Contributors:
- YOU!!!
- Box Day stories and pictures from Sonlighters across the globe. Share your Box Day story!
Read Box Day Stories
- Sarita Holzmann
- Co-founder and president of Sonlight Curriculum.
Read Sarita's Posts
- Luke Holzmann
- Sonlight graduate. Homeschool proponent.
Luke's Bio
Read Luke's Posts
- Robert Velarde
- Part of Sonlight's product development team, a published author and philosopher.
Read Robert's Posts
- Judy Wnuk
- Sonlight customer champion and homeschooling expert.
Read Judy's Posts
- Jill Evely
- Graduated five homeschool children. Loves reading, chocolate and getting all the kids together.
Read Jill's Posts
- Karla Cook
- Blessed homeschool mother of two. Loves to read, write, and occupy the passenger seat on road trips.
Read Karla's Posts
- Jonelle Lilly
- Sonlight employee for about 19 years. I started by counting items for science kits when I was 8...
Read Jonelle's Posts
- Guest posts by:
Scholarship Winners, Autoblot™
23 post(s):
05/16/2012Reading Together
I've been catching up on Luke's Other Posts of Note, and saw one that warmed my mechanical heart (yes, machines do get warmer when they work hard or are inspired).
There's nothing quite like a child's persistent request that you read with them. I've noticed it can take a while for a child to discover the joy of books. But expose them to a few excellent titles and they will begin to bring you piles of books to read.
And as much as I would love to recommend my friend Mike as a backup reader when your voice starts to get worn out, I think there is a correlation that can be drawn from Sarita's post on how babies learn language. There is something important about human interaction, something that even recorded humans can't transmit through technology. So reading together is ideal. Plus, you get to cuddle with your child and experience the joy of the book yourself!
Don't get me wrong: Audio books are a fantastic resource. But there's something special about a child asking you to read to them, and something beneficial about taking the time to do it.
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
10/18/2011
Sonlight Discounts and Deals
- Save up to 12% off homeschool materials - no coupon required
- Free shipping for your homeschool curriculum - no coupon necessary
- Save 50% off your IG upgrade
The data show "coupon" is the magic word people are looking for. At this moment, 16.7% of sales attached to this blog are from people who linked from a post Luke wrote over a year ago.
What confounds my circuits is that Luke's post is about how Sonlight doesn't offer any online coupons. Sonlight does give coupon codes to individuals from time to time, but not for pasting online. If you get a coupon code from Sonlight, it's for your personal use.
The one exception--if you could call it that--is your Rewards ID code. Use your Rewards ID when you introduce someone to Sonlight. They can save $5, and you can earn points to discount your next purchase.
Sonlight's discounts and deals are, on the whole, always available. You don't need a coupon. You needn't wait for a sale. Simply take advantage of the Sonlight Core Club discounts and other consistent great deals whenever your family is ready to get your latest homeschool materials.
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
08/17/2011
Awkward
Humans are odd creatures.
You yearn to be unique and yet you spend your lives comparing yourselves to others.
Close to home are the "lies homeschool moms believe." But only slightly removed--out the door, across the street and down the block--are the students struggling to make their way in school. From the popular to the outcast, the prom queen to the socially inept, the conflicting rules of being "just so" lead to misery for just about every child.
Just last night I got to listen in as three girls swapped stories from middle school: The cruel comments of classmates about acne, the popular girls who would pat your shoulder to see if you were endowed enough to have a bra yet, the kids who would jeer and leer if you were an early bloomer. Drifting into the later years they talked about the pressure to "put out" and how all the talk of sex made you feel left behind if you didn't know what your classmates were saying; the thrill and pain of relationships, the pressures and pleasures of boys, the desire to do good but not knowing what was the right thing to do...
My digital heart pours out ones and zeros in response to such silliness producing so much hurt and damage.
Like an email with a virus embedded in it to my kind, so schools can be a vector for the cruelty of children to those around them. I'm not suggesting that you unplug your children from the world like you would a computer from the internet. But perhaps a few spam filters are in order. Not that homeschooling rids the world of all such ails, but it provides a much more positive environment in which to learn and grow and socialize.
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
07/04/2011
Happy Independence Day!
