Wintery Mix: The Carnival of Homeschooling

Posted on January 24, 2012 
Filed Under Charlotte Mason, Family, Homeschool, Learning Lifestyle, Reading | 7 Comments

Wintery mix in Times SquareAs your posts were coming in over the past weekend, the weather seemed busy trying to decide what it wanted to be when it grew up. Friday was clear and chilly, but I woke the next morning to the beep-beep of snowplows. From my 40th floor hotel room, I could see snow blowing sideways, nearly obscuring the bright screens wrapping Times Square just a few blocks south. By the time I boarded a train for home on Monday, we had seen sun, snow, rain, fog, and wind, and the trip home held more of the same.

Looking through your posts, I see a similar variety (though more pleasant, of course), so like the forecasters who opted to predict “wintery mix” instead of trying to be specific from hour to hour, I offer you the Wintery Mix Carnival of Homeschooling. I hope you’ll enjoy it! Thanks to all who contributed.

Creating a Lifestyle of Learning

Pamela Jorrick shares the story of a well-traveled $50 birthday gift in Seeds of Sharing with Kiva posted at Blah, Blah, Blog. She also has the best bio blurb I’ve seen in years. Really, who wouldn’t want to read a blog by an “Artist, Writer, Funschooling Facilitator, Empowered Living Advocate, Wanna-be Organic Gardening Foodie, Travel Loving Life Explorer, Part Time Goat Herding Chicken Lady, Wife to One Handsome and Handy Fellow and Full Time Mamacita Extraordinaire to a Couple of Cage Free Kids”? (I’m a Kiva lender too– it’s a good program.)

Christine Guest shares a rueful account of a visit to the eye doctor with young kids in I’ve got to stop scheduling afternoon appointments posted at Our Curious Home. If you’re a homeschool mom, you’ve probably been there. It’s a pity that professionals for humans don’t make house calls like our vet does!

Mrs. White shares about creating “an atmosphere of happiness, and entertainment with our families” in Family Comfort in the Evening Hours posted at The Legacy of Home.

Foundations

Nancy Kelly answers a question about teaching students how to focus with wise words from Charlotte Mason in Dear Stephanie - A Word About Attention posted at one of my favorite homeschool blogs, Sage Parnassus.

Henry Cate reflects on responsibility, freedom, and character in Aspects of a Homeschooling life at Why Homeschool.

Phyllis Sather offers some older mom wisdom in Are You Continually Searching For “Me Time? at Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness. She says, “No matter how often I read this article I’m still struck with how often the root cause of my unrest is the desire for ‘Me Time.’”

Reading

Read Aloud Dad shares how he learned that “reading aloud was not about reading aloud” and how you can get started in Read Aloud: Ignite Your Life posted at Read Aloud Dad.

Karyn Tripp offers creative ideas in a photo post on Sight Word & Spelling Fun at Teach Beside Me. I’m guessing there may be a kinesthetic learner (or teacher) in Karyn’s household!

Sara Dawkins presents 10 Books to Get Kids Reading Again posted at NannyPro.com, reminding parents that if “Kids are constantly bombarded with visual images from television, movies, video games and the internet. All this vivid imagery can make reading books seem dull and boring.”

From me: To offer you something in addition the Carnival today, I’ll share an older post, Reading for Fun is the Foundation of Literary Appreciation. So often, parents feel that their children should be reading only classics, but that’s not necessarily the case. It takes a lot of reading practice to build the skills needed to truly appreciate great literature, and light, fun reading helps build the desire to read. Twinkies for the brain aren’t all bad!

Get Those Kiddos Moving

Wonderful winter time . . .Cristina Payne shares thoughts on being the literal and figurative support person in The Top and Bottom posted at the ever-active Home Spun Juggling blog.

Misty requests suggestions from other homeschoolers to keep the kids active during the winter in What do you do with crazy energy during the winter? posted at Homeschool Bytes. Any ideas?

History and Science

Annie Kate Aarnoutse shares delightful nature finds in Our Museum at Tea Time with Annie Kate. Where would you keep treasures like these?

Susan Kilbride shares a homeschool-mom created lesson, Free Atoms & Molecules Unit Study for Ages 8-13, from her book Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers at Funtastic Unit Studies!. You’ll find another free unit study about plants for ages 4-7 on her website, plus links to other freebies.

