The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, Oct., 2012

The October, 2012, issue of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is now live!

http://www.TOSMagazine.com/

It contains an article by me entitled “How Should We Then Teach?”

http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine-digital.com/thehomeschoolmagazine/201210/#pg67

The entire issue is free to read!  You can also read the magazine on your mobile devices by downloading the free apps at

 http://www.TOSApps.com/

Here are some other features from the Oct. issue:

When homeschooling is harder than you ever thought it could be, how do you keep going? With eight kids, six in school ranging from kindergarten to high school, Renita Bentz knows she can’t homeschool without the Lord’s help, and neither can you. Though you can’t plan for hardship, Kendra Fletcher shares how to school when life is hard.

Do all children read and write fluently by second grade? No! If you have a struggling reader, Kathy Reynolds provides guidance for you while your late-bloomer learns to read. Willemien Kruger shares the five stages of learning to read and reassures you that teaching reading isn’t difficult; it just takes a little time. Cathy Diez-Luckie provides tips for reading aloud and sharing great literature with your entire family. Hans Dekkers explains how to find a learn-to-read approach that matches your child’s unique neurological wiring. Melanie Young and Samuel Adams Young, a mother-son team, reveal how to survive the struggle to read.

Can you create a science lab at home? Certainly! Tamara Van Hooser lists ten ways to turn your kitchen into a science lab with edible experiments and mad scientist recipes. Andy Harris shares about a free resource to use to build a virtual science lab.

Are you struggling to teach a special learner or a child with a learning glitch? Melissa Cassulis will help you rejoice in the adventures and challenges of homeschooling a child with special needs. Pat Knepley outlines a fun art project for the exceptional child. Sheila Campbell discusses how to teach children to respect differences and handicaps and how to turn self-pity into gratitude. Anne-Marie Jordan reveals how dyslexia can be treated with vision therapy. Dianne Craft examines two ways to mitigate learning disabilities.

Do you love unit studies? Dr. Mary Hood suggests spicing up your curriculum with the project method. Make learning a whole family affair as you work to complete a project together.

Looking for teaching resources for the election? Lynn Schott explains why the Founding Fathers created the Electoral College and why we still need it. Learn who really elects the President as Bryan T. Calvin shares the ins and outs of the Electoral College. Explore the role of politics and lobbying with Antony Kolenc.

Christmas, already? Malia Russell will help you get organized so that when the holidays roll around you can focus on the “thanks” in Thanksgiving, and when Christmas arrives, you can celebrate the Christ in Christmas.

Home School Book Review

     If you like to read or are looking for good books for your children to read, check out Home School Book Review at:

http://homeschoolblogger.com/homeschoolbookreview/ .

     New book reviews, primarily of literature for children, youth, and teens, are added almost every day.  Here are some of the books that were reviewed in September:

Sep 29th, 2012: Tales of Ancient Egypt
Sep 23rd, 2012: Date Your Wife: A Husband’s Guide
Sep 22nd, 2012: Why Not, Lafayette?
Sep 21st, 2012: Dogs in the Dead of Night: Magic Tree House #46
Sep 16th, 2012: Gone-Away Lake

Sep 14th, 2012: Pinky Pye
Sep 13th, 2012: Linspired: The Remarkable Rise of Jeremy Lin
Sep 12th, 2012: Chequebook of the Bank of Faith: Daily Readings
Sep 10th, 2012: The Martyr of the Catacombs: A Tale of Ancient Rome
Sep 9th, 2012: The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: How Greg Heffley Went Hollywood
Sep 7th, 2012: Blast to the Past: Washington’s War
Sep 6th, 2012: A Crazy Day with Cobras
Sep 5th, 2012: The Hundred Dresses
Sep 4th, 2012: Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs
Sep 3rd, 2012: Sailing to Freedom
Sep 1st, 2012: Downright Dencey

     Each month we give a “Book of the Month” award.  For September, it goes to:

Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright.

     Runner-up honors go to: The Hundred Dresses  by Eleanor Estes, Sailing to Freedom by Martha Bennett Stiles, and Martyr of the Catacombs by James DeMille (Pinky Pye by Eleanor Estes and Downright Dencey by Caroline Dale Snedeker came close).

     Some books that we are reading now and will appear in future reviews include The Orphan Train West Collection by Jane Peart, When School Bells Call (Farm Life Series Book 2) by Elva Hurst, Polycarp: The Crown of Fire by William Chad Newsom, The Warrior Twins by Maria Briere, and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl.

