Our company has four books in the Build Your Bundle Sale. 

In the Brother/Sister Bundle we have two books. 

God's Girls 105: Homemaking is a one-credit high school elective/life skills class teaching young women to be godly, skilled homemakers. With Bible studies and lots of fun (baking, canning, making make-up, flower arranging, candy making, cooking, sewing, and more!), this class is a blast! Learn more about it here.

Real Men 103: Leadership is a one-credit high school elective/life skills class training young men to be godly leaders. With Bible study, living books, and practical opportunities to grow in leading real people in real situations, this class is effective and fun! Learn more about it here. 

Check out the Brother/Sister Bundle here.

​In the Fine Arts Bundle we have one book, our Families Learning Together: American History Art Appreciation curriculum. Make your way through American History by enjoying and examining popular paintings from Colonial  Times to the 20th Century. You can learn more about Families Learning Together American History Art Appreciation here. Check out the Fine Arts Bundle here. 

We also have a book in the Mystery Bundle. It's one of my favorites! Unfortunately, I cannot tell you what one it is. That would spoil the surprise. After all, it is a mystery. However, you can guess which one it is--this blog post gives you 16 possibilities: What Book Does Powerline Productions Have in the Mystery Bundle? Check out the Mystery Bundle here.

To read Understanding the Times is to take on a mammoth project. The book is over 500 pages long and not light reading. 
 
This book is "must read before you graduate" book and here's why: I want my children to understanding where each of their professors are coming from when they go to college. 
 
The worldview on the typical American college campus (even many Christian campuses) is far different from what the Word of God teaches. 
 
I want my children to be prepared to not only recognize different worldviews, but to defend their faith in Jesus Christ and the Bible. 
 
Here's where Understanding the Times comes in. 

When Jenny Rose was in middle school I was given One Year Novel Adventure from Clearwater Press to review.

What a blessing!

This came with lessons on Dvd, as well as a teacher’s guide, student journal, and a sample adventure novel, The Prisoner of Zenda. This program focused on adventure which Rosie loved. The lessons were helpful, clear, and easy to apply to the novel that began to come together.

​I figured that we would count that year as our Fiction Writing Year in high school. But, then Rose and I came up with a plan.

​Decision-making can be challenging when you find yourself married to someone who thinks differently that you do.

Wanting my teens to grow up to have healthy, happy marriages, I gave them a taste of the challenge of husband-wife decision-making. And I wanted it to be fun.​​
​
Here is the game I came up with.

The idea is to keep it lighthearted so everyone can laugh together. 

The game does require at least 6-10 teens with half guys and half girls.

You make a circle of chair pairs. The outer chair is empty. Each girl takes an inner chair. She will remain stationary and the guys will move girl to girl when the buzzer sounds.

Next, each teen is given the same piece of paper with four scenarios on it. Each scenario requires decision-making as a team.

Now, every guy takes a seat next to a girl. When the buzzer sounds, you will have five minutes to make a decision together. When the buzzer sounds again, the guy moves to the next girl and every team moves on to scenario two and makes the next decision together. The guys keep moving until the scenarios are finished.
​
Here are the scenarios. 

Often I meet women who have homeschooled successfully all the way through middle school, but then they stop and put their kids in school for high school. Why? Often, they tell me that they are frightened to homeschool high school. It seems an impossible task.

Yes, homeschooling high school is different than homeschooling the younger grades. The subjects are harder, you have to give grades, and you have to put together a transcript. Looking back over 25 years of homeschooling, I am convinced that teaching children to read is the hardest thing and everything else, including high school, is a piece of cake in comparison. 

So many times, I have sat down with frightened moms about to take the high school plunge. Let me remind you. The teen years can be dangerous to navigate. Your teens still need you and you know them best. You are still the best teacher they will ever have. 

If you don't know how to teach something for high school--there are options galore! You can take online classes, enrichment classes, umbrella school classes, independent studies, and dual enroll. Even if you delegate several classes, you are still the one in charge of your teen's high school education.

