon she'll be able to check out her own books.

     * As soon as you bring library books home, put them in their special place. For us, this is a basket in the living room, beside the couch where we usually read. In your home, it could be a special shelf. The idea is simply to have a location where the library books always go when they aren't being read. That way, you'll never have to turn the house upside down looking for a lost library book.

     * If there's any reason you might miss a regularly scheduled library visit (a vacation, a hectic week, etc.), write the books' due date on the calendar to help you remember to drop them off.

     * If you like technical gadgets, try Elf, a service that sends email alerts before your books are due. The service is free for up to 6 notifications.

     * Allow even small children to return their own library books, and teach them to tell the librarian if a book needs repair.

     * If a book ends up overdue, anyway, the child who checked it out is responsible. That child may either pay the overdue fee from her piggy bank or work off the fee by doing special chores. Next time the child is far more likely to make sure her book gets back to the library on time.

Guest article by

By Jon Rappoport

Author of the LOGIC AND ANALYSIS course for home schools

qjrconsulting@gmail.com

   Most schools don’t teach logic because they don’t know what it is. They may have some vague idea about it, but basically they’re in the dark.

   Logic was first written about, in the West, 2400 years ago. Plato and Aristotle were its fathers. It’s a magnificent legacy of Western Civilization.

Today, as the public school system is crumbling, we are in the age of information. In other words, when we need logic the most—because information is an unending flood that attempts to persuade and sway us—we’re missing vital tools.

   Logic is a compass. It’s a system for navigating. We can use it to separate good information from bad.

   Articles in the press, books, public-relations pronouncements, network news, political speech, scientific claims, internet journalism—it’s a huge stream that keeps on going. And at the root, it’s an attempt to argue for certain ideas and positions.

   Information is a “battle” waged for our minds, and the minds of our children.

Do we want to outfit the young so they can have a way to judge and evaluate information, or do we want to abandon them and let them drift on the open sea?

In my 30 years as a free-lance journalist, I’ve seen “the permissive society” take the latter course.

   It’s one thing to gift children with the heritage of freedom; it’s quite another thing to fail to give them the tools to be strong, rational, capable people.

As an investigative reporter, I’ve had to dig into intentional efforts to deceive the American people—in science, in politics, and in education. I’ve been able to do it because, many years ago, I studied logic with a wonderful college professor. He taught his classes how to separate the wheat from the chaff. He drilled us on the basic rules of logic.

   Every high school student should be able to read an article and find the logical flaws in it.

   Every student should be able to describe those flaws in detail.

   Every student should be able to articulate the overall point the article is trying to make—and analyze whether the point is justified or not.

   This is strength. This is power. This is independence.

The Founders of this country didn’t risk their lives to establish a nation based on freedom of the individual, only to see it go down the drain because children are denied the tools to gain true independence.

   As I say, logic is a magnificent legacy of Western civilization. Our schools are casting that legacy aside without a second thought.

   If you were to read some of the vital American political debates that occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries—for example, the Lincoln-Douglas debates—you would see that these politicians were expecting their audiences to follow a logical train of thought.

   Logic used to be taught in American schools. It was an important part of the curriculum. Not so, anymore. Now, we rely on slogans and social engineering and “group-think.”

   We need to reverse this trend. The place to do it is in home schools.

   I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the response to my series of articles on home-schooling and logic. Parents keep contacting me to say they’ve been waiting for a real course on logic and analysis. They’ve been hoping for material that would engage their children in a real way, so these children would be able to face up to the flood of non-stop information coming in their direction.

   Why all this interest? It’s because many home schoolers want to escape the herd mentality that has become more and more prevalent in our society.

Here is a quote from a note a parent sent me:

   “I want my son and daughter to be able to think for themselves, instead of going along with the group. However, I don’t want them to become mindless rebels. They should be able to stand strong and take a rational approach to the PR and propaganda that is being doled out 24/7 in the media and on the internet. Simple rote learning in the classroom is important, but it’s not enough.”

   I have looked at passages of text that are used in public schools, to educate students in so-called “critical thinking.” What I’ve found is very sad. These passages are sanitized. They are carefully tailored to be politically correct, for fear of offending some group or special interest. In no way do they resemble information that’s found in the real world.

   Way back when, in high school, I had a history teacher who presented us with passages written by various socialists. He said, “The only way you’re going to understand socialism is by reading its ideas. I’m going to give you that opportunity, and then I’m going to demand that you analyze those ideas to within an inch of your life. I’m going to make you think. I’m not going to shield you from that philosophy or protect you from it. If I did that, I’d be shortchanging you and your parents, who are paying for your education.”

