March, 2005 E-Newsletter

March is upon us and things are blooming around here at The Old Schoolhouse! Just when we are beginning to drag and feel weary in our schooling, the Lord is gracious to bring us some sunshiny days and beautiful blossoms. Here’s what’s blooming this month:

Our “Family Time” section continues this month giving you a peek into my heart, home and homeschool.

“Running From The Chisel” by Jenefer Igarashi, Senior Editor of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is so appropriate and applicable in my own life right now – I know you’ll enjoy it as well.

Are the kids getting antsy and wanting to do something fun? This month’s product review of Critical Thinking – Science sounds like just the solution. And, they will be learning tons of science while they are at it, and that makes us moms really happy!

Finally, Nancy Baetz shows us when it comes to homeschooling, Just What Do We Need Anyway? A very encouraging peek into the life of one incredible homeschool mom.

Please Note: We have a new email address for all your responses, inquiries or anything you’d like to communicate: Devotions@thehomeschoolmagazine.com

Family Time

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 seven gifts from heaven. E-mail Deborah at Devotions@TOSMag.com.

Back to Top

Running From The Chisel

It really isn't fair. I used to enjoy sleeping. A lot. Now I feel like a rotisserie chicken. Flip… flip… flip… flip. Round and round I go, avoiding the swelling watermelon that used to be my stomach, trying to get comfortable in desperation. After about the twelfth rotation I start slipping into a self-centered rage.

“Slipping into a rage?” you may ask, eyebrow raised. You may think I am just being dramatic, but unfortunately, I'm not. I can work myself into a near frenzy over the fact that I'm not getting the amount of sleep that I think I need (and deserve).

And it's usually after a night like this that I'm treated to an observation from my 'sweet' six year old son. The other day it was:

“Mama…. I know that your tummy is supposed to be big with the baby in it, but why are your legs getting so fat?”

To which the obvious answer is:

“Son, you'd better run. And run real fast somewhere to the other side of the house where I can't see you.”

Needless to say, after already being very uncomfortable, very tired, incessantly hungry, and (reminded) that I am too big, I usually feel justified in turning into a 'Momster'. It doesn't matter how scary it looks; I am entitled to it, right?

Pathetically, it's that way with a lot of things. I am quick to fly off the handle if my will is thwarted in any way at all. I want things to be this way; right now; otherwise everyone will be subjected to the Wrath of Mom. My husband will get an ear full if I've had to wait too long in the hot car while he is in the store getting milk. I whine if there is not enough water pressure for my shower. I complain about my slow Internet connection. I gripe if I've had to wait in line, or park too far away from the store. I moan about not having ice cream immediately available when I need it. It's all not fair. Therefore, everyone should suffer along with me. Yes. It is as ugly as I describe it.

As if that is not bad enough, what is worse is that since I'm such a big baby about being 'comfortable' I am slow to teach my children any character lessons that I would not put up with learning myself. If my children don't want to eat the tomatoes in their hamburgers, I let them throw them out the car window - because that's what I do. If my children don't wash their dish as soon as they're done eating, I’m slow to implement any rules demanding that they do so -- after all, my dishes get left wherever I happen to finish eating.

If my kids don't want to wear the 'itchy' clothes I've picked out on Sunday morning, I'm prone to let them search through outfit after outfit until they find the one that makes them happy.

…on a side note--and forgive me for wandering, but do take into consideration that I'm currently in the middle to advanced stages of 'Pregnancy Brain' -- my sister has a great remedy for picky clothes wearers. If her kids complain about their clothes, she makes them wear that same outfit every day, all week! I think that's hilarious.

Anyhow, perhaps you can relate with the pickiness in you and/or your kids. Or perhaps you are not as spoiled as I am, but for whatever the reason, you are slow to allow your children to experience discomfort. Perhaps you are very tender hearted, and the thought of your children suffering makes you squirm. Most of us moms are like that. But when I take the time to think it through, this is not the education I want for my children.

Bottom line is, I cannot conceive of suffering, in any sense at all. And I am teaching my children to grow up without having to 'stretch'.

We are promised in Philippians that we will suffer. Life is not a rosy bed of Disneyland-like events. Life is hard. Suffering is real. War is real, as we have seen a bit too recently. I wonder… am I conditioning my children to 'break' at the first sign of difficulty or hardship?

