Author Archives: Adriana Zoder

Feb 13 2016

TEDx UTK

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On February 20, 2016 I will give a TEDx talk at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The venue chosen for this year is the McClung Museum of Natural History. There will be two sessions, morning and afternoon. I speak in the morning.

The event is sold out as of yesterday. They will stream it live and they will also upload the talks to YouTube afterwards. I will get back with you and give you the links when it is all said and done.

TEDxUTK

TEDx UTK is an independently organized event in the style of TED talks you may be familiar with from YouTube and their own site.

My talk is “Dracula and Multilingualism.” I will show how multilingualism can open doors and take you places, the connection between Dracula and multilingualism, as well as the connection between me and Dracula.  Continue reading »

Feb 9 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 6 – Jane Eyre

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Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is a masterpiece. No wonder then that of all the things the Bronte sisters wrote, Susan Wise Bauer included only Jane Eyre into her list of 32 novels produced by the Western world since the genre was created, around the 1600s. Jane is way ahead of her time. She makes herself the equal of a man (a wealthy gentleman, too) – great feat in 1847! – through conversation and wit and attitude.

Jane Eyre

But Jane Eyre is more than just an early feminist. She is a Christian who is grappling with injustice, hypocrisy, delusion, and missionarism in the people around her. Some have said this book is anti-Christian because of characters like Mr. Brocklehurst and St John Rivers. These men seem more like caricatures, but have you not met hypocritical characters in your local congregation? Have you not met exalted young missionaries who are deluded into thinking they are doing God and the world a favor through their daily sacrifices? I know I have met my fair share of such people. So this book spoke to me on a very personal level.  Continue reading »

Feb 8 2016

2016 Ski Season

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Last year, my son and I started taking ski lessons. These lessons are offered for homeschoolers but we have also met public school children. The lessons happens on Sunday mornings, so it really is an accessible time for everybody. One must be at least seven to start.

Mom and son on the ski slopes

My son and I at Ober Gatlinburg in February 2016

We were both beginners last year. I had been on skis twice before, but without much success. So I really was a beginner as well. This year, we are taking intermediate classes. Riding the chair lift was really scary for me in the beginning, especially when it gets really high in places.  Continue reading »

Feb 5 2016

TeenPact One Day

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I wrote here back in November about signing up for TeenPact One Day. Well, the day came when we had to pack for Nashville and head that way. We decided to go there the night before, because Nashville is four hours away from our home. The program started at 10am and it would have been very difficult to leave the house around 5am to give ourselves time for stopping and breakfast etc.

Our daughter at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville

Our daughter at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville

Teen Pact One Day is a six-hour program for children ages 8-12 which happens at the Capitol building. They have them all over the US and you should locate your state on the map and see about the dates for your state.  Continue reading »

Feb 2 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 5 – Oliver Twist

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After Pride and Prejudice, it was very difficult to motivate myself to read Oliver Twist – just too much sadness and unfairness and mind-blowing coincidences. I like believable stories and while I believe Victorian London really was as bad as described in this book, I just have a hard time with the coincidences.

But the idea of reading Charles Dickens, one of the greatest novelists in the English language, motivated me in the end. Anything in the name of literature!

Oliver Twist

On the other hand, I came up with this idea that, of the entire novel list from The Well-Educated Mind, I should allow myself to skip two if I felt like it. I know one of them will be Moby Dick. I refuse to read this book simply because Susan Wise Bauer herself says she has not finished it, even though she started it 17 times. And yet, she wrote a long paper about it in graduate school and passed her exam with flying colors. Which says a lot about graduate school in the US, but also about the dedication needed to finish this grueling novel.  Continue reading »

Jan 28 2016

Very Young People’s Concert

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For the first time, we attended a Very Young People’s Concert by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. It was wonderful. We plan to go again next year.

The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra tuning up before the concert

The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra tuning up before the concert

We had tickets for it last year, but inclement weather canceled the concert altogether and we got our money back. So we were happy the weather cooperated this year.  Continue reading »

Jan 27 2016

Starting Cursive

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If you have been reading this blog for a bit, you may know that I do not believe in teaching manuscript first and then cursive. In fact, I don’t believe in teaching manuscript at all. My children will experience what I did when I went through school: cursive first and only.

In preschool, they learned to print: MAMA LOVES ME, for instance. In the second semester of kindergarten, they started learning cursive. By first grade, they would be ready for copy work and a writing program. We spend most of first grade perfecting handwriting, all in cursive.

Girl holding tablet with cursive handwriting

Her first lesson in cursive handwriting

Romanian children and children elsewhere have done it for centuries. Manuscript first is a relatively new phenomenon and the result of extremely liberal principles introduced in education, one of them being dumbing down the curriculum. I am surprised by the number of conservative people who have not looked into this issue more carefully.

Since small children may not have the tactile skills for holding a pen properly, I have always made it a goal to wait until mine were at least six years of age before starting cursive. My daughter is one month away from being six, but she recently asked to start cursive.  Continue reading »

Jan 26 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 4 – Pride and Prejudice

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As I work my way through the books listed in The Well-Educated Mind, all sorts of things go through my mind. Pride and Prejudice is one of those literary works that we should read at least once a decade. A teenager will experience this novel differently than a 25-year-old and a 35-year-old will see yet so many other things – new things – in this book.

Pride and Prejudice

I do not recommend the movie with Keira Knightley, by the way. It it too hard to squeeze this literary gem into a two-hour film. Plus it’s just not done well. I saw this movie a long time ago and did not like it at all. After reading the novel last week, I watched bits of this movie on YouTube and disliked it even more.  Continue reading »

Jan 24 2016

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 16

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Chapter 16 describes England after the Norman Conquest. I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter and, for the first time ever, we did all the crafts and activities suggested. How can I NOT build an edible castle? How could we NOT work with Play-Doh in different colors to illustrate the blending of languages into English? How could we NOT play a medieval game of Fox and Geese?

Coin purses craft for children

Coin purses – a rare cloth craft we put together for history

I even shocked myself by summoning enough courage to do a textile craft… after I told you guys I do not enjoy them and I draw a line there… But there was absolutely no sewing involved, not even fabric glue… So we made two almoners (coin purses).

The chapter is rather long, with three stories, so we finished the map and coloring page (a castle) in one day and left the crafts for the next day.  Continue reading »

Jan 21 2016

How to Balance Enrichment Activities with Family Life

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While the benefits of sports for our children are immeasurable and include so many factors that go beyond simple fitness, such as improving their alertness and sense of working in a team; it’s important not to go overkill on your child’s extracurricular activities. Getting the family together, study time, play time, and making sure your child’s growing body gets the full recovery it needs after each active session are all vital to healthy development.

But just like all the other pressures in life, from work commitments to birthday parties to gatherings with friends, it can sometimes feel impossible to balance enrichment activities with family life. So be an advocate for whichever sport your child decides to choose, but keep in mind that family matters too.  Continue reading »