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Best Books for Vacation

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Is your family taking a trip this year? Whether it’s a weekend at the beach, a cross-country camping trip, or a visit with family, your kids will need some books to keep them occupied along the way. During the summer, encourage your children to read what they enjoy—for the sheer love of the story! For your next vacation, check out this list of books that they won’t be able to put down.

A King for Brass Cobweb (ages 6–7)

Filled with lush, beautiful pictures, A King for Brass Cobweb by Dawn Watkins is just right for early readers who need plenty of engaging visuals with their text. Large print, simple words, and delightful characters make this adventure perfect for reading aloud or independently.

The Mice of the Herring Bone Series (ages 6–7+)

What’s a better vacation book than a swashbuckling tale of pirate seadogs and clever mice? Mice of the Herring Bone by Tim Davis is the first book in a set of five seafaring tales that are sure to delight any child who’s ready for chapter books!

The Nick Newton Series (ages 9–12)

This lighthearted, futuristic adventure series follows the antics of an inventive boy from the country of Thauma. Nick Newton Is Not a Genius by S. E. M. Ishida is an excellent choice for kids who are into science and technology since it blends a love of STEM with a fascinating mystery. The second book in the series, Nick Newton: The Highest Bidder, is a fun, encouraging novel about friendship, persistence, and applied creativity.

Brave the Wild Trail (ages 9–12)

Is your family headed westward to cattle country or south to Florida? Milly Howard’s Brave the Wild Trail is a historical cowboy adventure set in the South, featuring the bullwhip-wielding Florida Crackers who used to drive herds through the Florida wilderness. Vicious outlaws, wild animals, and other dangers of the trail will keep your kid glued to the page.

False Coin, True Coin (young adult)

In this historical fiction novel, False Coin, True Coin by Lois Hoadley Dick, a young girl faces the perils of seventeenth-century London. As the daughter of a jailkeeper, Cissy meets the Christian hero John Bunyan when he was imprisoned for preaching Christ. She also meets a young outlaw who steals her heart. Making the right choices is not easy for Cissy, especially when peril, plague, and persecution confront her at every turn.

You can purchase these novels and lots more books for vacation from the Journeyforth website or on Amazon. Explore the available titles with your kids and have them make a summer book wishlist. Happy reading!

• • • • •

Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.

Field Trip Fun at the Farm

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farm field trips
Need an idea for a fun, educational field trip not far from home? Visit a local farm! It’s a great way to connect with people in your community and learn about livestock and crops with other homeschooling families. With a little effort, you should be able to find some nearby farms that will afford your children a valuable learning experience.

Starting a Farm Field Trip

First, decide what type of farm you want to visit. Are you more interested in learning about crops or animals? A good option is a mixed farm, which has both. There are subsistence farms, which are just for the farmer and his family. Then there are commercial farms, which grow crops and breed animals to sell to the public. You could also choose to tour a dairy, pig, or poultry farm.

Planning Your Farm Field Trip

The next step is finding a farm, which is now a lot easier to do thanks to the internet! Try to use as many specific search words as you can; for example, “local dairy farms near me.” In just a few minutes you will be able to find farms along with their hours, locations, and prices. Many websites also include directions and reviews.

Another great way to find a farm is to ask people who know the area well and can recommend a good one to visit. They can tell you the best way to get in touch with a farm, whether it’s via phone, Facebook, or a website.

Once you have found the ideal farm destination, contact the owners and arrange a tour. This is usually done by calling them on the phone or sending them a message through Facebook or email. Some farms require a minimum number of guests in order to book a tour, so you may want to invite some other homeschooling families to join you. Besides, it’s more fun to share an experience with friends!

Determining Details

To ensure a smoother field trip, you may want to discuss a few things with your group. First, consider traveling arrangements. Are you all going to drive together or just meet there? Second, think about time frames. How long would families like to stay? Depending on the type of farm, expect your visit to last between one and two hours. Third, don’t forget about post-trip plans. Does everyone want to go home or do something else, such as go to a park? On our last visit, one of the homeschooling moms invited the group to her house for lunch and playtime afterward.