Math and Other Number Stuff

Jennifer Bardsley presents Math Without Worksheets at Teaching My Baby To Read,. She suggests “Looking for a free way to expand your child’s math skills? Every once in a while, try having your child write about their mathematical thinking. It’s harder than it looks.” I never thought I’d say this, but I found this math article fascinating, along with the linked discussion of how and why to teach math using the Constructivist method. It sounds logical and effective.

Chris Shaw offers a practical idea for  Teaching Economics in the Home School at http://homeschoolvspublicschool.com. If you’re as old as I am, you may need your reading glasses for this one, but it’s definitely worth a look.

Early Homeschooling

Kelly @ The Homeschool Co-op presents an interview with unschooler Lindsay Wilson on Featured Fridays- Preschool Unschooling With An Attached Mama posted at The Homeschool Co-op. Lindsay shares, among other things, her homeschool philosophy: “We believe that learning is always happening, even if we can’t always see it, and that learning happens best when the child is engaged and interested and can apply the learning to real life.”

Jamie Gaddy presents I’m not Scared… are YOU? posted at Homeschool Online, saying, “Homeschooling can be a bit scary to someone just beginning… but there’s so much out there to help!”

Kathi Weiss discusses how a pacifist can teach about war in Learning About War posted at Homeschool Online.

Fun and Games

Kathleen shares “a brief and humorous (I think) look at the uniqueness of life as a home school family” in You Know You Are A Homeschooler When . . . at  Art’s Chili Pepper. This post joins a long and respectable line of posts on this topic, most of which can be found by Google-searching “you know you’re a homeschooler when.”

Kathy Simmons presents 10 Reasons Why Kids Love to Play Candyland posted at Nanny Services, saying, “Candyland is probably the simplest board game that exists. It is made for very young children, and as long as it has been around, young children have been enjoying the fun it provides”

Dave Roller offers a “HSD HSBA Extravaganza” as he recaps the 2011 Home School Blog Awards by revealing each blog he voted for in each category and also highlighting the 20 winners along with sample posts in 2011 HSBA Awards at Home-School Dad.

Looking Back

Annette shares a learning day in her family homeschool in A slow day, yet study accomplished posted at A Net in Time, commenting that it was “a good day to homeschool after all.”

Karen Loethen takes a look back, reflecting on what she might have done differently and what she’s done right this year at In Retrospect posted on Homeschool Atheist Momma.

Tina Hollenbeck kept a detailed record of activities for a whole day in order to share what a “typical” day in her home might look like. You can read it at A Day in the Life… posted at Being Made New.

That’s all for this edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. I hope you’ll enjoy each of the blogs and authors who presented, and leave comments and sign up for the RSS feeds or e-mail updates of your favorites. It’s always a delight to swap stories with others on the journey, so enjoy the encouragement.

*NOTE: For those near Virginia, I’ll be doing a Beat-the-Clock Essay Workshop at Classical Cottage School in Winchester on Saturday, January 28. You can find complete details at ClassicalCottageSchool.org/ (look at the PDF listed in the right column).

Three New Contests: Poetry, Art, and Essays

Posted on January 11, 2012 
Filed Under Contests | Leave a Comment

You've got to start before you can win!

You've got to start before you can win.

I recently received notice of three contests for students. Contests can be a great motivator and learning tool because they provide homeschool students with:

Art Contest

Students submit a digital photo of any art (other than photography) and submit it online at www.celebratingart.com. Two contests each year - Next deadline is April 3rd. There are 10 winners in each grade division of K-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12 who will receive $25 and a full color book that includes their art. Other artists of merit will be invited to be published. There are no costs to enter or to be published. Open to all students in the US and Canada. Each year we have several home schoolers among our national winners.

Poetry Contest

Students submit one poem 21 lines on any topic and submit it online at www.poeticpower.com or mail it to Creative Communication, 159 North Main Street, Smithfield, UT 84335. Three contests each year with upcoming deadlines of April 12 and August 15. There are 10 winners in each grade division of K-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12 who will receive $25 and a book that includes their poem. Other writers of merit will be invited to be published. There are no costs to enter or to be published.
Our website at www.poeticpower.com also includes a database that is divided by grade and subject and contains over 1000 lesson plans on how to teach poetry. You can also subscribe to our newsletter with tips on teaching poetry.

