I read a fascinating--albeit a tad disturbing--blog post today about one man's experience as he lost his faith. I think the post is best summed up in his statement, "I seemingly woke up one morning and realized that my life would be no different, practically, without God."

There were a couple other posts today which also seemed to fit within this theme... but now I can't find them. Sorry.

Anyway, I got to thinking: There are certainly days when this is true of me as well. Not just in regard to the "god thing" either, but many aspects of my life. What's more, I can imagine lots of other situations where, if the conditions were right, I could abandon entire sections of my life without much practical change aside from the fact that "I would have much more time and much less stress" (5th paragraph).

What causes such a shift? Disengagement.

When I'm not living the way God has called me to, it's little wonder that His impact on my life is rather unsubstantial.

Take homeschooling as another example.

Those who spend time reading to their children, answer the endless stream of questions, talk through those "teachable moments" and engage and spur their children onward; those people know what a joy homeschooling can be. But what of the others? Those families who do no more than turn on the lesson--if that--and let their children learn via a video or computer model--never to take part in their child's education; those parents would see very little change, other than more time and less stress, if they abandoned homeschooling in favor of a public school option.

I'm not saying you should never use a virtual tutor or video lesson. I'm not saying that sending your children to public school is the same thing as abandoning them. That's not what I'm saying.

But if you abandon something and feel not ill-effects or loss, it may have more to do with your lack of engagement than the inherent value of the thing.

Think of your exercise equipment. If I owned such an apparatus, I can assure you that getting rid of it would do nothing to my life except free up some space in my house. Why? Because I'd never use it. My abs would be just as buff as they are today whether I owned an Ab-Flex-Master-Pro-HD Extreme^TM or not.

It's little wonder, then, that people who don't homeschool look at us as if we were insane. We're just adding burden and misery to our lives. Right?

Wrong.

Sure, it's not perfect. It's not even that fun sometimes. In fact, it can be down-right unpleasant. But the more we engage with it, the more we see the benefits and the beauty of it.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father

Today was our first official Box Day!

Granted, I was the delivery man and left the box on the front porch while the girls were still napping. But the box was there when we opened the door:

Sonlight Box

"What's on the porch?" my wife asked.

"My shoes?"

Shoes?

<cough>

Umm... no, child. Do you see the giant box that looks like it is full of wonderful things? No? Well, we'll bring it in anyway.

Bringing in the Sonlight Box

Opening the box is moderately interesting. Well, mildly interesting. But after you're told that you can't play with the scissors, all interest in the box vanishes. I'd rather go play with the lamp and my pine cone.

Opening the Sonlight Box

I'd Rather Be Playing

Fantastic.

At least we have one "reader" who is willing to hold one of the books... even if it is upside-down.

A Future Reader?

Once the toys come out, I guess I can be bothered to rejoin the group.

It's Not All Work

I must say, I was surprised by how heavy the box was, even though what we got was one of the smallest packages Sonlight offers. I couldn't even fit everything onto our decently sized coffee table.

Sonlight Newcomer P3/4

Will the girls come 'round and decide that they really are interested in all these books?

Only time will tell.

Kids have a way of dashing your fantasies. After reading all the amazing Box Day Stories, I was really hoping there'd be some glee and rejoicing. There wasn't. And the weather's been rather dreary all day, so I didn't even have good lighting. That's why my pictures aren't that shiny and nice.

<sigh>

How am I supposed to be the poster-child for a product when my experience isn't very poster-worthy?

...uh-oh... I hear some cries of distress from upstairs. Time to give the wife some backup.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father

...which I hope to be able to share with you tomorrow <smile>.

First, there's a very nice--albeit, minor--update coming to Sonlight's website. Not sure quite when we'll make it "go live" tomorrow... but it's coming.

Second, I placed my second order with Sonlight today! I ordered my very own Sonlight Newcomer P3/4 program.

If you recall, I wrote about my first ordering experience over a year ago. So, a year later, what was my ordering experience like?

Checking out is still more confusing than is ideal. But I'm one of the web guys now, so I can't really try to shift the responsibility of this on anyone else <laughing>. Thankfully, we've made a few improvements, but it's still not super smooth to checkout.

Also, I had to look up the difference between the Newcomer P3/4 vs. the Core P3/4 because, well, I wanted to know what my $15 would get me. Paper... scissors... ...ooOOOoo! Colorix Silky Crayons! Okay, I'm sold. I've heard nothing but rave reviews about these things.