Following Up

The ride home is a wonderful opportunity to ask your children what they learned at the farm. Here are just a few questions my daughters and I discussed after our last farm trip:

  • What was your favorite thing about the farm?
  • What is something new you discovered on the tour?
  • What did you learn about God on our trip?

Your Turn

Find a nearby farm, round up your family and friends, and enjoy a unique learning adventure!

• • • • •

Jennifer is a pastor’s wife and mom of two young girls and loves homeschooling them. During her own twelve years of being homeschooled, Jennifer developed a passion for reading and writing. She earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and relishes writing during her free time.

Homeschool Freedom and How Far We’ve Come

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homeschool freedom
Families in the United States haven’t always had homeschool freedom like we do today. Countless parents have had to take a stand for what they believed was best for their children in order for us to reach where we are now. Advocating for the rights of parents to direct the education of their children is the mission of the Home School Legal Defense Association. Mike Smith, homeschool dad, attorney, and cofounder of HSLDA, shares the following story from the early days of the struggle for homeschool freedom.

A New Beginning

Shortly after I came to work full time at the Home School Legal Defense Association in 1987, I arrived at the office on a Monday morning, and a phone call was directed to me from a mom who we will refer to as S. B. She related the following:

S. B.’s family, consisting of mom, dad, and three children (two girls and a boy), who had moved from a metropolitan area of Wisconsin to a small Dutch town in Iowa. They were all excited because they were going to have chickens, a horse, and a garden.

When school started, S. B. enrolled her three children in the public schools. Within the first several weeks, Chris, the oldest of the three children and the boy, expressed an extreme dislike for school, and it was a chore to make him go.

Labeled

S. B. thought by volunteering to help in his classroom, she could make it more palatable. Much to her surprise, Chris had been labeled as special needs based on some testing done by the school before school started. He was in middle school and had never been diagnosed as having any learning problems. This had resulted in Chris being treated very cruelly by some of his classmates. Since he didn’t have any friends to start out with in school, he became very despondent from all the negativity surrounding school. Because he was not able to establish any friends, he felt all alone while trying to get through the day feeling the critical glares and hearing the sharp, piercing barbs of some of the students.

S. B. couldn’t get any sympathy or support from the school. “He’ll get over it,” they said. Well, he wasn’t getting over it, and to make matters worse, the principal told S. B. that they couldn’t have her coming to school with Chris anymore as it was disruptive to the class and appeared to be giving special treatment.

No Other Option?

Things did not get better, however, and S. B. had to physically take Chris to the school each day and walk him up to the school door to make sure he would go to school. Chris was doing poorly, and his morose temperament was not improving. To try to relieve the pain, she tried keeping him home, but she would get a call from the school telling her that Chris was truant, and he needed to be in school now!

Time went by and they reached the month of November—there was no improvement.  S. B. had considered other options, like moving, but that wasn’t possible, and there were no other schools in the area, including no private school options, and she had not heard of homeschooling.

On a Friday night, after the family had gone out to eat, the previously happy-go-lucky Chris (before he moved to Iowa and entered school) tried to commit suicide.  Fortunately, they were able to get him to the emergency room in time to save his life. S. B. knew then that Chris could not return to school on Monday, but she didn’t know where to turn.

A Possible Solution

She went to church on Sunday and shared a prayer request in her adult Sunday school class about her problem.  After church, a lady who was in the Bible study pulled S. B. aside and told her she had a possible solution to her problem, but she would need to talk to her later by phone because of the complicated nature of the solution.  This lady was a homeschooler.

At this time in the history of Iowa homeschooling, homeschooling was illegal and aggressively prosecuted by school districts throughout the state, unless mom was an Iowa-certified teacher and equivalent instruction was being offered. So, homeschoolers tried to exist underground, which was not always possible. HSLDA had numerous court cases in Iowa during this time period up until the law was changed by the legislature in 1991.

S. B. had that conversation that afternoon when she heard the term homeschooling for the first time.  She knew that this was the only hope she had to save her child.  But as her new homeschooling friend informed her, when Chris doesn’t show up for school Monday, she will get a call from the school wanting to know where he is. And if she tells them he’s not coming back to school and will be a homeschool student, she will immediately be threatened with criminal prosecution and maybe removal of Chris from her custody.

