Quotes on reading from Nancy Campbell of the Above Rubies Magazine

"Today a reader,

Tomorrow a leader."

~ Margaret Fuller ~

When I was about eight, I decided that the most wonderful thing, next to a human being, was a book. ~ Margaret Walker ~

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen ~

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. ~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu ~

There is no substitute for books in the life of a child. ~ Mary Ellen Chase ~

A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Marcus T. Cicero ~

Never judge a book by its movie. ~ J. W. Eagan ~

When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be
reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books
you will be reading meanings. ~ Harold S. Geneen ~

Books are not men and yet they stay alive.
~ Stephen Vincent Benet ~

Books are not made for furniture,
but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.
~ Henry Ward Beecher ~

A book is good company.
It is full of conversation without loquacity.
It comes to your longing with full instruction,
but pursues you never. ~ Henry Ward Beecher ~

A Blog on dyslexia

www.funlearnctr.wordpress.com

The above web link tells you information about dyslexia. The homeschool library does have the booklet Put Reading First that is talked about in the February 20, 2009 blog. The video that is posted for February 23, 2009 says about 10% of the population has dyslexia. This is the reason I posted this link on the S.V.H.E. library blog. Do check out the web link.

Requests

As a member of the S.V.H.E. homeschool library committee I have always asked if members have requests. Recently, a mother requested a DVD called Truth Be Told from Apologetics Press. This DVD is a seminar exposing the myth of evolution by Kyle Butt and Eric Lyons. There are 6 sessions about 38 minutes each. I was surfing the web and did find part of this seminar at Only Believe TV. Here is the web-link for Dinosaurs, part two: http://www.onlybelieve.tv/view_video.php?viewkey=a7d85472dd6fd0015f04&page=80&viewtype=&category=mr By watching this section online you can then decide if this is what you need for your current curriculum.

This DVD seminar examines the creation/evolution controversy in the light of reason and revelation. This DVD is copyrighted in 2008. In 2005 the same men, Kyle Butt and Eric Lyons, had published the book Truth Be Told. It is written as a high school textbook with questions at the end of the chapters. There are many pictures and illustrations. What I liked best is that the print is big enough that I do not have to take my glasses off to read. Other high school science curriculums that many homeschoolers use such as Bob Jone University Press, ABEKA, and Alpha Omega Publications do include many of the truths included in this book Truth Be Told. But this book Truth Be Told goes into much more details exposing the myth of evolution. It just might be worth your time to check this book or DVD out from the homeschool library.

Babies: Burden or Blessings?

I borrowed this title from the latest Vision Forum e-mail newsletter. In case you do not know about Vision Forum here are its web-links: http://www.visionforumministries.org/ and http://www.visionforum.com/ Vision Forum's main goal is to rebuild the Christian family one household at a time. Their latest newsletter talked about what is going on recently in the world concerning having children or not having children. Nancy Peloski, the Speaker of the House, as part of the $825 billion economic stimulus package wants to include taxpayer-subsidized effort to prevent the birth of more children. Why? She argues that children are bad for the economy. Meanwhile, in Japan there are not enough children. Italy and France are facing similiar situations. There are not enough children to maintain their economies. But what about China and India's population? There seems to be too many people in these countries.

Is there really an overpopulation problem in the world? The homeschool library has a copy of the Handbook on Population by Robert Sassone. This book addresses the myth of overpopulation. Yes, it is a myth. Read this book to find out more.

Whenever a question like this comes up it is always best to check what the Word of God say. To help find what these truths are the SVHE homeschool library does have a useful book. It is titled Be Fruitful and Multiply by Nancy Campbell. Mrs. Campbell uses Scripture to tells us the importance of having children. Another book A Full Quiver by Rick & Jan Hess uses Scripture and includes the practical part of having multiple children. An interesting discussion of the quiverfull movement can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiverfull. Since I have watched this movement the past twenty years I have observed that many Christian families have agreed with this quiverfull concept but instead of having many of their own natural-born children they have adopted other children into their families.

Psalm 127: 3-5
Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD:
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;
so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
they shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Money

I am going through the library list looking for items on economics. The economic struggle that the world is experiencing is constantly in the news. A few weeks ago Dr. James Dobson on his Focus on the Family radio program had a rerun of an interview with Larry Burkett in the early 1990s. Larry Burkett had written a book called The Coming Economic Earthquake in 1991. We have that book in our homeschool library. I remember listening to his radio program Money Matters in the 1980s and 1990s. Larry died in 2003 of cancer. Anyway, the coming economic earthquake that Larry foresaw many years ago is now happening in 2009. Every day there is news of more lay-offs, more economic woes.

