October 2004 Bright Ideas Press E-Zine #6 Maggie S. Hogan Have you ever tried to practice what you preach? If so, you may have found as I have, that it is often harder than I’d like to admit. For example, I’ve tried over the years to keep all different kinds of journals. I speak about journals, write about journals, sell journals, and even buy journals! LOL! You’d think I’d have book cases full of journals! Well, ok, I do, but I want cases filled with journals that I have actually written in! Why are my journals so often unfinished or horrors: even un-started? (Is that a word?) For me, the biggest reasons boil down to these two factors: a. time b. perfection I never seem to have the time to write for myself and my attempts at journaling are always sloppy and slightly, well, weird. They never turn out cool – the way I envision them. Therefore, I either quit or I hardly begin because I can’t “do it right.” Sound familiar? Then maybe this e-zine will be useful to you. *********On another note – you may not be at all interested in helping yourself or your kids to journal, but the topic this time is Hawaii! So at least enjoy your virtual trip to The Aloha State! I’m happy to report that my most recent journal attempt was one of my more successful ones. Perhaps if I share some of what worked, and didn’t work, you too may be inspired to start (or finish!) a journal. Then it will be so much easier for you to convince your kids to journal since that “do as I say but not as I do” thing just never works. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE ALOHA JOURNAL Traveling to Hawaii with my sister, 78-year-old mother, and 12-year-old nephew. Travel - What Worked: wheelchairs for mom in all airports! (Atlanta, LA, Honolulu, Maui, and back. She is fine for short distances but tires easily.) What Didn’t: overhead luggage! Don’t! Writing Daily in my Journal - What Worked: my nephew was required by his public school to keep a daily journal. Writing with him was the key to my consistency! What Didn’t: thinking I would remember details later, even a day later. Nope! Writing about Our Trip - What Worked: sentence fragments! Notes in the margins. *LISTS! What Didn’t: trying to make each thought a complete sentence. Too much happening - too little time to write. Keep it brief! *Birds I saw: Red-headed Cardinal Zebra Doves Spotted Doves Common Mynah birds What Worked: reading aloud to each other, keeping each other accountable. What Didn’t: forgetting to add personal reflections. (I was sitting with mom watching Hurricane Jeanne on TV as it hit her home in WPB and my brother’s home in Sewall’s Point - again! - as well as homes of numerous other relatives and I never thought once to add this poignant moment to my journal! Argh!) Looking Back on my Journal - What Worked: dates, weather conditions, lists of sights seen, foods eaten, money spent, and special laughs. What Didn’t: any sentence starting with “Today I went...” or “Today we saw...” Boring! After the Trip - What Worked: using my journal to put together a small scrapbook with photos and mementos. What Didn’t: forgetting to add more personal stuff like playing Scrabble with Wiley or trying to walk barefoot on the volcanic rocks. (Bad idea, by the way.) I had too much of the “sightseeing” mentality and not enough of the “simple life” factor. Looking Back - What Worked: keeping a short journal and not trying to make it fancy or a big project. Using it to write this column! LOL! What Didn’t: my handwriting. Sigh. I am thrilled I actually kept a journal from start to almost-finished. (Give me a break – the last day and a half we were awake for over 36 hours and in transit for over 18!) It was interesting watching Wiley write in his. He focused in on the one most interesting thing he did each day to write about, in contrast to my hit or miss “touch on everything” method. Either way is fine, find a style you (or your kids!) like and just do it! Now I can add one very skimpy composition book with about 10 pages of writing in it to my journal collection. But this time, it is one I wrote in and one I FINISHED! Yippee!! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hawaii is a most interesting place! I don’t have space here to tell you all the really cool stuff I learned about Hawaii but I will just mention a few highlights and I’ll provide website links so you can get a taste of The Aloha State yourself. Here are some great web sites for your virtual tour of Hawaii: I saw Kiteboarding for the first time on Maui. It was the Red Bull World Championship of a sport I had never even heard of before. Wow! If only I was 30 years younger and a lot skinnier...I might have tried this insane water activity! http://www.hawaiikiteboardingassociation.org/ Nice overall site: http://www.hawaiiweb.com/ The Hawaiian language has the shortest alphabet in the world. It has only 12 letters A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P, W. Brief, interesting article on the language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_language The only Royal Palace on American soil is located in Honolulu. The Iolani Palace was built by King David Kalakaua in 1882: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iolani_Palace Hawaii was originally called the Sandwich Isles. The English navigator Capt. James Cook so named the islands in 1778 in honor of his patron the Earl of Sandwich (yes, the sandwich guy!): http://www.aloha-hawaii.com/hawaii/captain+james+cook/ Great list of facts: http://www.hits.net/hawhis.html Brief overview of Hawaiian history: http://www.shgresources.com/hi/history/ USS Arizona Memorial: http://www.nps.gov/usar/ ‘Mahalo’ (thank you!) for reading! And a huge Mahalo and Aloha to my little sis, Carolyn, who took me on this trip extraordinaire! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bright Ideas Press Update – News you can use! 1. "Mystery of History Volume 2" is at the printer and we expect it back the first week of November. (We have a great special on our website for this book and the companion timeline figures right now.) 2. "Christian Kids Explore Chemistry" has been written and is now in the editing stage. 3. Stephanie Redmond has almost completed "Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space". 4. Our brand new history series: "All-American History" is with the editor now. Look for it this spring! This awesome new book is for grades 5 – 8 but is adaptable. 5. Maggie’s speaking schedule will be posted shortly on the website. 6. The Hogan’s oldest son, JB, is expecting to be deployed to Iraq again sometime in the near future. Please keep him (and the rest of our military) in your prayers. Thank you! 7. Speaking of JB, we have compiled his letters and emails home into a very funny, very REAL, look inside the Army through the eyes of an enlisted guy – who happened to be homeschooled. This book, “From Basic to Baghdad – a Soldier Writes Home”, will be available in a few months. Aloha! Maggie Hogan www.BrightIdeasPress.com contact@BrightIdeasPress.com