Teach girls to say “no” – British MP

From Carolyn Moynihan over at Mercatornet: British secondary schools are required by law to teach the biological facts of human reproduction in science lessons, but students themselves often say the instruction given is too biological. The facts also speak for themselves: Britain has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe. So when Conservative MP Nadine Dorries (pictured) introduced a private member’s bill last week calling … Continue reading Teach girls to say “no” – British MP

lafbwadMay 10, 20113 Comments

Education, Training Children

The State of Home Education

The homeschool community in America has been in an uproar for the past week. Online message boards, Facebook communities, and Twitter accounts have been frantically exchanging information and conversation on recent events. Questions have arisen. Accusations have flown. Statements have been made. Stands have been taken.

There is much to be concerned about. We are grieved about the public disagreement between Ken Ham and the leadership of the Great Homeschool Conventions that broke out this past Tuesday. We are praying, still, the schism may one day be resolved biblically and fellowship in truth may be realized again.

We are also concerned about the future of godly small businesses and publishers blindsided by the controversy. Many were caught completely unawares, not understanding the import of this moment until days into the discussions. Now, many fear for their ministries and their livelihoods lest they misspeak or misrepresent their hard-built works. And since so many friendships are inter-related with other homeschool businesses, what one says could reflect on someone else’s ministry. Some keep silent when they wish to speak; others wish they could take back everything they said last week and start over. Prayer and grace is much needed. Continue reading “The State of Home Education”

lafbwadApril 2, 201114 Comments

Education, Training Children

Home Educating in Biblical Truth

Lee Ann Garfias has written an excellent review of a new Bible curriculum and addresses the importance of not censoring Scripture for our children but giving them the whole counsel of God: Sin, grace, salvation, and the cross are not “adult concepts” but are rather part of the gospel message preached to all. But Jesus said, Permit little children, and forbid them not, to come … Continue reading Home Educating in Biblical Truth

lafbwadFebruary 18, 20111 Comment

Biblical Womanhood, For the Unmarried, Personal Testimonies

Stay-at-Home Daughter Graduation

Since I am approaching my “graduation” from stay-at-home daughterhood, as I will move on to my new career description as a stay-at-home wife in just a few months, I thought it would be beneficial to reflect on these past four years.

The choice to live at home with one’s parents instead of going away to college or to pursue a career is precisely what would be expected of an uneducated, lazy girl who certainly doesn’t have a very bright future. This is often the case in many households across our country, among both young women and men, where adolescence is prolonged and responsibility is avoided.
Continue reading “Stay-at-Home Daughter Graduation”

lafbwadNovember 22, 20102 Comments

Education, Training Children

Cultivating the Next Generation

At church on Sunday morning, one of our elders, while giving his sermon, asked if there were any little children who would like to come up to the front of the church and tell everyone something they know about God. Getting up in front of our large church and speaking would be scary enough as an adult, considering the nearly 1,000 people present at any given Sunday morning late service, but I couldn’t imagine how intimidating everything would be to a small child.

But, sure enough, even though most children were off in Sunday school or the other church programs, one six-year-old boy was present and eager to speak. He took the microphone and immediately began quoting a passage from the book of Isaiah.

As he went on and on, flawlessly repeating and barely stopping to take a breath, the audience was silenced and almost dumbstruck. I knew what they were thinking–what we all were thinking. We underestimate the capacities of our children.
Continue reading “Cultivating the Next Generation”

lafbwadSeptember 5, 20101 Comment

Education, Training Children

Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today

Thank you to Ann over at Holy Experience for recommending this piece:

Here’s a Twilight Zone-type premise for you. What if surgeons never got to work on humans, they were instead just endlessly in training, cutting up cadavers? What if the same went for all adults – we only got to practice at simulated versions of our jobs? Lawyers only got to argue mock cases, for years and years. Plumbers only got to fix fake leaks in classrooms. Teachers only got to teach to videocameras, endlessly rehearsing for some far off future. Book writers like me never saw our work put out to the public – our novels sat in drawers. Scientists never got to do original experiments; they only got to recreate scientific experiments of yesteryear. And so on.

Rather quickly, all meaning would vanish from our work. Even if we enjoyed the activity of our job, intrinsically, it would rapidly lose depth and relevance. It’d lose purpose. We’d become bored, lethargic, and disengaged.

In other words, we’d turn into teenagers. Continue reading “Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today”

lafbwadAugust 14, 20106 Comments

For Single-Parent Families

We Made It!

Our homeschool experience began in 1989 with a cute, wiggly five year old kindergartner. In the late eighties homeschooling was unusual. In 1992, I became a single mother and continued to homeschool. While homeschooling was uncommon at that time, doing it solo was unheard of. There were those who meant well by telling me to put my kids in public school and get a job. The full-time employment would not have covered daycare expenses for five children–much less food, shelter, and everyday expenditures. Some of the church leadership stalwartly believed that I should go on government welfare; however, from my interpretation of Scripture, that responsibility belongs to the church. I wanted to remain a keeper of the home, so I started my own business.

Homeschooling has been a journey of faith for my family. It was not easy to homeschool, run a business, be a momma, and strive to keep the laundry pile manageable. Looking back, it seems like an unfathomable feat. Continue reading “We Made It!”

lafbwadJune 15, 20104 Comments

Education, Training Children

Avoiding the College Trap

From Joel McDurmon over at American Vision:

A college degree guarantees you nothing. It could, in fact, ruin your future.

There was a time when having a college degree almost guaranteed you a “good job,” certainly one that pays better than those not requiring a bachelor’s degree. Parents then determined that the costs involved added up to an investment in their child’s future—an investment that would undoubtedly pay off. The general public soon grew so assured of the value of a degree that it grew acceptable and common to borrow toward that investment. Today, student loans are the rule.

This entire process assumes several things, all of which might have held true at one time or in limited circumstances, hardly any of which remain true today or in general. Yet a blind faith that includes all of these assumptions rules the day for decisions about higher education. The results are disastrous. Continue reading “Avoiding the College Trap”

lafbwadJune 10, 20102 Comments

Training Children

Alternatives to college education

From Mercator.net: Here is a question that interests me a lot: Are we pushing too many high school graduates into university/college education? Recently on Mercatornet Thomas C Reeves suggested that we are. The New York Times last week discussed the same question, and the Wall Street Journal implied it with an opinion piece on graduate unemployment. Is it just because of the economic downturn, or … Continue reading Alternatives to college education

lafbwadMay 19, 20105 Comments

Biblical Womanhood, For the Unmarried, Hot-Button Issues

Should Young Women Go to College?

After I graduated high school in 2007, I was faced countless times with a very common question: “Where are you going to school?” College is such a cultural “coming of age” and a “rite of passage” that few ever considered the possibility that I would not be stepping onto a college campus sometime soon. They did not ask, “Are you going to school?” or “What are your plans now that you’ve graduated?” No, assumptions made, the question was “where.” It was to the disgust and confounding of many that I answered “nowhere.” Continue reading “Should Young Women Go to College?”