Just how squirrelly are homeschoolers? This week's Carnival of Homeschooling

Mam Squirrel at Dewey's Treehouse is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling. She hosts a parent's meeting in weaving all the links together.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education, Carnival of Homeschooling

Dr. Laura has a blog

So, if you hate Dr. Laura just skip this post.

I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a huge fan but I find that I agree with what she says about 85% of the time and she has been pretty supportive of homeschooling on her radio show.

So here's Dr. Laura's blog.

I liked this post.

Women’s Work” SAVES Women’s Lives

Feminism Kills Women: Betty Friedan’s negative view of so-called “women’s work” created a movement that turned family life upside down and wrenched women from their homes. Turns out, women’s work, is the very thing that saves women’s lives!
Research following 200,000 women from nine European countries for an average of over 6 years and 3,423 cases of breast cancer determined that women who exercise by doing the housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer by 30% among the pre-menopausal women and 20% among the post-menopausal women.

“The International authors said their results suggested that moderate forms of physical activity, such as housework, may be more important than less frequent but more intense recreational physical activity in reducing breast cancer risk.” The research is published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention.

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Related Tags: Dr. Laura, Blogging, Breast Cancer

A carnival for creative, crafty people

While looking through the list of recent carnivals I saw The Festival of Family Flair and wondered what in the world was this carnival. At first I thought maybe it was just a variation of the Carnival of Family Life. But the description says:

"Flair can be artistry and it can be genius. Crafts, recipes, hacks - share with us all the ways you and your family members have been creative!"

So the focus is different. GNMParents hosted the first Festival of Family Flair a couple days ago. It looks fun.


The Carnival of Family Life is hosted this week by Family Portal.


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Technorati tags: family, life, crafts

Homeschool homies

Jess at Captured Thoughts found a funny music video: Homeschool homies.

My wife and I have watched it a couple times.


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Technorati tags: homeschool, homies

Reminder for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

The next Carnival of Homeschooling will be hosted at Dewey's Treehouse.

As always submissions are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM PST. Here are the instructions.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education, Carnival of Homeschooling

Speaking of carnivals - Catholic Homeschool Blog Carnival

This month's Catholic Homeschool Blog Carnival is hosted by Mary Ann Bernard. There is a nice collection of posts.


I only know of three active carnivals on homeschooling:

Carnival of Homeschooling
Unschooling Voices
Catholic Homeschooling

If you know of any other active carnivals on homeschooling, please let me know.


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Technorati tags: carnival, homeschooling, unschooling

Two carnival on education

I check out the Blog Carnival list of Carnivals fairly often. I surprised to find that in edition to the Carnival of Education, there is now an Education Carnival.

The 101st Carnival of Education is hosted this week by I Thought a Think.

And the very first Education Carnival is hosted by WhoLearns.com. The description for the Education Carnival is: "All about education, online education and distance learning."

EdWonk does a great job of running the Carnival of Education. In large part the Carnival of Homeschooling is modeled after what he has done. I hope the Education Carnival is able to raise to the standard set by The Education Wonks.


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Technorati tags: carnival, education

Teaching to the test

This news article from Virginia is a prime example of teaching to the test.


Schools show why Johnny couldn't add

BY CATHY GRIMES

January 10, 2007

VIRGINIA MATH SCORES -- Hampton Roads school district officials and teachers think they now have the answer to a question that they've grappled with since August: Why did so many sixth- and seventh-graders fail the state's math tests in 2006, when they had done well on fifth-grade tests only a year or two before?

The answer? Teachers prepared students for one test, but students ended up taking something very different - a test with unfamiliar vocabulary, different concepts and more multistep problems than anything they had seen to date.

"All year, we taught the kids, thinking the sixth- and seventh-grade tests would look like the eighth-grade test, but they didn't," York County school Superintendent Steven Staples said.

I can understand there being some confusion when students see unfamiliar terms. But, the test scores were dramatically different from the previous year.

The results shocked educators and state officials. According to a state analysis released this month, seven of 10 sixth-graders correctly answered 20 items on the 50-question test that they took.Results were worse on the seventh-grade test. Seven of 10 students correctly answered only eight of 50 problems.

If the students understood the math concepts and not just how to get the right answer on a particular test, changes in the test format would not dramatically lower the test result. Answering only 8 problems out of 50 correctly demonstrates that students don’t understand how to use basic math concepts.

