Thursday, January 31, 2013

Positive TV interview of a mother who is unschooling her children

This is a good interview:



Hat tip: The Libertarian Homeschooler

Reminder: Please send in a post for next week's Carnival of Homeschooling

Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The next Carnival of Homeschooling will be held at Dave Out Loud.

This will be the 371st edition.
Dave talks about hosting the carnival next week.

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.

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

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - All About Change

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Living Life and Learning.

The carnival starts with:

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Welcome to the Carnival of Homeschooling: all about changes.

This is our 5th year homeschooling and we are still in need of changes and adjustments throughout the year. I find that what may have worked last year, may not work this year. Your children get older, their needs change, your goals change, your family changes. I still feel like we are trying to find our groove, since what use to work for us previously just isn’t working.

I’ve had to find what will motivate my oldest because this year has been quite challenging for us. We definitely need to make some changes here.

That’s the beauty of homeschooling, when things need to change you decide what needs to be done. You can also change things to suite different learners and change things just for the fun of it when you get bored of your regular routine.

Families homeschool for different reasons, these are some examples of how homeschooling changes our family.
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Carnival of Homeschooling

Monday, January 28, 2013

"College Classes" by Daughter #2



Daughter #2 writes........

            Last week, I signed up for two classes at our local community colleges: an American History class and an American Sign Language class. The classes are at two separate community colleges. These two colleges are part of the same community college district.  I need one college ID for the both of the schools, and they have the same semester calendar. The credits I take at one of these two community colleges are valid to the other.
            Because I’m a currently a High School student, I can sign up for classes at the community college for free. I have to wait until two weeks before the semester starts to register, but it’s still a really good deal. How cool is it that I can get college credit without paying?
            The one downside to concurrent enrollment is that you can’t get on a waitlist. I probably won’t be able to get into the ASL class because there is a waiting list of thirteen. When I tried to sign up, I got a form so I can ask the teacher to add me to the class.  However, since I’m concurrent I have last priority. I’ll go to the first day of class and see how many people on the waitlist the professor allows to add the class, but it’s unlikely I’ll get in.
(My Mom is probably breathing a huge sigh of relief that she won’t have to drive me to college twice a week. Don’t worry Mom, soon I’ll have my driver’s license and you won’t need to worry about driving me to class! Just me driving to class… Somehow I don’t think that will stop her for worrying…. Hmm…)
I was able to register for a History class easily!  I’m really excited about that class for two reasons. First, History is one of my favorite subjects. Second, my big sister is taking that class too! It will be really fun to ride the bus with her and be in the same class!
Registering for the community colleges was pretty easy. We made an account online, printed the form, filled out the paper work, and went to the college to turn the paperwork in. Once I was accepted into the History class, they gave me another form and I was able to get a student ID. I’ve never had a school ID before so that was kind of neat.
On the whole, I’m super excited to start the History class and hopefully the ASL class. It’s another step in our homeschooling adventure, or me copying my big sister’s step. ;)

Good thought about risk and growth

From my Franklin-Covey planner:

To grow, a lobster must shed its old shell numerous times.  Each shedding renders the creature totally defenseless until the new shell forms... When risk becomes frightening, think of the lobster: volnerability is often the price of growth.
 - Richard Armstrong

Thursday, January 24, 2013

The latest Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival is up

The latest Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival is up at journey-and-destination.

Reminder: Please send in a post for next week's Carnival of Homeschooling

Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The next Carnival of Homeschooling will be held at Living Life and Learning.

This will be the 370th edition.

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.

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

Carnival of Homeschooling

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Another reason to homeschool

It seems like sanity and rational behavior are missing in public schools today.

Piece of Paper Gets Girl in Trouble reports:

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A South Philadelphia elementary student was searched in front of classmates and threatened with arrest after she mistakenly brought a “paper gun” to school, yet another example of the hysteria sweeping America’s school system in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre.
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I might be able to understand the reaction of the teacher if it had been a real gun, but a paper gun?  Maybe the teacher couldn't tell the difference?

