Homeschool Theater

(Editor’s Note: Our reviewer is a 14-year-old homeschooled teen. She shares her thoughts on review from a complimentary copy of the book.)

It isn’t very often that a book changes my perspective on things. However, The Teen’s Guide to World Domination by Josh Shipp was one of those books.

Right off the bat, Shipp tells you that the goal of the book is not about helping you dominate the world- but to help you dominate your own world by rocking at what you do and defeating the “villains” in your life.

Generally, the problem I have with most teenage advice books is that they try too hard either to appeal to teens, or become more of a cheesy life-coaching session than an advice book. Luckily, The Teenagers Guide to Dominating the World strays far away from these two pitfalls. Josh Shipp writes in such a way that when reading, you really feel as if that is how he would talk to you if you were sitting down together in person, making the book easy and fun to read.

In the book, Shipp talks about his often-painful childhood, but rather than looking for pity, he wants the reader to learn from his mistakes, and use them as examples, telling stories from his past as ways of showing you how he dominated his own world, and defeated his own villains.

The “villains,” as Shipp calls them, are described with names such as Pirate, Ninja, Puppy and Robot. Further into the book, there are step-by-step introductions to each of the villains. Josh describes how to know one when you see one, what their intentions are, and how to defeat them.

This book offers up witty humor, funny stories, and good, solid advice. It’s definitely worth the reading.

(Editor: You can find this book and others in our Home School Theater Bookstore.)

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Kieran is the guest author of today’s post. She is a homeschooled teen in Arizona. In addition, she and a friend are the creators of their own fashion, fashion, makeup and beauty blog.

Also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOA8mUflH-Q

From: http://www.seantells.com

This was initially composed to help professional youth workers talk with teen boys. There’s knowledge here for moms, dads and families, too.

1. Congregate over meals. Gather in smaller groups of just a couple boys.

2. Use the “60 Second Law:” Ask your question in fifteen seconds and then wait for the response for 45 seconds.

3. Use sideways conversations such as working side by side at a service project, in the passenger seat of a car or washing cookware after a fundraising event.

4. Set something in their hands and fingers. Our office is filled with gadgets, sports balls and periodicals. Boys who are busy with their hands talk easier, even if they don’t look you in the eye all the time.

5. Go outside. Sometimes, leaders do many chats inside. Snap up a basketball and go outside the house. Start a stroll around the neighborhood. Go with the entire group.

6. Don’t hesitate to ask emotional questions. But be prepared for the solution to take several sessions to get back to you. Show patience.

7. Never take “I don’t know” as the first answer. Rephrase the query in a fewer number of words and phrases. If that does not work, look at number 6 above.

8. Before doing discussion classes, write out the questions on paper and let the boys read them before you start the discussion.

9. Discover what interests the boys you work with and talk about those ideas often: technology, physical activities, movies, computer and more.

10. Be able to use non face-to-face strategies such as Email and Instant Messaging to build rapport and trust with boys in between formal gatherings.

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This article was written by Sean Buvala. Sean is the author of DaddyTeller where he teaches dads how to be better fathers with skills of storytelling.

Five Minute Tales: More Stories to Read and Tell When Time is Short. By Margaret Read MacDonald

Every storyteller, whether a paid professional or someone who uses story as an addition to their primary job or activities, needs to have quick stories to tell in any situation. On the heels of her “Three Minute Tales” book, Margaret has gathered even more quick-to-tell stories from all over the world.

The stories are divided into nine loose categories such as “Origin Tales,” “Lessons to Be Learned,” and “Riddle Tales.” One of the most useful categories is “Tiny Tales” with stories that can be told in under a minute. Storytellers must always be ready to demonstrate their art form to others and these quick tales are great fillers to have in your repertoire.


Dr. MacDonald is one of the leaders in the classification and understanding of world tales, so one of her expanded comments regarding the type and origin of the story follows each tale. This provides excellent material for research for storytelling for teachers or storytelling in the education.

Margaret has written a number of “must have” books for the potential libraries of storytellers, public speakers and teachers of all types of groups. “Five Minute Tales,” too, will be a book you use often to fill in that “just right” space in your programs and presentations. -Storyteller.net Reviews