Biblical Homeschooling, Oct., 2012, contents

     BIBLICAL HOMESCHOOLING is a free, e-mail onthly newsletter of general interest, encouragement, and information for homeschooling Christians published by Wayne S. Walker, a minister and homeschool father living in Salem, IL  (E-mail: wswalker310 [at] juno.com).   Anyone may 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/ .
     The table of contents for the October, 2012 (Volume 15, No. 3) issue is as follows:

1. WAR ON U.S. HOMESCHOOLERS ESCALATES

State can snatch kids thanks to Supreme Court

by Bob Unruh, WND

2. SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE TO HEAR LOUDERMILK CASE ON FRIDAY

By Michael P. Farris, founder and chairman of HSLDA (March 19, 2012)

3. LOUDERMILK UPDATE: SUPREME COURT DECIDED

From HSLDA (March 26, 2012)

4. NEWBORN SEIZED IN HOSPITAL BY POLICE, SOCKAL WORKER

By Michael P. Farris, Esq., HSLDA Chairman (March 27, 2012)

5. HSLDA ACHIEVES RETURN OF HOMESCHOOLING CHILD TO FAMILY

From HSLDA (January 5, 2010)

6. IS IT TIME TO THINK ABOUT HOMESCHOOLING YOUR CHILD?

By Jack A. Chambless (June 10, 2012)

7. “JESUS DIDN’T CONDEMN HOMOSEXUALITY”

by  Kyle Butt, M.A.

8. HOMOSEXUALS’ MARRYING?

By J. T. Smith

9. HOW A HOMESCHOOLER BECAME A BEST-SELLING AUTHOR

by Sam Blumenfeld

10. THE ETERNAL FAITHFULNESS OF THE LORD

by Wayne S. Walker

11. ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA (Acts 5:1-11)

By Wayne S. Walker

12. TEN REASONS WHY WE HOMESCHOOL

By Karen Kunkel

13. FOR SENATE CANDIDATE TODD AKIN, HOMESCHOOLING IS A PERSONAL ISSUE

By Jake Wagman, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (May 27, 2012)

monthly meditation from 9/12 Biblical Homeschooling

     Here is the monthly meditation from the Sept., 2012, edition of Biblical Homeschooling, a free, monthly e-mail newsletter of general interest, encouragement, and information for homeschooling Christians, published by Wayne S. Walker, a minister and homeschooling father living and working in Salem, IL (E-mail: wswalker310 (at) juno.com)

Monthly Meditation

18. “LET THERE BE DARKNESS”

by Wayne S. Walker

     “You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the beasts of the forest creep about” (Psalm 104:20).  When I was in school (back in the “dark ages,” when no one thought that the first amendment provision that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” meant that individuals in public schools had to refrain from expressing any religious beliefs), we had a weekly “chapel” service, and students were encouraged to recite memory verses from the Bible.  One girl would often say, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.  And God said, ‘Let there be darkness,” and there was darkness.'”  Well, that is not exactly what Genesis 1:3 says.

     However, the Psalmist said that God does “make darkness, and it is night.”  According to Genesis, after God created light, He divided the light from the darkness, calling the light Day and the darkness Night, and then later gave the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night (Genesis 1:4-5, 14-18).  There was an obvious purpose in all of this that was designed to meet the needs of mankind on earth.  The hymn writer expressed it thus.  “God, that madest earth and heaven, Darkness and light, Who the day for toil hast given, For rest the night.”

     The nocturnal beasts of the forest may creep about at night, but God made the darkness of night to us as a time for rest, that we might relax the body and mind so as to be prepared for the activities of the next day.  Unfortunately, some people abuse the darkness and night which are gifts from God.  “…Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).  “…Those who get drunk are drunk at night” (1 Thessalonians 5:8).  However, those who strive to do God’s will can use the blessing of night as God intended.  “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet…” (Ecclesiastes 5:12).  Yes, God made the darkness, and we can be thankful for it.  Homeschool parents: Make sure your kids get plenty of rest at night so that they can be ready to do their very best during the day.

     (NOTE:  You may 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/ .)

Iowa and Sac & Fox Indian Mission School, Highland, Kansas

     Several years ago, while visiting in St. Joseph, MO, we took a day to drive into Kansas and happened upon what was then the Native American Heritage Museum State Historic Site, 1737 Elgin Road, Highland, Kansas 66035.  The site is the remaining portion of a Presbyterian mission which was established in 1837 in present-day Doniphan County, KS, as the Iowa, Sac & Fox Mission to provide education to the three tribes of Indians who were moved to the area from the woodlands of the Great Lakes area.  Originally a one-room log structure covered with clapboards, the present three story stone and brick building was completed in 1846 to serve as a mission, dormitory, and school, with the brick manufactured on the site. The school was never a big success, but a cholera outbreak among the Indians living near the school in 1849, followed by a small pox outbreak in 1850 caused the Indians to shun the mission even more.  Built to accommodate 100 students, the structure had no more than 60 students at its peak.  In 1860, it became the Orphan Indian Institute, but this too failed.  By 1863 the mission was inactive as the native peoples were moved farther away, and in 1868 the building was sold.  In 1937 the Northeast Kansas Historical Society organized to preserve the remaining portion of the mission building.  Eventually, it became the property of the state of Kansas in 1941, and in 1963 the Kansas State Historical Society began administering the site as a museum which had displays about the history of local Indian tribes, focusing on the Iowas, Kickapoos, Potawatomis, Sacs and Fox, tribes with displays of clothing, folk art, food and customs.  The building itself has since been closed to the public.  However, what is now known as the Iowa and Sac & Fox Mission Site is a drive-through site with interpretative signage.