Homeschooling Carnival, June 10

Welcome to the Carnival of Homeschooling, and thank-you all for participating. As you read through the Carnival Entries and visit the blogs, please be sure to leave a note letting the blogger know you enjoyed their entry. It's always encouraging to hear nice things from readers!


Greg Laden reviews a new chemistry book in Home Chemistry: A New Guide for Hobbyists and Home Schoolers posted at Greg Laden's Blog.

Susan Gaissert heard a speech given by a prominent official from her state’s Education Commission, and she's written a response to that called. Education Today? posted at The Expanding Life. She would love to have a conversation with readers about this topic.

Tammy at Just Enough and Nothing More wants to know if you are a stereotypical homeschooler.
She has a sort of field guide to stereotypes, and notes that many of the most popular are mutually contradictory.

Miss Jocelyn presents The Utter Importance Of Manners posted at A Pondering Heart.

At Homeschooled Twins, Shez says:

Dr John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist who is focused on the genes involved in human brain development and the genetics of psychiatric disorders, wrote a book called, "Brain Rules". In his book he writes how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work. In each chapter, he describes a brain rule—what scientists know for sure about how our brains work—and then offers transformative ideas for our daily lives. Once you read what he has to say, the benefits to educating our children, especially in our homeschools, is clear.

Read more in Brain Rules! I especially enjoyed the point that reduction of physical activity (such as the trend away from recess in public schools) is bad for cognition. If you're interesting in having your kids learn to put together power point presentations (required in some public high schools) you could actually assign this post and the slide show for school, as the slide show explains how to make the content of your presentations really count.

Sarah has been thinking:

more about what a person needs to be mentally stimulated, healthy, and satisfied (my definition of educated), I came up with what I think are the key ingredients to a satisfying intellectual life for adults and children.

She shares her thoughts in Everything I need to know… Part 3 posted at Rational Homeschooling.

Denise presents Have Fun with Holidays posted at Frugal Homeschooling. She notes that June is national candy month, a holiday I think we can all get behind.=)

Another Denise presents Hit Me! (A Math Game) posted at Let's Play Math!. It looks like a fun game that will give kids plenty of good practice in math skills, and it requires only one or two decks of regular playing cards.

The blogger at A Family Runs Through It says "my son finished 4th grade last week. I wanted to test his memory of the past year, so I came up with 100 questions and created a "4th Grade Super Test" for him. He did quite well, a real testament to the job we're doing as homeschoolers," and Phil challenges the rest of us- Are You Smarter Than A 4th Grader? Of course, homeschooling is a very individualized process, and if I compiled a list of questions based on what we covered this year, my test would look quite different from Phil's, which is one of the beauties of homeschooling.


: The Reluctant Homeschooler shares: Keeping a Nature Journal, saying "What a feeling of satisfaction to hit upon a subject that your child loves. That's just what happened this past week at our house, thanks to homeschoolers who share their information on the Internet! Never mind that summer is almost here; Larissa is smitten with Nature Journaling." And she links to an article by one of my favorite homeschooling authors, Catherine Levison.

Kerry presents A set of history lesson plans to use with Classical Conversations Cycle 3. in Classical Conversations - History Lessons - Cycle 3 posted at A Ten O'Clock Scholar IT looks like a very useful tool, either for those covering the same periods of history, or for homeschoolers who just want an idea of how they might put together a lesson plan of their own.

James D. Brausch writes about the FLDS situation and points out that CPS and its blatant abuse of power is a threat to all of us, not just distasteful and unpopular religious groups in A Child's Letter posted at Internet Business Blog. Highly recommended. I'd also suggest reading this post, and this heartbreaking post of Brausch's own CPS induced trauma.

Joy presents Hands-on ABC Order Activities (no worksheets or dictionaries allowed!) posted at Happy to be at Home.

ChristineMM writes about the topic of interesting educational television programming on cable television versus PBS, the "hating TV camp" and how it compares to book learning in Interesting and Informative Documentaries and Book Learning posted at The Thinking Mother.

Ana Villarreal presents Age Guidance For Children’s Books…No Thanks! posted at Reading Coach Online.

"It's one of those experiences that makes you realize your kids are going to be just fine! If you've ever worried if you were doing enough or if the kids were 'getting it,' then you know what I mean," says Kim, in Spontaneous Work posted at Kim's Play Place.

Alasandra shares her response to a blogger criticizing homeschoolers based on a conversation she overheard.in The eavesdropper posted at Alasandra's Homeschool Blog Awards.

writer2b reviews the materials used in her first year as a homeschooler, teaching first grade in First grade curriculum review posted at Findings.

HowToMe says, "Our neighbor kindly offered to let us collect some of their lavender before it died back. She suggested that we might want to make some potpourri and an eye pillow for headaches. What neat ideas! I had a few ideas of my own and my children were happy to help". HowToMe presents How To Dry and Use Dried Lavender posted at HowToMe.

Weston Taylor is a grad student looking for students to help him test his plans for an English COmposition class. See more at Homeschooler Help posted at Weston Taylor's Weblog.

Dana shares from Home School Home shares how they decided to homeschool almost five years ago in Evolution of a Homeschooling family.


At The Life Without School Blog
We consider, "When do kids learn to be quiet with and within themselves? Sitting idle is conducive to all sorts of wonderful things. Sitting idle means that kids have to use their imaginations and initiative to find things to do." In a post called Idle, Ideally, by Bettina


Dawn Adams presents Role Playing Games for the Kids posted at Day by Day Discoveries.

Listen to an interview with Debbie Schwarzer, homeschool Mom, attorney and HSC Legal Team Co-chair about the upcoming California Court of Appeal rehearing, scheduled for June 23, 2008 at The Informed Parent.


In Little Serendipities Go A Long Way

Often its those little serendipities and happenstances along the way that give life flavor and excitement and
create the best memories. This is one of those moments that my family will remember all our lives.

from Apollos Academy

The: ElementalMomShares her thoughts on how her decision to home birth relates to her later decision to homeschool. It's a lovely post. She says:

I do not have a degree. I am not a medical graduate. But I am unschooled, in birth. And if can work for me, like this, then am I not, by modeling this compulsive researching behavior, proving both to my kids and to the Doubting Thomases of my culture, that it does most thoroughly work this way?

In the post Unschooling Birth


Barbara Frank Notes: We've proven our homeschooled kids are smart, but we need to make sure they've developed good moral character as well, because our society is in desperate need of morally sound leaders and business owners" in There's More to Education Than Smarts


Janice Campbell says, "In its “Intelligence Report,” the weekly tabloid, Parade, posed the question, “Should homeschooling be illegal?” as its weekly poll, and the question caused me to consider whether mom and pop stores should be illegal. After all, now that Walmart has ridden onto the retail scene, consumers can have all their needs met in one tidy big box, just as all students can have their needs met in the public schools (or can they?) in: Should Mom and Pop Stores (or Homeschooling) Be Illegal? posted at Janice Campbell: Taking Time For Things That Matter

christinemoers presents The birds and the bees posted at welcome to my brain in a very open post about sex education at home.

At Why Homeschool
With the school year drawing to a close Henry reflects on some of the things he loves about homeschooling.

Beverly at Beverly's Homeschooling Blog saw a note her grand-daughter brought home from school and says The homeschooler in me is having a good laugh at this one!

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.

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.