Leaping From The Box

For several years now, so many that I’ve lost count, I have hosted a weekly homeschool chat on IRC. Every Friday I “meet” other homeschoolers from across the globe and we chat. What do we chat about? The list is endless. Here are just a few topics that we have touched on recently:

• Handwriting skills
• Math curriculums and websites for the elementary aged student
• Changing food diets
• Field trips
• Co-ops, what they are and how to find one
• Finding social avenues for homeschooled teens
• How formal learning should or should not be for Preschool and Kindergarten
• Parenting techniques
• Housecleaning tips
• New pets
• Decluttering ideas
• How to begin homeschooling
• How the weekly chat has helped some members get through the burnout state of mind
• Having a schedule vs. not having a schedule
• Planning for college
• Online virtual schools

As you can see, we do not stick solely to homeschooling topics. As long-time homeschoolers know, almost everything that affects homeschooling also affects our daily lives, and vice versa. So homeschooling becomes life. Maybe I should promote my chat as a “Life Chat” in the future? What do you think?

Our chat members come from the fifty states along with several countries, which is why I call it an “International” homeschool chat. One of our regular chatters is from London and is currently visiting the U.S. with her family. We had fun exchanging ideas of places she and her family should see on their visit.

We meet every Friday, 9 a.m. US/Canada Eastern time, GMT -5. You will find the details for joining on my Homeschool Chat page.

Do join us! We love assisting new homeschoolers and talking life with the long-time homeschoolers!

The Red Tent is celebrated it’s 10th Anniversary this year, yet I just got around to actually reading it. It was well worth the wait. Anita Diamant takes a biblical character, Dinah, who is mentioned very briefly in Genesis, and weaves a tale of what her life might have been like. We meet Jacob, his four wives and twelve sons. We discover with Dinah how inconsequential she is in the scheme of her father’s life and beliefs. We learn what the red tent means to the lives of the women of Jacob’s (and other’s) tribe. And sadly, we see how changing beliefs and attitudes on the part of the men at that time lead to the eventual disappearance of the red tent and all that it meant to womanhood.

The first few chapters were a bit confusing to me as I tried to follow the genealogy presented. Thankfully Diamant includes a page of family trees, to which I was continually turning back to consult. But after those first few introductory chapters, once Dinah’s story really began, this was a book that I could not put down. I found the culture, the people and the settings all fascinating. The only addition I would have like to have seen was a geographical map so we could follow Dinah’s travels over her lifetime.

I found myself frequently flipping to Diamant’s biography on the back cover, almost in disbelief as I read The Red Tent. Diamant is the author of many books on contemporary Jewish life and I found it surprising that she was able to present a Biblical story from such a non-biblical viewpoint. Or maybe not exactly non-biblical, but non-conventional. A story that revolved around the women of that time period rather than the men and a story that did not always present the biblical figures in the best of light. I have to wonder if she came under some criticism from the ultra-conservative of her faith.

On another note, I will be picking Penelope up this afternoon. Hopefully she’ll drive fine and we will be back to have two vehicles!!!

One of my favorite blogs lately is Writer Unboxed. Their October 19th entry is Part 1 of an interview of Chris Baty, founding father of NaNo. If you want to know more about how and why he started NaNo, check it out! I particularly love his viewpoint when asked how many people who have participated in NaNo in the past have actually sold their books:

“I think that nobody has it as bad as aspiring writers. Look at the world of sports. If I went out and played a round of golf, when I came back from it, none of my friends would say, “Oh, you going to join the PGA?” The sense is that you do it for fun and you do it regularly, and it doesn’t have to be something you make your living at. My goal for the last decade has been to make a living as a writer. And I think there are other people in National Novel Writing Month who share that ambition, but I think that represents 10% of the overall population, and the other 90% are doing it for completely different reasons.”

My friend Tammy wrote about the Baty interview on her blog, Just Enough, and Nothing More, “Homeschooling Is Like Music”. Can you tell we’ve been discussing this interview on a list that we’re both on?