Essay Contest

Students submit one non-fiction essay, 250 words or less on any topic and submit it online at www.poeticpower.com or mail it to Creative Communication, 159 North Main Street, Smithfield, UT 84335. Three contests each year with upcoming deadlines of Feb 15 and July 18. There are 10 winners in each grade division of 3-6, 7-9, 10-12 who will receive $25 and a book that includes their essay. Other writers of merit will be invited to be published. There are no costs to enter or to be published.

The Map that Inspired Treasure Island by Celia Blue Johnson

Posted on January 5, 2012 
Filed Under Language Arts, Reviews, Teach Literature | Leave a Comment


Today’s guest post is a gift from Celia Blue Johnson, the author of a delightful new book, Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway: Stories of the Inspiration Behind Great Works of Literature. It’s a book I enjoyed reading as both a lover of literature and a writer.

If you’re a book lover or writer, you’ll especially enjoy seeing how small things such a raven, a map, or even a blank sheet of paper inspired enduring literary works. The book looks at fifty well-known works, ranging from the very old (Don Quixote) the the relatively new (To Kill a Mockingbird), and includes many books you’ll study in Excellence in Literature. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Guest Post by Celia Blue Johnson

One cold winter day, I finished reading Mrs. Dalloway for the third or fourth time and decided to investigate what happened before page one. I traced the steps that Virginia Woolf took to create her polished socialite and soon discovered that there was a real-life Mrs. Dalloway, a woman just as complex as her fictional counterpart. Then I began to speculate about the origins of all my favorite books. So I set out to track down the bright sparks of inspiration that prompted great writers to pen their famous works of literature. Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway is the result of that quest, and the following is an essay from the book about a classic novel that has captivated young adults for decades.

Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883

Robert Louis Stevenson dipped his brush into the watercolor paint and added the finishing touch to a remote island. He stepped back to admire his handiwork. It was a beautiful map, carefully rendered and exquisitely colored. And then he saw them, a series of characters looking up through the newly painted woods. They were equipped with weapons and, as Stevenson recalled, “they passed to and fro, fighting, and hunting treasure, on these few square inches of a flat projection.” Soon a great adventure story began to take shape in Stevenson’s mind. He promptly dropped the paintbrush, picked up a stack of papers, and wrote a chapter outline for Treasure Island.

The map was the product of a dreary vacation. In August 1880, Stevenson, his father, Thomas, his wife, Fanny, and his twelve-year-old stepson, Samuel Lloyd Osbourne, all traveled to Braemar, a village tucked away in the Scottish Highlands. It was an ideal holiday setting, surrounded by impressive mountains that were perfect for hiking. Stevenson hoped the elevated climate would help cure his sickness. He had been coughing up blood and, though he was never officially diagnosed, it is believed he suffered from tuberculosis. Unfortunately, it rained constantly in Braemar that season, so Stevenson rarely had a chance to breathe in the mountain air and his activities were limited to the confines of his cottage. Though Stevenson never considered painting one of his hobbies, it was a favorite pastime for Sam. Since there were few options for entertainment, Stevenson sometimes picked up a brush and painted alongside him. Despite Stevenson’s lukewarm interest, the watercolor map led him to write his first successful work of fiction.

The aspiring writer had tried to write a novel at least ten times, only to stop once under way. Yet there was something different about the tale evoked by the map. Stevenson began writing Treasure Island on a cold September morning in Braemar while sitting by the fire. His pen zipped along, filling page after page. Each afternoon Stevenson read the latest installment to his family. Sam and Thomas were particularly invested in the pirate story. Thomas spent half a day compiling a list of the contents of Billy Bones’s sea chest, which Stevenson loyally replicated in the book.

