Martial Arts Spring Break & Bible Camp 2010

Church of the Good Shepherd and Gung Fu for Christ
present our Camp for

K-8th Graders 10am-2:30pm Monday-Friday

Camp 1: March 29- April 2 and/or
Camp 2: April 5-9

Our fun will include Bible teaching from Pastor Tim, Gung Fu training from Sifu Steve, archery, pugil stick fighting, airsoft target shooting, star/knife throwing, nunchuck training, games, crafts, and much more!

*All safety equipment provided.

Your tuition will include a Gung Fu t-shirt, training equipment, and snacks.

$80 for your first child, 2nd child 10% off, and each additional family members are 1/2 price.

Please call Lisa @425-512-6225 or the Church of the Good Shepherd @ 425-774-4474 to pre-register with a $15 non-refundable deposit.

Church of the Good Shepherd is located at 2609 Larch Way, Lynnwood, WA 98036

Gung Fu for Christ is really fun and energetic.  I highly recommend this camp and the weekly classes as well.  Your kids will absolutely love it!  If you are interested in signing up for homeschool martial arts classes with Gung Fu for Christ you are welcome to enroll now as well.  This is a great way to get your kids moving and in shape while learning self defense.  You can find more information and pricing at their blog or at their website GungFuforChrist.com.

Another Great Deal at Great Wolf Lodge

The fine print:

Offer valid only at Grand Mound, WA location 1/4/10 – 3/10/10 on a per night basis. Offer valid Monday – Wednesday, there is an upcharge for Thursday thru Sunday reservations. Offer based on four guests in a Family Suite. Offer must be mentioned at time of reservation. This offer is based upon availability and 2010 standard rates. Limited to the first 50 rooms sold per arrival date. May not be valid during holiday or blackout periods. Not valid with any other discount or promotional offer. Offer expires 3/10/10.

To Book Your 10 or More Rooms, Please Contact: Nikki Vaccaro at 360.347.0992 or nvaccaro@greatwolf.com

The Common Question

(Originally posted on Accredo Christian Academy Family Blog March 2008)

Since socialization seems to be the first thing people wonder about when they find out we are homeschooling the kids, we’ve included an excerpt from one of the books that influenced us as we investigated which path of education would be best for our family. If this is a question you have, hopefully this excerpt will help you understand this issue as it relates to the path we’ve chosen.

FROM ch.36 The Well Trained Mind:

The most convincing proof that home-educated children develop normally is a conversation with a home-educated child who’s bright, engaged, polite, interesting, and outgoing. Home-school graduates get into college and do fine; they get jobs and excel.

But it’s important to understand what socialization means. According to the dictionary, socialization is “the process by which a human being, beginning in infancy, acquires the habits, beliefs, and accumulated knowledge of his society.” In other words, you’re being socialized when you learn habits, acquire beliefs, learn about the society around you, develop character traits, and become competent in ths skills you need to function properly in society.

Who teaches all of this? Agents of socialization include the family (both immediate and extended), the religious community, neighborhoods, tutors and mentors, the media (TV, radio, films, books, magazines all tell the child what’s expected of him, for better or worse), clubs (social or academic), the arts (both in observation and participation), travel, jobs, civic participation. And formal schooling is an institution.

Taking the child out of school doesn’t mean that you’re going to remove him from the other “agents of socialization” that surround him. Furthermore, think about the type of socialization that takes place in school. The child learns how to function in a specific environment, one where he’s surrounded by thirty children his own age. This is a very specific type of socialization, one that may not prove particularly useful. When, during the course of his life, will he find himself in this kind of context? Not in work or in family life or in his hobbies. The classroom places the child in a peer-dominated situation that he’ll probably not experience again.

And this type of socialization may be damaging. Thirty years ago, Cornell Professor of Child Development Urie Bronfenbrenner warned that the “socially-isolated, age-graded peer group” created a damaging dependency in which middle-school students relied on their classmates for approval, direction, and affection. He warned that if parents, other adults, and older children continued to be absent from the active daily life of younger children, we could expect “alienation, indifference, antogonism, and violence on the part of the younger generation.”

Peer acceptance is dangerous. When a child is desperate to fit in — to receive acceptance from those who surround him all day, every day — he may defy your rules, go against his own conscience, or even break the law.

We live in an age in which people think a great deal about their peers, talk about them constantly, and act as if a child’s existence will be meaningless if he isn’t accepted by his peer group. But the socialization that best prepares a child for the real world can’t take place when a child is closed up in a classroom or always with his peer group. It happens when the child is living with people who vary widely in age, personality, background, and circumstance.

