Pajama School Blog

Pajama School, Stories from the Life of a Homeschool Graduate

On Getting Tasks Done

by natalie

One of my favorite poems is one by Matthew Arnold called Morality. I don’t remember where I first heard or read it, but the first stanza has been etched in my mind for years:

We cannot kindle when we will
The fire which in the heart resides;
The spirit bloweth and is still,
In mystery our soul abides.
       But tasks in hours of insight will’d
       Can be through hours of gloom fulfill’d.
These words have often compelled me to put all of my energy into the task at hand, especially when I am feeling thoughtful or creative, because undoubtedly just around the corner are awaiting moments of “gloom” in which I will be unable to complete such tasks. So whether it’s lesson planning, writing, composing a song, planning a dinner menu, organizing a family outing, or any of a multitude of activities, I try to make the most of the moments when I have an idea or inspiration. Because if I let my creative juices flow into diligent efforts in those moments, then we will all reap the benefits of those hours of labor in the moments when I feel uninspired and drained. Instead of presuming upon the future, let’s make the most of the “hours of insight,” redeeming the time in every way possible!

Summer Essay Contest at Generation Impact!

by natalie

generation impact

Do you love freedom? Are you proud to be an American? Enjoy writing on inspirational topics? Then check out the Summer Essay Contest at Generation Impact! The ezine publishers have teamed up with Light a Candle Films to offer young people 12-17 and adults of any age the opportunity to write a themed article. The winners will receive a copy of the film The Battle of Bunker Hill and publication in a future issue of Generation Impact. This is a great opportunity for any writer to work on a summer project and get more visibility for their work!

When Is Your Writing Good Enough?

by natalie

Rachel Starr Thomson, homeschool grad and author of numerous books, has been tackling this question on her blog. I have been incredibly inspired and challenged by her thoughtful and practical advice on this topic. If you are interested in improving your writing skills, or learning how to help your students or children improve their writing skills, I highly recommend checking out the posts in the series thus far:

When Is Your Writing Good Enough, Part 1 – Introduction

When Is Your Writing Good Enough, Part 2 – Train Your Ear

When Is Your Writing Good Enough, Part 3 – Get an Education

When Is Your Writing Good Enough, Part 4 – What Other People Say

Generation Impact – Writer’s Edition

by natalie

If you’re interested in reading about all things writing, be sure to stop by this month’s issue of Generation Impact!

Generation Impact

My good friend, Grace Williamson, and her inspirational team have done a superb job putting together a collection of articles, reviews, and tips for writers. She even includes a few quotes from yours truly on the Bulletin Board topic, Why Write?, along with thoughts from two other young writers – Tim Sweetman and Rachel Starr Thomson. You will also find an informative interview with author and writing mentor, Caleb Breakey.

If you haven’t visited the Generation Impact online magazine before, you may want to click through the archives. You’ll find it chock-full of interviews, articles, reviews, and more – by homeschool graduates, featuring homeschool graduates, and designed to encourage homeschool graduates (and others!) to impact their generation for Christ!

Review of Write Guide

by natalie

Write GuideA couple of months ago I was contacted by WriteGuide to see if I would be willing to write a review of their company and services. My sister, Naomi, loves to write and is always looking for ways to improve her skills, so she volunteered to go through a month of the course and then write a review. The following is based on her one-month participation as a student with WriteGuide:

When someone is interested in learning to play the piano or wants to get better at it, what do they generally do? They find a tutor/teacher to help them. Every week, the student attends his lesson and plays a variety of songs and other assignments for the teacher. The teacher normally praises his progress, then gives suggestions for improvement. Whether or not the student implements the suggestions is his choice, but if he doesn’t take the advice, he will stall his progress and won’t excel in piano. On the other hand, if he implements the advice, his piece will be that much closer to completion. The more the concept or skill is practiced, the more he will be able to transfer it to other repertoire he learns. Through this approach, the student will also begin to see for himself how to improve.

It may take many days to master the new approach – and even longer to master the entire piece – but the end result of implementing the teacher’s suggestions is so worth it! The student’s playing will rise to a new level with more color, musicality, and beauty. Helping the student become a better pianist is the teacher’s passion, so they will develop creative ideas to help the student achieve success. Thus, it requires the student’s utmost patience and determination to keep working until the song is finished – even when it means many hours of hard work. And only later will he be able to see how far he’s truly come.