This is what Wikipedia says about Larry Burkett's book, The Coming Economic Earthquake: In The Coming Economic Earthquake (Moody Press, Chicago, I11. • 1991), Burkett delineated growing federal deficits and the ever increasing use of debt by business and households out of control. Burkett points out those severe economic times will appear sometime shortly after the millennium unless current polices are changed. Burkett believed that Keynesian economic policies, with ideals for continuing federal deficits and the implicit preference for higher levels of consumption, reduced saving, and a larger role for government in the economy are a means to disaster. As Burkett states in the book that as interest on the debt consumes a larger and larger portion of the yearly federal budget, and more money is borrowed each year to pay the interest on what was borrowed in previous years, there will be a temptation to “monetize” the debt at an increasing rate leading to a calamity not seen since the Great Depression. Burkett questioned whether or not elected leaders would take action in time to prevent fiscal chaos, and believed they would not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Burkett

I want to include other related books we have in our homeschool library. One good book is Money Matters for Parents and Their Kids by Ron and Judy Blue. Living More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre might be a good book to read in today's world. Training Your Children to Handle Money by Malcolm MacGregor is much needed for parents to prepare their children for adulthood. Jonni McCoy has two books that are worth reading. I remember these books being checked out frequently by homeschool moms. They are Frugal Families and Miserly Moms.

What do I think of these financial struggles that our world is going through? First, I want to say that I look to God as my Jehovah Jireh. He has always provided for me and my family. Hebrews 13: 8 says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So I will continue to think of God as my Jehovah Jireh. The Scripture has more to say about looking to God as our provider. David says, " I have been young, and now am old;Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread." That verse is found in Psalm 37: 25. God can provide as seen in this verse: "For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills." Psalm 50: 10. Paul in the book of Philippians says he has learned to abase and to abound. Here is the verse in Philippians 4: 12: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. The next verse, Philippians 4: 13 is one of my favorite ones: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

So I end this blog asking the LORD to provide for our needs. In Jesus' name. Amen

New Year's Resolutions - Read the Classics

It is a new year. 2009. Time for resolutions. One homeschool web-site www.lovetolearn.net sent me an e-mail newsletter about resolutions. Their first resolution was to get organized. That is everybody's resolution. The second resolution was to read the classics. This confirmed to me the homeschoolers' need to read the classics. So I did purchase some classic unabridged literature. In 2004 Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. published a classic literature collection of unabridged children's books. Recently I purchased 10 of these books. These books are hardcover with a dust jacket. They also have a colored ribbon to help the reader keep track of their reading place. The titles purchased were: Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, Heidi by Johanna Spyri, Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, A Little Princess by Frances Burnett, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle, Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss, and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, already in the homeschool library, is one of my favorite classic novels. I remembering reading it to my oldest daughter, Sara. The Salina Public Library has the videos that go with the book. We saw the videos several times. We even purchased paper dolls of Anne and Diana. We did change their clothes frequently. Because I enjoyed that classic novel so much I wanted to make other classic novels available in the homeschool library.

Another beautiful girl novel is Heidi by Johanna Spyri. There are also two other Heidi books that are worth reading: Heidi Grows Up and Heidi's Children. Be sure to read these books, also. Heidi is a lively young orphan who is sent to live with her grumpy grandfather in the Swiss Alps. The other two Heidi books follow her life as she grows up, marries, and has children. They are very charming books.

Another story told from the Swiss Alps is Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John. I considered this a classical novel. The homeschool library, also, has the video that goes with the book. This is probably Patricia St. John's most-loved children's book. It presents and deals with the issues of bitterness, hatred, and unforgiveness in a way that children can understand and relate to.The story centers around Annette, who feels she can never forgive Lucien, a neighboring boy, for causing her young brother, Danny, to fall down a cliff and break his leg. Annette goes out of her way to make sure everyone else hates Lucien, too. But then some surprising things start to happen to both of them. In the end, hatred and bitterness give way to forgiveness and friendship.

As the weeks go by I will write more on children's classics from literature. Be sure to come back to read more

Continuation of Christian History

To go along with the Christian History theme a children’s three book set on the Reformation was added to the library. The titles are Stories of the Reformation in Germany and England, Stories of the Covenanters in Scotland, and Stories of the Huguenots in France and Italy. This year 2009 is the 500^th birthday of John Calvin. Vision Forum, Inc. has recognized him as the man of the past millennium. To honor the anniversary of John Calvin’s birth the book John Calvin, Man of the Millennium is placed in the homeschool library.

Also, from Vision Forum is a fiction book named, The Princess Adelina by Julie Sutter. It is an ancient Christian tale of beauty and bravery.We saw clips of the latest DVD of Pilgrim’s Progress at our church. We were impressed since it was not animation. Pilgrim’s Progress: Journey to Heaven is a modern adaption of John Bunyan’s beloved classic tale. You can check it out at the homeschool library, also.