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 331st edition.
Blog Carnvial was repaired for a bit but is now down again, so please send in your submissions directly via email.
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.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - frost and forcythias
"Christine The Curious" is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Our Curious Home.
She starts the carnival with:
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I looked through our Archived photos from Aprils past, to see what a ‘typical’ April was like for our family.
We often had nice weather to get outside in (or else we had bouncy children who had to go outside whether it was nice or not).
This photo of M when he was young reminds me of the questions Dan asked me when I was first thinking of homeschooling. NerdWallet has some Questions for Parents: Is homeschooling right for Me?
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She starts the carnival with:
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I looked through our Archived photos from Aprils past, to see what a ‘typical’ April was like for our family.
We often had nice weather to get outside in (or else we had bouncy children who had to go outside whether it was nice or not).
This photo of M when he was young reminds me of the questions Dan asked me when I was first thinking of homeschooling. NerdWallet has some Questions for Parents: Is homeschooling right for Me?
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Graduation Announcements?
Our oldest daughter will be "graduating" from our homeschool. I hadn't really thought much about it since she is already attending community college. She passed the CHSPE (California High School Proficiency Exam) two years ago. In many ways, she has already moved on to the next step.
I'm a little ambivalent. My parents made me go to my high school graduation and I didn't attend my college graduation. (I regret not attending my college graduation since I think it would have meant something to my parents.)
There are no other seniors in our homeschool co-op or in our close circle of friends. There might be a few other seniors in the larger homeschool support group but my older daughters doesn't really hang out there. So, a graduation ceremony seems a little too much. Should we make a diploma and give it to her?
A friend suggest that we have party to celebrate and send out graduation announcements in the form of an invitation to the party.
So, what do other homeschoolers do when there children "graduate?"
I'm a little ambivalent. My parents made me go to my high school graduation and I didn't attend my college graduation. (I regret not attending my college graduation since I think it would have meant something to my parents.)
There are no other seniors in our homeschool co-op or in our close circle of friends. There might be a few other seniors in the larger homeschool support group but my older daughters doesn't really hang out there. So, a graduation ceremony seems a little too much. Should we make a diploma and give it to her?
A friend suggest that we have party to celebrate and send out graduation announcements in the form of an invitation to the party.
So, what do other homeschoolers do when there children "graduate?"
Monday, April 23, 2012
Homeschooling and the house remodel
Almost three months ago we moved out of our house into an apartment. Janine and I were married over twenty years ago. (One of the reasons she married me was because I already had a house.) From the beginning Janine has wanted to remodel the kitchen. We have had other parts of the house remodeled. The first job was expanding the master bedroom and fixing up the bathrooms. We had a couple other jobs which included turning the back porch into a screen room and splitting the upstairs room into a family room and an office. Now finally she was getting her dream to come true.
Living in a small two bedroom apartment has been an interesting experience. We have been a bit stressed in the tight quarters, but everyone has adjusted. I’ve been fascinated by how little we see our neighbors. Of the seven other apartments on the third floor with us I’ve only seen people go in or out of four of them. And we rarely see people going in and out of these four apartments. I heard that all the apartments are occupied, but I wonder.
Homeschooling hasn’t changed all that much. Janine still gives assignments to the girls. Our daughters do a fairly good job of staying focused and working through their topics. I think the biggest change is they have been operating much more independently. Janine has been greatly distracted by the dozens of decisions she has had to make.
Janine has been thinking about the new kitchen for years, but after the remodel started she was surprised to learn just how many choices she still needed to make. There were hundreds of little details. She has created a design committee on Facebook. Fairly often she would post a question about counter tops or appliances or what to put on the floor, and get dozens of comments. It has been an iterative process. For example once she decided on granite she then had to pick out which type of granite. Due to the marvels of technology she could take pictures of samples, post them on Facebook and get lots of feedback on which pattern people liked, and why.
