For all you non techies out there!  This one’s for you!  A spoof on Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First”, but updated to the Computer Age!  This video is too funny!

Another Communication Friday Funny from your friends at Art of Eloquence.com!

Sometimes just a single word can make all the difference in your communication.

Another great Friday Funny from your friends at Art of Eloquence.com!

I’ve been working all week to bring you some fabulous values!  Art of Eloquence is adding more value packages to save you money and give you bundles of value!  Our new value packages allow you to save money by purchasing several studies together!  AND we have created a Value Package Page on our site to give you a nice overview of all the ways your family can save on these fabulous bundles we’ve put together for preschoolers all the way on up through adults! We even have a special value package that has a little something for the entire family!

Here is a list of the value packages you will now (or soon) find at Art of Eloquence.com but keep checking back because more are coming this week!

Preschool Pack
Elementary Pack
Teen Pack
Teen Bonus Pack
High School Pack
High School Premium Pack (coming soon)
College Prep Pack
Deluxe College Prep Pack (coming soon)
Fun Pack
Family Pack (coming soon)
Career Pack
Business Pack
Parent Pack (coming soon)
Leadership Pack (coming soon)
Even more coming soon!

I have also updated our online catalog.  So if you are looking for a specific topic, for a particular age group, or would just like to browse, click here!

Finally, as I began to add these packages, I thought it would be a nice feature to have a major listing of our various eStudies for each age group.  So…I created several new At-A-Glance type pages broken down by age group.  We now have overview pages for all our PreK eStudies, Elementary eStudies, Jr/Sr High eStudies, and for all of our Adult eStudies which are now linked from our home page.  I am still working to add all the pictures to these pages so bear with me as I finish that this week.

What’s New at Art of Eloquence Newsletter subscribers will get a free gift soon for Valentine’s Day!  If you are not a subscriber, you’ll want to subscribe before our next newsletter comes out so you don’t miss out!

What’s New at Art of Eloquence offers exclusive articles, special offers, free gifts and other communication fun ONLY for subscribers!  We do not give out this information anywhere else (on our site, blog or Facebook Fan Club Page!) but just to those on our mailing list!

If you are not subscribed, you can do so easily by clicking here!

Happy Valentine’s Day!  From the folks at Art of Eloquence.com!

When I had my internet show, The Communication Comedy Network, I had to play several different people in a span of an hour.  I played a New York Newscaster, a Southern Roving Reporter, a British Professor and myself with a sort of California accent.  I found it difficult to switch back and forth between the accents and the accents I was doing were very different from each other.

The woman in this video is absolutely amazing!  She does 21 different accents in a span of just two minutes and 36 seconds and some of the accents present only very subtle changes.  I don’t know if the accents are 100% accurate, but I’ll tell you one thing, this lady is talented!!!  I can’t do it.  Can you?

More communication fun brought to you by your friends at Art of Eloquence.com!

I cannot believe it is the end of January already and time for Mailbag Monday here at Communication FUNdamentals.  This month we found MANY questions and comments in our mailbag–mostly feedback on all the changes we have had here at Art of Eloquence.com and the newsletter.

Say What You Mean Convention

1. Several of you asked how to register for the event and enter the drawings.  The sign up form is now on the home page.  This not only enters you in the six live drawings but allows you to receive What’s New at Art of Eloquence, our monthly newsletter with freebies, special offers and info JUST for our subscribers.

2. A few of you emailed asking about the events at the convention.  I have recorded a welcome audio you can access from the home page that will give you a quick overview of the site and events.  To see all of the events, times and descriptions, click on the Schedule of Events page. We also have an audio of our preview show with my guests Kim Kautzer from WriteShop and Cindy Rushton from Talk A Latte and Mom to Mom Radio who is one of our keynote speakers this year!

3. Many of you emailed in or posted on my Facebook page about how much you are looking forward to this year’s convention and how much fun you had last year.  Thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me.  Here are a few of the things folks had to say about the convention:

“Sign me up, please. Thanks. I CAN’T WAIT!!!! It sounds so good. I’M DYING to listen to the preview.” -BeckyJoie

“I ‘attended’ this convention last year and it was fantastic! Informative, professional and just plain fun! I highly recommend this to all home educators who desire to learn to communicate for Jesus’ glory =)” -Brenda

“I can’t wait for your audios. They are always outstanding.” -Susan

“Looking forward to the SWYM Convention once again!” -Christine

Newsletter Feedback:

1. So many of you emailed in about how much you like our new format.  Many of the comments we received were like this one:

“SWEET! Love the new format. . . especially ART OF ELEPHANTS.  ROFLOL” -Carla

2. We had another wonderful review this month.  This time by two homeschool moms who run a website and have written a book for homeschool group leaders.  Check it out here.

