January, 2005 E-Newsletter

The month of January always finds me not wishing to return to reality. After having a nice little break from the regular school routine, I sometimes wish we didn’t have to go back. It is sometimes hard to get back into the swing of things and be content at the same time. But I know that godliness with contentment is great gain, and I need that kind of gain this time of year. Need some encouragement in this area as well? We have some good resources this month to help us all refocus. Check out what this month’s Enewsletter has to offer:

1. Our featured article this month is called “What Do You Crave?” After reading this, you’ll know what to desire for the coming year.
   
2. Our featured product review is from Christian Light Education – truly God-centered curriculum and books you will love.
   
3. This month our devotion comes from Maribeth Spangenberg on redeeming the time – a very appropriate message for us all to consider.
   
4. And of course, our ever popular contests. You don’t want to miss these.
   

Special Announcement: The TOS Annual Winter Bouquet PROMO is well under way. We started with 3,000 packages and are down to 1,200 already. These are available to new and returning two-year subscribers. What you get is 19 FREE homeschool gifts from companies like BJUP, Calvert, Alpha Omega, Christian Liberty Press, Sparksnotes, Rosetta Stone, Answers in Genesis, Draw Write Now, Knowledge Quest Maps, Rite Start Math, Master Books and several more! All of these gifts are FREE, and the companies are paying ALL the shipping, but it’s first come, first served. Because you are subscribed to TOS's e-newsletter, you have first dibs at getting on the waiting list. Last year's was sold out in five weeks. To receive your free gifts (over $250 value in FREE curriculum) and be within the first 3,000, get a hold of us NOW. EMAIL: promogifts@tosmag.com - No strings attached, but hurry! The packs go FAST!

For those who subscribe by Friday, January 14 ... the Winter Issue will be arriving in their mailboxes in February. Subscriptions received after Friday will start with the Spring Issue (and, of course, will still be eligble for the 19 FREE homeschool gifts while supplies last).

-- TOS Mag

What Do You Crave?

As homeschooling moms, we are often either driven to the point of exhaustion and feel the need to rejuvenate, or are craving something different from the daily, hourly, routine of school life. Sometimes we just sense the need to change something in order for things to run more smoothly. We start to crave (desire or hunger for) that thing that we just can’t seem to put our finger on. Maybe it is a better run household? Or more household help? A better teaching arrangement? A more cooperative or supportive husband? How about better behaved children? Maybe it’s just that we want to feel better or look better or have more self-control. We need something to satisfy us. But what exactly is it? All we know is we’re tired and we’re hungry … and that combination is enough to make anyone cranky! What are we hungry for? What are we craving or desiring or are famished for and what is it that will really satisfy us? I would venture to say it has more to do with the spiritual than the physical. Let’s look at this idea in light of scripture.

Spiritual vs. Physical

“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:6

The very opposite of that verse in Matthew is that those who do not hunger and thirst for righteousness will be left empty (or wanting). Emptiness leads to a craving or a hunger for something to fill the void. And as humans, we tend not to hunger and thirst for righteousness, but for something more tangible to fill the void. Therein is the dilemma: we try to fill our spiritual void with physical things. Let me give you some examples of what that might look like in the life of a homeschool mom.

Maybe you’ve been missing your devotion time in the Word for awhile, and you feel empty. You don’t associate that empty feeling with the lack of time in the Word, you just think you need to get some fellowship with others, or, if that isn’t possible that day, maybe a shopping trip will do the trick, or perhaps just that special coffee drink and a foot bath. Sounds good, doesn’t it? The only problem is you will be empty again tomorrow because you didn’t get to the source of the emptiness.

You lack energy in your relationship with the Lord; you miss that once close, fervent relationship with God and are left wanting. But you think it is physical and that you have lost energy as a teacher and mother and need a fresh hobby or new and improved curriculum to get you energized again. There may be some new energy with the implementation of these things, but it will be short lived if the spiritual source of the problem is not addressed. You try different things, only to end up in the same depressed cycle of craving something else to make it right. What you really need is fresh oil in the lamp of your soul so that the dross of self-desire can be burned away and the desire for closeness with your Heavenly father can be rekindled.