My friend Laura and I sat down so many times with homeschooling moms who wanted to take the high school plunge, but were afraid, that we wrote a book containing all the advice we give, answered all the questions mom ask. The book, Unlocking the Mystery of Homeschooling High School, is available at Amazon. The E-book is available at Currclick and PowerlineProd. 

Please consider taking the high school plunge. Talk to other homeschool moms who have enjoyed their high school adventure. Talk to homeschool grads who enjoyed being homeschooled. Read my book--it will encourage you! 

You can do it! 

For His Glory, 
Merey (Meredith Ludwig Curtis)

One of Jesus' last commands was to make disciples "of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey all I have commanded you." (Matthew 28) Everyone is called to make disciples. No one is exempt.

Which is all well and good and everything—like, kudos to all the missionaries out there that are living it out. But how am I supposed to do that? What does it even look like for an American teenager to walk out Jesus’ last command?

The most obvious way is to get involved in a mentoring relationship. If you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, or if the only picture that pops up in your head is some kind of Big Brother program, let me explain.
A mentoring relationship is where a more mature Christian takes a new Christian under their wing and teaches them the basics of the faith. It’s a relationship that models what Jesus had with his disciples—the discipler and disciple spend time with one another, becoming friends and confidantes, praying and fasting together, seeking the Lord together, and encouraging one another to keep fighting the good fight. It’s actually a pretty complex thing that varies from church to church and relationship to relationship, but the gist of it is that the mature Christian takes care of the baby Christian.

Since I was eleven, I had been on the disciple end of the mentoring relationship, but the late summer of 2013 marked a new chapter of my life: I became the mentor.

I've had the privilege of watching a beautiful young lady mature in the Lord for nearly two years now. We talk about anything going on in our lives that’s difficult, asking for prayer and advice from one another. We discuss how our quiet times are going, what God has been teaching us through them, and questions that have risen from studying the Bible.

But our relationship doesn't end in that hour-and-a-half window.

We’re friends. We spend time with one another at events and at church, we have sleepovers. We go to the mall, to the movies, or we sit lazily in the other’s room and chat about whatever comes to mind. We're in one another's lives, and we grow closer with passing time.

The way the discipleship relationship works is quite simple, yet it requires an investment of oneself. You have to be willing to devote your time, your energy, your love, and your persistence. But it's worth it.

And it's only one of the many ways to fulfill Jesus’ last command.

Moving in the more officially sanctioned vein is starting new ministries and involving ourselves in current ones.

My brother-in-law and another one of the young men from our church started a ministry where they play basketball in a nearby neighborhood, invite the residents, and use that opportunity to share the Gospel.

I help teach Sunday School to four- to eleven-year olds, sharing Bible stories and their practical application in the kids’ lives.

My church has both a teen and a young adult program, ministries that are geared toward bringing in and building up people in those age brackets.

There are so many ministries available to us, waiting to be employed in the pursuit of making disciples. All we have to do is look, and join in. Finding a nearby ministry—whether it’s an extension of your home church, or some kind of organization that takes care of the widows and orphans and allows you to share your faith—is never all that hard. 

And once you’ve found your ministry, you dive in. Start sowing into people’s lives, caring for the broken and the needy—making disciples.

​"Are you serious? You want me to color a coloring book for science class? I'm in high school, Mom." 

"I know sweetie, but this coloring book will be such a blessing!" 

Aren't teens to old to color?

The Human Anatomy Coloring Book by Margaret Mott is an amazing asset to any course on human anatomy, whether its health or human physiology.

There is nothing that makes memorization of body parts easier than to color them. 
​

​Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford is a history of the local church in Scrooby that fled to Holland and later crossed the Atlantic Ocean to settle at Plymouth Plantation. William Bradford served for many years as governor of the first settlement in New England. Plimoth Plantation is a detailed history of Plymouth Colony from 1621 to 1646. You will learn about key people in the colony too. William is considered the Father of American History.

