How's the first month of the year been treating you?

Perhaps you've spent it chilled out by the pool, enjoying a green smoothie while your children play quietly with each other, taking breaks now and again to do their studies. Your family has done the cooking and the cleaning. In fact, life has been running itself so well, all you have to do is pick what meal you'd like your little helpers to make you.

Life's good.

Of course, your life may be good... but on the opposite end of that spectrum. You feel buried. Your children, your house, your husband, your pets all need your attention--not to mention the laundry and the dishes. If that's you, you may find some really great tips and reminders by watching the Organize Your Home for Success video.

I can relate to feeling swamped. Right now I've got a ton to do for the new catalog season, and I've got very limited time to get it all done.

When you think of it, please pray for us. We need wisdom as we work to make the website easier to use. We have a ton of code updates and content changes we need to make as well.

I haven't had much time today to do any preparation for blogging. I like to let my brain mull over an idea while I work throughout the day. That way, when the time comes to write, I've got something say.

Today, I didn't have that luxury. My brain has been fully occupied with other projects and tasks. The idea of creating a meaningful post felt overwhelming. "I wish I had it all planned out for me beforehand. A blueprint makes building a lot easier," I told myself.

Blueprint

Suddenly, I realized that we are constructing a blueprint for you.

The effort we are pouring into the design and function of Sonlight's homeschool curriculum today will be the blueprint you can use tomorrow. We do what we do so you don't have to do it. We want you to be able to do the things we can't help you with--such as spending time with your kids and cooking meals--without getting bogged down with the things we can do for you.

We can build you a homeschool blueprint.

One of the pragmatic goals of Sonlight's homeschool curriculum is to save you the time, effort and brain power needed to gather, schedule, plan, organize, and think about your homeschool lessons. So on days when you feel buried, like me, you can still offer your children a meaningful day of learning without adding one more thing to your plate.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester

The black plastic recorder contrasted nicely with the sheet music in front of me. I was at a weekly homeschool group. We were doing our music lesson. Well, we were supposed to be doing our music lesson.

Come to think of it, I wasn't thinking about my recorder or the music. I was goofing off. So where the handful of other kids. I don't remember what had us so amped. I can't recall why we were giddy. I don't even remember being that abnormally off the wall. But we mindlessly brought our teacher--a sweet homeschool mom--to the end of her rope.

"That's it!" she finally bellowed. "If you're not interested in learning, just take your games outside."

The room fell silent. What were we supposed to do?

"Go," she commanded.

We went.

I placed my recorder on the railing of the back deck. The joy had left our game. We tried to play, but it was half-hearted. We had failed. We had broken the system. And, I learned that day, there comes a point where being a rebel isn't fun anymore.

I realized I needed to share this story after Susan blogged about her unmotivated son. I am definitely one of those bloggers who extols the benefits of homeschooling when it comes to the love of learning. I mean, I'm blogging for a company that guarantees you'll love homeschooling. Even so, there are times and there are subjects that simply require putting your nose to the grindstone. There are days when it may be better to just go outside and play. Effort isn't always equated with joy.

But when you see progress because of your effort?
When you begin to gain mastery?
When you use tools that resonate with you?
When you've got a system that works for you and your family?

Then--then--homeschooling is a joy. Not always. Not in everything. But in general. Overall you and your children will love learning together. And it could be that you need to find those resources that inspire your students. I had to switch math programs one year because the one I had was boring me to death. After we moved to a math program that was more in line with my personality, I again rocked in math.

When do you notice your students are unmotivated? What do you do when you feel like you're constantly reminding them to keep working? Have you ever kicked your kids out of class?

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester

One of the things I hope to try this year is a "trailer" video of the new things from Sonlight. I shot three segments today. I'm scheduled to film the last one early next week. I need to keep moving if I'm going to get this thing cut together in time to share it with you.

As I was packing up my equipment, I noticed a blog worthy picture. I had set up an easel and draped paper over it to block the sun shining directly into my lens.

Creative Sun Shade

Two weeks ago I taped a clear trash bag to a window. I needed a little diffusion, and a trash bag was what I had on hand.

This kind of life hack is nothing new. My brother once used a baseball bat to flip a light switch when he was too short to reach it. My wife often substitutes ingredients. None of us have the luxury of acquiring absolutely everything potentially useful.

We work with what we have.

Here at Sonlight we seek to provide you with what you need for your homeschool. We offer some things, such as the Sonlight Microscope, that--while not essential--could be a huge boon to your studies. But you are free to hack it without such a device.