What Drives Us

What we crave, desire or “hunger and thirst” for is what drives us and is what we are driven to. Are you driven to staying on track with your daily agenda? Do you “have to have” complete organization? What about those math and grammar obstacles – do they lead to complete frustration in you? Maybe you are driven to perfection only to be disappointed on a regular basis. If these things are what we hunger for, then these are what we are driven to become or make happen. This driving sense of having to “make it happen” (whatever the “it” is) will only cause agitation and frustration and our soul will find no satisfaction or fulfillment even if we get what we want. Why? Because our souls will still be left unsatisfied. The only thing that will bring true relief and fulfillment is the hungering and thirsting after God Himself and nothing else.

“One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek.” Psalm 27:4, 8

We spend so much of our time and labor elsewhere – concentrating on where we dwell rather than on where He dwells. We need to make it our life purpose and the primary purpose of our little schoolhouses to seek the Lord first and foremost.

“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young – a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God. … Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.” Psalm 84:2, 3, 10

If we are seeking Him first and foremost and are hungering for His fellowship, we will then be driven to seek His agenda rather than our own. He will be faithful to direct our path towards His agenda for us. And we may be surprised at where that path actually leads. Perhaps His agenda has more to do with you blessing your husband than with your own plans of having your husband more involved in the schooling. Or maybe His agenda has more to do with you really loving your children by treating them kindly and disciplining them consistently rather than your agenda of having them make the grade or get all the spelling words correct. Perhaps His agenda will lead your little school on the path of finding out more about His Character rather than your agenda of finding that new and improved history curriculum.

Get Yoked Up

There’s nothing wrong with needing a rest or needing more organization or a new approach to schooling. We all will need these things sooner or later. The fault lies in what priority that thing is taking in our lives and in who is at the controls. As women, we naturally want to be in control of everyone and everything around us. But we soon find that not everyone and everything is cooperative with our plans. We become burdened with a yoke that is too heavy for us. However, the Lord’s yoke is easy and His burden is light. If we are finding that our yoke is increasingly difficult and our burden is definitely not light, then it is just that – OUR yoke and not His. Get yoked back up with Him and follow His leading in the work that lay ahead of you. His path will lead to peace if we would let go of the controls and follow His lead. Our path, which seems so right, will only lead to destruction. How do we do this? We need to train our ears to hear His voice speaking to our hearts through His word and through prayer.

We Will Fail

“Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:25, 26

Even in the midst of our seeking God, we sometimes feel like all has failed. And especially in this homeschooling endeavor, where much is required of us, our flesh and our heart will fail, and has failed - that is a fact. However, the next two words in the verse say it all, “but God!” But God is the strength of my heart (all that my heart needs.) But God is my portion (all that my flesh needs) forever! And there is no failure in Him, there is only victory.

In our efforts to seek God and His Righteousness, there comes a greater awareness of our total lack of righteousness. This in turn creates a craving for true righteousness which can only be found in Jesus Christ. There is no one righteous, not one. Over the years, we can pride ourselves in so many things through the different seasons: How well we discipline our children, or how tolerant we are. How we submit to our husband, or how we have him in submission. How good our kids are doing in school, or how unschooled they are. All of this is filthy rags and it stinks. What we may consider is right or good is sometimes detestable. We are to hunger to know what is righteous to God. To put it succinctly, only Jesus is righteous to God. Therefore, as we come to a fuller understanding of Who Jesus is, we will find out what pleases God.

Hunger and Thirst Quenched

Consider these verses relating to what we are to hunger and thirst for and how they are quenched:

Jesus is the Bread from Heaven which satisfies hunger:

“In their hunger, you gave them bread from heaven.” Nehemiah 9:15

We can feel pursued by enemies, or crushed, or dried up, or out of breath – but following the Spirit’s leading is what quenches this thirst:

“The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in darkness like those long dead. So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed. I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah. Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails… may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.” Psalm 143:3-7, 10

Meeting with God quenches our thirst:

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” Psalm 42:1, 2

We are to crave the nourishment of the Word in order to experience spiritual growth:

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” 1 Peter 2:2

Our knowledge of Him gives us everything we need for life:

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” II Peter 1:3

The Greek word for ‘filled’ is to satisfy or gorge - this speaks of abundance:

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Isaiah 55:1

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 7:37…

We crave after and are driven toward many things. We devote our minutes, our hours, our days and therefore our lives to what we desire. May we begin to devote our lives and our homeschools to be close to Him and may we begin this very day.