This correlates with the findings of a resent literacy study.

NEW STUDY OF THE LITERACY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS:

Twenty percent of U.S. college students completing 4-year degrees – and 30 percent of students earning 2-year degrees – have only basic quantitative literacy skills, meaning they are unable to estimate if their car has enough gasoline to get to the next gas station or calculate the total cost of ordering office supplies, according to a new national survey by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The study was funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

So, students are being taught how to fill in the right bubble on the right test, but they can’t use math concepts on a different test or in their every day life.

What is the purpose of an education? If we only measure the success or failure of a public, private or homeschool education by test results, we won't really know if the process has been successful.

I'm not against testing entirely. It is one of many ways of evaluating student progress. It is also a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. Even if students score high on a specific standardized test, it doesn't mean they will being able to balance their check book.

Analysis of the Virginia test results revealed some interesting things.

Pyle said part of the problem was a change in the way that students were tested. Previously, students took a cumulative test, measuring what they had learned since sixth grade. Now students take 50-question tests at each grade.

"We're testing more deeply into the content" of each grade, he said.

With the previous cumulative style test, students could have a limited grasp on the math skills taught that year and still test well. In other words, on the previous test, very few questions were on grade level. Most of the questions checked more basic math skills taught in the previous years. On the current test, all questions are on grade level. Thus, it is a much harder test and more accurately measure the mastery of that academic year’s material.

I love this last quote from the article.

Pyle said the 2006 scores were part of "a period of adjustment" as teachers and students got used to the new tests.

Translation: Give us time to figure out how to teach to this test.

Here's an idea: Why don't they focus on teaching students math concepts instead of how to fill in the right bubble on a new test. I realize this is easier said than done. However, as long as the focus is scoring well on a particular test, than the focus is NOT on learning to master specific concepts and skills. If students master the concepts, they will score well regardless of the test format and they will be able to use math concepts in every day life.

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Related Tags: standardized testing, teaching to the test, Virginia math scores, public education, private education, homeschooling, testing, Department of Education

Can you belive this? Children told they can not ride the school bus because they speak English

Three children in Minnesota were riding the bus to school. The bus driver told them that since they spoke English they could not ride the bus home, or ride it ever again. The mother had to come pick them up after school.

In reading the full account, Kids barred from school bus because they spoke English, it makes a little more sense, but only a little. The school district had designated some bus routes for non-English speaking children. The children had been riding a non-English school bus since school started. The school district decided to enforce the separate bus routes on Monday, but didn’t tell parents.

I read things like this and wonder how parents even put up with the public school. The parents are trying to work with the school bureaucracy. It is enough to drive people bonkers.

(Hat tip: reddit.com)


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Technorati tags: school, bus

The Smog Referee

We have an appointment with the Smog Referee. What is a Smog Referee and why would you want to see him? That is a good question.

This is our sad story. A few months ago, our 1985 Club Wagon failed to pass California's new smog requirements. We took advantage of the state's retirement program. They paid us $1000 to junk our van. I got a little choked up when we drove the van to the junk yard to be crushed.

After doing some looking around, we decided to replace our 1985 Club Wagon with another Club Wagon. Because of California's tough emissions requirements, we were worried about buying a used van. Once an older vehicle fails to pass the smog check, often the only thing you can do is retire the vehicle or replace the engine.

Frugal souls that we are, we decided to buy a gently used rental van. My brother who lives in another state works for Hertz car sales, so we were able to get a good deal on a van. For a few hundred dollars more we paid someone to drive it out to us.

Licensing a vehicle from out of state is a bit messy. The California DMV requires a smog check for every such vehicle regardless of how new.

So, I took it down to my local Smog Check place. After trying for fifteen minutes, the mechanic informed me that they didn't have the software compatible with such a new vehicle. I would need to have it smogged at the dealership. So, I called my local Ford dealership. They informed me that they didn't do smog checks and referred me to another Ford dealership about 20 minutes away. After a few more phone calls, I discovered that this dealership couldn't do the smog test either because they also lacked the software.

My next step was to call the DMV. I was hoping they would wave the smog requirement since it is a 2006 vehicle. No such luck. They referred my to the Smog Authority. This was an interesting phone call. The automated answering system listed options like, "For private investigation licensing hit 2, For security licensing hit 3, for....." Option 6 was the Smog Authority.

