14 October 2010

In this issue:

• News: Beat the Clock and Transcript Workshops
• Streamline Your Life With Habits
• Let's Talk About Books
• Invitation to Write for the Website

Dear Friend,

It's been a very full month, and it hasn't stopped yet. I was in New York City one weekend and northern California the following week, and at a writer's conference the weekend after that! Visiting family I don't get to see often is such a delight, and for the first time, I got to spend a day with a sister I've barely known. It was a blessing, and I'm so grateful.

Another thing I've been thankful for is the safe (so far) rescue of the the Chilean miners. It's been amazing to follow the story and see what it has taken to plan and execute the rescue. I hope you've been able to share some of it with your children-- it's a science, history, and character lesson all rolled into one! 

I'd ask your prayers as we go through the very stressful process of paperwork for Medicaid for my grandmother. She's not been able to come home after her fall in July, and we've been working on this since August. None of it has been easy, and we'd appreciate being remembered.

Blessings,

Janice Campbell

www.Everyday-Education.com

News

I'd love to meet you at a workshop or conference!

South Richmond, VA Workshops: October 2010 (There are still a few spots left!)

A day of workshops is planned for Friday, October 15 (Lord willing). I'll do a Beat the Clock essay workshop for teens from about 10-2. In the afternoon, I'll be doing a workshop on building a high school transcript, with a simple step-by-step overview of what goes where and why it's included. 

Contact the Tri-Cities Home Educators for more information.

Conventions we plan to be at in 2011

We've confirmed that we will be at the Great Homeschool Conventions in Cincinnati, Memphis, Philadelphia, and Greenville, though as far as I know, I'm not speaking. We're just coming to get acquainted! In Virginia, we'll be at the state conference by HEAV and VaHomeschoolers 2011 Conference and Resource Fair in Richmond. There may be more before we're through, but that our biggest list ever. Donald and I are looking forward to meeting you!

One-Sentence Error* in Transcripts Made Easy

I just discovered that one of the printings of Transcripts Made Easy has an incorrect sentence at the bottom of page 53. The final sentence on the page should read: "To calculate a cumulative GPA, add together all the grade points earned in each semester, and divide the total by the number of Carnegie units earned."

Fortunately, the erroneous sentence went out in a limited number of copies, but if you own the book, you may want to check your copy and substitute the correct sentence for the one that is there. The correct sentence was switched out during an editing/reformatting, and rather than making the process more clear, the incorrect sentence is likely to cause a mathematical error. The easiest way to calculate a GPA is still by using the calculator on our website at www.FreeGPACalc.com.

*I wouldn't suggest that the book is otherwise perfect, but this is the only error I'm aware of at the moment!

Streamline Your Life with Habits

by Janice Campbell

Charlotte Mason believed that a habit is “ten natures,” and she was right. Habits can make life smoother by automating repetitive tasks. By simply thinking through the things you do each day, and figuring out how to do them most efficiently, you can make time in your life for more interesting and rewarding pursuits. How can habits make your life easier? Here are some of the ways I’ve found:

Habit: Making a daily habit of reading and meditation can help you become more focused on the important things in life.

Habit: Plan lessons once month or once a semester, rather than once a week or on the fly.

Result: When you plan many lessons at once, you will be deeply enough involved to see the big picture and can create a well-balanced, creative course of study, rather than slapping together the basics at the last minute.

Habit: Make a place for everything, and keep everything in its place as much as possible.

Result: You never have to waste time looking for textbooks, keys, phone, glasses, bills, pens, papers, etc.

Habit: Look for ways in which you can do things in batches.

Result: Small changes can save time. You can try things such as counting out vitamins once a week, rather than opening multiple bottles each day, or making two pans of lasagne and freezing one for another week. You end up saving time for things that matter.

Habit: Be the kind of person you want your children to become. Focus on creating habits of character such as kindness, tenderheartedness, patience, courtesy, and mercy.

Result: You’ll demonstrate love in a way that your children will always remember.

What important habits do you practice? I’d love to hear about them!

If you'd like to reprint this article in your newsletter, you can find my reprint guidelines at the blog.

Let's Talk About Books

Because I've done so much traveling over the past month, I didn't get a big teaching post written. But because many of you share my love for books, you may enjoy the three Great Books Weeks articles on the blog.* I'd love to hear about some of your favorites!

*In case you're wondering, I'm sending you to the blog because it makes for a shorter newsletter, which sometimes make it through all the filters a bit better.

Invitation to Write for the Everyday Education Website

One of the things I'm doing in 2010 is expanding the website to embrace more of the learning areas I believe to be important. For this purpose, we've created a new section on the Everyday Education website, and it's called "Life Management." It's designed to encompass all those things  that round out a learning lifestyle, including:

    * Home
    * Garden
    * Time
    * Money
    * Meals
    * Weight
    * Clothing
    * Travel
    * Arts and Crafts
    * Caregiving

I have many articles I want to write for this section, but I know that there is a great deal of accumlated wisdom and knowlege among my readers. I'd like to offer you and your older students the opportunity to contribute articles, recipes, patterns, book reviews, or other helpful information to the Life Management section. Think of things that would be helpful to others and are in keeping with home and family values, and submit them, following the guidelines below. We'll publish as many items as possible.

Submission Guidelines

Articles can be of any length, but they must be written by the person submitting them. I ask that each article be spell-checked and proofread before submission. Please submit in.rtf or plain text format, or even pasted into an e-mail message. Please do not submit anything in Microsoft Word. Format should be web-style, with a space between paragraphs, rather than an indention. As always, there should be only one space after each sentence.

If you would like to submit a photo with your article, recipe, pattern, book review, or other submission, please save it as a .jpeg or .gif and attach it to your e-mail submission. At the end of each submission, please include a brief bio of yourself with a link to your blog or website if you have one, and if you like, a small photo. As a sample, here's the bio I include at the end of my articles:

Janice Campbell homeschooled her four sons from preschool into college. She is the author of Transcripts Made Easy, Get a Jump Start on College, and Evaluate Writing the Easy Way, as well as the Excellence in Literature curriculum for grades 8-12. Be sure to visit her website,www.Everyday-Education.com, to get a free writing evaluation rubric and sign up for her free e-zine.

Just write something similar about yourself, and add it, so that readers can read more of your work, or at least know a bit about you. You needn't provide . Thank you to all those who have submitted articles so far!

I hope you've enjoyed this edition of the e-zine. Please feel free to share it in its entirety with others, and invite them to subscribe.

Blessings,

Janice

(c) 2010 Everyday Education, LLC