Jen Robinson has an update on her Cool Girls of Children’s Literature list—now 144 characters strong! She also wrote a great roundup post this weekend, chock full o’ links to interesting reading in the kidlitosphere. Kidlitosphere. Kidlitosphere. I just made that up. I know, because:
(Click to enlarge)
Yes, I am that big a geek. And yes, I know it is a silly, silly word. I like it anyway.
Maureen of Trinity Prep has invited readers to share their Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers. Maureen’s list is here. (My favorite: “Be yourself: let people get to know you. We love to hear your success stories but sharing in your failures is when we see ourselves in you.”) Mary G posted her list and Henry Cate of Why Homeschool shared his thoughts on the subject. Over at Principled Discovery, Dana passes along some advice from Greg of Rhymes with Right, such as, “Become an expert. Make yourself a “go-to-guy” on certain issues. I did on the Abdul Rahman case earlier this year, and have written a lot on William Jefferson. School censorship cases are also a topic that I often write on.”
ProBlogger is putting together a bound-to-be-way-more-than-seven list of blogging tips. The running list of contributors is here. Also of interest: this article on essential sidebar content. #1 on the list is a site search engine, which surprised me. I used to have one here but took it down a long time ago. I think I’ll put it back and see if I notice a difference in page views.
Seth Godin has some tips on how to increase your blog’s traffic. Among other things, he recommends encouraging comments “so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.” He also advises the use of Technorati tags and del.icio.us. (The latter is a “social bookmarking” site: you can store your bookmarks there just as you do on your own browser. The advantage of this is that you can access your bookmarks from any computer, anywhere, and also because you can share your bookmarks with others. I like it for marking posts I want to come back and read or blog about later. However, I seem to have really flubbed by importing all my Safari bookmarks to del.icio.us—I forgot about the big long list of bookmarks I never use that came automatically with the browser. Now my del.icio.us list is too unwieldy to use. Anyone know how to delete a whole category on del.icio.us? As in, all posts tagged “Apple”?
Finally, here’s a post from the Deputy Headmistress not about effective blogging, but rather effective blog-READING. Like me, the DHM is a big fan of Bloglines. There’s no way I could keep up with the blogs I enjoy without the help of my Bloglines subscriptions.
Okay, this is pretty cool. I can’t wait to show my kids. It’s called The Human Clock: “A clock photo for every minute of the day.” People from all around the world have sent in pictures displaying the time in creative ways. I wonder if there are any in ASL? Maybe we’ll take a picture.
HT: Jinkies! <-- I cannot stop saying "Jinkies." Scott is writing a lot of Scooby-Doo these days, and that's Velma's favorite word. And it will—not—get—out—of—my—head. Help. (At least rrit's rretter rran Rrooby rralk.)
According to this quiz, I’m a “Love of Learning” mother:
• Intellectually curious and patient, the INTP mother relishes those times with a child when they are learning something interesting together. Whether they’re at the zoo or computer terminal, she sparks to answering his or her “whys” with in-depth responses or new knowledge.
• The INTP mother is also objective and introspective. She listens to and discusses children’s ideas and questions as she would those of a peer, fostering self-esteem and confidence. Open and non-directive, she allows children the freedom to do for themselves and quietly encourages them to believe they can do it.
• Independence, autonomy, intellectual development, and self-reliance are probably the INTP’s highest priorities for her children. An avid reader, she naturally imparts an appreciation and love of reading as well.
• Drawn to all types of learning, the INTP may also value her mothering experience for all the new insights about life it provides her.
HT: Elizabeth
So I dropped a hint the other day about my upcoming new gig. ClubMom.com has decided to launch a group of blogs blogged by mommyblogging bloggers who are also mothers. They’ve assembled a diverse bunch of moms who will blog on such topics as: weight loss, pregnancy, cooking, religion, staying home with baby, parenting tweens, parenting teens, parenting special-needs children, and (drumroll) homeschooling. (Bet you didn’t see that coming.) (Okay, so you saw it coming a mile away.) Starting in the next few weeks, I will actually be getting paid to blog, which is both very nice and hard to believe.
