Homeschooling– the magnet school for share croppers in Transylvania, Louisiana, 1939. How times have changed!
Note: Please do not read this if you are against home schooling. Thanks.
Should All Families Homeschool?
Our family once celebrated a quarter century of home schooling. I could hardly believe it. The time had sped by so fast – where was it?
I thought about the huge blessing the Lord had given us – He had been so gracious to us, taking us by the hand and leading us in a way that we did not know. We believe that the Lord made all the difference in how our children might have grown up.
Any child’s education is partly dependent upon his micro-culture. For instance, if our children had remained in our public schools, they would have learned things like chewing tobacco, as appropriate behavior for second-graders. I know the tobacco manufacturers would have agreed with me: Giving it to second graders is completely unacceptable. I know it was unacceptable to me, along with many similar ideas. Our home clearly was the best place for our children.
I gave my children the best possible education available to them at that time. If they’d been educated in England, how different their speech would have been! If they’d been educated in a wealthy neighborhood, how different their science courses would have been!
I happen to believe that the home is where all children belong.
Yes, I am one of those who believe that all families should homeschool. I hear you gasping but after I define terms, you might agree.
(There is still time to NOT read this.)
Please understand I have nothing against the idea of schools existing.
I just have problems with detaining helpless Americans against their will in a gun-free microcosm that cannot defend them, indeed refuses to attempt defending them, from physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual attack, and that both proscribes their religious beliefs (but only if they are Christian) and prescribes the superstitions of others upon them.
It just does not fit the American purpose and does not set well with this American.
Participating in such a micro-community should be an act that an informed adult freely chooses. He should be free to attend or to escape, as the need arises. The course content should please him and an appropriate level of autonomy should prevail.
Of course, I define a college or university. Amazing how a little free enterprise can elevate the quality of the goods offered for sale! Paying your own way or earning a scholarship can motivate you to behave and study hard, too.
Although there are degrees of excellence in the public and private colleges and universities, there also is freedom to go where we want, when we want, or to skip it altogether, if we want. That is how it should be.
If you are thinking that is fine for adults but it would be folly to burden children with such decisions, you are right.
These children are trying to dig out insects from tree bark.
Sneaky changes you WON’T know about!
You will hardly realize your mind is clearing and new direction is sneaking into your lives, but others will notice.
Homemaking
As you welcome the idea of being a maker of a real home for your family, you will realize that washing dishes is not such a horrible chore, after all. You may remind yourself of a powdered cleanser commercial as you clean the bathtub, but you will like it.
Gentler rewards.
The exercise will give a glow to your cheeks, too. In fact, with new work going on, you may actually begin needing small breaks. What’s more, you will find quiet for enjoying your reading during these breaks, and in your favorite comfy chair instead of a sterile “break room”.
Simplicity
As you discover the truer beauty of new, simpler recreations, you will realize it is a good thing, because your costs will shrink, too. You will become quite satisfied with less.
The children
The best change, though, will come over your children. Your heart will sing as your see competitiveness and the resulting nervousness falling off your children.
As you discover their true personalities, you will delight in re-making their acquaintances. As they discover the real you, in return, they will cooperate with you more. You will hardly believe your eyes as you watch your children simply being a family, together. No amount of running around would give this joy, and as there is less running around, there will be much more time for family.
More time
As this newfound time applies to all of life, the educational level and possibilities for your children will greatly increase. It will not be all book learning, either, as you give life to their understanding of the joys of industry and simplicity.
Last, you will find yourself face to face with a new self. It will be great. Old priorities will go out the window and new ones will jump in the front door just as fast. Your amazement at yourself will know no bounds, at first. Things you once shrugged off will take on great proportions and things that once bothered you greatly will seem insignificant.
For instance, instead of fixating on finding the best school supplies for your child, you may discover packing school supplies for Somalian orphans seems somehow more important.
You may acquire a new hobby of crochet or gardening or baking. You could sell your product or teach classes. You could bring joy to those around you.
Most importantly, though, you will never again wonder if you should home school your children. You will finally know. The knowing will bring such peace in knowing you are finally giving your children the best you can, finally doing what you were made to do.
The parent who hopes or plans on home schooling probably wonders about it, what it must be like to be a homeschooler.
There are as many answers to this question as there are folks asking it, but the answer we all want, at first, is universal.
Entering the world of homeschooling is entering a whole new world.
It is a new world because immediately, the family realizes new freedom. Since the home school is YOUR school, the sense of liberty is immediate. You realize that you can do whatever you want, and you really like it.
You may choose to do everything just like a little school, but it will be your choice, not something forced upon you.