This is the parallel experience that came to mind as I considered how to describe the writing course I just completed from Write Guide. Write Guide is a program that offers an Individualized Writing Course for elementary through high school students and adults. You can enroll from one month to a year; there is no curriculum and everything is done online through their website. Here is an overview of how the course works:

  • The student is assigned a Writing Consultant who corresponds with you through an email-type messaging system for the duration of your enrollment. All the ideas, creativity, encouragement, and suggestions come from your Writing Consultant; they are the curriculum, so to speak. The parent/guardian who signed the child up is allowed full access to all correspondence and can tell the Writing Consultant specifically what they want their child to do. Alternately, they can request that the Writing Consultant determine and oversee all the assignments. Because Write Guide believes that parents should be the primary educators for their children, parental involvement is encouraged. The student and the Writing Consultant can only correspond once per day Monday-Friday.
  • Write Guide is very easy-going when it comes to what you write. You can send in previously written papers you want critiqued, ask them to give you new assignments, or send other papers you write during the course time. Then they give you suggestions on how to improve your paper, but leave it up to you to implement the suggestions. Therefore, it is your brain power that has to be used. It isn’t a requirement to use their suggestions, but if you don’t you won’t have anything improved to send them the next time you correspond. Many times when I was incorporating my Writing Consultant’s advice, it sparked another idea for the article or helped me see how to improve other areas. So I definitely recommend using their suggestions in order to help your writing improve!
  • You aren’t required to send in a certain number of papers before your enrollment is over and there aren’t specific deadlines. It is self-paced, so you can send in as few or as many papers as you want.* Don’t be afraid to let your Writing Consultant know if there are specific things you want to work toward, because they are there to help you achieve your goals.**

*If you have several different papers you want to send in, and have only signed up for a short amount of time (1-2 months), I highly recommend letting your Writing Consultant know this ahead of time so that you are able to spend equal lengths of time on each of them. Otherwise, the limited correspondence may leave you at the end of the time having primarily worked on one paper. Just keep this in mind so that you don’t get down to one week and realize that you don’t have time to work with them on the other papers you have remaining.

**The main areas we focused on with the course were: expanding my thoughts; learning to engage the reader by describing things so that they hear, feel, and see what I did; paying more attention to detail in order to make my writing more colorful; and learning how to structure my thoughts in a more organized manner.

So, if you want to improve in some of the above areas I highly recommend this course! But if you’re looking for something to learn the mechanics of writing (grammar, punctuation, etc.) I would recommend either checking out Write Guide’s Introduction to Grammar course or looking into other programs.

Overall, I really enjoyed this course. It was a new and interesting experience that stretched me because I had to rework my papers a lot and incorporate my Writing Consultant’s suggestions. But it always turned out for the better. I feel like I learned a lot of valuable things that I will be able to transfer to other writing projects in the future. Plus, one of the best parts was the experience of being critiqued by a non-family member for the first time!

New Outlet for Writers

by natalie

If you are a homeschool student and are looking for an outlet for your writing, you should check out the newly launched Homeschool Literary Quarterly. The site was launched by WriteGuide.com and has three stated purposes:

(1) Promote the literary arts within the homeschool community.

(2) Provide a place where homeschool writers can showcase their work, and receive intelligent commentary from readers.

(3) Assist homeschoolers who are considering a career in publishing or writing.

Now would be a great time to contribute your works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The first edition will be published in December, 2010. As any writer will tell you, the best way to improve your writing skills is to write! It looks like The Homeschool Literary Quarterly will provide a great opportunity for many homeschool students to do just that!

Using Metaphors to Paint Pictures…Like a 2-Year Old with a Crayon

by natalie

Ever since I came across the Mark Twain article I referred to in this post, I’ve thought quite a bit about the concept of using stronger nouns to paint descriptive images in my writing. I’ve also been particularly attuned to this aspect of writing in recent days as I’ve read the work of others, so I was quite amused to receive an e-mail from my Dad with the following metaphors and analogies that were actually used in essays written by high school students. I think it’s safe to say that this would not be the best way to integrate more visual imagery into your writing! May it bring a smile to your face like when the photographer uses a squeaky stuffed animal to make little babies laugh… 😉

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a thigh master.

He spoke with wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

She had a deep throaty genuine laugh like that sound a dog makes just before he throws up.

Her vocabulary was as bad, as, like, whatever.

He was as tall as a 6-foot 3-inch tree.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7 pm instead of 7:30.

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across a grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. traveling 35 mph.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil, but unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a landmine or something.

He was deeply in love, and when she spoke he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

Her voice had that tense grating quality, like a generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightening.

Pajama School Interview and Advice for Non-Fiction Authors

by natalie

Maggie Woychik, of the Encouraging Emerging Authors blog, conducted an interview with me that has just been posted this week. You can check out the two posts at the following links:

The Pajama School? Natalie Wickham Explains…

Natalie Wickham and “The Pajama School” – part 2

Maggie has a great line-up of authors for the coming months, so other “emerging” authors may be interested in keeping an eye on the blog for lots of great tips!

