California Christians Urged to Yank Kids
August 31, 2006
Activist says children will be 'molested by the curriculum'
There would be "panic in the streets" if Christian parents in California decided that a state-mandated pro-homosexual environment no longer is for their children and took up homeschooling, one leader in education says.
"It would be a wakeup call, heard around the country or perhaps the world," Charles B. Lowers, the Executive Director of the pro-family Considering Homeschooling organization told WorldNetDaily.
His comments came just a day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill requiring even Christian colleges where students receive state grants to condone homosexuality, transsexuality and bisexuality.
Lowers said that should be over the top for any parent but especially Christian parents, who should pull their children from public school systems.
"'Heck no, our kids won't go!' should be the rallying cry of Christian parents this week as school starts, instead of following the broad road of perversion and destruction that California schools are offering," Lowers said.
Lowers said while Christians need to contact their representatives and the governor regarding that bill – and others that are pending in a legislature he describes as "sold-out" to the leftist, liberal agenda – the newest mandate from the state "should be the last straw."
"It is estimated that anywhere from 80-90 percent of Christians are still sending their children off to government schools – it's like the church is behaving like a bunch of lemmings," Lowers said.
"Worldview surveys show that the majority of kids from Christian homes are humanist by graduation," he said. "School-based 'clinics' are expanding ... to ensure that your daughters get birth control and abortions without you knowing. Now that the homosexuals are dictating curriculum, 80-90 percent of Christians should be homeschooling, not the other way around," he said.
"Public school is no place for innocent little kids. If they don't get molested by the John Karrs who are in the system, their minds and hearts will be molested by the curriculum," he said.
"Instead of the traditional three R's in California's public schools, children are learning Rebelliousness, Relativism, and an R-rated lifestyle," he said.
Considering Homeschooling was started by Lowers and his wife in 2001, and it seeks to reach Christian parents with encouragement for their homeschooling ideas and guidance toward that activity.
"What our focus is, we are reaching out and recruiting Christian parents, especially Christian parents of very young children, babies, toddlers, preschoolers. They have the most to lose by sending their children to state schools," Lowers said.
"The educational establishment in America really has pulled the wool over most parents' eyes. Almost every parent teaches their child to speak English or whatever is their primary language. They've done the bulk of the teaching of the basics. But the establishment has put this aura around education and (says) only certified teachers should be teaching. Those teachers are less qualified than you to teach your children. You know them," he said.
He said in California, the public schools are controlled "by a group of elitist, leftist, homosexual socialists."
"Their agenda should not be the same agenda as Christian parents. We have really been putting it on the line here, saying to all Christians, 'How could you in good conscience, knowing what you know, now send your children to public school?'" he said.
According to the National Home Education Research Institute, homeschooling may be the fastest-growing form of education in the U.S., with growth rates of 7-12 percent per year. Estimates show there are about 2.5 million home-schooled children in the United States.
That saves taxpayers roughly $16 billion annually, studies say, while at the same time those students generally perform better on standardized tests and go to college at a higher rate than those from public schools.
Significantly for Christian parents, studies show that among homeschooled students, 94 believe in Jesus when they graduate, but only 15 percent from public schools do.
The NHERI noted that a survey of adults who were homeschooled showed 72 percent participating in ongoing community service such as coaching a sports team or volunteering at a school. The comparison for other U.S. adults was 39 percent.
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
Considering Homeschooling Celebrates 5th Birthday of Homeschool Evangelism to Young Christian Families
August 12, 2006
This month marks Considering Homeschooling's fifth year of its homeschool outreach to Christian parents of babies, toddlers, preschoolers and those with school aged children.
In 2001, Charles and Kathy Lowers were feeling grieved as they watched the children of well-meaning Christians rejecting the God of their parents. The Lowers asked the Lord to show them a way to rescue these children. God gave them the idea to recruit Christians into the homeschooling movement when their children were young, or even before parents were pregnant with their first child. With the help and encouragement of friends from pro-life activism, the Lowers started running ads in Christian publications to invite believers from the community.
Today hundreds are in the founding outreach, which also encourages homeschool outreaches to form throughout the nation, promoting the idea that homeschooling -- raising up your child in the Lord Jesus -- begins at babyhood. Considering Homeschooling advocates non-government controlled, Christ-centered home education and seeks to provide a safe place for Christian families to explore homeschooling.
"We are joyful beneficiaries of the Considering Homeschooling ministry," said the Brody Family, founding members of Considering Homeschooling. "The monthly parent meetings met our need to fellowship and network with other parents of young children, gave us the tools we needed, and reinforced our desire to provide the best Christian education for our children."
"We have experienced and learned so much from wonderful activities offered by Considering Homeschooling -- the unique field trips as well as the educational monthly meetings are like a battery re- charger for us," said the Breyer Family, board members of Considering Homeschooling and directors of the Considering Homeschooling Sports program.
Considering Homeschooling sees the future of education where the default educational option for Christian families is private, biblical homeschooling. Charles B. Lowers, Executive Director of Considering Homeschooling says, "only when Christians and the church are obedient to God's commandments to train up our children in Him, only when Christians and the church repent of sending their children to Godless public schools to be discipled by pagans, only then will God’s promise in Proverbs 22:6 be evident."
Considering Homeschooling wants Christians to know that if you can create a safe, loving, educational, Christ-centered home environment, with you is where your children need to be. Surveys show that the majority of "Christian" children are lost to the world unless homeschooled.
