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

...He Sometimes Breaks a Window

That title came to mind a week ago. I thought it was clever and fun, but I wasn't so sure about the theological implications.

Joseph--you know, the kid sold into slavery by his brothers--seemed like a pretty solid example of God's redemptive power working in even violent situations. And with that, I decided the title was legitimate. God breaking windows and all.

So what door has remained closed?

Adoption. We're still waiting.

What window just broke?

After work I'm heading to the airport to pick up three girls: Brittany (my wife) and two little ones we're going to be caring for over the next two months "or so" ...meaning, there's no real end date in mind yet.

Broken Window

Bittersweet.

On the one hand, we get to love and care for two little girls. But we're only surrogates. It's very temporary.

We have the opportunity and joy of having two children. On the other hand, a family is hurting and in such need that they are sending their children away for a while. The pain is palpable.

Open door? No.

Open window? Nope.

But we get to squeeze past a few shards of glass for the time being.

And that's something... something else entirely.

But for now, I'm no longer an expectant father. I'm a surrogate.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father

I love Brave New World--which is part of Sonlight's Core 300 program. I know it's not for everyone. My sister couldn't stand it and my wife hated the ending.

But me?

Totally enjoy it.

One of the government slogans used to train people how to act is the phrase "Ending is better than mending." Get rid of old stuff so you can buy new stuff. This keeps people working and makes the economic system thrive. For this post, it doesn't really matter if this thinking plays out in reality or not. What rankles every one of my recycling/repairing/reusing sensibilities is that, in many cases, this is an economic reality of today.

The Deltas and Gammas of Huxley's world have been replaced by computers and machines. And now it is often cheaper to buy a new computer, or camera, or gizmo than to pay someone to take the time to figure out what went wrong, purchase the piece that needs to be replaced and fix the thing.

In fact, judging by how much I pay for recycling, it's cheaper to produce boxes, bottles and cans from raw materials than to go through the hassle of collecting the finished product from in front of my house.

And that blows my mind.^*

But I read an article today that confirms: It's often cheaper to replace than to repair. This has led to exactly what Huxley describes in his work. We are a culture of disposables. And this has profound impacts on the kinds of products we buy, what we expect of them, and how we see new brands. We're always open to the latest and greatest because we don't see much reason to stick with the old and busted.

"Tried and true" is often less important than the "latest and greatest." And with good reason: Very few things last long enough. We don't make 'em like we used to. [Aside: Even those phrases smack of social programing on par with Huxley's government.]

We must consider this reality here at Sonlight. We continue to improve our homeschool materials, but we're not going to completely change. What we have is guaranteed to let you and your family love to learn. Sonlight works, which is why we continue to use great books. But you'll get the most out of Sonlight when you keep reusing those books again and again.

And in that sense, ending is certainly not better than mending!

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

^*Well, it almost makes sense when I have to fill up my car with gas again!

...or, at best, don't work quite as well as expected.

If you've experienced the joy of watching Discover & Do, you may remember the many Outtakes included at the end of the DVD. (Aside: If you have the DVD but haven't watched the Outtakes, I highly recommend them. Of course, I cut them together, so I'm a little biased <smile>) These Outtakes were moments from shooting when things didn't quite work.

Sometimes the "fail" was epic.

Like the time the seeds we were using for the experiment titled "Grow, Grow, Grow!" never grew at all. Or when the invisible ink didn't come back. Makes it a little hard to demonstrate the activity when the very foundation of the lesson falls out from under you.

Trap Door

But while these failed experiments can make you feel like you're falling through space, there are important lessons to be learned. Stuff doesn't always work out the way you would hope. You can do things wrong. Mistakes happen. And sometimes, life just doesn't go the way you expected.

And that's okay.

The important thing is to move on. Don't let yourself stay in the place of "failure". Instead, get up, try again, or move on.

That's a lesson we need to remember as adults as well: If something isn't working--even failing--don't let yourself stay there. Set it aside for a while, try it again after you've thought about why it didn't work, or move on to the next thing. There are too many great opportunities in life--and homeschooling--to let the things that aren't quite working stop us.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

It's a fad right now: Posting your disclosure policy on your blog. And this fad may be driven by the Feds as they try to clamp down on those sneaky advertisers using personal testimonies on blogs as a way to lie to the peoples.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I ever said it in so few words, so here it goes:
I am paid to blog for Sonlight.

Yep. Blogging is one of the many things I do here at Sonlight. One of the other things I do is correct totally odd things that have long been on Sonlight's website. I happened across this little guy today:

IG YR INTR WD H

...uh-huh.

But back to disclosing: I can understand why the federal government would be concerned with this kind of thing. But it still feels odd. See, if you're not honest--and you only paint glowing, wonderful pictures of stuff--people will eventually tune you out. Consumers are pretty savvy when it comes to reviews, feedback and testimonials. We're pretty good at figuring stuff out.

If you hadn't noticed, several of my Other Posts of Note have recently had to do with the struggles and difficulties of homeschooling. The school year is still getting going, and feeling overwhelmed is commonplace. And it'd be dumb of me to not include those posts--which are encouraging in their own way--just to try to paint homeschooling in a better light.

But this new policy begs the question: How long before the Federal Trade Commission decides that they need to watch ThinkGeek reviews and IMDB ratings? Sure, this really does have to do with trade (you're trading your time blogging for a product or bonus or a couple of coppers to rub together) and personally instigated reviews do not. So, the FTC isn't likely to come play on most of your blogs. But what about Rewards links and the like? They going to clamp down on those?

Interesting stuff to think about in this world of "new" and "social" media.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father