New Liberty
This new liberty will include the choice of curriculum and subjects. You will have freedom to choose a God-honoring curriculum. You will find yourself free to believe the entire Bible, if you choose, which will be a wonderful new freedom for you.
Along with the freedom to believe and study as you choose will come all sorts of other new possibilities. You could find yourself teaching your children all they need to become a missionaries, Creation scientists, midwives, herbalists, or any other of the fields that are off limits in the public arena.
New society.
As your new world makes these radical changes, your gladness will grow as you discover you also dwell within a new society. You will have new friends who will be happy to help you. You may need help, but it will be ever ready with these new friends.
As you learn to enjoy them, you will join them in their activities, new activities to you. Where you once had to chase ball games, you may find that you have more time to chase Frisbees or butterflies. Instead of hanging out at the school parking lot, you will find yourself hanging out at the observatory or park. You will like these new activities, and as you spend more and more time with these friends, your loving concern for them will grow.
Your concern will grow so much, in fact, that you may find yourself in a car full of folks riding to your State Capital to express those concerns. You may also find yourself enchanted at having the time for expressing such concerns.
You will enjoy these new friends because you will realize that they are a different sort of people. They smile a lot and their smiles are genuine. They reach out to you and you catch yourself looking forward to the next time you see them. You ask them questions because you like the differences you see in their families.
What you will not realize is that the same differences will be gradually appearing in your own family.
We have all sorts of electronic substitutes these days. We push a button and things happen, things appear. We can bank on-line. We can borrow a book through the Kindle service. We can send an e-mail.
But it’s not real money, not a real book, and not a real letter. We’ve trained ourselves to accept the electronic substitute and taught ourselves to believe it costs us less, although usually it does not. Not if we think about all the real costs.
Anyway, I’ve been picking figs, lately, and the only, ONLY, ONLY way to get a fig that is still warm from hanging in the sunshine is to get up out of a chair, go outdoors, walk over to the tree, reach up, grab ahold, and pull a fig off the branch.
And it is worth all that incredible effort. A warm, ripe fig is a soft and squishy confection, what some might call “deliciously juicy”. Softer than a banana, sweeter than a strawberry, not sticky like caramel, yet reminiscent of all three, a fig can only truly be compared to another fig.
Oh yes — worth it.
And the people who like a fig enough to plant the tree, or to get off that chair and go on out there, or to cut the stems off the fruit and get out some canning jars, or to stir some canned fig into a cake batter — they’re worth it, too.
These are the kitchen people. The real butter people. The whole wheat flour, olive oil, honey, and home-grown eggs people. If offered store-bought, um, we really don’t mind fasting that much.
Got figs? Get these recipes!
MYO Fig Bars
2 c. chopped figs, stems removed
3/4 c. water
1/4 c. honey
2 tbsp. whole wheat flour
Boil until clear. Cool.
Dough:
1/2 c. butter
2 small eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. honey
1/2 tsp. soda
2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
Cream butter and honey. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until fluffy. Add flour and soda (sifted together).
Press half of dough into 9×13 pan. Spread fig filling evenly over dough. Roll remaining dough on wax paper and flip onto top of filling. Press gently. Mark bars by cutting through top, slightly. Bake at 375 degrees until lightly browned. Cool. Cut bars. Better than you-know-what.
Fig Bread
3 eggs
2 1/2 c. sugar
2 c. mashed, ripe figs
3/4 c. very fine olive oil
3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 c. chopped pecans
Beat sugar into eggs. Add figs and oil. Sift together dry ingredients. Add to figs, alternately, with buttermilk. Beat well. Fold in pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour in greased and floured loaf pans. Yields 3 loaves.
A friend and I were discussing blanching before freezing when she asked, “Do you have to?”
In an emergency, many foods you ordinarily would first prepare, you may freeze raw and untreated. Don’t expect them, though, to last over three months because blanching destroys the enzymes that induce ripening. Some vegetables, when not blanched, will continue maturing, though frozen. Unblanched okra, for instance, will become woody over time, in the freezer. So use these foods quickly. The foods must be perfect and unwashed. Freeze soft things before wrapping for protection from freezer flavors.
One friend only shells (does not wash) her surplus field peas and freezes them in one huge plastic bag. They separate easily. She measures, washes, and cooks as usual. She says they taste exactly the same but she does use the unblanched ones first.
I have found that you may treat the following produce this way if it has not been washed: whole tomatoes, whole apples, whole plums, whole carrots, whole peppers, edible pod peas, shelled field peas, and whole okra. All are for cooking only, except plums make good frozen treats. Be sure you remember you haven’t washed them before you use them.
