Hal Young's Blog, page 60

Countdown to Christmas by Amy Puetz

A few years ago, we used the book Jotham's Journey during the Advent season to build up anticipation for Christmas. The children loved it, so the next year, we used the sequel, Bartholomew's Passage. That one seemed a bit more contrived to me, but it was still a lot of fun for the children and it forced us to sit down and spend time with the children each night of a very busy season — and if you aren't using the holidays to pass on the real stories of what God has done to your children, why, you are missing a great deal of the point of holidays! When I saw Amy Puetz (pronounced Pitts) had a new book for the Advent season, I was dying to try it!

Countdown to Christmas: Memory Making Stories & Activities for Every Day from December 1st to the 25th  has a story for each of those days leading up to Christmas. I loved them! The last two days are the Christmas story taken from Scripture. The stories are nearly all from the 1800s and early 1900s, so sometimes the language is a bit challenging, but we find our children don't have any problem when we read aloud with expression and explain as necessary. There are some classic stories from beloved authors like Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women , Florence Kingsley, writer of several of the books Lamplighter has reprinted, and Margaret Sidney, of Five Little Peppers and How They Grew . Others have never been reprinted until now. I found them to be very good character-building stories and touching, as well. These stories will inspire some great conversations!

 Hal and I decided long ago that we would not do Santa Claus in our house, although I have quite happy memories of the practice as a child and even thought Santa was a theophany — an appearance of Christ. We just couldn't imagine telling our children about someone who was omniscient, omnipotent (how else could he make toys for so many children) and omnipresent (or he couldn't deliver toys to every child in the world over one night), then one day tell them, "Well, Santa's not really real, but this other story, about a God who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, He's real." And the evidence for God isn't even as obvious to a child as a room full of toys. So, I was very concerned to see if Countdown to Christmas would work for our family. I was very happy with it! There were a very few stories that concerned legends about Saint Nicholas or the Baboushka, but they were historical stories that I will feel very comfortable telling my children, "Listen to this old legend folks in Italy used to tell their children at Christmas."

More Than Stories

Countdown to Christmas has a lot more than stories, though! Each day has carols, or quizzes, or riddles, or crafts, or recipes! I really liked that there was a recipe for a traditional pudding when there was a pudding story, because that is the first thing my guys would ask, "What is that like? Can we make some?" One day had traditional children's games from the time period. I was intrigued; these were things I had heard about in my reading of period books, but I didn't know what they were referring to. Again, my children will love this.  

The crafts ranged from the quite easy to the pretty difficult, so some will appeal to children of one age and others another. I liked that that there wasn't too much to do any one day. Sometimes I hesitate to start something with my children because I know we won't be able to keep it up, but Amy makes it very plain that you can pick and choose and substitute as you like. Altogether, there's just a nice mixture of activities – active and quiet, crafts and games, paper activities and cooking. I think we'll like it a lot and our family is looking forward to starting it December 1st!

I really like that it starts December 1st, too. Every year, I am so busy getting ready for Thanksgiving, that it's not until Thanksgiving is over that I start thinking about Christmas. Well, by the time my attention turns that direction, I'm already late in starting many of the Advent programs. Arrgghh! Starting late is no way to reduce stress! Amy's book lets us get done with Thanksgiving, then turn calmly to preparation for Christmas.

A Great Deal!

If, like me, you are excited to find something that's not just fun, but enriches your children's hearts and minds in the Advent season, I encourage you to head out to Amy Puetz's website and order a copy right now! Amy says that if you order it by Wednesday, you can be sure to have it in time to start on the 1st! And… Amy has graciously offered us a discount code to get 20% off! You can use the discount code C2CAmy to get $5 off this terrific resource!

I want to be sure to mention, too, that Amy Puetz is a homeschool graduate herself and has tons of great resources at her site. As the mother of now two little girls in addition to my six growing men, I am completely intrigued by her Costumes with Character book and I'll be doing a full review of it soon. If you have girls that want to dress up historically, check out this great concept! And a bonus! Amy said the C2CAmy discount code will work on this book, too!

Countdown to Christmas: Memory Making Stories & Activities for Every Day from December 1st to the 25th, Amy Puetz, A to Z Designs, 2010, 152 pages. Read a sample chapter here. Order from AmyPuetz.com.

We received a free copy of this book in exchange for our always honest review.

We Gather Together

This is another favorite.  This is a Dutch hymn written in 1597 to celebrate a great victory, 23 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth!  Since the Pilgrims lived for a time in Holland, it's especially appropriate to include in our Thanksgiving hymnbook.

We Gather Together

Words & Music: Adrianus Valerius

English Translation: Theodore Baker, 1894

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;

He chastens and hastens His will to make known.

The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.

Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,

Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;

So from the beginning the fight we were winning;

Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,

And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.

Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;

Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Join us at the Ultimate Homeschool Expo This Weekend!

Get Encouraged as the Holidays Approach

 
Hal & Melanie are the final speakers for the

Ultimate Homeschool Expo: Fall Event, November 11-13th! 

