Wow. So I’ve become one of those bloggers who suddenly disappears and leaves her readers wondering what in the world she’s up to. Or worse, a blogger who loses all her readers because she’s become boring. Even worse… a blogger who engages in metablogging!
Argh. I’ll stop now.
Since I started my SeneGence/LipSense business 3 months ago, it’s taken over the time I used for writing. (Speaking of, I’m hosting an event tonight on Facebook Live here. It’s a Q and A for people who want to learn more about the business and how I’ve been able to replace my blogging income (and then some) and earn a free car. I’d love to have you and I’m giving away a free lip gloss to one lovely lady.)
Since I don’t have an entire post planned, I’ll do a quick roundup.
Books I Read
Million Dollar Lips by Joni Rogers-Kante. When I started my SeneGence business, I read the autobiography of the company’s founder and CEO. She starts with a near-death experience she had as a child and how it shaped her goals.
Currently reading: The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz and The Art of Manliness. Though I’m clearly not a dude, I love me some AoM. My husband bought this book and I’m sort of letting him read it in between my poring through its pages.
News Fast Update
My news fast continues, and my outlook on life and the world continues to improve as a result. It’s frustrating to me, however, that when one is on social media, one cannot avoid hearing about the most obscure, fear-based, one-in-a-billion odds horror stories. Exactly what does one do to prevent their son’s sensitive parts getting stuck in the netting of his swim trunks? As one friend put it:
“I saw a poor child at the pool in see through swimming trunks and I knew his mother must have seen a certain viral story.”
To which I replied:
“like which is worse, the therapy he’ll need as an adult from the trauma of everyone seeing his junk at the swimming pool or the infinitesimally small chance he’ll suffer a ball injury?”
My post on the topic on Facebook didn’t make everyone happy, but that’s ok. I still think it’s a problem that people insist on forwarding news message they haven’t verified (full disclosure: I did this ONCE and publicly retracted once I found it to be false), click bait and the like. Exactly how does one prevent all danger in life?
Homeschooling Stuff
This year I’m thinking of doing something totally different with the big kids and so far, they’re on board with the idea. I told them that instead of following a particular curriculum, what if I had them make a list of topics they want to learn about and projects they want to work on?
The child who is more likely to follow a routine was a tiny bit nervous about it. I assured her that there will still be math books (likely, Teaching Textbooks for her and her sister this year), but that as long as the projects she chose took her deeply into history, science and language arts, it was fine.
Have you ever done something like that in your homeschool? How did it work for you? Is this approach a bad idea for certain types of kids who need more structure? I appreciate your input!
Well hey there, Carrie! Good to see you blogging again. 🙂 I think that’s a really interesting idea with your homeschooling approach. I do think it’s much better to target education based on kids’ natural interests; I think we’d have more engaged kiddos.
I did that with my big kids when they were in upper elementary for a year. It went really well and now that they are both in college, they say that they definitely found that year valuable.
The only issue I ever found with it was when I tried to put kids back together for subjects – they all had covered different things so it became harder to pick read alouds and such. We just worked around it though so not a big deal.
It is a good way for kids to discover a bit more about what they are interested in, to take more responsibility for their own learning and to even learn more about how they learn best. My eldest figured out that he wanted to pursue computers during that year and started working on some certifications. He’s now a Sr in college studying computer science.
@Mrs Picky – I agree!
@Rebecca – thanks for sharing that perspective!
I am trying to embrace the art of enjoying summer vacation WITH my children instead of getting worked up about the blogging I am NOT doing. Maybe it’s part writer’s block or gardener’s obsession? Either way, I just want to be outside and enjoy the scenery! 🙂 I’ll blog later! I think this gives me some time to reflect on the fact that maybe next year I should plan some scheduled posts so that I can enjoy my summer and still get some things done on my blog!
Cheers!
Congratulations Carrie!! WTG, much success to you! Take care and have a wonderful week!
Carrie,
I love Lipsense & am so proud of you!
My children are both in high school & we are thinking of having a less structured approach to school this year with life changes expected ahead. For my daughter, who is a visual learner, we are planning literature books to read & rewarding movie days with the movie based on book. We’ve also found on Pinterest much information on educational DVDs for science & history, which we plan to watch. I would like for her to continue her writing & typing of paper summaries/ favorite part of the books or DVDs. My son is more athletic & hands on, so I’m continuing to look in local co-ops for opportunities for him. Hopefully we can draw him in for some of our movie days. I’m planning to do teaching textbooks for both children this year. Any suggestions for hands on teen boy’s learning would be appreciated.
?Stephanie
Yay, Carrie’s back! I wondered if the LipSense business had been taking up more of your time. 🙂
My mom did “pick what you want” homeschooling for my sister and I when we were in high school (in MI, homeschool laws are VERY lenient). I thought it worked well. Most high school subjects are either repeats of middle school or something you can get college credit for, so why put a lot of time and money into curriculum? The one thing she forced us to do was algebra. Seeing as all three of us were bad at it (me, sister, mom) and neither my sister or I have used it since, even that was probably a waste of time. During our last year of HS we just took college CLEP tests, studying for one test per month. We used an internet flash card program (not sure if it’s still around) and I passed all of the tests I took.