Then we had some really great questions about our communication studies.

1. Karen asked what the difference is between Say What You Mean: A Creative Speech Course and Say What You Mean For Teens.   In case you were wondering the same thing…

Say What You Mean for Teens is a general communication study teaching basic communication skills and why communication is so important for every day life.  In week eight, the student begins preparing to give a speech he will deliver in week 18. The study takes him through this step by step in a fun and creative way while teaching him the skills he needs to deliver such a speech.

Say What You Mean: A Creative Speech Course is a full speech course.  Each week your student will prepare for and give a speech on a different creative and fun topic alternating between impromptu and prepared speeches.  This is not your typical speech course where the students have to do a lot of research of the same old topics.  This study puts the emphasis on honing the skills needed to give a great speech while using fun topics such as Cats vs Dogs and 101 Uses of Duct Tape!

2. Leslie asked when Say What You Mean for Preschoolers would be available again.  Well Leslie you are not alone!  I’ve had someone ask this question at least once a week since we took it down for revising.

I am actually almost done revising the study as I type this.  It should be out this week!  Since I stopped my weekly podcast, I’ve been working hard on all our new studies you all said you wanted.  In fact, we will have a few more studies out shortly and some more following that.  We will be taking pre orders for some of them so watch our newsletter for details.  We will be offering our newsletter subscribers an opportunity to pre order at a lower rate so if you are not a subscriber, you’ll want to be soon!

3. Roberto asked if Art of Eloquence had anything that would help him specifically with getting his point across in conversation.

Well, we are just about to!  I am also currently working on my notes for a new study called Say What You Mean in Conversation and one called Say What You Mean: Persuasion and Public Speaking.  Either of these will help you a great deal.  Keep watch on the newsletter for details on how and when you can pre order these two!

Thank you all for your fabulous questions and comments this month!  If you have a question or a comment for Art of Eloquence, send it to jojo@artofeloquence.com!

It’s time for your Friday Giggle!  Communication FUNdamentals is proud to present this week’s Friday Funny:

So many of you send me Friday Funny material from “real life” and I thank you.  I’ve had newsletter subscribers send in some funny things their kidlings have said, blog readers send in pictures of street signs that should have been better thought out and this week’s Friday Funny comes from my dad!  Thanks Dad!

This was in a story on the AP Wire:

“The young Nigerian man was due in federal court Friday afternoon for his arraignment on charges that he failed to detonate a chemical-laden explosive on the Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight.“

Let me get this straight.  He is charged with failing to detonate the explosive?  So…if he were successful, he would have been released without charges?

This has been your Friday Giggle Break.  If this had been a real communication emergency, you would have been instructed to visit Art of Eloquence.com.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled day!

Art of Eloquence Has Had a Facelift!

I know what you’re thinking!  I promised to do this two years ago, but try as I might, I was unable to find the time to redesign the site with all the other events and projects I had going.  December 31st was my final podcast and I immediately got to work and it’s like Art of Eloquence bought a new hat!  See?

We’re still our old purple selves but we’ve got a totally new feel and I am happy to say it is MUCH easier to navigate and find what you are looking for!

First, the home page is completely redesigned to reflect the fact that Art of Eloquence no longer has just homeschool curricula and that we now have communication studies for various situations!  Now you can easily find whatever you might be looking for whether homeschool curricula, speech and debate, leadership training, defending the faith or business just by clicking on one of the top buttons.

Second, we have arranged it so that it is very easy to find and use all our free resources like my articles, blog, Foot in Mouth Man and all our free events!  You’ll find each of these buttons up at the top of the home page for easy reference!

A new feature is our Studies, Surveys and Statistics Page where you can read all about the research done on the importance of various communication skills and just who is looking for people who possess them!  We’ll be adding more soon but I got bleary eyed and had to move on to another task! lol

We now have a link right on the home page to our classic “Communication Effectiveness Quiz” where you can answer the questions to determine what areas of communication are your strengths and what areas are your weaknesses.  This is especially helpful for your children so you can understand where they need to be better prepared if they are going to be going to college in a few years!

