Raising Real Men

“Can I talk to you privately?”

It wasn’t an unusual request, so I stepped aside with her. “I need to ask you about my son. I think he may be…I’m afraid he might be…showing some tendencies toward being…Oh, I think something’s wrong with him! Maybe he’s a psychopath or something!”

My eyebrows went up. “What would make you think that?” I replied, wondering if she was going to tell me he was torturing small animals or being a firebug. Continue reading »

I don’t know about you, but I’m dropping so many balls, I’m in danger of getting a concussion!

Ancient Egyptian Wall Painting

So, I was delighted when Mary Jo Tate offered me the opportunity to review her teleseminar course, How Do You Do It All?

Let me tell you, I need to figure this one out! Our friends call us dynamos, but we feel more like broken down lawnmowers coughing and choking through the day and constantly having to be restarted. Or like somebody trying to put a forest fire with a wet cloth napkin. One of us, me or the fire, is going to get beat to death! By bedtime, I’m always thinking of a quote from The Little Engine that Could, “I must rest my weary wheels…”

Enter Mary Jo’s program. Continue reading »

The Winners…

Amanda P + Ambre S + Angela W + April P + Barrett + Beth M + Bethany U + Bobbi B + Carisue C + Caroline A + Charlene + Charlene M + Christine S + Connie M + Cristi S + Dawn W + Dell F + Dicka + Elizabeth T + Erynn S + Gabreial W + Holly P + Holly S + Jamie C + Jatina C + Jen + Jennifer + Jennifer F + Jennifer T + JoAnna P + Julia S + Julie B + Kat M + Kendra M + Kim + Laura B + Lindsay + Lisa F + Lisa M + Lori R + Malia R + Marijo T + Melissa P + Michelle O + Monique H + Peggy B + Rhonda J + Roxanne M + Sage D + Sara G + Sarah + Sarah A + Sarah K + Shannon R + Shannon W + Sharon F + Sharon M + Sonita L + Steph + Vanessa G + Vicki M + Vickie W + Wendy G + Wendy I+ HarvestSchool + Hugabug + Lady Aramina + LearnDailyMom + Mad Hatter+  Thumb Happy Moms + Well-luved + a few more …

And thanks to all these great companies

who donated gifts and prizes

for our epic 11/15 Facebook party!

Apologia Educational Ministries + Art of Eloquence + Beloved Books

Bright Ideas Press + The Busy Homeschool Mom + Christian Logic

 Circle C Adventures + Classical Composers Monthly + Doorposts + Fourth Day Press

Gentle Shepherd + Grace and Truth Books + Grapevine Studies

Griffin Family Publishing + Heritage History

Home Educating Family + Homemaking 911 + Home School Adventure Co.

Home School Legal Defense Association + Jim Hodges Audio Books

A Journey Through Learning + Joyce Herzog’s EDUcational Products + Joyous Home

Knight’s Book Knook + Knowledge Quest + Lilla Rose (Caroline Allen Consultant)

Me & My House Ministries + Media Angels + Micro Business for Teens

My Audio School + The Modest Mom + New Millenium Girl Books 

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine + The Pilgrim Institute + Savory Favors

The Shorter Word Press + Stephen Bautista Music

Supermom’s Health and Wellness + Teach Them Diligently Conference

Timberdoodle + Trivium Pursuit + Vintage Remedies + Warrior Prayers

WriteShop + Youthful Homemaker

Wondering how to use social media like this for your company? Click here.

We are delighted to announce the release of our newest book, Christ-Centered Christmas!

Are you feeling torn about Christmas? Loving the sights and smells, but hating the thought of the stress and commercialism? Want to make sure the Lord is glorified in your family, but wondering if you’ll get sidetracked by all the busy-ness?

You are in good company!

That’s why we’ve put together a new book that will:

Save you money on gifts — and help you give presents that will be remembered forever.

Help you make your house look like Williamsburg at Christmas — while spending almost nothing to do it!

Save you time by giving you menus, a shopping list and plans to fix the best Christmas goodies ever with tried and true secret recipes.

Inspire you to host a Caroling Party and take the gospel to your neighbors in a way they will love. And make it easy, too.

Encourage you to introduce new traditions that will focus your family’s hearts on home — and Christ!

Equip you to make this Christmas a Christ-centered one, full of happy memories for your children. Continue reading »

We all love the director’s commentary and the extra “How We Made It” sequences on DVDs. We’re not quite there yet for our own Great Waters Press productions, but we thought you might be interested in what is going into our Hero Tales audiobook CDs.