“Who is he who will devote himself to be close to me? declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 30:21

Deborah Wuehler is the Devotional and E-Newsletter editor for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. She lives in Roseville, CA with her husband Richard and their six gifts from heaven. E-mail Deborah at devotions@tosmag.com

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Product Review: Christian Light Education

Christian Light Education
1-800-776-0478
orders@clp.org
www.clp.org

"I absolutely love it!" -- TOS Magazine

If your family is looking for a curriculum program that has the best of everything, you will want to seriously consider Christian Light Education. What stands out most with the Christian Light Education program is how entirely God-centered it is for every subject—even math. For example, in the very first math lesson (in the first grade program), the number ‘one’ is introduced. At the end of the lesson, the student is to fill in the newly learned number one in the following sentences, which reads: I have_(1)_ nose, I have _(1)_ head, I have _(1)_mouth, I have _(1)_God. I cannot express how thoroughly impressed I am with Christian Light Education, and how much both I, and my son, Bo, have loved going through this program. I believe I will have him continue through the Christian Light Education program for the elementary grades, middle grades, and probably even high school. I absolutely love it!

Each subject is a delight to go through, easy-to-use, and is very student friendly with fun stories and catchy rhymes to help with fact memorization. Another highlight of CLE is the incredible affordability of the program. The full first grade program—Bible, Language, Math and Reading (including Teacher’s materials) is less than $235!

For a truly Christ-centered, easy-to-use, academically right-on-track, wholesome, complete and affordable curriculum program, Christian Light Education cannot be beat.

Their staff is very friendly and helpful. You can call for more information or order their catalog at: 1-800-776-0478

More on CLE Readers Continued by TOS™ Senior Editor, Jenefer Igarashi:

Reading to Learn Series:

Helping Hands / Happy Hearts
Second Grade Reading Program:

If you are searching for a truly God-centered reading program with high academic standards, and with prices that simply cannot be beat, then look no further. We at TOS™ have been absolutely delighted and won over with the CLE Reading Program. The second grade program, Helping Hands / Happy Hearts, has everything that I had been searching for in a reading program, plus more.

The program set comes with the most charming hard cover books, which are absolutely beautiful, and perfectly sized for smaller hands. The Readers comes with a series of workbooks that are academically right on track, and most importantly, arranged in a way that honors God first, focusing all learning skills alongside godly issues, morals, and high character training. These Readers have everything I was looking for in a second grade program. Phonics, vocabulary, dictionary work, synonyms, antonyms, paragraphs, logic, classifying, poetry, comprehension… everything was covered that needed to be. But what really struck me the most was the strong, wholesome and virtuous literature that was featured. The stories have a cozy, safe feel about them that my student took to instantly. And the illustrations are wonderfully simple and complement the literature nicely. We have both loved going through this program.

The Teacher’s guide suited me perfectly. It was not overdone or over-explained nor does it call for additional resources. It was complete, easy to understand, was not at all patronizing…in short, it did not make a "big production about itself". It simply presented the material in a way that was refreshing, straight to the point, and was not at all intimidating. I cannot stress how pleased I have been with this program, and I look forward to seeing -- and using-- more of the great resources offered by Christian Light Education, a truly dedicated company that is a great asset to Christian homeschooling families. Nicely done, CLE!

-- Product Review by Jenefer Igarashi, Senior Editor, TOS Magazine


Publisher's Note: We took a look at several of CLE's readers. Never have we seen such pretty textbooks. Beautiful....inviting...shiny...sparked our children's interest. Our youngest son carried his around and instantly showed us his newly memorized Scripture verse on the front cover. He was so proud of his accomplishment! CLE is on to something! -- Publishers, TOS Magazine

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Current Contests Sponsored by TOS:

ENEWS ONLY CONTEST: We have a great contest this month offered only to those of you who are subscribed to our Enewsletter. SIX of you will each win three Mini-Fun Themes unit studies for grades K-2 by Lasting Lessons; TWO of you will win Volume Two of the No Greater Joy books by Michael and Debi Pearl; and TEN of you will win a back issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. What do you have to do to win one of these items? Just be within the first 18 people to email me (Deborah) at: devotions@tosmag.com and let me know what you think of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Enewsletter and I will let you know what you have won! It’s that easy! Email soon – they’ll go fast!

CURRENT ONGOING CONTESTS!!!!! Check out the great things offered by our generous vendors at our updated website: The Old Schoolhouse

– For those of you who have not received a sample copy or have yet to subscribe to The Old Schoolhouse printed magazine, we will send you a sample so you can see what you are missing! Just email us with your address and let us know you are not a subscriber. E-mail sample@tosmag.com

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Redeeming the Time

I looked up from the sink after placing the rinsed glass into the dish drainer while reaching for soiled silverware. As I gazed out the window in front of me, I took in the scene behind our house. Since our basement had needed to be set up high above the ground due to the water level, it had automatically raised the entire house, giving us a beautiful view of rolling farmland. The back of our home also faced the west, affording us the blessings of beautiful flaming sunsets.

