Friday, February 26, 2010

The Children of Caesar

I am a homeschooling mom. I have very strong opinions about homeschooling. And I am going to share some of those opinions. So fasten your seat belts and get ready!

I watched a video last week. It knocked my socks off!! It's by Voddie Baucham and it's titled "The Children of Caesar: The State of American Education". My absolute favorite line from it was "If we continue to send our children to Caesar for their education, we need to stop being surprised when they come home as Romans." That is it! That's the reason I had a secular worldview for so many years. I had a light go off in my head watching this video.
One of the statistics used was that 90% of Christians don't have a biblical worldview. I finally realized why I am starting to feel so outside the norm these days; I am now in the 10% category. And that's only talking about Christians; it's not including non-Christians. Wow! And Mr. (Pastor? Rev.? I'm not sure which) Baucham said that we are losing 70-88% of kids from evangelical families by the end of their freshman year in college. But 90-95% of homeschool kids kept the faith of their family. Does that paint a clear picture or what??

There is so much more about this video I was amazed by, but I don't want to just sit here and quote the whole thing. If you are even slightly considering homeschooling or you are a Christian parent unhappy with public school but don't think homeschooling is right for you, watch the video. It is worth it.

The HSDLA has many statistics about homeschooling. Homeschoolers outperform public schoolers on all standardized tests. There was little difference between boys and girls; household income level had little impact; the education level of the parents showed a difference, but still test scores were much higher than for public schoolers; whether the parents were certified teachers made no difference; and the extent of government regulation (by state) had no impact on test scores. Homeschoolers made an average of at least 30 percentage points higher than public schoolers across the board. As for socialization, the main concern many voice about homeschooling, it is not the issue detractors want to make it out to be. In a recent study, the socialization myth has been shown to in fact be just a myth.
From the article:
"When measured against the average Canadians ages 15 to 34 years old, home-educated Canadian adults ages 15 to 34 were more socially engaged (69 percent participated in organized activities at least once per week, compared with 48 percent of the comparable population). Average income for homeschoolers also was higher, but perhaps more significantly, while 11 percent of Canadians ages 15 to 34 rely on welfare, there were no cases of government support as the primary source of income for homeschoolers. Homeschoolers also were happier; 67.3 percent described themselves as very happy, compared with 43.8 percent of the comparable population. Almost all of the homeschoolers—96 percent—thought homeschooling had prepared them well for life."

I just don't see why so many people are against homeschooling. At the very least, why are so many people concerned about me homeschooling my kids? I have had many people question my choice. (By the way, when I say my, and me, and I throughout this blog post, know that Hub and I made these decisions together. Together we listened to what God had to say about this and chose to make the decision we feel He is most pleased with.) I have had many people question whether I was doing the right thing by my children. I have even (online, not in a face to face setting) had people say that I am abusing my child by homeschooling. Well, any intelligent person can look at the statistics and see that homeschooling does not harm children. And all someone has to do is come to one of our homeschool group meetings to see that my children are far from unsocialized.

I am responsible for raising my children, not the government. One day, I will have to stand in front of my heavenly Father and account to Him for all that He gave me in my life. He gave me three beautiful children, but He expects me to raise them His way. I sure don't want to fail. I want to be able to hold my head up high and say that I accomplished the task. And I personally feel that in this day and age, I would not be successful if I sent my children to public, government controlled school.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Well...

Been awhile, huh?
Again I seem to not be able to keep up with this blog. It is truly my desire to make something of it, but I can't seem to get it together. Truth be told, I dream, and I do mean dream, like deep, deep down dreaming, that someday this could be a great blog. But I am also practical enough to know that at this point in time I don't have it in me.
So, this little corner of the blog-o-sphere will just have to stay as it is for the moment.

Tonight, I am in the mood to discuss the weather. We have had a particularly different winter this year. Hub and I moved to this area almost 10 years ago. I grew up about 30 minutes from where we live now, but it is over a rather large mountain chain, so living here can be quite different than living 30 minutes from here.
In any case, the weather since we have lived here has been mostly mild in the winter. The first two winters we had were not very memorable. There might have been a trace of snow. Then the year Dino was born, there were one or two snows that actually produced something you could play in, and make snowmen. From that point on until this year, I can count on one hand the inches of snow for those 6 winters. So, that is all to say that we don't usually get the white stuff around here these days.

Which means that this winter, with the almost 30 inches of snow so far, you could say things have been extremely different. It's been an adjustment. I am, quite frankly, sick of the snow. We still have some on the ground from the last big one, almost a month ago. Not only have we had snow, but we have had cooler temperatures as well.
Which, between me and you, makes me what to shout "Global warming, schlobal schmarming." But I won't. Because that would be dumb.
And I am not dumb. Mostly. Sometimes. Oh alright, I can occasionally be dumb. But wanting to stick out my tongue and say nanner, nanner, boo, boo to those who say we are in the midst of global warming isn't too smart.
First of all, let's use the term they prefer now, climate change. I understand that many believe that even though we are having a much cooler winter than has been experienced for the last several years, we are still in a global warming trend. And that the weather is actually strange and crazy which lends itself to the weirdness that is climate change.

But I gotta tell ya, I don't buy it. I just don't think that this is really what is the truth. I think the truth is that we are living in one of the cycles that the earth normally goes through. Just another cycle that God designed. Once, the earth was very cold, then it warmed up, then it cooled down again. Now we're in the warming phase again. And for that matter, depending on the study you read, it looks as if we are already back in the cooling cycle again.
And let's get real, if you want to find a study that backs up your claims, no matter which side of the fence you sit on for this issue, all you have to do is take some time and Google will find something to suit your preference.
And truly, around here we are getting a lot more snow and cooler temps than we have in the past, but it's not really all that alarming. Because, there have been times where it has done this before. It's been 20 or 30 years, but back then, getting snow off and on all winter was normal. The lack of snow over these past 20ish years was considered unusual at first. Then we got used to little snow so it just seems like an unusual winter this year. But in the bigger picture, it's not.
So, I have chosen to not get all up at arms about the whole situation. It does make me giggle when I see so many scramble now that things seem to be cooling. And when someone like me, you know, "the dummies", make an "I thought we were in global warming" whilst standing on a pile of unusual snow quip, I love to watch the climate change people froth at the mouth. It's kinda fun. And I have done it once or twice just to watch them spin. Oh joy!!

But, to me, it doesn't really matter anyway. The earth might be warming, it might be cooling, it might be just planning on rolling over and playing dead. I really don't care. God is in control. I trust Him. I trust that if the earth really is warming up to such a degree that life here is becoming dangerous, well, all that really means to me is that it won't be long until I get to see Jesus. Because He will be making an appearance on this earth again before it's all said and done. And if the earth is on its last legs, well, then, Jesus will be here soon.
And that thought makes me happy. I can't wait to stand face to face with Him.
It does mean that I need to get myself in gear. Because, believe it or not, I would love for all these liberal, global warming, excuse me, climate change, there is no God, but we should take care of mother earth people to come to a saving knowledge in Jesus Christ. I have some dear friends and family members who don't know Him and I would rather they did. So, if the earth is in danger, I need to do what I can to make sure not one person I know and love is left without knowing Jesus. I can't save anyone, but I can make sure that they have been told.
My work is cut out for me. And even if I babble til the cow come home, and only one person reads this blog and it makes a difference, well then, it's worth it.

So babble along I will.