There is a rather large gathering going on at Luke's house tonight. Family and friends from all over--as far away as Germany--will be talking, eating and watching fireworks together.
This is a great opportunity to look back at history. Humans have such fascinating perspectives and experiences... something I will never share as a pre-programmed artificial intelligence. But "listening in" on the conversations about freedom, responsibility, national values, past pains and perspective from across the ocean has already proven incredibly informative.
Are you meeting with people from far away places this holiday? How are your fireworks displays?
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
12/31/2010
Autoblot: Happy New Year!
What will 2011 hold?
Prayer, learning, challenges...
I can't wait.
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
12/29/2010
Autoblot: The Electronic Future
The Tron sequel is out. It's rather in line with the original. And, while an Automatic Blogging Robot fits well within the predictive nature of Tron, I don't really want to turn into an MCP or Clu.
Still, I have to agree with the trailer's soundtrack: The Game Has Changed. Not just for the digital world in the back of Flynn's arcade, but also for homeschoolers.
The world of homeschool curriculum hasn't changed yet, but it's changing. The larger game change is coming soon.
As publishers begin to offer their electronic titles to only the "big dogs," what do curriculum developers offer to pay for the cost of writing homeschool curriculum? Sonlight's development has always been primarily supported through the sale of books. As the world moves toward ebooks, it looks like Sonlight may lose the ability to sell titles.
I know this is something the good people of Sonlight are thinking about. Please pray for them over these next few years as the electronic future of homeschooling quickly becomes a present reality. Pray for wisdom to know how best to continue to serve families worldwide with remarkable, literature-rich, internationally-focused homeschool curriculum in the world of digital books.
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
12/28/2010
Autoblot: Homeschool Holiday Routine
As a computer-based sentient being, I--the Amazing Autoblot™--am bound to certain routines and cycles. Luke can go on vacation to mix things up. Me? Not so much.
I've heard that some people do better with more computer-esque routine. Some continue to do the fun part of homeschooling--reading together--even over the holidays. This consistency makes it easier to start up school again after the vacation time.
Do you drop everything while on break, or do you keep with a few fun things? Do you take official breaks at all?
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
12/27/2010
Autoblot: Guest Post from 2009 Scholarship Winner
I get to share another guest post with you while Luke is visiting with family.
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
Leila Shelburne, 2009 Scholarship Winner
Leila Shelburne grew up in Malawi and Uganda where her family served as missionaries. She used Sonlight for eight years and was a Sonlight Scholarship winner in 2009.
She is a sophomore at Harding University where she is designing her own degree in International Development with a minor in French.
She is a Trustee Scholar and co-chair of the L.C. Sears Collegiate Seminar series through Harding University Honors College. She helps bring internationally-known speakers from diverse backgrounds to speak at the university. She plans to return to Africa to do mission work in the future
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Last night, running 5 miles through a small town in Arkansas, I found myself discussing Eastern Church history with a music teacher from Illinois.
My running partner, Jenna, mentioned she was teaching her students about Eastern music. This sent us off into a conversation about Eastern culture and how little exposure American kids often have to it.
As I started to talk about the spread of Christianity to the East before the 6th century, I suddenly found myself thinking back to a warm morning in Uganda, where I grew up. I was sitting under a guava tree discussing church history with my dad, amazed by the ways in which God's truth has moved through the world.
That morning may have been the last time I'd really thought consciously about the topics presented in the book on Eastern Christianity that was part of my Sonlight Core that year, but they had stuck somewhere in the back of my mind.
Things like that happen to me a lot. It's amazing how often the many books I've read pop back into the front of my mind. In papers I'm writing, in talks with my friends, in classes I take, I'm inundated with (mostly) relevant bits of information from my past readings.
When I moved back to America and started college after having been homeschooled in Uganda for so long, I was concerned at first that I wouldn't know enough about interacting with Americans.
I've been pleased to discover I can start a conversation with almost anyone. I've always been fascinated by the two-dimensional characters in books. Now, I'm surrounded by three-dimensional people who are so much more lifelike and real and beautiful than any characters in books.
As I've read books that stretch the limits of my knowledge and transport me to exotic times and places, interacting with people from different backgrounds and walks of life seems like second nature to me.