What's the craziest/coolest thing you've ever done to hack your life? (NB: Please don't tell me about any literal computer hacking or similar illegal behavior. Thank you.)

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester

Blogs have finally taught me a skill I had failed to master until now. I couldn't do it in high school. I still couldn't do it in college.

I realized I had made a breakthrough when my dad recently asked me, "How do you keep up with all the blogs you follow?"

I'm the kind of guy who reads at the speed of writing: One word at a time. There's no way I could burn through several hundred posts every morning in a couple of hours.

But I do.

The skill required to pull off such a feat is something called "skimming."

Skimming is the art of letting your eyes pick out important words within large amounts of text to get a gist of the meaning or topic. This was, in theory, how I was supposed to read my college History textbooks. I was supposed to somehow glean the information I needed by burning through dozens of dull pages of drivel to find the important meaning buried within the poor writing.

I couldn't do it.

I read, word by word, through a few paragraphs before my brain crashed. I would wake up a couple hours later, having learned nothing. I had no idea how to find the "important" words within the chapters. Shouldn't every word be important? Clearly not. But in college I was still stuck with the idea that published books selected by my educator should contain a significant amount of important information. I blame it on my Sonlight background. Every book my mom handed me had meaning and was a joy.

Blogging finally broke me of thinking that written words must contain deep meaning for me. Not because your posts are lame and meaningless. Not at all. But I quickly discovered that I personally was not interested in certain topics. On the other hand, I found myself reading any post that had to do with a few particular subjects. The more I read blogs, the better I become at recognizing the key words and phrases that alert me to a topic of interest or importance to me.

In reading the headline and scanning a post for a few key words, I can now decide if I should read all of it, skim sections of it, or move on to the next post. It is incredibly freeing. I can cover so much more ground because of it.

Sadly, because I was raised on Sonlight's incredible literature, I grew up believing that every block of text contained a goldmine of value. This hindered me in college (and a bit in high school) when I began to encounter flat and pointless texts.

Text

I'm thankful for the Sonlight Difference. The pain I experienced from reading dry textbooks in college says far more about the nature of those texts than it does about Sonlight.

Still, it is nice to have finally mastered a skill I'd heard about all these years.

Do you find it hard to skim great literature? How did you learn to skim?

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester

Twenty years ago, my mom was homeschooling us kids and loving it. When she learned that some families were struggling with their homeschool adventure, she decided to start Sonlight Curriculum.

That's right: My mom started Sonlight while homeschooling. Granted, Sonlight was a bit smaller back then. But my mom worked while homeschooling.

Now, I'm not nearly that on top of things. I didn't work while in college. I went to class and I swam. In reality, swimming on the team took up more time than a part-time job. And, with my scholarship, probably paid better too. But, whatever. The fact remains: I felt way too overwhelmed to work and do school at the same time.

Right now, The Old Schoolhouse is hosting a Blog Cruise on Working and Homeschooling. If you're interested in learning how others pull that off, check out some of the posts.

You can also listen to a fantastic Sonlight podcast on How to Homeschool While Working. This 40 minute presentation is broken up into four parts, so you can catch bits of it when you have time. Because, even if you aren't working yet, I'm sure you're plenty busy.

Even if you're successfully homeschooling and working, you may learn ways you can do both better. If you're interested in learning more about working while homeschooling, check out the How to Homeschool While Working podcast.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester

Let's say you're interested in trying out something new. It could be a new digital camera, cookbook, spelling program, dental cream, garden tool or smartphone app. Before you decide to invest in this amazing new thing, you wonder: How do other people like this?

That is, if you're anything like me. Not that I use dental cream. I have, however, used dental wax before. Which isn't really the same thing.

Where was I?

Right. If you're anything like me, you probably read reviews, blog posts and anything else you can find on a product before you shell out your hard-earned money. And you're not alone. We all love to hear about the experiences of others. Like penguins on an iceberg, we'd rather find out if someone else got eaten before we're ready to jump.

That's where you come in.

Several of our more recent products do not have any reviews yet.

MathTacular4 Reviews

Would you be willing to take a couple minutes and rate the homeschool products you're using? You will help other homeschoolers make better choices. Since you've already "tested the waters"--as it were--your insights and experience are invaluable. The number of stars you select will help shape the buying decisions of homeschoolers around the world.

That's huge.

Please feel free to review anything from Sonlight that you've used. But I'd really appreciate your feedback on:

MathTacular4
Grammar 5
Grammar 6
and Piano Wizard

Thank you so much for braving the waters for the rest of us!

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester