Friday, July 31, 2009

Coming Soon

I've been asked to do this many times, but with everyone so scattered, it took me awhile to figure out how to do it. In the next week or two I will begin leading a discussion group studying The Self-Directed Study in the Principle Approach. If you would like to participate, order your books now from www.facebookstore.net . If you would like to make certain you have everything you need, it might be helpful to call Melissa at the Foundation. That number is 800-352-3223.

I will be announcing times soon. I'm going to try to set up a Facebook page so that discussions can be live via the chat mode. I will try to post everything here as some do not wish to participate in Facebook. I don't know how well the Facebook idea will work. If it is awkward or doesn't work well, we'll have to come back to this site by itself--but we can give it a try. If anyone has better technical type ideas, I'm open to suggestions.

For now, order your books. Outside of the purchase of your materials, there is no charge for this study.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

A Worthy Quote from The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

I found this quote extremely accurate according to the responses I've had to my explorations of early writers. See what you think:

"Only the learned read old books and we have now so dealt with the learned that they are of all men the least likely to acquire wisdom by doing so. We have done this by inculcating the Historical Point of View. The Historical Point of View, put briefly, means that when a learned man is presented with any statement in an ancient author, the one question he never asks is whether it is true. He asks who influenced the ancient writer, and how far the statement is consistent with what he said in other books, and what phase in the writer's development, or in the general history of thought, it illustrates, and how it affected later writers, and how often it has been misunderstood (specially by the learned man's own colleagues) and what the general course of criticism on it has been for the last ten years, and what is the 'present state of the question'. To regard the ancient writer as a possible source of knowledge--to anticipate that what he said could possibly modify your thoughts or your behavior--this would be rejected as unutterably simple-minded. And since we cannon deceive the whole human race all the time, it is most important thus to cut every generation off from all others; for where learning makes a free commerce between the ages there is always the danger that the characteristic errors of one may be corrected by the characteristic truths of another. ...great scholars are now as little nourished by the past as the most ignorant mechanic who holds that 'history is bunk.' "

--Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood

Lessons from a Cave--Applied

My mom has been dealing with an extended illness. She has been in the hospital since March--we’ve even had to deal with multiple hospitals. Insurance demands she be discharged at certain times, so we play the game of what to do next so that her recovery continues, and yet she’s still covered.

I live in Colorado. She lives in Texas. We both deal with wondering what will happen next. We have to fight the urge to plan ahead because we don’t have enough information to plan until a day or two ahead (that includes my travel back and forth to Texas and the care of my husband and children). I’m certain she deals with this more than me because it’s her health that’s involved.

I say this much about our situation because it’s been an amazing time of learning to trust God with the future. We have no choice. There is no other path, and God is using it as an incredible classroom. Right now, Mom’s concerned that she will be sent home before she should be–for her own safty. My reassurances are, ‘I don’t know what will happen, but I know whatever happens, you will be safe. You won’t be alone.’

God’s assurances are the same. ‘You will be safe with me. You won’t be alone.’
Some lessons are really difficult, but I remember a time in a cave where God showed me this same lesson. (Cave of the Winds–right here at home) On a lantern tour in a cave you only see what is illuminated immediately around you.

I love God's object lessons and illustrations. Because when you find yourself in the heat of a fight when the light is dim or limited, you know you’re safe; he’s right there.

We need to also remember this as we plan and as we study the Principle Approach method. Many times it seems as though we will never get the lesson God has placed before us, but we are to move ahead with the lessons that are already illuminated, and patiently wait for the lantern of God to illuminate the rest.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

My Sincere Apologies

For a very long time I didn't receive comments on the blog although I did set it up to receive them and I do welcome them. Somewhere along the way people did start to comment and then this past winter my family experienced a series of severe events that prohibited me from being on the site. I didn't notice until just this week that there were comments that had gone unanswered. I am very sorry for that. If you have left a comment and waited for an answer, you might double check that entry or your email. I have attempted to remedy the situation, and again, my sincerest apologies.

Friday, July 10, 2009

My PA Story

I was asked to interview for a job at a new P.A. school that was starting in my area. They asked me to interview for a high school history and English position. That doesn't happen very often. I had a child at home that was borderline ready to start kindergarten. We had decided not to start him, but I really felt God's tug to take the interview.

The school ended up only partially implementing the Principle Approach, but the part I worked with was fully implemented. I had been a career teacher and had always felt something was missing. Now I knew what it was.

My husband wanted our children to have the whole ball of wax, so he encouraged me to school them at home. I was nervous because I was a high school teacher, my children were young, and I had never taught reading. My husband encouraged me to go to a Spalding seminar, which I did, and we were off and running.

Having begun in a Principle Approach school gave me opportunities that most do not get. I was able to go to the Foundations course and Applications courses in mathematics, history, and English and Literature. It was through these courses and the fact that I became an Asst. Administrator in my school that I was able to develop my connections with FACE and interact a bit with James Rose (he helped me set up a PA government and economics class).

Before I was myself homeschooling I worked a Principle Approach booth at our Colorado Homeschool convention. It was there that God planted a seed to mentor homeschool families. There were many comments along the lines of 'it's great that you have all this support in the schools; I wish we had this sort of support all the time as homeschool parents.' Those comments never left me.