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.

Mapping Out My Journey...

I created this visual representation of where I am in my book project and where I need to go with a simple, free website. The intuitive Bubbl.us has you spawning bubbles right and left before you know it!

This is a simple version of mind mapping. This can often be more helpful than a outline or ToDo list when tasks overlap or interact. Visual spatial or right brained learners may find it especially helpful.

BTW, I think you can click on the image to see it much larger if you want to be able to read the little bubbles. Oh? You can read them as is? Get out of here!

Wrath of the Tsar

As part of my research for my current book project, I ordered a National Geographic dvd through interlibrary loan. It is called Wrath of the Tsar and is part of their Icons of Power series.

The 90 minute program is accurate and entertaining, if a little melodramatic at times. The life of Peter the Great needs no special effort at all to add color, action, and conflict! I think that some of the overblown feeling came from the repetition that occurs at the places where there were breaks for commercials. The producers also use the conflict between Peter and his son, Alexei, as the central defining relationship throughout the story. It works okay but sometimes it seems a little stretched, as if adding too much modern analysis to this late 17th/early 18th century tale.

The relationship between Peter and his son is one of the aspects of his life that is open to much interpretation and the actual cause of death of Alexei is shrouded in some mystery. Some materials will claim out and out that Peter had him murdered, while others attempt to document that Alexei was punished severely for traitorous acts and died as a result of the floggings.

There is an interactive history timeline that is basically a summary of the program. All in all, I found the casting and settings, as well as the use of art being interspersed, rather effective and the end result quite interesting. Keep in mind that any portrayal of Peter the Great has to include beheadings, battles, tortures, inquisitions and other unpleasantries so that needs to be considered for age appropriateness.

Russian names - A Study in Itself!

One of the most interesting challenges that I have faced so far in my Peter the Great project is deciphering the many forms that Russian names can take.

Today, most Russian names have a given name, a patronymic (which is not like our middle name) and a surname. The patronymic is a form of the father's name. It is not my intention to go into all the various forms as it gets very complicated. Here is an interesting link if you want to know more about how the patronymics are formed.
In earlier Russian history surnames were rare. However, the combination of the given plus patronymic plus surname was coming into use during the 17th century which is when Peter the Great lived. This was one complication I faced. Another is that Russian people can be referred to by a variety of combinations of their names with a leaning towards the use of simply the patronymic. And a whole other layer of complication arises from various ways to translate the Russian names into English.

So for one single figure in the history that I am studying I found:

Feodor Alexeevich Romanov
Feodor Aleksandrovich Romanov
Feodor III Alexeiovich Romanov
Feodor III
Fedor III
Theodore

This is Peter's half brother who was his predecessor. It is not even the most complicated example, just the first one that came to mind. I plan to write a section in my resources about Russian names as soon as I get them straight myself!

Tweaking the Timeline

When I started on my Peter the Great project, one of the first items that I added to my list was a timeline. I knew that I wanted it to show not only what was happening in Russia at that time but also in other parts of the world. That helps me so much to connect the various parts of history together. I love the history storybooks by Genevieve Foster that pull in the stories all over the world during a historical figure's lifetime.

So once again, I googled for timeline programs, hoping to find a free one that could do what I wanted to do. Alas, the free ones just couldn't quite cut it. However, I had downloaded a free trial of Timeline Maker basic. This is a very useful program that could do what I wanted - or close enough!

So I just needed to get rid of the watermark by purchasing a license. The regular price is $49.99 but I noticed that they offered educational discounts. I contacted them to ask if homeschooling counts and indeed it does! Hurray! 50% off with no hassle. I am looking forward to using this program in my homeschooling as well because there are so many ways you can utilize a timeline.

My only difficulty left is that the current version of the Peter the Great timeline prints out on 8 sheets of paper, yikes! I think I am going to split it in half and print out the Russian part on one half and the rest of the world on the other. We will see what my test families think of that.