What kind of state bureaucracy handles both private investigator licensing and smog licensing?

So, once I got to talk to a real person and explained my dilemma, I was informed that I needed to see the Smog Referee. I am not making this up. They gave me another number to call.

After wadding through another answering system, I got to talk to "The Smog Referee." He informed me that they were very busy and it would take over a week to get an appointment. He gave me directions to a parking lot at a local community college with a warning not to be late.

All this to check the emission levels of a vehicle that is almost brand new.

I can't wait to see what a Smog Referee looks like. I'm expecting someone in a blank and white striped shirt with a whistle.


UPDATE: See Smog Referee - Part 2

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Related Tags: Smog Referee

Stuff found via Google Alert

It has been awhile since I posted on some of the treasures I have found via Google Alerts.

Lisa Hendey posted an interview with Sandra Gillmore, author of Mommy Come Home. Sandra has a very strong message, from a religious point of view, that mothers should stay home with their children. She has advice for how to live on one income. And she is very positive about homeschooling. It looks like the interview was originally done back in 2004.

Matthew Dallman writes that Socialization is one of the reasons he is considering homeschooling.

Jay Mathews is a education columnist for the Washington Post. I have a Google Alert set up to notify me whenever his name appears, which normally means he has written a new column. I liked his column Bad Guess on U.S. Future. He opens with:

The two words most likely to make education reporters sigh wearily are "national" and "commission." Those of us who have been doing this for awhile know that many government, business and non-profit groups cannot resist the urge to gather great men and women together frequently to plan our schools' future. The result is almost always a great waste of time and paper.

He goes on to explain that the current well intended efforts by the government are not going to fix the problems with public education. He makes a number of good points.

In his column Innocents in Blogland Jay reports on some suggestions his readers have for education blogs to follow. Most of them were blogs I had not heard of before.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education, Sandra Gillmore, Mommy Come Home, Socialization, Jay Mathews

Conspiracy Theory

I stumbled across an interesting rant about A Very Short, Very Sad History of American Education During the Last 100 years. The author, Bruce Deitrick Price, makes the argument that the down turn in education was a result of deliberate planning.

Our top educators circa 1900 decided that American students really did not need so much reading, writing, and arithmetic, not to mention science, history, geography and all the rest. What American students needed was more group activities and social engineering. These educators drew up a blueprint for greater conformity and passivity, with the right people in control...

Our early educators decided they would first take control of the teachers colleges. The country’s future teachers could be radicalized and sent to the small towns of America, where they would reprogram (i.e., dumb down) the public schools and what was taught there. These “progressive” teachers would create a New American Child--more uniform, more pliable, with fewer academic skills, and a reduced ability to think independently.

I think my father-in-law would agree with this one. He began college with the intent of becoming a teacher. He didn't make it through one "education" class before quitting in disgust.

Recently, when going through my late parents' keepsakes, I found a paper written by my grandfather when he was a math professor at San Jose State University. The document was undated, but I believe it was written sometime in the 1960's. His thesis stated that math training for school teachers was lacking. He gave specific example of basic math concepts that current teachers could not teach their elementary students because they themselves had never been taught them.

A few years ago, I had this analysis confirmed. While talking to a friend who was finishing student teaching, I was struck by a comment she made. She said, "I decided to teach kindergarten or first grade because I couldn't handle the second grade math."

I was stunned. At the time, I just assumed she wasn't very bright. Now, I wonder if the problem wasn't her, but the training she received to become a teacher. My friend went on to become a teacher in a poor intercity school. She is very devoted to her students and makes extraordinary efforts to help her students. However, she can't give them skills she hasn't got.

Mr. Price has quite a few interesting education rants on his website. He takes on what he calls the look-say or whole word fraud in A Tribute to Rudolph Flesch.

I don't know if I totally buy the idea that the problems in education are totally by design. But, it is worth a second look.


Either way, I’m glad to be on the outside looking in. There’s no place like home(school).


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Related Tags: Crisis in Education, dumbing down, Bruce Deitrick Price, public education, homeschooling, Conspiracy Theory

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up - week 54; it is a different carnival each time you load it

Gary at HomeSchoolBuzz is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling. He built the carnival is such a way that it is a different carnival each time you load it into your web browser.

