I’m excited to announce that Mary Lois Sennewald’s book, Roadschooling Ryan: Learn As We Go is now available for purchase. I helped Mary in the beginning editing stage of this book acting as a content consultant, more or less, suggesting what parts might be cut, expanded, or clarified. It has since been edited and published by iUniverse. This book really stuck with me, especially as a mother of a son with an above average IQ combined with some learning challenges. How many times have I wondered if sitting in a classroom confined to his seat for 7 hours a day was the best way for him to learn?
What about learning-by-doing? What if you packed up all your needs in an old VW van and drove across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, learning history, culture, and life lessons on the road? Sound like a crazy idea? It wasn’t for Ryan and Mary Lois. It was an exercise in patience at times as they blended the real-life experiences with the academic requirements to get credit for the year.
Mary’s style of storytelling is very engaging and honest. There’s ups and downs, fights and tender moments, and triumphs and failures. If you’ve ever wondered if traditional education is REALLY the solution for educating your child, or fantasized about bucking the establishment and experiencing new adventures, or even if you love to travel and get a glimpse into how life is like outside your hometown, you’ll enjoy this book. Have you read it? Then please post your comments below!
I do a small monthly project for a local video production company, JPL, and was invited to their freelancer gathering Friday night. The people I “know” there from working on our project weren’t able to attend for one reason or another. Yikes! I’m not real keen on going to mixer-type events where I don’t know a soul. But I went anyway and survived the evening. I met a few people there that were really nice, enjoyed some food and drink and participated in their Olympic-type games. I did a trivia quiz about the company, shot a round ball into various trash cans for different point values, did some magnetic darts, shot a target with a nerf gun, did a minigolf station (sinking it in the hole from various distances for various points), did the speed stacking game, and shot a nerf football through a 12-foot high basketball hoop (that’s harder than it sounds!). My only suggestion for improving the evening would have been to have name tags for the attendees. Not knowing anyone there, I had no idea who was an employee, who was a vendor, and who was a freelancer. Maybe I should just get my own nametag made up for events like this!
I thought it was a really nice gesture to host a party for the freelancers they have. How many companies actually do that? And next year, now that I know a few people, it will be easier. Oh, and though I didn’t place in the Olympics, I did get a company shirt and a cup full of candy… Nice!
is keeping up with it. Especially when it’s your own. So, can you guess what one of my New Year’s Resolutions is? You guessed it: to blog more frequently.
A few updates:
I am now the Secretary of the Central Pennsylvania Association for Female Executives, CPAFE. My term expires on December 31st. I’m very happy to be on the Executive Board of this great group of professional women.
I continue to be the IVAA Summit PR Committee Co-Chair, looking forward to visiting Charlotte in April 2008. We have some great speakers and events lined up. I was just in Charlotte over Christmas vacation (my brother lives there), so it’ll be nice to visit again so soon.
As we move into 2008, the Hidden Helpers will continue to provide ghostwriting and book editing. I’ve taken a special enjoyment lately in writing web copy, so if your website copy needs freshening up, call me!
Speaking of freshening up websites, my website designer (husband Ed Hidden), promises me my new website will be up and running soon.
Happy 2008!
Lauren