Hope for Homeschoolers

Her new friend then informed her of our organization and what we do, suggesting she call us the first thing Monday morning, which she did. We would normally require an application to be filled out before we could represent S. B. as her attorney, but we obviously made an exception.

Knowing it would get scary for S. B. with threats and with a court hearing almost certain, I wanted S. B. to demonstrate some conviction for the long haul. So, I told her she had been accepted as a member, but she had to do one thing for me. I told her she would have to call the principal and tell him or her that Chris was not coming back to school and that he would be homeschooled. She fearfully agreed. I told her to call me back as soon as she hung up with the school so we could start doing our thing.

Shortly thereafter, S. B. called back. She had spoken directly with the principal. I couldn’t wait to hear what happened. S. B. said, “Well, I spoke with the principal, and I told him that Chris was not coming back to school and that I was going to homeschool him.”  Then there was this hesitation, and I asked her what he said. With a slightly trembling voice, she said, “He said that I would homeschool over his dead body.”

“Okay, what did you say, or did you just hang up?”

S. B. said, “I don’t know why I said this, it just came out. I told him that I hoped he had his life insurance up to date, and then hung up.”

In It for the Long Haul

I knew then we had a mommy bear that would do whatever it took to protect her cub. To make a longer story short, we were able to get the county prosecutor to leave the family alone because we found out that Chris was labeled special needs/learning disabled because he scored below the fortieth percentile on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. This was the policy throughout the state of Iowa. Special needs students’ scores were not counted in the roll up of tests results for nationwide comparison of how public-school students did on standardized test scores. So, Iowa had figured how to be at the top of the nation at the expense of kids that never should have been labeled.

We were going to bring this up in court if they persisted in prosecuting S. B. for truancy.  They left the family alone, Chris was homeschooled through high school and ended up going to the mission field.

The good news is that homeschooling is not as scary today and is legal in every state in some form.  Without moms like S. B. willing to face prosecution/persecution to homeschool, we would not have the homeschool freedom we have today.

Because of the efforts of Mike Smith and the rest of HSLDA, families have far more homeschool freedom than they once did. But HSLDA is still working hard to spread awareness of the homeschool option. They keep track of state requirements for homeschooling, and they keep lists of local homeschool organizations available for those looking to join their local homeschool community. Visit the Home School Legal Defense Association to see how they can serve you on your homeschool journey!

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Mike Smith is a homeschool dad, husband, and cofounder (with Mike Farris) of the Home School Legal Defense Association. He graduated from law school in 1972 and began homeschooling his children in 1981. In 1983, he helped start the HSLDA in order to defend homeschool freedom in California in the courts and before the legislature. Today, his children are homeschool graduates, he is the president of the HSLDA, and he serves as the HSLDA lawyer for California, Nevada, and Puerto Rico.

Easter Activities for Celebrating the Resurrection

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easter activities
Where would we be had Jesus Christ not risen from the dead? First Corinthians 15:17 gives the answer: “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” The gospel would be incomplete apart from the resurrection because it provides proof that God had accepted the sacrifice of His Son. Because Jesus conquered death as well as sin, we can now have eternal life. This incredible truth gives us much to celebrate during this season! Here are a few Easter activities you can use to help your family really understand and enjoy the meaning of Easter.

Resurrection Garden

These mini gardens are simple to assemble and serve as a great visual reminder of Christ rising from the dead. Here’s what you need and how to do it:

  • a shallow potting dish
  • a small terra cotta pot (2–3”)
  • potting soil
  • one large rock for the tomb entrance
  • six small twigs (and craft glue or twine) for making crosses
  • grass seed
  • small stones or moss for decoration (optional)
  1. Lay the small pot on its side in the center of the potting dish.
  2. Scoop potting soil into the dish, mounding it all over and around the small pot to form a hill.
  3. Sprinkle grass seed on the soil.
  4. Mist with water from a spray bottle, making sure the soil gets plenty of water.
  5. Place the large rock off to the side of the small pot to mimic the empty tomb.
  6. Make three crosses with your small twigs and place them on top of the “hill.”
  7. Add moss, decorative stones, and anything else you would like to complete your garden tomb.