Long John Silver was inspired by poet William Ernest Henley, a friend of Stevenson’s. After contracting tuberculosis of the bone, Henley had suffered the amputation of a lower leg, but he dealt with the loss courageously. Sam remembered Henley as “a great, glowing, massive- shouldered fellow with a big red beard and a crutch; jovial, astoundingly clever, and with a laugh that rolled like music.” Stevenson removed all of Henley’s refined traits to carve out a tough seafaring man, though he carefully left in some of his most admirable qualities. As a result, Silver is not simply a cutthroat pirate; he also displays Henley’s trademark warmth and charisma.

Stevenson wrote with great gusto until he reached the beginning of chapter 16, and then he stopped. He suddenly lost steam and could not think of another word to add to the book. As time passed, this failure caused Stevenson to question himself completely. He observed, “I was thirty-one; I was the head of a family; I had lost my health; I had never yet paid my way.” But in October 1881, just over a year after Stevenson traveled to Braemar, the book was being serialized in a children’s publication called Young Folks. The paper had already played an important role in shaping the story, with editor James Henderson changing the title, originally The Sea Cook, to Treasure Island. Henderson, along with many readers, would have been severely disappointed if the tale was left unfinished.

With a deadline looming, Stevenson traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for the winter, but he resolved not to worry about his swashbuckling adventure. He would immerse himself in reading and cast aside the stress of writing. To Stevenson’s surprise, the moment he stopped fixating on his writer’s block, his creativity flowed freely once again. Stevenson wrote a chapter a day, hurtling toward two words that he had never written before in a novel: “The End.”

In November 1883, Treasure Island was published in book form by Cassell and Company. The  novel included a map, but it was not the same image from Braemar. Stevenson’s precious painting was lost en route to the publisher. He tried to replicate the original version, calling upon his father to remind him of specific details. Yet, as Stevenson recalled, “Somehow it was never ‘Treasure Island’ to me.” The lost map had acted as a guide for the author’s imagination, sending him across new terrain and right into the middle of bloody battles. Gristly characters did not peek through the trees in the new topography, but luckily that original spark had already been transferred onto the pages of Treasure Island, where pirates, sailors, and a young boy all raced to find buried treasure.

Reprinted from Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway by Celia Blue Johnson by arrangement with Perigee, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., Copyright (c) 2011 by Celia Blue Johnson.

Homeschooling Homesteaders: Teaching Self-Reliance Skills

Posted on December 29, 2011 
Filed Under Family, Home & Garden | 3 Comments


Many of my happiest childhood hours were spent in my grandfather's organic garden.

Many of my happiest childhood hours were spent in my grandfather's organic garden, where roses mingled with lemons, limes, oranges, tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, corn, peaches and kumquats-- all in an urban sliver of land left over from freeway construction.

I’m planning to be at the Self-Reliance Expo in Dallas on Februrary 10-11, 2012, to speak on homeschooling and perhaps micro-business topics, so I’ve been thinking about self-reliance as it fits into the homeschool world.

One of the busiest booths in a homeschool conference is usually the booth with wheat grinders and other aids to feeding your family with fresh, wholesome, homemade goodies. Stop beside that booth for a few moments, and you’ll hear moms, dads, and teens, talking about gardening organically, baking, canning and dehydrating, and more.

Learning to become more self-reliant by developing these old-fashioned skills is one way many home-school families manage to live well on a single income. As a family becomes more self-reliant, it provides students with a living laboratory for learning that will provide them a head start on life. Although it takes work to reach a comfortable state of self-reliance, there is creativity, comfort, and peace in working with the rhythms of nature.

What are the skills of self reliance?

According to the National Self-Reliance Organization (NSRO), self reliance has three basic parts:

1. Emergency preparedness in case of job loss, natural disaster, or family emergency. This includes having a garden, generator, water filtration system, and the ability to preserve the food you grow.

2. Sustainable living, including the practice of frugality and debt-free living, and possibly including alternative energy sources.

3. Entrepreneurship, including building micro-businesses and multiple streams of income.

These self-reliance skills used to be conventional wisdom. Just think of your great-grandmother’s pantry, with shining rows of beautifully canned produce and delicious home-baked goodies. Remember visiting great-grandfather’s handy tool shed where he could fix or build almost anything? If your great-grandparents were anything like mine, they combined practical frugality with the skills it took to run a home and family without any of the conveniences we take for granted (running water, indoor plumbing, close grocery stores, refrigeration, to name just a few). Their summer gardens provided meals for the dark, cold months of winter, and they occupied those months with indoor pastimes that helped to make their homes cozier and more secure.

