“But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man does not know its worth. . . .
It cannot be bought for gold. . . .
God understands the way to it,
And he knows its place. . . .
He saw it and declared it;
He established it, and searched it out.
And he said to man,
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”
Job 30:12-28

I was struck by the simplicity of these verses this morning. Wisdom is moral discernment and righteousness. “It cannot be bought for gold.” This reminds me of the highly valued “college education,” which is purchased. Wisdom cannot be obtained this way. Wisdom is different than knowledge. One can have knowledge and not discernment and righteousness. You can determine how wise you are based on whether your not you can discern evil and whether or not you turn away from it.

Who’s the Boss?: Biblical Authority in Parenting

Children are ever changing, complicated, individually unique little beings. How can we successfully love and teach them? How do parents establish control in the home and at the same time teach children to establish their own faith and motivation? Parents are given authority and responsibility from God to both discipline and disciple their children. In this session, the balance and timing of these two responsibilities will be explored.

Top Ten Highlights of the 2010 NCHE Conference

Six years ago, my wife Dana and I wandered around the Convention Center in wide-eyed amazement. It was our first NCHE Conference ever and we had never seen so many homeschooling people, philosophies, books, and curriculum. That first year was life changing for us and helped us set the course for our home education journey. Since then, we have made the annual conference a priority and we are encouraged and challenged every year. This year was no exception. So I would like to share the top ten highlights of the 2010 NCHE for Dana and me.

10. Our hotel room card opened the door and there was no one staying in our hotel room. Two years ago we tried to save money and stayed in a crummy hotel. After returning to the front desk for the third time, the room card finally opened the door . . . but there were people in there! Recommendation #1: Don’t come for just the book fair or one day of sessions. Make it a priority, take off work, and come for the whole conference as a couple. Recommendation #2: Save up some money and stay in a nice hotel.

9. Buying our curriculum. Every year, the first thing we do is head to the My Father’s World booth and buy all our curriculum for next year. We love this curriculum, love saving money on shipping, and are glad to get the main, big purchase out of the way.

8. BrewNerds Coffee. Its hard to justify spending so much time in the insanely long line at Starbucks, but I usually do. Not this year. Instead, I found Brewnerds Coffee one block away on Fourth Street. It is easily as good (probably better) than Starbucks and the line was short. I also learned it owned from strong believers.

7. Meeting old friends. There are some people I don’t ever see except at the conference. What a blessing to give hugs and talk face to face instead of over e-mail!

6. Meeting new friends. This is difficult not to do. It is very encouraging to meet and be sharpened by so many other like-minded people.

5. Finding new books. The two book purchases I am especially happy with: What a Daughter Needs from Her Dad: How a Man Prepares His Daughter for Life by Michael Farris, and the first two books of The Peleg Chronicles by Matthew Christian Harding, Foundlings and Paladins (this series is supposed to be for the kids, but I sure am enjoying them!).

4. Helping wide-eyed first timers. We met a couple that was there for the first time. It was easy to remember what that was like and so we felt a little sorry for them! It was a joy to help them sort through the overwhelming mass of information and select a curriculum.

3. Being reminded of how important it is to spend quantity and quality time with my kids. Even though our family spends most our time together, there are two traps we must watch out for: 1) Spending a lot of busy time with your family without realizing they need also need more focused relationship time, and 2) Not taking the time to spend one on one time with your kids.

2. Renewing a godly generational vision. I especially enjoyed hearing Kevin Swanson speak on the importance of such a generational vision. The heart of home education is that parents are taking responsibility for diligently teaching their children to love God so that they can teach their own children. “That you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son” (Deut 6:2)

1. Spending time with my wife. We take all the kids (except the youngest) to Grandma’s house and drop them off. The time that Dana and I have together at the conference is always rich. We spend a lot of time talking, especially on our regular Friday night date to Macaroni Grill. We are inspired by what we hear and share what God is doing in our hearts. We talk about our family and discuss ways to grow and improve.

All in all, we are grateful to be a part of NCHE and the opportunity to participate in a conference like this. See ya’ll next year!

