So, what is Blog Day?

Blog Day is an international holiday for bloggers who want to connect with people and blogs from across the world that they otherwise might not get the chance to meet or experience. It's a day to learn about new perspectives, share some insight, and expand your circle of friends even further, just by exchanging a few web links.

And now the big question is, "How will it work?"

Here's the link for the Blog Day posting instructions. It's not at all complicated. We're excited to see all the fun and interesting blogs you have.

So what is Sonlight going to do for this crazy holiday?

Well, post a comment on this post with a link to, and a short description of, your blog. Then, after I sort through the amazing links you all throw our way, I will choose five of them to post on the blog and encourage everyone to visit. Pretty easy, eh? So join us in celebrating this unique holiday and share in the community, sense of exploration, and discovery that Sonlighters have come to love.

Also, if you'd like to share Sonlight with others through your blog beyond just Blog Day, there's a quick and easy way to do so. We've designed a widget just for you that shows the latest three "Sonlight Moments". All you need to do is copy and paste the code into your blog's source code or an HTML widget. If you are uncertain how to do that, let me know. I'm always happy to help.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Blogger, Expectant Father

The homeschooling blogosphere has been filled with the news of Dozer's death. I don't know Marsha or David and haven't been following their blog very long. Even so, I keep bringing them up in morning prayer.

Every morning, employees here at Sonlight gather to pray together for unreached people groups, things going on in the company, our lives, the lives of those we know, and our customers who submit requests. We mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. But sometimes it is hard to go back to work after a particularly sobering morning.

But we go back to work because life goes on, even if life will never be the same for those for whom we have prayed. Yet despite the pain, the changes, the gaps or lasting aches, life doesn't change all that much for them either.

And that's the thing that is tweaking with me today: Life isn't the same, but it isn't that different either. Like graduation, marriage, a new job, moving and many other major life events, life permanently shifts but doesn't change that much. We still go to work, spend time with our family, eat, sleep... we're still ourselves, just slightly altered by our experience.

And so it felt odd today to write about the trouble we have been having with Sonlight's website. I mean, that is such a small detail compared to death in a family. But, on the other hand, with the website down, families cannot get access to the materials or help they need. And while it makes perfect sense to pray about both, it feels odd to write about them both as well.

Sorry. This post has been mostly my musings and jumbled thoughts, and I felt I had to get them out there. It has taken me three tries to get to this point.

So we're praying for you and your family, Marsha and David. And we're also working on getting our site back up. We would appreciate your prayers as well--especially for Kurt, our IT guy who has been up almost all night.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

Kelli Crowe got me thinking this morning. Her latest blog post is about a project her sons have been working on. It's really cool, but she notes that

Currently, David likes to write in all caps. ...I think it['s] more about expressing his individuality than anything.

I completely agree.

Over my already long, decorated and prolific writing career <cough, cough>, I have realized something about my creative writing: I do it for my own enjoyment. This is most acutely demonstrated in my poetry, which few enjoy and even fewer understand.

I have written a ton--including an 82 page, single-spaced, 10point Times font rambling poem that acted as my journal over one of my college summers. The "Tome," as I fondly titled it, has been read by two people.

Two.

And I'm one of them.

Thus, the biggest challenge for me, as a writer, has been learning how to write for other people. I'm still working on that. But I love writing, probably largely due to the fact that my parents let me find joy in my expression, and only later bled over my papers in an attempt to make them coherent.

So, besides ALL CAPS, what other ways of self-expression may arise? I can only give you a few examples from my own life:

I loved the Courier font for years.

I love puns and word plays.

I decided early on that "cannot" and "each other" and "P.S." were all silly, as well as the practice of putting the period on the inside of a quote if the last word was "irregular." So:

Ps. We can not bear to listen to eachother when someone is "abnormal".

Sadly, when writing more academically--as I do on this blog--I have to remind myself to do it "properly," but sometimes I don't catch these errors.

And because I love to read myself write, I tend to be rather verbose at times as well.

So for fear for boring my audience who doesn't love my writing nearly as much as I do, I will draw this all to a point: Do not "correct" your child's writing if they are doing something out of exploration and enjoyment of the English language.

I mean, I'm convinced that some poets became "great" because they refused to capitalize anything. Just assume your child is destined for greatness.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

...I cannot.

[Side rant: Why in the world is "can not" one word while "eachother" is two?]

I have a lot of little tasks to do throughout the day. Some of them aren't really little, but they are thrown into the mix of daily activities, eternal projects, quick memos, impending deadlines, and things-someone-just-handed-me-to-do-this-instant. Then I go home, spend time with my wife, help with dinner (read: I bug her to make it and keep her company <smile>), blog again, work on other projects that I always put off, and then have time to do as I please before collapsing into bed to rinse and repeat tomorrow. And if I was a good multitasker I think I would thrive in this kind of environment.

But I'm not.

I'm a "focused" kind of individual--meaning I can't focus to save my life unless I only have one thing on which to focus. Give me a task that is moderately interesting and no distractions, and I will disappear for hours without making a peep.

So this new position is an adjustment for me.

My only solace is that when I have kids I may be a better dad for it: Giving my undivided attention to my little darlings.

...a man can dream, right?

So, how about you? Are you a good multitasker? Any tips for those of us who are incapable of breathing and walking at the same time? It's a good thing my heart is on autopilot....

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

One of the many poems I have written includes the phrase "panacea turpentine." Unfortunately, I can't find the context for this meaningless, yet totally awesome, word pairing.

I think I justified it because a panacea is a cure-all and turpentine is a paint thinner, so it almost, almost makes sense. And it sounds cool enough to let it slide.