Everything else about buying from Sonlight was cake. And, I will admit: I love the new pop-out cart thingy we've got. So super cool!

Since I placed my order at 1pm today, right before lunch, I can't really expect to have it to take home three and a half hours later. ...but I was hoping <smile>. I guess both updates, with pictures and whatnot, will have to wait until tomorrow.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father

Last night I got to do Read-Alouds for the first time (the other night the girls were too naughty, so reading was impossible). Granted, reading last night wasn't quite cuddling on the couch listening intently to a tale of wonder.

Rather, it was more like reading over a couple of talking and crying girls. Actually, that was it exactly. I was reading over a couple of talking and crying girls. They kept it up until the last couple of pages when they both quieted down and started to interact with the book.

So, naturally, we simply had to read it again <smile>.

But last night, Brittany was not loving it. She was exhausted, overwhelmed, and really not enjoying things. She said she felt cheated because other mothers loved spending time with their children. Why wasn't she?

I tried to gently remind her that there are many, many examples of people who feel overwhelmed and frustrated by their lack of a good time.

We still haven't purchased Sonlight's wonderful P3/4 program, but we are looking forward to having those added resources to help keep the little ones happily engaged. And, unlike many other aspects of life, you're guaranteed to love using Sonlight's materials.

That's right: Guaranteed to love it.

Sound too good to be true?

Well, it's not. Seriously: Check it out.

Today seems to have gone better, and I'm looking forward to doing a little more of the "Sonlight method" tonight. It really is a blast reading to them. In fact, if it wasn't part of a different tagline, I'd say I was lovin' it.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father

I was over on Sonlight's Facebook page and the ad caught my eye:

Facebook Advertising

'I didn't know we were advertising on Facebook,' was my first thought.

'I need to grab an image of that for my blog,' was my second thought.

Yes: If you haven't become a fan of Sonlight on Facebook yet, you should. I mean, seriously! Do you see who else is a fan of Sonlight in the ad above? That's right... Luke A. Holzmann himself. If that doesn't bring in oodles of people, nothing will. <smile>

Advertising is such an odd thing. I really like good ads, but I mostly despise marketing. Not because I don't believe in helping people find things that will help them, but because most marketing I encounter isn't about that. Just listen to marketing "gurus" and you too can begin to feel sick every time you think of advertising. In fact, except for the Superbowl--where the only reasons to watch are the food at the parties and the commercials--we've trained ourselves to tune out advertising.

So what if a company suddenly stopped marketing to people?

Would we find what we need and those little things that bless our lives and are well worth the dollars we spend on them? Would we just be inundated with other messages and end up purchasing something that wasn't as good of a fit for us? How would the word be spread about something that was super important if we no longer marketed?

Word of mouth carried Sonlight for many years, but then others started to run with our idea. Suddenly it became important to remind people that Sonlight exists, is excellent, and offers your family something stupendous that others--even direct knock-offs--don't even come close to matching!

But... yuck! Doesn't that just reek of "marketing"?

Sonlight's position on marketing is that marketing is about "customer-ing" instead of making money. We want to help people who will be blessed by Sonlight to try us out. And that's why I absolutely love Sonlight's Rewards program. For the first time we can thank you for sharing your love of Sonlight with others. I know I tend to hear about the greatest things from friends. But they tend to hear it from someone else, who heard it from someone who saw an ad, an article or a blog post about it.

So: Spread the word!

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father

Tonight will be my first ever attempt at reading aloud to children.

The Gammage Cup, Red Sails to Capri, Till We Have Faces and Brave New World... I've read all those and more to my wife. But what are Read-Alouds like for two and three year olds?

I don't think they're quite ready for C.S. Lewis.

My wife loves listening to me read. Will these little girls? Of course, the titles in Sonlight's P3/4 package are wonderful stories that I remember loving as a child, so I don't think I have much to worry about.

What have been your family's favorites to read before bed for wee ones?

And I've recently seen some discussion out there in the blogosphere about peoples' preferences for reading aloud versus listening to books on tape. Sometimes reading aloud wears me out, but if I'm really into the book I just keep going. Of course, I love listening to books on tape too... especially when I'm stuck in the car driving somewhere. There's something super fun about reading aloud and making up voices and embellishing the story with voice acting. Of course, letting someone else do that work can also be nice if I need to be doing something else.

So what's your experience? Do you like reading out loud to your kids? Would you rather listen to a book on tape? Neither--just let me zip through the book on my own!? And what are some of your family's favorites (especially in the younger years)?

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father