This seminar series is Christ-focused with talks that will inspire and motivate you to prioritize, organize, and create lasting memories with your family. With 35+ speakers and 50 seminars this set is sure to become a keepsake for years to come. As a bonus, as soon as you register, a holiday arts and crafts eBook from Visual Manna and a Holiday Memory and Recipe Book put together by all the speakers, including us! Not to mention all the discounts and freebies you'll get, too. Come join us this weekend!

One Of Our Favorite Veterans

We've got a lot of veterans in our family, myself included, so we like to recognize them on Veterans' Day.  Someone asked a question recently about this particular veteran, so I thought I'd share the story today in honor of intrepid young men doing their duty all over the world!

We talk about Admiral David Farragut (of "D— the torpedoes – full speed ahead!" Civil War fame) in our book and in several of our workshops.  The incident below happened during the War of 1812, when he was a young midshipman on the USS Essex, sailing off the coast of South America and harrassing British vessels in the South Pacific.  The practice of the time was that any ship captured in the course of war could be claimed as a prize, taken to a friendly port, and sold off as a bonus to the crew.  On this cruise, the Essex had a string of successful engagements with the enemy:

By this time [Captain David Porter] had captured so many vessels that he was compelled to draw on the midshipmen for prize masters, and in the trip from Tumbez to Valparaiso, he put the ship Barclay, with her ex-captain retained on board to help navigate her, under the command of Midshipman Farragut, then not quite twelve years old. At the very outset, the lad was compelled to settle the question of command with the big whaler, who swore that he would take the Barclay to New Zealand instead of Valparaiso, and went below to get his pistols. The other vessels of the squadron were by this time too far away to communicate with, but Farragut, after telling his right hand man of the prize crew what the situation was, shouted down the cabin ladder that if the whaler came up with his pistols he did so at the risk of going overboard. Finding that the crew were ready to stand by their young commander, the ex- captain had to give in. From that moment Farragut was master of the situation and navigated the Barclay without mishap to Valparaiso.

From Capt. George Ramsey Clark, et al., A Short History of the United States Navy (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1911), p. 178.

Thank you and God bless you, all veterans everywhere!

Classical Music for Guys

I was just listening to the 1812 Overture on WCPE-FM, our local classical station (you can listen online – I've tuned in from Saudi Arabia before). It struck me that even if he doesn't like "classical" music per se, that's one piece most males connect to. Any orchestra with an artillery section is worth a second look.

(I once heard a July 4th performance on the riverfront in Baton Rouge. They fired the guns of the USS Kidd for the finale – pretty awesome stuff.)

Are you looking for some catchy things to introduce this genre to your boys? Here are some favorites of mine that have strong rhythms, drama, good melodic lines, and plain fun – frankly, they don't take lots of subtlety and sophistication to appreciate these classics.

Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No. 2

Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No. 3

Beethoven – Symphony No. 3, "Eroica"

Beethoven – Symphony No. 6, "The Pastoral"

Beethoven – Symphony No. 9, "Chorale"

Brahms - Academic Festival Overture

Brahms – Hungarian Dances

Copeland – Rodeo

Copeland – Appalachian Spring

Copeland – Fanfare for the Common Man

Dvorak – Slavonic Dances

Dvorak – Symphony No. 8

Dvorak – Symphony No. 9, "From the New World"

Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue

Handel – Royal Fireworks Music

Handel – Water Music

Handel – Oratorio Messiah

Holst – The Planets

Holst – Suites 1 & 2 for Band

Mendolssohn – Symphony No. 5, "Reformation"

Mozart – The Horn Concertos

Schubert – String Quartet in D minor, "Death and the Maiden"

Schumann – Konzertstueck (Concert Piece) for 4 Horns

Rossini – William Tell Overture

Tchaikovski – The 1812 Overture

Tchaikovski – Marche Slav

Von Suppe – Light Calvary Overture

And don't forget John Phillip Sousa – in a class by himself! 

(Speaking of which, you can download all kinds of music by U.S. Armed Forces bands, including traditional marching bands, drum and bugle corps, fife and drum music, jazz bands, ceremonial fanfares and more – for free!  Just search on the name of the service ("U.S. Army" etc) and "band".)

Now Thank We All Our God

The next few Sundays we'll be posting songs of thanksgiving.  I love the old German hymns which have made it into our songbooks here — this is one of my favorites for Thanksgiving or any time of year!  Be sure and read the background story on NetHymnal (follow the link):

Now Thank We All Our God

Words: Martin Rinkart, 1636

English Translation: Catherine Winkworth, 1856

Music: Johann Crueger, 1647

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;

Who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,

With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;

And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;

And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;

The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;

The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;

For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Why We Love the Holidays…

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The culture in our country is spinning quickly into a post-Christian one. We live where political correctness limits our liberties to a frightening degree. We live in a time when a young woman can post a request for a Christian roommate on her church bulletin board and find herself cited by her state Department of Civil Rights for unfair discrimination. In this chilling environment, any vestige of openness to the Word of God is welcome to us.

We do understand that for most people, the holidays are all secular. Food, loot, and self-indulgence rule the day. But, and it's a big but, everyone in America still has some inkling of why we celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. Not only that, but most of them have tender memories of their childhood, home and family memories, of those holidays. They are emotionally open in a way they are not most of the year.

