It’s summer and if you are a parent of a baby or young child, or even if you are pregnant with your first, this is the time to seek out homeschool conventions and used curriculum sales, which tend to be held during this season.  There are many reasons you should attend a Christian homeschool convention – like you don’t want to wind up “reinventing the wheel” and the more you know about biblical homeschooling now, the more confident you will be as your child gets older. 

But you should get excited about used curriculum sales, too, even if your oldest is but a baby. These are sales that are either free standing or sometimes found at homeschool conventions.  (And, of course, if you cannot find any in your area, you can always buy used curriculum and books from various internet sites.  But, I find the best bargains are at the on site used curriculum sales.

I was so blessed to attend two used curriculum sales so far this season.  These were held in churches and had many vendors – almost all of them regular homeschool families with older children who were selling books and curriculum they no longer needed, often at rock bottom prices. 

As a mother of six, I was definitely seeking used curriculum.  But, I also was hunting for stock for my “generational library” – the at-home library my husband and I are creating that is filled with character and faith-building books. I was overjoyed to find many classic and hard-to-find books at fifty cents, a dollar, two dollars. 

After absorbing the influence of several veteran homeschoolers over the years, including attending the valuable, eye-opening seminars by Carole Joy Seid (who promotes a literature-based approach to home education), my husband and I felt very motivated to create our own library of character building books. 

Our “library” consists of several tall bookshelves in the living room that are not fully filled as of yet.  Like a sculpture that gradually takes shape as your vision becomes reality, so our library started with a lone book here and there and now contains many “gems” I could not imagine doing without. 

Our four oldest children visit our “library” every day, on their own, where they find much to read in our ever-expanding home library, in addition to the items we borrow weekly from our church’s library and the town’s library.  It so thrilling to see their interest piqued in the sublime. My husband also reads fine literature to the children every night. 

Recently I showed a young mother my at-home library and advised her to start creating one now.  Her oldest is but a baby.  My oldest is nine, and I sure wish I had started earlier. 

If you are parent of a baby, toddler or preschooler who is considering homeschooling, and you like the idea of a generational library, start gathering items when your children are very young.   Why? If you are on a very limited budget for materials like I am, it will take you a few years to cheaply acquire all the unique books a wealthier person could just buy outright.  If you start building a library early, you can spread the cost out over years.  And, there exist some magnificent books that cannot be found easily as they are out of print; it takes some work to secure a copy of such works. For example, I was blessed to find a used copy of the Tales of the Kingdom series by the Mains, a fascinating Christian allegory – there seems to be few copies of the originals (which have the better illustrations) available anymore. 

Why have your own library at home when you can just go to the public library? The answer is that many of the most well-written character building books are not available at the public library. In addition, a secular library is certainly not going to stock the best in Christian adventure books or classics when they can invest in the latest humanist fare and such modern “classics” as the Hannah Montana series!

I should point out that I just don’t put just any book in our at-home library. I only keep those books that cannot easily be obtained from other sources, both those that are unashamedly Christian such as The Light and the Glory and classics that display good writing and character such as The Little House on the Prairie collection.

As an example, I would not keep most books on animals as every public library has many of those. However, I recently found the interesting Christian Liberty Nature Readers in almost new condition, for 25 cents each, which is amazing. I also have the three volume Character Sketches by the Institute in Basic Life Principles.  I got mine at a discount on eBay and they are so worth it.  Each section feature exquisite color paintings of an animal or insect along with captivating scientific details – tying it all into a character quality that God wants us to have like “courage”.  Then, this character quality is illustrated in an example from Scripture.  They are very poignantly written; the kids love them and God has ministered to me as I read them to the children.  I don’t think any homeschool library should be without Character Sketches.

Garage sales are another opportunity that abounds during the summer months in most areas.  Our family, like most large homeschool families on one income, find themselves outfitting the kids and locating a lot of the curriculum at garage sales and thrift stores.  Why buy a shirt on sale at Wal-Mart for five dollars when you can get a decent one for fifty cents or even a quarter at a yard sale?  The same goes for great books. 

While a lot of garage sales feature “junk food” or dark books like boxes of discarded Dora the Explorers and old Harry Potters, there are more and more older Christian homeschool families selling their used books.  I have been blessed to encounter a few.  

I remember once standing in awe at the Lamplighter Publications table at our state homeschool convention.  I so wanted those quality-bound, biblical values reprinted books – covered in beautiful cloth and with selections found no where else.  But, I slunk dejectedly away, unable to afford even one.  But, God is so good..  A short time later, I was almost finished garage sale hopping one morning when of my children, who was with me, asked to go to just one more.  We did and it turned out that yard sale had a book table where everything was $1 a book.  And there on that table was stack of like new Lamplighter books – some had never even been read.  I know that because the man who sold them to me said so – he was a homeschool dad who was glad the books were being passed on to another Christian homeschooling family.  We have read those books over and over again and I often think when I see one about how the Lord Jesus always provides for His own. 

