I really like words. That's one of the reasons I share "Words of the Day" with you when I stumble across them:

Autochthonous:^* indigenous; originating where it is found

Brought to you by
Milton Gaither

Definitions are important because, without them, we lose meaning and the ability to communicate. In debate they say that "he who defines, wins" because if your definition is accepted you can direct the conversation where you want it to go. A few examples:

• Is abortion a medical procedure or murder?
• Is swatting your child's hand training or abuse?
• Is evolution a scientific fact or a godless lie?
• Is homeschooling selfish and vile or a wonderful opportunity?
• Is eating meat productive or immoral?
• Is the use of "he" instead of gender neutral pronouns acceptable or chauvinistic?
• Is this blog fantastic of lame?
• Is Luke Holzmann a ninny or brilliant?

Ultimately, much like the last two, neither answer is entirely accurate--or, perhaps more accurately, both answers contain a certain level of truth. Logicians call what I gave above a false dichotomy. But the point remains: If you can convince people to accept your definition, you are more likely to sway them to your side.

The difficulty, then, is determining what definitions are correct. And when there is disagreement, discover what drives the two sides. Why do they define it that way? And what's influencing that definition?

Are you a parent or a teacher? Are your offspring your children or your students? And what in the world is a Core or an Instructor's Guide anyway?

I spent some time today working on a lexicon for a potential new Sonlight product. It was amazing to me how difficult it is to find words that will be wildly recognizable without leading to wrong impressions or confusion. Schedule or Calendar? Asset or Resource? Teachers Manual or Lesson Plan? Course or Program or Study Unit?

May the words you use today be edifying and understood by those around and closest to you.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father

^*Yep, I had to look up the pronunciation too.

...is when you have to break it.

I'm a routine guy. More than that, I'm a schedule guy. I don't always have to be on time ...as long as I'm early. I park in the same spot every day. I have a morning routine. I have a evening series of events. I do the same thing every Saturday night and Sunday morning (Movie Night and church, respectively). My body is so used to my order of life, I wake up at 6am on mornings I forget to set my alarm (which is great because otherwise I'd throw a hissy fit because my groove was thrown off. Not proud of those moments).

You get the picture.

Today, my routine was broken.

Garage sale season has started; there was one this morning. And for that one garage sale I got up early to do a little work, then drove my wife to meet my sister and my mom, watched the girls for a couple hours with my brother-in-law, drove home and then, and only then, was able to come into Sonlight--four hours later than I usually do.^*

I was grumpy.

And that's the real problem with routine: I feel entitled to it. The problem is me. Routine is fantastic, even beneficial in many ways. But like so many good things, it's how we use it and respond to it. Vegetables are great, but they aren't if I were to go ballistic on the kids over them. Money is wonderful, but an unhealthy focus on it leads to trouble.

You get the picture.

Are you like me and need to have a solid routine? Or are you on the other end of the spectrum--with my wife--and fight against repetition? I'm guessing neither extreme is super healthy. That's why I'm so thankful for Sonlight's approach to scheduling: Consistency with flexibility. Every Sonlight Instructor's Guide allows you to plan your day how you want so you can quickly adjust when you need to. Like when garage sale season starts....

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father

^*My wife accused me of wanting to get to work so desperately I almost drove down to open the building at 6:30. I still maintain that I had responsibilities that were thankfully covered by another.

My wife can hold three small children at the same time. She can make dinner, tell me to stop looking in the fridge for a snack and keep an ear open for the plaintive wail of a distressed child. She can listen to a podcast and play WoW or be in Second Life. She's a pretty impressive person.

But she can't multitask.

You can't either.

NPR has an interesting article on this. But I think, 'Perhaps I'm different. Perhaps I really can do multiple things at once.' If you're anything like me, I suggest you give yourself a practical test via the Multitask flash game. [NB: There are ads for webgames on this site. While I didn't notice any offensive ones when I hit the site, that does not rule out the possibility that they exist.] It took me all of about a minute before I realized that my constant switching in focus didn't cut it.

Businesses--I hear--have found this to be true as well. People are far more productive if they sit down and focus on a task. Unfortunately, the world of instant messaging, email, phones, Facebook, Twitter, RSS and the like make it difficult to stay on target. I know I get distracted when a message pops up telling me that I just got a new email.

I found it interesting, then, to read about a school that is excited that giving their students laptops "helps them multitask." I don't see how this would be a good thing. I heard that recent studies have found no benefits to trying to multitask.

