Since 2000, Sonlight has awarded college scholarships. Check out the 2010 Sonlight Scholarship Winners. We will be adding biography blurbs for all the winners in the weeks to come, so stay tuned <smile>.
Do you have a student who will soon be a Sonlight graduate? Have you looked into applying for a Sonlight scholarship? You should.
Congratulations to this year's winners!
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father
the behinder I get! That seems to be a common theme in the month of February. The holiday "high" is over, motivation is hard to come by, and for some of us, winter is lasting forever. Every day I wake up feeling "behind".
I was thinking about this as Jill, Kelly and I recorded our most recent series of webinars: "Has Your Homeschool Dream Become a Nightmare?" Take some time over the next week or so to listen to the three-part series. Each session is about 45 minutes long. I think you'll be encouraged!
But back to being "behind". As I had the opportunity yesterday to interact with a mom who is feeling "behind" ... it caused me to evaluate just what that means. I asked her to define "behind" for me. Does she feel behind because her kids aren't at the same place their public or private school peers are academically? Did some holiday conversation amongst cousins or in-laws leave her feeling as though she was lagging in her homeschool journey?
Comparison can be just as lethal for homeschool students as for others. Especially when it is combined with mid-winter lethargy and lack of motivation. Invest a few moments to set some concrete academic and spiritual goals for your children. Just 2 or 3 apiece. Write them down and refer to them often this time of year. Learn to compare your child's progress to your *goals* and not to their peers.
Don't give in to comparing and measuring yourself to others ... enjoy the freedom that comes from setting your own goals.
~Judy
Fitting to speak of loving to learn right before Valentine's Day. And what better way to wrap up a series on the benefits of reading?
Books--at least goods books--are a joy to read. Far more than just providing enjoyment, though, these books teach you things. You can learn history, geography, sociology, philosophy and more through literature. In fact, I believe this is the best way to learn these things.
The stories help you make connections, understand what's happening around you and better articulate your response. More than that, you will enjoy doing so. You won't want to stop. You'll love it too much to quit!
Unlike other learning systems, reading great books will inspire you to learn more, not give up on an educational system. For as much as I enjoyed college, I feel no compulsion to go back to school. I'm done with the classroom setting. I'm sick of homework and tests and grade games. Yet I am still enthralled with learning. Sure, I don't make as much time for reading as I should, but when I find a great book I dive into it. I drink in the knowledge like a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice. I love it.
That is how education should be.
That is precisely how homeschooling with Sonlight is.
Sonlight combines all of the benefits of reading a ton of great literature and couples them with powerful tools that help you draw the most from the experience. I remember begging my mom to keep reading. I remember getting lost in a book. I remember homeschooling with Sonlight and all the wonderful benefits it gave me--as a student. I absolutely love to learn.
But wait, there's more!
Sonlight guarantees that your students will not only love to learn with our curriculum packages, but that you'll love to teach with them too!
As we look forward to a day full of chocolates, flowers and pink candies, there's really nothing more sweet than loving to learn together as a family.
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father
My husband, John, returned two and a half weeks ago from a few days in Kenya. He went with a group of businessmen to celebrate the dedication of the first 32 Bible stories of the Kenyan Sign Language Bible for the Deaf. These stories have been translated into Kenyan Sign Language and reproduced on DVD.
As John noted in a post on his personal blog, the Deaf were an unreached people group just 13 years ago. They had no indigenous way of "hearing" the good news about Jesus.
When I asked why Deaf people couldn't just read a regular Bible (I mean, there is nothing wrong with their eyes!), I was reminded of how we learn to read. To read, we connect the sounds of letters to the letters we see (i.e. "c" as in cat). Because of their inability to hear the necessary sounds, the vast majority of Deaf people worldwide never learn to read.
The new Kenyan Sign Language translation signs the stories of the Bible. And it works. Over the last thirteen years, Deaf communities in Kenya and India formed the first ever church worship services led by and attended by Deaf persons, and performed totally in sign language. When John attended a worship service in a Kenyan church, they had an interpreter translate the signs into speech so the hearing people could follow along!
The Deaf "sang" by signing the words to the songs, in unison with a strong drum beat, and they swayed and danced in praise.
The Deaf in Kenya face many challenges (very high unemployment rates, for example), but they no longer face the challenge of a future without Christ. And that's Good News!