While you are checking out the carnival, you might also check out Gary's Blog Watch.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education, Carnival of Homeschooling

Some fun stuff from the Cool Digest

The following are all from the Cool List Digest:

Have you ever wondered just what 200 Calories looks like?

Sonic Boom, Sound Barrier, and Condensation Clouds may take a long time to load if you have a slow connection to the internet. There are dozens of pictures showing what a sonic boom looks like. Pretty cool.

The Harlem Globetrotters are artists with basketballs. This is a video of a guy doing amazing things with a yo-yo.


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Technorati tags: food, calories, sonic boom, yoyo, yo-yo

Carnival of Family Life and Semicolon's list of book reviews

This week's Carnival of Family Life is from Hawaii at An Island Life.

Each Saturday Sherry at Semicolon puts up a cool post with some special HTML which allows others to add to her post. She invites her readers to include a link to a book review they have recently posted. For the Saturday Review of Books: January 6. 2007 she is up to 38 reviews.


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Technorati tags: family, life, parenting, children, book, review, book reviews

School Administrators Gone Bad

More on the cheerleader scandal:

This news report had more information about misconduct by the school administration.


CHEER SQUAD PUTS ADULTS IN FEAR FROM . . .
PEP GIRLS GONE WILD

After the cheerleading coach quit, the school district hired independent investigator Harold Jones, whose $40,000, 70-page discipline report led to the resignation of McKinney North's principal Linda Theret - mother of the girls' ringleader, Karrissa Theret - just days before Christmas.

An assistant principal, Richard Brunner, is fighting the district's decision not to renew his contract; the decision followed the Jones report.

Now, teachers and parents are coming forward to complain that Theret created a climate of fear bolstered by a culture of retaliation, litigation and Texas employment laws that made firings easy.

Ward said some teachers had changed grades for these girls because they feared for their careers.

"The principal made sure that every teacher knew that their job was on the line. I can't tell you how many times I thought I was going to lose my job," Ward said. "I was scared to death. It was a nightmare."

With the adults too frightened to stand in their way, the cheerleading clique were emboldened; the limo incident occurred right in the middle of the Jones investigation.

"The biggest problem was nobody was willing to do anything to stand up to these girls," Ward said. "Parents [of other students] were worried that their children would be harassed if they said anything."

In the end, Jones' report found that Theret used her power to influence discipline decisions in favor of her daughter and other cheerleaders.

Theret was handed $75,000 and a letter of recommendation as part of her departure deal, which the school board struck following Jones' recommendations last month.

Things fall apart when the adults are "afraid" to do the right thing. I feel bad for the teachers involved, but I'm also sad that they caved in for so long. I'm glad that the the fourth coach to leave in one year went public with the details.

This would have been a non-story if 4 years ago, the first time one of these girls stepped out of line, the school administration had enforced existing rules. But in fairness to the school administration, it is difficult to do your job when parents don't do theirs.






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Related Tags: public education, cheerleaders, homeschool, principal, McKinney, Texas, fab five, high school

You can do homeschooling through college

Our oldest daughter is twelve, so we are still several years from her going off to college, but we think about it often. One of the big concerns in the rising cost of education of universities. Over the last couple decades tuition has climbed twice as fast as inflation.

My brother mentioned that MIT was in the process of putting 1,800 courses up on the internet. It was fun to be reading The Homeschooling Revolution this morning and noticed that Isabel had found (via Education and Homeschool News) a link to the MIT courses.

A Christian Science Monitor article said the MIT site was getting 1.4 million hits a month from all over the world. As more and more courses are put up online I'm sure this number will explode.

It is pretty amazing that anyone can get an MIT education for free. Maybe in a couple years one of our daughters will start checking out the MIT courses.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, MIT, online, course, education

Cheerleaders Gone Bad

Oh..... big surprise!


Cheerleaders' lifestyle is nothing to cheer about

The pouting teenagers were guilty of intimidation, threats, "telling teachers to shut up, using a cell phone in class even after being told not to, cheating on tests, skipping school," added Mr Jones, who interviewed 75 pupils, teachers, parents and school administrators.

Pranks included commandeering Ms Ward's mobile telephone and sending racy text messages to her husband and another coach, and posting sexually provocative pictures of themselves on MySpace, the social networking website. Previous coaches had also complained. One left her post after the head teacher's daughter made an obscene gesture from the sidelines during a football match; another walked out after some of the girls were caught drinking but escaped punishment.

