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Short biographies of famous home schooled people

by Mary Ann on January 6, 2011

This is a short biography of famous and successful home schooled people; Peter Cooper, Pearl S. Buck and William Bryan. You can also find the biographies of other famous and brilliant people, who you wouldn’t imagine had been home schooled: Albert Einstein, Grandma Moses, Woodrow Wilson, President.

Peter Cooper - Inventor and tradesman

Peter Cooper was born in New York City in 1791. Peter did not attend a great deal of school. Instead, his time was spent working with his father in various industrial settings. During Peter’s youth, trades were considered more useful than education.

The trades Cooper became adept in included: hat-making, brewing and brick making, etc. His knowledge of machinery and manufacturing increased throughout the years.

Peter invented a machine for shaping wheel hubs, concocted a method of siphoning power from ocean tides, invented a rotary steam engine, unveiled America’s first steam locomotive,known as the Tom Thumb (1825),

Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb locomotive

patented a musical cradle, concocted a method for making salt., and obtained the very first American patent for the manufacture of gelatin (1845).

Cooper’s unselfish devotion and everlasting spirit lives on through his work. Cooper’s many ventures in life as an apprentice mechanic, inventor, and humanitarian continue to affect many of our lives till this day. Cooper gave the less fortunate an opportunity to afford education, he was a great pioneer of The Industrial Era manufacturing steel and was even responsible for laying communication cable across the ocean.

Pearl Buck, Author and humanitarian

Pearl S. Buck, also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu, was an award-winning American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.

Pearl was born in West Virginia. When she was three months old her missionary parents took her to China. Pearl grew up bilingual, tutored in English by her mother and in classical Chinese by Mr. Kung.

In 1911, Pearl left China to attend Randolph-Macon Women’s College in Virginia. Pearl became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature, “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces.”

William Jennings Bryan - Politician

William Jennings Bryan was an American politician. Until age ten William was home-schooled. He studied the Bible and learned to read from the McGuffey Readers. Then he attended the Whipple Academy. He then went to Illinois College, graduating as valedictorian. He ran three times for president of the United States for the Democratic Party. With his deep, commanding voice and wide travels, he was one of the best known orators and lecturers of the era.

Because of his faith in the goodness and rightness of the common people, he was called “The Great Commoner.”

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Avoid doing too many things at once

by Mary Ann on January 6, 2011

The 1% Principle – Comments. (To get a better idea of 1% principle, read Concentrate on one RIGHT thing for consistent improvement)

This is so pertinent to where I am right now. I fight the 100% Devil constantly, daily, every minute of every day.

In my head I have a To Do list a mile long, and that doesn’t include the things I need to do that I forget are even on the list! I said to my husband the other night that I felt like I was drowning and that I just wanted to give in and sink to the bottom and find some peace.

I am still working on the same problems from over 20 years ago… I now know it is because I try to do too much at once and set myself up for failure.

I decided that my 1% is to have some parameters around my personal bedtime.

I know there are other areas where I need improvement, but as I see it, if I don’t fix this problem the others will at the least suffer in my attempts to be successful and at worst they will fail altogether.

I am hoping that if I get a good system down for sleeping (my RIGHT 1% for now) then I will have better luck when I add [other systems].

Jody

Thank you, Jody. I struggle with all of the same things, and also notice that my journal entries repeat themselves year after year. I appreciate your bringing the book [Raving Fans] to a personal level. That gave me some great ideas on ways I might be able to apply and implement it in my own life.

Melody

… are you setting goals for changing yourself or others? For example, if a husband wanted to improve the relationship with his wife, instead of setting a goal of having a date night with her every week, his goal would be to ask her out for a date night every week. If he said his goal was to go on a date with his wife, but she didn’t want to go, then he couldn’t reach his goal. If a person felt they needed to lose weight, instead of setting a goal of losing a certain amount of pounds or inches (which even though it is your own body you truly have no direct control over it), instead set a goal of exercising a certain amount each week and/or eating a certain amount of calories…These are examples of goals that you have no direct control over [and those that you do have direct control over].

So deciding to make a 1% change in your home that requires others to get on board and change too, may be impossible in some circumstances… But we can decide for ourselves to control our [own] habits and set the example, invite others to join us…

So my advice (for what it’s worth) is to make 1% improvements in your own actions, habits, weaknesses. Especially at first. Don’t bite off more than you can chew and don’t expect huge improvements at first. Like Fly Lady says – baby steps.

Jody

I keep saying to my husband that this can’t be the way it is supposed to
be. Life shouldn’t always feel like you are always behind, always
disappointing yourself and others, always with more to do. I feel like I
spend my days just getting through the day, and that’s REALLY far from my larger view of what life is for. I deal with whatever is urgent right at that moment.

Shannon

…sometimes I am just plain old spinning too many plates at the same time. Remember the old Ed Sullivan Show? There is a limit as to how many plates we can spin at once. If we have too many plates spinning we cannot truly spend enough time on all of them to do a good job on any. And many end up falling to the floor and crashing.