The reasoning behind not washing vegetable before freezing is that they have a natural protective coating that helps ward off drying and if you freeze them wet, they will be impossible to separate for individual use. In the case of beans, this is not a factor, if you will immerse the entire package in warm water to rinse, later. Just think. If it is waxy, don’t wash it. If you want to freeze individually and bag later, it’s okay. Do not freeze anything with bad spots. How will you remove them once frozen? Just think. More info, starting here.
Two foods that you should always blanch and freeze are corn and greens. These two also taste pretty bad when canned, and take a lot of time and heat. One food that even the freezer books say we should not freeze is potatoes. I do not know why, because I have never tried it. I know, frozen potatoes are available in stores, but do they taste good? I’ve never tried them, either! Potatoes are best stored raw or canned.
To clean your kitchen after canning, just roll up the towels you used for covering surfaces, throw them into the washer and wipe the counter tops. You’re done! Then when canned foods are completely cool, remove bands and run the filled jars through the rinse cycle of your dishwasher. This removes the sticky film, from juices leaked in pressure cooking, which molds in the cabinets. These molds can enter the jar when you open it. They also make bad odors in your food storage area and attract bugs.
Now, DRUMROLL PLEASE, the real reason you read this far — The Recipes!
The following recipes come from several requests for instructions for making various sauces to use up excess tomatoes, etc. Also there are a few recipes for foods mentioned this week. Hope you enjoy making, storing, serving, and eating them as much as we do!
Homemade Mustard
1 3/4 c. white vinegar
2 onions chopped fine
1/2 c. mustard seeds
1/4 t. white pepper
2 t. soy sauce
2 T. white sugar
1 t. turmeric
Puree all ingredients in blender. Bring to a boil over low heat in a heavy pan, stirring continuously with a wire whip. Stir and simmer for 5 minutes. Seal in hot jars with hot lids. Place in boiling water bath for 5 minutes. Keeps very well. Yield: about one pint.
Homemade Catsup (not store bought!)
10 lb. ripe tomatoes
3 onions
2 bell peppers, red or green
1 clove garlic
3/4 c. brown sugar or honey
2” stick cinnamon
1 t. peppercorns
1 t. whole cloves
1 t. allspice berries
1 t. celery seed
1 c. cider vinegar
1 T. salt (opt.)
2 t. paprika
1/4 t. cayenne
Puree vegetables in blender, OR: chop, cook, and sieve them. Bring to a simmer. Put whole spices into a bag and add all other ingredients. Cook very slowly until very thick. Remove the bag. Seal in hot jars with hot lids. Hot water bath for 15 minutes. Yield: 2 – 3 pints. This is a good recipe for the crock pot, if you keep adding the juice until all is cooked down. It is too big for a crock pot at first, but becomes of manageable size eventually. The actual cooking takes all day on the stove top.
Tomatilla Salsa (A great use for small green tomatoes from dying vines)
5 1/2 c. chopped tomatillas OR green tomatoes
1 c. chopped onion
1 c. chopped jalapenos
(wear gloves and use ventilation!)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. minced cilantro (opt.)
2 t. cumin
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cayenne
1/4 c. lime juice OR 1 g vitamin C tablet
Bring all to a boil in a large pot. Simmer 10 minutes. Seal in hot jars with hot lids. Place in boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Yield: about 2 pints. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of being careful with fresh hot peppers! I have made this using a food grinder, too, and it is much easier on the hands and lungs. You can grind the whole cayennes if you like, and have interesting red flecks in this lovely green condiment. The flavor when raw is sublime, but HOT. After cooking, the natural burning flavors of onion and garlic will have sweetened, though, so do not be alarmed at the raw flavor — just enjoy.
Pico de Gallo Sauce
1 chopped onion
2 chopped jalapenos
3 chopped tomatoes
salt to taste
2 branches chopped cilantro (leaves)
Mix. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Serve with chips. OR: Boil for 20 minutes, seal in hot jars with hot lids, and place into boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Yield: about 1 pint.
Pear Preserves
8 c. pears, peeled and chopped
2 c. brown sugar or honey
2 T. butter
Stir pears and sugar over medium heat until greatly reduced and thickened (2 to 4 hours). Add butter and serve over ice cream. OR: Omit butter and seal in hot jars with hot lids. Place in boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Yield: about 2 pints. This is another good one for the crock pot.