A Complicated Family Tree

One of the resources that I plan to include in my book project is a detailed family tree or genealogy. I started by jotting down notes while I was reading through Peter the Great on the details and people that I wanted to include; making a hand drawn version of the genealogy as I went.

Next, I searched for programs on the internet that might help me with this part. Naturally I searched out free options first. Amazingly, I did find a freebie that is awesome! It is called My Heritage Family Tree Builder.

While this site does have other applications for sale, the basic Family Tree Maker is free and it is a powerful program with many options including the potential of publishing online. This might prove to be a great feature for me.

If you have any use for a family tree program, I recommend that you take a look at this one.

In the meantime, I have to simplify my chart. Right now it is printing out on 8 pages! Whew!

Getting HELP on my History Project

When I decided to go to work on a rather ambitious project, I did what I often do - what I have learned to do over years of facing challenges - I asked for help. And I asked for help from one of my favorite sources...the homeschool community.

I sent the following email out to the local homeschool information yahoo group that I moderate, along with a large list of homeschoolers that attended a family oriented college play that I helped organize.

Hello all,

I am working on a homeschool resource business project. It involves recording a historical narrative that is now public domain (the copyright is no longer in effect). Kind of like G.A. Henty except more of a narrative rather than an historical fiction story. I am also working on a resource packet to go with it that so far includes vocabulary words, a timeline, an outline, etc. I am hoping that the finished audio will be 6 to 8 hours in length. I am working on Chapter one now and it is taking some practice to get it right. I am not striving for perfection but rather, a pleasant and interesting listening experience. I have done some audio recording but this is my first try at a whole book.

I will need some help and I am recruiting now. :-)
I need 3 to 5 local families who enjoy history (who have at least one member who loves history) and who would be willing to listen and review the set when I get it finished in a timely fashion (like a week to 10 days after I get it to you). It will be a wait, wait, wait, and then hurry kind of thing as I don't know how long it is going to take me to finish. I have to record when A) the house is relatively quiet and B) I am relatively awake. As you can easily imagine, having these two conditions coincide doesn't happen for all that long each day!

It does not have to be the mom or the whole family as long as at least one member will listen to it all. The mom/dad can just review the resources and listen to enough to get the idea if they do not have the time or interest to listen to the whole thing. The commitment is what is important to me - that you can make it a high priority to get it done. Obviously, I understand that the week I may need it may be impossible - you can just tell me that at the time and I will go on to the next family on my list. Just if you do accept the job at the time, commit to doing the best you can to get it done asap.

The set you review will be what I can do with materials available. If the feedback is positive enough, I will be trying to find ways to "produce" the various parts in an economical but attractive manner. I hope to end up with a finished product that can be sold at a very reasonable cost - returning a small profit to me per set while (hopefully) blessing a lot of families with another history resource. If I can do that, there are a lot more where this came from.

Other help or suggestions that I need:

**Some way to make sure that I am pronouncing Russian names correctly - anyone know anyone who speaks fluent Russian?

**Some way to reproduce audio CDs economically from a master recording CD

That is all I can think of right now. Please email me directly if you are interested in helping and tell me a little about why you are interested. This isn't a contest, it would just help me to know. If I can't find enough help locally, I will go statewide and then national but I would rather keep it here. Please feel free to forward this to local support group lists or to individuals who may be interested.

~Karen

Well, what goes around comes around; I was not disappointed. I received just the right amount of offers of help and a large welcome dose of encouragement.

So far, my trickiest problem has been getting help with the Russian names as they are English versions of archaic Russian names. I have yet to exhaust all the help offered, however, and I am confident that I will get past that obstacle so that I can begin the actual audio recording very soon.

Peter the Great and all that jazz...

For my first book project, I selected Peter the Great. Actually, it might be stretching it a little to say I "selected" it. That makes it sound like I carefully considered all the potential options - Jacob Abbott history books that have come into the public domain - then made my selection. In reality, Peter the Great was the first public domain work by Jacob Abbott that I came across, it struck my fancy, and I saw no reason to pick another book.

