The BIG Announcement

The Most Distinctly Christian Home Discipleship Magazine

Homeschooling Today magazine is my favorite publication of all. I first read it right about the time James and Stacy McDonald bought it and have always loved the portrait it has painted of Christian family.

It was with great fear and trepidation that I accepted the role of Editor-in-Chief of the magazine when James offered it to me in the fall of 2006. A short three months later, James told me that God was calling him into more and more full-time pastoring in Peoria and that he was looking to sell the magazine.

Knowing that my good friends Steve and Kara Murphy wanted to purchase a family business that would allow Steve to hand off his construction business to two of his young protégés, I told them that the magazine was for sale. In February 2007, they bought it and kept me at the helm while Steve finished up his last construction/remodeling job.

Because of the increasing time demands on the McDonalds in the new direction the Lord was taking them, the Murphys inherited a production schedule that was almost a half-year behind. In the following twelve months, we worked very hard and with the Lord’s help published ten "bi-monthly" issues: something even some fans said couldn’t be done.

Going Strong
Now after two years, the magazine is on-track, has undergone a great redesign, just launched a new community-focused website, added a digital edition, and is in more capable hands than it ever has been.

The redesign is complete and in the talented hands of Erika Schanzenbach. Bookshelf and Beyond, where you can learn about the greatest resources available to homeschoolers, whether they be new books hot off the press, or tried and true standards from years gone by, is now under the close scrutiny of private homeschool librarians, the Cottrill family.

Instrumental in launching the new HST website, Ken Griffith will continue to tweak and fine-tune it, endeavoring to make it a community portal for all things related to the biblical family. A handful of capable men are making sure Homeschooling Helper, FirstYear, and The Father-Led Home e-newsletters and email blasts keep arriving on-time in your inbox to deliver encouragement between issues, right when you need it.

I have loved every minute of labor at Homeschooling Today magazine: communicating with writers and potential writers, working with editors and publishers, maintaining and updating the website, training customer service interns, speaking at conferences, and especially co-laboring with my friends, Steve and Kara Murphy. But best of all, I've seen God use the magazine to bless the lives of many: encouraging them in their daily walk to disciple their children, exhorting them to think biblically about curriculum, schedules, organization, college, marriage, government, entrepreneurialism, and so many other areas. I am grateful I have been able to serve Him here!

Now He's calling me to serve Him elsewhere.

Parting the Waters
During a Christmas trip to Texas, Amy's and my hearts were stirred to return to Texas to labor with the saints there, closer to our siblings and parents, that we may care and provide for them as the Lord allows. Thus, we began praying that He would move us back to Texas "soon." We pictured paring down our belongings, beginning a job hunt, finding someone to whom I could hand off the labor at Homeschooling Today magazine (but also knowing I could do much of the work remotely as long as high-speed internet was available), preparing our house to sell, and looking for new digs as soon as God revealed my next position.

We arrived home after almost four weeks on the road and began seeing His answer to our prayers the very next morning, when Steve let me know that the long-term plan for keeping the magazine financially strong would require letting me go. This is the second time God has closed employment doors for me here in SW Virginia, which tells me He heard our prayer and was answering our request to return soon.

Editorial oversight will now rest in the capable hands of Steve and Kara Murphy with the trusty help of long-time friend, supporter, and prayer warrior, regular contributor and former Managing Editor, Marilyn Rockett, who was indispensible to me when I wore the Editor-in-Chief hat.

And though He closed a door here before He showed us the one He will open in Texas, it is clearly His hand moving us, directing our hearts like a watercourse "wherever He pleases" (Proverbs 21:1). Our response is to trust Him and begin our journey to the land He will show us.

But, This is a bad time to try to sell a house. And, We’re in a recession. Don't you know that Folks are being laid-off all over the country?

The waters have not yet parted though we move toward the shore while the river overflows its banks (Joshua 3:14-16) and threatens to wash us downstream. We look forward to seeing Him part the waters, allowing us to cross over on dry ground.

New Work
In addition to the new employment we trust He will show us, God has given Amy and me personal success and a voice to help others save lots of money in these difficult times by using coupons to lower their monthly grocery spending. (See In the House of the Wise for details. And look for an upcoming online training class.)

For those of you liked Inherit the Land produced by Franklin Springs Family Media (http://www.franklinsprings.com/) and hosted by yours truly, I hope you will be pleased to learn that I am working on a couple of more projects with Ken Carpenter. Both projects are still in the infancy stage but I am very excited about their potential to deliver a powerful message.

As always, I will continue to be an advocate for home education, writing and publishing where He allows. In that vein, there are some other potential projects in the works that I hope to share with you soon when I have more details and they’re ready to go public.

Not Forsaken
Please join me in praising God and thanking Him for His promises and His provision for my family up until this day and for what He is going to do.

