Great Reads!

I'm still in South Africa and have tried again to access the hotel's wireless internet but to no avail. I have some great pictures to share, but I guess I'll just wait until I get back in the states. The hotel does have a business center with internet access but when I tell you the computers are S-L-O-W....It's murder to try and use Blogger with a slow connection so I'm posting by sending "email posts" to my blog which is slow but not as bad as using the blogsite.

Since I am at the computer anyway trying to blog about my trip, I thought I'd blog about something else instead and remembered that I mentioned a few days ago I would share about some recent books I've read that are worthy of others checking out. I have a few bloggy friends that keep up a current list of their books read during the year with their reviews and opinions included. Maybe I'll add that to my list to do for next year but I'm just not that organized yet. The two books I'd like to mention today though couldn't wait until next year :)

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to complete two books in one week! Although I love to read, and would definitely consider myself to be a voracious reader, my time these days just doesn't allow me the luxury to get as much reading as I would like done. Getting these two books down was a real treat!

The first is A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Van DeMille. This book is written to teachers, students, parents, educators, legislators, leaders - any person interested in making sure that kids get an education worthy of propelling them to greatness and to a life of purpose. I purchased this book at a homeschool conference as I had heard many people over time mention this book to me as a must-read. It definitely will help homeschool parents to help solidify their goals and direction in homeschooling their children, but it isn't just for the homeschooling family. The goal of the book is to pull from what made past leaders, world changers, and great thinkers in the past and show how we can implement those same educational experiences for our children today.

I'm never amazed, especially as I homeschool Gracie, how much I DIDN'T learn in school. There are many times that I feel inept as a homeschool Mom, wondering how in the world I'm going to make sure she comes away with the knowledge she needs to have in this life. This book encouraged me that life and learning is a journey and that goal of educating my children (whether I am in charge of that or a school) cannot be met unless I, myself, ensure that it happens. The cry here is for education that leads learners to greatness and beyond basic literacy and job skills. The main thrust of the book deals with the tenets of an quality education and some practical tips for how to get started with implementing those tenets.

Now I said I was only going to mention two books, but just writing that review made me think of another that I think every person should read regarding the education of our children, how we think about it, and how we can make a real difference in the quality of education that our children receive - The Art of Education by Linda Dobson. I initially read this book by getting it from my library and then after finishing it bought it to read again. This is one of those books that makes you think and call into question assumptions that you have about the educational system in America and what makes it work or not work. I assure you, if you pick up this book you WILL be challenged and you will wonder..."how come no one every told this to me before?"

Ok...now on to the second book I planned on discussing. I read this book and then passed it along to my husband to review. It is called Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham. I originally heard of this guy from a commenter on an older post - see my left sidebar under "What I Believe - About Children". The comment pointed me to listen to a sermon of Dr. Baucham's online. I was mesmerized by what I heard. Come to find out a family member of his goes to my church and when his book came out, she gave me one. Since my initial introduction to Dr. Baucham, he has been invited to the men's conference at my church and my husband attended his workshop. He called me after hearing his presentation to tell me how much he found Dr. Baucham's message inspiring and life-changing.

In his book, Dr. Bauchum starts out by saying that Christianity is a dying religion unless we, as believers, do something different then we have done in the past regarding the passing on of our legacy of faith. He begins his book with stating the problem of a state of a vanishing Christianity and how this problem has come about. Dr. Baucham discusses 1) the lack of value in the concept of having children with the idea of propagating the Kingdom of God in mind, 2) the lack of value in the necessity of passing along values to our children as evidenced by the number of "Christian" kids who, after being raised in Christian homes, do not choose to live out the "faith of their fathers", and 3) the trend of declining numbers of Christians with every generation that passes. At this juncture, Dr. Baucham then seeks to explain what we are doing wrong. That's where he book gets good.

The primary focus of this work is to explain what we are doing wrong and how to fix it. Dr. Baucham tenatiously outlines what Christians have not been doing that has helped fuel generations of people who do not live effective, on-fire lives for Christ - even after being raised in Christian homes. He discusses his own personal life both as an example of what he had failed to do, the realizations that he has come to in his journey as a husband, father, and pastor, and then on to what he seeks to do now. His platform as he speaks around the country is multi-generational Christianity and what we can do to ensure that we teach our children how to stand in this world.

It is obvious that this man is an intellectual and he is easy to respect because of the way he presents his material - very well-thought out and communicated. At the same time, I felt like I was listening to a big brother tell me his heart and give me guidance as to how to implement the concepts and principles he shares. His simple yet profound purpose of turning on the light bulb in Christians who desire to effectively pass their faith to their children will fan the flame in the heart of a Mom or Dad who are wanting a start at the "how-to-do-it".

Also, Dr. Baucham challenges the idea of age segregation as we know it in the modern day church. With the focus of family as the center of God's means for reaching the next generation, Dr. Baucham presents alternatives to the way we "do church" and suggests a different paradigm for the future if we want to see different results from the past in how we raise our children and how they turn out.

This is one of those books that, whether or not you agree with everything, you will be glad that someone stopped and finally MADE YOU THINK. It's definitely an easy read and worth reading all the way through. I encourage you to pick up a copy. I'll have a link to Amazon here...again...as soon as I get good internet access.

OK...that's enough for the day. I hope to post more about my time in South Africa soon :)