We should be moving back into our home in another ten days. Soon this will just be a chapter in our family history. We’ll be able to look back and remember the fun things like having a pool!
Friday, April 20, 2012
Great thought about raising children
Tiffany Holley posted this great thought on Facebook:
Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy
- Robert A. Heilein
Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy
- Robert A. Heilein
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Interesting thought: College may not be a net benefit for all students
George Leef has an interesting column: After College, What?
Down in the the column are these two paragraphs:
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What the study found is not the least bit surprising. Students who learned little in college (as evidenced by scoring in the bottom quintile on the College Learning Assessment) were three times as likely to be unemployed as students who scored in the top quintile, twice as likely to be living at home, and somewhat more likely to have run up credit card debts.
Those findings throw cold water on the smiley face idea that going to college is necessarily a good “investment.” Even some of the top graduates were unemployed and living with their parents and a much higher number of low-performing graduates were. Unfortunately, the study did not seek to find out how many of those graduates were “underemployed” in jobs that high schoolers can do. (Perhaps no further evidence on that is necessary, though, in view of this study.)
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The huge push to send everyone to college may not be a benefit to all students.
Down in the the column are these two paragraphs:
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What the study found is not the least bit surprising. Students who learned little in college (as evidenced by scoring in the bottom quintile on the College Learning Assessment) were three times as likely to be unemployed as students who scored in the top quintile, twice as likely to be living at home, and somewhat more likely to have run up credit card debts.
Those findings throw cold water on the smiley face idea that going to college is necessarily a good “investment.” Even some of the top graduates were unemployed and living with their parents and a much higher number of low-performing graduates were. Unfortunately, the study did not seek to find out how many of those graduates were “underemployed” in jobs that high schoolers can do. (Perhaps no further evidence on that is necessary, though, in view of this study.)
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The huge push to send everyone to college may not be a benefit to all students.
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 Our Curious Home.
This will be the 330th edition.
Blog Carnvial was seems to be working, but given the past history of the last six months it isn't clear how long it will work. It is probably best to send in your submissions directly via email.
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.
This will be the 330th edition.
Blog Carnvial was seems to be working, but given the past history of the last six months it isn't clear how long it will work. It is probably best to send in your submissions directly via email.
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.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Interesting on thoughts about Facebook and Google
Facebook stocks up for Google fight has some interesting thoughts about how Facebook and Google compete:
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"It gives Facebook the ability to roll out more services," Gartner technology analyst Michael Gartenberg said. "It's going to be harder for companies to compete with Facebook."
Facebook, in its filing for an initial public offering, cited Microsoft and Twitter as competitors but made it clear its chief rival is Google.
"We compete broadly with Google's social networking offerings, including Google+," Facebook said of the social network launched by Google which has attracted 90 million users to Facebook's more than 800 million.
"Some of our current and potential competitors have significantly greater resources and better competitive positions in certain markets than we do," Facebook said.
At first glance, Google would appear to have the upper hand.
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"It gives Facebook the ability to roll out more services," Gartner technology analyst Michael Gartenberg said. "It's going to be harder for companies to compete with Facebook."
Facebook, in its filing for an initial public offering, cited Microsoft and Twitter as competitors but made it clear its chief rival is Google.
"We compete broadly with Google's social networking offerings, including Google+," Facebook said of the social network launched by Google which has attracted 90 million users to Facebook's more than 800 million.
"Some of our current and potential competitors have significantly greater resources and better competitive positions in certain markets than we do," Facebook said.
At first glance, Google would appear to have the upper hand.
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Interesting: Wandering minds may be sharper
Children whose minds wander 'have sharper brains' has a fun conclusion:
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A study has found that people who appear to be constantly distracted have more “working memory”, giving them the ability to hold a lot of information in their heads and manipulate it mentally.
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Hat-tip: my brother-in-law
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A study has found that people who appear to be constantly distracted have more “working memory”, giving them the ability to hold a lot of information in their heads and manipulate it mentally.