 

 

“Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”
Psalm 34:11

I am coming to understand that homesteading is not easy. It is rewarding, but not easy. It takes time, energy, and money (at least at first). I am at somewhat of a crossroads in life where I can decide how much more to put into homesteading. I am beginning to think I should go ahead and put more into it. Here is a list of reasons why:

We can grow food that is good for us: fresh (at its height of nutrition), organic, and whole.

We can be producers instead of consumers. This is more than something you do; it is an attitude. God calls us to work and produce. We can see in our culture what happens to people who primarily consume and rarely produce. It allows people to see a certain standard of living as a right. Often it produces laziness, self-centeredness, and dependence on the system.

We can learn to build things and solve problems and learn skills for life. All of these things contribute to a broader, sharper mind and spill initiative and confidence over into other areas of life.

We can be more self-reliant . . . in a good way. Not independent from God or community, but from “the system.” From industrialization that focuses on mass production of unhealthy goods, from government, and from an economy highly dependent upon oil, gas, and transportation. In addition, the US economy is not stable right now. The vast amount of debt and the ridiculous solution of printing more paper money only ensure some type of economic crisis. Self-reliance may come in handy.

We can pass on homesteading skills to our children and grandchildren. “If I figured out the cost per jar in our pantry, that wouldn’t be impressive . . . . But none of that is important . . . to develop and pass along some country skills to children and grandchildren, makes it all worthwhile” (Storey’s, xi).

We can integrate our children’s education into homesteading. I have already written about how important it is to allow education to take place in a real life environment as opposed to primarily a fabricated classroom/textbook type setting. All the work, problem solving, creativity, discipline, and business required for a homestead provide a wonderful learning environment.

Who’s the Boss?: Biblical Authority in MARRIAGE

God has established lines of authority in the home, including within marriage. Following God’s design for marriage is important for home education and effective ministry. But understanding biblical leadership and submission is not easy . . .  and even harder to live out. The Lordship of Christ in the home, as well as common misconceptions and misapplications of biblical authority, will be explored in this session.

Who’s the Boss?: Biblical Authority in PARENTING

Children are ever changing, complicated, individually unique little beings. How can we successfully love and teach them? How do parents establish control in the home and at the same time teach children to establish their own faith and motivation? Parents are given authority and responsibility from God to both discipline and disciple their children. In this session, the balance and timing of these two responsibilities will be explored.

I have come to some conclusions based on my own experience with education. I was in school for about thirty years straight! I have also taught a variety of children, high school students, college students, and adults for almost twenty years now. My conclusion is that people learn and retain information and skills best when they are directly related to real life situations. Unfortunately, most education in our nation (both secular and religious) is attempted in a classroom/textbook setting. There is certainly a place for classrooms and textbooks. But this is only sometimes necessary and is only a fraction of the learning process.

Here is one small example. When Bethany learns math, she is required to do exercise after exercise of particular types of problems in order to learn how to solve them. I suppose there is some value in this. But when I give her the  job of keeping track of the finances related to caring for our chickens, our egg consumption, and our egg sales, she has a totally different motivation to do math. When she is allowed to prepare a dish for the family, she is doing math as well. In these situations math isn’t just for practice, it is a means to an end that has real results.

I am going to seek more and more to integrate education with real life. I hope this will minimize “school” time, increase motivation, learning, and retention, and increase real contributions to our family life.

I am working with a young man who turned 18 in December. You know what he got for his birthday? A B.A. degree from an accredited college.

His parents paid for tuition: under $15,000. The college awarded him his degree for work performed. He did the whole thing at home.

Is this a better way to go to college? You bet it is.

Are more parents going to figure this out? I hope to persuade them.

Is boola-boola at a distant campus worth $100,000 or more, plus five years instead of four? Not to wise parents and students.

Is earning a college degree at 18 better than earning a high school diploma? That family thought so.

What do you think?

This is the beginning of Gary North’s prophetic article “Public Education Is Going Down.” Fascinating.