So far, it has proved to be a good choice. I have found the period of Russian history, late 1600s to early 1700s, to be fascinating. Both the book and the period of history have yielded a plethora of ideas for resource materials. My main difficulty will be deciding when to stop!

It has not been without its difficulties, however. Just the Russian names have provided a series of challenges. Even today Russian names are complicated as they tend to have patronymics instead of middle names as we think of them. Since this period of Russian history is when that practice developed, I have found it confusing at times. And there can be many different versions of the same name. You have to constantly make sure that you have the right person!

One of Peter's brothers, Theodore in Jacob Abbott's book, can be called Feodor or Fyodor , full name usually Feodor Aleksandrovich Romanov (Aleksandrovich being the patronymic as his father was Alexis I). Aleksandrovich may also be written Alexeiovich or Alexeevich. And since many names are repeated as in other ruling families, constructing a family tree can be an intimidating activity to say the least.

Looking for a new project

Over the last few years, I have dabbled in a number of business ventures. It keeps my brain alive to do so. And a little extra money never goes amiss in a household with children.

One type of business venture that has intrigued me is repackaging books that have come into the public domain. Being in the pubic domain means that the copyright has expired and anyone can reuse the materials. You can copyright a new version of the material but the original material remains open to anyone to use.

One excellent source of public domain materials is Project Gutenberg. Recently I was browsing the new materials posted there when I came across Peter the Great by Jacob Abbott, one of the Makers of History series published in the mid to late 1800s. I was immediately intrigued. This material reminded me of one of our favorite history resources; historical fiction by G. A. Henty written in the same time period and recently reprinted.

Could this be a project for me? I started researching and the more I read, the more I liked. Jacob Abbott was a prolific author and his writing was geared mainly to a younger audience with dozens of historical narratives as well as other stories such as the Rollo books. His work is continuing to come into the public domain giving me plenty of source materials for years to come.

I also discovered that his work is already being reprinted for the homeschool community. Far from being a discouragement, this verified my own feeling that his material would be attractive to that market.

Finding his work on a Living Books list published by Valerie's Living Books again simply reinforced what I was thinking.

Since my husband has long encouraged me to venture into audio books, and I had just learned how to do this and acquired the necessary equipment during another project last year, the idea of making an audio recording of this material was not long in materializing in my brain. Of course, I also found that this, too, had been done for some of JA's work. However, mine would include additional resources that would be very helpful to homeschoolers wanting to use this works in their history studies.

And so my history project began to take shape...

My Favorite Homeschool Subject

When you homeschool, you get asked a lot of questions.

Right behind the perennial favorite "But what about their socialization?" is the WHY question. Why do we homeschool? why...why...why

I can give a short and sweet "Cause we love it" or I can spend an hour enumerating the many and varied reasons why we began homeschooling and why we continue to homeschool and why we plan to homeschool until the last child is graduated.

But the reason I only give once in a while out of fear that it will sound too self serving is that homeschooling has been good for me. Yes, while the questioner is either doubting my sanity or elevating me to sainthood, I am standing there knowing that homeschooling is one of the best things that ever happened to me, personally.

I often remark that I learned more in my first four years of homeschooling than in my four years of college....and mean it most sincerely. Particularly if one factors in the value of the lessons learned.

And out of all I have learned, setting aside the myriad of character lessons, I value most what I have learned about history. Of course, I didn't realize just how little I knew of history when we started. And the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know. History is truly a lifetime subject; one that never will come up empty when you seek to add to your store of knowledge and understanding.

Not all of my children share my love of history. I hope that they will leave my homeschool with, at least, a basic understanding of world history, America's place in that history, and an openness to learning more as they live their lives. I am fortunate, however, that my oldest son shares my thirst for learning more. It gives me a good excuse to acquire historical resources.

And now I begin on a new project that will allow me to share my enthusiasm for history with a wider audience. Stay tuned...