Simple learning, simple blogging

As I write this, I am in the passenger seat of a van stuck in standstill traffic somewhere between Jinja and Kampala, Uganda. All’s well, it’s just the usual rigamarole of life here. But it’s fairly descriptive of what life has been like since we arrived in Africa a week ago: colorful, unpredictable, and limited access to the Internet.

Considering that last tidbit, I thought it good for today’s post to point you to a few other things I’ve written recently, for a few other lovely places.

A day in our (homeschool) life

This is my favorite time of year on the blog Simple Homeschool, when editor Jamie Martin asks people to share their “day in the life” as a homeschool family, to encourage and inspire others with their daily sundry. And she thought it’d fun if I shared mine this year.

“But… there is no day-in-the-life for us right now. I can’t think of one day that’s been the same since we started this trip.”

“That’s okay,” she said. “I think it’d be fun to show that, and to celebrate one of the many benefits to homeschooling.”

So I said okay, rolled up my sleeves, and did my best to describe a typical day for us Only there is no typical day. But it was still fun to write a sort of summary about our school year thus far: one kid in fourth grade, one in first, another tagging along in preschool, all enjoying some fairly epic field trips.

Head here to read about our school year.

Simplifying my blogging life

Remember this post I wrote earlier in the month? Jeni Elliott, who writes a super-smart blogging blog called The Blog Maven, asked me if I’d be up for podcasting with her and expand some on those thoughts. I only had a few days left in Sydney, but I admire her so much, I said yes. I wanted a chance to talk to her.

Jeni and I had a great conversation, and I left feeling inspired, encouraged, and more motivated than ever to relish our new blogging routine with confidence.

We talked about why pageviews aren’t the most important thing, why the best advice for a social media strategy is to have fun, and why at the end of the day, it’s all a risk anyway. Oh, and what’s my biggest online pet peeve.

Head here to listen to our conversation.

Now go say hi!

Instead of chatting here, like we normally do, please head to Simple Homeschool and The Blog Maven and say hi over there. I’ll do my best to interact, but Internet being what it is, I know Jamie and Jeni will take good care of you in the meantime.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on out-of-the-box education and out-of-the-box blogging, if you’re in to either of those. They both make my life much saner.