Veteran’s Day 2009- Thoughts on Liberty

Posted on November 11, 2009 
Filed Under Inspiration | 1 Comment

united-states-flagOn this Veteran’s Day, I’m thankful for those who have borne the burden of preserving the freedoms we enjoy. We have an amazing heritage! Here are a few of my favorite quotes on the subject.

Benjamin Franklin

“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Abraham Lincoln

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

Alexis de Tocqueville

“… liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.”

John Adams

“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

“Liberty can not be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.”

“Be not intimidated… nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.”

Thomas Paine

“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.”

“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of liberty must undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”

Mikhail A. Bakunin

“Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.”

Mahatma Gandhi

“Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living ?”

Samuel Adams

“The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men.”

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

“He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man…The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people.”

Thomas Jefferson

“The liberty of speaking and writing guards our other liberties.”

Ardis Whitman

“Freedom is not in doing what you want to do, but in becoming what you want to be.”

George Bernard Shaw

“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”

Voltaire

“The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.”

Woodrow T. Wilson

“I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty.”

Carnival of Homeschooling- The NaNoWriMo Edition

Posted on November 10, 2009 
Filed Under Early College, Home Business, Homeschool, Inspiration, Learning Lifestyle, Observations, Organization / Time Management, Reading, Records & Transcripts, Reviews, Teaching Writing, Writing | 12 Comments

Preface

Don't miss our Thanksgiving Sale!

Welcome to this hundred-and-umpteenth Carnival of Homeschooling! Because November is National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo or nano), and I’m over 10,000 words into the writing process (and can’t think of anything but writing, writing, and more writing), I thought it would be appropriate to format this Carnival as sections of a book. I even consulted the Chicago Manual of Style for an authoritative list of book parts!

Introduction

For me, homeschooling is first and foremost a heart matter. In Mangled Schedules and Grateful Hearts, an article I wrote for Home School Enrichment magazine, you can read how a father’s presence and influence can shape a family school. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Planning

In Homeschooling Families: Getting Ready for a New Baby, Carletta at  Successful Homeschooling writes, “This is part 2 of my series on getting your home school ready for a new baby, and contains fun ideas for welcoming a new baby into the home.”

Alex presents Free Printable Calendar 2010 posted at Home Life Weekly. Use these free printable calendars to plan your home schooling for the next school year.

Carol J. Alexander presents Tip of the Day #9 posted at Everything Home…with Carol. This tip discusses the importance of having a flexible schedule, and is a perfect companion to the “Mangled Schedules…” article above.

Chapter 2: Things You Really Need to Know

In this “must read” article, Adam Faughn presents a list of 7 Things You Can Say to Harm a Child posted at The Faughn Family of Four. He has targeted the seven things parents (and others) need to avoid saying around children, and it’s a reminder that needs to be posted somewhere prominent!

In a bow to life’s realities, blogger Angela Mills suggests compiling a Homeschool Mom’s Survival Kit . You can read more at her blog, Angela Mills.

Susan Anadale reminds you to encourage your kiddos to follow their dreams:-) in Homeschooling Hearts and Minds: Sometimes it pays to go back… posted at Homeschooling Hearts and Minds.

In Yesterday was one of those days, Janine Cate writes about a typical day of homeschooling and life on the Why Homeschool blog.

In a timely reminder of common courtesy, ChristineMM presents Homeschoolers and H1N1 Swine Flu posted at The Thinking Mother. She shares our federal government’s CDC guidelines for H1N1 Swine Flu and discuses the responsibility that homeschoolers have to take to implement these recommendations.

Chapter 3: Unusual Teaching Ideas and Resources

Kristen Hamilton shares the recreation of a science experiment in Fooling the Senses posted at A Day in the Life.

Teacher Tom DeRosa shares an inexpensive way to get well acquainted with number concepts in Use Playing Cards for Unlimited Number Sense Practice on his blog, I Want to Teach Forever.

We’ve all heard of lapbooking, but Lynn presents Interactive Notebooks | Gather posted at Gather. She says, “An interactive notebook is a binder or notebook (themebook or composition book) that you fill with mini books like a lapbook.” What a delightful idea!

Kaye Swain reviews the Mighty Machines videos in Mighty Machines are Mighty Fun for Grandkids posted at SandwichINK. She says, “They’re fun and downright entertaining.They make an excellent addition to social studies classes for homeschooling programs. They’re Mighty Machines!”

