Magazine Review: THE OLD SCHOOLHOUSE Winter 2006

This is my third review for the Old Schoolhouse Magazine. Besides all the wonderful articles, it is almost like having a homeschool convention right in your home! Though it is filled with advertisements, you will love them! There are lots of beautiful pictures, great descriptions and many links to their own webpages.

• The articles are fantastic, encouraging, enlighting, and thought-provoking. I would like to share on some of the articles to give you some ideas of what you might be missing!

• GIVERS, TAKERS and GAKERS - Which are you? The giver is a rare person, who is selfless and does not need the praise of others. (The perfect example is Jesus). The taker is as it sounds, a taker, very selfish, and potentially dangerous. Most fit into the gaker category. They aren't takers, and let everyone know. They feel they deserve the best of everything, especially if they paid for it! They seem to have the covetness attitude, yet will compare with others, especially with what they can't afford and complain continually & are very ungrateful. This is a very thought provoking article.
• Successful Homeschoolers and Bloggers - Success is not about personal gain, but the decisipleship of our children in homeschooling and the witness as a blogger. This was the paragraph that touched me personally and want to share it:

  Just in the past few months, adultery, divorce and suicide have all touched our local homeschool community. Homeschooling is not the salvation of our culture. Jesus is. Homeschooling will not make a famiy successful. Jesus does. Homeschooling will not keep a child from rebellion. Jesus does. Homeschooling will not keep a marriage strong. Jesus does. And the minute I think that homeschooling will do any of these things is the minute I downward spiral toward defeat. Homeschooling will not build a successful family anymore than a hammer will build a successful house. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it. - Psalm 127:

• Meet a variety of families and how they adapt homeschooling to their lifestyle. One particular family is the Vogelgesangs who perform together in various circuses and stage shows as clowns! They share how they are "careful to be in the world, but not of the world, that means no immodest clothing, ungodly music, or behavior that would not honor God. Our standards seem to attract more non-Christians than they dissuade." Meet another family, the Frank Family, who share their homeschooling experiences, including their youngest child with Downes Syndrome, and how they adjusted to that, and continued with homeschooling when they thought they were not adequate to do the job. They even wrote a book, Life Prep for Homeschool Teenagers for teaching "everyday living" such as mortgages, credit, insurance and taxes.

• Meet other Bloggers! I loved reading this part - just normal everyday moms sharing about their blog and what the purpose of their blog is. One of my favorite bloggers, Ann Voskamp of Holy Experience was also featured. She is such an encourager of enjoying the moment and finding glimpses of Jesus every moment. Another favorite of mine that is featured is Donna Booshay from Quiet Life.

• The story that touched me the most, was "Homeschooling Through Life and Death". I read this a few weeks ago in the car as we were taking our daughter to her cardiology appointment. Leo & Lisa Atkins have buried two children who died of a rare heart disease. They have two younger lively boys, yet one has the same disease and had to have a heart transplant. Here I was on our way to our daughter's cardiology appointment, worrying about her, and I read this article, and it was as though God said "and YOU are complaining?" Here are a couple of paragraphs that will touch anyone's heart:

  "Looking at Leo's beaming face, you'd never guess that this had had two of his boys die in his arms just four years apart. Lisa's bright smile hides the fact that, although she's been homeschooling for over ten years, she has never schooled any of her children past the age of 8 . . . [speaking of their first son before he died] . . . As the disease progressed, Lisa contiued to homeschool. "It got really hard," she says. "He got so weak that I had to write the answers down for him." She pauses, remembering that day. "Eventually, I had to close the book, knowing he was done . . .That was really hard," she adds."

  The advantage with this family homeschooling, was that they spent quality time with their children, including taking time off and make memories.

• There is a wonderful article "Interviewing Home Educated Artist Johannah Bluedorn". I wrote a review on this young woman's book, Bless the Lord, The 103rd Psalm. This is a delightful article, filled with many of her drawings and encouragement that "you don't have to be an artist to raise one!" I love the ideas given.

• There are several articles written on teaching your homeschooled children writing. If you find this to be as much of a challege as I do, you will receive many ideas and encouragements from these articles titled: "Writing Essays", "Enticing the Reluctant Writer", "Writer's Workshop" (Getting Children Excited About Writing); "Letter Writing Right and Proper"; "Getting to the Root of Writer's Block"; "Growing Authors and Illustrators"; and "Writing from Home" (being an example).
  

This is just a little glimpse of this 193 page magazine. I love The Old Schoolhouse Magazine! Though in "magazine style" it's more like a book, packed with information for the family just beginning or new ideas for the family, like us, who has been homeschooling over 13 years. You won't be disappointed, and their is no better time with the great offer of 19 free gifts with a subscription, an almost $300 value.

NOTE: As a Mind & Media Reviewer, I was not compensated for providing this review. I received this complimentary magazine subscribtion in order to review it and am thankful for this opportunity.