Wednesday, February 18, 2015

This month's Carnival of Homeschooling is up: Homeschool Mom Pet Peeve


Constance is hosting the February edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling at her blog Cosmopolitan Cornbread.

She starts the carnival with:

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Years ago on my old blog, I went on a little rant one day. I was in a mood, and I had seen a comment on facebook that really set me off, and I shared my frustrations on my blog.

It prompted a ton of hilarious comments, and I thought I would share my outburst here for your enjoyment:
As you are all aware, I am a homeschool mom. I have to share that I have a “pet peeve.”
I read lots of e-mails, messages, articles and such every day. Can I tell you that there is little that drives me more nuts than someone talking about…
…there trip to the store and how they had to drag there kids with them and blah, blah, blah…
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Check out the carnival to find out exactly what is her pet peeve.  (Though you may already know.)

Enjoy.

Carnival of Homeschooling

Monday, February 09, 2015

A little update on Baby Bop

Our long time readers may remember that about eight years ago my family started doing foster care.  We had about twenty children come into our home, a few came twice.  One young boy came into our home when he was fourteen months old.  He ended up not going home and we eventually adopted him.

When we started writing about him Janine called him Baby Bob.   But he is no longer a baby; he is almost eight an a half.  And very much a boy.

He has a few areas he struggles in.  He stutters a bit and for the last couple years has made very little progress in reading.  He loves to listen to stories.  He can soak up hours of StoryNory.com.  And for maybe close to two years I've been reading him stories like Black Stallion, Hardy Boys and more recently Tom Swift.  His auditory processing has greatly improved and he is clearly following the story.  Fairly frequently he'll interrupt to say things like "Tom shouldn't do that."

These last two weeks we've had a major breakthrough.  Kind of on a whim, I decided to have him try to read "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish."  I had him read ten and twenty pages each night before I read another chapter of Tom Swift to him.  Baby Bop struggled.  It was hard.  When he got stuck I'd help him.  After we finished it the first time I had him read the whole book again.  This time it was much easier.  He still struggled, but he could see the progress he made in just one week.  But the most exciting thing was that over this weekend on his own initiative he sat down to reread it a third time!!!  There were still a few words he struggled with, but he really did a great job.

The major breakthrough is really that he has changed how he sees himself.  Before he didn't see himself as a reader.  Now he is talking about when he is going to read The Enormous Egg.

I am so glad we have been able to homeschooling.  He wasn't pushed into reading a couple years before his brain was ready.  By letting him develop on his own, he is now moving into the exciting world of printed words, with self confidence and eagerness.

Saturday, February 07, 2015

OK to submit up to three posts to the monthly edition of the Carnival of Homeschool

With the recent change to the Carnival of Homeschooling now coming out monthly, one of our frequent participants asked if the restriction to submit only one post was still in effect.

I thought about it for a bit and talked with our current active hosts.  I have decided that it is OK to submit up to three entries each month.  But the posts should be new entries, posts which have not been in previous carnivals.

If you have any questions, just ask.

Thanks.

And remember, the entries for the first monthly Carnival of Homeschooling are due February 9th, at 6:00 PM PST.


Carnival of Homeschooling

Wednesday, February 04, 2015

Please send in a post for the first monthly Carnival of Homeschooling

Please send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling, which will be the first monthly edition.  The next carnival will be held at at The Foodie Army Wife, on the second Tuesday of February, or in six days.


This will be the 469th edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.

As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, on the 9th of February.

I have a reminder mailing list. If you would like email reminders, please tell me. 

Carnival of Homeschooling

Monday, February 02, 2015

Announcing a change to the Carnival of Homeschooling

The Carnival of Homeschooling has had a good run.  It has had a lot of participation and support over the last nine years.  But it is clear that there is much less interest in the carnival.  During the first six or seven years a typical carnival would receive 25 to 40 posts.  And the host would get hundreds, and sometimes in a thousand or two extra visits.  Now we have carnivals getting 5 to 10 submissions, and only a few dozen people will pop into read it.

A month ago I sent out emails to the currently active hosts.  I asked for their thoughts and suggestions.  I tried to be neutral as I summarized the problems and listed several alternatives.  The majority of the responses echoed what I had thought was the right thing to do.

So starting now the Carnival of Homeschooling is switching to once a month.  The carnival will be published on the second Tuesday of the month.  

Pretty much everything else will stay the same.  The email to submit the posts to is the same.  The deadline will be the day before, at 6:00 PM PST.  We are interested in pretty much any reasonable post about homeschooling.

I expect that this will give people more time to think about a post and that the carnivals will be larger now, maybe back in the 25 to 40 range.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment or send me an email.

I apologize for leaving things in limbo for a couple weeks.  I've struggled a bit with the change and was reluctant, but I do think it is the right thing to do.