Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The Carnival of Homeschooling: Loving Summer Edition


Welcome to the Carnival of Homeschooling! Down here in the South, all the stores are in a Back-to-School frenzy. Our city's schools start back next week, and the rest are soon to follow. Having grown up in New York, where school starts back the day after Labor Day, I find this late July/early August return-to-school policy bordering on criminal. What about the hot days of August, when the grass is crispy and the pool water finally warm?

For our family, that's just another huge reason to homeschool: we can make our own schedules. Whether you school year round, follow a traditional schedule, or take your "summer break" in October, you get to choose what works best for your family. And that's what it's all about.

We have some great posts this month, and scattered amongst the posts are photos of some of our family's favorite things about summer. Because I am not ready to let go yet!



Rest is not idleness,
and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.

~John Lubbock



Why do you homeschool? Christine at The Thinking Mother says It Boils Down to One of Three Reasons to Start to Homeschool. Take a look and you'll probably find yourself there!

Alasandra responds to Sylvia Biu's post Homeschooling is a bad idea with "Homeschooling Advantages Far Outweigh Any Preconceived Notions" As Alasandra says, "Don't you just love it when homeschool critics like Sylvia Biu start making stuff up?"

Christine at Our Curious Home shares "Memories of Learning" with her parents and how this has helped her in her own homeschooling journey.


In summer, the song sings itself.
~William Carlos Williams


There was some sweet butterfly magic going on this week at Reese's View of the World. Check out what happens when magnifying glass meets Paper Wings!

Kerry of The Ten O'Clock Scholar shares Ideas for Memory Work with Classical Conversations in mind but applicable to any memory work.

Judy at Consent of the Governed has graduated her youngest child, and she posts some Homeschool Reflections after her 12-year journey. I love this post, which includes something we're all no doubt familiar with: "I can't even begin to tell you the ludicrous things I have heard, but no doubt if you are a homeschool parent, you have heard those ridiculous things as well. " Don't miss this one! No matter where you are in your journey, you'll appreciate Judy's reflections.





Then followed that beautiful season...
Summer....
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light;
and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Making friends requires effort on the part of the parents and the child, and Kim at Kim's Play Place suggests ways to make this happen in Finding Friends While Homeschooling.

I love lapbooks, and Maureen at Spell Out Loud has patterns for toddler-sized books at Little Lapbooks Jungle Puzzle. Adorable!

In the post Night Rider, Ms. Julie shares a criteria-based art lesson that incorporates American history and literature. I loved seeing the kids' drawings!


To see the Summer
Sky
Is Poetry,
though never in a Book it lie -

True Poems flee.

~Emily Dickinson

Lara at Texas Homesteader doesn't want her kids going off to college unprepared for taking care of themselves! She shares her ideas for starting them young in Raising Self-Sufficient Children.

Rana at Free to Learn and Loving It muses about her upcoming year in Making Plans: "I guess if someone were to ask they would be considered first graders. To me they are just my boy and girl who want to learn about everything. I'm going to try my hardest to help them find the answers to what they are asking about." Isn't that what it's all about?




Hot July brings cooling showers,
Apricots and gillyflowers.
- Sara Coleridge

Barbara Frank posts on what can become a detriment to homeschooling parents: "With so much personal revelation out there, it’s way too easy to compare your family and your homeschooling experience to others." She offers ways to have the right attitude when reading about other homeschooling families in Finding Ideas, Not Discouragement.

Ruby at Freehold2 looks at a very simple way to help kids avoid summer learning loss with Getting the Ball Rolling: Learning Through Movement.

Do you remember watching the moon landing on television in 1969? Jill at Praiseworthy Things shares some wonderful resources in To the Moon to help study the anniversary of the first man on the moon. My kids loved this!




Live in each season as it passes: breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit.
– Henry David Thoreau

With social/emotional curriculum in the schools, Susan at Corn and Oil wonders how it affects the perceptions about real socializing in Homeschooling as Family Therapy.

In One Thing I Love About Homeschooling, my friend Tina at The Life of Riley responds to my post about Doing a Good Job. Her last line should resonate with anyone who is a homeschooling parent!

Tami of Tami Fox's Thoughts and Views presents A Review of Astronomy Notebooking Journal by Jeannie Fulbright, based on Fulbright's popular Exploring Creation with Astronomy. If you're considering this curriculum, be sure to check out her insights!

Blessed be the Lord for the beauty of summer and spring, for the air, the water, the verdure, and the song of birds.
- Carl von Linnaeus


Seems like we really do need to think about the upcoming year, and Tammy at Adventures on Beck's Bounty shares her lessons plans for her six cherubs at Our Plans. Looks like a great year!