In addition, we now have a few communication quotes listed right on the home page that you can click through in order to read even more Bible and other quotes of communication wisdom!  I have TONS more of those to add but that will have to wait a bit too.

Lastly, each of our subheadings has a new page that shares more about communication in that area of life and includes all the links to the various Art of Eloquence studies, audio classes and other resources that pertain to that communication topic.  The sub headings are: Homeschool Curricula, Speech and Debate, Leadership Training, Defending the Faith and Business Training.

I spent all day yesterday writing, rewriting and updating many of the pages of the website.  I still have to re work the product pages, but I’m done with the other pages.  We even redesigned FIMM”s page last week!

Since my eyes are now bulging out of my sockets and my brain is fried from looking at my monitor all day, I am wondering if you can help me see if I missed anything.  It’s possible that there might be a link that doesn’t go where it is supposed to or a word that has been misspelled.  We would appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to go in and see for us.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts.  Aside from the product pages, which all need to be redone yet, how do you like our new look?  Do all the links work?  Did we misspell a word?  Have a broken link?  Something that isn’t clear?  Help us work the bugs out.

Thank you much from the tired eyes, numb fingers and NEW DO that is now Art of Eloquence.com!

English is a crazy language that wound up with wounds of wisdom.  Does it sound right to you that our houses don’t have mouses?  Why can we oversee what we cannot overlook?  It seems something is not “in wack”, but fat chance trying to work it out-or would that be a slim one?

If we slow down for just a minute, we will clearly see that we cannot slow up-or keep up with the strange rules which cause a wise man not to be a wise guy.  It also doesn’t follow that we talk about gooses which are really geese, but never about mooses which are definitely not meese.

If I had my way, everything would be spelled “foneticly” and punctuating a crazy man would just be Crazy, Man! I also think we have far “tu” many “leters” in the “alfabet!”  Additionally I teach my kids that, if you were to “member” correctly in the first place, you’d never have to remember in the second place.

To make a long story “much more” longer, I think I’d like to redo the entire “Inglish” language so it made a great deal more “cents.”  Don’t “yu” “agre?”

A little language levity from the folks at Art of Eloquence.com!

What a contest!  For the past two months, Art of Eloquence had a contest going that got really interesting, especially toward the end.   The idea was to help us get the word out about Art of Eloquence by posting links to our website.  The winner of the $350 prize package was the one who posted the most links, but we were also giving away other prizes by picking 10 other entries at random.

When we first started, I thought we would have hundreds of people entering once with several entering a few times.  I expected our winner to have posted about 5-7 links in the two months allotted and I figured the motivation to post the most links would come from the fact that folks really wanted to win the very generous prize package ($350 value) donated by several wonderful companies!  Boy was I wrong!

The winner posted 82 links during the two month period of time and our second place winner was not too far behind with 43 posts!!  Wow!  Wanna know something else?  As I corresponded with these two winners and with several of the other entrants, I found something quite interesting.

Almost all of them said they were happy to post because they really loved Art of Eloquence products and felt that effective communication was an important topic!  In fact, I can’t even count the number of times I found an Art of Eloquence link posted where the person didn’t even email me to enter the contest!  And when I contacted them to inform them that they could email me to enter to win a prize package, many of them said they just wanted to share the information.  WOW!  I am truly humbled!

Education and enlightenment can come from the most unexpected places.  We may often wonder if our life’s work is making an impact or if folks even take the time to read what we post.  2009 was such an awful year for so many that it seemed to leave people with little time or energy to post comments.  I knew folks were reading my newsletter and blog and were using my studies but, as negative communication travels so much farther and faster, I would receive the occasional note that someone was unhappy with the focus of an article, wanted more for free or didn’t like the Christian focus of my studies.  I was completely unprepared for the magnitude of the appreciation I would receive for this contest and the willingness of my customers, readers and subscribers to forward our website link.  I am truly honored and humbled that God would use me in this way and allow me to see such support back from so many!

Well, in case you are wondering who won our little internet contest, we have posted the winner and second place winner up on the contest page of the Art of Eloquence website.  There you will still find the massive list of precious prizes donated by some of the most amazing and generous companies out there.  I would like to formally thank each and every one of them for their participation and generosity!

I would also like to thank our winners, all 11 of them, and every person who posted our links for taking the time to post about Art of Eloquence and for the lovely comments made both in their posts online and to me in private.  God’s blessings upon you!