Homeschool Dads Night Out

UPDATE: All Homeschool Connections webinars are now FREE!

I've been doing some research and have found that motivational and educational webinars (online seminars) run from $50 to $500. That's a lot of money! Fortunately for the homeschooling community webinars are coming onto the market with us in mind and with our pocket books in mind. For example:

From Walter Crawford:

Dr. Mary Kay Clark and Gene McGuirk discuss with you the significance a dad can have in the success in everyone's homeschool efforts.

If you are a dad, they will provide you practical advice and encouragement on how to be the best homeschool dad you can be. If you are a mom, they will provide you insight on how to leverage the expertise of your husband. Please come and participate in this wonderful discussion with some of the most experienced homeschoolers around.

The fun starts at 7:30 PM Central Time on Wednesday, March 11, 2009. It's only $5 to register. To find out more and/or register visit Homeschool Connections: Homeschool Dads. (If you get a message about time difference just click Yes -- that has just started happening to me in the past day.)

And while you're there, check out the other offerings from Homeschool Connections. Recorded and live events run from Free to $10.

Bishop on Poverty

What's So Great about Being Poor?
by Bishop Emil Wcela

If being poor and hungry is so much to be desired, why do our parishes collect and distribute food, or provide clothes from their thrift shops, or help with rent payments?

Enthusiasm is Contagious

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I guess this means that if we want great homeschools, we better be enthusiastic about homeschooling. If we want great kids, we better be enthusiastic about raising them

Lean Times Good for You

I read an article in the Washington Times, eons ago, titled: Tough Times Said Beneficial to Health. It asserted that during economic downturns people eat better and exercise more.

Healthy food such as beans, grains, vegies, and fruits are inexpensive compared to loads of meat and prepackaged foods. Making your own meals instead of eating out, is not only thrifty but healthy! And how much does it cost to take a walk around the block a couple of times each day?

So rejoice in knowing that even though we are all cutting corners in our household budgets, we do not have to make cuts in our overall health. In fact, we are bigger and stronger than our materially rich brethren!

Milk and Honey

In the Foreword of The Catholic Homeschool Companion, Bishop Carl Mengeling writes on what our goals should be as homeschoolers. He speaks of Maria Montessori whose fundamental principle in her education program laid in two words: milk and honey. He also spoke of St. Augustine, who said that the milk is the fundamental needs we have in this life -- the need for food, shelter, and clothing. Augustine said that is important, but the milk is not enough by itself.

Today, most Americans are drowning in milk. We have so much milk that we are drowning in it. Public education these days, for the most part, is merely to prepare people to get more milk.

What is often missing in the lives of so many people is the honey. The honey is what gives meaning and purpose and destiny to our lives and gives meaning to all this milk stuff. The honey is our Christian faith.

Think about milk and how it sours over time. Material stuff, the milk of our existence, does not last forever. It is fleeting. Honey, on the other hand, does not spoil. Our faith, our love of God, can bring us eternal life.

Matthew 6:25-34

I would like to share the following Scripture with you, from the book of Matthew. I encourage you to spend today reflecting on Christ's words:

6:25 "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
6:26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
6:27 And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?
6:28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin;
6:29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
6:30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?
6:31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
6:32 For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.
6:34 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.

Christ is telling us that we need not be anxious about the pursuit of material things. Instead, let us focus on our spiritual lives. Let us focus on our families and our homeschools. Let us focus on the formation of the souls that God has entrusted to us.

Kid Wisdom

Buster, my 10-year-old son, says yesterday while viewing a commercial about a Big Sale, "Yeah, I know how to save money, don't buy it in the first place!" Yep, that's good advice!