Archive for January, 2007
January 19, 2007 at 8:01 am · Filed under publishing
I did my first official book signing yesterday at a local indie book store. They are doing an education week event and asked me to participate. I signed some books, met another home educator, and had the pleasure of sharing a couple of hours with the wonderful book store owners, their cats (’Barnes’ and ‘Noble’), and author Jack Kelly. Jack brought one of the original paintings by Calley O’Neill that appear in his book, Keoni’s Dream. The artwork is done in mixed media, including white and black sand, kapa, and crushed koa wood. It was really interesting to hear how the artwork came about and how the book went from idea to finished product.
For my part, I brought along a couple of pump drills from Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself that got a workout.
January 18, 2007 at 6:58 pm · Filed under My Musings
You ever do something unintentionally that gives you the guilts? Coming home tonight, I spotted the most beautiful sunset as the sun was dipping just below the horizon. In a matter of seconds I had determined that a) I had my camera with me and b) there – right there! – was a place to pull over. Unfortunately, my fast thinking brain failed to recognize c) a hitchhiker standing in the great place to pull over. As I stopped and put the car in park, I saw the hitchhiker heading to the car, thinking he had scored a ride. I’m sure he was a lovely man, but I just don’t pick up hitchhikers. Nor do I stop along the road to talk to them. So, I did what any fast thinking person would do: I dropped the car into gear and sped away, without a photo of the sunset OR a hitchhiker. I’m told that the poor guy had quite a look of disappointment on his face. I’m guessing that he had a few choice words rattling around in his head, too. I didn’t mean to get his hopes up. Really!
January 17, 2007 at 9:36 am · Filed under book reviews
I’m told that Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself has a lovely write up in FamilyFun’s February issue. Hopefully Borders has the magazine in stock so I can see for myself this afternoon!
January 17, 2007 at 7:04 am · Filed under home education
If you were planning a large home education conference and an author of several books volunteered to lead a workshop as part of the event, would you:
- Ask the author for more information about the content of the suggested workshop to find out if the attendees would find it useful.
- Do some research about the books the author has written to find out if they are homeschool friendly and verify that they are not inappropriate for a school-aged audience.
- Notify the author of the requirements for speakers and provide all pertinent paperwork.
- Immediately accept, offering to pay all expenses plus by her a drink after the event to discuss home education in general.
- Do a casual background check on the author to find out if her religious beliefs mesh with those of the conference organizers, never contacting the author directly.
I’m just asking. (By the way, if you answered 4, please contact me as your local homeschool conference date approaches!)
January 15, 2007 at 7:06 pm · Filed under publishing, home education
I stopped by Lane Smith’s blog today and discovered something grand! He mentioned his video interview that is featured on a site called Reading Rocket. Well, not only is there a Lane Smith interview, but there are interviews with an assortment of excellent authors including Jane Yolen, Laurence Yep, Bill Martin Jr, and Mo Willems. These are short little things, downloadable to your ipod or viewable on google video. What a great way to meet an author from afar!
January 15, 2007 at 11:30 am · Filed under island life
January 14, 2007 at 8:40 pm · Filed under home education
I’ve been listening to some conference workshops (taped at a local homeschool conference) by a woman named Linda Kane. She is a Certified Neurodevelopmentalist. I’ve found the content to be completely fascinating.
She uses a number of different methods to improve a child’s processing ability, one of which is something she calls “digit spans“. She contends that for each year of a child’s age, he or she should be able to process that many pieces of information. A child of three ought to be able to repeat back a random number sequence with three digits; a child of six should be able to repeat a sequence of six numbers. At age seven, the length of these sequences stops increasing each year; indeed, the average adult can only do a digit span of seven. BUT, a person who is able to do a longer sequence will have better processing skills and be able to retain information that is given auditorially. Kane contends that college students who do well with lectures and seem to easily achieve high grades are better able to process individual pieces of information and are likely able to repeat a lengthier digit span than their counterparts who are struggling.
I think it’s interesting that she’s not saying a child needs to be smarter or know more or learn more; she’s simply saying that improved processing equals a better equipped child (Kane, by the way, is a homeschooling parent).
She suggests checking a person’s processing ability by presenting digits in a monotone. If a three year old can only repeat two digits, he is “stuck” at two and will behave more like a two year old than a three year old. An adult who can only do a digit span of five will likely have developed methods for coping with this processing shortfall, but could excel if the processing were improved. In addition to auditory digit spans, kids can practice visual digit spans, improving visual processing.
Kane encourages parents to practice these methods with their kids a couple of times each day - make it fun! - to improve their ability to repeat back the sequence given. Even adults can make their brain connections work better by improving their digit spans.
She highly recommends this method for kids with labels such as ADHD, autism and Asperger’s. In fact her eldest son has Down’s Syndrome and went from not being able to recognize his own name at age 12 (when they first implemented this method with him) to being able to recognize 300 sight words in three months. Pretty impressive! The ability to process information well also seems to help with behavioral issues.
One fact that she cites was interesting to me: our brains are 3% brain cells and 97% connections between those cells. She claims that by exercising the connections with methods such as this, our neurological systems will be much improved.
Interesting stuff. If you’d like to see an example of digit spans being given to a child, check out this video on You Tube. Kane’s website is here.
January 13, 2007 at 12:23 pm · Filed under publishing
Lisa Yee, author of Millicent Min, Girl Genius, is kicking off the new year with a book title contest. Here are the rules:
1. Think of a title from a children’s/middle grade/young adult book.
2. Change the FIRST LETTER of ONE of the words to make it into a whole new title.
3. Then add a sentence describing the new book.
The winner of the contest will receive an autographed ARC (advance review copy) of Lisa’s forthcoming book, So Totally Emily Ebers, due out in April. To play or read some of the excellent entries, click here.
Here’s my entry:
The Wind in the Willows Pillows
Frog and Rat cope with the odorous results of Mole’s overzealous enjoyment of ham and beans.
Blog Nod: MotherReader
January 11, 2007 at 4:05 pm · Filed under island life
An entire yard full of them!
January 9, 2007 at 1:14 pm · Filed under publishing
…stop by Kona Stories next Thursday, January 18th. It’s education week and a number of authors will be participating. I’ll be doing some hands-on activities from Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself. I think this will classify as my first official “book signing” event.
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