"These girls were at the top of the food chain, they were 'uber-cool', they had the looks – some of them had the money," said Mr Jones. "I talked to a real good-looking football coach and he was obviously scared of them. He had taught inner-city school kids in San Francisco and he said gang members were nothing compared with these girls."

There were two reasons that these "girls" able to get away with so much bad behavior.

A $40,000 (£21,000) inquiry into the McKinney affair detailed how the five girls enjoyed immunity thanks to the fact that one of their number was the daughter of the head teacher.

By the way, “head teacher” is another name for the principal. This article is from a news paper in the UK about an incident that happened in Texas.

It also revealed how, when punishments were finally proposed, indignant mothers rallied to their precious offsprings' defence.

From Texas Cheerleaders Terrorize School:

In December, the principal resigned as part of a settlement in which she received $75,000 and a letter of recommendation for her next job. The former principal's attorney says she denies shielding her daughter from punishment.

That's one of the things wrong with public education. Regardless of how badly a teacher or administrator performs, they can expect to walk away with a settlement and a letter of recommendation. Would you want this woman to be the principal at your child's school?

So, ultimately who's to blame? Nepotism among the school administration definitely played a part, but ultimately the parents are responsible for encouraging bad conduct.

This is also a "good" example of why I don't send my children to public school. I'm reminded of that woman on Dr. Phil who complained that homeschooling ruined her life because she didn't get to be a cheerleader. She doesn't know how lucky she was.


The second article had some discussion about the problem of giving children too much power. That can be a problem for homeschoolers as well.

Rosalind Wiseman, an educator on teens and parenting, and author of the book "Queen Bees and Wannabee's," sees the Texas cheerleading debacle as part of a wider problem with kids and power.

"This is about kids having more power than adults, and them getting away with things no matter how old they are," she said.

Wiseman said that if parents wanted to prevent their kids from running amok, they couldn't be afraid to punish them.

"Some parents today feel that their No. 1 job is to protect their child, and it's not," she said. "Their job is to raise an ethical child, which means holding them accountable for bad behavior."

I agree with Rosalind Wiseman until her last statement.

When it comes to conflicts in school, Wiseman said parents should steer clear of direct involvement, if possible.

Advising parents to "steer clear of direct involvement" can put students at risk. I understand her arguments for letting kids "work things out on their own." However, the parents need to stay actively in the loop. You can't assume a teacher or administrator is going to act ethically. Recent sex scandals involving teachers and students are just one example of that kind of problem.

For more on the story see School Administrators Gone Bad.

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Related Tags: public education, cheerleaders, homeschool, principal, McKinney, Texas, fab five, high school

Wikipedia has an extensive article on Homeschooling

We frequently include links to Wikipedia in our posts. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia which is maintained and improved by volunteers. The syntax is different than HTML, but isn't too hard to master.

The section on Homeschooling is very complete. I didn't see anything major to add. If you notice something important missing, you can update the article. Here is the start of Wikipedia's tutorial.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, Wikipedia

Start off the new year right by sending in a submission for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

The first Carnival of Homeschooling this year was very successful. Help keep this going by sending in a submission for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. You have 49 hours left.

As always submissions are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM PST. Here are the instructions.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education, Carnival of Homeschooling

NEW STUDY OF THE LITERACY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Updated post: See comments for explanation.


This report is from the American Institutes for Research.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Twenty percent of U.S. college students completing 4-year degrees – and 30 percent of students earning 2-year degrees – have only basic quantitative literacy skills, meaning they are unable to estimate if their car has enough gasoline to get to the next gas station or calculate the total cost of ordering office supplies, according to a new national survey by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The study was funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Here are a few findings from the study:

More than 75 percent of students at 2-year colleges and more than 50 percent of students at 4-year colleges do not score at the proficient level of literacy. This means that they lack the skills to perform complex literacy tasks, such as comparing credit card offers with different interest rates or summarizing the arguments of newspaper editorials.

This is almost inconceivable to me. Lucky for us that voting rates or are so low. (To be entirely grammatically correct, I would need to say "It is lucky for us.....") Can you imaging how scary things would be if people who can't summarize the arguments in a newspaper editorial or compare credit card offeres offers were deciding public policy?

