Holiday Gifts You Can Read
Give the gift of delight There’s a lot to be said for gifts you can read. Books provide hours of delight at just pennies per hour, and of course, I have a few suggestions (it was hard to whittle down the list!)....
Category: Ideas Worth Sharing
A gathering of thought-provoking or useful articles and ideas from other sources.
Virtue, Education, and the Electorate
An orderly line of voters snaked halfway around the parking lot at the polling place this morning. The crowd courteously made way for seniors with canes, wheelchairs, or walkers, with quiet thanks to those who sported evidence of military service. My...
Handwriting and Reading: Ideas Worth Sharing — IWS #4
It’s time for another Ideas Worth Sharing post, so even thought my internet connection is barely working, I’m going to attempt it. You’ll notice that almost all my links this time have to do with handwriting and reading. That’s because it’s...
How to Wisely Praise Children
Praise has power. Well-earned and properly given praise has the power to motivate and build confidence, while improperly directed praise can create unhealthy attitudes, provide an inaccurate self-concept, and even make children unwilling to try new or hard things. What...
Aunt Edie’s Commonplace Book, 1917-1947
“It is very helpful to read with a commonplace book or reading-diary, in which to put down any striking thought in your author, or your own impression of the work, or of any part of it; but not summaries of...
Ideas Worth Sharing: Tidying, Maps, and a Mighty Mug Review and Giveaway — IWS #3
It has been awhile since the last Ideas Worth Sharing (IWS) gathering post. Here are a few things I’ve enjoyed over the past few weeks. But first, let me give you the link to the Mighty Mug giveaway — I’ve had a...
Ideas Worth Sharing: On Learning, Practicing, Autism, Entrepreneurship, and Dressing Well — IWS #2
I have a habit of adding great articles to my reading list, so I can read them more than once. Sometimes I don’t get back to them for awhile, and usually when I do, the delight remains. Some of the...
Know Thyself: Are Personality Tests Useful?
If thou knowest thyself, it will follow thou wilt not puff thyself up like the frog that strove to make himself as large as the ox. Miguel de Cervantes Online personality tests seem to multiply like rabbits. Look around social media,...
Take Heart: 26 Steps to a Healthy Home School – A Review
A review by Janice Campbell When I began homeschooling in the late 1980s, there weren’t many curriculum resources available. Many homeschoolers made do with discarded public school textbooks or struggled to persuade textbook publishers to sell directly to home educators...
Ideas Worth Sharing: Education, Entrepreneurship, and Soul Care — IWS #1
Thursday seems a good day for an Ideas Worth Sharing (IWS) gathering post. Because I love patterns and systems, and like Hercule Poirot, order and method, these are roughly categorized by the areas of focus mentioned in Luke 10:27b – “You shall...
Re-imagining Education: Visions for the Future
Here is a playlist of a dozen interesting TED talks on education, mostly reflecting on the nature of education and traditional schooling and considering how it could be done better.
What Matters in Entrepreneurship is Whether You Can Get a “Message to Garcia”
Owning a business, even a microbusiness, is not a task for the faint-hearted or the spoon-fed. In order to succeed, an entrepreneur must be willing to focus, learn something new every day, and take the initiative to act when something needs...
The Ant or the Grasshopper? A Reason to Give Thanks
The fourth Thursday of November is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. While I believe in the power of giving thanks daily, if not hourly, this day offers an additional opportunity to reflect on things I’m grateful for. After family,...
Avoiding The Road to Serfdom
One reason to create multiple streams of income is to slow personal movement down the “road to serfdom.” When you diversify your streams of income, creating streams that aren’t dependent on traditional employment, you are taking a quiet step toward...
Gatto’s 7 Lessons of Compulsory Schooling
Here are seven horrifying lessons John Taylor Gatto wrote about teaching during his 26 years as a schoolteacher. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling is adapted from a speech given at a ceremony in which Gatto was named the New York State Teacher of the Year for 1991.
Quotes About Liberty and Entrepreneurship
In the month of July, I always stop to give thanks for the amount of liberty we enjoy as citizens of the USA. Liberty isn’t license — it’s the freedom to make moral choices and do what we believe to...
Dynamic Literacy’s WordBuild: A Review
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...
Purposeful Planning: A Review
It’s back-to-school planning time! Summer’s winding down, and we’re already preparing to head back into the school year (it’s almost too hot to think of!). Even though the boys are finished with homeschooling, there’s still plenty of schoolwork happening with...
Homeschooling at the Speed of Life — A Review
Homeschooling at the Speed of Life by Marilyn Rockett Reviewed by Janice Campbell As you wrap up the school year and start planning the next, there’s one thing you can do to make your next school year run more smoothly — read...