The antidote for peer-centered socialization is to make the family the basic unit for socialiation — the center of the child’s experience. The family should be the place where real things happen, where there is a true interest in each other, acceptance, patience, and peace, as far as it possible.

Socialization in the family starts when very young children learn that they can trust adults to give them answers, to read books to them, to talk to them, to listen to music with them. Socialization continues as the child learns to fit into the lives of his parents and siblings, to be considerate and thoughtful of other people, to be unselfish instead of self-centered. A two year old can learn to play along for a few minutes while the parent teachers a ten year old; an eight year old can learn not to practice the piano during the baby’s nap time. It’s the real world when a child learns to play quietly because Daddy is working on his income taxes….

In our society, children, taught by their peer groups, learn to survive, not to live with kindness and grace. Exclusive peer groups — cliques — start forming around age five. Even in kindergarten, children are accepted or rejected on the basis of what they wear, what toys they own, what TV programs they watch. Even when adults are supervising, these cliques survive — and strengthen — as children grow. And only the strongest flourish.

The trend in our culture is to devalue — even bypass — the family as a basic unit of socialization. But it’s within the family that children learn to love by seeing love demonstrated; learn unselfishness both through teaching and through example (choosing to teach a child at home is unselfishness at work); learn conflict resolution by figuring out how to get along with parents and with each other.

The family unit — the basic agent of socialization — is itself a place to communicate with people of different ages. But socialization doesn’t stop there. As a family, you should make a wide range of friends of various ages. Home-school parent and lawyer Christopher Klicka points out that home-educated children are continually socialized through community activities, Little League, Scouts, band, music lessons, art classes, field trips, and the numerous events sponsored by local home-school support groups.

Below is a Christian news article on homeschool socialization:

Socialization: Homeschooling vs. Schools

CBNNews.com
Michael F. Haverluck
May 2, 2007

It was Theodore Roosevelt who said, “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”

Many homeschoolers share this sentiment when it comes to public schools, believing that the moral relativism, violence, peer pressure, drugs and promiscuity found inside their gates provide an inadequate setting to properly socialize their children.

Yet 92 percent of superintendents believe that home learners are emotionally unstable, deprived of proper social development and too judgmental of the world around them, according to a California study by researcher Dr. Brian Ray .

What makes homeschool socialization such a hot topic?

With approximately 4 million children currently being homeschooled in the U.S., along with a 15- to 20-percent yearly growth rate, many professional educators and school boards are concerned that this exodus will keep funds from entering the public education system.

Many teachers also believe that successful home instruction by uncredentialed parents undermines their expertise and jeopardizes their jobs.

Questions about inadequate socialization are often brought up as a means to disqualify homeschooling as a viable alternative form of education, but are the arguments valid?

A look at the research on this socialization debate shines further light on the issue.

There’s no place like home Read more

Annual Home Educators’ Day at the Capitol Event 2010

Annual Home Educators’ Day at the Capitol Event

Thursday February 25, 2010

(Space is limited pre-register by 2/15/10)
Day at Capitol 2010 registration packet
Hosted by: Christian Homeschool Network & Christian Heritage Home  Educators of Washington

“In order to stand up for our homeschooling freedoms we need to stand together, we need to be informed, and most importantly, we need to come to Olympia and let our voices be heard!

Now is our chance to honor the men and women of the legislature who serve us.  They enact laws that impact our families and our future. Homeschool laws can have a more direct effect on our families than any other legislation.  It is important for us to share how much we value the freedom they have helped us to preserve. Take a break from your regular school day and join us in Olympia to honor the hardworking men and women of the legislature.

The Home Educators’ Day at the Capitol is a great educational experience for the whole family.

Join hundreds of home educators from across the state and stand united in celebrating our freedom to home educate our children. Be encouraged as you hear from legislators, state homeschool leaders, and others who applaud your efforts.  Attend a civic workshops (youth to adult), take a tour of the Capitol, meet with your legislators, get an up-to-date legislative report from CHN’s on-site volunteer lobbyist and get involved in the legislative process.

Homeschoolers will  again be surprising their representatives and senators by serving them homemade apple pies!   Sign up today to bring your pie:  http://saintevents.com/pieregistration.asp

Preserving homeschool freedoms for today and tomorrow!”

“No Bible, No Breakfast” ~ In His Word 2010

2 Timothy 3:16-17 – “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (ESV)

Job 23:12 – “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.”  (NKJV)

“No Bible, no breakfast.”  Watchman Nee

As we reflect on this past year and contemplate the new year, we’re considering our plans for reading His word daily.  We just read an encouraging sermon about the “Morning Watch”.  There isn’t a more biblical or beneficial way to begin the day.

