Hopefully, you’ve long since jumped into teaching/learning mode, and have settled into your home schooling routine without too many problems. Of course, the nice thing about homeschooling is there IS no set routine–you can make mid-voyage adjustments as needed and keep the HMS Homeschool ship on course.

We’d like to share with you some links we think you’ll find helpful as you guide your children. Here goes nuttin’:

http://www.tslbooks/. (Worksheets)

http://www.math-drills.com/  (Worksheets)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/us.html  (Data on USA)

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/ (American Revolution)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html  (Today in history)

http://www.101science.com/HomeSchooling.htm (Homeschool/Science)

http://www.101science.com/ (Science)

 http://www.waterfordpress.com/entergame.html (Games/Activities)

http://www.superkids.com (Educational software/tools)

http://www.science-teachers.com/ (Science worksheets/lesson plan)

http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/worksheets.htm (Homeschool worksheets)

Leave your comments and let us know your favorites! We’re sure there are a ton more.

So we decided to do something about it. We’ve started our own political party, the Homeschool Republicrats, and Brian has quietly (until now) been campaigning for Prez along with Lisa.

Yep, that’s right. Now you’ll have the chance to vote for a REAL pro-homeschool candidate. Next stop: The White House.

Just check out this latest news video  from iNews 3 now:

(hee, hee, hee!)

She was apparently referring to our comment we made that the liberal social indoctrination of the public schools was a detrimental waste of time, and that the Biblical worldview had been replaced by the Humanist worldview. She didn’t specify exactly what it was that offended her, other than the fact that we hold opposing viewpoints.

Our response: We don’t write with the intent to offend, but since we are both unabashedly Christian and conservative, we will neither hide nor deny our Christian conservative viewpoint. However, we’re puzzled as to why this individual was offended, as we’re not offended by those who hold a liberal viewpoint, even though we strongly disagree with them.

We don’t feel the need to apologize for our views, nor do we feel that it’s necessary to ‘warn’ our readers that we are conservative Christians. This would imply that the ‘default’ position is liberal and secular, which we don’t believe is correct. 

Homeschooling is what YOU make it. If you’re a liberal and you firmly believe that’s the correct viewpoint, then your home school program will likely reflect that, and vice versa for conservatives or Christians or whoever.

This former subscriber apparently is either home schooling already or considering it, and we’re sure there are many reasons why someone would choose to homeschool rather than send their children to public schools. But for us, one of the main reasons for our decision to homeschool was for the above-mentioned liberal, anti-Christian indoctrination that is occurring in the public schools.

It becomes more shocking by the day, as grade-school children are taught the ‘virtues’ of the homosexual lifestyle as early as kindergarten, and evolution is presented as ’settled science’ even thought this is far from the truth.

We doubt that even liberals would deny that this is indeed occurring. So we have a question for anyone of the liberal persuasion: Do you believe these changes have IMPROVED public schools? If so, could you please provide some proof?

Actually, we see just the opposite from our perspective. Test scores have fallen precipitiously over the years since these changes started, and morality among public school-educated children has taken a serious dive as well.

So if this person is offended because she thinks that the introduction of these liberal ideas was a POSITIVE move for the public schools, she has a long, uphill battle to convince us that it’s so.

This also brings up another interesting question: Is there such thing as a ‘neutral’ position that public schools, or homeschoolers, or anyone for that matter, should follow?

Think about this before you answer. Every person has a ‘worldview’ whether they realize it or not. If you believe that God created the universe and everything in it, then your perspective and mindset will be much different than someone who believes that everything in the universe is the result of a ‘big bang’ and that there is no God and no purpose to life.

Since the public schools have discarded the idea that God is the supreme being in control of the universe, they have (perhaps) unwittingly adopted the tenents of Humanism. Humanism rejects anything supernatural and places man in the position of  determining what is right or wrong by his own volition.

But wait. Isn’t Humanism religiously neutral? No, Humanism functions as a religion. “As Humanism encompasses intellectual currents running through a wide variety of philosophical and religious thought, several strains of Humanism allow it to fulfill, supplement or supplant the role of religions, and in particular, to be embraced as a complete life stance”. (Wikipedia).

Evolutionists, for example, believe that you cannot understand biology unless you embrace the evolutionary doctrines, and this has been firmly engrained into the public school curriculum.

So there is no such thing as a ‘neutral’ position, contrary to what some may want us to believe. Your own worldview has a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Atheist, Humanist, Evolutionist, etc. foundation and ultimately affects how you interpret information and the decisions you make.  EVERYONE, regardless of how unbiased they may see themselves, has a set of beliefs that determines how they interact with the world around them.