The latest Homeschool Showcase is up

The latest Homeschool Showcase is up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

A sign of our changing times

Do you want to be a writer?  Do you know someone who likes to write?  The barriers to getting published are dropping.  Dean Wesley Smith reports in Crossover Deals from Self-Publishing to Traditional:

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Then Publisher’s Marketplace followed with the line:

“As everyone knows, originally self-published books made for a number of high-profile crossover deals in 2012–though in total numbers, we recorded 45 such deals in all.”

Of the 300 or so six figure deals that were reported to them in 2012, 45 were from books that started off self-published.
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Kind of cool!

Hat tip:  Instapundit.

Good thought

I like this thought from Dan Galvin's Thought For The Day mailing list:

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Lord when we are wrong,
     make us willing to change.
And when we are right,
     make us easy to live with.


   -Peter Marshall
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This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - The Fire Signs edition

Alasandra is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Alasandra's Homeschool Blog.

She starts the carnival with:

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Fire signs are known to be intuitive, and to rely on gut-level instincts. Going on faith in their inner guidance gets them far, but they have a tendency to skip crucial steps, or to be unaware of the emotional impact of their actions.
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Carnival of Homeschooling

Monday, January 21, 2013

A down side to homeschooling

The flu is hitting many of our friends.  It entered our house about six weeks ago.  Our son was sick and miserable for a couple weeks.  Then our second daughter caught the bug.  And now a foster-care-boy who has been with us for two months finally came down with the bug.

This may be the only down side to homeschooling.  When our children get sick we generally don't let them relax on their school work. 

Reminder: Please send in a post for next week's Carnival of Homeschooling

You have less than twelve hours to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The Carnival of Homeschooling will be held tomorrowat: Alasandra's Homeschool Blog.

This will be the 369th edition.

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.

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


Carnival of Homeschooling

Friday, January 18, 2013

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - The Seasons Edition

The LaughingLioness is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Golden Grasses.

She starts the carnival with:

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Our family recently watched the 1900's House. A 1990's family is transported back to the 1900's, required to use 1900 equipment, clothing, etc. You know the schtick, the producers try to re-create a time period, transplant a modern day family in to it and watch the ensuing culture clash. My younger kids were mesmerized by the discussion, work load, and clothing. We're a fairly history oriented family and often talk about times and seasons. We currently live in an areas where the seasons are clearly defined by temperature, vegetation and activity. This wasn't always the case; Southern California and New Mexico clearly didn't have the low temps, the snow, the ice, the blowing wind (o.k. they both had their fair share of wind). Sometimes seasons are more clearly recognizable than at other times. A second semester often heralds a new homeschooling season- what's new and what's the same at your house?
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Carnival of Homeschooling

Monday, January 14, 2013

How one homeschooler spends her Christmas vacation

My daughter writes:

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Vacation traditionally is fun, easy and full of day trips.

Instead this homeschooler has been doing yard work, filing, babysitting, and learn to cook with her vacations.

During my winter break I have done some work in our back yard. I’ve been trying to kill the weird fern/bush in our side yard that mom is allergic too, picking oranges, and cutting back the ivy that comes over the back fence. And it’s cold. On the plus side it’s a great upper body work out.

I have also spent a good portion of my vacation doing office work, both at work and at home. My dad pays me to shred old receipts. This means that when I want to shred I have to smooth them flat and layer them so that the stack is thick enough to trigger the shredder.

Also filing for a small business is something I’ve never done before and it’s very important, small mistakes could cause big problems. So it’s very nerve racking. I double check and triple check my work.

Because I am home during the day, Mom has taken to leaving one of the little ones with me while she runs errands. I love them but I never have this much trouble when I babysit for other families, which I have been doing during my vacation. It’s actually how I rung in the New Year. Earning money! Yeah!

My sister, who gets up to go to early morning seminary, and I share a room. So I wake up early and have trouble going back to sleep. To keep busy in the early morning I have taken to cooking breakfast. Unfortunately I really don’t know where things are. So I end up waking Mom up to ask where baking powder is or whatever.

But vacation has been fun though not really easy.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Please send in a post for next week's Carnival of Homeschooling

Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The Carnival of Homeschooling will be held next week at: Golden Grasses.

This will be the 368th edition.

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.

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



Thursday, January 10, 2013

Piano Guys do Mission Impossible

This is pretty fun:


This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up at NerdFamily Blog.