The literacy skills of college students are directly related to the education of their parents: children whose parents graduated college or attended graduate school have higher literacy than students whose parents did not graduate high school or stopped after receiving a high school diploma or GED.

Despite variations in income, most differences in the literacy of students across income groups are not significant.

Now, I found this interesting. In the end, what mattered most are were the skills of the parents, not the funding of the school. This is in evidence by the similar results of private and public universities. Reguardless Regardless, it is troubling that so many students graduate from college without getting an "education." These missing skills are ones most people assume students learn in middle school or high school.

As a parent, it is not wise to assume that the grade school, middle school, high school or university is going to "teach" your child the skills they need to be successful in life. Yet another reason to homeschool. (To be entirely grammatically correct, I would need to say "This is yet another reason to homeschool." My use of vernacularisms in this post seemed appropriate in the informal atmosphere of the blogosphere.)




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Related Tags: college students, literacy, math skills, college graduates, quantitative literacy skills, The Pew Charitable Trusts, American Institutes for Research

Some other good carnivals

While the Carnival of Homeschooling just celebrated its one year anniversary there have been some other good carnivals out recently:

The Carnival of Eduction came out with the 100th edition at Teaching in the Twenty-First Century!

At Be a Good Dad is the most recent Carnival of Family Life.

If you want to look for other recent carnivals, check out this list at Blog Carnival.


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Technorati tags: education, school, teaching, children, family

Nice thoughts from A Word A Day

As I have mentioned in the past I am on the mailing list A Word A Day. Each day an email is sent out with a new word.

My original reason for joining the list was not to expand my vocabulary, but because the emails also included quotes. I use to collect clean humor and I liked the thoughts included in the emails from A Word A Day. Here are a few sent over the Christmas break:


He who would be a leader must be a bridge.
- Welsh proverb


Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them.
-T.S. Eliot, poet (1888-1965)


The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.
-Florence Scovel Shinn, writer, artist and teacher (1871-1940)


The butterfly counts not years but moments and has time enough.
-Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941)



Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.
-Shakti Gawain, teacher and author (1948- )


One that homeschoolers may truely appreciate:


To freely bloom - that is my definition of success.
-Gerry Spence, lawyer (1929- )


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Technorati tags: thoughts, life, time, success

Carnival of Homeschooling - Week 53 - the Anniversary edition

Introduction:

A year ago we launch the first Carnival of Homeschooling. We are very pleased with how well accepted and supported the carnival has been. 2006 was a good year for the carnival. Many, many people have helped make it a success. Dozens of bloggers have taken turns hosting the carnival. Hundreds of bloggers have participated in the carnival. And on an average week some where between one to two thousand readers will go read the carnival. A big thank you to everyone!

As the anniversary edition we decided to weave the posts in with the traditional gifts given for anniversaries. In 1922 Emily Post published a traditional list of gifts for each anniversary. The first anniversary is suppose to have a gift of paper, the second is cotton, and so on. We’ve tied the posts this week to each of the various gifts. We hope you enjoy this Carnival of Homeschooling.



Body:

Paper (year 1)

Homeschoolers use tons of paper. They read books, magazines, newsletters, blogs, and even research papers. At No fighting, no biting! kat reviews a research paper on the factors that influence parents deciding to homeschool in It was inevitable that we homeschool.

At Homeschooling and Learning Resource Ann Bowers gives homeschoolers some basic techniques for developing reading comprehension and thinking skills.

At SmallWorld is a reminder that as parents are teaching their children, they should also continue their own self education. The Year in Books is a list of books one homeschool mother read in 2006.

Rebecca, the host for last week’s Carnival of Homeschool, writes about her experience in making a book on Heimdall the Guardian.














Cotton (year 2)

Mental multivitamin in From the archives: Let's go. realizes she is happy to run errands in her monkey pajamas and red plaid jacket and Grandma Dowdel boots and red ear muffs

At Pass The Torch Kelly is looking for help in getting organized in 'Tis the season to set goals. An important part of organization is getting the kids to pick up their own clothes


Leather (year 3)

Wouldn't be nice if homeschooling came with a leather bond book of guidelines? From Guilt-Free Homeschooling Carolyn shares a great little quiz to evaluate your homeschool routine in Am I Doing Enough?

Other than leather bound books, guess what else you can find at the library? The Thinking Mother writes about specially trained dogs which listen to children read.