We don’t expect all homeschoolers to totally agree with our worldview, and we’re not offended if they happen to hold a slightly, or vastly, different view. However, as conservative Christians, we firmly believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God and that the ideas of men that run counter to the Bible are bankrupt. 

Our goal isn’t to “alienate” other home schoolers, and we’re sorry that someone would feel alienated simply because of opposing viewpoints. But we will continue to proclaim what we believe to be true regardless of whether anyone feels ‘offended’ or not.

“Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!” (Luke 6:26).

This was an opinion piece by well-known columnist Thomas Sowell, one of our favorite conservative authors, called “Amateurs Outdoing Professionals“. Here’s the excerpt. It might not seem relevant at first, but follow it through:

“When amateurs outperform professionals, there is something wrong with that profession”.

“If ordinary people, with no medical training, could perform surgery in their kitchens with steak knives, and get results that were better than those of surgeons in hospital operating rooms, the whole medical profession would be discredited”.

“Yet it is common for ordinary parents, with no training in education, to homeschool their children and consistently produce better academic results than those of children educated by teachers with master’s degrees and in schools spending upwards of $10,000 a year per student”.

“Nevertheless, we continue to take seriously the pretensions of educators who fail to educate, but who put on airs of having “professional” expertise beyond the understanding of mere parents”.

(End of excerpt)

Hmmm, could it be all the time wasted in the public schools on liberal social indoctrination, plus their zeal in getting rid of the Bible and replacing it with the tenets of humanism? Nahhh!

Plus Brian is trying to learn all he can about investing, as our investments we had trusted to a mutual fund advisor have taken a sizeable hit what with the wacky market conditions. It’s a steep learning curve, and we’re now making some moves ourselves that are starting to pay off after getting off to a shaky start.

Brian can tell you first-hand that it’s a brave new world out there in the financial markets… Not like the past few years where you could just about invest in any stock or fund imaginable and the darn thing would go up–not now. Takes a ton of research these days, and constant vigilance.

We managed to squeeze in a trip to Lisa’s parents home (about 200 miles away), and since we’ve finally joined the modern age and are now using a digital camera, thought we’d share a few pics with you for now until we can think of something intelligent to write about, LOL.

The highlight of our trip was a housewarming for a family friend, which included our boy’s first wiener roast. May not sound very exciting to you, but hey, when you’re a kid, it doesn’t take much. Believe it or not, there was an educational aspect to the weenie roast as the housewarming festivities were very close to a cattle feeding operation (as you’ll see in the pics). As you can imagine, when the wind blows the right (wrong?) way, there’s a certain, ah, fragrance, if you know what we mean. But we digress… So here’s the pics (mouse over for caption):

Think we’re kidding? Well, the retailers don’t, because many stores are already gearing up for the back-to-school crowd. The July 4 through Labor Day period is actually the  second-biggest selling period after Christmas, we were surprised to learn. The competition is expected to be fierce this year.

So this is kind of a transitional period for many of us homeschoolers. You may still be homeschooling at a slower summer mode (or maybe not). For our part, we’re trying to squeeze as much fun into the schedule as we can, because we know full well that the warm weather will be gone before we know it, at least here in northern Ohio.

But this is also a good time to consider the benefits and goals of home schooling if you’re not already home schooling, or reviewing the same benefits and goals if you are. We were going to write a post on this topic, but our friends at The Teaching Home, Cindy Short and Sue Welch, beat us to the punch. So here’s their excellent article. Wish we could have said it this well:

Consider the Benefits and Goals of Home Schooling

The Benefits

     Whether you are reaffirming or reevaluating your decision to educate your children at home or are considering this option for the first time, reviewing the unique benefits of home education will provide the conviction, confidence, and commitment that you will need in order to persevere.

     For a Christian, the decision to home school should be based on a determination that this is how you can best fulfill God’s mandate to teach and train your children.

     Teaching and training your children at home can provide the optimum environment for your children’s spiritual training and character development as well as their social and academic welfare.  (Read more specifics of the benefits of home schooling in Newsletter #122.)

Your Goals

     It is easy to get caught up in the nitty-gritty of homeschooling and lose sight of what is most important.

     One way to focus on your family’s goals is to consider the question:  When our children leave our home to begin their own families:

 •   What kind of people do we want them to be?
 •   What values do we want them to embrace?
 •   What knowledge and skills do we want them to possess?
 •   How do we want them to behave?