The NerdMom starts the carnival with:

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I am so blessed to be hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling here at The NerdFamily Blog!!!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Carnival of Homeschooling here is the deal. Once a week there is a Carnival of Homeschooling which is a collection of homeschooling posts. There isn’t a theme other than it somehow related to homeschooling. Since homeschooling is a lifestyle, that is a wide net. This is the 367th edition (I believe) anyone can submit a blog piece to it. Every week it hosted at a different blog so next week it will be held at over at Golden Grasses! You can get all the details over at Why Homeschool and I invite you to join the fun!!! The Carnival is once again full of great entries so lets jump right in!
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Carnival of Homeschooling

Monday, January 07, 2013

The first Homeschool Showcase of 2013

The first Homeschool Showcase of 2013 is up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Homeschooling and New Year's resolutions.

Here are my New Year's resolutions related to homeschooling:

1) Follow up daily with the kids on their "schoolwork."
I'm hoping for more than.....
Me: Did you finish your school work? Kid2 (age 16): Yes Kid3 (age 12): Yes Me thinking to myself (Did I do anything with Kid4 (age 6.4) and Kid5 (age 4.9) that could be construed as "schoolwork?"
2) Register Kid2 for the SAT and the ACT test early 
...so I don't have to pay for the late registration fee like I did for Kid1. 
 
 
 3) Keep up on the laundry. 
You may be wondering to yourself, "What does laundry have to do with Homeschooling?" 
If there are stacks of clean laundry on the bed and dirty laundry on the laundry room floor, 
I feel stressed and cranky.  When I feel stressed and cranky, the homeschooling doesn't go
as well.

 
4) Push Kid1 and Kid2 to get their driver's licenses 
...so that they can drive themselves and their siblings to the multitude of activities that I now 
drive them to. Then I will have more time to follow up with the kids on their school work, 
register kid2 for the ACT and SAT test in a timely manner, keep up on the laundry and 
do "school" with Kid4 and Kid5.

Thursday, January 03, 2013

Please send in a post for next week's Carnival of Homeschooling

Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The Carnival of Homeschooling will be held next week at: NerdFamily Blog.

This will be the 367h edition.

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.

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

Another journey to homeschooling

Paul Elie writes about his journey to homeschooling in - The Homeschool Diaries.  His columns starts with:

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Homeschooling happened to me this way: The same winter I started teaching a graduate class one night a week, my family was compelled to move to a new apartment, 100 yards away from our old one and identical except for a 25 percent rent hike we couldn’t afford, so that our 5-year-old twin sons could enroll in a “gifted” program in the Manhattan school district where we’d lived since they were born—until the city decided to redraw the lines. As I wrote yet another e-mail to a city Department of Education supervisor, asking her again if she could please arrange for the department’s computer system to recognize our change of address, my wife’s interest in homeschooling began to make a lot of sense. After all, I was teaching graduate students at Columbia. Why shouldn’t I teach my own children, too? What if I took the time and energy I was putting into arranging our sons’ education and devoted it to actually educating them?

Our sons enrolled in the gifted program, and Lenora and I volunteered for the usual parent activities. But when another substantial rent increase prompted a move to Brooklyn (to a lovely, affordable neighborhood whose public-school principal had recently been arrested for assaulting a teacher), and a first-grade teacher in our boys’ program went on maternity leave and was replaced by a 23-year-old teaching assistant, and we faced the prospects of transporting them to Manhattan and back for five more years and begging for permission to enroll our youngest son despite our Brooklyn address, and the discounted tuition for three at a nearby Waldorf school came to $27,000—that’s when I became a homeschooler.
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Hat tip: Instapundit.com

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Carnival of Homeschool: The Seventh Anniversary - The Hope edition

Welcome to the seventh anniversary of the Carnival of Homeschooling.  This is the 366th edition!

Seven years ago we published the first edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.  The carnival was born with a number of hopes.  We hoped to provide a forum for homeschool bloggers to get to know and support each other.  We hoped the carnival will provide our blog and other homeschooling blogs a little more visibility.  Largely I think the carnival has been successful in meeting these goals. 


I had a few additional goals.  I hoped that maybe the Carnival of Homeschooling would provide a tipping point for a few families.  That maybe the carnival would provide the encouragement needed for a few more families give homeschooling a try.  And that maybe a few discouraged families would stay with homeschooling than if the carnival had not existed.  I don’t know if the carnival was a tipping point, but I like to hope it made a difference for at least a few children.