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Hat-tip: my brother-in-law
This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - The Balloon Dog Lessons editgion
Cristina is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Home Spun Juggling.
She starts the carnival with:
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I happen to do at least one or two workshops every year teaching balloon sculpture. I've written about one of these workshops here. It occurred to me that the lessons I've learned from teaching balloon sculpture might be applied to homeschooling, so I'm using them as part of my carnival. After all, what's a carnival without balloon animals?
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She starts the carnival with:
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I happen to do at least one or two workshops every year teaching balloon sculpture. I've written about one of these workshops here. It occurred to me that the lessons I've learned from teaching balloon sculpture might be applied to homeschooling, so I'm using them as part of my carnival. After all, what's a carnival without balloon animals?
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Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Another reason for a positive attitude
From Dan Galvin's Thought For The Day mailing list:
A positive attitude will not solve
all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort.
-Submitted by Phil Chenevert
A positive attitude will not solve
all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort.
-Submitted by Phil Chenevert
Love your childred, it is good for their brains
New study confirms that mom's love good for child's brain starts with:
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The new research, by child psychiatrists and neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is the first to show that changes in this critical region of children's brain anatomy are linked to a mother's nurturing.
Their research is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.
"This study validates something that seems to be intuitive, which is just how important nurturing parents are to creating adaptive human beings," says first author Joan L. Luby, MD. "I think the public health implications suggest that we should pay more attention to parents' nurturing, and we should do what we can as a society to foster these skills because clearly nurturing has a very, very big impact on later development."
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I think this re-inforces how important it is for children to be raised by a stay-at-home parent.
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The new research, by child psychiatrists and neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is the first to show that changes in this critical region of children's brain anatomy are linked to a mother's nurturing.
Their research is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.
"This study validates something that seems to be intuitive, which is just how important nurturing parents are to creating adaptive human beings," says first author Joan L. Luby, MD. "I think the public health implications suggest that we should pay more attention to parents' nurturing, and we should do what we can as a society to foster these skills because clearly nurturing has a very, very big impact on later development."
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I think this re-inforces how important it is for children to be raised by a stay-at-home parent.
The IRS is chasing people out of the United States
I have written before about leaving the United States. In November I wrote about a huge increase in the number of people leaving. Currently in the US each person's share of the national debt is $130,000.
Tax time pushes some Americans to take a hike reports another reason why people are leaving:
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"'Truth, justice, and the American way' - it's not enough anymore," the comic book superhero said, after both the Iranian and American governments criticized him for joining a peaceful anti-government protest in Tehran.
Last year, almost 1,800 people followed Superman's lead, renouncing their U.S. citizenship or handing in their Green Cards. That's a record number since the Internal Revenue Service began publishing a list of those who renounced in 1998. It's also almost eight times more than the number of citizens who renounced in 2008, and more than the total for 2007, 2008 and 2009 combined.
But not everyone's motivations are as lofty as Superman's. Many say they parted ways with America for tax reasons.
The United States is one of the only countries to tax its citizens on income earned while they're living abroad. And just as Americans stateside must file tax returns each April - this year, the deadline is Tuesday - an estimated 6.3 million U.S. citizens living abroad brace for what they describe as an even tougher process of reporting their income and foreign accounts to the IRS. For them, the deadline is June.
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It will be interesting to see if this trend continues. If the national debt continues to grow and if taxes climb I think more and more people will leave.
Hat tip: Instapundit
Tax time pushes some Americans to take a hike reports another reason why people are leaving:
----------
"'Truth, justice, and the American way' - it's not enough anymore," the comic book superhero said, after both the Iranian and American governments criticized him for joining a peaceful anti-government protest in Tehran.
Last year, almost 1,800 people followed Superman's lead, renouncing their U.S. citizenship or handing in their Green Cards. That's a record number since the Internal Revenue Service began publishing a list of those who renounced in 1998. It's also almost eight times more than the number of citizens who renounced in 2008, and more than the total for 2007, 2008 and 2009 combined.