I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.
—Psalm 37:25

P. S. Resumes are available on request and a list of my work history and qualifications are available on LinkedIn: www.LinkedIn.com/in/JBHoward.

Blogger Mom Carrie Evans is the Last American Optimist

Writer for Homeschooling Today magazine's Homeschooling Helper eNewsletter, homeschooling blogger mom, and budding photographer, Carrie Evans (aka "Gremlin Wrangler") is the last American optimist. Here is her video commentary on the economy—and what the new administration can do about it—on CNN's iReport.

After watching, go to iReport and leave a comment… I did.

Carrie, you have a great perspective on the American economy. It is apparent that your commenters fall into one of two categories:

1) "The economic 'crisis' was created by the government and the government should fix it, so that I can maintain my current lifestyle."

...and...

2) "Rising prices mean I need to make adjustments to the way my family and I do things, but we're still alive and we are going to stick together and work through it."

I'll join YOU in Category 2. Carry on the good work you have begun...

STOP Homeschooling!

As the Editor-in-Chief of Homeschooling Today magazine, I am often asked questions about getting started homeschooling.

I was recently asked this question by the father of a young lady who has been diagnosed with ADHD and is not doing well in the government education system.

After encouraging this loving dad to pray for wisdom and look up his state's homeschooling laws at HSLDA, I felt led to offer a paradigm shift in the way he might be looking at homeschooling. The rest of this post contains that recommendation.

Looking at it differently

Once you've done those two things [pray and contact HSLDA], take a step back and try (it's going to be hard, but it's worth it) to forget everything you know about institutional education models: classes, curriculums, schedules, credentials, grades, expectations, etc. The common term for what you're talking about doing is "homeschooling," but it's a misnomer: neither does your child learn only at home, nor is what you're doing schooling. Schooling is a completely different animal from learning, education, and discipleship. Those three things can happen in the midst of schooling, but they really aren't the same thing.

Like most parents, your goals for your daughter probably don't match up with the school system's goals for her. They want to her to be socialized, which means to be worked into her proper place in the social system. You want her to be a responsible caring adult who enjoys life, liberty, and happiness. Again, those two can go together, but not always.

Train up a child in the way he should go

Before mandatory high school after WWII, no one was diagnosed as ADHD. Not that no one should have been diagnosed, but today's classroom can exacerbate the symptoms, leading to more diagnoses. Ask yourself this question: "What is it that ADHD students are required to pay attention to that they show a deficiency in? And since hyper is a comparative prefix, "They're hyperactive compared to what?" Some of the activities your daughter is engaging may not be "normal," but the institutional environment she is in may be part of the problem. And if you think about it, no one is normal. Every single person is an individual and has inherent value for the way God created them.

The institutional setting—for all practical purposes—requires every person born within a one-year window to behave the same, learn the same subjects at the same rate, dress the same, enjoy the same things, etc. But the truth is that some children excel in math, some excel in language arts, others excel in art; some do well in athletics, some in chess, some in auto shop, and others in music; some excel in mercy, some in love, some in giving, others in administration, and still others in leadership and/or service. Each one has infinite worth as an individual, and yet each one also has his limitations. Above all else, your daughter needs your love, your exhortation, your discipline, and your caring. In addition to that, she needs to be able to balance a checkbook, understand chemical reactions in the kitchen, write a letter of complaint when a product or service is deficient, and take care of the things she has. Most of those things are useful and needful in our society. And only a few are taught through schooling.

Don't homeschool

Back to the homeschooling. A curriculum is only part of what you need, and it doesn't have to be purchased from anyone. Many that try to be "complete" and one-size-fits-all, are rather incomplete and one-size-fits-none. If you are in a state that enjoys freedom of schedule, my advice is to pull your daughter out of the institutional setting she is in and don't do any curriculum until you and your wife and your daughter have spent some time together just being a family. Define who you are as a family, but remove the stress of having to take "schooling" home.

The Founding Fathers of our nation are considered by most to be the most literate, well-read, and well-informed generation the world has ever known—before or since. (Thomas Jefferson conducted a survey which revealed a literacy percentage rate in the high 90s.) And most of them had very little formal schooling, if any. Those who did, didn't go to school until they were at around age nine or ten. If they went to "university," they did so at the age of fourteen-to-sixten. That's why you'll often hear that so-and-so had "no more than an eighth grade education." What they really had was only three or four years of schooling, and eighth grade was as high as it went. After that they were working, building a business, learning a trade, running the farm. They were not dunces who only completed the eighth grade and then dropped out.

So, all that to say, removing your daughter from that situation can be a major paradigm shift in the way you look at education. Their way may have (a) been the standard by which she was considered abnormal, and (b) exacerbated the manifestation of the problem. Don't pull her out of that just to keep her home to do it the same way. She may be acting out because she's bored with a subject she has already mastered. She may be acting out because she can't keep up with her classmates academically, so she tries to do it socially. It may be a combination of those two, or more.