Carnival of Homeschooling

Hopes about homeschooling

Ten years ago I’m sure as Kat and her family started the homeschooling adventure that she had a lot of hopes.  Reflecting over the past ten years she expresses gratitude for What homeschooling has meant to us.  Posted at No Fighting, No Biting!

Young children need a lot of direction and help to stay on task and learn.  In Finding Motivation: Autonomy in [Home] School and [House] Work Mystie shares some ideas on how to help homeschooling children develop autonomy.  Posted at Simply Convivial.  (This is a part of a series on motiviation.)

In Imperfect Homeschooling and a Good College Fit ChristineMM shares how her hopes have changed over the years.  Posted at The Thinking Mother.

Christy provides a Homeschooling Weekly Round-Up Post summarizing the accomplishments her children are making.  Posted at Another step to take….

Hopes for academics

Several surveys have found that one of the main reasons parents choose to homeschool is to provide a better academic environment.  They are disappointed with how government schools are performing and hope to give their children a better education.  For the vast majority of children homeschooling does provide a better academic environment.

Jennifer shares her success in teaching science with Fire & Ice & Oil – Chanukah (Science) Miracles.  Posted at Adventures in Mama-Land.

Sabrina has some tips on how to prepare for a Well-Rounded High School transcript.   Posted at 7SistersHomeschool.com.

Hope helps us to keep trying.  When our first attempt doesn’t succeed, we’ll keep looking.  Jamie explains how Homeschool Grammar with Schoolhouse Rock worked when other methods didn’t.  Posted at MomSCHOOL.


Hopes for a love of learning

Susan has some tips on how to motivate our children to enjoy writing -  Creative Writing Projects: Let them blog.  Posted at @Home&School.

Hopes for character and wisdom

As parents we often want our children to learn to stick to a task.  Janice provides some wise counsel on How to Be a Good Quitter in your Homeschool: Part 1, posted at Taking Time for Things That Matter.

Alejandra writes about the importance of virtues, good values and habits and asks What can we do?  Posted at A Guide to Raising Great Kids.

In A Humble Parlour as a School of Theology, Mrs. White reminds us that mothers of old times would spend hours reading the Bible to their children.  Posted at The Legacy of Home.

Hoped for Blessings

Phyllis’ daughter had misplaced her purse.  They hoped to find it.  Read Are you Watching for Christmas Miracles? to find out what happened.  Posted at Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness.

Hopes for help and support

It is easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure when considering homeschooling.  Review Home School Your First Grader by Beth Jones offers support and encouragement.  Posted at 3 Partners in Shopping Nana, Mommy, & Sissy Too!

Gary has recommendations for 10 Great Kindle Books Homeschoolers will love.  Posted at homeschoolbuzz.com.

In Delayed Formal Math Laurie addresses the question of “How do you differentiate between informal and formal math?  Posted at Trivium Pursuit.

Karen has advice from experienced homeschool moms to Prospective Homeschool Parents, Part 1 of 5.  Posted at Homeschool Atheist Momma.

In Resolved! Jan explores the fallacy of self-help vs. the willingness to choose a good attitude each morning. Posted at Encouraging Moms Who Homeschool.

Hopes for homeschooling ideas

Christy shares some ideas on how to have a 100th Day of School Celebration.  , posted at Eclectic Momma.

The Blurry Line Between Teacher and Student reminds us that often the student can also be a teacher, posted at Teaching Stars.

Susan summarizes a Homeschooling Roundtable recently on Bloomberg Radio.  The homeschool community was well represented by three homeschooling women.  Posted at Corn and Oil.


Hopes for good family times


Hopes for the future

Looking forward to the New Year(s) is about graduating a daughter from homeschool in May, the end of an era.  Posted at Notes from a homeschooled mom.

Carnival of Homeschooling

If you have enjoyed this carnival, please spread the word. Please mention the carnival on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, and other appropriate places. You can also help promote the carnival by adding the carnival images. Learn how by going here.

Go here for the archives of previous carnivals.

Next week the carnival will be held at NerdFamily Blog.

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

We 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.

Carnival of Homeschooling