Case in point: I know when my wife is multitasking while I'm on the phone with her. She's far less communicative if she's also checking Facebook or looking for a cool new app... she may be able to juggle a bunch of kids, but she still can't multitask.

Instead of encouraging your children to practice being distracted in the hopes that it will make them more prepared for the world of new media, encourage them to focus on a book or story and then switch their attention fully to the next subject at hand. This is a great skill to have when talking to people too: Give them your full attention.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father

P.S. Despite what I say above, I think it was great that my mom let us play quietly with Legos while she read to us. My sister sometimes doodled as well. There is something to be said for freeing children to focus on something other than merely "staying focused." So, perhaps--just perhaps--moderation is a good thing as well...

Jerri Ann asked, "When do you quit [helping with] homework?"

It's the homeschooler in me that answers, "It depends."

If a student is truly confused, why wouldn't you help them? Because they need to figure it out on their own? That is a great skill to learn. But if we believed that people should always figure things out on their own we'd never try to teach them anything. The learning process is a give and take that, when applied well, leads a student to move beyond what the teacher has taught. Confusion is a terrible state. Sure, don't spoon-feed answers, but simple clarification can be the difference between giving up and a light bulb moment.

If a little instruction will help a student move forward, help them! I am grateful for the friends who help me with things even here at Sonlight. And if I'm not too old to still benefit from a few pointers, I doubt your student is either.

Ultimately, though, I think this sums it up: Learning is far more important than "going at it alone." In fact, pushing students to figure it out on their own may actually reinforce the idea that building on what others have learned is a bad thing... and that would be a terrible mistake. We should all strive to stand on the shoulders of the giants who have gone before us.

I'm not advocating, however, that students should always get your help. I know there were times when I was mentally "dragging my feet" instead of applying myself. In those cases, it was good for my mom to leave me alone. Hand holding wasn't going to help me.

As a teacher you are your student's weightlifting partner. You're there to help lift the bar when the weight becomes too great. But you'd do no favors if you carried the burden instead.

Now I just mixed my metaphors...

Lifting Weights on the Shoulders of Giants

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father

I mention cowboys and Sonlight's catalog on my blog and no one comments. No one mentions it on Facebook. I mean, I realize it was toward the end of a post, but I thought I'd get at least one giggle or "yeehaw" or something.

I got crickets instead.

Then I noticed that Facebook never published the post that mentioned cowboys and catalogs and contests. Say wha? What's going on here?

I fiddle. I tinker. I poke around. Finally I add the "Notes" tab and, lo and behold, there the post is... but it's still not on Sonlight's Facebook Wall. First it was Twitter that just stopped updating my stuff. Now it's Facebook. The social media world has conspired to bring me a slow social death.

<tears>

I've got several things I want to blog about, but they are sensitive subjects that require more thought and much more wisdom than I have. A few others would be better to post about at a later date. One is perfect for Father's Day (though I wrote it last week).

Needless to say, I'd rather be writing about other things than trying to sort out the mysteries of social media tools that simply stop working all of a sudden...

...and, please, someone tell me you thought having a cowboy on a page that said "Whoa! Hang on a minute there, cowboy" would have been hilarious. Otherwise, I'll have to post the crying cowboy sketch again...

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father

I noticed a spike in tweets about Sonlight yesterday. What further piqued my interest was that they were mostly directed toward one person who had asked for homeschool curricula suggestions.

Why had this person generated so many tweets?

I swung by her blog to see if I could figure it out. It was very nice. Then I noticed something...

Whoa. She has almost 6,000 followers!

Suddenly I was back in the pool as a college student. I frequently won races. I held school records. I was super cool! Until we attended a meet with some of the really big schools--like Standford and BYU. I took 86th in the 500. I doubt I had been bested by 85 people over the course of my entire swimming career prior to that.

Any dreams of Olympic gold that may have been budding in my subconscious died a gruesome death that day, mercilessly drowned in the pool of competitors that were way outside my league.

I was reminded of two things:

1. I should never, ever, ever look at my blog stats. It's depressing.

2. I am so thankful for you because you promote Sonlight so much better than I will ever be able to. I am grateful that so many Sonlighters take the time to share their love of Sonlight with others. Don't forget: We started the Sonlight Rewards program as a small way of saying thanks.

And speaking of Twitter, I should work on a Twitter widget thingy for the Widgets page...

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father