But don't stress about her not getting enough schooling.

Baby steps toward a family culture of learning

If she has strong friendships, don't break those up right away (even if they're somewhat unhealthy) or she is likely to rebel against everything you are trying to do. The move to family discipleship needs to be the first step. When she knows that you care about her and love her and that is why you are doing what you are doing, then it will be easier to reason with her about further changes you want to make: whether that involves letting some friendships go, or accelerating some subjects she does well in, or stepping back a few steps to get back to her pace on other subjects, or spending less time on subjects and more on service or music or art or giving or a family business. Each step take together. You and your wife may have to adjust your strides a bit for all of you to stay together, but the rewards are worth it!

Don't do it alone

Back to my first suggestion. If you and your wife are not Christians, perhaps a lot of what I said is completely foreign to you or sounds impossible. I can tell you that in my home, were it not for Jesus Christ, all of what I mentioned above would be a shabby, weak façade that would not stand up against any kind of pressure. I would be glad to discuss that further, too, if you would like.

Why we don't have health insurance…

It started when I changed jobs and went from being a W2 employee to a 1099 contractor without benefits. We learned fairly quickly that insurance costs everyone a lot more than it should. Let me explain:

Whenever we would have a doctor's visit and inform them that we were "self-pay," they would usually cut the bill in half. So, while we were paying more than a co-pay would have been, the doctor's office was not paying as much for claims processing and was able to return that savings to us. But insurance for our family of six would have cost us a minimum of $300/mo.—a great deal more than the extra we were paying at the doctor's office—and not covered co-pays, have a deductible of $5000, and give us only the tiniest discount on prescriptions. To get any real "benefit" from health insurance coverage, we would have had to pay $800 or more a month, which is more than our mortgage payment! We decided that we could put that $3600-9600/year to better use:

1. Because we know we are going to have to pay more out-of-pocket when we visit the doctor's office, as parents, we strive to improve our children's (and our) nutrition by eating foods as close to "whole" as we can. Because we ingest few preservatives and processed foods, we are not sick as often. (Not spending as much time in the doctor's office waiting room also cuts down on our exposure to colds and flu.)

2. Because we are not spending as much on insurance, we were able to increase our grocery budget, allowing us to afford the more healthful, closer to natural and whole foods, which keeps us healthier, and therefore needing less medical services/coverage.

3. Because we have chosen to take responsibility for our own health, my employer also doesn't incur the cost of paying for my health/lifestyle choices, and can use that money to invest in the business, including being able to pay me more for the work I do!

So, our reasons for making the "deliberate choice" were a matter of finances and adjusting the way we eat and buy groceries. A by-product of this choice is that we also don't contribute to medical coverage that we disagree with. Insurance, in many cases, has the practical effect of "wealth distribution" and "rewarding" those who don't take care of themselves by providing them with medical care to fix the problems they incur from unhealthy living.

As Christians, we believe that every person is imbued with value—whether they are healthy, productive adults or preborn children or aged and infirm. So, rather than planning to put our parents in a nursing home (another expensive option insurance-wise) to "run out the clock" when they can no longer take care of themselves, we are planning to provide housing and care for them. In fact, we have already brought my mother-in-law into our home to live with us, BEFORE she can't take care of herself.

Additionally—and not surprisingly—we are pro-life regarding preborn children. Our research (and that of friends in the industry) has shown that of all the insurance companies in the country, there are only a dozen insurance underwriters (the organizations that finance—and profit from—the insurance industry). While an individual company may not cover abortion, their underwriters most likely do. An industry professional was able to interview nine of the twelve underwriters: all nine they were able to contact pay for abortions. So, everyone who pays an insurance premium (unless one of the other three doesn't cover them) is paying into a fund that pays for abortions. That's not something we want to be a part of.

We do recognize, however, that there are real medical needs that others don't have the money to pay for and we should be willing to take on the burdens of others as we are able. That's part of the reason we are making plans to take care of our parents as they age. But, we also learn of needs through our church, through friends, and through people God brings into our lives. Rather than sending a check off to an unknown company that will then send a check to cover someone's expenses, we believe we are supposed to be more involved in people's lives than that. Someone who is suffering a painful and/or life-threatening ailment or injury needs more than money to cover their expenses: they need love and caring. I can't provide that to every person who receives a portion of my insurance premium. But, I can provide that to the specific people God brings into my life. My family can bring people into our home to share a meal; we can visit people in the hospital and pray for them; and we can take a meal to families who are celebrating a new life in their home and are resting after childbirth. The healing process is usually much more rapid when a personal touch is included with the care, rather than just relieving the monetary burden. It's a blessing when we're given the opportunity to provide both!

Fortunately, it's actually more cost-effective and healthful to eschew health insurance and take personal responsibility for our own family's health. And more loving and personal to take care of individual needs rather than handing off the responsibility to a claims process.