Come to a Virtual Homeschool Convention!

I’d like to invite you to the Ultimate Homeschool Expo, a first-of-its-kind online homeschool convention! If you’ve thought of attending a homeschool conference in the past, but were discouraged by the cost, or the challenge of dragging small children through miles of curriculum hall, or the distance you’d have to travel to get there, you definitely need to check out Cindy Rushton’s Ultimate Homeschool Expo.

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In One Ear…

…and out the other. Remember that saying? Unfortunately, that’s almost completely true for visual learners. Auditory learners, on the other hand, could probably say “In one eye and out the other” with as much accuracy. I hadn’t thought of it before, but learning style is a part of everything we do, not just academic work. Learning style affects creative expression in art and music, and doubtless, affects which of the two we find more compelling.

The difference between auditory and visual learning styles was ever so clear to me last night as our family got together to practice a song for a camp-out this weekend. My auditory learner chose the song, “Then Came the Morning” from a Churchmen CD, and we have all been singing it casually for awhile. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find an arrangement we liked in the key we needed, so we just gave the CD to my daughter-in-law so she could create an accompaniment. When she arrived last night with the words to the chorus scribbled on a piece of notebook paper with chords noted above, I realized she must be an auditory learner as well– especially when the accompaniment she played sounded just like the accompaniment on the CD.

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‘One of the Family’ - Frederick G. Cotman - 1880

What's your vision of home?

TV Turn-Off Week- Why Not Just Toss It?

Turning off the television is always a fabulous idea. I don’t have one to turn off, but if I did, I’d certainly be happy to celebrate TV Turnoff Week. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to sit and stare when they could be living!

Sponsored by the Center for Screen-Time Awareness, TV Turn-Off week has been celebrated during the fourth week in April since 1995. According to the Center’s website,

“Television cuts into family time,

harms our children’s ability to read and succeed in school,

and contributes to unhealthy lifestyles and obesity.”

Well, duh…

It reminds me of the television poem in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Have you read it? I won’t reproduce it all here, but you can read it all at the Rice University website.

I totally concur with Dahl’s first stanza:

“The most important thing we’ve learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set –
Or better still, just don’t install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we’ve been,
We’ve watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out….”

Dahl goes on to point out exactly what happens to these lolling and slopping TV watchers:

“But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK — HE ONLY SEES!”

Not a pretty picture, eh? You notice Dahl was using all caps to ’scream’ long before it became an internet convention! But he obviously felt deeply about the issue, and so do I.

Dahl doesn’t leave us with nothing to do, though. In the final stanzas of the poem, he implores:

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They’ll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start — oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They’ll grow so keen
They’ll wonder what they’d ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.”

And to that I would add, “Go out and play!” Children should have free time to build forts, play in the dirt, swing on the swingset, play hide and seek, run Tonka trucks over each other’s sand forts (and learn to resolve squabbles;-)), play dolls or teddy bears, draw, paint, practice cooking (”yes dear, that’s a very interesting cake”), smoosh clay, climb trees, play the piano, harmonica, guitar, or accordian, throw snowballs (and possibly dirt clods), splash in creeks, build with Legos or Fischertechnic, catch crawdads, re-enact famous battles or scenes from favorite books, learn to knit, crochet, and embroider, and just run, jump, and play.

As they grow older, they need time to learn hand skills as well as head skills. If they are sitting and staring, being mindlessly entertained, how can they can travel, plant gardens, lay brick paths, learn to use tools, practice cooking (edibly), hone sports skills, hike, bike, climb, trim trees, start a small business, write letters to the editor, lend a helping hand by volunteering, write a book, or have any real fun? And when will they ever have time to play hide and seek in the back yard with the whole family? That’s fun!

There’s so much in life to see and do, and it’s all so much more rewarding than lolling and slopping! If you have a television, I encourage you to seriously consider tossing it. You really won’t miss it!

And finally, brain scientist Jane Healy’s classic, Endangered Minds, offers many more compelling reasons to toss the television. If you have children and you haven’t read it, please do so. It’s scholarly, but very accessible, and the evidence she provides that television actually changes children’s brains is truly unsettling. Healy’s scientific evidence supports what common sense has told us all along– heavy television watchers are less literate and have more learning difficulties than children who grow up with books. No surprise there! There’s a lot more, though, so it’s a book I highly recommend.

This week, I hope you enjoy many tv-free hours. Life is waiting!

Carpe diem…

Endangered Minds

Death Be Not Proud

In memory of those who died at Virginia Tech, April 16, 2007.

Death Be Not Proud

by John Donne (1573-1631)

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death; nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and souls delivery.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better then thy stroke; why swell’st thou then;
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms…

(Deuteronomy 33:27)

Wordless Wednesday

Greening treetops against an April sky.

Frost’s Prayer in Spring

I love Robert Frost’s gentle reminder to enjoy the beauty of today. It helps me remember to enjoy not only spring, but also my sweet boys. I hope you enjoy the poem as well.

A Prayer in Spring
by Robert Frost (1915)

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.

Can You Write Persuasively?

I’ve been thinking about writing persuasively this week. There are many times in life when you want to write persuasively, and it pays to know how do it. Sometimes, nothing more than a refund is at stake, but at other times, something much more important may be riding on your ability to persuade someone else to see your point of view.

Persuasive writing has been on my mind lately as I’ve read about the case of Melissa Busekros, a 15-year-old German girl, who has been taken from her family, primarily because the family has chosen to homeschool their six children. People around the world are writing to the German government in protest, as this act seems to violate Germany’s own determination, via ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 26/3, passed May 1948), that it is a primary right and responsibility of parents to determine the education of their children. You can read more about the story at Netzwerk Bildungfreiheit and at the website of the International Human Rights Group.

The following letter, written to the Minister of Bavaria, about the case was forwarded to me, and I’d like to point out a few elements that the writer has included in an effort to make the letter more relevant and compelling to the reader. Read more

Celebrate with Free Poems!

In honor of National Poetry Month, I’ve gathered some of my very favorite poems, and I’d love to share them. I’ve created a new mailing list for poetry only, so if you’d like to be inspired with free poems, please sign up at the bottom of the column on the right. You’ll receive one poem a week for as long as you care to. Think of it as a cup of coffee for the soul!