The newest disc in our series, Volume 3, brings the collection up to the War Between the States. One track tells the story of the 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads, between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (often called the Merrimac), the first clash of ironclad warships.

This was an interesting story to produce. We’ve used the sounds of waves, seagulls, and ship’s bells before to give the basic nautical flavor to the background. But the Monitor and the Virginia offer unique problems. To start with, what did they sound like when they were underway?

We try to be as authentic as possible with the sound effects in these stories, but sometimes you just have to make your best educated estimate. For instance, we know both these ships were propeller driven, so we can’t use sternwheel riverboat sounds. They were steam powered vessels with engines peculiar to maritime uses. While there’s information online about the different styles of engine they used, I couldn’t find any recordings of that exact machinery. I opted to use the sound of two different narrow gauge steam locomotives, one a little deeper and slower than the other, edited to give the steady beat you would have heard on board.

One of the remarkable features of the battle was the sight of cannonballs bouncing off the ironclad vessels. Did that make a distinctive sound? I think so, and I think it would have been distinct for the two warships. The armor on the two vessels was radically different. The Virginia had four inches of iron on top of 24 inches of solid oak and pine. The Monitor, on the other hand, was all metal – the most exposed thing, the gun turret, had eight 1-inch layers of iron bolted together, with another layer of 1-inch plates bolted inside the turret to dampen the sound of a direct hit (yeah, right). I chose a deep metallic sound for ricochets off the Virginia, sort of a “bong,” and a higher note (“clank”) for hits on the Monitor.

Their guns were different, too. The Monitor had two big 11-inch naval guns, while the Virginia was described as a floating battery – smaller guns, but lots of them. I found a recording of an actual Civil War cannon shot, likely a smaller bore field piece, which I used for the Virginia’s rifled armaments. A deeper “boom” stands in for the Monitor’s big Dahlgrens..

If you listen carefully to the battle sequences, you might be able to track who’s shooting what at whom—and watching it bounce harmlessly off which.

Maybe the best thing is the celebration on the southern shore after the Virginia’s initial success. My son John Calvin found a recording (a film, actually) made at a reunion of Civil War veterans in the 1930’s. The three cheers you hear echoing over Chesapeake Bay on our CD are the genuine Rebel yell – performed by actual Confederate soldiers. How authentic is that?

Sometimes you just can’t find what you need. I’ve already mentioned the creepy Deguello bugle call Santa Anna used to announce “No prisoners” to the defenders of the Alamo. Our army never had need of it, and I couldn’t find another recording suitable for use. Roosevelt didn’t mention the bugle, so I just let that historical detail pass. The shots from Jim Travis’ pistol are a period black-powder revolver, though, and the ticking clock on Gouveneur Morris’ wall in revolutionary Paris is an 18^th-century, Scottish antique  – and the angry mob in the street is shouting in French. That’s in volume 2, by the way.

If you have enjoyed our rendition of Hero Tales, we’ll be glad to answer any questions we can. If you haven’t heard them yet, why not download a sample and try one out? We think you’ll like them!

Bibliography Note:  When the book Hero Tales from American History was first published in 1895, Henry Cabot Lodge got top billing over co-author Theodore Roosevelt. Although both men were Harvard graduates with established records of historical and biographical books, at that time Lodge was the more prominent of the two—a Ph.D serving in the U.S. Senate after three terms in the House. Roosevelt had served short terms in the New York General Assembly and the federal Civil Service Commission, but his meteoric rise from the New York governor’s office to the White House (with a brief visit to San Juan Hill, Puerto Rico) were still in his future. So in 1895, Senator Lodge is credited first.

Guest post by parenting columnist and psychologist John Rosemond

    A mother asks why I don’t believe in ADHD. Her son has ADHD. After administering a battery of tests, a psychologist said so. According to the mother, the psychologist also said the boy probably inherited the disorder—a biochemical imbalance—from his father, who admitted to having been bored, inattentive, and fidgety in school. ADHD must have something to do with biochemistry, she said, because her son is now taking medication and it has helped a lot. (Note: I am not able to speak directly with the psychologist in question; therefore, I am assuming that the mother has represented him accurately. Regardless, I have heard very similar stories pertaining to psychologists from lots and lots of parents.)