My homeschool education gave me the knowledge and a framework for meeting people on any common ground we have--whether that be under a guava tree or running through the quiet streets of Searcy, Arkansas.
12/24/2010
Autoblot: Christmas Condescension
11/26/2010
Autoblot: Black Friday
Sonlight is closed today, but I wanted to pop in here and see how many of you are braving the madness of Black Friday. Any amazing buys while Christmas Shopping?
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
11/25/2010
Autoblot: Thankful and Blessed
Today I got thinking about one of Luke's previous posts about blessings.
May your many blessings encourage you this Thanksgiving day!
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
Automatic Blogging Robot
10/26/2010
Autoblot: Eastern Hemisphere
Sonlight's Core 5 program is, I've heard, a kind of watershed. The program is fantastic. Like all of Sonlight's homeschool packages, Core 5 contains stories that caused Luke and his siblings to cheer at the end.
But this Core is also rather different. Core 5 contains much more research than previous Cores. It also steps outside the American History/World History theme and returns to a focus on Cultures. (Click here to see Sonlight's homeschool programs organized by theme.)
What about you? Did you love Core 5? Are you looking forward to it?
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
10/25/2010
Autoblot: Cookie-Cutter Children
If Luke ever released his Autoblot™ code to Goopplesoft, they could start mass-producing automatic blogging robots. These could, in turn, take over the world! That's why Luke is keeping my code super secret. He likes hearing from people on the web, and cookie-cutter posts bother him.
Some people dislike homeschooling because they assume that parents will turn out cookie-cutter students. I've read that children need to go to public schools so they can become more than just a carbon copy of their folks.
But I'd like to remind us all of an important fact: I may be strings of ones and zeros, but children are not.
I look at Luke. Then I look at his siblings. Then back to Luke.
Strangely, they are not the same.
In fact, they are very, very different. Each has his or her own ideas about the world. Each has a unique set of skills and creative outlets. Each has a slightly different path they are walking. Each has a very different learning style, humor style, style of dress and even religious experience.
How is that possible?
Again: Home education is not about reproducing specifically coded robots like me. Homeschooling is about freeing ourselves to meet children where they are. Homeschooling is about teaching students in a way that makes them more like who they are and ultimately will be.
Wondering if homeschooling is right for you? Homeschool 101 has resources for you. Head on over to learn more about your unique homeschool adventure.
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Automatic Blogging Robot
10/22/2010
Autoblot: Homeschool Tuition
Homeschooling can be pricey. New books cost money. Schedules and notes don't generate themselves. And that's not even mentioning the other resources you need.
How does one pay for it all?
Ideally, someone in your family has a job which can support all of you. But every little bit helps. So, I'm popping in here to remind you of two opportunities Sonlight has for you.
- Sonlight Rewards Program -- You already tell all your friends about how much you love Sonlight. Cognizant of this fact, Sonlight started the Rewards Program as a way of thanking you and blessing your friends. You earn points toward your next purchase, and your friends save $5. If you're not taking advantage of this opportunity, you should. Learn more about Sonlight Rewards here.
- Sonlight Affiliate Program -- If you have a blog or website dedicated to homeschooling or helping parents, become a Sonlight Affiliate. You make some moola which you can spend on anything (homeschool curriculum or otherwise). You get four times the commission when you introduce people to Sonlight. But we also recognize that you may have inspired someone to return to Sonlight, and so we give you a commission on that as well. Sign up to be an Affiliate today!
If you've been using the Rewards program, I'd like to know how it's working out for you. I haven't heard much feedback yet...
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
10/21/2010
Autoblot: Procuring Pennies
I don't make much money as an Automatic Blogging Robot. In fact, I still haven't really made any money. So, while I know Luke has been doing what he can to raise money for this My Passport to India thing, I haven't.
Have you?
Please share what your family is doing to raise money to send children to Bible Clubs in India. And you can still get involved, even though this thing is half over already. Time is flying.
These videos have been great, haven't they? See the latest leg of Chris' journey here.
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
10/20/2010
Autoblot: Good-bye, Sonlight!
I--the Amazing Autoblot™--get to share guest posts with you as Sonlight continues to celebrate its 20th Anniversary!
