One of the chief concerns for parents of teens is how to find or to create a community of positive peers. Kim's new book, Coaching a Club, just released by Monument Publishing, offers seven secrets for creating such a community and unleashing teens' longing to achieve something extraordinary. Coaching a Club: Seven Secrets for Forming a Successful Speech & Debate Club teaches principles of mentoring, networking, facilitating public service and preparing the next generation to change the world through the lens of developing a forensics club.  Kim has gathered the collective wisdom of her positive peers in the Christian speech and debate community over ten years of service to teens across the nation.  Even if you don't think your students need speech and debate, you need this book! Excerpts Commitment to Character We can readily see that studying speech and debate will improve intelligence in these more traditionally academic categories. But if that is all we see, we miss the most important possibilities in forensics training.  Forensics offers young people the opportunity to exercise those academic skills in an emotionally-charged social setting very much like the real world. It offers coaches a nearly unparalleled opportunity to train students in interpersonal and intra-personal intelligence.  Taken ...

My friend, Julie Ferwerda, has just released a new book, One Million Arrows. In it she outlines a vision to inspire us to raise powerfully spiritual children and to aim them at the heartaches of the world. The book began with the compassion of one man - a poor man in India - who gathered up orphans from the streets and began to nurture them in the name of Jesus. "Papa" Thomas in Kota, India has now raised over 16,000 throw-away children from the streets of India and set them loose to extend the love that rescued them to others who still do not know the Author of love, Jesus. Profits from the book will assist "Papa" Thomas's work Hopegivers International to continue the work of turning throw-away kids into arrows in the hand of God. Practical as well as visionary, One Million Arrows tells dozens of stories of parents just like you who have stepped up to the challenge. Today on the One Million Arrows website, you can read about some of the Countdown to College Carpe Diem Cadre members. Petra Anderson is featured. Read it and get your parenting rejuvenation vitamin! And today, you can join the party by buying One ...

The jury is still out on how well received  creatively structured college degrees will be in the future business climate. Many homeschoolers opt to have their students work on some kind of online or distance degree program while they are still in high school or as an alternative to college after graduation.  While it is smart to use those later high school years to give your student a leg up to a college degree or even to rack up professional certifications in the fields that interest them, taking a degree totally online is still a risk from the perspective of validating achievement to a prospective employer or customer. According to Dawn Boyer, director of marketing, sales and public relations for government contracts and human resources director for MonsterClean Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning,  the keys to business acceptance of an online degree are: 1) Are the exams given in a proctored setting or totally online without standards? "if the degree is high level and testing is done at proctoring centers or within a cooperative (nearby) universities, where the students must report to a controlled testing room or site, then the college/university degree is valid and there should be no question to it's credentials." ...

Rural Debaters Unite [caption id="attachment_135" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Nominate an Extraordinary Teen!"][/caption] One Oregon mom bounced out of the Countdown to College workshop armed with tools, ideas and enthusiasm. But she confided that she thought her family was a little behind the curve on public service. A couple of months later, I had the opportunity to catch up with Carla over a telephone coffee. She had a fresh gleam in her eye; she and her children had been out in the world and it had fallen at their feet! Her eldest two sons teamed up to take charge of the International Debate Society (IDS network), an online debate club which serves rural homeschoolers. Once a week the brothers log onto the network, conducting value debate classes, coordinating peer mentors, and coaching young debaters with varying skill levels from across the country. It makes a pretty intense afternoon, but the rewards are great. Dylan and Tait work with15 students from 6 states (and one in Uganda!), training them for competition in the National Christian Forensics and Communication Association. In the past, the IDS instructors and peer mentors have themselves become national competitors, due in large part to the experience of helping others get around their ...

The Value of Public Service Parents are often surprised that public service plays such a large role in the post-graduate success of their young people. It is the close second to academics in attracting college scholarship money. It is a vital element of building a network for entrepreneurship and post-graduate work; the business you helped will be happy to help you and when they need an employee or free-lance consultant, you will be tops on their list. Public service is also one of the most important stimulants to developing compassion and maturity. And, if you are looking for positive peers for your teens, the other young people who engage in public service become a social network of extraordinary vigor, usefulness and delight. Yet public service is not well understood by most families. We don’t sit around the soccer field discussing service opportunities like we discuss employment opportunities or college entrance exams, but service will benefit our teens far more than either of those. Most of us just don’t know what public service could look like on a teenager. The Power of Young Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurs serve their communities in another way.  Young people who start their own businesses while in high school ...

Effective time management isn’t just about sticking to a schedule. It’s also about seizing the opportunities that present themselves in season and by surprise. Do I need to mention that this is the Christmas season of Advent? A time of extraordinary opportunity for worship and service. American Christians are beginning to suspect that their pursuit of stuff, their rush to create additional debt during this time, isn’t really what it’s all about. Don’t get me wrong. I love the Christian gifting traditions. But the gifting must grow out of worship, out of delight in that greatest of Gifts, Jesus the Messiah himself. When giving springs from contemplation and adoration of Jesus, the whole process is transformed. It begins to lead us deeper into spiritual realities rather than to trap us in shallow consumerism. The group, Advent Conspiracy, has given this idea some thought. Their challenge is: "Give Presence". Maybe it will give you some ideas about how to take full advantage of this special time, as well.

This week don't miss a free preview of the new film "Come What May" on GodTube.  It's the pioneer effort of a bunch of high school homeschoolers and recent grads under the direction of George Escobar and a handful of film professionals.  This mentorship approach to practicing the collaborative art of film is producing a community of young people who are not waiting to create an impact on their world. "Come What May" has several distribution offers under consideration, but Advent Film Group is releasing the film for this limited free viewing on GodTube at this time in hopes that it may have an influence on the election.  The film treats the questions of the value of human life and of marriage.  Both are vital considerations in the current election, as the next President will likely have the opportunity to appoint several Supreme Court justices. George Escobar's brainchild, Advent Film Group, is the sort of effort that creates opportunities for youth that match their abilities and harness their passions to their aspirations. The youth who worked on the film passionately believe in its message and aspire to right the wrongs it addresses in powerful ways.  Escobar's vision is exactly the sort of ...

Do high schoolers really do the stuff I recommend in my workshop?  Do they really find time to do major service projects or run their own businesses while keeping up their grades?  And does it pay off? Yes!! Yes! Yes!!!! I'd like to introduce you to this growing column of youth who are not waiting for some magical age or invitation to begin to become productive, to have an impact.  They are siezing the day God has given them today.  These young people are the Carpe Diem Cadre. Meet today's featured member: Jon Chi L His Carpe Diem project is a self-designed website to inform voters about Barack Obama on the eve of what promises to be the most epic election since Ronald Regan. You will be as amazed as I was by the quality of the research, the care to cite mainstream news sources, and the intriguing interactivity of the site.  You can view videos of Obama's flip-flops, take a fact survey, download buttons to share the site with friends, interact with other visitors on a forum, even pray with other Christian voters. Before you dismiss this as the work of a guy about to launch off to college, note this: Jon Chi is ...