     As you prayerfully consider all aspects of your children’s teaching and training, write out a family mission statement and long-range goals for your children.  This will give purpose, direction, and balance to your efforts.  (For more information on writing your family mission statement and goals, see Newsletters #80 and #81.)

     Your goals may include the following:

 •   Spiritual:  Know God’s Word, come to salvation, grow spiritually in faith and obedience to God’s Word, minister to others, and spread the Gospel.

 •   Character:  Development of characteristics of love, integrity, responsibility, and joy; manners; and discipline.  (See more information on character development in Newsletters #87 and #88.)

 •   Social:  Family unity and social skills.

 •   Academic:  A Christian worldview in all areas, a solid foundation in basic skills (reading, writing, math), an excellent, well-rounded education, and the ability to find information and keep learning throughout life.

 •   Life Skills:  Practical preparation for adult life.

     As you plan for the next school year, you can use these life goals to schedule specific goals and objectives for each of your children.

By Cindy Short and Sue Welch
Copyright 2007 by www.TeachingHome.com. Reprinted by permission.

Well, the results are in, and it ended up 95% No, 5% Yes. Yeah, yeah, we know, this wasn’t a scientific poll with controlled sampling and so forth, and it’s possible that homeschoolers caught wind of the poll and voted en-mass. But still, 95% is an overwhelming majority, don’t you think?

The California case has not yet been decided to our knowledge, and so the estimated 166,000 California children who currently are home-schooled are not in immediate jeopardy. But if the ruling stands, it could influence home school laws across the USA.

To give you an update, oral arguments were held June 23 for the rehearing of the ‘In re Rachel L’ homeschooling case. The court has 90 days to take action, so we should expect a ruling by late September. You can get more details on the oral arguments phase here.

But getting back to the Parade poll, we think the message sent was: Don’t mess with our homeschooling. If it ain’t broke, don’t ‘fix’ it.

We think it’s high time these social activist judges, who are unaccountable to the electorate, stop legislating from the bench in an attempt to thwart the will of the majority of the people. This phony concept of their supposed intellectual and moral superiority over us mere mortals has got to stop.

We find it insulting that they apparently don’t trust us as parents to make the right decisions for our children’s education and future. They somehow feel the need to exert their power over our lives and give us poor dunderheads the benefit of their ’superior intellect’ . In other words, they have to make the ‘right’ decisions for us because we’re not smart enough or sufficiently enlightened to do it ourselves.

The same thing happened recently (in California again, big surprise) with the ’gay marriage’ ruling–The California Supreme Court struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. We think you can guess our views on that one. We won’t open that huge can of worms right now, but this is just another glaring example of judges gone wild, coming to a state near you soon.    

You see, we grow all our own fruits and vegetables, and June is crunch time for some of our biggest harvests. For instance, we’ve picked 130 quarts of strawberries and have frozen 72 quarts so far, and picked 53 lbs. of peas, which we’ve shelled and frozen. We also have a bumper crop of lettuce and spinach which we’re frantically trying to use up before it gets spoiled by the hot weather.

Of course, that’s on top of lawn mowings, weeding, watering, grocery shopping, cleaning, our online business, helping Brian’s (86 year old) Dad, and well, you get the picture.  Makes us tired even writing about it.

But relief is on the horizon… The peas and strawberries should be done by July 4 or so, and we’ve begun getting regular rains again (not to mention a few storms).  Doesn’t mean we can kick back and retire to the easy chair, or computer chair, but it brings the promise of a more relaxed schedule ahead.

We’re only able to squeeze in about an hour of schooling per boy per day lately, but that’s OK for now. We plan on doing our summer fun activities in mid July through August. So far, the boys have managed to hit the local pool once and the skating rink once so far, but that will be happening more often soon.

We’re planning to go to the local Zoo and the miniature golf course that has bumper cars, and we have a remote-control boat we’ve been itching to take out to a nearby man-made lake. Might even rig up a fishing pole to the stern (back end of the boat for you land lubbers) and see if we can hook a fish, imitating something we saw on America’s Funniest Home Videos.  

Which brings up a thought… Isn’t it sad how few programs there are left on network TV that are suitable for family viewing? Now your definition of what is suitable may not be the same as ours, but I think you catch my drift. Our advice, predictably, is to turn the silly thing off and enjoy the summer weather instead.