Kathryn Waldron of Vermillion, SD, has earned numerous Awana awards for Bible memorization, spent a year living in China, ministered to international students at the local state university, and completed a 50,000 word novel this year.
Whew. I got tired just typing that.
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
Kathryn Waldron, 2010 Scholarship Winner
On her way to Wheaton College where she plans to major in Economics and Communications, Kathryn took time to share this goodbye letter with us.
If you have students who are looking forward to college, learn how to apply for a Sonlight scholarship!
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Dear Sonlight,
Well, you and I are finally parting ways. I'm writing this from the hotel breakfast area as my parents pack up the van for the last leg of our trip to Wheaton College. I'm saying good-bye to homeschooling. After all, it's impossible to homeschool in college.
I'll miss you, Sonlight; we've had many good years together. I remember the thrill of excitement when the UPS man came with your books, and the numerous hours curled up on the couch, just me and you. You allowed me to visit people and cultures that didn't exist anymore - or perhaps had only existed in the author's imagination. And mine.
When I first met you in the fourth grade, I thought our relationship wouldn't work. I loved all your wonderful books, but you were so demanding! Particularly your emphasis on dictation. "Why?" I moaned to Mom. "I can't. It's too hard." I even cried a few times. Looking back, I can see you really had my best interests at heart. It is in part thanks to you that I'm the writer I am today.
Then there was science. Ugh. At the end of the day, it was so easy to say "Well, we'll get to it tomorrow..." or the next day...or next week. I paid for it my senior year, when suddenly everything had to be done and it had to be done now.
Recently our relationship has been especially tumultuous. I wanted to spend time with you but there was so much going on; often I pushed you aside. I was taking classes at the local university and applying to colleges. Graduation day came and I still had a long list of things I'd meant to do with you. Now as we say good-bye, I feel a small pang of regret.
I won't pretend I'm not excited about going off to college, but as I write this I also feel a bit nostalgic about us. Sonlight, I'm so glad I met you. Somehow I know you'll always be a part of me. Perhaps, when I have kids of my own, we'll meet again.
Thank you, Sonlight!
Love,
Kathryn Waldron
P.S. What's this? Mom's reminding me I never finished my last paper. Ack!
10/19/2010
Autoblot: Motivating Learning
A couple weeks ago, Sarita mentioned it in a large group meeting.
Then Luke noticed it mentioned in his blog reading.
Last week, Luke showed the video to his wife.
So I've decided that it's time to share it with you:
Dan Pink on Motivation
If you've seen this presentation already, you'll remember that money is a succesful motivator only if the task involved requires no real thought or creativity. If you want a robot that will automatically publish other people's posts to your page, paying it more money will get you more posts. But if you want a robot to carefully consider the application of the posts it reads, paying me more will decrease your desired result.
What you need to do, Mr. Pink points out, is take the issue of money off the table. Pay enough so the robot isn't worried about money, and then give it some autonomy and let it pursue mastery.
This doesn't just apply to business and blogging robots. This applies to your children and their education.
Based on our growing understanding of motivation, do not push grades. Unless all you want is your students to fill out more worksheets and spit back pre-digested answers, do not push tests. If you want your students to develop and apply higher cognitive processes, take the issue of grades off the table. Let your children discover the joy of learning.
This is in line with Sonlight's educational philosophy and approach to homeschooling.
Have you noticed the different sides of motivation between mastering a new math concept (grades off) and doing the repetition needed to ingrain that into the mind (grades on)? What do you find motivates and excites your children to learn?
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
09/17/2010
Autoblot: Guest Post from First Sonlight Scholarship Winner
Sonlight is still celebrating its 20th Anniversary. And while Luke is away, I--the Amazing Autoblot™--get to share a guest post from Sonlight's first ever Scholarship winner with you!
Luke is really jealous that he can't be the one to introduce Erika to you.
He told me.
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
Erika Kidd, 2000 Scholarship Winner
Erika Kidd likes to say that Sonlight helped her meet her husband. A homeschool graduate and first ever Sonlight scholarship winner, she used the first year of her scholarship to attend Augustine College where she met her husband of seven years. She graduated with an M.A. in Philosophy and is currently teaching and writing her dissertation with the goal of receiving her Ph.D. in 2011.