We love pizza around here…
August 5, 2006
We love pizza around here, which besides tasting good, provides the perfect, hands-on way to learn fractions. And we try to do a few recipes whenever we can. From measuring 1/4 cup of something, to cutting a pie, granola bar or piece of fruit into various equal shapes, I can see how it really instills a love of learning and real life examples in even the youngest child. "Mom, two eighths equal a quarter piece, don't they?" my four year old daughter asked me yesterday. We had not covered that, but her little mind was putting all this fun cutting stuff together.
So often homeschoolers of our generation think everything needs to be in a textbook in order to be taught, and I think a lot of people inadvertently make arithmetic seem like a boring chore to their children. Why have them fill out pages of answers about coins drawn on the page when you can get out a big loose change jar and teach them from real life? Kids love to feel the coins in their hands. And why not start a family fun night if you don’t already do one, where you all play a board game together (little ones can always be on a parent’s team) and count out the moves you make? Building simple furniture, etc. is also a great way to learn measurement. Many veteran homeschoolers used these ideas to instill a love of math in their children, and popular with them was a short little book called An Easy Start in Arithmetic by Ruth Beechick; her ideas show people how they can either supplement a textbook with hands-on learning or actually teach the elementary grades without a textbook. We have this book available in the CH library at the meeting or available for purchase.
For those in Southern California: This Saturday, as a buyer or seller, you child can learn about prices, making change, etc. Join us at the Kids’ Entrepreneur Day and Flea Market in Fountain Valley. We have done good publicity, but please let your friends and family members know; go to www.ochome.org.
Anti-Preschool Television Ad - Preschool Harms Children
August 4, 2006
Last month Considering Homeschooling launched a national television ad campaign to urge Christian parents to preschool at home. Focus on the Family featured the ad here. To help air this ad in your community, please support Considering Homeschooling.
Christian Family School of San Diego (CFS)
August 4, 2006
Thank you to all who prayed for us as we spoke this past weekend in San Diego. On the drive there, I felt the morning sickness lessen, and I knew it was due to you lifting us up to the Lord. We thank God for a fruitful weekend -- many families signed up for the newly starting Considering Homeschooling of San Diego. Susan Bram, a caring veteran homeschooler, is the perfect one to run that group, and she will be having meetings soon. We are very grateful for Christian Family Schools of San Diego, the big private biblical homeschooling group down there, for giving CH the best booth in their vendor hall and really supporting the idea that homeschooling -- raising a child in the Lord Jesus -- begins at birth.
On Memorial Day, we will be at the Home School Fair in Ontario. If you are in the Riverside area, come on by and help us man that table, if you can.
Please keep Considering Homeschooling of Orange County in your prayers, as well as homeschool outreaches stating in Southern California and throughout the nation. Most Christian families are eager to hear about homeschooling, but lack what they feel is a safe place to explore that option, and to meet like-minded friends. So many just put their child in preschool or public school, feeling they have no choice. If only there had been a place for them to get accurate information on homeschooling, and to get a running start while their kids were yet young!
If a Christian can create a safe, wholesome, Christ-centered home where a child can learn and thrive, that family should seriously consider homeschooling. Most sincere Christians can fit that bill. Every one of us with little kids knows someone else with young ones, too. Why not reach out to that friend or friends, inviting them to the CHEA Convention, to a Considering Homeschooling meeting or to a Christian homeschool support group meeting? Biblical homeschooling is not a 100% guarantee that a child will receive and follow the Lord. We are sinners, our kids are sinners and the world can be enticing. But, raising a child in the joy and knowledge of the Lord Jesus at home gives them a real good shot.
“Mom, I clean better than you…”
August 3, 2006
"Mom, I clean these better than you, don't you think?" my seven year exclaimed the other day as he displayed several pots he had scrubbed out and rinsed. Thanks to my husband's insistence on their chore training, my son, as well my five, three and one and half year old daughters do a big part of the cleaning up after each meal. Seeing him hold up a clean pot brought back a distant memory.
When I was a teenager, I worked two summers on organic farms in New England. One farm in Vermont had a big old 1800's farmhouse where those of us working the land would live. The farm hands were a fluid menagerie of mostly neo hippies and college students, with some staying a few weeks and others working from planting through harvest. Besides the arduous farm work, we all had to pitch in with the housework.
One day a fellow in his 20's joined us. When it was his turn for dish duty, he took me aside and sheepishly asked if I would teach him how to wash each kind of dish, pot, cup, etc. I said I would, but wondered why he needed me to teach him something so simple. "I’ve never washed dishes before," he admitted, "My parents always had housekeepers who did that."
Now I am not going to pick on anyone who hires a house cleaner. But many of my generation of parents tend to view homeschooling as "school at home" so housework is seen as a useless burden. Often those who can, hire someone. Most of us cannot afford hired help, but instead may be tempted to drop one or more of the kids off at preschool. Or, a mom may go around feeling picked on, always cleaning up after kids who have no knowledge that they should be helping mom in a big way. I used to view housework as this mountain I had to blast through each day before I could get to the learning (and with four little ones and two more in utero, housework in our place is no small hill to climb) – until I was convicted by some veteran homeschoolers on this issue.
Now I see the ability to clean up a home as a valuable life skill, the training for which can be interwoven within the day. I don’t use my kids as slave labor nor would my home win any Good Housekeeping awards anytime soon. But, there is triumph in seeing these little kids make their beds by themselves, handle a vacuum bigger than they are, fold laundry, clean up a kitchen or bathroom – and do it with zeal, knowing they are an important part of the running of the household.
If you are in Southern California: If you need some practical advice and to know there is a Godly purpose to housework, please attend our next Considering Homeschooling Homeschool Information Night: "Keeping House, Homeschooling, and Keeping Your Sanity" presented by Susan Beatty of CHEA on August 26 at 5pm in Irvine. Please see www.ochome.org for details.
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