Why am I telling you this?

To this day, I can't think of the word "panacea" without immediately thinking of the word "turpentine," and I thought of the word "panacea" today... hence the title of this post. And this post is a confession:

I tend to think of Sonlight as a panacea.

...turpentine.

I find myself often feeling like Sonlight is the best option for homeschooling. I believe that Sonlight is fantastic. I work here and see how how much effort is put into the materials; I see how much is done to take care of the end users. I believe in Sonlight's approach to education. I think it is the best. And I'm not the only one.

So it's often hard for me to hear about how much people love other programs and don't find Sonlight helpful. I mean, Sonlight should be right for everyone! Literature-rich homeschooling, "Real" books, a guarantee to knock your socks off, and tons of helpful resources to make it work for you.

But in all my excitement--and I am very excitable--I forget a very important fact: Sonlight is not for everyone; we as a company even go out of our way to make that very clear.

And I was reminded of that this morning when I got a message about a blogger who had recently posted:

Reasons I'm Not Buying Sonlight.
I've been following Luke and his story for some time now. He's an expectant adoptive dad and a real nut for Sonlight Curriculum. ...I mean, here he doesn't even have children yet and he has plans that THIS is going to be the educational method they'd use....

Oh my! What had I said?

Please check out Mrs. C's post. It turns out I hadn't turned her off to Sonlight forever as I had initially feared. But for her and her family, Sonlight isn't the best option (at least for now <smile>).

So, is Sonlight the best? I believe it is. But if it is not right for your family, go with what is.

I wish Sonlight was a panacea, but I don't want it to be a turpentine to your family's educational journey.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

I got "A"s on my papers in college.

Well, most of the time. There was a "Personal Creed" paper I had to do on eschatology which earned me a "C" because--as the professor told me in his scribblings on the page--it was "NOT a paper to share my personal beliefs" (which happened to go against his own on his pet subject).

Personal Creed ... NOT my personal beliefs. --?

Wow, how did I get there? Sorry, I still have issues. Veering back on topic.

My college grades proved me to be a gud ryter. m'kay?

But I struggled with proper citation in High School, especially when we were told to follow the "official MLA format" which varied from year to year and depended largely on what your teacher thought. So much for "standardized citation" (Holzmann, 48).

I never got in trouble for plagiarism, but I did get docked now and again for putting a comma on the wrong side of this or that, or missing a semicolon somewhere. But now that I'm out here in the Blogosphere, I'm discovering that I am again struggling with "proper citation," and others have this issue as well. I do love links, so I don't think I've committed blog plagiarism yet, but it raises sparks when it happens. [NB: The linked issue has been resolved in the comments.]

This whole issue reminded me of something Weird Al has said: Misattribution is his biggest problem with file sharing. And he has put his songs where his mouth is. [Look at that logical fallacy: Appeal to authority. Oh well. This is a blog post, not a logic midterm.]

What do I do to deserve a "C" for blog standard links?

It's a little thing called "Hat Tips" that I'm still getting my head around. I have yet to do a hat tip, and I feel like I should put one here, but I can't remember which blog it was where I first noticed this concept... which proves to me the importance of hat tipping.

Hat Tip

So, whoever you were, I doff my hat to you, and I will do my best to make such things an official link in the future.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

Bibliography:

Holzmann, Luke; 48th post on https://www.sonlight.com/blog/, accessed 8/22/2008.

It is now legal for approved teachers in Texas to carry guns to school. Depending on who you read on the topic, this is everything from a fantastic move to a really dumb idea.

Me?

Well, first, most homeschoolers won't have to worry about this that much. But, if any of your kids end up in a public high school (like I did), then this will become a very real issue. And, as educators ourselves, we should all consider the ramifications of such a law.

Second, I have long held to the idea that many restriction laws only hurt honest folk. That's why I am personally against things like DRM while still fully supporting the rights of content creators to get paid for what they do. Making something illegal means that only lawbreakers will have it, and if that is a gun then we are defenseless.

But I also ascribe to the idea that "locks are in place to keep honest men honest," so while anyone could easily break into my house if they wanted to, someone has to choose to do so because my door is locked. If we encouraged/allowed everyone to openly wield a gun, I think we'd just be "leaving our doors open" to violence, so to speak.

The danger of everyone openly "packing heat" was pretty well demonstrated in a film I recently watched. If everyone can just pick up a gun and start shooting, people start shooting often.

We need balance (imagine that).

Crime rates drop, to my understanding, wherever responsible people are allowed to carry firearms. But wherever everyone (including children) openly brandish weapons, violence is rampant. So weapons must not be sitting around on teacher's desks (as some people warn will happen), but I don't see anything wrong with adding another line of defense for our school going children.

This reminds me of a story my dad told me from his school days...

His class was studying communism and the teacher had to step out of the classroom for a moment. My dad, always passionate about learning, started to lead the class in a revolt of the "oppressive" classroom. When the teacher returned, my dad was standing on a desk and leading the class in a chant of, "Down with the evil oppressors!" or something like that.

The teacher tried to regain order, but this only drove the freedom fighters into more of a frenzy.

The little old lady then walked behind her desk, pulled a handgun from her drawer, pointed it at my dad and told him to sit down.

He sat.

Nothing like an object lesson to teach about tyranny and martial law, eh? <smile>

Is my dad horribly scarred from that experience? I don't think so. In fact, in college, my swimming coach expressed his disbelief at modern laws. "We used to go shoot frogs in the creek with our guns after class," he mused. "How times have changed."

Interesting stuff. I wasn't even allowed to have a pocket knife on campus that was longer than 4".

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father