   And we read passages written by socialists, and by the time the teacher was through with us, we understood a great deal about that philosophy. We understood the hidden ideas in it. We could write about the kind of perverse society that would take over if socialists won the war of ideas.

   It was a very bracing experience, and it was my introduction to logic. That teacher knew logic. He showed us a list of traditional logical fallacies, and he made us compare that list to what socialists were enunciating. We saw how socialists were manipulating and twisting logic to secure their goals.

   It was my first glimpse of the power inherent in real logical analysis, and when I went on to college and studied logic on a deeper level, I gained even more ability to take information apart and put it back together again.

   This year, when I wrote my own logic course for home schools, I decided to include passages of text that approximated the material a young student would find on the internet, on television news, in newspaper articles and political press releases.

   I rejected the idea of presenting a fantasy world to the student.

   Logic and the founding of America have a great deal in common. They both prepare a young person for adulthood in a free and open society. Today that society is sinking further into passive collectivism and group-think. Therefore, it’s more important than ever that we give children tools they can use to dismantle and dissect false information—with strength, insight, and sharp minds.

     Jon Rappoport has been working as an investigative reporter for 30 years. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize early in his career, he has published articles in LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, CBS Healthwatch, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. He is the author of Logic and Analysis, a new course for home schools. His work can be found at www.nomorefakenews.com Jon can be reached at qjrconsulting@gmail.com

     Every now and then I like to share a resource that I have found inspirational for child rearing, particularly for the teen years when nurturing takes on different, sometimes overwhelming dimensions. I discovered You Can Be Everything God Wants You To Be to be one of those resources. It’s a little book by Max Lucado that can be read straight through in about an hour, or, as it’s divided into about a half dozen sections, and further into about 29 tiny chapters, it also makes a good book for reading in tidbits each day.

     I’m recommending the book on three levels: first, as worthwhile reading for parents guiding growing teens into discovering what God has designed them to do best; second, as a devotional for teens and young adults to help them become confident in who God made them to be, and to discover how He really wants them to use their gifts and talents; and third, as a gift book for a graduate or someone who might be uncertain about where the future is leading them.

     The point of the book is that we can discover what it is God really wants us to do with our lives. It explains that we’re to see “desires as gifts to heed, rather than longings to suppress…” Through Bible stories and life-illustrations Lucado explains the freedom we are given to explore our skills and passions. It answers the question that some feel guilty for asking, “God wouldn’t let me do what I like to do—would He?”

     God set each of us apart for a special type of work, endowing us with groupings of individual skills and talents that are totally unique in their combinations, making us who we are, and giving us each a special purpose designed by Him since before we were formed in our mother’s wombs. Whether we become missionaries, executives, or hot dog salesmen, this unique human architecture provides us with opportunity to make a big deal out of Him. Wherever we discover our “sweet spot”—that place that where our daily lives, our strengths, and God’s glory all intersect—is the place that we not only find our calling, but where we will also be the most fulfilled.

     I love this quote: “God never prefabs or mass-produces people. No slap-dash shaping.”

     While this may not be news to many who’ve realized their calling, even if it’s taken years to do so, this little book can give an oxygen-starved breath to

• a young man feeling guilty for wanting to go straight to work rather than to college

• a young lady who’d rather become a home-maker than a career woman

• a boy whose heart is on literary studies more than on taking over the family business

• the individual who feels more compelled to stand up for the downtrodden in a courtroom than on the mission field, or vice versa.

     God designed each of us so differently, yet sometimes human nature is such that we’d rather judge each other for what we think the other should be doing with their lives than for what God created them to do. A young person needs permission at times to find that sweet spot, and we as parents need to be comfortable enough to let them do it—or better yet—to help them do it. As Lucado points out in this encouraging little book, “He designed you. And His design defines your destiny.”

     The greatest things about summer are mud, sun, forests, and freedom to take them all in. Summer school for homeschoolers means self-discovery, adventure, exploring, creative play. It means painting legs in clay (if you live in our region), splashing in a cool northern lake, sticking resistant worms on hooks (but first finding the worms in the squishy mud under warm rocks or yanking them out of the ground by flashlight after a rain). It means playing with baby dolls under the shade trees and collecting rocks. It means finding snakes in the garden and frogs in the pond and discovering the new hatch of baby ducks in the rushes. Summer home school means children being children. Laughter, flowers, long bike rides and sticky messes.

     Homeschoolers often close the “school” doors early, mid May or so. They seldom resume formal studies until after Labor Day and sometimes not until later in September (if they school traditionally at all). But with that, they sometimes harbor guilt. Are we doing “enough”? Should we be reviewing lessons over the summer months? Oh, yuck!