This summer as I walked into a used curriculum sale in my area, the very first thing I laid my eyes on was a box full of The American Adventure Series.  This is a historical fiction series that makes American history come alive through exciting story lines, and they are written from a Christian worldview.  My children had read two or three of these, but they were selling for about $4 each in the Christian bookstore; too expensive for my budget.  I asked the homeschool mom selling them how much she wanted for the whole set.  She said $20, and I was soon carting a big box out to my car.  Praise God.  And, I was able to find several classics in boxes marked “$1 a book.”   I got a whole stack of The Sower Series by Mott Media, featuring famous people from history like Louis Pasteur.  The stories are intriguing, have lots of important details and from a Christian perspective.

My point is that if you have given up half of the household income in order to stay home with your children like most homeschoolers have, you can still put together a outstanding, unique at-home library on a shoestring budget. Instead of going broke, trust God to show you where to find some great books for less.  I have even had several veteran homeschoolers donate materials to me, like one gave me the complete 1836 reprint of the McGuffey’s Readers. 

Yes, I long to fill our library with books that are near impossible to find used, like the G.A, Henty set (I know Vision Forum sells them new.) but I will just have to wait for now.  I am interested in finding out the titles of the best character building books, some of which are wonderful but not famous.

But what if you don’t know what books are worth getting?  There are many sources for that, for examples articles on the internet like Teaching History Using Literature by Carole Joy Seid and you can find families that list the books they have read and recommend like Books That Build Character and Christian Books for Christian Homes.

If you join Christian homeschooling groups and loops, you can ask older homeschoolers and also people will send you lists.  Here is a link that someone sent me recently for Christian classical homeschooling.

Then there are books that are list of good character-building books.   I have Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt and another book of books lists is Books Children Love by Wilson and Macaulay. 

I do not always agree with all other’s selections, and depending on your criteria and beliefs about reading materials, you may not either.  So, use your own discretion and always thoroughly review any book you include in your library. 

We call such a library a “generational library” because my husband and I hope to pass the library on to the children when they are grown, although I admit that since I only have a copy of one book of each title and because we have six children so far, this might cause some arguments someday. But, then maybe they can work out an interlibrary loan system amongst each other!  When we are grandparents, we will keep the library in our home, so that visiting grandchildren can benefit from reading its timeless selections.

So, think of this – the books you gather today for your children may one day influence your grandchildren and great grandchildren – how incredibly exciting! 

Just like your job as a parent is to make sure your little ones satisfy their hunger with wholesome food, you want to satisfy their reading hunger with wholesome literature that builds up their faith in Jesus Christ and reinforces the biblical values you are teaching them. 

But, I will say that as important as such a library is, you cannot rely on Christian curriculum and books to take the place of your Christian example.  If a child sees his parents mouthing Christian words, insisting on Christian materials, singing loudly in church – yet in their personal and business lives they are dishonest, etc. the hypocrisy will likely drive him from Christ.  The bottom line is that more is “caught than taught” as they say and we as parents need to really go before Jesus each day, and we need to really be deeply in the Word and we need to have truly repentant hearts so that we can be a “living generational library” to our children and subsequent generations. 

From Considering Homeschooling.   

For all of our friends in Southern California, the XXV Annual CHEA Convention at the Long Beach Convention Center starts today and runs through Saturday, July 10 - 12, 2008, at the Long Beach Convention Center.

Get the CHEA of California Convention details here.

If you are homeschooling or just considering homeschooling, this is the place to get connected, find information, and be encouraged.

Hat tip to Exploring Homeschooling for letting us know that you can get admission at the door for pre-registration pricing:  "Everyone today is feeling the pinch (or is that punch?) of today’s difficult economy. We at CHEA feel the pinch personally and corporately as well. CHEA wants to help, so we have made the unprecedented decision to rollback our at-the-door prices to the pre-registration price levels."

Keynote speakers include Ken Ham, Michael Farris, Gregg Harris, and Kevin Swanson.  You can also enjoy sixty workshops and an exhibit hall, "one-stop shopping with more than 225 exhibit booths for all your home education needs."

If you have never attended, go for a day or half day.  Enjoy the discount admission.  If you are homeschooling or just considering homeschooling, you will not be disappointed.

From Considering Homeschooling.

It is our privilege as homeschooling parents to instill into our children the true meaning of holidays and celebrations.  While I take great joy in seeing the faces of our children light up at the sight of fireworks, I also want them to recognize the names Hancock and Adams -- not as movies and TV shows -- but as individuals of extraordinary courage who stood up against tyranny, who pledged their own lives, fortunes, and honor so that others might live free.

For many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence would forfeit their lives and fortunes, but their honor will be secure as long as free men breath on this earth.