Similar to other books you will read from the colonial period, William compares the events that occurred in Plymouth with events from the Bible. You will learn about the Mayflower Compact, early colony laws, and treaties with the Indians. I find it interesting that Mr. Bradford very carefully shows you details of the Lord’s blessing and judgment. I learned things in this book that I had never heard before in history class. 

We started doing Grace Home Schoolers Friday Enrichment Classes when my oldest daughter was in middle school--back in 1997. We have enjoyed the addition to our education at home. My teens have made friends and gotten to dissect, act, sing, paint, debate, and learn psychology from a Christian perspective. 

This year, we have a great line up of classes for the 2013/2014 school year. I thought I would share them with you in case you are looking for enrichment classes. 

Interested? Contact Grace Homeschoolers through their website: http://gracehomeschoolers.com/

You teach and train your children for from birth, looking forward to the day when they graduate from high school and enter adulthood. Well, maybe not looking forward to that day so much. Maybe you are like me and you want the years to last a little longer as they fly by.

Still you know that all you do in raising and educating your children is for that eventual day when they fly out of the nest and take their place in the world. You pray for their future mates and children, looking forward to meeting your grandchildren one day. You worry, even though you know you shouldn't. You imagine and daydream about what they will be like and long to see them walk uprightly with God all the days of their lives.

It has given me great joy to graduate three daughters and to watch countless friends graduate their own children. What are these children up to? Let me introduce you to some high school grads.

My oldest daughter, Katie Beth, graduated from high school at age 16 and commuted for four years to Stetson University. As a National Merit Finalist, she could have lived on campus with her scholarship, but instead chose to drive back and forth each day so that she could stay connected to our family and to the church. She won numerous awards in her four years of college and was the outstanding senior in both of her majors, English and Spanish. Katie Beth spent a semester in Mexico her junior year, her first time away from home. After college, she worked as an editor for Harcourt for a year and then went back for her master’s degree. Right now, she is teaching freshman English at the University of Central Florida. She is still living at home and is involved in ministry at our church.

Katie Beth found that the most difficult part of college was the intense animosity toward the Lord and His Word. She found herself having to stay on her toes, being ready to defend The Truth and share her personal testimony. She found that knowing the Word of God and reading Understanding the Times helped her so much to be ready to give an answer when one could be given. Sometimes she felt lonely, especially when she saw other Christians surrender their trust in Jesus and accept the lies of the world. RIght now Katie Beth is teaching two classes of Freshman English at UCF--what a great opportunity to serve the Lord and reach out to college students!

Julianna went to Stetson University and majored in Accounting and Information Systems. She works in the Health Care Information Systems field at Aon Hewitt. During her college years, she completed a summer internship with a Christian Financial Planning Ministry, which she loved. She has a passion to help people make wise financial choices and to line up their money management practices with the Word of God. Julianna also chose to commute, rather than live on campus and managed to combine school work, school fun, ministry, and family life in an amazing juggling act. Right now, she leads a LIFE group and sings on the worship team.

They were the best of times, they were the worst of times! 

College years are so exciting with friendships, opportunities to meet new people from all over the world, and the thrill of learning and growing. But, college can be stressful--those exams and papers! I have three people living in my house right now who are attending college. The end of the semester is crunch time around here, and sometimes stressful. 

But, my kids are successful in college! They make good grades, share their faith, and build strong friendships. Mike and I managed to not just survive college years, but to thrive! How can you be successful in college? Here are some tips that work for our family!

Put Christ First

When the pressure of crunch time comes--a paper is due, an exam is on the horizon--don't neglect your relationship with God. More important than your GPA and keeping your scholarship, walking in the favor of the Lord must take high priority. 

