Home School Book Review for April, 2012

      If you love to read or if you are looking for good books for your kids to read, we invite you to check out Home School Book Review, which is a weblog devoted to book reviews, primarily of children’s literature and books for teens/young adults, from a Biblical worldview by a homeschooling father.  There are over 2,300 books reviewed for all ages, and new ones are added daily.  You can use the search function to see if your favorite book or author is represented, or check the categories to find good adventure, biography, fantasy, historical fiction, mystery books, among others, even non-fiction.  You can also leave a comment if you desire.

     Here are some of the books reviewed in April of 2012:

Apr 23rd, 2012: The Mill on the Floss: In Their Death They Were Not Divided
Apr 22nd, 2012: Leaf and the Sky of Fire
Apr 20th, 2012: Zachary’s Dinnertime
Apr 18th, 2012: The Kids of Dandelion Township: A Children’s Chapter Book
Apr 12th, 2012: Clint’s Story: A Public Schoolteacher’s Case for Homeschooling
Apr 4th, 2012: The Iron Giant: A Story in Five Nights
Apr 3rd, 2012: Leaf and the Rushing Waters

     Each month we award a “book of the month” announcement.  For April, 2012, the winner is………………….

     Leaf and the Rushing Waters, an environmental fantasy by Jo Marshall (2009, CreateSpace).  Congratulations!

     Oh, by the way, the web address is http://homeschoolblogger.com/homeschoolbookreview/ .

Biblical Homeschooling–May, 2012, issue

     As I mentioned yesterday, BIBLICAL HOMESCHOOLING is a free, monthly e-mail newsletter of general interest, encouragement, and information for homeschooling Christians edited by Wayne S. Walker, a minister and homeschooling father of Salem, IL.  Here is the table of contents for the May, 2012, issue (Volume 14, Number 10):

1. THE DECLINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS By Daniel Doherty

2. ARE R-RATED MOVIES “EDUCATIONAL”?

From the Education Reporter (Saturday, October 22, 2011 )

3.  LATEST RACE TO TOP TARGETS PRESCHOOLERS

From the Education Reporter (Saturday, October 22, 2011 )

4. MOM SHIELDING KIDS IS SHOT DEAD OUTSIDE NYC SCHOOL By Colleen Long, Associated Press

5. STUDENT SHOT ON SCHOOL GROUNDS IN NORTH CAROLINA

 CNN Wire Staff (Mon., October 24, 2011)

6. CAPE FEAR HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING SPURS HUNT FOR GUNMAN

 By Colleen Curry, ABC News (Oct. 24, 2011)

7. TWO TAKEN INTO CUSTODY IN NC HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING From the Associated Press

8. TOO RACY?  SEX ED RETURNING TO NYC SCHOOLS:  One anonymous Manhattan mom with middle-school child describes possible assignments as ‘pretty outrageous’ From MSNBC

9. PARENTAL RIGHTS AND SEX EDUCATION By Michael Ramey (October 25, 2011)

10. NYC CHARTS ITS “COARSE” WITH RACY SEX ED By Tony Perkins, Family Research Council

11. NINTH CIRCUIT BANS GOD IN SCHOOL Richard Thompson, President of Thomas More Law Center

12. PRO-‘GAY’ PLAY AT PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL NOT WELL RECEIVED

 By Bob Kellogg, OneNewsNow (10/24/2011)

13. NJ SCHOOL BULLIES CHRISTIAN TEACHER OVER FACEBOOK POSTS: Christian teacher who opposes homosexuality faces bullying by school administrators.

From the American Family Association (October 24, 2011)

14. THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOX By Tony Perkins, Family Research Council (October 26, 2011)

15. SCHOOL TELLS BIBLE CLUB NOT TO ADVERTISE—ANYWHERE: Bans fliers from classrooms, says even newspaper ads ‘stir up trouble’ By Drew Zahn, WND (October 24, 2011)

16. THE RIGHT WAY TO HOMESCHOOL By Kara Murphy

17. GLOBAL WARMING — RIP By Victor Davis Hanson

18. ARE THE INMATES RUNNING THE (PUBLIC SCHOOL) ASYLUM? By David Cortman

19. CULTURE CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK: NEW YORK’S “SEX ED” FRAUD By Rebecca Hagelin

20. THE TRUTH ABOUT PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER PAY from the Heritage Foundation

21. PRO-HOMOSEXUAL PLAY ZANNA, DON’T! CAUSES CONTROVERSY IN H.S.

 by Laurie Higgins, Director of IFI’s DSA -Illinois Family Institute

22. HATING TIM BEBOW By Marcia Segelstein, OneNewsNow Columnist (11/1/2011)

23. WICKEDNESS BEFORE OUR EYES by Wayne S. Walker

24.  JESUS AND THE APOSTLES (Acts 1) By Wayne S. Walker

25. VICTORY IN CANADA: RESTRICTIVE EDUCATION BILL DEFEATED

By Mike Smith, HSLDA President (March 27, 2012)