Of course, we hope to have more time for blog posts as well, but we ain’t makin’ any promises we can’t keep, LOL. But we’ll try our best to bring you some timely information you can use to get off on the right foot for the start of the next traditional school year here in the northern hemisphere.

No plans for a formal vacation trip this year, other than a two-nighter visit with Lisa’s parents on the other side of the state. We’ll just go the day-trippin’ route this year for our summer fun in all likelihood, in view of the gas prices and busyness of our schedule.

Speaking of gas prices (and who isn’t), what do you think is causing the sudden rises in price? Is it Big Oil, the Saudis, OPEC, speculators, political manipulation, or just the realities of the supply/demand equation? Probably a little of all the above, from what we’ve been reading from the financial experts. No easy solutions, we’re afraid…

An that brings up our final random thought. Homeschoolers should make sure that their kids get a good education in practical financial matters, something that is sorely lacking in the public schools.

Yeah, the law of supply and demand is pretty basic, but we’re talking here about how to manage a checking account, the principles of saving and investment, how to decide if you can afford to buy a house and if so, how expensive, and so on. And it certainly doesn’t hurt to understand how the global financial system operates, especially when it comes time to invest your money in a particular financial instrument like stocks, bonds, options, real estate, or whatever.

We’re appalled at the financial illiteracy that seems to exist among the population in general, most of whom have been educated (and we use the term ‘educated’ loosely) in the public school system. People who should have known that they couldn’t really afford the house they were about to sign their name(s) to. People who spent way beyond their means and declared bankruptcy. Not to point fingers, but just some examples.

So the take-home message for today would be to place a strong emphasis on personal financial education for your child, because it affects so many areas of your adult life. You may need to learn it right alongside your child if it’s a weak area in your background, so you can benefit as well. It’s a subject that often gets overlooked, but one that could have a great effect on your child’s future financial success.

The child must enjoy the process of learning. He must have a desire
to satisfy himself by learning. A child who loves to learn is a
child who is motivated.
 
Children come with varying personality types. Most children have
some desire to learn. It’s your job, as a parent, to increase this
desire. Unfortunately, many home schoolers unwittingly make mistakes
that result in the child losing his/her desire to learn.
 
Some parents try to motivate children by setting high expectations
for them. This may work, but if the expectations are too high you
can actually discourage them from learning.

On the other hand, you don’t want to set the bar too low, or you’ll
be tempted to settle for mediocrity. Set your expectations just a
little higher than what you believe they can accomplish. 
 
Avoid criticizing your children. Criticizing will only discourage
them. Let them know that you believe they can do it. Be patient
even when it looks like they’re not putting in a 100% effort.
 
Teach your children that work can be fun and rewarding. Be sure to
praise them when they succeed.
 
When children are learning something new they’ll often complain that
the work is too difficult. In this case the parent should spend more
time working with the student on that subject.

I realized that my son needed extra work on fractions when he
became frustrated by his assignments. Once he understood how to
work with them, he was much more satisfied.
 
The way you teach can also affect the child’s desire to learn.
You could just put a book in front of him as the default learning
process and tell him to do the lesson.

But with a minimal amount of creativity, you can create more
interesting ways to learn.
 
For example, say you are studying the Gold Rush. You could have each
child do a little research and then have everyone get together to
discuss what each has learned separately.

You could even make a game out of it by going outdoors, collecting
pebbles from a stream, and have the kids separate out the lighter
colored specimens as “gold”. Or make an indoor game of it the same
way with pebbles or stones collected ahead of time.
 
Some children are always compliant and learn easily. OK, not very
many, but some. If you have a child like this stop and thank God
 
Most parents who ask for advice about motivation don’t have children
like this. But that doesn’t mean that your much-less-than-perfect
child can’t be a blessing as well.

Teaching a child with an uncooperative personality can be a real
challenge. In order to teach sucessfully, parents must be able to
manage their child’s behavior in such a way as to make them want to
cooperate, to make them want to learn.
 
The first thing to do is determine why the child refuses to
cooperate. Is it that the subject is too boring? You may need to
find a way to make the subject more interesting.

If your child is bored, perhaps a game would help. Yes, even
a game. Remember, anything (OK, almost anything) goes in home
schooling. If it helps your child learn, do it.
 
Maybe the child doesn’t understand a lesson because you covered the
previous lesson too fast. In this case you should go back and
review. Don’t feel you’re bound by time restraints. Set your own
course.

Home schooling gives you the flexibility to do whatever it takes to
help your child learn. Take advantage of that by finding what
works best for their unique personality and learning style.