Self-reliance didn’t mean that people weren’t trusting God– it simply meant that individual families took the responsibility of looking ahead, anticipating potential dangers, and setting aside resources to care for their families in the event of an emergency.

The importance of learning to provide for your family during difficult times was particularly apparent during the Great Depression. That was a hard time for almost everyone, but according to many old-timers who lived through it, self-reliant farm families had one significant advantage over city dwellers– the ability to produce much of their own food.

According to an Iowa Pathways article, “Almost all farm families raised large gardens with vegetables, and canned fruit from their orchards. They had milk and cream from their dairy cattle. Chickens supplied meat and eggs. They bought flour and sugar in 50-pound sacks and baked their own bread. In some families the farm wife made clothing out of the cloth from flour and feed sacks. They learned how to get by with very little money.”

It’s not necessary to live on a farm to be more self-reliant.

You can accomplish much with an urban homestead. Consider the skills your grandparents had and start learning them, and you’ll be on your way. As a homeschooler, you even have some built-in advantages for becoming self reliant:

  1. You’re already accustomed to looking to the past for wisdom and inspiration.
  2. You’ve already found that keeping up with the Jones’s is pointless.
  3. You’re accustomed to taking the road less traveled.
  4. Homeschooling allows teaching and learning the skills of self-reliance to be a natural part of living.
  5. You can even grant credit for the homesteading skills your students learn!

There’s no question that many homeschool families are already living at least a partially self-reliant homestead life. Some of us enjoy just a few aspects of the self-reliant lifestyle such as organic gardening, cooking, and entrepreneurship, while others embrace the whole enchilada.

If you weren’t fortunate enough to learn basic homesteading skills when you were growing up, there are an increasing number of resources to help. The award-winning Self-Reliance Expo is one of the major places you can go to learn what you need to know. You’ll learn about:

Cooking competition at the Self-Reliance Expo.

Cooking competition at the Self-Reliance Expo.

If you enjoy any aspect of homesteading, just imagine being at a conference entirely devoted to the skills you need! I hope you’ll join me at the upcoming Expo in Dallas, Texas on February 10-11, 2011. It will be my first visit to a Self-Reliance Expo, and I’m looking forward to it (and I’d love to see you there). To learn more about it, you can visit the event website and watch a video trailer from a recent Expo. Enjoy!

Carnival of Homeschooling

Carnival of Homeschooling

NOTE: This post is scheduled to appear in the Sixth Anniversary issue of the Carnival of Homeschooling. If you’d like to submit an article for the Carnival, please visit “Why Homeschool“ for instructions. Thanks to the Cate family for creating and managing this excellent blog carnival for so long. It’s a wonderful resource!

Winter Poems by Stevenson, Emerson, and Hardy

Posted on December 23, 2011 
Filed Under Poetry | 2 Comments

Thrushes in winter.

Thrushes in winter.

Sometimes a poem evokes the mood of a season more than anything else could. Here are three of my favorites for winter. The first, “Picture-books in Winter” by Robert Louis Stevenson, paints a lyrical picture of the joys of reading in a cozy nursery as the outside world grows frosty. The second poem, “The Snow Storm” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, vividly shares the “tumultuous privacy” and “frolic architecture” of a snow storm. The final poem is “The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy, which reveals the power in “the full-hearted evensong / Of joy illimited” from an aging thrush.

Each of these lovely pieces provides a different way of looking at winter and appreciating its beauty. One way to help your students absorb the equisite intricacy of poetic language is to have them copy their favorite poems into a notebook. This is also a good way to begin memorizing a poem for recitations. Enjoy!

Picture-books in Winter

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Summer fading, winter comes-
Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs
Window robins, winter rooks,
And the picture story-books.

Water now is turned to stone
Nurse and I can walk upon;
Still we find the flowing brooks
In the picture story-books.

All the pretty things put by,
Wait upon the children’s eye,
Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks,
In the picture story-books.

We may see how all things are,
Seas and cities, near and far,
And the flying fairies’ looks,
In the picture story-books.

How am I to sing your praise,
Happy chimney-corner days,
Sitting safe in nursery nooks,
Reading picture story-books?

