Jimmie -- About Me and My Lenses

My first lens was Lapbooking. (Lapbooking is a bit hard to define concisely. It is a learning product made of miniature books that are put together into a comprehensive project.) To be totally honest, it was all for myself. I wanted a place to store all the links I had for minibooks, folds, lapbook pictures, how-tos, Yahoo groups, and blog entries. There was no ONE website that had the best of the best in an attractive, organized format. I wanted a reference tool that would be easy to use and navigate when I needed something specific.

Squidoo lenses looked like just what I needed to create my lapbooking reference page. So, I created my first lens: all my lapbooking ideas, tips, and links in one convenient spot.

I never dreamed that my Lapbooking lens would become so popular. I shared it on my blog and in the Carnival of Homeschooling. It started to rise in lensrank.

It ranked as high as THREE at one time stayed in the top 100 for months and months. WOW! (For those of you who don't know, there are over 500,000 lenses at Squidoo!) The ironic thing is that in the beginning, I had no idea how amazing it was for my newbie lens to be ranked so highly. I had found a niche! I had found a topic that needed to be written about! I was not the only one who liked to see all the lapbooking links organized on one page.

Over many months, as I honed my lensmaking skills (mostly through the SquidU forum and some wonderful HTML lenses out there), it just got better and better.

at Yellowstone National Park, USA

I started getting compliments via email and comments. People asked me for lapbooking advice. People started linking to my page and saying it was great. (Blushing, here) I was asked to speak at a homeschool conference about lapbooking! (I couldn't go, but, wow, was I flattered!) Now my lens is in the process of being translated into French by a homeschooling mom in France!

Because of all the minibook lenses I've made, Valerie of Lapbook Lessons gave me this hilarious award!

At Hong Kong Disney

As do-it-yourself lapbookers, I realized that lenses would be the perfect place to organize all the best resources for lapbooking a certain topic: photos, links, and ideas. I'd already done most of the hard work when my daughter and I studied the topic and made the lapbook. All I had to do was put it all in the format of a lens. Easy peasy! My work can now help other moms who want to lapbook the same topic.

As of July 2008, I am a Giant Squid. That means that I have at least 50 great lenses (as decided by the Giant Squid organizers). Then in July of 2009, I was awarded GIANT 100 Squid status!

Besides this nifty badge (grin), you get some special perks like increased lensrank and a special personalized template.

For more information about the Giant Squid program, a great place to visit is the So You Want to be a Giant Squid blog.

Two of my lenses won in the 2008 Giant Squid Awards!

On June 3, 2009, I graduated from the very first Rocket Moms "class." Of course, I'm still a Rocket Mom! But I completed my RM assignments in June of '09.

My two favorite people. No, Jiminy isn't one of them.
(But I do like him, of course; his name is almost the same as mine!)

I discovered another great use for Squidoo lenses. Not only can I use them to organize what I already know, I can also use them to organize what I'm learning. This is how my Charlotte Mason lenses came about.

I was not very knowledgeable about this homeschool philosophy in the beginning, but I wanted to know more. Creating Squidoo lenses on CM topics was what I did to organize my research and my findings. As a result, I not only ended up with a deeper understanding of CM, but I also had documented what I learned to share with others.

So when I find a topic that I feel I should research, I make a lens about it. That motivates me to find good material and to learn. For example, I'd like to learn about opera. So, at some point I'm going to make a lens about opera for kids (and newbies like me). I am a lifelong learner with a strong dive to constantly be learning something new and creating something new.