More digging through what's happening on the Forums today.
Please let me know if I can be of any help, or answer any questions, or look something up for you.
Unfortunately, because of all the other things I've been researching and writing to people personally about, I don't have anything to say here except: This is a lot of work and your prayers, support, and insights are very, very welcome.
Thank you!
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father
Praying, Luke! Thanks for all you guys do for us!
Thank you Luke.
I'm truly appreciative of the effort you're putting into solving these problems.
Blessings,
I'm not on your sonlight forums, but I hope for you all that it's resolved soon, whatever "it" is : )
BTW- your blog says "expectant father". When is your baby due?
Thanks for putting this on the top of SL's priority list. It is appreciated, really.
Luke,
I sent the following through the sonlight web contact link. I would have sent it to you directly but didn't have your email address. I want you to read it.
Please don't jump to conclusions from looking at my profile pic, it's my attempt at humor on blogger.com, I follow my wife Susan Williams' blog. My e is lindsey@bigbisonproductions.com if you care to respond to me.
Here's what I sent and thank you for your time in reading it:
Hi, I was looking for some direct email address' for Sarita, Wayne, and John but could not find them on this site so if you could, please forward this to them it would be greatly appreciated.
I'm Lindsey Williams and we have been using your curriculum for many years. It's wonderful, and I'm grateful to Sonlight for making such a rich curriculum available to our family. My wife, Susan Williams makes all the decisions about what to purchase from you and we average spending around $1,000 per year. Believe me it's well worth it!
Not only does our family benefit from the cirriculum but Susan enjoys connecting and communicating with other homeschooling parents via your forums. This is a very important part of her life as it gives her an outlet to connect with other folks whom she shares the common bonds of faith, education (Susan has a M.A. in elementary school counseling), & parenting.
For years now I have watched Susan nurture and grow relationships born on the sonlight forums. Once again I'm grateful to sonlight for providing the forums as they offer something of great value to our family.
I do not have an account to be on the forums and really am not interested in one for myself but since Susan, (Susan in the boonies) is my wife I hear a lot about what's going on there. Mostly it's all good but recently there has been a shift in the "tone" of what's going on there.
Susan posted something that she received a 3 month "slap on the wrist" for. She showed me what she posted and all the circumstances surrounding the post. I know her heart as I have lived with her for almost 22 years and must say to receive 3 months worth of infractions for speaking "the truth in love" (Eph 4) about another member of the body, well, frankly leaves me scratching my head.
I'm not going to defend her if she did something wrong because I firmly believe in discipline, but from my point of view someone there (other than the moderators) should take a good look at this and review it carefully.
Communicating via internet/email is a very tricky thing and it is human nature to read between the lines. It is very difficult to "know" someone's heart by simply reading what they write on a forum, in a blog, or email as you cannot "hear" the voice, watch the body language, or more importantly look them in the eye.
Hopefully whoever is reading this will indeed pass it along to Sarita, Wayne, and John because what's happening on your forums in not a good Christian witness. I do include many forum members as well as moderators in that assessment.
I am making a copy of my words here and will attempt to track down the email address' of everyone there at Sonlight who I feel needs to read them.
Grace & Peace
Lindsey Williams
a very concerned husband & father
I haven't been on the forums in quite some time and even then wasn't especially active (but I've gotta say, now I'm curious as to what has happened). I pray that all of you can solve whatever problems there are.
Kim, thank you so much. Your prayers are much appreciated!
Robin, you are most welcome! I hope my comments have been helpful thus far and we continue to figure this out together.
Morgan, thanks! And we're working on adopting three children--siblings--from Kyrgyzstan... so there is no due date, though it's been over a year now since we were "matched" with them. It's been a long haul, and there is no indication that the waiting will end soon. Prayers are always welcome <smile>.
Mary Grace, thanks for the encouragement! It's always nice to hear, and we're still working on this.
Lindsey, I spoke with Wayne and he said he has replied to you. If that did not resolve everything, please let me know. You are always free to comment here, and my email is actually on the right here on my blog.
Heather, thank you for your prayers! We certainly need a ton of wisdom and grace as we work through this.
~Luke
Luke, can you help me figure out what happened on the student forums. I had a talk with my son this morning, and it came out that he had been banned. I heard his side of the story, but I'd like to hear yours. Also-- in the past, Mrs. A would contact me any time any of my kids received a warning or infraction of any kind. This time my son was banned and I didn't hear about it. I'd like to know what's going on with that.
Amy
Amy, drop me an email with your son's Forum username and I'll find out. Unfortunately, I don't see your email address anywhere so I can't contact you or look up your son that way.
Hmm... I wonder why you're no longer getting updates. I'll ask about that to when I get your information.
~Luke
<cough> "too"
...wish there was an "edit" option for those of us prone to typos. <smile>
~Luke