Courageous (Movie)

I was deeply impressed with the movie "Courageous", a Kendrick Brothers Production, the makers of FIREPROOF. A great cast of actors and a beautiful score of music present a very timely theme courageously. Men are stepping up to be courageous not only in the workplace but also in the home. The challenges that you are being confronted with in the movie are exactly the moments when we men tend to fail. Be it at the time when we loose our job, or when our daughters want us to be spontaneous and public in our affections. Or it can be, that when we need courage to talk to our sons, or stand up for Jesus in the workplace, when, more often than not, courage fails us and we prove to be cowards. These moments can have eternal consequences and be of a very weighty matter. Most of the time we know what is the right thing to do, but we lack the courage to do it. One of the keys to courageously choosing the right path, must be to be prepared and informed. Watching football games and spending more hours at work will not prepare us to meet the challenges. Rather, spending time with our family, allowing ourselves to be held accountable, and knowing God's ways from His word are essential steps to acting courageously when it counts most. Go get the movie and listen carefully! You may meet the man, that you see daily in the mirror. --Hanno
PS: My children loved the movie, too. It is rated PG13, though, and I tend to agree with it. Movie and Book are available at the Homeschool Hangout Bookstore

Homepreschool and Beyond

Homepreschool and Beyond
A Comprehensive Guide to Early Home Education
By Susan Lemons
Liberty Books
2010
Paperback, 294 pages

With schools pressured to push little ones to perform, our homes can offer the opposite – a loving shelter from the storm – and that is precisely what Susan teaches us in her valuable book “Homepreschool and Beyond”. She is not out to sell you products but to show you how to best incorporate meaningful material. There are ideas galore on how to serve a “tasty meal” of reading, writing, and arithmetic laced with living books, physical development, history, music, and more. This is a treasure chest waiting to be explored by any parent willing to learn. She shows you how to reach reasonable academic goals with a healthy balance between books, skill-building, and play. A thirty page Appendix delivers a rich smorgasbord of resources, thought-provoking questions to discuss with your spouse, helps to build a spiritual foundation for education in the home, and valuable links from the worldwide web. We recommend the book highly to get you off to a great start.
Happy Homepreschooling! –Peggy Berg

The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin

The First American by H.W. Brands was a very rewarding study and enjoyable book to read. I shared so much of the book with my family that they feel like they have read the book. That happens to me often when I am really involved in my study and read delightful character descriptions, make connections that I had not seen before, or finally understand where some popular sayings come from like some of Ben Franklin's sayings which are from his famous Poor Richard's Almanac. Ben Franklin is often said to be one of the least "religious" founding fathers. Even Atheists like to claim him as their own. However, I observed in the reading of this account that Ben Franklin, the older he got, the more he held Christian beliefs. In many respects he was quite orthodox in his understanding of Christianity. But he was unsure about the deity of Jesus Christ, something he admittedly had never studied in more detail. Living in a predominantly Christian culture, he adopted biblical truths as his own. Here is an excerpt from the book that was to the point: "Here is my creed. I believe in one God, creator of the universe. That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do [Stiles shared Franklin's tolerance] in whatever sect I meet with them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as it probably has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed, especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure. I shall only add, respecting myself, that having experienced the goodness of that Being in conducting me prosperously through a long life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, though without she smallest conceit of meriting such goodness." (pg. 707)


--Hanno

The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough

David McCullough writes engaging history. All his books that I have read so far have some epic, overarching theme to them. “John Adams” is the colossal of independence, “Truman” is a controversial figure because of the atomic bomb incident but looms really as a giant among the American presidents, “The Johnstown Flood” recounts the most devastating catastrophe of the South Fork Dam break in Pennsylvania on May 31, 1889, and the resulting flood that cost over 2,000 lives. The Great Bridge tells of the building, or shall we say miracle, of the Brooklyn Bridge and, of course, “1776” tells of the most pivotal year in American history and how, if it wouldn’t have been for the faith and courage of Washington, all would have been lost.


All of McCullough’s books are worth your time. They are available in hardcover, paperback, or on audio CDs. Each one of his stories goes way beyond what the title indicates. “John Adams”, for example, tells almost as much of Thomas Jefferson as it does of John Adams. I highly recommend David McCullough’s books.

--Hanno

Sea Star by Marguerite Henry

Very sweet story and exciting to read. It's funny, too.

--Jenny (9)

Genesis in space and time: The flow of biblical history

Francis A. Schaeffer

Copyright 1972, ISBN 08778846367

I have been a fan of Francis Schaeffer for many, many years. Peggy and I visited his L’Abri in Holland in the late 1980s. His Christian Manifesto is a classic and I highly recommend it for any high school student. Now, this book “Genesis in Space and Time” was also for most part a good book. While Dr. Schaeffer shows clearly how Genesis is a history book and shares great insides on the epic events of history recorded in Genesis, the book has one serious flaw in stating that Genesis is a book of “Genealogies not Chronologies”. I was disappointed. I have been wondering if with all our creation science research over the last thirty years Dr. Schaeffer would have held a different view had he be born a generation later? The chronologies that we find in Genesis and elsewhere in the Scriptures are certainly there for a reason and that is, believe it or not, to give us a reliable chronology of history. Why else would God have bothered to give us the exact dates of epic events like the flood of Noah’s days? Or why would God have gone through all the trouble keeping a precise record of when so-and-so begat so-and-so? Why do we have all the life times of the great patriarchs in Genesis? Certainly to aid us in putting together not only a genealogy but also a chronology of history!

--Hanno

The Prince's Poison Cup by R. C. Sproul

I like the book "The Prince's Poison Cup" written by R. C. Sproul. I like it so much because the Grandpa tells a story and doesn't just tell the girl "Drink the medicine!"

--Jenny (9)