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Great American Communicators Sequoyah: Inventor of the Cherokee Syllabary Sequoyah, born in the 1770’s, was a Cherokee Indian. His mother was full blood Indian, and his father was probably at least half-white. His English name is Geroge Gist or Guess. Sequoyah became an excellent blacksmith and silversmith and operated a trading business. He also had a drinking problem, but he gave up alcohol when he saw how it was ruining his life. Sequoyah wanted the Indian people to have a way to read “talking leaves” like the English speaking people did. He never spoke English, and he never understood how the English alphabet worked, although he had seen some books. Facing much opposition and taking 12 years away from his business, he invented the Cherokee syllabary. This is like an alphabet, but there is a character for each syllable, not for each individual phonetic sound. He had originally tried to do a character for each word, like in Chinese. Sequoyah used 85 characters in his syllabary. In or...

This is another handout from my series on Great American Communicators that I taught to my students in the middle school English class in a large home school co-op. Benjamin Franklin’s C ontributions to Communications Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706, the 15th of the 20 Franklin children! There must have been a whole lot of communicating going on in his house when he was a kid! He stopped going to school when he was 10 (his parents couldn’t afford it) but he LOVED to read! He apprenticed as a printer -- but he hated working for his brother James and so he ran away. His pseudonym (false name) for writing letters to his brother’s paper was “Mrs. Silence Dogood”! At age 24 he started the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper. He created the Poor Richard’s Almanack from 1732 to 1757. It was a yearly book with a calendar, list of events, advice, witty sayings, weather predictions, etc. He founded the first public library in Philadelphia. He established the postal system. He founded a...

In the middle school English class which I taught for a large home school co-op, I used to do a series on Great American Communicators the years we studied American literature.  I featured about a dozen men and women who had made significant contributions to American communications either by what they spoke or wrote themselves, or what they did to improve communication for others.  Some of them included John Winthrop (Puritan pastor), Jonathan Edwards (preacher in the Great Awakening), Benjamin Franklin (statesman, newspaperman, inventor, library and college founder, etc.), Noah Webster (creator of the American dictionary and spelling books), Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone and teacher of the deaf), Sequoyah (inventor of the Cherokee syllabary for written language), and  Phillis Wheatley  (slave poet).  Here is what I gave my students in their handouts for Thomas Jefferson. Great American Communicators: Thomas ...

Creator, Creation & Creativity An excerpt from The Real Life Home School Mom: It's a Life in Revision As home school moms, we long to fill our children’s hearts and minds with good things! We are not just talking about behavioral rules or academic skills, but a thirst for beauty. We are right to focus on the cross and salvation as the foundation of our faith, but we also need to reverence the Lord as our Awesome Creator. Think back to Genesis about how our Lord marvelously called our world into existence. Paradise! Beauty! Purpose in life! Oh, how sin marred this ideal, but creation still points us to our Creator. In fact, Romans 1:18-20 says: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever ...

HOW DOES A HOME SCHOOLER CHANGE A LIGHT BULB? I don't remember where I saw this, but I tucked it into the June 2000 edition of the Hope Chest.  Wow, it's fun reading stuff after a whole decade! Q: How does a home schooler change a light bulb? A: First, mom checks three books on electricity out of the library, then the kids make models of light bulbs, read a biography of Thomas Edison and do a skit based on his life. Next, everyone studies the history of lighting methods, wrapping up with dipping their own candles. Next, everyone takes a trip to the store where they compare types of light bulbs as well as prices and figure out how much change they'll get if they buy two bulbs for $1.99 and pay with a five dollar bill. On the way home, a discussion develops over the history of money and also Abraham Lincoln, as his picture is on the five dollar bill. Finally, after building a homemade ladder out of branches dragged from the woods, the light bulb is installed. And there is lig...

Summer peaks around the corner. For some people packing for vacation is first and foremost on the mind. For others, summer camps and mission trips demand last minute trips to variety stores to purchase last minute necessities. In the midst of preparing for what summer will bring to our families, some of us are also visiting local libraries and used book sales to gather summer reading materials. For those who have asked about summer reading possibilities, I write this blog. The titles have been compiled over the years and are printed in Appendix D of my book You HAVE to Read This One: Raising a Contagious Reader. "Parents choose reading materials for their children based upon several factors: • a student’s reading ability and maturity, • family’s values and worldview, and • whether a book is to be read aloud or read independently. All these factors, or a combination of these factors, will determine what titles are appropriate for your children. My list was complied for parents with...

Please click on the cartoon to enlarge it so you can read the words.  (Once it opens in a separate window you can click it again one more time to make it even bigger.)  Then read this blog post, too.  Holocaust Vocabulary and Concepts Virginia