Amy at Hope is the Word provides a post that is packed full of great resources at Our Pre-K Reading Experience. I love how she says, "What I lack in knowledge I make up for in enthusiasm and in desire for my daughters to succeed…"

Henry Cate of Why Homeschool, grand chief of the Carnival of Homeschooling, points homeschoolers to Facebook as another great resource in Homeschooling on Facebook. As an avid Facebooker myself, I second his post!



And that's it for this week's Carnival of Homeschooling. I hope you'll take some time to visit these participants and to consider submitting to next week's Carnival at About Homeschool.
Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of homeschooling using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. The deadline is Monday August 3 at 6 pm PST.

And may you keep enjoying summer!

15 comments:

  1. Thanks for adding me to the Carnival. I can't wait to read all of these blogs.

    Rana

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  2. Thank you for hosting this beautiful Carnival, chock full of so many "goodies".

    Tammy

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  3. Thanks for hosting! This was my first time participating in a carnival.

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  4. Thanks for including my post. I am looking forward to reading the other entries.

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  5. Great Carnival!!! Thanks for the time you took to put it all together! great photos!

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  6. I would say that not only is starting "educashun" early in the state skools CRIMINAL but any state skrool educashun is Criminal. It violates clearly the 9th commandment, "thou shalt not steal" as the government Steals from us to "require" children to be imprisoned for close to a year to receive their propaganda: evilution, communism, perversion, etc.

    Think about and meditate upon the following quotes:


    “I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. Every institution that does not unceasingly pursue the study of God's word becomes corrupt. ..unless they teach the Holy Scriptures diligently and impress them on the young students, are wide gates to hell.” -- Martin Luther, Luther's Works, ed. James Atkinson, vol. 44, p. 207 (1966).

    "You say: 'There are persons who lack education,' and you turn to the law. But the law is not, in itself, a torch of learning which shines its light abroad. The law extends over a society where some persons have knowledge and others do not; where some citizens need to learn, and others can teach. In this matter of education, the law has only two alternatives: It can permit this transaction of teaching-and-learning to operate freely and without the use of force, or it can force human wills in this matter by taking from some of them enough to pay the teachers who are appointed by government to instruct others, without charge. But in this second case, the law commits legal plunder by violating liberty and property."
    -- Frederic Bastiat, June 1850, The Law, The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudosn, NY 10533, p. 32.

    “Christianity must be a present element of all the training at all times, or else it is not a true and valuable education. The human spirit is a monad, a single unit, spiritual substance, having facilities and susceptibilities for different modifications, but no parts. Hence, when it is educated, it is educated as a unit. The moral judgments and acts of the soul all involve an exercise of reason; so that it is impossible to separate the ethical and intellectual functions. The nature of responsibility is such that there can be no neutrality... between duty and sin. It follows that any training which attempts to be non-Christian is therefore anti-Christian. God is the rightful, supreme master and owner of all reasonable creatures, and their nearest and highest duties are to him. Hence to train a soul away from him is robbery of God. He has not, indeed, committed to the State the duty of leading souls to him as its appropriate task. This is committed to the family and to His church. To educate the mind without purifying the heart is but `to place a sharp sword in the hand of a madman.' Practically few do recognize and obey conscience except those who recognize the authority of the Bible. There can be, therefore, no true education without moral culture, and no true moral culture without Christianity.”
    -- Robert L.Dabney, (1870?), Discussions Vol. IV, published by Ross House Books, Vallecito, California, and Sprinkle Publications, Harrisonburg, Virginia (1979).

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  7. I love your Summer Photos. Good Work on the Carnival!

    Christine

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  8. Thanks for hosting. Love the photos and commentary.

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  9. Thanks for hosting the carnival! I have found some great info!!!

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  10. Thanks for hosting the carnival this week! Great stuff!

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  11. Thanks for hosting! What lovely photos & quotes you chose :)

    Cheers!
    Ruby

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  12. Hi :) Thanks for stopping by and checking out my new blog :) I didn't realize you were hosting the new HS carnival! I've got to come back tomorrow and do some more reading and catch up on your blog. Looks like lots of great stuff has been going on!!

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  13. A beautiful carnival! Off to read the articles.

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  14. We all need time to rest and think. "...much study is a weariness of the flesh." Ecc 12:12 Beautiful pics, God's beautiful creation invites us to know Him!

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  15. Thank you for hosting the CoH and including my post. I have blogged it and tweeted it. Have a great day.

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