Maggie Hogan's Bright Ideas Press E-Zine Welcome to the October 2007 edition. I hope you find the following information useful, as you spend time teaching and enjoying your children! From Maggie to You - lessons from a turkey . . . This fall I am teaching classes to a group of homeschooled youth, grades 4 - 8. With our own sons long since graduated I found myself missing teaching and missing getting to know this new generation of kids in my homeschool community and church. I chose three classes that I wanted to teach: Writer's Workshop, Oceanography, and Classical Composers. Monday, our class day, I'm sitting with all fourteen kids in my living room teaching science. One of the boys kept glancing out my window. Hmmm . . . I thought to myself fleetingly; better close the blinds next time to cut out distractions. His eyes continued to dart around and just as I was going to ask him a question to revert his attention back to class, he raised his hand [ha! Homeschoolers CAN be taught to raise their hands!] and said, "Mrs. Hogan, are those white birds yours?" Well, that was an odd question. I thought of the occasional white egret or goose we get at our pond and almost automatically responded, "No, just a wild bird passing by" when I was prompted instead to treat his question with respect by actually looking at what he was looking at. To my utter amazement, there was a flock of HUGE white birds in my driveway. I had to look twice to figure out what they were as I had never seen this bird before. But, as unlikely as it seemed, they were gigantic all-white turkeys!!! A flock of them. In my yard. For no apparent reason! All of the kids gathered around my windows and were exclaiming excitedly and the birds, instead of being frightened off by the noise, evidently found US amusing and they waddled (??) closer and closer until they were right outside the windows . . . then up on my front porch!!! TEN of them. (See photo here: http://www.brightideaspress.com/images/WhiteTurkeys.jpg) After taking digital pictures and having a great laugh with the kids (there is no way around it - ten, fat white gobblers on your front doorstep is just plain hilarious) we got back to class. An hour later when we were done, the birds were gone. Totally gone. (They did leave evidence of their reality though . . . all over the lawn!) In thinking over this incident I realized that there was a reason for this particular episode. God gave me a lovely opportunity - disguised as a turkey flock! This boy who had asked the question is one of the quietest boys in the class and one of the few I did not know beforehand. I could have blown him off and he probably wouldn't have persisted in asking me about "those birds" but instead, by taking a minute to treat him respectfully, all of us had a wonderful chuckle and a bonding moment that I will always treasure. God has such a great sense of humor! And I am so blessed to be teaching again - with a whole new flock of kids. **************************************************************** Updates on Bright Ideas Press Products 1. Christian Kids Explore Physics 2. All American History Volume 2 3. The Mystery of History Volume 3 4. Young Scholar's Guide to Classical Composers **************************************************************** This is NOW HERE! Hot off the press and in our warehouse: Christian Kids Explore Physics Discover the Power of Physics! * For Grades 4 - 8 * 30 Lessons in 6 Units * Hands-On Activities * Vocabulary Words * Outstanding Book List * Coloring Pages * Unit Reviews * Scripture Tie-ins The universe that we live in is the result of God's thoughtful design and careful building. Physics gives us a glimpse into the materials, laws, and structures of that universe. Behold the wonders of creation with this series of 30 easy-to-understand lessons for grades 4 - 8. Each lesson helps develop an understanding of matter and energy and the rules they follow. Exploring physics is an exciting adventure! From a mom: "I have been homeschooling for 6 years and have finally found a science curriculum that I can realistically use with all of my children. On top of that, it is Christ-centered, well researched, and has the best book list I have ever seen for science. We stress a literature-based approach in our home, and this series is an answer to my prayers!" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChristianKidsExploreBiology (Covers all of our Christian Kids Explore books) About the Authors Robert W. Ridlon, Jr., is a consultant for a systems development firm and an adjunct faculty member at Southwestern Illinois College, teaching courses in information systems theory. Elizabeth J. Ridlon is an adjunct faculty member at Southwestern Illinois College where she teaches biological sciences. The Ridlons have explored 17 countries on four continents and written two creation science books, as well as Christian Kids Explore Chemistry. Retail price $34.95 ISBN 978-1-892427-20-5 **************************************************************** All American History Volume 2 Well folks, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the books are almost ready for the printer. The bad