26. TWO BROTHERS AND AN OLD HUTCH

By Jeff Gilliland, Assistant Editor of The Times-Gazette, Hillsboro, OH (4/10/2012)

27. HOMESCHOOLING BENEFITS: KNOW THE ADVANTAGES OF HOMESCHOOLING

from Cheap Home School Blog (Wednesday, February 22, 2012)

     Anyone can subscribe by sending a blank e-mail to biblicalhomeschooling-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and then following the instructions that will be sent, or by signing up on the web at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biblicalhomeschooling/ .  For more information, contact wswalker310 (at) juno (dot) com.

Biblical Homeschooling, April Meditation

     BIBLICAL HOMESCHOOLING is a monthly newsletter of general interest, encouragement, and information for homeschooling Christians edited by homeschooling father Wayne S. Walker of Salem, IL  62881.   You can subscribe by sending a blank e-mail to biblicalhomeschooling-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and then following the instructions that will be sent, or by signing up on the web at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biblicalhomeschooling/   For more information, contact  wswalker (at) juno (dot) com.
     Here is the Monthly Meditation from April, 2012, issue (Volume 14, No. 8 ).

Monthly Meditation

19. GOD’S GOODNESS, MERCY, AND TRUTH

by Wayne S. Walker

     “For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations” (Psalm 100:5).  The “Old Hundredth” is one of the better known psalms.  With the arrangement attributed to William Kethe beginning “All People That on Earth Do Dwell,” it is one of the few metrical versions of the Psalms from the old Anglo-Genevan Psalter of 1560 to remain in common use, although some would argue that the tune, attributed to Guillaume Franc and arranged by Louis Bourgeois, had as much to do with its popularity as anything else.  The final verse of the Psalm alludes to three of God’s qualities.

     “For the LORD is good.”  Yes, the Lord is certainly good.  He has been good to mankind in general with His wondrous gifts.  “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).  Also, each individual who considers things honestly can say that regardless of what has happened to him in life, God has been good to him.  David suffered much in his life, yet he wrote “O, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him” (Psalm 34:8).  Why did David say this?  He also wrote, “I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).

     “His mercy is everlasting.”  The fact that God continues to give “to all life, breath, and all things” is an expression of His mercy (Acts 17:25).  Truly, “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).  However, God’s mercy is manifest in more than just providing for the physical needs of life.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  As a result, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

     “And His truth endures to all generations.”  Truly intelligent people have always understood that what God says is the truth.  “The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever” (Psalm 119:160).  Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life, speaks God’s truth to us today (John 14:6, Hebrews 1:1-2).  Therefore, we can be assured that God’s word is truth as revealed in the scriptures (John 17:17, 2 Timothy 3:16-17).  As Kethe reminds us, “Know that the Lord our God is good; His mercy is forever sure; His truth at all times firmly stood, And shall from age to age endure.”  Something that we as homeschooling parents want to teach our children is about the goodness, mercy, and truth of God.

The Old Britannia Schoolhouse, Toronto Twp., Peel Co., Ontario, Canada

     The Old Britannia Schoolhouse, formerly known as the School Section # 12 (S.S.#12) Toronto Township school, welcomed generations of children from 1852 when the one room brick building was constructed as a Common School, replacing an earlier wooden school built in the 1830’s which had fallen into poor repair, until 1959 when it finally closed its doors. When it was built the schoolhouse was surrounded by farms and small villages in the Township of Toronto, County of Peel in the province of Ontario. Hurontario Street (Highway 10) was a rough country road running past the front door. By the time the schoolhouse closed, Hurontario Street was a paved road and urban growth was beginning to move northward from the town of Cooksville. Today the city of Mississauga surrounds the old schoolhouse, planes fly overhead on their way to and from Pearson International Airport and the quiet country road is a major four lane highway. But still the schoolhouse survives. It is now a designated historic site.  After years of neglect, the Peel Board of Education gave permission in 1971 for the Britannia Restoration Club, an organization of students and teachers at Streetsville Secondary School, to restore the building and established The Old Britannia Schoolhouse as a living history site.  Now throughout the school year a different group of students comes each day to experience what a day at school would have been like long ago.

http://www.britanniaschoolhousefriends.org/ , http://www.britanniaschoolhousefriends.org/index.html