On this particular day, the sun was shining brightly and I was suddenly filled with a heart of gratitude for the Lord’s blessings. For a few moments I allowed my mind to wander, thankfully basking in the beauty of all that I saw. I truly felt blessed to be able to enjoy this wonderful scene from the comfort of my window.

Suddenly, something caught my eye through the tree line. Since the leaves had fallen, the view was no longer obstructed and I was able to catch a glimpse of the new houses that had been built across the field. A sudden tinge of sorrow filled me, as I realized that things were changing. I hadn’t quite noticed it the season before as the foliage had obscured my vision. But now that autumn was in full swing, reality was evident. Progress was just around the corner and change was eminent.

How this scene reminded me of life! Too many times do we take things for granted only to realize that too soon, time brings change. Daily we get caught up in our routines and obligations, accomplishing our nine-to-five goals, quickly finding that it’s Friday again. Four Fridays pass and it’s another month. The holidays of a spring Easter, a summer Fourth of July, an autumn Thanksgiving and a winter Christmas complete another calendar year. Time marches on, one day at a time, until all of a sudden, we find ourselves saying, “What happened? It seems like only yesterday when…..” (you fill in the blank).

On a minute by minute basis, as we get caught up in a project, job, routine or obligation, it is difficult to realize the value of time. The Bible says to “redeem the time, because the days are evil.” As we view our lives in terms of “chunks” of time, this verse can be more easily grasped. Baby’s first birthday, our kindergartener’s first lost tooth, daughter’s first piano recital, junior’s driver’s test, children’s graduations – milestones signifying passages of time, markers to gauge our own aging process.

For the Christian, the aging process and years of change need not be an outlook of bleakness, regrets or remorse if we continue to keep our eyes on the spiritual. The longer we walk with the Lord, and the more we seek His Face, the greater the evidence will be of His blessings and Hand on our lives.

Just as I suddenly became aware of the new housing development beyond the tree line, so each one of us will be faced with the reality of our lives being as a vapor – “…For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). But rather than being a source of fright or panic, it should jolt us to attention, causing an awakening of renewed joy in the Lord, as we draw closer to Him in the realization of what a tremendous blessing life really is!

Seeing the progress beyond the tree line caused me to appreciate all the more what I now have, being careful not to take it for granted. Just as in life, we need to appreciate each moment, enjoying each blessing that the Lord brings our way, perceiving time as a precious commodity. As long as we keep our eyes on the “Son”, all else will grow dim in comparison.

Someday, if the farmer behind our house sells his acres of farmland, there possibly could be a housing development bordering our property. But for now, rather than worry about the future, I will enjoy the open spaces, rolling hills, and fields of grain – while I still have them. And even if progress reaches my back door, I will always have the view of the flaming “sunsets” above the roof tops.

PRAYER: “Thank you, Lord, for the many reminders not to take life for granted. Help me, I pray, to truly “redeem the time,” treasuring every blessing that You bring my way.”

Maribeth Spangenberg is a contributing writer for The Old Schoolhouse Devotional Door

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Announcements:

Please take a look at our Schoolhouse Store ... featuring Alpha Omega Publications. This section of the site will be growing over the next few months.
Click Here

Have you seen the new TOS Prize Room? The Prize Room features contests held by our advertisers in partnership with The Old Schoolhouse. There is currently one contest sponsored by Hexabits. Click here to go to the Prize Room

The Old Schoolhouse needs temporary helpers (non-sales related.) The pay is strictly piecework for research/database work. If anyone is interested please email Anissa DeGrasse: anissa.degrasse@tosmag.com

The Swap Boards are back ... just under a new name: Curriculum Exchange. Please consider posting curriculum that you no longer use or requesting curriculum which another family has and is no longer using.

Of course, if you would like to just interact with other homeschooling families ... come visit The Old Schoolhouse Chalkboard.

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Thank you for spending time with us here at the Old Schoolhouse this month. We’ll have more encouraging articles for you next month. If you have any comments just email us at Devotions@TOSMag.com and don’t forget to check out our website and magazine. Until next month, happy homeschooling from Deborah Wuehler and all the TOS Staff!

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