Earl & Diane Rodd
22 August 1988 93 Great Ryrie St.
Heathmont, Victoria 3135
Phone (03) 879-4082

Announcements

1. The September meeting will be on Sunday, Sept. 4 at YWAM, 1 Kent Rd., Surrey Hills. We had earlier indicated that we would start having some Saturday theme meetings. However, the last several meetings have all been "special" meetings, and we did not feel that a theme meeting was right for September.

   With the number of people who have attended at various times, there are enough people to have more than one support group. A regular support group meeting needs to be small enough to do what the name implies - provide support to one another. Larger meetings have their place - and the past few meetings have certainly been profitable - but these larger meetings cannot replace the support group meeting.

   We believe that there are enough people for whom Sunday is a good day to make up a regular support group meeting on Sunday. However, if there are people who want to have a regular support group meeting on Saturdays, we are happy to act as a co-ordinating point for such a meeting. If everyone who would like a regular Saturday support group meeting writes to us, we will in turn send out a list of all who have written so you can arrange a support group with Saturday meetings.

2. This teaching newsletter does not have a subscription. Some of you have asked if you could contribute, and we gladly accept the help. Our cost of sending you newsletters is approximately $.75 per month. As long as the cost remains moderate, we prefer to avoid using a subscription because it saves us the effort of keeping track of subscriptions. Also, while we intend to write newsletters in the future, we may not be able to always keep a monthly commitment which is implied by a subscription.

• A seminar organized by "Families Honoring Christ", a Melbourne based home schooling support group.
• The seminar will concentrate on the principle approach.
• The seminar will be presented by Peter Frogley and associates from Light Education Ministries of South Australia.

  Topics to be discussed in the seminar will be:

  1. Definition of the principle approach.
  2. Biblical basis of the principle approach.
  3. Practical application of the principle approach in each subject area.
  4. How to select a curriculum for your family.
  5. Home schooling versus school in the home.
  This seminar will focus on preparing parents for training children up through high school age. A parallel session will be available to concentrate on teaching children to read and getting started with a curriculum. Also, there will be time during breaks and at lunch to discuss these things with experienced home schooling families also attending the seminar.

  A variety of curriculum materials are available from Light Educational Ministries, and we hope to have these available at the seminar for examination and purchase.

  Details of the seminar are as follows:
  Venue : Heathmont Uniting Church, 81 Canterbury Road, Heathmont
  

  
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  � Friday 7 :30-8:30PM God's Heart for Education �
  � Oct. 7 8 :30-9:30PM Introduction to Principle Approach �
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  � Saturday 9 :30-10:45AM Principle Approach �
  � Oct. 8 10 :45-11:15AM Morning Tea �
  � 11 :15-12 :30AM Parallel Sessions. Each person may choose the one best for them. �
  � Advanced Principle approach or Examination of elementary curriculum �
  � 12 :30- 1:30PM Lunch �
  � 1 :30 - 2:45PM Principle Approach Methodology �
  � 2 :45 - 3:15PM Afternoon Tea �
  � 3 :15 - 4:30PM Choosing Curriculum/Home Schooling versus School in the Home �
  � 4 :15 - 5:00PM Question/Answer �
  ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
  

  Please bring your own lunch and morning and afternoon teas.
  There are shops in Heathmont within easy walking distance which sell
  sandwiches, fish and chips, chicken, and Chinese if you want to eat out.
  

  No baby sitting facilities will be provided. However, the content of the
  seminar may be appropriate for older children. Remember, as home training
  families, we have the opportunity to train our children how to train others
  so that they will be equipped to train their own children and to be able to
  help others just starting to train their children at home.
  The registration fee for the seminar is $7.00 per person or $10.00 per family to cover the rental cost of facilities and guest speakers. You may pay ahead or pay at the seminar. You can help us provide comfortable and effecient facilities if your ring us or write of your intent to attend the seminar.

  ..That It May Be Well With You

  Loving parents want to provide the best for their children - a Biblical expression for this desire is that "it may be well with them." Our title comes from a passage which explains a way for a child to mature that "it will be well with him"!. The full text of the passage is:

  Ephesians 6:1-3
  2. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
  3. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise),
  4. that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.

  We can read the original commands in the Old Testament:

  Exodus 20:12
  13. "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

  Deuteronomy 5:16
  17. 'Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you.

  As we read the enclosed article, we thought of the strong statement in the verses above. This article, reprinted from the Intercessors For America Newsletter of June 1988, gives us a perspective of the importance of family life. The second half of the article is itself a compilation of statements from Fanny Crosby. We hope that these remarks, made in 1914, give encouragement to other home training families concerning the opportunity we have in taking responsibility for training our own children.

  Not only does following the 5th commandment lead to all the specific benefits noted in the article, but it is the one specific method given in the Bible for children to have things "be well with them." Volumes have been written concerning how to give every opportunity to our children so that they have a "happy" and "successful" life. Yet, the Bible gives such a simple and sure path to have "it go well with them!"

  Home training parents have a unique opportunity to lead their children into the blessings which go with the fifth commandment. We have our children with us throughout most days and thus can observe and train and mould and teach them the way of walking in obedience to the fifth commandment. Children who live in peer situations, such as spending most waking hours in school, are susceptible to the trap of learning a mutual disrespect of parents from their peers. Children often teach other children to have no respect for their parents. Children typically have very little awareness of the importance of their attitudes and behavior on their own well being and rarely have any concept that their behavior may affect the length of their lives. Thus, they are very poor guides for each other and are the blind leading the blind when it comes to assessing the impact of today's behavior on their futures. Children in a peer world come under immense pressure to please peers at the expense of parents. The unwary child thus goes down a path away from a life where it is well with him.

  Even an environment with good teachers can lead children away from the blessing of the fifth commandment because children may soon see their teacher as more important and "superior" to their parents. Often children see parents only as disciplinarians and material providers, who are inferior to teachers and other "experts." When home training our children, our call is to train our children to respect others and respect the wisdom and instruction which they can provide. Yet, because we accept the primary training responsibility for our children, they also must see us as parents in the full sense of the word which God intends! Out of this relationship grows the honor for parents which brings a long and prosperous life. The honor and respect that we show to our own parents, our children's grandparents, is also a good model hometraining parents must provide to their children. We must practice what we preach.

  The fulfilllment of this command and promise in the lives of godly families is not a selfish desire. The church and the nation in which such families dwell will experience the blessing of long lives of godly influence, wisdom and discernment into the ways of our Lord and His kingdom which can have a vital impact upon the society around them.
  

  Copyright by Earl & Diane Rodd