LEAH News

This was my first response to Krista’s question to me, “I think we should Homeschool”. Why would we want to do that, I blurted out? Little did I know that this was the most profound and impactful decision she would ever ask me to make. As a young parent I had never stopped to consider the thought of keeping our children home. We were both public schooled and we seemed to turn out OK right? As I pondered the question we began to discuss our oldest daughter’s 45-minute bus ride and all the “new” things she was learning on it at the age of six. At the same time we saw a change in her personality and bearing that we had not created or endorsed. It was these things and some honest retrospect into our own public school experience that finally prompted me to say yes, somewhat reluctantly I must admit. And so began our Homeschool journey. At first I was the ever typical absent Homeschool Dad. I did not encourage Krista in what she was doing, I simply didn’t say no. As time went on and the fruits of her not so insignificant labor began to bear I remember the awe I felt in her insight. I came to live in the knowledge that we were actively participating in our children’s lives and their instruction. More importantly we were able to maintain their innocence and begin to instill in them a respect and a love of learning and most […]

Hmm…can anyone else relate to the first paragraph..
LEAH Blog March 27
Mary Fratianni

As I sit here less than two weeks from the Downstate Convention, my thoughts go through everything that needs to be finalized to make the Convention a success.  While we try to plan for everything, there are always last minute items that pop up for which we need to be prepared.  We spend much of our time dealing with the X’s and O’s of how to make it work, but the most important thing we need to do is keep our focus on our mission, which is to serve the homeschoolers who will be attending our Convention.  At times, these items can be viewed as punch list items that we need to check off in order to move on to the next thing.  How many times do we just go through the motions, be it with our families or our faith?  Prayer – check!  Devotions – check!  Play a game with the kids – check! When we just go through the motions, those items in our wake tend to be cast aside.  When we do this to our families, especially as Dads, we are really letting them down.  We are showing them that they are just another thing on “the list” to check off.  They are much more than that.  Our families are a precious gift from our Creator.  They were never meant to be “just another item.” Like many dads, I have a lot of demands on my time.  They range from volunteer work within LEAH to church responsibilities […]

Men’s Tool Time- March 16th
Downstate Convention

He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord.
-Proverbs 18:22

Last Tuesday, all of my plans and goals were interrupted in a rather unwelcome way. Like in a slap stick comedy, I was on one end of a bench leaning out over the end and one of our boys was on the other. He stood up. Within a very short time, I went from landing on my head and the back of my neck to strapped on a board in the back of an ambulance on the way to the hospital! Praise the Lord! Nothing was broken, and there was no internal bleeding. I just jolted my brain. With a couple of weeks of rest, I should be back to normal. So why would I tell you this story? Because I believe that the Lord interrupts my life to show me things. Over the past week, He has shown me many things. The one that I want to share with you is the “one anothers”. Rudy, in his welcome blog, talked about the importance of relationships. This last week, we lived out the reality of relationships! It is so easy in the busyness of home educating to turn your focus inward on your own family, to get caught up in school work and house work. Sometimes it takes a crisis… a God-ordained interruption… to remind us that we need others. And they need us! Our family needed the love and encouragement that we received from our homeschool family across the state. We can feel the prayers that keep us lifted […]