Unknown Soldier 1921

Today is Veteran’s Day. Below is a short list of quotes about “liberty” and “freedom”. Use them to remind yourself and to teach your children that these two precious words are not entitlements – they can be lost. They must be fought for and defended by every generation, on every front. As you do school at home, use these quotes as a springboard to help them understand the deep, costly meaning of these words.

The patriot’s blood is the seed of Freedom’s tree.  Thomas Campbell

Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. John Adams

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.  Ronald Reagan

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.  Author unknown

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.  Thomas Paine

We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights.  Felix Frankfurter

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.  James Madison Read the rest of this entry »

We are a nation of consumers. We want what we want when we want it. Perhaps our plastic “money” should contain the slogan “Buy Now, Pay later.”

Gone are the principles of previous generations of “saving until you can afford it” and “when the money in the envelope is gone, it’s gone. Period. Make do.” We are over our heads in debt.

Or as US News and World Report puts it:

For more than four decades, our shopaholic nation has shown an insatiable desire to spend until our credit cards melt. … Indeed, it often seems that we have defined ourselves by our ability to buy supersized everything, from McMansions to tricked-out SUVs to 60-inch flat-screen televisions—all enabled by decades of cheap credit.

Consider just a few statistics from, interestingly enough, CreditCards.com:

• 55 percent of credit card users keep a balance on their credit card
• The average American with a credit file is responsible for $16,635 in debt, excluding mortgages
• The average credit card indebted young adult household now spends nearly 24 percent of its income on debt payments
• Total U.S. consumer debt (which includes credit card debt and noncredit-card debt but not mortgage debt) reached $2.55 trillion at the end of 2007, up from $2.42 trillion at the end of 2006
• Young Americans now have the second highest rate of bankruptcy, just after those aged 35 to 44.
• U.S. consumers racked up an estimated $51 billion worth of fast food on their personal credit and debit cards in 2006

Book One: How to Understand Economics in One Hour

This year we tackled a ½ credit course of Civics. A large part of our course was a study of Economics, which I confess, I knew very little about. Our primary text for economics, which I highly recommend, Read the rest of this entry »

Only recently did I become aware of the threat of a new law and it’s affect on our purchasing and/or selling used and/or new homeschool books or curriculum. I want to make sure you are aware of it as well.

In August 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Act was signed into law. As I understand it, the intent of the law, simply put, was/is to protect children ages 12 and under from children’s products containing unsafe levels of lead and phthalates. The law goes into effect February 10th 2009.

So how can this new law affect your ability to buy or sell your homeschool books and curriculum?  Read the rest of this entry »

Family-court action could convince appellate court not to interfere with home schooling freedoms in California.

More: continued here

We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
~ President Abraham Lincoln
National Proclamation of Prayer and Repentance, 1863

We owe humble and heartfelt thanks to the Author of all blessings.
~ Theodore Roosevelt, 1904

We should ask what we can do as individuals to demonstrate our gratitude for all He has done.
~ Ronald Reagan 1981

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.
~ Somerset Maugham

Thank you.
Sue

This weekend, as I know you all know, we as a nation will honor all those who have sacrificed to preserve the freedom that is so often abused and taken for granted. Memorial Day was declared a national holiday in 1971 and to many Americans that is all it will be – a holiday – cookouts, day off from work, family picnic etc. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with any of those things. In fact, they are good things and we can celebrate with them precisely because because we are free.

But our tribute to those who gave it all should be so much more, so much more.

May I encourage you to use this opportunity in your homeschooling to share with your children the real meaning and history behind this holiday. I have found some resources to help you with this. Read the rest of this entry »

A little over a week ago, a California Appellate Court issued a disturbing order that could have chilling and far-reaching effects for homeschoolers across the country. If you are unaware of this court ruling, please take the time to read the first two posts in this series.

Update:

1. Yesterday, Friday, March 7, Focus on the Family pre-empted their scheduled broadcast to devote the program to the CA homeschool court ruling. With a panel of four, they discussed what the court order was, what it means to homeschoolers in California and across the nation. We all need to pay attention to what is going on! As Dr. Dobson said on the broadcast,

“What has occurred in California, as in the past, has a way of seeping its way into the fabric of the nation.”

I couldn’t agree more – the outcome of this ruling can have a tremendous impact on homeschoolers’ freedoms across the nation. If this ruling stands, homeschooling parents could be found guilty of a criminal offense! Read the rest of this entry »