My husband and I have recently found that we can learn better and stay more focused by combining sight and sound, listening to the bible being read while reading along or reading out loud ourselves. Did you know it only takes about 70 hours to read the entire Bible out loud?  I didn’t.  And we can normally read silently much quicker than that.

The internet provides a myriad of ideas for reading and listening to God’s word.  Below are several Bible reading plans:

• Bible On Radio ~ You can listen through the Bible in a year with Tom Dooley.  It’s free.  Simply go to this site and push play while you are near your computer. This is a great addition to your own reading.  Turn it on while working on the computer.
• Bible Reading Plans ~ You can have your daily reading emailed to you.
• One Year Tract Bible Reading Plan ~ You can read, listen, or both.
• Bible Reading Plans from the beginner to the advanced reader.  I will be using the 180 Day Plan Guided Tour of the Bible first this year.
• Choose your own plan ~ Many choices of different books to read through the year.
• Discipleship Journal Plan ~ “Few things discourage us more from reading the Bible through in a year than falling behind. This plan gives five catch up days every month. This is absolutely golden!”
• Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers ~ The advantage of this plan is that it provides guidance as you read each day but does not put you on an internal guilt trip if you miss a day.
• Prof. Horner’s Bible Reading System ~ Unusual, challenging, and life-changing (click read more from the facebook info page for details of the system).   The Ten Lists is a great little application for the web or your internet enabled mobile phone or iPod that sets up and keeps track of this system’s daily readings.

“I ought to pray before seeing anyone. I feel it is far better to begin with God, to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another.” – Robert Murray M’Cheyne

May God grant us all a deeper relationship with Him through the reading of His Word.

Merry Christmas! We’re Back!

Merry Christmas from 100 Digits!

It appears that we have corrected the problem from those horrible hackers and we just may be able to get back to business by the new year!  What a great Christmas gift!  May the Lord bless your time together as you celebrate this Christmas!

A friend of mine started a blog this season with great Christmas crafts, ideas and traditions that might inspire you.  Check it out!

Merry and Bright Christmas

Yeah! It’s great to be back!

This Blog Has Been Hacked

There are bad, bad people in the world!  This is my blog, your blog,  my place of reference, the place I enjoy sharing with others in all things homeschool and more.  It has been violated.  I am sad.  Not only was my blog nominated for Best Variety on the Homeschool Post’s annual  Homeschool Blog Awards, but I was in the lead until all went south and these bad, bad people have attacked this site in the worst kind of way.  My husband has been working tirelessly to recover the damage but it isn’t looking good right now.  Please don’t give up and leave me forever if you can even read this message.  Our hope is to be restored some day soon!

100 Digits Has Been NOMINATED!!!

If you nominated 100 Digits at The Homeschool Post Annual Blog Awards, THANK YOU!!  This is so great.  Voting has begun and you can vote for 100 Digits HERE.

100 Digits has been nominated for the Best Variety Category. (This blogger is one that could fit in any of these categories, yet just can’t be pinned down in ONE. This type of blogger is the ADD hyper-focused type — always moving from one thing to the next — and always keeping you interested in coming back for more). Voting ends on November 20th.  I appreciate your votes, thank you!  This is all very exciting!

The Homeschool Post, which is home to the Homeschool Blog Awards, is a wonderful group blog full of encouragement and information.  Make sure to check them out!

Great Deal at Great Wolf Lodge

Here is the small print in case you can’t read it in the ad:

“HOMESCHOOLERS”, We’re All Yours Year Round!
Includes: One Night Lodging in our Family Suite, up to 4 Waterpark Passes, Daily Craft Activities in Cub Club™
and Nightly Story Time! P.S. Ask Nikki about earning EXTRA CREDIT!
Offer valid only at Grand Mound, WA location.  Offer valid on per night basis, offer valid Sunday – Thursday and you must stay
before 12.17.09.  Offer based on 4 guests in a family suite. $40.00 for each additional guest. Offer must be mentioned at time of
reservation.  This offer is based upon availability. Offer not valid during holiday or blackout periods and not valid with any other
discount or promotion offers.
To Book Your 10 or More Rooms Call:
Nikki Vaccaro (360)347-0992 or nvaccaro@greatwolf.com

Taking Back America

These are great short videos done by a motivational speaker named Bob Bosso playing Thomas Paine.  I thought homeschool students would enjoy them and create some great conversation topics and learning opportunities.

Some possibilities:

• American Revolution
• Declaration of Independence
• Thomas Paine
• Common Sense
• America today

Here is the link to more of his Thomas Paine videos at Fun Bob Bosso.

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