But not everyone's motivations are as lofty as Superman's. Many say they parted ways with America for tax reasons.
The United States is one of the only countries to tax its citizens on income earned while they're living abroad. And just as Americans stateside must file tax returns each April - this year, the deadline is Tuesday - an estimated 6.3 million U.S. citizens living abroad brace for what they describe as an even tougher process of reporting their income and foreign accounts to the IRS. For them, the deadline is June.
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It will be interesting to see if this trend continues. If the national debt continues to grow and if taxes climb I think more and more people will leave.
Hat tip: Instapundit
Science & fun: 800-pound-paper airplane
800-pound paper airplane takes flight starts:
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An 800-pound, 45-foot-long paper airplane with a 24-foot wingspan may be the largest paper airplane ever to glide across the sky. After being hoisted to a height of 2,703 feet by a helicopter last Wednesday, the plane was released and glided for an estimated 7-10 seconds, reaching speeds of close to 100 mph.
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Here's a video of the flight:
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An 800-pound, 45-foot-long paper airplane with a 24-foot wingspan may be the largest paper airplane ever to glide across the sky. After being hoisted to a height of 2,703 feet by a helicopter last Wednesday, the plane was released and glided for an estimated 7-10 seconds, reaching speeds of close to 100 mph.
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Here's a video of the flight:
Monday, April 16, 2012
Flexibility and homeschooling
We have blogged several times about how homeschooling gives us great flexibility. Last week our family had another example of the benefits of this flexibility.
In contrast we have noticed that our friends with children in public schools often have a hard time taking their children out of school. One family was going to Italy for a month. Think of all the experience the children would have! They would get to know a new culture, be exposed to a new language, see famous art pieces and so on. Yet the public school said the parents COULD NOT take their children. The school was not going to allow it. (It still boggles my mind.) After several weeks and the mom finally just telling the school they were going to take the children the school gave in and set up a study program for the children.
Last week I took my fifteen-year-old daughter to a very intense conference on space. For forty hours she was exposed to people in the space industry. She listened and took notes for talk after talk. She admitted that she probably only got 10% to 20% of the ideas, but she did find it interesting and summarized some of the mention points for her cousins on a family blog. Her science bucket was filled up to overflowing.
The trip was also a success in other ways. It was a big hit on the family side. She rode with my father and me as we drove to Phoenix. She got to meet my brother who flew out from Virginia for the conference. And she got to spend several hours with an older cousin who is married and has two young daughters.
I am so glad that we could introduce my daughter to what I think is the start of a tipping point in access to space. (I think in five to ten years there will be an explosion into space as the price into orbit drops.) We didn’t have to ask someone for their permission. We didn’t have to threaten some administrator. There were no forms to fill out. Janine and I talked about the idea. We asked the two older girls if they were interested. (Baby Bop said he wanted to go, especially when he heard there would be videos of rockets blowing up.) Our second daughter said she wanted to go, and it was done. No muss. No fuss.
Homeschooling is great!
In contrast we have noticed that our friends with children in public schools often have a hard time taking their children out of school. One family was going to Italy for a month. Think of all the experience the children would have! They would get to know a new culture, be exposed to a new language, see famous art pieces and so on. Yet the public school said the parents COULD NOT take their children. The school was not going to allow it. (It still boggles my mind.) After several weeks and the mom finally just telling the school they were going to take the children the school gave in and set up a study program for the children.
Last week I took my fifteen-year-old daughter to a very intense conference on space. For forty hours she was exposed to people in the space industry. She listened and took notes for talk after talk. She admitted that she probably only got 10% to 20% of the ideas, but she did find it interesting and summarized some of the mention points for her cousins on a family blog. Her science bucket was filled up to overflowing.