My husband, somehow, learned to be long-suffering. He is not a complainer. If there is no hot water, he takes a cold shower, and he's thankful to be clean. If we are hit with an unexpected bill, he is thankful that he is healthy and able to work. He is continually thankful for what we do have rather than what we don't have. He's a regular Pollyanna. How did he get like that? And how did I get like this? I can only suspect that it came from my mother's main goal and purpose in life, which was to make little Jenny happy. Unintentionally, she trained me to believe that life was about getting what I wanted. If I didn't get my way, I demanded reasons why -- and if those reasons were not good enough, I learned quickly that by throwing huge, nasty fits, or withholding my affection from her, or acting like a victim would 'bring her to repentance' and she'd give in to my self-centered wants. Bless her heart; she loved the Lord and is with him now, but I wish to God she had taught me that the world did not revolve around little Jenny Wright. Learning lessons as a young adult is much more painful than learning character lessons as a child.

I've had to learn some very hard lessons and face some pretty shocking situations after growing up and realizing that the rest of the world was not also taught that 'Little Jenny was supposed to always get her way.' In the real world, tantrums, sulkiness, and bad attitudes will not get people to change their minds and give into selfish demands. It simply causes one to be continually discontent and to lose valued friends.

And so my husband has had the task of educating a spoiled wife. Poor guy. It has been a stretch for him, having to deal with such self-centeredness, and it has been a stretch for me being married to him -- because he doesn't put up with discontentment and whining. I have had to grow up -- and out -- of myself a lot these last ten years. And despite still being a baby (albeit less of a baby), I am so thankful for the growth I've experienced. I just wish I had learned it as a young girl so I could have come into my marriage as a blessing, rather than an exercise in patience. What kind of wives are we training our daughters to be? And if a husband does happen to get 'blessed' with a temperamental wife, how will he handle it? If wives and husbands are trained early on by their mothers that they deserve to be served (rather than to serve), they will go into a marriage with selfish expectations that their spouse will be unable to meet. Perhaps this is why our current divorce rate is so high.

Despite being a patriot, and while I dislike blame shifting, I think that living in America has been a mixed blessing. For the most part, living in this nation brings certain expectations. We do not experience real hunger. We do not walk the streets with an overhanging fear of being shot down. Most of us have electricity, televisions, cars, and daily entertainment. As Christians we are free to worship without the threat of torture, death or oppression. Our houses are cozy. Our beds are warm. Our tummies are full. These are all good things! And I praise God for His provision. But at the same time it makes me wonder how this has prepared us as a nation, and as individuals. I am used to everything going my way. I don't even have to wait more than five minutes for my microwavable Lean Cuisine (ok -- truthfully it's not a Lean Cuisine… it's a super sized Hungry-Man; yet, I digress).

The things that I complain about are so petty compared to the real suffering that I am utterly oblivious too. How would I react if things were to suddenly and drastically change in America? What if there was no clean water? What if there was no electricity? What if I, or one of my children, was sick and there was no access to medical services? Would I come unglued? Would I die from the unfairness of it all? Would I raise my fist and curse God that my happy little life had been interrupted? After all, I'm an American and I deserve to live a comfortable life.

Even more curious, how would my children react? They are certainly nowhere near as spoiled as I was, but I have not taught them to be strong. Like me, they are used to being comfortable. We expect to be entertained and happy.

I do not have all the answers yet, and I do not plan on suddenly depriving my family of comfort. But learning to stretch might not be as hard as I think it has to be. It may simply start with saying 'No'.

“No, we will not eat the ice cream even though we want it.” -- “No, we will not waste the tomatoes even though they're gross.” -- “No, we will not crank up the air conditioner so we can drink hot chocolate in the middle of summer,” and, “No, my son, I will not give you your way when you whine, just so I won't have to put up with bad attitudes or feel like 'I've hurt your little feelings.'”

God help me. I do not like to stretch. I want to be comfortable. But truthfully, even more, I don't want to be a whiney brat and I do want to be transformed to the likeness of Christ. I want my children to develop strong character. I don't want any of us to look at life through the eyes of spoiled royalty.

