“Encyclopedia Dad”

Andrew Pudewa is a homeschooling dad of seven, director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing, and a very popular workshop presenter at homeschool conferences all over the U.S.

In an article entitled “Encyclopedia Dad” he writes:

Although Encyclopedia Brown is famous for what he did know, Encyclopedia Dad is famous for what he doesn’t know. Knowing so little, how did I earn that nickname? You may have guessed it — by my pernicious habit of stopping whatever I’m doing, leaping out of the chair, and bounding over to the bookshelf to grab a volume. Most commonly, this occurs at dinnertime — so much so in fact, that I’ve threatened to replace the dinner dishes in the buffet hutch with the 2002 World Book set. “Platypuses can’t be mammals if they lay eggs!” My children issue the challenge. I leap. I search in Volume “P.” I find proof! Platypuses are indeed rare mammals that do indeed lay eggs! For some strange reason, this type of exchange just makes my day.

Read More at http://www.homeschoolnewslink.com/blog/?p=752

shocking sex ed material in Illinois public schools

Perhaps this is also going on in your kids’ public school. It is happening here in Illinois where the legislature has basically declared that schools must provide “comprehensive sex education” to students, and sometimes it even happens in a way where parents are kept in the dark.

http://illinoisfamily.org/…/shocking-sex-ed-material-in-5t…/

Oh, I know that your public schools are wonderful and have the greatest teachers. But things like this have been going on in schools around the nation, and liberal judges have upheld them, making many parents wonder if it’s worth the risk of sending their children to any public school.

Are public schools safe places to send our kids?

From today’s news here in Illinois:

Lake County Teachers Charged in Sex Abuse Case

INGLESIDE, Ill. (AP) – Authorities have charged two Lake County teachers with misdemeanor counts of failing to report a teacher now charged with molesting a student.

The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reported Friday that 34-year-old April Courtney of Wauconda and 38-year-old Michael Lanners of Lake Villa were released from Lake County jail after they each posted $5,000 bond. A warrant has been issued for a third teacher who has not been located.

The teachers are accused of withholding their suspicions that Gavin Middle School teacher Michael Vucic was sexually abusing a student.

Vucic is in custody in Bosnia-Herzegovina after being arrested in September. He is fighting extradition to the United States.

A call to Lanners was not immediately returned and Courtney does not have a listed phone number.

Wayne here: If you are a public school teacher, I am sure that you are doing a wonderful job, and I wholeheartedly support your good efforts. But reports like the above are found in the news nearly every single day. And yet the educational establishment still tries to convince us that our nation’s modern public schools are safe places to send our children. I’m sorry, but I can no longer accept that.

Shoemaker School, Columbia, IL

The city of Columbia, IL, has preserved the community’s heritage of one-room schools with three renovation projects restoring old schools for new uses, including the historic Shoemaker School which has been renovated into a multi-faceted facility that links Monroe County’s heritage with its vision for the future.  Hammond Shoemaker, the first doctor along the Cahokia-Kaskaskia Trace, built a one-room building for his children in 1867.  It was used as a public school until 1951, then as a private home for almost four decades.  In 1992, the structure was moved to its present location in order to avoid demolition due to the widening of Illinois 3.  Today, adaptive reuse of the building allows for three functions.  In addition to racked brochures and maps, the Monroe County Welcome Center features displays, exhibits, photographs and other memorabilia from the history of Monroe County and the Cahokia-Kaskaskia Trace, and volunteer staff provide visitor services five days per week from May through October.   The Shoemaker School Museum partially recreates the building’s use as a mid-19th century one-room school, including such services as interpretive functions for local school groups.  The One Room School Commemorative Plaza before the entrance into the building designates all 60+ one room schools that dotted Monroe County in 1900 and provides opportunities to remember parents, grandparents, and teachers with imprinted brick pavers.   The building was renovated using only local resources, including donations from local community members, brick paver proceeds, and revenue from the City’s hotel motel tax.  Five local governments, including the City of Columbia, have executed an Intergovernmental Agreement and cooperatively fund, maintain, and manage the Center through a multi-jurisdictional Steering Committee.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Monroe-County-Welcome-Center/270841690622

http://www.columbiaillinois.com/index.aspx?nid=291

Home School Book Review news for Nov., 2014

For book reviews, primarily of children’s and youth literature, from a Biblical worldview, check out Home School Book Review ( http://homeschoolbookreviewblog.wordpress.com ).  There are currently some 3,038 posts which can be searched by author, title, or category.

The books reviewed in Oct., 2014, include the following:

October 26, 2014–For the Love of Ann: Based on a Diary by Jack Hodges
October 25, 2014–The Final Tide
October 23, 2014–Beautiful Moon: A Child’s Prayer
October 18, 2014–Old Mulkey: A Pioneer Plea for the Ancient Order
October 17, 2014–How to Debate Leftists and Destroy Them: 11 Rules for Winning the Argument
October 16, 2014–Handbook on Abortion
October 15, 2014–Growing Up in a Hurry
October 13, 2014–Andy Smithson: Disgrace of the Unicorn’s Honor, Book 3
October 7, 2014–Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Junior Novel
October 3, 2014–His and Hers: New in Town
October 2, 2014–Zora!: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston
October 1, 2014–The Amazing Adventures of Toby the Trilby

Each month, we give out a Book of the Month award.  For October, 2014, it is:

The Amazing Adventures of Toby the Trilby by Angela Costello.

Runners up were Andy Smithson: Disgrace of the Unicorn’s Honor, Book 3 by L. R. W. Lee and Beautiful Moon: A Child’s Prayer by Tonya Bolden.

Books we are currently reading and will be reviewed in the near future include the following:

The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade

The Years of the Forest by Helen Hoover

Never Miss a Sunset by Jeanette Gilge

and He Looked for a City by Ottis L. Castleberry