I can think of no better way to celebrate and acknowledge the 4th of July than with the recitation and discussion of the Declaration of Independence:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

From Considering Homeschooling.

I didn't forget; I just didn't have time to memorial it here yesterday.  But, yesterday was the anniversary of The Forgotten War or The Unknown War or Korean Conflict, in which millions lost their lives, including 36,516 American soldiers, marines, airman, and sailors.

Thank you for your sacrifice and valiant fight against Communism.

I have been struck lately by the overwhelming human effort that is required by litigation.  This month alone, Kathy and I have written over 340 pages of legal pleadings and declarations.  We have compiled over 4,000 pages of discovery.  Yet, despite the three years of pain our pursurers have brought upon our family with their lawyers and false claims, it cannot compare with the human struggle witnessed during those three long years of war between June 25, 1950 and July 27, 1953.

South Korea:
58,127 Dead
175,743 Wounded
80,000 MIA or POW

United States:
36,516 Dead
92,134 Wounded
8,176 MIA
7,245 POW

United Kingdom:
1,109 Dead
2,674 Wounded
1,060 MIA or POW

Turkey:
721 Dead
2,111 Wounded
168 MIA
216 POW

Canada:
516 Dead
1,042 Wounded

Australia:
339 Dead
1,200 Wounded

France:
300 KIA or MIA

Philippines:
112 KIA

South Africa:
28 KIA and 8 MIA

North Korean and Chinese:
1,577,000 Dead or Wounded

Civilians: 
Unknown number dead or wounded, perhaps millions.

Perspective helps, as Jesus says:

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

From Considering Homeschooling.

Today the Supreme Court ruled, in a 5-4 split vote, that the death penalty for raping a child was cruel and unusual punishment.  Justice Anthony Kennedy said "the death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child".  He's right in a way, only the certain eternity of burning in a lake of fire is a proportional punishment for harming a child.

Jesus says in Matthew 18:7-8:

"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.  Woe to the world because of offenses!  For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!"

But are we to wait around, feeding, housing, and clothing the man for thirty years until the woe of the Lord comes?  Are there men whose acts are so heinous that we should immediately serve them up to the Lord for his ultimate judgment?  Here is an excerpt from the court case against child rapist Patrick Kennedy, convicted for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter:

"It was not disputed that the victim was brutally raped.  On the morning of March 2, 1998, the victim was transported by ambulance to Children’s Hospital where she was examined in the emergency room.  The victim’s predominate injury was vaginal with profuse bleeding.  Her entire perineum was torn and her rectum protruded into her vagina.  Dr. Scott Benton of Children’s Hospital testified as an expert in pediatric forensic medicine that the victim’s injuries were the most serious he had seen, within his four years of practice, that resulted from a sexual assault.  A pediatric surgeon was called in to repair the damage, which was repaired successfully."

(Here I will say that, if you are not weeping for this child after reading that account, I care not for your opinions concerning the death penalty.)

Today the Supreme Court of the United States thwarted the will of the people of the State of Louisiana. It was the will of the people that such horrendously violent and evil acts should be punished in the severest way possible, death.  "Woe to that man by whom the offense comes!"

No one is saying that the death penalty should be applied in all cases of rape; Louisiana has only sentenced two such child rapists to death.  But, even those who are opposed to the death penalty generally will agree that it is warranted in extreme cases. 

The next President will certainly get an opportunity to appoint one or more Supreme Court Justices.  This brings us to presidential candidate Barack Obama, a man that voted in support of partial birth abortion.  On that basis alone, we can see the agenda of the radical left will trump any sympathy he might have for protecting children.

But what kind of Supreme Court Justice would Barack Obama appoint?  Barack Obama has already praised Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and David H. Souter -- all of whom just voted to protect child rapists from cruel and unusual punishment.

So what can Christians do to stop Barack Obama?  First, let's get John McCain to select a devout believer in the Gospel of Jesus Christ as his Vice President, such as Mike Huckabee. 

Then, let's get McCain/Huckabee elected in a way that only the community of believers can do it -- by organizing our churches to support, campaign for, and vote for McCain/Huckabee en mass.  This, I believe, is the only way that Barack Obama will be stopped.  And, by flexing the power of the community of believers we will ensure that no more mistakes are made by Republican Presidents in appointing Supreme Court Justices

You have worked hard to raise-up your children and teach them the admonitions of the Lord.  Perhaps you have even raised-up a future Legislator, Governor, or Senator.  Do you really want your children ruled over by the judicial tyranny of leftist old men on a Supreme Court appointed by Barack Obama?

If you really want change, let's change the Supreme Court.  Hopefully the likes of Ruth Bader Ginsburg will repent and come to the Lord (or more likely she will continue to wither and die as it appears God has hardened her heart).  Until then, we must do everything we can to prevent anymore Ginsburgs from being appointed; our children and the will of the people need protection, not child rapists.

From Considering Homeschooling.