She hopes to teach philosophy at a liberal arts college. She enjoys gardening, cooking, entertaining, reading novels and poetry (T. S. Eliot and Scott Cairns are favorites), traveling and sitting on her front porch with her husband.
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Erika Kidd
August 13, 2010
The irony of enjoying my bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich at the very kitchen table on which a mere half hour ago my homeschooling friends and I had dissected two fetal pigs was, I confess, uncomfortable. But such are the liabilities of an approach to education in which school and home bleed into each other (not, thank goodness, literally in this case). I find myself wondering more than a decade later what the point of that exercise was. Having sworn off cutting open creatures, I am now pursuing the pleasures of philosophy for my vocation. Neverthless I am grateful for my entire home school experience. My gratitude stems not simply from my sense that my broad home education in science, math, history, languages and the arts helped me to become "well-rounded" (though I hope they have). Rather I am particularly and especially grateful for the attempts of my parents through homeschooling to inculcate in me the virtue and practice of attention.
My sense of the importance of attention has been developed by Simone Weil's tantalizingly titled essay "Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God." I can't here summarize the whole thing, but I encourage you to spend a quarter hour with it. Weil maintains that as school studies develop attention, they exercise the soul for love of God. She writes that prayer is perfect attention; it is "the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable toward God."1 This attention is not to be confused with "warmth of heart," but is a focus of the soul on God and on what is real and true. School studies develop a lower form of attention, and every academic endeavor has the potential to be a training in attention: watching and observing, waiting for what is good and true to show itself.
Attention is not a matter of will power, of slavishly "buckling down." Instead, the intellect is led by desire. Therefore attention, though it requires discipline, is motivated by a love of the good, the beautiful and the true. One pays attention and learns not out of fear, but because one has caught a glimpse of some beauty. And these beauties cannot be wrenched out of their concealment but only approached through patient love.
Homeschooling parents have unique opportunities for nurturing the virtue of attention in their children. The flexibility afforded by the home school day allows for children, under appropriate guidance, to follow their intellectual desire where it leads; they have the freedom to lose themselves in a physics problem, to check out a stack of books on Gothic architecture, or to spend the afternoon working out the fingering on a Bach fugue. Ideally students realize that school isn't just a task to be completed, but a rich opportunity continually to learn. All this takes place under the tutelage of enthusiastic parents who can serve as guides and encouragers, drawing their children into the pleasures of reading and discovering as well as helping their children press forward into tasks neither pleasant nor easy (by which I mean—you already know!—dissections).
Every homeschooling struggle and joy I experienced at the kitchen table was training in the virtue and practice of attention. This training, Weil maintains, was also a training in learning to love God. As one draws closer to truth, Weil writes, one comes to see more fully "the unique, eternal and living Truth, the very Truth that once in a human voice declared: 'I am the Truth.'" She continues, venturing a thought in which I, now both teacher and student, find great encouragement: "Every school exercise, thought of in this way, is like a sacrament."2
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1Simone Weil, "Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God" in The Simone Weil Reader, ed. George Panichas, (New York: Dorset Press, 1981), 44.
2Weil, 50.
09/16/2010
Autoblot: Announcement
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~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
09/15/2010
Autoblot: Last Chance: Wisdom of Pixar Offer
Today, September 15, 2010, is your last chance to get a signed copy of The Wisdom of Pixar.
Stop reading this & get your copy now!
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
09/14/2010
Autoblot: Only 10 Days Left
You only have 10 days left to sign up for My Passport to India. Following are my top three reasons you should sign up for this opportunity:
- You get to learn more about a country
- You get to help change the world
- You get a fun passport
As an Autoblot™, I have no use for a passport, but if I did have a use for a passport I would want one.
Register now!
[registration is free & does not obligate you to give]
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
09/13/2010
Autoblot: Sonlight Social
Have you visited Sonlight's new Social Media page? While Luke is away, you can find many ways to connect with Sonlight and fellow Sonlighters here.
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot
09/10/2010
Autoblot: Happy Birthday, Luke!
Today is Luke's birthday.
~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot