The Kiwi Conservation Club is part of Forrest and Bird and has quizzes, games, other stuff, and a Join Us link. Members can get Wild Things magazine five times a year.

And remember, it is part of the Christian worldview to take care of the environment, but not to worship it. We are to take dominion over the planet, but we are also to “tend the garden” as God told Adam. [Add link to Catalyst website re conservation from a Christian worldview perspective.]

It is important at this time in history for Christians to be aware of the trends and thoughts of our society and world. Environmentalism is certainly a hot topic, and something Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer addressed in his book Pollution and the death of man: The Christian view of ecology. This book is a good read and even though it was written quite a few years ago, and like much of Schaeffer, lives on well beyond his days.

To quote Francis Schaeffer, “We have the right to rid our house of ants; but what we have no right to do is to forget to honor the ant as God made it, out in the place where God made the ant to be. When we meet the ant on the sidewalk, we step over him. He is a creature, like ourselves; not made in the image of God, it is true, but equal with man as far as creation is concerned.”

Recommended reading:
http://wap.bible.org/article/christian-environmentalism

This interesting looking website in New Zealand !!! will be of use if you have children interested in science and in years 3-4, 5-6, or 7-10.

The idea is to “Stimulate a lifelong interest in Science”.

The Science Awards schemes are designed to promote students’ interest and participation in a series of science activities which:

• are assessed on a criterion referenced system (i.e. no fixed “pass rate”)
• are well within the capacity of average students
• encourage student initiative
• provide a tangible reward
• provide extension work for students
• do not involve teachers in a lot of extra work

A HT (hat tip) to The Broad Room for pointing us to this information! We should add that there is a lot of useful stuff on their website.

Albert Mohler write:

Whatever happened to being seen but not heard? Diana West asks that question in a recent essay, noting that there has been a massive shift in Western culture away from adult authority and toward the “wise child.” All around us are signs that authority and wisdom are now to be recognized in the young, rather than the old. This is nothing less than a reversal of what previous generations had believed and assumed.

Read the rest here: http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/01/22/newsnote-seen-but-not-heard/

Check out this website if you are looking for excellent Bible lessons for your kids. Here is a bit of their blurb:

The Biblelessons4kidz.com team is a group of people who are passionate about reaching the next generation with the gospel of Christ. We are Christian parents who believe that our kids really can dig deeper into God’s Word. With this in mind, we have written a comprehensive series of Bible lessons that teach the truth of scripture to children. Each lesson is thoughtfully and prayerfully written in order to be biblically accurate, relevant and interesting. New lessons and devotionals will be added to this website as they are developed.

Their lessons are broken down into sections:

• Old Testament Lessons
• New Testament Lessons
• Gospel Lessons
• Seasonal Lessons

In addition, they claim:

Biblelessons4kidz.com is committed to making these Bible lessons FREELY available to anyone who wants to teach the Bible to kids. We’re simply putting these lessons out there to be used in any way God sees fit. All credit and honor go to Him alone.

Mission Statement
Biblelessons4kidz.com is committed to help reach the next generation with the Gospel of Christ by developing Bible lessons for kids that are biblical, relevant, and interesting.

Core Values
Biblelessons4kidz.com will have accurate biblical lessons.
Biblelessons4kidz.com will be user-friendly.
Biblelessons4kidz.com will glorify Jesus Christ.

The Teaching Company has many great resources over a wide range of subjects. Most courses are available as MP3s with many of them are also available on DVD. Almost everything on TTC is pay-for (e.g. these are not free lectures) and so they should be since TTC hire the best people and best presenters in their respective fields to do the the lectures, and the quality and content is excellent (although I occasionally disagree with the content).

TTC also have a number of courses that are suitable for high-school level homeschooling such as:

• Geometry
• Chemistry
• History
• Algebra
• Basic Math

My biggest gripe is that we cannot afford the DVD courses as they are quite expensive (even with their frequent sale offers). The New Zealand dollar may be better now than most times, but times are also tough for many of us, and we have to pay postage to get the DVDs delivered.

I would really like another DVD course from TTC — Nutrition Made Clear. This course looks really good and would help us as a family and also possibly lead our children on into Food Technology or similar training post home schooling. If TTC want to donate a copy to us, we will say YES PLEASE!!! At the sale price, the 6 DVD set would costs us about $200NZD (almost the price of a new iPod nano).