   I asked if the psychologist had ordered a brain scan, blood test, or genetic testing. After a moment’s reflection, and with a puzzled look, she told me that he had not.

“Psychologists are not medical doctors,” I said. “They are not qualified to make statements concerning a person’s physical condition without consultation with a physician or physicians who have made the determinations in question.”

“Then why did he tell me that?” she asked.

That’s what he believes, I told her, and I do not question his sincerity. She asked what I believed, so I told her that no physiological anomaly has been reliably found in children diagnosed with ADHD. Said differently, there is no compelling evidence that ADHD is caused by faulty biology. Furthermore, the idea that brain chemistry is “out of balance” supposes that one can determine the proper state of balance. Brain chemistry is in a state of constant flux. According to experts with whom I have spoken, it varies according to mood, situation, prior history, and other factors too numerous to mention. Brain chemistry in “balance” is whimsy.

As for ADHD being genetic, that too has not been proven. Furthermore, it fascinates me that whenever I have heard a story of this sort—and I have heard hundreds—the parent who supposedly passed the gene to the child in question is almost always the father (I estimate the preponderance to be above 90 percent). Yet girls are diagnosed with ADHD, so one is prompted to ask, “If girls possess the gene, how is it that they seem to pass it on so rarely?”

The criteria that define ADHD are found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.* Those criteria are subjective, which means the diagnosis rests on no objective standards. Furthermore, they are replete with such unscientific words as “usually” and “often,” as in, the child “often has problems finishing tasks.” In other words, children diagnosed with ADHD sometimes act like they have it and sometimes act like they do not have it. The only rational conclusion to draw is that they do not “have” anything at all.

It is worth noting that none of the criteria are test-based; therefore, a psychologist who administers an battery of tests under the pretense that tests are a diagnostic essential or claims to have made the diagnosis based on test results is misrepresenting the nature of the tests. If one believes a diagnosis of ADHD is appropriate, there is value to knowing the IQ of the child in question, but an IQ test is not a valid diagnostic tool.

Last but not least, the medications in question are stimulants that have the predictable effect of lengthening attention span and increasing ability to focus…in everyone. It is not true that certain people (those “with” ADHD) have one reaction to these drugs and certain other people (those “without”) have an opposite reaction. This canard is put forth to support the unproven claim that the ADHD nervous system is substantially different from the non-ADHD nervous system. As for the oft-observed fact that when highly active children take these drugs they become less active: an increase in attention span results in a decrease in activity level.

   “So,” I asked the boy’s mother. “What are your thoughts now?”

   She told me she was going back to the diagnosing psychologist prepared to ask some tough questions and insist upon clear answers. More parents should do the same.

(Author’s note: “Before I published this column, it was reviewed and approved by two psychologists, one of whom has published extensively on the subject of ADHD, the other of whom is skilled in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD, and two pediatricians, one of whom specializes in treating children who exhibit ADHD symptoms.”)

* The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatic Association.
	Family psychologist John Rosemond answers parents’ questions on his website at www.rosemond.com.
Is your son’s inattention and fidgeting driving you both to distraction? Whether your son is taught at home or “sitting” in a classroom, you can find helpful ideas in our popular workshop, Ballistic Homeschooling! (And if your son is bouncing off the walls, you know why we gave it that title!) One hour workshop recording – CD $5.00

Shipping charge is a flat $2.50 for orders under $15.

Our friends at Timberdoodle have donated a real boy treasure — The Worst Case Scenario Survive-o-Pedia Junior Edition

From Timberdoodle:

Warning: This book contains unbelievable dangers, jaw-dropping disasters, and hair-raising scenarios.
The world can be a scary place, but not if you know how to navigate it. Worst-Case Scenario Survive-o-pedia Junior Edition teaches your child how to calmly face both the unlikely, including a school of sharp-toothed piranhas, and the probable, such as a common venomous spider. Continue reading »

Our kind friends at Timberdoodle have graciously donated a set of six Adventures of Tin Tin: Young Readers Edition books!

Timberdoodle says:

Tintin in America
(The Adventures of Tintin: Young Readers Edition) Continue reading »

We’re always looking for great gifts for boys. For years, the Vision Forum catalog has been a great source for our family for Christian books and boy-friendly toys. Modest Mom, who graciously donated a blouse for our Facebook Party last week, is now hosting a great giveaway for $600 worth of Vision Forum gift certificates. Click here to find out more and enter! This is a boy-mom’s dream come true!