Carnival of Homeschool: Week 68

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Welcome to the Carnival of Homeschooling Tax Edition. Today, April 17th, is the deadline in the United States to file taxes this year. No one likes paying taxes, but here's a humorous look at the IRS and tax collection.


"You must pay taxes. But there's no law that says you gotta leave a tip."
-- Former Morgan Stanley Advertisement

From SmallWorld is a good tip: Support Group Leaders Need Your Support. It's hard being a support group leader, especially to a bunch of independent, opinionated homeschoolers like we all are! Don't forget to tell your leadership how much you appreciate them as the year winds down!

Dawnelle is a former teacher and reading tutor, as well as a freelance writer. At Keeping It Real she gives some tips on Publishing a Zine, a fun, inexpensive writing project for homeschooled students.

At Unbridled Learning Sarah gives some reasons, examples, and tips for using Powerpoint to do notebooking with homeschooling in Notebooking with Powerpoint.


A fool and his money are soon parted. It takes creative tax laws for the rest.
-- C Bob Thaves

Reading all those tax laws is hard. It is important to start our children on the road to reading mastery. The Headmistress from The Common Room says There's More to a CM Education Than Narration. Narration isn't the only way Miss Mason used books, and the other methods she used still work today. In fact, they make up a significant portion of the Remedial offered by most colleges.

Literature of all kinds can be useful in teaching. Over at Food History Gillian Polack explains how homeschoolers can use ephemera (technical term for leaflets and pamphlets and stuff) in Dr. Morse’s Pills and home teaching.

Writing is also very important. My Domestic Church recommends Bravewriter. Elena shares her experiences with the Bravewriter site and the course her son just successfully completed there.


"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the Income Tax." - Albert Einstein

Sometimes our children don't believe their parents, or understand why their parents do things. Lill with News from Hawkill Acres tells a delightful story about her Four Years Old, Litter-ally.

Sometimes all we need to understand is a little learning. At Little Acorns Treehouse Jenny explains What Asperger's Syndrome looks like... in her six year old daughter Ellie and how that impacted their decision to homeschool.

This is hard to understand: Susan blogs at Corn and Oil. She writes that there has been an increasing trend to mandate mental health screens or assessments for all children; including homeschoolers. In The Last People Who Should Be Defining What is Normal... she reviews some of the legislation currently in Illinois and Indiana, and the legislators' reactions to the introduced bills.


"A fine is a tax for doing something wrong. A tax is a fine for doing something right."
--anonymous

The above is a cute jingle. But a cute jingle that rhymes does not equal a poem of worth. A child may start off his poetic career with such, but growth and improvement should be expected, and this can only happen with some guidance. From Higher Up and Further In is some help with Poetic Narration Demystified.

This is unrelated to taxes - I've been surprised by how video blogging is taking off. We have two video blogs in this carnival! The Trivium Pursuit has A Lesson in Watercolor Art by Johannah Bluedorn

Andrea who blogs at Notes From A Homeschooling Mom says she has heard the Dumbest reason not to homeschool Ever! She has a video log post where she rants about another video blog which against homeschooling.


"If you are truly serious about preparing your child for the future, don't teach him to subtract - teach him to deduct."
-- Fran Lebowitz

Another thing you might want to teach your child is about nature. At Alone on a Limb Terrell has kicked of a Carnival of Learning in the Great Outdoors. If you want to use nature as setting for educating your children, check out this carnival.

Also a nature theme, High Desert Hi-Jinks has a nice list of mainly Internet resources to help a young boy Learn About Foxes.

Along the similar lines, from The Heart of Harmony, Barb writes on how to start a garden as a unit study project in your homeschool and introduces the idea that your garden is a great subject for drawing and sketching as it grows.

It is also important to teach our children to help out. From All Info About Homeschooling are some ideas on Volunteering for Homeschool Families. This is a starting place for families who want to reach out together to help others. And remember...it all counts as school!

A good way to prepare a child for the future is to teach about the past. At Ragamuffin Studies Elisheva Hannah Levin in Remembering and Understanding: Studying Yom Ha-Shoah writes how she helped her son understand The Holocaust, or Shoah, as part of their historical study. By combining historical background, real events, songs and ceremony they were able to get a grasp on what it means for them on the rational as well as emotional level.


"I guess I think of lotteries as a tax on the mathematically challenged."
-- Robert Jones

The mathematically challenged might want to head over to Let's play math! which has some Twaddle-free math handouts - library and online math resources, games for learning multiplication and fractions, and two math article reprints.

At Life Without School Tammy recounts Working Out Fractions with her son. Her observation is that with the amount of understanding he’s gaining on a daily basis, any pushing from her couldn’t possibly speed things up any faster. And other than to assuage my own personal worries and fears, what’s the purpose of wanting him to go faster anyway?

It can be a challenge to deal with other's comments on homeschooling. From a School of Thought the Unschooler responds to some concerns about homeschooling in Homeschool opinions - everybody has one.

From The Lilting House Melissa Wiley challenges us to Stop and Smell the Soap Bubbles: Imbuing the Ordinary with Wonder


"Day in and day out, your tax accountant can make or lose you more money than any single person in your life, with the possible exception of your kids."
-- Harvey Mackay

Pets are one of the ways children can cost us money. In a Diary of 1 is an account of Puppy love. How does a homeschool family react to a new puppy? After the children finish jumping for joy, they head for the library!

Just like it can be tricky in dealing with your tax accountant, some times we have to be careful how we answer non-homeschoolers. Barbara Frank says that when non-homeschoolers ask you how many hours of "school" you do each day, answering them can be like tip-toeing through a minefield.

Another profession many parents deal with is teaching. At Absolutelee is How This Public School Teacher Views Homeschooling. He views it positively! He says that he and his wife are going to be homeschooling their own kids in a couple of years.


"The invention of the teenager was a mistake. Once you identify a period of life in which people get to stay out late but don't have to pay taxes naturally, no one wants to live any other way."
-- Judith Martin (writing as "Miss Manners")

From Consent Of The Governed Judy Aron asks Has Your Teen Written A Resume? Her short essay is for homeschool teenagers on the importance of preparing a resume as well as some tips in creating one.

Teenagers are known from a large appetite. At Redbud's Lane is A Lesson You Can Sink Your Teeth Into. This must have been a fun lesson, learning and chocolate!

Long before our children are teenagers we start thinking about what we want for them. The Thinking Mother shares a list of (non-material) things she wants her children to have.


"The Internal Revenue Code is about 10 times the size of the Bible - and unlike the Bible, contains no good news."
-- Don Rickles

At Inklings Rachel has some good news: There's Magic in the Dirt. She explains that it can be hard to see the results when we start homeschooling, or investing in people in any other way. The results are there--they're just buried for a little while.

From at home, on fire, Kristina is a bit overwhelmed and wonders Am I the Only One? Is she the only one who, coming to the beginning of a new homeschooling week and looking back on the one that preceded it, sees that she spent a lot of time doing “something” but cannot necessarily find a category heading to file it under?

Mess and clutter can also be overwhelming. From Why Homeschool is Janine’s account of a little spring cleaning and how it helps our homeschooling.


Hopefully this has cheered you up a bit.

If you have enjoyed the carnival, tell your friends, families, neighbors. Please mention the carnival on your blog, and other appropriate places.

Go here for the archives of previous carnivals.

Next week the carnival will be held at Sprittibee.

If you are interested in submitting a post for a future carnival, click here for information.

We'd like to thank everyone who has helped out. Thank you to all the participants in this carnival. And thanks to all those who help promote the Carnival of Homeschooling.


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