Resurrection Eggs

This is a great way to teach younger children the story of Jesus’ betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection. You will need a dozen plastic eggs, an empty egg carton, and 11 small items (one to place inside each egg, leaving one egg empty to signify the vacant tomb). You can include (but aren’t limited to) these:

  • Leaf—representing the palm branches used at the triumphal entry
  • A piece of cracker—representing the Last Supper
  • Three dimes—representing the pieces of silver Judas accepted for betraying Jesus
  • String or yarn—representing Jesus’s flogging
  • Thorn—representing the crown of thorns
  • Three nails—representing the crucifixion
  • Dice—representing the soldiers’ gambling for His clothes
  • Sponge—representing the vinegar offered to Jesus on the cross
  • Cloves or other spice—representing the spices used in Jesus’ burial
  • White cloth—representing the linen burial cloth
  • Rock—representing stone that closed the tomb

You can either open all the eggs at once while teaching this account or open one each day in the days leading up to Easter Sunday.

Easter Poem

Since April is National Poetry Month, consider having your children write the story of the resurrection using creative shape poems.

With a cross poem, encourage your children to focus the first four lines of their poem on the death of Christ, the next two on His burial, and the last six on His resurrection. Or with older children, you can try the form George Herbert used in his poem, “Easter Wings.”

May the miracle of Christ’s resurrection fill your family’s hearts with joy and gratitude as you celebrate this Easter!

• • • • •

Jennifer is a pastor’s wife and mom of two young girls and loves homeschooling them. During her own twelve years of being homeschooled, Jennifer developed a passion for reading and writing. She earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and relishes writing during her free time.

Appreciating Librarians for National Library Week

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appreciating librarians
National Library Week is a time when libraries actively reach out to remind the public about the value of library services. Since many homeschool families already rely heavily on local libraries, you probably don’t need to be reminded. Instead, take some time to give back to the librarians who serve your local community.

Explore some ways that you and your kids can show appreciation to librarians this week!

Make a Small Donation

Most libraries operate on a tight budget—a constraint that many homeschool families understand well. Explain to your kids that even a five-dollar donation to the library can be a big help, aiding with the cost of purchasing a new book or repairing an old one.

Some libraries conduct book sales and other fundraisers. If you have gently used or like-new books that you and your kids no longer need, consider donating those to your local library’s book sales or other initiatives.

Write a Note

A sincere “thank you” is a free and meaningful way of showing appreciation to librarians. Talk to your kids about all the tasks that librarians accomplish, and include some of those specific details in the note.

Things librarians do:

  • Organize and maintain the current collection of books
  • Buy new books for you to enjoy
  • Buy and maintain media such as CDs, movies, audio books, and more
  • Plan and oversee children’s events, including story time for kids and other activities
  • Host community programs and training services
  • Answer questions about books and other resources

Bring a Gift

Librarians are readers too! Like you, many of them love curling up with a snack, a cup of tea or coffee, and a good book. Appreciating librarians could involve bringing them a small gift—a box of assorted tea, some hot chocolate packets for the break room, or a selection of baked goods to share.

Talk to the Librarian

Many librarians say that they wish library visitors would ask them more questions! They’re busy, yes—but they love helping you! As you teach your children about appreciating librarians, encourage them to ask for book recommendations or to tell the librarian about a library book they recently enjoyed.

Visit the Library Often

Librarians love to see you using the library. When you leave with a huge stack of books, movies, and CDs, it’s exciting for them! When you use libraries regularly, their funding is more secure, and those free services are more likely to remain available.

Keep Your Library Clean and Neat

Of course, whenever you visit, be sure to treat the library’s facilities, products, and people respectfully. Instead of reshelving books yourself, put them in the appropriate reshelving area. A librarians may have to spend days looking for a book that a well-meaning patron left on the wrong shelf. Keep food and drinks out of the library. If you use the provided toys, pencils, or paper in the children’s section, be sure to put everything back where you found it when you leave.

Libraries open up a whole world of affordable books and resources, so that everyone can learn and have fun! Use Library Week to thank those hard-working librarians and to encourage your kids to discover new books.

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Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.