news is the books aren't AT the printers yet. If you would like to be on the list for an email alerting you that the books are HERE and ready to ship, please email: contact@BrightIdeasPress.com and ask to be on the AAH 2 list. People keep asking us for an estimate. I said about a year ago that it would surely be finished by the summer of 2007, as the book had been written and turned into the graphic design company in April of 2006. I hate giving excuses and reasons for the constant delays on this project but I am pretty convinced there is some real on-going warfare with our efforts to publish God-honoring materials. Your prayers for this book and our other book projects as well, are earnestly coveted. In the meanwhile, if you go to our yahoo group and check the files section, you will be able to download the first 2 units (16 weeks) worth of activity pages and Teacher's Guide. You'll have to email us for the Reader pages though as the files are too big to post. Thank you for your kind understanding. I cannot tell you how it grieves us to cause delays and readjustments to your schooling plans - as if homeschooling isn't hard enough as it is! **************************************************************** The Mystery of History series Volume 3 As you might imagine, I am loathe to put in writing ANY dates for any of our books at this point! But here is the update. Linda Hobar has finished writing Vol 3. She is working with the editor now. Then it will go to the graphic and lay-out design firm. The exciting news and prayer request is that we greatly desire to produce Volume 3 in color!!! There are so many artists covered during this time period that color would be totally perfect. If you wish to receive updates and WORD files, quarter by quarter, later this month, please join the MOH 3 yahoo group. Volume 2 The audio cd for volume 2 is more than half-way done. Please pray for Linda Hobar as she completes this time-consuming task. Pray that she will be able to finish this project this fall/winter. Volume 1 I am excited to tell you about the newest add-on to The Mystery of History series! We're in the midst of producing a top-notch book with coloring pages and copy work. The Mystery of History Color & Copy Book Volume 1 will be ready (God-willing) this spring, and we will keep working until we have one completed for each subsequent volume. For those of you familiar with the coloring pages from our Christian Kids Explore series by David Taylor, you'll recognize the style of these new books, as David is the artist we have selected to work with on this project. We're thrilled because his artwork is appealing to kids of all ages - nothing "childish" about his coloring pages! The copy work is being written on two levels - lower and middle - making this resource one families using a variety of approaches with a variety of ages will enjoy. I hope to get samples of the pages up on our website of the MOH 1 yahoo group soon. Young Scholar's Guide to Composers Did you know that we have been working on a new series here at Bright Ideas Press? The first book, Composers, is due out in 2008. If you're like me, I wanted to include this kind of study with my boys but had no idea of what to do or where to start since I had no musical training worth mentioning. I teamed up with my dear friend Melissa ---http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MelismaTo4/ and we think we've found just the right format to use. We've been field-testing it like crazy (not just in my class but with 250 families across the country) and are thrilled with the responses. Our prayer and plan is to have this easy-to-use, multi-grade resource come packaged with a CD of the recommended listening selections. Again, I'd ask for your prayers on this project. (For those of you who really want in on a secret, the next volume is already in the works! Subject?? Poetry!) **************************************************************** *Cathy Duffy Top 100 Picks See the books that Cathy loves: The Mystery of History Series and The Christian Kids Explore Series at www.BrightIdeasPress.com **************************************************************** Check out our Yahoo Groups! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Whole_HOG/ (join us as we share geography ideas) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AllAmericanHistory (Our American History series) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HSGifted (Homeschooling gifted children) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MysteryofHistory1 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MysteryofHistory2 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MysteryofHistory3 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MysteryofHistoryHS (Using The Mystery of History with high schoolers) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChristianKidsExploreBiology (Covers all of our Christian Kids Explore books) We appreciate you, our customers. Feel free to contact us: Bright Ideas Press 877.492.8081 contact@BrightIdeasPress.com www.BrightIdeasPress.com Happy Trails, Maggie Hogan ***************************************************