Annette Berlin presents 101 Frugal Ways To Share Art With Kids posted at Craft Stew. Sharing art with children can be not only fun, but inexpensive as well. Here are 101 frugal (or free!) ways to help a child come to love the world of art and crafting as much as you do.

Ken Havelock presents Brain Teasers | Free Trivia | Buy Puzzles | Fascinating Facts posted at A Thinker’s Daily ChallengeTM. The best time to spark your child’s interest in geography, history, or the sciences is when that child is young! As a parent, it is your duty to see that your child gets the best start in life. Ignite that interest in geography, history, or the sciences with the help of A Thinker’s Daily ChallengeTM!

Chapter 4: The Learning Lifestyle

In Raising Cowboys, Lara DeHaven shares their wholesome family philosophy on man-building at Welcome to the Ranch!. Don’t miss it!

Amber’s children imagined a museum that reflects some of what they’ve been learning, and she shares the experience in Imaginary Museum posted at The Mommy Earth.

Tammy shares how her family is being properly trained in Horse’n Around, which is posted at Adventures On Beck’s Bounty. Did you know you can probably record homeschool equestrian studies on your student’s high school transcript if certain criteria are met? It’s all in the book;-).

Brenda unveils her new e-book, Creating an Atmosphere of Learning in I finally finished it! My First E-book posted at The Tie That Binds Us. It sounds wonderful, and she’s offering it at no cost.

Sometimes cooking is more than just meal preparation. Mommy’s Life offers suggestions on integrating learning in Cooking Up Math With Kids:Measuring posted at Mommy’s Life.

Chapter 5: Microbusiness as a Teaching Tool

How can a microbusiness help your children learn? Lara DeHaven show us how in Kyla Shines in the Pumpkin Patch posted at Texas Homesteader.

Chapter 6: Counting the Cost

We sometimes hear that it’s too expensive to be a stay-at-home mom, but in Can You Afford Two Incomes?,  posted at Fine Tuned Finances, Matthew Paulson runs the numbers.

How does 25 years of homeschooling look on a resume? Barbara Frank muses on the question of what kind of income she can expect in If Mom Goes Back to Work at Barbara Frank Online.

Chapter 7: Reasons to Be Glad You’re Homeschooling

In Homeschoolers Respond - Recap posted on Beverly’s Homeschooling Blog (About.com), she shares homeschooler stories of supporting each other and helping each other succeed. She invites us to “Enjoy these reader interaction links, then share your stories and tips too!”

Hall Monitor presents Florida teacher makes girl clean up classmates pee posted at DetentionSlip.org. She comments, “At least at home, you know whose urine it is.”

Alasandra presents Nominees for Best Homeschool Blog 2009 posted at Alasandra’s Homeschool Blog Awards. Just a few weeks left to nominate your favorite blog! [Janice's note: I haven't checked the list, but it would be nice to have this blog nominated. I'm just not going to do it myself;-).]

Chapter 8: Peripherally Related to Homeschooling

Party Games For Girls presents Clown Birthday Party posted at Party Games For Girls. I have found that homeschooled children can be more outgoing than children who go to regular schools. As such, they are usually more creative. This post provides an excellent chance for them to show their creative sides.*

Gracie Turner presents 10 Fictional Teachers We Wish We Had posted at Online Courses.org.*

Lisa Taylor presents 10 Places to Help Find a Home for Your Writing posted at Accredited Online Degrees.*

Chapter 9: Beyond High School

Barbara Williams presents 100 Great, Green Career Links for the Jobs of Tomorrow posted at Online Degree Programs.org.*

Robert Damone presents Highlighting 10 Creative Professors Teaching at Online Universities posted at Online University Data*

Epilogue

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Carnival. If you did, please share it with your friends and blog readers!

*These sites are not homeschool-related.

Everyday Education is Undergoing Maintenance-All Fine!

Posted on November 4, 2009 
Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Update: The website is back up, and as far as I can tell, all the main nav links are functioning. If you find something odd, please leave a comment below, and we’ll fix it as quickly as possible. Enjoy!

If you wanted to visit Everyday-Education.com, and you see the page only briefly before it disappears, I apologize. The site is undergoing maintenance, and will be back up very soon (if all goes well). I’m sorry for the inconvenience!

Bayeaux Tapestry- An Animated Look at History

Posted on October 22, 2009 
Filed Under Learning Lifestyle, Teaching Literature | 2 Comments

One of the highlights of our trip to Europe was seeing the Bayeux Tapestry– the story of the 1066 war. I’d just finished reading 1066: The Year of the Conquest by David Haworth (highly recommended), so it was fresh in my mind, and it was interesting to see the differing perspective of this amazing piece of needlework. Although it’s called a tapestry, it’s simply a very long piece of linen– approximately 70 meters– embroidered with the story of the battle. You can learn more about it at its official site in Britain.