King David was said to be a man after God's own heart. His early days were spent filled with boredom and monotony and discomfort. There could not be anything as boring as babysitting sheep. No magazines, no computer games, no cell phone, no soccer teams to let off some steam. And then, after spending years doing that, David spent a good amount of time singing for a mad king and literally dodging spears. After that he was on the run for his very life. He was sleeping in caves, running from wild dogs, tired, hungry, filthy and I imagine, very uncomfortable. But it seems that these trials molded him into the great king that he became. Trials and suffering produce strong character. We should not condition ourselves, or our children, to run from them. Nor should we treat them as a curse or a punishment from God.
I once heard a lovely illustration. It was a story of a large slab of stone and of an Artist with a chisel. Chip… chip… chip ... went the chisel against the formless stone. The Artist had beautiful designs and plans for this unformed and unstructured rock. In His artis's eye, He saw a beautiful maiden buried deep within the layers of hard granite. Yet every time the chisel began chipping off the layers, the rock would hop away and begin crying and screaming, “Why do You hate me so? This isn't fair! Why won't you leave me alone?” And over the self-pitying cries, the Artist's gentle words could not be heard as He spoke, “I do not wish to harm you. I am trying to free you. I have plans to make you beautiful so that all can see the work of My hand.”
Likewise, we are to be conformed to the likeness of Christ, and to teach our children that discipline is for sons and daughters, of whom we love (Hebrews 12:7). We should strive to break out of those layers of selfishness, greed, impatience, intolerance, and the like. He wants to make us beautiful, and in essence, free us. It may not be comfortable to change but the end result is certainly worth it. And we would be serving our children well to teach them early -- before those bad habits are set in stone - -to be strong, patient, able to see tasks through, not to be quitters, not to be whiners, not to be self-serving. But rather to be servants, facing difficulties head on as challenges that can be overcome with the very strength available from God himself.

Flip…flip…flip…chip…chip…chip.

God, help me to be a young David rather than a spoiled, bratty mother raising spoiled, bratty royalty. I desire to honor You.

God bless your dear families as you trust the Lord and submit to 'changes' that He might bring your way. May we faithfully train our children up to know and trust Him in all things. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. -- Hebrews 12:11

Note: An excellent resource, which is truly an eye-opener (if not altogether life-changing), is the book, To Train Up a Child, by Michael and Debi Pearl.-- Jen Ig

Copyright, 2003. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. Used with permission. Jenefer Igarashi is Senior Editor of TOS Magazine. She, her husband Geoff, and their 6 children (3 boys, 3 girls) reside in cozy Pilot Hill, California.

Back to Top

Product Review

One of the great things about Critical Thinking Books & Software is that they offer excellent products in several different content areas: language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies, as well as general thinking skills. I have been taking a look at two of their science products, and I am impressed.

Developing Critical Thinking through Science - Hands-On Physical Science, Book One is a book of forty-one experiments designed for 1st through 4th grades. The first unit begins with basic observation skills, such as What Makes a Group? What is That Sound? and Looking Closer - With Magnifiers. There are six additional units covering Water, Buoyancy and Surface Tension, Air, Moving Air - Air Pressure, Force and Space, Light and Shadows. Each unit has between five and seven simple experiments (and I am NOT a science-oriented person - you can trust the word “simple”!) One thing to remember, though, is that this is not a complete science kit. There will be a list of things that you will need to collect in order to do the experiments. None of the supplies are unusual or expensive, but if you are like me and never have a balloon or a bottle of soda water sitting around, you may need to make a trip to the store.

The critical thinking questions in each activity are excellent. I need help guiding my students through science projects, and they have scripted out thought-provoking questions that will help my students learn. I am delighted.

Sciencewise is a series of experiment books designed for students in 4th grade through high school. Each book has two sections: Dynamo Demos and Creative Challenges.

Dynamo Demos are experiments where the results may come as a surprise to your students. They discover what happens when an air-tight can, filled with hot water, cools; what happens when two balls of different sizes are dropped together, with the small ball on top; how different experiments work with water bottles that have leaks; how the water does or does not escape. With all the surprises, it is a great opportunity for parents and students to find out together the reasons for the results. The scientific process skills of observing, predicting, experimenting, eliminating, and drawing conclusions are all learned through the experiments.

Creative Challenges give students a problem to solve, involving certain supplies and guidelines to follow. The first experiment is “Wacky Wire,” inventing a new use for a wire coat hanger. It must have a use besides hanging clothes; it may be bent, cut or changed, but no more than four other items may be used in combination with the coat hanger. I can only imagine the creations that my children will create. Now is the opportunity for me to see surprising results.

The instructions in Sciencewise are clear enough for non-science parents, such as myself, to understand, including answers to many of the “Why?” questions our students will ask. This program, too, will require collecting experiment supplies, but with some planning ahead that should not be a problem.

For more information on these excellent science books, contact Critical Thinking Books & Software at 1-800-458-4849, or on the web at www.CriticalThinking.com/homeschool

Product Review by: Diane Wheeler, Senior Staff Writer, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Back to Top

Just What Do We Need Anyway?

Current Contests!!!!!

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@thehomeschoolmagazine.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!

To unsubscribe from: Devotional Door - TOS, just follow this link:
http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/devotional_door/subscribe.php
Click this link, or copy and paste the address into your browser.