Last week ClubMom began to roll out the first of the MomBlogs, and it’s been fun to watch each new one appear. (While waiting in excruciating suspense to find out what mine will look like and what it’s going to be called, because they asked for suggestions but haven’t said yet whether they actually, you know, LIKED any of my suggestions, and the suspense is so great I am completely unable to concentrate on the laundry. Oh that’s right, I don’t DO laundry. Whew.) Having recently developed an appetite for food blogs (ba dum bum), I am particularly intrigued by Big Slice of Life, Small Slice of Cheesecake‘s new “Small Slice” sidebar feature, where blogger Jenny Lauck (aka BigSlice) promises to post daily photos of her dinners, complete with instructions. I love it when food bloggers allow me to vicariously savor their meals while I eat my frozen pizza.
As for me, I have been asked to focus primarily (but not solely) on the topics of homeschooling and special-needs children. (Including, sometimes, homeschooling special-needs children.) I will still be blogging here at Bonny Glen, especially on all things related to children’s literature and the living-books lifestyle. And if there are any topics or questions you would like to see addressed either here or there, please do drop me a note!
Innovative, I call it, and yet the curriculum is as old as it gets. A new private school is opening near Charlottesville, Virginia, offering a course of instruction that makes a classical homeschooler’s heart go pitty-pat: Latin, Greek, math, logic, music, drawing, history, and literature. St. Bede’s Latin School will open next fall with classes for students in 6th through 8th grade. Its founders intend to offer one additional grade each year, eventually rounding out a complete middle and high school program.
Modeled on Highlands Latin School in Kentucky (founded by Cheryl Lowe, who is familiar to many homeschoolers as the author of Latina Christiana), St. Bede’s is “committed to restoring the Great Tradition of the West by immersing students in the languages and literature of the past—those founts of wisdom that have nourished the western intellect for centuries.”
Like young C. S. Lewis, St Bede’s students will find themselves immersed in the study of Latin and Greek language and literature. “Until very recently,” states the St. Bede’s curriculum summary, “most thinkers and writers in the Great Tradition of the West were schooled in both Latin and Greek. Only a few generations ago, Latin was a standard discipline even in public schools. While many are beginning to rediscover the importance of Latin, we should not continue to discount the importance of Greek. Aside from being the language of the early church and of philosophy, Greek is the most exacting and precise of all the European tongues. The study of Greek prepares the mind for any intellectual discipline.”
The rigorous course of study will include readings from The Iliad, The Odyssey, Theogeny, and The Oresteia, as well as writings by Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Xenophon, and Arrian. Particular focus will also be given to music, logic, and mathematics. Rather than attending separate classes for each grade level, the sixth through eighth grade students will learn together in mixed-age classes.
“The model of the one-room schoolhouse,” says St. Bede’s co-founder Arthur Rogers, “is a more natural and saner one than the practice of rigidly dividing children according to age. The younger students need older ones to admire and to follow, the older students ones to help and to guide.”
What is innovative about St. Bede’s is its schedule: students will attend class only three days per week, Tuesday through Thursday. “A school,” states Mr. Rogers, “should not usurp the authority and responsibilities of the family.” He maintains that “small classes and very little coming and going from one room to another will eliminate much of the wasted time that characterizes the public school (and many private schools).”
I poked around a bit and was only able to find a handful of schools in this country which observe a shortened school week. (The aforementioned Highlands Latin School is one.) It is a striking concept, however, one which may appeal to school-educating families and home-educating families alike. As a matter of fact, Highlands Latin School grew out of a homeschooling co-op. Mr. Rogers explains that Cheryl Lowe’s school “developed from a co-op she was running one day a week for a few years. As she attracted more students, she decided to go to three days (with the fourth day of optional enrichment).”
St. Bede’s School, too, will offer an optional half-day of Friday enrichment activities. The combination of a challenging classical curriculum and a non-traditional three-day schedule is quite an intriguing notion. One so often hears complaints from school-educating parents about how overscheduled and overstressed their children are; a shortened school week would seem to ease that problem, and the vision behind St. Bede’s and Highlands Latin suggests that this can be done without shortchanging academic pursuits.
I would love to hear from readers about other schools observing a three-day school week. When it comes to education, less (so we homeschoolers say) is so often more.
Tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home education, education, classical education, Latin, private schools.
Related reading for home educators: The difference between a traditional Latin-centered classical education and a neoclassical education.
How to put on a Band-Aid so it stays on all day. (Comprehension of Japanese not required.)
HT: Chris O’Donnell.
As Jewel, you are slightly stubborn and a tad head-strong, but you are valiant, brave and daring. Admired for your free spirit and adventurism, you are the subject of much respect.
HT: Alice