Do you agree that we as a country are in big financial trouble? Do you think it would be difficult to find an American adult who would disagree?

At every level, from families to local governments to the national government, we don’t live within our means; we overspend. The mindset of  “buy now, pay later” permeates our culture. We are up to our eyeballs in debt! As Dave Ramsey succinctly puts it:

“We want it all and we can borrow to get it all before we can afford it all.”

Consider these alarming statistics about students who graduate from high school:

• They lack basic skills in the management of personal financial affairs (1)
• Many are unable to balance a checkbook (1)
• Most simply have no insight into the basic survival principles involved with earning, spending, saving and investing. (1)
• Of the 6,000 students who took the Jump$tart personal finance survey in 2006, 62% received failing scores with 60% being the lowest passing grade. (2)
• A study of 1,065 teens found that 21% of 18 and 19-year-olds have credit cards. (2)
• Nearly 1/3 of high school seniors already use a credit card (2)
• By the time they reach their senior year, 56 percent of students carry four or more credit cards, with an average balance of $2,864. (2) Read the rest of this entry »

Several months ago, a friend sent me this quote from the late President Reagan:

“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.“

I really liked it and yet, it really bothered me. A lot. I couldn’t get it out of my head – it just kept nagging me. But why? I can be a little slow sometimes, but eventually, I realized, God was trying to teach me something.

My grandkids and I began our home education adventure late in the game, so to speak. First, my granddaughter asked to be homeschooled in March of her 7th grade year of public schooling. I knew it was the right thing to do and a week later, we began. She needed to be home where she could excel, but, as I wrote in an earlier post, she also desperately needed time – a full year to be exact – to decompress from the stresses she brought home with her. Once she was ready, she went from a struggling student who was barely pulling a ”C” in most of her classes, to one who will graduate this year with a 4.0 (so far) GPA.

The next year, in October, my grandson also in 7th grade at the time, asked to come home and try homeschooling. He is now a high school junior and doing great! His interests and style of learning are as different as night and day from his sister, but being home educated has afforded him to learn his way and pursue his interests. I know in my heart of hearts, had he stayed in public school, he would have sunk.

Before we began home educating, I prayerfully asked God to show me His priorities. His answer was very clear: “Teach them about Me and My Word, be a Godly example and trust Me to lead you as you continue.”

I confess I get side-tracked sometimes, putting my agenda before His. But, Read the rest of this entry »

In a previous post, I discussed that college education may not be right for everyone. For some, both parent and teen know with certainty, that college is the right choice and that’s wonderful! However for those who aren’t so certain, there’s another option that homeschool graduates my want to consider – The Gap Year.

Sadly, I’ve spoken with many college graduates who, after graduation, found very lucrative jobs, lamenting, “I hate what I’m doing!” Many confess they would like to quit but can’t because they are up to their eyeballs in student loan and/or credit card debt. Some consider going back to school to study something different, but still don’t know what they want to do. One recent college grad I spoke with, just up & quit her very big-bucks job, because she couldn’t stand it. Would a gap year have helped these students? I don’t know. Would it have hurt them? No, I don’t think so.

The gap year concept – taking a year off between high school graduation and college – is a growing concept in this country. Many high school advisors and counselors are now recommending it to their students. Furthermore, high schools have begun having “Gap Year Fairs”, showing and promoting the many opportunities available to a high school grad during their year off from formal education.

According to an article in USA Today, as colleges’ witness more and more “gappers” arriving on campus with sharper focus, motivation and maturity Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations to all homeschooled graduating highschoolers!!! And, to the parents who stayed the course, hats off to you!!! I have not yet had the privilege of graduating one from high school – that will come next year, but I have already been giving thought as to how to make this milestone in their lives special.

Homeschooled highschoolers don’t typically have the “gala events” that their public schooled counter parts do (not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion) but recognizing their accomplishment and ushering them into this new chapter of life can and should be a special time and memory in their life. Here are a few of my thoughts…. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever wished you could find some reviews about a particular homeschool curriculum before you spend the cash? I know I have. In this post, I will share some of the curriculum review sites I’ve found and used. I’ll start with one of my favorites…

HomeSchool Reviews – The reason Homeschool Reviews is one of my favorite curriculum review sites is because the reviews are written by parents who have used the curriculum. Each curriculum may have several differing views that have been helpful to me in my decision making. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Not according to a December 19, 2007 article published in US News and World Report, a publication read largely by college graduates. Surprised?

The post-WWII era was a very different place than the world today and a college degree was accepted by most Americans as the safety net to job-security and personal success.

“If you want to get any where in this world, you need a college education” insisted most parents who remembered living through the Great Depression. Understandably, they wanted their children to live lives better than their own. It became the accepted norm: college equaled prosperity, no college equaled a life of “barely getting by”.

In my opinion, although I’m the first to confess, Read the rest of this entry »