The Snow Storm

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden’s end.
The sled and traveler stopped, the courier’s feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.

Come see the north wind’s masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmer’s lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer’s sighs; and, at the gate,
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.

The Darkling Thrush

by Thomas Hardy

I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.

The land’s sharp features seemed to be
The Century’s corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

Literature Connects Disciplines

Posted on November 23, 2011 
Filed Under Language Arts, Observations, Writing | 2 Comments

Why study literature in the context of art, music, history, and worldview?

Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers

Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers

“Developing intelligent comparisons between different works is one of the great tools of criticism, informed discussion, and cultural enrichment. Learning to develop such comparisons will also help to remind us that just because we have finished with one work and are moving on to another, that is no reason for setting the first one aside. As we progress through Liberal Studies, English, and Philosophy courses, we are continuing and enriching a life-long conversation with and about our culture, a process which will include more and more material for comparison and argumentative discussions.”

(From the Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers* by Johnston and Campbell, Section 10.2)

*It’s in the proofreading stage right now, and should be available soon. At 400+/- pages, it includes detailed instructions for writing essays as well as a basic style and usage guide. I think it will be immensely useful for both high school and college.

For a short while, you’ll be able to order a beta version of the e-book. Read more about it on the Handbook for Writers page.

Veterans Day: What It Is, How to Celebrate

Posted on November 11, 2011 
Filed Under Inspiration | Leave a Comment

Veterans Day 2011: Honor and Respect

Veterans Day 2011: Honor and Respect

Thank you, veterans, for your willingness to pay the price of freedom.

I think of the line from the Roman poet Horace, “dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” This can be roughly translated as: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” (Translation of this and the lines below by John Conington; quoted in Wikepedia.) While this may may seem an out-of-date sentiment, the reality of the ancient Roman soldier probably differs but little from the experience of soldiers on the ground anywhere in the the world. It’s not easy.

“To suffer hardness with good cheer,
In sternest school of warfare bred,
Our youth should learn; let steed and spear
Make him one day the Parthian’s dread;
Cold skies, keen perils, brace his life.
Methinks I see from rampired town
Some battling tyrant’s matron wife,
Some maiden, look in terror down,-
“Ah, my dear lord, untrain’d in war!
O tempt not the infuriate mood
Of that fell lion I see! from far
He plunges through a tide of blood!”
What joy, for fatherland to die!
Death’s darts e’en flying feet o’ertake,
Nor spare a recreant chivalry,
A back that cowers, or loins that quake.”

Taken from Odes (III.2.13) by the Roman lyric poet Horace.

It’s not easy for the families of veterans, who wait and watch for their return, and who struggle to keep up with everything at home. For them, I think of John Milton’s great poem “On His Blindness,” and especially the last line:

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”

Families of veterans, I thank each of you too. You share in the burden of service, and we are grateful.

For homeschooling families, Beverly Hernandez offers a bit of history plus some activities and resources on her Celebrate Veterans Day page. You’ll also find good quotes on liberty and freedom at my entrepreneurial blog, Do What Matters, Make it Pay. These work well for copywork or dictation, or simply as essay or discussion starters. Enjoy!

If you’d like to listen to or learn the patriotic music of the various branches of the armed forces, Eastern Illinois University has compiled an outstanding page that contains music and lyrics for the songs of the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Marines.

The video below offers an overview of some of the volunteer activities you can do with or for veterans, and you’ll find more at the Office for Veterans Affairs page. If you know a veteran or have one in your family, the best place to start might just be with a hug and a “Thank you, I love you.” Many restaurants and businesses offer discounts or freebies to vets (here’s one list from Daily Finance)– perhaps you can Google for more and treat your veteran to something special.

From Eric K. Shinseki, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs:

“On the 11th hour, on the 11th day, of the 11th month of 2011, we will pause to honor America’s Veterans and celebrate their contributions to our way of life. Few have given more to our Nation than the men and women who have served in our Armed Forces in peace and in war.