Blessings,
Sarita
P.S. I was astonished to learn that the average Deaf American student leaves school with only a third-grade command of English and only one Deaf American student in ten reads at an eighth-grade level or better! (Statistics from A Journey into the Deaf-World by Harlan Lane, Robert Hoffmeister and Ben Bahan.) Go elsewhere in the world and the statistics are far worse.
It's no secret that I really enjoy Chuck. And now my mom is hooked on it as well.
[Obligatory disclaimer: This show contains content that will not be welcome in all households. Just because I think it's hilarious--and my mom likes it--does not mean that you will find it wholesome or acceptable by the standards of your family.]
Chuck is jam-packed with nerdy cultural references. These connections add to the humor of the show and give me one more point of contact with the characters and the story. This just heightens my enjoyment and fandom.
Reading tons of great literature has a similar benefit. You will be more connected with other books. Plots and characters will make more sense. You'll be able to draw even greater insights from the richness of the text by noticing where the author connects with another work. Even Christ used literary connection to add depth to His statements.
Many Sonlight families find that the connections they get from reading together go beyond the world of literature. The "shared experience" books provide give many points of contact within the family. This knits us closer together as brothers and sister, parents and children. We can all smile or cry as we recall an event that happened in one of our books.
Beyond that, I think many Sonlighters feel a certain camaraderie with each other. We have enjoyed many of the same things through the literature we share.
What are some of your favorite literary connections?
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father
Sonlight uses a lot of literature. I doubt it's a literal ton, but there could easily be a thousand pounds of books in Sonlight's Pre-K through High School Cores.
My mom, however, reads a ton of books. Literally. All this literature has given her the ability to guess plots. Most notably was this:
***Spoiler Alert for a 2004 film***
We sat down to watch The Village. The movie opens with a community meal. A crazed young man claps his hands and stares off wildly into the forest.
My mom, who doesn't watch thriller type films, looks over at me and says, "Oh, it's a world within a world story."
What!?! Come on! How could she know that?
***End spoiler***
My mom said that it was "obvious" because "directors like to show you things with subtle clues."
Uh-huh.
That very well may be the case. But the fact of the matter is that my mom knows so much story theory that she can pick up on the arch of a tale within the first few minutes of it starting. You don't get that kind of knowledge from studying literature theory. You don't gain those insights by reading textbooks on authorial intent. You don't pick up on those subtleties when you write an essay on symbolism.
No. You gain that skill by enjoying stories. You gain that skill by reading a ton. And, thankfully, Sonlight provides the first half of that ton in our homeschool programs.
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father
I love writing. I have since before I could write. One of the things I love the most about writing is that I am a genius. My prose and poetry is brilliant. I thoroughly enjoy going back and reading those things I've written that speak directly to the human condition, elicit long lost emotions and share insights into the darkest recesses of human knowledge.
But here's the catch: I hate listening to others read my stuff.
The luster is gone. My thoughts sound like inane babble. My gorgeous mastery of the English language is suddenly replaced with a hideous cacophony of poor sentence structure and pathetic reasoning. I'm an idiot. I should never write again.
Sometimes this reality strikes me when I revisit old passages and posts. I look upon a foreign text, something that could not possibly have flowed from my thoughtful and practiced fingers. I am disgusted. And then I wonder: Why do people read this stuff?
I've been revisiting some of my older posts.
For those of you who waded through those early days of blogging for Sonlight, I commend you! Thanks for swinging by and encouraging me. Your presence here spurred me onward to where I am today.
Today, though, I'm more wary of my writing. I read articles about how, if I were a good blogger, I'd write about you more than about me. I would ask questions more than make statements. My confidence shattered I wonder: Why does anyone read this blog?
Why do you read this blog? What makes you come back here again and again?
They--whoever "they" are--suggest that you be yourself on your blog. "Don't fake it," these nameless gurus say. And so I don't. I continue in my narcissistic outpouring of thoughts and experiences.
Is this one of the beautiful things of a good education--to love what we do and find pleasure in it?
I think so.
My parents let me explore my abilities, praised my efforts and continued to nudge me to hone my strengths. That, in turn, made learning a joy. And as we master things, the doing becomes fun as well. Which is likely why I love writing and find my words so insightful.
That's not to say that tears and correction are not a part of the struggle to master something. But I believe a slightly irrational belief in one's own brilliance is a boon to learning how to produce brilliant things.
Do you see that in your own children or in your life?
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father