     Rest assured, that the well-roundedness of education would be lacking without the important freedoms which summertime offers. Self-education and adventurous play offer some of the best life education our children ever receive. Let’s wallow in it and have a great summer.

     You might be more-than-anxious to put the school year behind you. But now is the best time to reflect on it’s highlights and capture the memories that you’re likely to forget down the road.

     Try to begin a homeschool journal of some sort, or to create a yearbook. This doesn’t have to be extravagant or time consuming; just a few pages that highlight special moments or capture themes you studied, places you went, or friendships created and nurtured.

Add photos or brochures. Write up a sentence or two regarding different visits or subjects you focused upon.

     Allow a page for your student to add the signatures or comments of friends and family regarding this year in their lives.

     An hour or two putting together this simple piece of memorabilia can be used to glean important portfolio information later, or it can simply serve as a great way to look back on the exciting and ambitious things you did as homeschoolers once your family is all grown up!

     Saturday was the official kick off of “Graduation Season” meaning that we attended the first graduation party of the year. Each year, more and more of our homeschooling friends are graduating. I remember when we rarely heard of someone graduating from their home education program. Homeschooling was a fledgling non-institution for many years, but as more people catch the vision for educating at home, more young adults join the ranks of the post home schooled.

     It took courage and vision and a great deal of resolve to for those parents to educate their children straight through high school. Such tenacity is a mark of fortitude and strong conviction. Those parents are heroes. Despite facing the unique challenges of directing their child’s academic growth, the unsolicited opinions of nay-sayers, the complications of government compliance, and the ignorance of the general population in regard to what homeschooling is all about, these parents have clung to their persuasion to see their efforts through to this grand day. As a result, they’ve discovered that the reward is not the child’s alone, but the whole family’s.

     Congratulations, graduates of 2010. And for those of you who are graduating from your home school, a special, hearty “well-done”. Mom and dad and siblings – that includes you, too!

     The world is full of great recipes, I know. But there are those that are dear to our hearts, handed down from special people or in memory of special occasions. That’s the way of it with this recipe. I’m making them now. The house smells so good, it may attract bears – it is springtime, after all. Try these next winter, too, with your children gathered around, sipping a cup of home-made cocoa while you read them a good book.

     Grandma Marie Ruby Schoechert’s Scrumptious Peanut Butter Bars

½ c. brown sugar

½ c. white sugar

1 egg

½ c. peanut butter

½ c. butter or margarine/softened

     Blend well, then add:

1 c. oatmeal

1 c. flour

½ tsp. baking soda

     Mix it all well. Place in 9x13 pan and bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes or until just ever-so-lightly brown.

     Chocolate/Peanut Butter Frosting:

     In the meantime: mix about 2 cups of powdered sugar with ¼ cup of peanut butter and enough milk to make a very smooth, easily spreadable frosting. You may have to add more milk just before frosting because the peanut butter stiffens it up.

     Remove from oven and sprinkle top with ½ to ¾ bag of chocolate chips. Return to oven for about a minute, just long enough for chips to soften to a spreadable stage.

     When chocolate chips are melted, remove from oven, add frosting while bars are piping hot, and carefully swirl it in with the chocolate chips, making a nice, chocolatey/peanut-buttery topping.

     Eat some while they’re warm. Mmmmm!

     What encourages you? I'm encouraged when I see my daughter learning something that isn't necessarily "school related" in the academic sense, but I know will help her develop character and life-skills.

     I mention this because, no matter how long we've homeschooled, or what our successes, the tendency is to focus on where we lack, or at least where we think we lack.

     I decided to write a book. A memoir, in essence, of where we've been and what we would or would not change if we could do it all again. But as I began delving into the topics I'd discuss, I started to wonder what I was doing wrong now, today. I only have one child left to graduate. I'm happy with the outcome achieved in homeschooling the previous four. Still...what could I be doing better, or differently? It's a good question to ask, yet one which can lead to sullen reflection. Why is it so hard to focus on the high points?

     In the process I pulled out a stack of books from the shelves; treasures I read long ago. Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto, Home School Burnout by Raymond and Dorothy Moore, How Children Learn by John Holt, Marva Collins' Way by Marva Collins and Civia Tamarkin, The Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. These are classics!

     I say that with enthusiasm, because as I perused the pages, reviewing the notes I'd written in the margins, re-reading the sections I'd highlighted, I began to visually review where I'd wanted to go back then, and I began to clearly see where those desires had taken me. I was encouraged! My goals had not strayed. My course had remained. The things we are doing now may look different than the way we once did them, but the goal was the same and so was the outcome.

     What encourages you? For me, it was re-examining those old books and reviewing our path. I realized that we had achieved success and that we were continuing to achieve success. I hope you have a method to reflect like that.