My daughter, Jenny Rose, sets Saturday aside for the Lord (we happen to meet on Saturday right now because we don't have our own church building). She prays, reads the Bible, encourages her friends, practices with the worship team, goes to sound check, and sings on the worship team at church. She realizes that this means losing an entire day that could be devoted to studies, but she doesn't care. She knows the truth, life goes better when you put Jesus and His Kingdom first.

Work Hard

If you are in college, school is your job. Learning is your vocation. Be excellent at it. Don't just try to "get by" or "pass the class." Make up your mind to be excellent at all you do. Set aside time to study and treat those times as if you are heading off to work. Be diligent. 

Zack is working two jobs and going to school. Some weeks the only time I see him is at LIFE group and at church. He works hard writing papers, doing projects, and studying for exams. Yes, he misses out on some fun things and will have to wait until the end of the semester to see certain movies, but Zack knows the truth: All Hard Work Brings a Profit!

Know Your Professors

Every instructor has preferences and expectations that are different from every other professor. Learn about your  professor's teaching style and expectations by reading the syllabus and paying close attention in class during the first few weeks of the semester. Ask questions if you are unsure of what his/her requirements. 

Go see your professor during office hours when they are available. My oldest daughter teaches English at UCF and she loves for students to ask for help or just come by to chat during office hours. One on one conversations will help you clarify information. Professors are happy to help students with difficult concepts or assignments.   

Take Assignments One Phase at a Time

What comes to your mind when you think about teaching your teen to write an essay? Panic? The dreaded SAT essay or college entrance essay? Confidence?

If peace and confidence did not come to your mind then I hope to change that by the end of this article. We have already covered the basics of teaching teens to write in Teach Teens to Write and writing paragraphs and reports in Teach Teens to Write Paragraphs and Teach Teens to Write Reports. Now, it's onto essays.

Essays

Essays bring almost as much fear to students and their parents as research papers do. But essays are actually more fun to write than reports because while reports are factual, essays allow students to share both facts and feelings. The essay writer is able to express more of himself in his paper.

An essay is a short work of non-fiction that presents the author's view on a single topic. A good essay has a "grabber" opening paragraph, a body (with as many paragraphs as are needed to communicate effectively about the topic, and an effective closing paragraph.

As I have mentioned in the other writing articles, the more time you spending in intellectual discussion with your teen, the better prepared your teen will be to communicate on paper. This is especially true of essay writing.

Read Essays

Many teens have never read a good essay, so before you ask him to write his own essay, give him some good essays to read. Newspaper editorial pages are a good place to find examples, especially of persuasive essays. Here are some of my favorite collections of essays: Federalist Papers, Anti-Federalist Papers, God in Dock by CS Lewis, and The Complete Essays of Mark Twain. You can also find GK Chesterton's essays on-line at GK Chesterton's Works on the Web. Dive into these essays with your teenager. Read some aloud together and talk about what makes these essays so good. You also might want to let your son or daughter read older siblings essays or your old essays from college.

Topic & Audience

You might want to review Teach Teens to Write and Teach Teens to Write Paragraphs before we get started.

Reports are made up of several paragraphs that work together, informing the reader on a topic of interest. Teens write reports in science, history, Bible, and other classes. Often academic in nature, they should still be enjoyable to read. Your teens learns about a topic and shares the information in a report. My teens enjoy writing reports on other countries, historical figures, and Bible topics.

The first step in writing a report is to choose a topic, research that topic, and then narrow the topic down small enough to be the subject of the report. The biggest mistake students make is to choose a subject that is too broad. A narrow subject makes for a focused, interesting report that doesn't ramble all over the place.

Research

Why is it that we complain about our husbands, children, and homeschooling? Why do we struggle to be content? Why do we love the idea of homeschooling, but have days where we hate educating our little ones?

The answer to these questions is not simplistic, but we do need to address these issues in our lives because this behavior grieves the Spirit of God and hinders successful home education.

A joyful mom instills delight in her child for acquiring knowledge and wisdom. We cannot foster a lifelong love of learning if we are not filled with the joy that Jesus brings.

