Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Reminder - send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

Almost five years ago we published the first edition of the Carnival of Homeschool. I've made it a tradition that Janine and I host the carnival at the start of every year. Next week we will host the 5th anniversary edition.

Please send in your submission to the next Carnival of Homeschooling, which will be held at our blog Why Homeschool.

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.

Carnival of Homeschooling


And I would appreciate any help you could give in encouraging others to send in their posts. Please forward our request for entries to the 5th anniversary edition addition. Post about it on your blog; mention it on Twitter and Facebook; and as appropriate, send it to any homeschooling mailing lists you are on. Thanks.


Carnival of Homeschooling



Carnival of Homeschooling



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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education,

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up - Making Time for Things That Matter

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is being hosted by Janice Campbell at Taking Time For Things That Matter.

Janice used the name of her blog as the theme for the carnival. She starts with:

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Are you ready for 2011? For the last Carnival of Homeschooling for 2010, we have a loose collection of posts under the general topic of Making Time for Things that Matter. I find that the beginning of a new year is a good time to reflect on the year just past and think ahead to what we’d like to see happen in the new year. At the very least, it’s a good time to count blessings!
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Pop on over and read the last carnival of 2010.


Carnival of Homeschooling


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education,

Monday, December 27, 2010

Another reason to love homeschooling: Avoiding the culture of poverty

One of the greatest barriers to education is the culture of poverty. Much of the debate in education policy comes down to how to educate children who don’t come to school ready to learn and whose parents don’t value education. Inordinate amount of resources are misdirected in a vain attempt to entice disinterested students.

In a recent conversation with a public school teacher, Janine got a glimpse of just how wide the educational divide can be and how frustrating it is for teachers who fight this battle.

In a nearby school, children in a particular family were always late for school. Someone in the school asked a few questions and found out that the family did not have a refrigerator. As a result, the parents’ rush to get breakfast for themselves before going to work made the children late for school.

Once the lack of a refrigerator was known, the school took up a collection and purchased a modest refrigerator for the family. This solved the problem. For the next few weeks the children were on time. Then one week the children didn’t show up at all. Finally the children returned to school, but from that time on were habitually tardy again.

Again someone in the school did a little investigation and found out what had happened. (You might want to be sitting down for this.) The parents had sold the refrigerator and used the money to take the children to Disneyland. As one teacher succinctly put it, “This is the culture of poverty.” If the parents value entertainment more than the health and education of the children, what could the school do that would make any difference. And more than that, these unmotivated students are draining away resources that could have been used to educate children whose families actually value education. And thus we see the awful dilemma facing the public school system.

In the end, it won’t matter if the child can color in the right bubble on a standardize test if he values his entertainment about all else. As foster parents, we see that pattern often. Parents who blow chance after chance, lose job after job, ruin relationship after relationship because they never learned to discipline themselves. Unfortunately, that is not something even the best school can teach. It takes a parent to model it, day after day, especially in early childhood.

We’re glad that we are able to teach our children to have some self discipline, to delay gratification, and to have reasonable priorities.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Reminder - send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

With Christmas just two days away, please give a gift of your submission to the next Carnival of Homeschooling, which will be held at Janice Campbell - Taking Time For Things That Matter.

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.

Carnival of Homeschooling



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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education,

Another fun video: Hallelujah Chorus with the Quinhagak village in Alaska

My mother sent the family a link to the Helleluiah Chorus with the Quinhagak village in Alaska:



According to Wikipedia the village had 555 people in the 2000 census. I wonder how many of them we saw in the video?

About two thirds of the way down this report on Quinhagak is a chart on the modes of transportation to work. Between 5% and 10% drove a car alone to work. A little over 10% carpooled to work. Close to a third walked to work. But over half of them had some other mode of transportation. Given this is a fishing village I'm guessing they went by boat. But maybe in the winter most of them use a dog sled to get to work?

Cute: Santa Went Down To Georgia

Natalie posted a link to Santa Went Down To Georgia:



Pretty fun.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up - The Homeschoolers 12 Days of Christmas

Kat is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at No Fighting, No Biting!

The carnival starts with:

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Welcome to the Carnival of Homeschooling! With only a few days left before Christmas, I thought I would take the opportunity to help share what our family and many others are doing to prepare for December 25th. There is on youtube a large family 12 days of Christmas and a public school 12 days of winter version (thanks CMR!).
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Enjoy!

Carnival of Homeschooling



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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education,

Monday, December 20, 2010

We have a new PE program.

Because we are kind of a nerd-bookish family, we have a hard time getting enough exercise. When given the choice, everybody picks reading a book over just about anything else.

Last Christmas, I tried to break this trend by buying a gym membership for myself and my two oldest girls. That didn't work out so well. My older girls have a 6 am scripture study class on most week days, so we couldn't leave for the gym until after 7 am. This meant that we didn't get home until 8 am or later and then with showers and breakfast, the kids didn't get to school work until after 9 am.

It was also bad for me. It was hard to get the younger ones started, especially our son's therapy routine. I found that if I didn't do his therapy first thing, it just didn't happen.