The animated version below brings it to life in a fresh way, and is guaranteed to make even small boys enjoy the Tapestry!

I’ll be adding this link to one of the British Literature units– perhaps Chaucer’s unit would be most appropriate. Enjoy!

Announcement

SAT Preparation: I’ll be presenting a Beat-the-Clock Essay workshop in Chesterfield, VA. See the announcement below for more information.

Janice Campbell is visiting CCA!
Mrs. Campbell will be presenting her “Beat the Clock Essay” Workshop on Fri., Nov 13th  10am - 2pm
The cost is $35.
Please email info@cca4u.org for registration information.
For more info on the class visit:www.essayworkshop.com

College From Home? Sure… At Least a Few Classes

Posted on October 14, 2009 
Filed Under Early College | 1 Comment

The internet has changed a lot of things. Some for the better, and some not. One thing that is a huge benefit is the proliferation of ways to learn online for free or nearly free. One interesting development is that some colleges are posting entire lectures and classes online for anyone to access. I’ve come across several while working with the Excellence in Literature project, and I keep hearing of more.

One of the best-known resources is iTunes U, which can be found in the Apple iTunes store. If you visit the site, you’ll find the link to iTunes U in the top navigation bar. Mouse over it, and a menu of subjects drops down. A glance at the topics available in the humanities shows 18 pages of multi-part courses, including:

John Locke Lectures in Philosophy from Oxford University

Christian Apologetics and many others from Reformed Theological Seminary

Publishing from Stanford University

There are many choices there, all free. You may download them to your iPod or watch online. Either way, they can be used to supplement home study, prepare for a CLEP exam, or just learn something new and interesting. Obviously, the worldview varies, depending upon the source and topic, but the selection offers something for everyone.

Other sources of free knowledge include Open Educational Resources Commons and Academic Earth, as well as some individual college sites.

At OER, you’ll find thousands of courses in primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels in almost any academic subject you can imagine. There are tutorials available, and the site is easy to navigate, though it may appear a bit cluttered.

At Academic Earth, you can search by university, subject, or instructor. This site is clean, very attractive, and easy to use. I’ve already found several courses I’d like to try.

At MIT Open Courseware, today’s featured course is A New Use for Quantum Computing. Taking it online may not be quite the same as doing it on campus, but you can be assured of high-level learning and an interesting experience.

You can find more free online classes by Googling “free college courses.” No matter what you’d like to study, whether it’s physics or publishing, there’ll be something available. Enjoy!

Great Books Week- October 4-10, 2009

Posted on October 4, 2009 
Filed Under News, Reading, Teaching Literature | Leave a Comment

Join Excellence in Literature as we celebrate the beauty of great books with a blog tour!

If you’d like to participate, write a post on your own blog on the appropriate topic each day, then visit the appropriate post on the NAIWE NewsWire blog to leave your post title and link in the comment section so that others can enjoy what you’ve written. Be sure to share your posts in Facebook, Twitter, and other social media!

What are great books? First and foremost, literary classics are the standard for great literature. Few people would make a great books list that left out William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, or Mark Twain, and most of us probably have a list of special books that have touched our lives. Great books are the books that stay with us long after we’ve put them down.

This event is made possible through the generous support of our sponsor, the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE). According to the Association’s spokesperson, “Writers and editors have a vested interested in reminding people of the joy of reading great, lasting literature, so we are delighted to join Excellence in Literature as a sponsor of Great Books Week.”

It’s an online event, so please “come” and invite your friends!

Here’s the Facebook Event page:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/#/event.php?eid=148413758577&ref=mf

Dynamic Literacy’s WordBuild: A Review

Posted on September 29, 2009 
Filed Under Homeschool, Reviews | Leave a Comment

I love the study of words. Words are the building blocks of communication, and the more of them you know, the more likely it is that you will be a good writer and speaker. In addition, words are just plain fascinating!