Very Quick Blackberry Sauce
1 pint frozen blackberries
1 c. sugar
1 c. water
2 T. cornstarch
Place 1/2 c. of the blackberries with other ingredients into small saucepan. Stir and bring to slow boil, mashing berries to color the sauce. Simmer until very thick. Add rest of frozen berries. Sauce will set very quickly and be cool enough to use immediately, with all berries instantly thawed. Delicious on cheesecake or pound cake. This recipe will only work with berries that have been frozen raw and are fairly easy to separate. Makes about 2 cups. Serves about nine. Also, try using 3 T. cornstarch to make a topping for a pie.
Potato Pancakes
1 qt. canned potatoes
1 egg
1/4 c. corn meal
1/4 c. self-rising flour
1/2 chopped onion (opt.)
salt and pepper to taste
oil
Grate potatoes including skins into bowl. Add rest of ingredients. Stir well. Fry in 1/2” medium-hot oil until well-browned and firm in middle, turning once. Drain on paper towel. Serve hot with honey, if desired. Serves about six.
Never Fail Meringue
1 T. cornstarch
2 T. sugar
1/2 c. water
3 egg whites
6 T. sugar
1/8 t. salt
1/2 t vanilla
This is a little tricky to time perfectly, but worth it to me. Cook cornstarch, 2 T. sugar, and water over medium heat, stirring, until thick and clear. At the same time, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add 6 T. sugar, salt, and vanilla, gradually. Beat until stiff. Continue beating while slowly adding hot cornstarch mixture. Beat until stiff. Apply to pie that has hot filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes. I like this one because I don’t feel so much as if I’m eating raw egg.
Ladies, if there is the least, remotest possibility that your potatoes, carrots, beets, etc., were grown in soil fertilized with commercial chicken manure, you really ought to hire the soil tested. The reason is that commercially grown chickens were, in the past, fed arsenic. It is harmless to them, even increases production, passing through the chicken, remaining in the droppings a long time, contaminating the soil.
It is fatally poison to humans. Cows have died from eating grass with arsenic laden soil clinging to it.
“They say” arsenic does not enter the plant, but it is imperative to remove ALL the dirt.
However, root crops will fail in raw storage, if you scrub them all nice and clean. So, do you bring arsenic into your root cellar? Do you scrub and can those veggies? You have to decide. Ask your County Extension Agent for free tests and pamphlets and the latest advice on these matters.
If your soil is O.K., you can do what I love doing—put the perfect potatoes and carrots, unwashed, into root storage and can the strange ones (the two-legged carrots and the potatoes with noses). Then as winter progresses and the cellar storage begins to dysfunction, can the things that are still good enough. You don’t lose as much in root storage, that way, but also don’t waste effort on unnecessary canning.
To can potatoes and carrots, most books tell us to peel them first. I just scrub my own home-grown veggies, because I like to eat the peel and it has many of the vitamins. First use a hose on them outdoors, to get most of the dirt. A patio or sidewalk is good for this. Then use a brush and clean water.
A friend of mine makes a few jars of diced potatoes all ready for quick potato salad or stew. I like mine as whole as possible for grating into potato patties. Canned carrots are best sliced, though I put up a few pints of tiny ones (fingerlings) whole. These I use for gifts or special company.
Wash ALL washable food before using. Think about using a little soap, too. Unscented home-style bar soap cleans apples, celery, potatoes, etc., just fine.
If this idea amazes you, think: who picked, wrapped, boxed, unboxed, unwrapped, and displayed your apple? You don’t know! Did any of these six people have a cold or the flu? Probably! Does the grocery store or produce truck have roaches? Of course!
Ant-climbing-on-apple-flowers__41042 (Photo credit: Public Domain Photos)
Even if you grew the fruit yourself, never sprayed it, and picked it yourself, you can be pretty sure that your tree has ants, roaches, and at least two types of flies. They can spread disease; it’s a fact.
One favorite way to store many fruits is in jams. Apples and pears go into applesauce and pear sauce, which we use like jam, too. (Make pear sauce just like applesauce.) We can a few peaches and pears. Try pears with a 1/4” piece of ginger root in the jar. Pear preserves are a real treat over vanilla ice cream.
Also, freeze a few bags of slightly sugared, sliced peaches and use them for blender ice cream or shakes, which are easy to make with chilled milk and frozen fruit.
I freeze blackberries whole. Just wash, drain, and package.
When you wash small produce, such as peas or snapped beans, use two sinks. Scour sinks clean and fill with water. Add produce to one sink. Stir gently with your hands and then transfer from that sink to the other. Drain and refill first sink while stirring the other. Continue until used water is clear.
While you are transferring, try this method for estimating the jars you’ll need: pick up as much as you are able in a double handful; count it as about one pint.
Before I forget:
Wash greens in the automatic washing machine.
Use Vitamin C for fruit preserver. (One 500 mg tablet per gallon of water.)
Home's Cool! 