Linen (year 4)

Queen of Carrots from Introducing the World tries to weave good habits and learning into the ordinary activities of our day in Learning Stashes.

Over at Principled Discovery Dana shares A peek in our homeschool: studying Jamestown where her daughter stitched a sampler after learning what young ladies did in colonial times.

In One-Handed Posting Melissa Wiley of The Lilting House writes a post about Charlotte Mason who was from a more recent era, the Victorian Era.


Wood (year 5)

Wood is a fundamental building material for construction. Tami reviews her building plans in A New Year.

Stages are often made of wood. Cinnamon from Nose in a Book reports on an outing to a performance with A little mime, a little Mendelssohn and ponders that if she feels something is important for her children, she should also be involved.

Kris of Kris’ Eclectic Homeschool shares some thoughts on 5 years of homeschooling in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (well, not really!).












Iron (year 6)

From Consent Of The Governend Judy Aron writes about a young girl with an iron will who as an unschooler was accepted to Princeton.

Does it take an iron will to handle the "they say" ers? Kristina of at home, on fire writes about her experience with people “who live and breathe just to make judgments on anyone who doesn’t stir their tea just the way “they say” you should in Are we really doing our best by them?

From Trinity Prep School Maureen writes about a Great Books Discussion: The Iliad. The Iliad took place during the Iron Age.


Wool (year 7)

In case you were gathering wool during math class, Denise of Let’s play math! has written a poem to help students do fraction division.


Bronze (year 8)

The Bronze Age was largely influenced by the new technology of being able to make items out of bronze. Christina of Routon Family Homeschool explores The Changing Workplace and how in the workforce people are finding better ways to work, yet insist children must continue to attend a traditional school class.

Stonehenge was created in the early Bronze Age. From Progressive Homeschool Nika found a wonderful way to teach her children about Stonehenge in Happy Winter Solstice! May you have light.














Copper (year 9)

Many cooking pots and pans are made of cooper. Ali’s husband gave a gift in organizing the kitchen. From my God given mission field in Looking back on the year Ali determines to be less lazy and more organized.

There is an old wives tale about being able to get rid of warts by someone saying a prayer over you and rubbing your warts with pennies. From The Open Door Laura shares how she and her son, Christian learned that you can actually get rid of wart with duct tape in The Strangest Thing We Studied This Year.


Aluminum or Tin (year 10)

At Trivium Pursuit the Bluedorns write about their Very First Podcast. I wonder how much tin was involved in the equipment.

Jet planes are made of Aluminum alloy. In Dads – Part 7, from her series on Dads and homeschooling Janine writes about leaving on a jet plane for a trip away.


Steel (year 11)

Hundreds of pounds of steel go into each car. In Teaching Real Life Candi writes about how her son and husband designed a car to run on coffee at Homekeeper at Heart.

Isaiash5413 read a book recently which nailed her. The book helped her to step back and realize she can have Peace for 2007.


Silk (year 12)

A Chinese proverb says “With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.” From 7ValleysHomeschool Nikki reminds us in Re-Evaluating your homeschool that re-evaluating our time and what we are doing is very important for our children.

Parental guidance takes a soft touch. At Life Without School Stephanie writes on parenting in Who’s in Charge?











Lace (year 13)

Making lace is an intricate process. So, is choosing and using a curriculum. At The Upward Call Kim points out that we need to avoid depending on others as we make decisions regarding homeschooling in Follow which leader?


Ivory (year 14)

Music is important to many homeschoolers. Many children start off with the piano. Tickle the ivories is a common expression for playing the piano. At Gray’s Academy Cher Mere explores how homeschooling allows her daughter to be an individual.

People speak of those in an Ivory Tower as teachers who delve so much into abstract thought that they become divorced from reality. Sheri from Classical Education writes on a latest “improvement” in education from California in What Are the 3 R’s Again?


Crystal (year 15)

Often gifts of crystal have to do with glasses. Mark and Cyndy Weiss of Trust The Children address the question of if the glass is half full or half empty. In The Total Package encourage parents to recognize that the glass may be more than half full when considering a husband’s contribution in a true light.

A crystal lens can widen our view of the world. Twice Bloomed Wisteria writes about importance of the inclusion of multicultural resources in a classical education and provides ideas and resources for implementation in A Broader View.

Often time and distance can help make things crystal clear. The Head Mistress of The Common Room writes about her Favorite Read This Morning in which she realized a truth about herself.