It is important that we decide which plates are vital and which are not. Some plates may be important but not at this time. We can spin them later when we take off some of the others that can only be spun now…

… I am determined to take my own advice and work to make a 1% improvement, while doing my best to stomp down that little 100% Devil that keeps trying to whisper in my ear that it is futile to try…I believe that is what is asked of us, to keep improving, little by little, as best as we can.

Jody

Here’s my example of the right 1% affecting everything else.

I have 6 children, and my #2 son can be extremely contentious with both parents and siblings. He got really upset by something one of the other kids said the other day, so I went to talk to him about it. After things were smoothed over, I asked him what he and I could do together later. In my head I went through the 5 love languages and offered a suggestion from each (except gifts – he would totally jump on that, LOL). He wanted me to sit and look through his Lego catalog with him. Simple and easy! And he glowed the rest of the day. I already try to be present, but it was a reminder to me that especially this child, I need to meetthem on their turf and do what they’d like to do. Doing that 1% right helps the whole house be happier because his moods affect everyone else so much.

Marni

However the 100% Devil might manifest itself in your life, it will be one of the most dangerous and constant temptations you face and it will be the most constant enemy that you face through this process. The 100% Devil will distract your focus, dull your ears and discourage your heart. The 100% Devil will doom you to failure.

Remember, you’re the CEO of your family. Using the 1% principle, we periodically step out of the day-to-day management of our family, and we look at working “on” the family. We ask ourselves, “What’s the one thing I could do that would make the most difference?” Then we focus our efforts on making that one thing happen.

Of course, we’re still responsible for running a family! We’re still going to have to manage all of the issues and problems that we had before, but we have focused our vision on the one thing that we’re going to work on improving while we manage everything else.

Remember this truth, real growth comes from building on solid, consistent 1% improvements.

So, when you feel that 100% Devil whispering on your shoulder, take the lesson from C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, and dash that little devil to the ground. Choose instead to recommit to your RIGHT 1% and trust that your real growth will come from building on that solid, consistent 1% improvement. Taken from The 1% Improvement by Jodie Palmer

If you’re interested in learning more about the 1% Principle, I recommend Raving Fans, by Ken Blanchard.

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Concentrate on one RIGHT thing for consistent improvement

by Mary Ann on January 4, 2011

The 1% Principle

Jodie Palmer – The 1% Principle

Our Spark Station Mastery Pilot Group has been having a lengthy discussion of the 1% principle. This concept will really free you up to make progress and jettison guilt. Today I want to share the idea with you and tomorrow some feelings and comments from The Spark Station Mastery Pilot Group experimenting with the concept Avoid doing too many things at once.

I asked Jodie Palmer to share her view of the 1% principle with you.

The 100% Devil

As I’ve worked with hundreds of parents over the years, I find that there’s one challenge that comes up over and over again. I call it the 100% devil.

This is the devil that sits on your shoulder and tells you that everything has to be fixed now; there’s no

The 100% devil

time; you have to do it perfectly, or not at all; there is so much to do you’ll never get it done. The way the 100% Devil manifests in my life these days is that I seem to fall off the wagon of consistency, so to speak, when my plans don’t go according to my vision of how things should or will be. Meaning, If I want to exercise more and I plan to get up 15 minutes early to do it, and then I have a child sick, or I’ve had to stay up late, or my husband has to go to work early a few days in a row I’m challenged to maintain my efforts or commitments because things didn’t go exactly as planned.

However the 100% Devil might manifest itself in your life, it will be one of the most dangerous and constant temptations you face., and it will be the most constant enemy that you face through this process. The 100% Devil will distract your focus, dull your ears and discourage your heart. The 100% Devil will doom you to failure. If you learn nothing else through this course but the cure for the 100% Devil, it will be the most important and difficult thing you will learn. The cure for the 100% Devil is our next topic.

1% Principle

The 1% Principle

One day I was walking through the airport on my way to a business meeting. I felt impressed to stop by the airport bookstore. I walked in, and my eyes fell on a book written by one of the business greats, Peter Drucker. I bought it, put it under my arm, and proceeded to my gate. Settling down into my seat on the plane, I opened the book. Now, at this point you need to know that I was the leader of an organization that was in a lot of pain. In fact, we were on fire, getting ready to crash and burn. It’s not a fun place to be. It hurts a lot to be the leader of that type of organization. I was hired to fix it, to heal it, and there was a lot to fix, a lot to heal, and it was all very urgent.

You are the executive, the CEO of your own organization: your family. Maybe you feel right now about your family’s educational efforts like I did about my organization. As my plane sped down the jet way, I read these words: “What needs to be done almost always contains more than one urgent task, but effective executives do not splinter themselves; they concentrate on one task.” I slammed the book shut as my plane left the runway and headed for the sky. “No way! There are too many things that are hurting. I can’t just focus on one of them. On that schedule I’ll never fix it all before we dissolve!”

I understand exquisitely the struggle you may be feeling—your frustration with the number of things that need to be done or need to be fixed, and the urgency of all of them. I have since learned that Peter was right. Effective executives do not splinter themselves. They focus on the 1%. But not just any 1%, they focus on the RIGHT 1%.