For many years, I used and recommended vocabulary programs based in Latin and Greek roots, and I still like those programs. I realize that roots-based programs seem inaccessible to some people, so I’ve found an alternate program that’s amazingly user-friendly, highly effective, and fun. It’s WordBuild: A Better Way to Teach Vocabulary, and the entire program is contained in two comprehensive levels. WordBuild is “based on morphology, the study of the units of meaning in words. Just as phonology is the study of the sounds that make up words, morphology is the study of the meaningful pieces of words. A mastery of phonics helps students “sound out” unfamiliar words; a mastery of morphics helps students “mean out” unfamiliar words.” Read more

Celebrate National Punctuation Day!

Posted on September 24, 2009 
Filed Under Grammar, Inspiration, Writing | Leave a Comment

Okay, students, put on your party hats! It’s time to celebrate the not-so-lowly punctuation mark. We’re a little late to join the baking contest planned as part of the celebration, but there nothing stopping us from using commas, periods, apostrophes, and semi-colons to our hearts content. Choose your favorite punctuation mark and make merry!

Imagine a worldundefinedwithout punctuation a world in which wed have to guess at meanings and try to read smoothly without the aid of those handy little signals imagine how silly wed sound stumbling through Dickens or trying to skim through Hamlets soliloquy to be or not to be that is the question whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them to die to sleep no more and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to making sense of that without punctuation could be quite a nightmare especially for 10th graders if they are allowed to read Shakespeare anymore

Jeff Rubin, the founder of National Punctuation Day offers tongue-in-cheek suggestions for how to celebrate the holiday, including:

Rubin has graciously provided a page of horrifyingly funny pictures of errors spotted in public places (and instructions for how you can submit your own photos) . TIP: If you don’t find all the photos on this page hilarious, find a grammatically-correct friend to explain the joke. They’re too funny to miss!

P.S. The fact that I find these common errors funny doesn’t mean that I don’t occasionally overlook things in my own writing. It also doesn’t mean that I check incoming e-mails for typos. I’m not perfect, and I don’t expect you to be. I’m always writing under deadline, and I expect that you are too, so don’t worry about having your comments or e-mails perfectly proofread. I don’t have the time or inclination. I just like to hear from you–with or without typos!

Motivation: What Gets People Moving?

Posted on September 3, 2009 
Filed Under Homeschool, Observations, Reading | 1 Comment

Before you start school this year, you may want to consider motivation. What is the most effective way to encourage your children to study and learn?

Some of us (ahem–me, anyway) respond well to doing things I find intrinsically interesting, but can coerce myself into doing tedious stuff (balancing checkbooks, anyone?) by the promise of a hot-fudge sundae at the end. Not sure about the quality of work! My boys sometimes did hard stuff just because they were interested, but balked at what I thought was easy and quick. Daniel Pink’s video talk for TED is an interesting look at some detailed studies on motivation and the effect of rewards. Very interesting!

Why Christians Should Read Fiction

Posted on August 25, 2009 
Filed Under Reading, Teaching Literature | 3 Comments

I recently met someone who had been raised without fiction. No Little Golden Books, no Dr. Seuss, no Little House on the Prairie, no Chronicles of Narnia…nothing. I can’t begin to imagine, but the thought makes me feel a bit hollow inside. The reason? Fiction is “not true,” therefore it violates the admonition in Colossians 3:9– “Lie not one to another…”. What a horrifyingly incorrect notion to base an entire life upon.

The opposite of fiction is non-fiction, and the difference is not in whether they convey truth, but the method by which truth is told. Both can tell the truth, and both do (unless the writer’s goal is to do otherwise, and even then, truth usually shines through somewhere). Fiction shows the truth through story, one of the most powerful lenses available. Non-fiction relates fact, usually as a linear narrative.

Of the two methods of telling truth, story is the more powerful and memorable, because it engages the emotions. Remember King David’s reaction when the prophet Nathan related the story about the poor man’s lamb, then said, “Thou art the man!” Wow. Stories are told throughout scripture because we have been created with minds designed to receive teaching in that format.

There are so many reasons Christians need to be readers, and they’ve been ably addressed in a recent Breakpoint article, Why Should Christ-Followers Read Fiction? Defending Story by author Mary DeMuth. Please visit the link and read it, if you’ve wondered about the issue. She clearly addresses most of the major reasons we need to read.

This issue is important, so that another child won’t grow up in the impoverished environment that my recent acquaintence experienced. As an adult, she’s worked hard to make up for the lack of story in her childhood, but as she said, “I realize that I’m still missing areas of important emotional understanding that I believe I’d have developed if I’d been able to empathize with characters in a book.” When you consider that one of the characteristics many psychopaths have in common is the lack of ability to empathize, it reinforces the need for reading great literature, especially in those who are commanded to “love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

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