Turquoise (year 17)

At All Info About Home Schooling Patti Miller shares her experience on Homeschool Record Keeping. (We couldn’t find anything to match Turquoise, and we couldn’t find an anniversary gift to match record keeping, so this post fills in the gap.)


China (year 20)

Trust is fragile, like fine china. Trust is an important part of rapport. From Families.com Homeschool Blog Andrea Hermitt writes about the Vocabulary Word of the Day: Rapport (ruh-poor) and the importance of trust.














Silver (year 25)

A traditional 25th anniversary gift is a mirror. Bruggie Tales reflects on their homeschool style Structured Classical Unschooling.

Another traditional 25th anniversary gift is silver candlesticks. Minnesota Mom likes to wind down by lighting a candle and playing some relaxing music.... but her children find their Inspiration in different ways.

In many cultures money has often been made of metals like silver. The Imperfect Homeschooler writes on the importance of Teaching Our Children About Financial Freedom and how to teach children to handle money wisely.


Coral (year 35)

There are different kinds of coral reefs. Each reef has a slightly different structure. Finding your structure is an important part of homeschooling. At Crafty Mama’s Homeschool Charity writes about Homeschooling in the New Year and reevaluation of their homeschooling method.















Ruby (year 40)

From the Mother-Lode Kim Anderson recommends a book about a treasure hunt to celebrate Christmas in Trumpet Stars and Wise Men.

“Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer had a very shinny nose…” Down at Texas Ed are some profound thoughts on Rudolph and the Road not Taken.

From The Scratching Post is a cool description of building a DIY Rock Tumbler, used to polish gems.


Pearl (year 30)

In Homeschool Resolutions Mother Crone’s Homeschool has a good reminder that we need to reevaluate our homeschool plans. Get rid of what's not working and keep the pearls.


Gold (year 50)

My wife and I are coming up on our 15th anniversary. Fifty years is longer than we’ve been alive. The traditional gift is Gold. Gold is very valuable. Carmon of Buried Treasure reminds of us of something even more precious in her review of R.C. Sproul, Jr.'s book "When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling"

Over at the Rosetta Stone Michelle writes about a golden moment in Do you have a MOOS-stash? She writes about the dangers of memorizing poetry.


Diamond (year 60)

Often homeschoolers get hit with the Socialization question. Alasandra notices that lately homeschoolers are getting hit on Another S Word. Are homeschoolers really selfish? Or are they just guarding the family jewels?


Platinum Jubilee (year 70)

Do you know what a Platinum Jubilee is? I didn’t. Maureen Wittmann prepared a quiz for her readers to see how well they know her in her first Anniversary Edition.


Oak (year 80)

For nature study, get out under the old oak tree and watch the birds. By Sun and Candlelight has suggestions on watching Winter Birds and shares their experience.


Conclusion:

There you have it, the first anniversary edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. If you have enjoyed this carnival, please spread the word. 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 HomeSchoolBuzz.

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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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education, Carnival of Homeschooling

Responsibility for the education of children

Today, Henry and I are getting ready to mail our annual Christmas letter. Yes, we realize we are a bit late this year. We really struggled with what to say about our blogging efforts.

At first, we had a line that said something diplomatic like "The purpose of our blog is to encourage parents to be more involved with their children's education."

That sounded so wishy-washy that we then changed it to, "The purpose of our blog is to encourage parents to take responsibility for their children's education."

This phrase bothered me. Parents are responsible for their children's education, no matter what they do. Whether parents delegate their duty to public or private schools, choose to homeschool, hire tutors, use distance learning programs or a combination of all of the above, ultimately the parents are responsible for the well being of their minor children.

I just hate it when parents complain about their children's school, yet do nothing about it. Or worse, the parents pretend they are the victims when it is discovered that their children never mastered elementary reading and math skills. Children are dependent upon their parents to look out for them. If the parents themselves act like dependent children, what hope have the children for protection.

So, we changed it to, "The purpose of our blog is to remind parents that they are responsible for their children's education."

Henry felt that might be too provocative for many of our friends and relatives. It also left out any reference to the responsibility of the child to develop his talents. In the end, we settled with something factual but bland. "We discuss homeschool related issues on our blog."

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!



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Related Tags: Christmas newsletter, parental responsibility, public school, homeschool, distance learning, private school, blogging