Great List of Historical Documentaries

Check out this wonderful list of historical documentaries on my friend's blog! Stay and look around her blog. Lisa is a second generation homeschooler and has a lovely family that includes natural and adopted children.

Speaking of kindness...

I love the old cliche What goes around comes around. Cliches that get old usually do so by having a large nugget of truth at their center. I was the recipient of a generous act of kindness this week. A nice man up in the state of Washington needed to divest himself of a large number of inherited books. Among them were 12 by Jacob Abbott. He found my blog and called me to see if I wanted them for the cost of postage. Wow! They are lovely and in fine condition and of a binding that I had not previously held in my hands. I wish I could include a pic but my camera is on the blink.

Thank you Mr. Herb Munson!!! May a generous act of kindness come around your way.

A random act of kindness...

Bloggers Unite challenge for today is to blog an act of kindness. I want to spotlight one of my daughters. Yesterday, we drove over an hour to see a performance of the Nutcracker. We arrived an hour early because the seating was general and we wanted to snag some good seats.

We did - the center of the center down front. Perfect! We settled down to wait another 45 minutes. About 5 minutes before curtain time, the announcer proclaims that this is the first sold out performance ever for this small town college performing arts center. Wonderful! However, some more senior citizens have arrived and the only seats left are in the balcony - would anyone be willing to give up their floor seats?

While I debated, and remembered the hour drive and early arrival, my daughter turned to me and said "We can go up to the balcony, Mommy."

"Are you sure?" I ask, still contemplating the "sacrifice."

"Yes."

Heavy sigh...checking to make sure there are still seniors waiting...OKAY!

We ended up in the nose bleed section only one row from the ceiling. But we had a great time and easy hearts. An act of kindness returns much to the giver.

History in the making...

Election years always press home to me that each day we are living, we are watching history being made. What will folks say about us 10 years, 100 years, 1000 years from now?

For those of you who are homeschooling and of a conservative bent, check out Homeschoolers Heart Huckabee. Great learning activities on government and opportunities (if desired) to support a presidential campaign from the grass roots level.

If Huckabee isn't your cup of Joe, I bet a quick search will find similar websites for the candidate of your choice. It can be exhilarating to have an active hand in making history happen.

57th History Carnival

Jinkers! My post on "Peter the Great...Right Brained Learner?" was selected to be in the 57th History Carnival over at the Official Osprey Publishing Blog. Here is what they say about themselves:

Osprey Publishing is an illustrated military history publisher, and we see our blog as a place for interested people to come together and talk military history – about anything and everything to do with it. We love it and we know you do too.

I am really jazzed to have my post included - even if they did put it in the evolution section - smile. The first entry in the carnival is from their own blog but very interesting...Why Study Military History? I am not going to duplicate the whole carnival - just want you to get a taste of the entries to pique your appetite. I am still browsing through the selections myself!

Blog Rush

This is a post for all you other bloggers out there. If you look down the right column, you will see a new widget called BlogRush. This is a new free service that any blogger can sign up for by clicking the little tab at the bottom of the widget. Then what happens is that as people click on the links provided, your blog shows up on a widget on another person's (related) blog.

I think this will get better as it goes along. I just checked the current links and they are okay. But as more blogs sign up, I think that the content will be more closely tailored. That is what I hope, anyway. That would be the only downside and if I find that the links are too unrelated - after giving it some time - I will take it down.

When other bloggers sign up through your link, you also get "credit" for the click throughs on their blogs so it multiplies. This isn't about making money, it is all about gaining targeted readers for your blog and getting the right kind of traffic.

The hardest decision I made was whether to list my blog under education or history. I went with history. I am hoping to see more tools as BlogRush gets past their growing pains that will allow me to target the links more closely.

So if you want to check it out, you can either click on the tab at the bottom of the widget or click here. There should be a very helpful and informative short video that explains the concept. Since it is free, there is nothing to lose to try it out!

Dewey's Treehouse: Carnival of Homeschooling #85: School Stuff Edition

One of my posts is included in Dewey's Treehouse: Carnival of Homeschooling #85: School Stuff Edition

This is a fun way to find other interesting homeschool blogs. Go check it out!!