But, we face joy-stealers every day from traffic jams to weight gain.
​

Living in a Fallen World

Imagine if Adam and Eve had never eaten the forbidden fruit. Think about your world without the results of sin. Clear blue skies (no rain!), peaceful communication between people and nations, perfect weight, perfect self-control, joy, love, patience, and constant fellowship with the Lord. Your world would have no pollution, no traffic jams, no wrinkles, no worries, no death, no illness, no headaches, no difficult people, and no clutter.

You were created to live in a perfect world. Just because the world (including each of us!) is in a fallen state doesn't mean that there isn't a longing inside our hearts to live in that perfect world for which we were created. The fallen world with its headaches and heartaches never feels quite right.

"Things should go smoothly," we insist and we are right. The world would look a lot different in its natural state. This causes constant turmoil within us. When I understood this, freedom came because I no longer berated myself for frustration. Instead, I turned the longing for perfection toward the perfect place I will one day live in:  Heaven!

Longing for Heaven

She prefers documentaries to television shows and thinks that her children do too!

At holidays, while everyone else is decorating and baking, she is researching the origins of the holiday, how the holiday was celebrated in Colonial America, and turning her family celebration into a unit study.

Even though she never took Latin in school, she thinks all children should take at least one year. 

At election time, she asks, "Where does the candidate stand on homeschooling?"

Sneak back into her house. There are burn marks on the kitchen ceiling (chemistry experiments!), stains on her counters (art projects!), rips in her carpeting (sewing class!), and stains on the tablecloth (biology dissections!).

Buying a pet becomes a unit study.

She doesn't have time to read a novel or magazine, but spends hours pouring over homeschooling curriculum catalogs.

When she goes on vacation, she might forget to pack her shoes or her child's clothing, but she remembers to pack an extra-large suitcase full of classic literature for the kids to read when they tire of swimming, sight-seeing, playing games, and relaxing. She also wants to visit museums on vacation. She is convinced that everyone else in the family loves museums. Or, at least they should.

Her overdue library book fine equals the National Debt.

"Have you finished typing your paper, Shine?" I asked yesterday.

"Almost..." she replied sheepishly. 

I looked over at the computer to see her Facebook page filling the screen.

"I'll exit out," she offered quickly.

"You're grounded from the computer for the rest of the day," I admonished.

Wisely, Shine said nothing in reply.

In the last few years, homeschooling teenagers has taken on a whole new set of problems in our house. Internet has been around for a long time, but never really affected us too much until the last few years. There have been times that my children have opted to "research" on the internet, rather than using the books and resources we have checked out from the library.  But the real culprit in our house has been Facebook. My teenagers love it.  All their friends love it and have pages too. I have a Facebook profile myself and have enjoyed finding old high school friends and keeping in touch with distant family members. But, these online communities can be addictive and consuming. Can any of you moms say “Amen”?

Yesterday & Today

Back in my day, we talked on the phone for hours on end. My teens prefer texting, which I like because it saves minutes. Yes, as a teenager, I spent time on the phone with friends having conversations my parents could not hear, but Facebook takes it to a whole new level. Why do teens love these places online? Well, teens have always wanted to connect with other teens with a great desire to build relationships and to feel close to others. Plus, there is that build in "radar" for attractive members of the opposite sex. No matter how godly your daughter or son is, they will notice when a handsome boy/pretty girl walks into the room.

Facebook is a large social network on the internet. Your child has a profile page where she posts notes, pictures, and personal information. Yes, these pages can be made private so that only his "friends" can see them. But, here is the important thing to keep in mind:  Who are all these people your child is adding as friends? Are they really who they say they are? Predators are a huge problem online, but this article is not about that! (I'm not dismissing predators as a huge, scary problem, just not tackling it today.)

Profile Pages

Profile pages give children the opportunity to put their best foot forward with the prettiest pictures, exaggerations about accomplishments, and all kinds of "little white lies" meant to impress. Friends add friends of friends and give access to their personal information to young people they don't even know. I'm sure if they met these young guys and gals in person, they would be shocked to find out who these people really are...rather than the image portrayed on their page.