I anticipate that you’re squirming in your seat a little right now at the thought of just moving along 1% at a time. At that rate it feels like your kids will be grown and out of your home by the time you get it all together.

Consider however that the 1% principle does not work according to linear addition, 1% + 1% + 1%. Rather, it works according to the law of exponentiality. In other words, when you work on the right 1% other issues that you weren’t focusing on at all seem to miraculously resolve themselves. Trying to focus on everything at once ultimately maintains mediocrity at best and moves us backwards in our goals at worst. Be assured that focusing on the right 1% will help you progress faster and more solidly than trying to do everything at once.

Let’s look at the application of the 1% principle in one more way. Remember, you’re the CEO of your family. Michael Gerber, in the E-Myth, writes that most businesses fail because the boss spends all of her time working “in” the business. Meaning always focusing on the day-to-day tasks necessary to keep the business going. The boss never spends any time working “on” the business, usually because they just don’t have the time. He calls this getting stuck in the “doin’ it, doin it, doin it, doin it” cycle. Using the 1% principle, we periodically step out of the day-to-day management of our family, and we look at working “on” the family. We ask ourselves, “What’s the one thing I could do that would make the most difference?” Then we focus our efforts on making that one thing happen.

Of course, we’re still responsible for running a family! We’re still going to have to manage all of the issues and problems that we had before, but we have focused our vision on the one thing that we’re going to work on improving while we manage everything else.

Remember this truth, real growth comes from building on solid, consistent 1% improvements.

So, when you feel that 100% Devil whispering on your shoulder, take the lesson from C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, and dash that little devil to the ground. Choose instead to recommit to your RIGHT 1% and trust that your real growth will come from building on that solid, consistent 1% improvement.

If you’re interested in learning more about the 1% Principle, I recommend Raving Fans, by Ken Blanchard.

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Valuable Comments From the Spark Station Mastery Pilot Program

by Mary Ann on January 4, 2011

Being Present Increases the Enjoyment!

The more fun we have the more we learn

Here are some excellent comments, insights and feelings from the Spark Station Mastery Pilot Group. I just had to share!

Time is a relentless river and it rages on, respecter of no one…And the only way to slow time is this: Enter fully into the current moment and the stream of time slows with the weight of a souls full attention…We slow the torrent by being all here.

This lesson on being present [effective home school teaching strategies] had a big “aha” moment for me. In our home school situation I was very frustrated that projects and activities were difficult and I always felt like we were behind. I realized that I was never really present during our activities. Mentally I was worrying about what we should have accomplished yesterday, what still needed to be done today, and how were we ever going to be ready for next week! No wonder we were always behind, I wasn’t there and I was expecting my children to take care of things. I am looking forward to the changes this is going to bring.

Joslyn

Life at its fullest is this sensitive, detonating sphere, and it can be carried only in the hands of the unhurried and reverential, a bubble held in awe.

This theme keeps coming up for me, and it’s one I will be continually working on. [Here are] Some quotes from a book I am reading. Truly, one of the best books I have ever read. I rarely take the time to read books more than once, but I will probably keep this one in the bathroom to read over and over for the whole year, to be able to savor it a few pages at a time:

Time is a relentless river and it rages on, respecter of no one…And the only way to slow time is this: Enter fully into the current moment and the stream of time slows with the weight of a souls full attention…We slow the torrent by being all here.

Life at its fullest is this sensitive, detonating sphere, and it can be carried only in the hands of the unhurried and reverential, a bubble held in awe. Taken from One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

Melody

It took some patience, planning, and practice, but we have improved

I laughed when I listened to lesson, being present, and you gave the first example. It was me! Thank goodness for time (I think 8 or 9 months has elapsed since then.)

For everyone struggling with being present, I want to share the progress I have made since I shared the story(the mom with a 10 year old and 3 year old who was napping and pulled out The Spark Station box during dinner prep) with Mary Ann (the story is in principles) . Introducing the Spark Station into our family structured learning time did just what Mary Ann said, it made my kids want to have school every day, so that forced/encouraged me to have a consistent start time and a consistent length. Our family structured learning time is 9-noon every week day (except Thursday when we do some co-op classes), even through the summer! No pulling out a box during dinner prep anymore. It took some patience, planning, and practice, but we have improved in that area. It even works when we have my 2 year old grandbaby over.

Mary Ann, your information has been so useful!!!

Thanks a million,

Melissa

Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

So we are pretty new to home school and especially new to TJed. I have been struggling letting go of the conveyor belt because I was afraid of a free fall. I realize now that is exactly what we needed.

I have been doing something I thought was TJed; after reading classics every day I would pull out a different math game or reading game. I would say “this is the game we are playing”. I have been preparing and collecting these games for quite some time now.

But now I realize that these games can be made available in The Spark Station, and not all 40 of them at once. I have also been getting on myself for not including art and science in our “curriculum”. What was I thinking? I just need to make them more accessible. My son asks almost weekly to do some kind of science project, but I usually say, “I don’t think we have time this week.

The Spark Station is really freeing me to be more creative as well as not feeling so bogged down by planning curriculum. I am really excited to continue this course and really understand TJed even better.

Amanda

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