From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler to go along with art. Veritas has a nice little lit guide with art prints for it.

I would really encourage you to look at the Craig book I mentioned earlier. He really encourages believers to ask thetough questions and examine their faith. I plan on having my teenagers read it before they leave home.

I don't think you've been flippant! Actually, you are one of the few non-young earthers that I feel I can have a discussion with about this. :001_smile:

Okay, please don't take this as an argument, but rather as a different perspective from a different experience. I was a believer as a child, though I only went to church occasionally with my Grandma. I never had any real teaching other than just reading my children's Bible and a very occasional Sunday school class. What I did have was constant exposure and teaching on evolution in my TX public school system. By the time I went away to college, I was an agnostic/leaning atheist, in large part because I could not reconcile the Bible with evolution. Nobody ever mentioned creationism to me - I didn't know there was such a thing. I just couldn't make a mythological Genesis and the truth of Christianity fit together. Fast forward, I'm a biology major taking a genetics class in a state university. A very brave girl asked the genetics professor a few reasonable questions in a very respectful manner, and he got very defensive. Hmmmmm. I start looking into this and looking at some creationist materials that I found (!) in the college library. I felt almost like this had been hidden from me. Perhaps that's the way you and your brother felt about evolution? I am a staunch six day creationist today. BUT - I won't send my kids into the world without being well grounded in the arguments of evolution, too; because I don't want my kids to ever feel like I hid something from them, or was too scared, or just didn't have a clue to the answers. I think that is where the real trouble lies.

I can't compare with Latin Prep, but we used LL2 this year with ds (and I taught it in co-op) , and give it two thumbs up. It is everything I want in a curriculum for younger children. I am starting again with my dd in LL1.

I read a great article by Marcia Somerville about teens and their questions this morning that might be helpful. http://blog.tapestryofgrace.com/2010/07/trust-god-extend-dignity/ In addition to C.S. Lewis, I have found William Lane Craig's book, Hard Questions, Real Answers to be invaluable. HTH

:iagree: I loved spending the night at grandma's. My kids love spending the night at their grandparents on both sides. My MIL actually gets the kids for a week each in the summer and does special things with them. I think it is a huge blessing to have grandparents close by.

My kids make their own lunches and breakfasts (and help their littlest brother), wash their own clothes, and clean up the kitchen and table after dinner. I wouldn't be able to homeschool otherwise. I would be too overwhelmed.

I am excited about some online classes that my older kids are taking: Classical Writing Herodotus for two, and Maxim for one; Great Books 1 with Oxford Tutorials for the older two; and BJU math and science online for all three. Whew! I am hoping to be able to spend more one on one time with my youngest two this year.

We got bogged down in the algebra book the first time we tried it, but the kids really enjoyed it. My new plan is to use the LOF book as a review the year after they do their main curriculum (BJU for now). So DD1 will be doing LOF Geom. while she is doing BJU Alg. 2 to review geometry, and DD2 will do LOF Alg. while doing BJU Geometry. My son is currently working through the pre-algebra book, and really enjoys it, so I think I'll do the same with him.

Mine loves Hank the Cowdog, Homer Price, Princess Diaries, and Magic Treehouse. She's a reluctant reader, too, just like her older sister was at that age. The older sister became a real reader around 11/12, so I'm hoping she does too.

This sounds like a wonderful opportunity. Outside accountability can make all the difference to a teenage boy. Our classical co-op has been a great motivator for my up-and-coming 7th grader.

:iagree: Beautifully put!

Yes, but consider that they did not view marriage purely through the lens of romantic love as we do today. I imagine as a woman that I would have been very glad to have been captured by the Israelites under this law (assuming they are obeying it), rather than the Assyrians. Consider what Rahab's status would have been otherwise - so many Gentile women are in the line of Christ as honored wives and mothers.

Well, my church doesn't teach that. We believe that the Kingdom of God slowly works its way through the world, like leaven in bread dough, slowly reconciling the world to Himself. So for me, it makes sense that the world was worse in ancient times, and that God expects more of us now.

We do have the option to dual enroll. So much to think about.... KarenAnne, I found that other thread...thanks! Is there any advantage to AP exams that SAT IIs, CLEPs, or CC classes don't have?

Have any of you who have students capable of doing AP work purposefully decided to not go down that path? Why or why not? I find myself wanting to push back both against the extra stress and having my curriculum dictated to such a great extent. If your student is not likely to want to go to an Ivy or other uber-competitive school, is it still imperative? The one exception I am thinking I should make is Calculus for my engineering minded son, but that is a long way off.

I think Martha meant that just because something happens in the Bible doesn't mean God approves of it. It is a poorly written, uninteresting story that has only perfect characters.

:iagree: One of the themes running through the patriarchs' stories is the strife and jealously caused by polygamy. Just like divorce, God tolerated certain culturally entrenched ideas, being a Reformer not a Revolutionary, and tried to mitigate the worst aspects of these practices by regulation to protect the wives involved. But as He makes plain in other places, both Old and New Test., polygamy was not His ideal.

nt

Re. "The blue pill" was a refernce to The Matrix, and obviously a poor choice of metaphor since it obscured what I was trying to say. I meant that I can't accept that view of the capacity of teenagers to choose to live according to a set of principles. The failures do not justify a universal throwing off of moral expectations. We all fail. How would it be if we all just determined to follow our "instincts" in all things? Forgive anytypos- I am typing on a cellphone.

I felt my tone matched the poster I was responding to. She was being straightforward, so I was too.

LOL, I was actually referencing The Matrix.:D

Well that is certainly one way to look at it. However, fallen though this world may be, teens are still made in the image of God, with the capacity for rational thinking and self-control. They are not rutting animals. Soooo...I choose not to take the blue pill in how I view my children's capacity for moral choice. You are welcome to teach your own as you see fit, though.

If you look in the Old Testament, you will see that premarital sex was not considered to be as grievous as adultery or some other sins. The law mostly concerned protecting a seduced virgin by requiring the man to marry her if she and her father agreed. If she was already betrothed, then that was considered to be adultery even if the marriage had not been consummated yet, and that was serious (this is why Mary was potentially in so much trouble when Joseph thought she had gotten pregnant while betrothed to him). The New Testament writers are assuming that their audience knows the Old Testament so they don't always "spell it out", but fornication is named frequently as a sin to be avoided. You might also search under "fornication" on Bible gateway.com or a concordance. Still, I'm not sure you would find many Christians who would rank premarital sex at the top of the list of heinous sins.