Everywhere Christians

I subscribe to "The Voice of the Martyr". A Christian publication that comes to my email. It tells me sometimes what horrendous acts are being done on Christians overseas in other countries where it's not free to practice Christianity. I just think of our youth and how easy it is for them to come to our events at the church. How easy it is to talk about your faith, your fears, express your passions and ambitions here in America. We can decide not to go to church. That baffles me. The extreme difference and what we take for granted every day. We have loving mentors, people who spend countless hours working on lessons for Sunday school. We may sleep in. Or come up with nine other priorities that are more important.

Difference. : A man and his wife are axed because they profess they are Christians in India.
The man loses his life. What is that wife doing in icu thinking? There are homes burned down, all over other countries. Some day its going to get to that point here in America. Some day we won't be able to have the freedom to say I believe. So take every moment and pray for those people who risk their lives and lose them. They are so grateful to be missionaries to send God's word all over. There isn't much time left. So lets learn all we can.

Love
Liz

Homeschooling

The word presents a problem. Immediately our culture today deems kids who are at home, unsocial. Not adept to handle social interaction and pressures of kids today. Hm..I think we've been fandangled. I read an extremely helpful article in Family Circle this month's issue with an inside look to a family that was successfully homeschooled. That being that all three kids had achieved 90 percent or higher on their standardized tests. So that being said the mom also attempts to take her kids to social clubs and cheerleading stuff like that. No problem.

I'm working on deciding whether I would like to homeschool my child. I think first of all I consider whether or not I'm able to do it. The patience thing. Also will I be out of the workforce to long to get myself back in. Nonsense. Those are all silly thoughts. Well they are my thoughts, but when I evaluate the value behind actually spending time with my child in his education, I think that's not a far-fetched idea. Especially if my husband makes it available for us financially to do so.

The other thing I was thinking of was my personal public education. I believe I stopped learning in middle school. I just clammed up and never learned another thing unless it was on my own.
My grades went down and that was too much for me. I couldn't imagine not getting a b. For some reason my male-chauvenist science teacher didn't like me, so I got my first C. After that I just stopped paying attention. Then while everyone in my math class seemed to be feverishly scratching away at their math homework I raised my hand for help and never got any. I wasn't a football player who had a game to play in. If he didn't get a good grade on the test, he wouldn't play. No need for extra tutoring. That didn't help either. How come when I took a test, I could get placed in advanced classes, but when I sat in with the actual teachers, I couldn't figure it out.

When I would come home crying with my math book or my science book, my mom would coax me and tell me it was ok. She told me I just learn differently. Like her. She was left-handed as well. When she explained something to me, I just got it. No pressure, no worries. I was free to learn. And I did. So I was able to complete my assignments and get thru school.

When I reached high school, that was another thing altogether. Whether or not I was pregnant. That truly was the only way to have any friends was to be going to parties to drink, or have sex. I wasn't interested in that, so I hid in the guidance office and typed out scholarship apps for college. I looked forward. It was so awkward for me in high school.

So here's a thought. This comes from this article I read in the Family Circle. Her son was in parochial school and they wanted him to learn about religion as well. He was given detention and withdrawn from school even though he was smart. So they tried homeschooling him as an alternative. Thats how they ended up making the choice ultimately. They teach the kids through unconventional methods, for example they read books they choose to learn about history and literature. That's interesting. Then the oldest learns a new language each year. He picks. Then has pen pals thru those languages to practice. I can't come up with a better way to apply it other than doing it. That's such a great idea.

So maybe we things that don't come natural doesnt' always mean they aren't the best and making a little sacrifice may make all the difference in the world whether our children grow up believing they are ignorant or just can't learn.

Maybe this is one reason why we have low scoring schools and everything because us as parents are dropping the ball. We assume our kids will be well-adjusted and learn the important things they need in class. Well then why do we spend the least amount of time with the things that are most important. Or should be? We pay our teachers and our caretakers of our elderly the least amount in our society. That's just crazy. I say we stand for a change on this. Just think about it. Make a consideration. Whether you decide to homeschool. I'm personally still deciding or whether we should spend more time with our children when they get home .