How to Educate for Beautiful Results

by natalie

Educate for Beautiful ResultsIn my last post, I linked to an article titled, “Simple Tips for Beautiful Writing” that emphasized the importance of editing, proofreading, and generally aiming toward error-free writing. It may seem like a stretch to associate the technical side of writing with beauty, but in reality it is the very substance of beautiful writing. This is the same thing I emphasize when I am teaching my piano students. The technical exercises that they are drilling into their finger muscles form the basis from which beautiful and artistic melodies will flow. If they don’t master the principles of music and understand the underlying absolutes that govern the world of music, the sound they create will be lifeless. An excerpt from another article I recently wrote seems appropriate:

In his book, The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, Thad Carhart recounts a master class he observed in which Gyorgy Sebok responded to a student who was trying to achieve a particular effect in his playing, “Leonardo spent years developing a codex of body parts. He drew ears, he drew elbows, he drew hands, he drew all parts of the body in as many different aspects as he could. Then he forgot about it and painted what he saw. You must do somewhat the same.” We err when we fail to learn the parts in our impatient quest to become experts of the whole.

I think one of the major problems with the way most education is conducted today is that it is so results-oriented that students are expected to immediately assimilate information and produce a finished product even though they haven’t been given the time or opportunity to develop specific skills.  As a teacher, I have to be able to see the “whole” and then break it down into a systematic and progressive collection of “parts” so that the student is led to master the skills that will eventually form the substance of a beautiful “whole.”

Piano StudioLet me give a specific illustration. One of my piano students is very expressive and loves to incorporate lots of impulsive nuances into his playing. The only problem is that the nuances distort the natural flow of the phrases and result in inaccurate rhythms. As his teacher, I visualize for him an end result of musical and artistic piano playing that will be lovely to listen to (which is also what he wants). However, I know that the elements that contribute to this include: precise execution of rhythmic values, natural ebb and flow of the phrasing, well-chosen fingering, and fluidity. So I pick one of these elements, in this case the phrasing. We work to understand the principles that govern phrasing – musical phrases tend to swell in volume as the notes rise and decrease in volume as the notes descend. Random notes should not be accented at will because this interrupts the flow of the phrase. Once this principle is understood, we reinforce it by applying it to all the musical assignments that week. Following weeks lend themselves to other areas of understanding and emphasis.

The same principle applies in other areas of study. Take writing, for example. If the end goal is to pen thoughtful, engaging articles addressing relevant topics, one must consider the parts that will contribute to this whole and plan an appropriate course of study. Perhaps a span of time will be given to constructing attention-grabbing introductions, or effective use of analogies and metaphors, or appropriate incorporation of authoritative quotes, etc. Of course, many curricula are designed to aid in this process, but the creative and resourceful teacher may make use of a great many easily accessible resources and ideas to aid a student in achieving the desired end. The key, I believe, is to maintain a thoughtful perspective. Be ever conscious of the overarching objective. And then be patient in outlining and working toward the development of specific parts/skills that will eventually see that objective met.

Just as a gardener who longs for a beautiful bed of flowers must first prepare the ground, then plant the seeds, and then tend the growing buds, before his dream is realized, a teacher or parent who hopes for shining students must first cultivate the ground of understanding, then plant seeds of carefully-designed instruction, and then patiently tend to and guide the emerging musician or writer or scientist as they advance through stages of growth and develop the parts that are ultimately the substance of the whole. That, it turns out, is the necessary, though oft-neglected, path of a beautiful education!

Words of Wisdom for Writers

by natalie

As someone who loves to write, I am constantly looking for tips and ideas to improve my writing skills. I recently came across Todd Rutherford’s Ask the Publishing Guru Blog and only wish I had found it sooner! Although the name seems like a bit of a misnomer, the tagline gives a better idea of the kind of helpful content you will find: A place for things I believe will be useful for authors seeking to realize their publishing dreams. Mr. Rutherford does a great job mining informative and useful posts from across the Internet that are beneficial for writers. Here are a few gems from recent posts.

In Mark Twain on Strengthening Your Writing, the importance of using nouns and verbs, rather than adjectives, as “paintbrushes creating visual and visceral images” is discussed and illustrated. The author states, “Adding more adjectives weakens writing. Strong writing comes from strong verbs and nouns.” The contrasting examples illustrating this principle are an excellent help for those looking to make their writing more captivating.

Simple Tips for Beautiful Writing had me cracking a few smiles and uttering a hearty, “Amen!” on several occasions. (It also had me shaking my head when I noticed a simple typo in the fourth paragraph. Guess no one is immune to writing errors!) Especially as I’ve plunged deeper into the publishing world with the publication of Pajama School, I’ve been surprised at how often error-strewn articles and even books make it into publication. The steps outlined at the beginning of the post require more of a time investment up-front, but I whole-heartedly agree that they may be a critical component in keeping a reader/customer – me for one. 🙂