The trip was also a success in other ways. It was a big hit on the family side. She rode with my father and me as we drove to Phoenix. She got to meet my brother who flew out from Virginia for the conference. And she got to spend several hours with an older cousin who is married and has two young daughters.
I am so glad that we could introduce my daughter to what I think is the start of a tipping point in access to space. (I think in five to ten years there will be an explosion into space as the price into orbit drops.) We didn’t have to ask someone for their permission. We didn’t have to threaten some administrator. There were no forms to fill out. Janine and I talked about the idea. We asked the two older girls if they were interested. (Baby Bop said he wanted to go, especially when he heard there would be videos of rockets blowing up.) Our second daughter said she wanted to go, and it was done. No muss. No fuss.
Homeschooling is great!
What gives you happiness?
From Dan Galvin's Thought For The Day mailing list:
When we recall the past, we usually find that
it is the simplest things - not the great occasions -
that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness.
-Bob Hope
From Ron Gay's Financial
Newsletter, February 2012
When we recall the past, we usually find that
it is the simplest things - not the great occasions -
that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness.
-Bob Hope
From Ron Gay's Financial
Newsletter, February 2012
We need to get rid of laws
I like John Stossel's column about why Complex Societies Need Simple Laws. He starts with:
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“If you have 10,000 regulations,” Winston Churchill said, “you destroy all respect for law.”
He was right. But Churchill never imagined a government that would add 10,000 year after year. That’s what we have in America. We have 160,000 pages of rules from the feds alone. States and localities have probably doubled that. We have so many rules that legal specialists can’t keep up. Criminal lawyers call the rules “incomprehensible.” They are. They are also “uncountable.” Congress has created so many criminal offenses that the American Bar Association says it would be futile to even attempt to estimate the total.
So what do the politicians and bureaucrats of the permanent government do? They pass more rules.
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Clearly part of the answer to fixing the public school mess is not more laws, but less. Getting rid of the Federal Department of Education, and all their rules, would allow state and local governments more options for fixing their problems.
Hat-tip: Instapundit
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“If you have 10,000 regulations,” Winston Churchill said, “you destroy all respect for law.”
He was right. But Churchill never imagined a government that would add 10,000 year after year. That’s what we have in America. We have 160,000 pages of rules from the feds alone. States and localities have probably doubled that. We have so many rules that legal specialists can’t keep up. Criminal lawyers call the rules “incomprehensible.” They are. They are also “uncountable.” Congress has created so many criminal offenses that the American Bar Association says it would be futile to even attempt to estimate the total.
So what do the politicians and bureaucrats of the permanent government do? They pass more rules.
----------
Clearly part of the answer to fixing the public school mess is not more laws, but less. Getting rid of the Federal Department of Education, and all their rules, would allow state and local governments more options for fixing their problems.
Hat-tip: Instapundit
Some of our best posts from September 2006
Janine and I have been blogging about homeschooling for over six years now. If you missed some of our early posts, you have missed some of our best thoughts. Here are some highlights from September 2006:http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html
One of the reasons we homeschool is to make a real difference in the world.
In The school system vs. a learning system I write about how our poor government schools doesn't stop people from succeed in the United States because we have a great learning system.
What is the value of an education? explors some ideas on why we should get an education.
Janine posted another reason to avoid government schools - part 5: Socialization.
One of the reasons we homeschool is to make a real difference in the world.
In The school system vs. a learning system I write about how our poor government schools doesn't stop people from succeed in the United States because we have a great learning system.
What is the value of an education? explors some ideas on why we should get an education.
Janine posted another reason to avoid government schools - part 5: Socialization.
A reading of "The Law" By Frédéric Bastiat
My older two daughters have read "The Law" By Frédéric Bastiat. It is very thoughtful and explains many of the problems with government programs. I encourage everyone to read it.
If your children are audio learners you could have them start with:
Hat tip: The Libertarian Homeschooler
If your children are audio learners you could have them start with:
Hat tip: The Libertarian Homeschooler
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