Generation after generation-from Bunker Hill and Bennington to Baghdad and Abbottabad-protected, defended, and preserved the principles and ideals that define our democracy. Across that remarkable sweep of history, today’s America was shaped at Lexington and Concord, Antietam and Gettysburg, in the skies over Midway, on the beaches of Normandy, in winter’s grip at Chosin Reservoir, in the heat of Ia Drang Valley, from the Persian Gulf into Afghanistan and Iraq by those who wore our Nation’s uniforms. Over twenty-two million living Veterans today embody our exceptional character and values as a people-each a line in our Nation’s history, but together many chapters towards today’s future.”

This post is in loving memory of my father, a WWII veteran.

Biographical Approach Paper Format

Posted on October 4, 2011 
Filed Under Homeschool, Teaching Writing | 2 Comments

If you’re working with Excellence in Literature and would like to use the approach paper format to write about authors or other significant people, I’ve created a format model for you. Approach papers help students think through the things they study in a deeper way, so this can be useful with people they read about in any of their studies. Enjoy!
Person:
When they lived:
Where they lived:

Life Summary
Write an interesting one-two-paragraph summary of the person’s life.

Key Players
Choose 3-4 key people involved in the person’s life and list 4-5 vividly descriptive words
for each person. Words may not be used to describe more than one person

Discussion Questions
Think carefully about the person and his or her life and write three analytical discussion questions that would help to reveal more about his or her character and achievements.

Significant Event or Achievement
Choose an event or achievement that seems to be the most significant point or climax in the
person’s life and write a one paragraph description.

Significant Point Explanation
Why do you believe this was a significant point in the person’s life? How is this person and his or her achievement remembered today?
Write a fully-developed paragraph in response to these two questions. Support your argument with quotes from the text or other sources, if appropriate.

Organize Essays with the Keyhole Method

Posted on September 20, 2011 
Filed Under Teaching Writing, Writing | Leave a Comment

The Keyhole Essay Organizer appears in many forms across the Web. I haven’t been able to discover who originally created it,* but it can be a very helpful visual reminder of what goes into a basic essay. I hope you enjoy it.
keyhole-essay-visual

Suggestions for essay introduction:

  • Does your title capture your reader’s interest?
  • Does it hint at the direction of your subject matter?

    • Suggestions for essay conclusion:

    Reminders:

    *Because it appears in a Wiki and other places, I believe it is in the public domain. If anyone knows who originally, I’d like to give them credit.

    Gatto’s 7 Lessons of Compulsory Schooling

    Posted on August 23, 2011 
    Filed Under Homeschool, Inspiration | Leave a Comment

    One of the most influential books I’ve ever read is John Taylor Gatto’s Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling in which he describes the fundamental lessons he was required to teach during his 26 years as a schoolteacher. The book is adapted from a speech given at a ceremony in which Gatto was named the New York State Teacher of the Year for 1991.

    Here are the seven horrifying lessons–see if you recognize any of them from your own school experiences.

    1. Confusion: “Everything I teach is out of context . . . A close examination of curriculum and its sequences turns up a lack of coherence, full of internal contradictions.”
    2. Class position: “Students must stay in the class where they belong . . . [they learn] how to envy the and fear the better classes and how to have contempt for the dumb classes.”
    3. Indifference: “I teach children not to care too much about anything . . . Nothing important is ever finished my class nor in any class I know of . . . Bells inoculate each undertaking with indifference.”
    4. Emotional dependency: “By stars and red checks, smiles and frowns, prizes, honors, and disgraces, I teach kids to surrender . . . Rights may be granted or withheld by any authority without appeal . . .”
    5. Intellectual dependency: “Good students wait for a teacher to tell them what to do . . . It is the most important lesson that we must wait for other people . . . to make the meanings of our lives.”
    6. Provisional self-esteem: “A kid’s self respect should depend on expert opinion.”
    7. One can’t hide: “The meaning of constant surveillance and denial of privacy is that no one can be trusted, that privacy is not legitimate.”

    The reason I share these seven lessons here is to remind each of us not to replicate these appalling lessons in our own homes. When I talked with college admissions counselors while I was writing Transcripts Made Easy, almost every one of them spoke positively of some major differences they’d seen in homeschoolers. These included a lack of peer dependence, the ability to self-motivate, perseverance, independent thought, and often, a lively interest in life and learning. Let’s keep it that way!

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