Going to the gym in the middle of the day or afternoon doesn't work well for me. As a diabetic, exercise in the middle of the day can drop my blood sugar levels very quickly. However, if I exercise in the morning, I don't have the issue. The girls didn't like the afternoon much either. I could only take one older girl at a time because the other was needed at home to be with the younger children while I was gone. That made it hard for the one at home to get any school work done while keeping the younger kids out of trouble.

So, this is our solution: We bought a gently used NordicTrack Audiostrider 990 Pro Elliptical. A friend moved from a house into an apartment as part of a job relocation and didn't have room for it in their smaller home.

Thus far it has been a big hit. I've worked out for the first time in months. Every one in the family has used it but Baby Bop.

When not in use, it can be folded up to take less space and to make it less attractive to climb on for the little guy.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Something fun for the holidays

Here is a very clever rendition of Silent Monks Singing Halleluia:




Reminder - send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

With Christmas only a week away I'm sure many of you are rushing around hectically trying to take care of the last minute details.

If you have a few minutes, please send in your submission to the next Carnival of Homeschooling, which will be held at No Fighting, No Biting!

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.

Carnival of Homeschooling



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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education,

Thursday, December 16, 2010

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - the 42 edition

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is being held at Home Spun Juggling.

The theme is about some places the number 42 has meaning, for example:

By the end of The Twelve Days of Christmas, there are 42 swans a swimming and 42 geese a laying.
Mathematician Paul Cooper calculated it would take 42 minutes to fall through a tube straight through to the other side of the earth.
There are 42 lines on each page of the Gutenberg Bible.
There are 42 spots on a pair of dice.
Every time you frown, you use about 42 muscles.

Go check out the carnival, and tell 42 of your friends!


Carnival of Homeschooling

Monday, December 13, 2010

First step to college

Today, my oldest daughter registered for community college. The community college system has an concurrent enrollment program. High school students can register for community college classes for free.

It is very convenient for homeschoolers because we can take classes any time during the day and are not limited like students enrolled in traditional high school. Since our daughter recent passed the CHSPE (California High School Proficiency Exam), she could have registered as a freshman. However, then she would have to pay for her credits.

We plan on doing concurrent enrollment until she can not get into the classes she wants. Concurrent students are the last to register, so that can be a problem for popular classes. Hopefully, during the next year and a half, we can get most or all of her GE credits out of the way for little or no money.

The hardest part of the application process for me was creating a transcript and figuring out a GPA. (Though, when she turned in her paperwork, they barely glanced at it).

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Reminder - send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

With the rush of the next two weeks it is easy to get distracted and overwhelmed. I hope you all are able to enjoy the Christmas season.

If you have a few minutes, please send in your submission to the next Carnival of Homeschooling, which will be held at Home Spun Juggling.

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.


Carnival of Homeschooling


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education,

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Monday, December 06, 2010

Another reason I love homeschooling

One of the wonderful things about homeschooling is the great flexibility. For example we love being able to travel in off season. The lines are shorter at places like Disneyland. And the fares are cheaper for airplanes and hotels.

Just today I thought of another reason for homeschooling: the ability to be flexible when you are sick.

Today at our house four of the six of us are sick. I stayed home from work today after a horrible night. I've got a major case of the flu. Janine seems to be getting over the worse of it, and our younger two children are suffering from the bug that is going around.

With homeschooling it isn't a big deal that our ten-year-old is sick and needs to take it easy until she recoveres.

Saturday, December 04, 2010

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival is up

The recent Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival is up at Epi Kardia Blog.

Book reivew: The Lady in the Lake

I decided to give a classic detective series a try. Philip Marlowe was a hard boiled detective created by Raymond Chandler. Raymond Chandler is considered a major force is the development of private detective stories. Most of his novels were turned into movies.

In The Lady in the Lady Philip is approached by a husband who is concerned about the disappearance of his wife. His wife has a shady side, which could hurt the man’s business reputation, so he doesn’t want to involve the police.

Philip Marlowe then takes a roller coaster ride through murder, intrigue, threats, crooked police and so on. There were a couple twists along the way, but they were honest twists, the author didn’t pull a rabbit out of the hat.

The story is a page turner. I stayed up until 12:30 to finish it.

If you enjoyed classic mysteries, then I think you’ll enjoy The Lady in the Lake.

The latest video from Hans Rosling

My mom posted on Facebook a link to Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats:



Things like this help me to remember that in the long run the world has made some great improvements, and gives me hope for the future.

African-American Homeschooling on the rise

Natalie posted on Facebook a link to a news video: African-American Homeschooling On The Rise, But Why?

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up - The Tryptophan Edition

TheTutor is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Apollos Academy.

She starts with:

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We are less than a week from Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. The holiday is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November every year in the States but every homeschool parent knows that, no matter how hard we try, it creeps into the Wednesday, Tuesday, and Monday previous... travelling, cooking, planning, cleaning... each of these invades the days leading up to Thanksgiving. On Friday, the tryptophan hangover lingers and the weekend is filled with more travelling, post-celebratory cleaning, and (for some of us) the beginning of another holiday - Advent.
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Carnival of Homeschooling

What is the lesson here?

Normally the more I post the more traffic we get. Monday I got up eight posts and Sitemeter reports that we got 298 hits, which is decent for our blog.

But yesterday was crazy, I worked a 12 hour day. There was no time for posts.

And yet we got 349 hits. What does that mean?