Christmas is a great time to learn new homemaking skills! So many life skills come into play at Christmas from budgeting to sewing, from interior decorating to baking. Why not make Christmas preparation a homemaking class this year with the goal to teach your teens how to "Do Christmas."

One of the great joys of being a mother/homemaker is preparing holiday dinners and carrying out the family traditions. A dad has a big role in Christmas festivities too. A great tradition for a family to have would be a special craft or dish or baked good that Dad makes with the children (without burning the house down!). You could teach your son the skills he needs to someday be that dad!

Make a list of the family events, traditions, and activities that you already do each year. The list might look something like this (I have added "subject/assignment categories" next to each activity):

• Christmas caroling (music/homemaking)
• Church Christmas pageant (drama/arts)
• Christmas cards/family letter (writing)
• Cookie Baking (homemaking)
• Candy Making (homemaking)
• Making Gifts/Baking (homemaking)
• Making Gifts/Crafts/Sewing (homemaking/art)
• Christmas Shopping/Gift Wrapping (homemaking)
• Planning menus for holiday meals/parties (homemaking)
• Grocery shopping for meals/parties (homemaking)
• Decorating Inside/Outside (homemaking/interior decorating)
• Cleaning for holidays and company (homemaking)
• Preparation for out-of-town Company (homemaking/life skills)
• Family Devotions (Bible)
• Hospitality (Character/homemaking)
• Making & Sticking to a Budget for the Holidays (homemaking/life skills)
• Scheduling to Fit in all Family & Church Events (homemaking/life skills)
  

When I first heard the term apologetics, I immediately thought of apologizing. It sounded like Christians were saying, "I'm sorry for what I believe." But the term apologetics refers to intellectually defending the faith. As believers in Jesus, we are commanded to give a reason for the hope that we have, to answer the intellectual questions of our day. The Bible does have an answer for the questions the world is asking.

"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of your slander," (I Peter 3:15-16NIV).

Teens Defend Their Faith

People will ask you and your Christian teenager questions such as "Why do you believe the Bible?" or "Why do you think Christianity is the only right way to believe?" Is your teen ready to answer those questions? Maybe you are thinking, "Golly, I'm not ready to answer those questions." That's okay. You and your teen can learn together.

Where do we start in teaching our teens to defend their faith? Set apart Christ as Lord. Set Him aside as the Supreme Master of your life and home. Whatever He says goes! His Word is Truth. His commands are obeyed. He is the One we live to please, not the world, our friends, or our college professors.

Training

Next, we receive preparation or training so that we can be prepared to give an answer to those who ask. This preparation can be in the form of a class with you or your spouse. There are many wonderful books available on the subject of apologetics such as More than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell or Know Why You Believe by Paul E. Little. My husband taught an apologetics Sunday School class that we have adapted for our teens. It covers the following topics.

• Reality and Uniqueness of the Bible
• Creation and the Evolution Scam
• The Flood
• Archeology
• Prophecies of Cities' Destruction
• Prophecies of the Coming Messiah
• The Trilema: Is Jesus, Liar, Lunatic, or Lord?
• Jesus' Resurrection

"The skit was excellent. But, unfortunately, that is exactly how my family is," a man admitted to my husband at the Finish Well conference. He was referring to the skit that opened up the conference on Friday night portraying the communication problems that many homeschooling families experience in their homes. This skit revealed the spiritual battle that occurs when we try to communicate.

Many fathers, after the skit was finished, listened attentively as Pastor Mike challenged them to lead their homes and walked them through how to win back the heart of a rebellious teen. In fact, you could hear a pin drop. Every eye was watching Pastor Mike, listening. I never knew the problem was so intense in homeschooling families. People needed hope. When an altar call was given, dads rushed forward to ask the Lord to help them, anoint them.