Every year we host caroling parties at our house. We invite a few families over, meet in the front yard so we don't have to take off our coats, and walk around our neighborhood, knocking on doors and caroling. Our neighbors love it. Yes, we walk up to strangers' doors and sing things like this:

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Son of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings

Ris'n with healing in His wings

Mild He lays His glory by

Born that man no more may die

Born to raise the sons of earth

Born to give them second birth

Hark! The herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn King!"

And others like this:

O holy Child of Bethlehem

Descend to us, we pray

Cast out our sin and enter in

Be born to us today

We hear the Christmas angels

The great glad tidings tell

O come to us, abide with us

Our Lord Emmanuel  

And they don't call the ACLU or the police, they say, "Oh please, sing another one!" What's not to love about that? Afterwards, everyone comes to our house for hot Christmas tea and Christmas treats. One year, several families met once a week at a different home in a different neighborhood to carol – what fun!

Seriously, in a culture as increasingly hostile to Christianity as ours is, our family has decided to make sure that the traditional public expressions of Christianity at the holidays are not neglected! Hence, our caroling party, and our annual trek to the Sing-Along Messiah.

So what sponsored this polemic in early November? This did. Imagine this: hundreds of people meet up in a department store in downtown Philadelphia and take over the entire store singing loud and vehement praise to God Almighty – and no one got mad! How did it happen? It's a culturally acceptable expression of the holidays. For the moment. Listen to it. Be amazed. And use your freedom while you still have it!

Oh, and are you wishing you had that Christmas Tea recipe, full of fruit juices and spices? Keep your eyes open for our annual Christmas sale, when we'll be sharing it!

The Eve of All Saints

Halloween is an English contraction of "All Hallow's Eve", or properly, the Eve of the Feast of All Saints … which is, after all, November 1.  In our house, it's not a day of jack-o-lanterns and goblins, but a day to remember true heroism — a man who faced death and thereby opened the door for many to find life!

Martin Luther was a young German law student when he underwent a remarkable religious conversion.  Taking a bolt of lightning as a warning from God, he left the university and entered the Augustinian order as a monk.  From there, his restless search for peace with God led him to the Bible, then a doctorate in theology, then a teaching position with the tiny University of Wittenberg in German Saxony. 

Attempting to address certain abuses in the medieval Catholic Church, the young Dr. Luther posted a challenge to other scholars to debate a number of practices he questioned.  On October 31, 1517, he nailed the notice to the door of the university church, a common practice itself since the broad heavy doors were routinely used as bulletin boards.  The list of propositions known as "The 95 Theses" lit a firestorm of controversy that quickly spread across Germany and central Europe.  Luther had attracted the attention not only of academics and churchmen like himself, but the wrath of Pope Leo X and the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, as well!

Called before the Imperial Diet at the town of Worms*, Luther was challenged to withdraw his proposals and repudiate his writings.  In the front of everybody's mind was the memory that the Czech reformer, Jan Hus, had made many of the same propositions decades earlier — and was burned at the stake in consequence. 

Luther's response, after begging a recess to consider the Emperor's demand, followed a sleepless night of anxious prayer.  When called for his answer the next dawn, Luther replied:

Since then Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason–I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other–my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.

Here I stand.  I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.

Knowing what had happened to others who raised the issues he had, Luther stared death in the face and stood on the word of God – never mind Pope or Emperor.  What an incredible, gutsy thing to do.  It's one of my favorite events in history.

Here at the Youngs', we make a big deal out of Reformation Day (October 31).  We eat German food for supper, usually bratwurst, sauerkraut and German potato salad, then troop into the den to watch Martin Luther, a terrific B&W documentary made in 1954 and starring Niall MacGinnis as the reformer.  The movie was filmed at the actual location of some events, and they did a good job finding actors who actually looked like Luther, Charles, and Pope Leo.  And the scene at Worms is classic!

(The DVD is available from several places, but you can download it for $1.99 rental from Amazon.com)

And we do have a concession to the candy-intensive holiday … we play "Pin the Theses on the Wittenberg Door."  Everybody wins.

*I've always loved thinking about "The Diet of Worms," but to be fair, it's pronounced "Vorms" in German.

I Can Smile At Satan's Rage!

Over on our Facebook page, we've been posting a "hymn of the week" every Sunday for some time now.  I'm putting this one on the blog – maybe we'll move them over here so more people can find them.

I was reminded of the second verse of this hymn when one of our sons had to take a stand for conscience's sake this weekend.  It's encouraging for us to remember! 

"When I Can Read My Title Clear"

Words by Isaac Watts – Tune: "Pisgah", Scottish

When I can read my title clear

to mansions in the skies,

I bid farewell to every fear,

and wipe my weeping eyes.

Should earth against my soul engage,

and hellish darts be hurled,

Then I can smile at Satan's rage,

and face a frowning world.



Let cares, like a wild deluge come,

and storms of sorrow fall!

May I but safely reach my home,

my God, my heav'n, my All.

There shall I bathe my weary soul

in seas of heav'nly rest,

And not a wave of trouble roll,

across my peaceful breast.

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