I am usually not very interested in magazine subscriptions. If I have extra time, I would much rather spend it reading through a thought provoking book. The only time I really find myself looking through magazines is when I’m stuck in a waiting room somewhere with nothing else to do. The short articles featured in most magazines tend to be so shallow as to leave me with no desire to continue reading additional articles.
In spite of my feelings towards most mainstream magazines, I did go ahead and purchase a subscription to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. (It was a great value at $7.95 for a 1 year subscription, a limited time offer which is still available today.)
My 2009 fall edition, containing over 200 pages, arrived a couple of weeks ago. Article topics ranged from the father’s role in home education to tips on making homeschooling work for your family to preparing students for college. There were also quite a few articles which did not pertain specifically to homeschooling, such as craft ideas and information on upcoming movies. It was wonderful to read articles written by people who not only share many of my interests, but also hold to a worldview similar to my own.
Along with the articles, I also very much enjoyed the advertisements. That’s right! The advertisements, which I usually find to be the most annoying sections within magazines, were actually some of the most interesting aspects of TOS magazine. With so many people homeschooling, many of us are running into the same obstacles as we teach our children. Through several of the ads I realized there are solutions to some issues which I figured were just issues we would have to learn to work around.
While I won’t be purchasing resources from most of the advertisers found in the magazine, and I did not take the time to read through all of the articles, I do plan to hold on to magazine for future reference. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is really a great resource!
