Carnival of Homeschooling

One of the beauties of homeschooling is the opportunity to educate a child as well as help form their character. Those of us who have taught our own children from their earliest years through 8th grade, or even all the way to 12th grade graduation, know that this is a long, and sometimes arduous process. One of my hobbies is quilting, a useful art that transforms fabric into a beautiful object that can warm the body and soul for a lifetime. It takes a great deal of time and perseverance to make a quilt, just as it does to teach a child to read, write, count, and slowly learn to think and reason.

First you select yardage of fabric in your favorite colors, wash it, press it, and cut it according to the pattern selected. There are many homeschooling curriculum choices available from traditional, to classical, to unschooling.    

Jamie at Time 4 Learning boosts our enthusiasm with 5 Steps to Planning An Awesome Homeschool Year.

Jennifer at Time 4 Learning shares a video that poses the possibility of an addition to the English language in The 27th Letter of the Alphabet?

Julie at Brave Writer gives us good advice with 10 tips for homeschool newbies. 

Hire A Nanny shares many links in 25 Blogs to Think About Before Committing to Homeschooling. (I didn't look at each link, so I can't guarantee what you will find)

Tiffany at As For My House writes about homeschooling ethics in Seeing the Right and Wrong in Used Curriculum.
 
Then you piece together the blocks, using a 1/4" seam, pressing after each step. My educational philosophy of little steps repeated frequently has worked in teaching 5 children to love to read, play the piano, and memorize the times tables, just as using an iron correctly leads to properly squared and sized blocks.

 Mrs. White at The Legacy of Home shares with us a beautiful summer day in Homeschooling With Grandbaby. 

Shalynne at Wonderfully Chaotic gives us pictures and the recipe for Easy and Cheap Summer Bubble Blowers. 

Christina shares with us her philosophical musings in Weeding at Home Spun Juggling. 

Pamela at Zesty Mom reminds us to take time for fun in Summertime: 3 Ways to Keep the Living Easy.  

Chris at Home School vs Public School shares some more ideas for keeping the kids busy and learning in Summer Learning.

Once the blocks are completed, they are sewn together, using sashing to separate them and a border if it is desired. As a child masters the basics, they can progress on to more complicated and difficult subjects that help round out their intellect.

Annette at A Net in Time Schooling gives us a step-by-step how to in Building an Indoor Ant Colony.
Annie Kate of Tea Time with Annie Kate give us the blow-by-blow of letting her daughter bake her own dessert in Miss 9's Lemon Meringue Pie.

Ann at Harvest Moon by Hand shares with us a detailed art study with her two daughters in Artist/Picture Study-Georgia O'Keefe.

Jodi at Magical Mouse Schoolhouse gives us tips on visiting Disney when it rains in Magical Blogorail Yellow: It's Raining, It's Pouring!

Amy at Hope Is The Word shares some fabulous art work of her kids with Kaleidoscope Painting. 

The quilt is basted with batting and a backing and then quilted for beauty and to provide stability. A binding is sewn around the outside to keep it from unraveling, and finally a label is tacked onto the backside to show who made it and when it was completed.

Erik reminds us of our goal at A Guide to Great Kids with his post: What Do We Want to Accomplish as Parents?

Elena at My Domestic Church gives us the blow-by-blow of dealing with the bureaucrats in How to take the GED in Akron, Ohio if you are under 19 and a homeschooler.

Henry at Why Homeschool shares his daughter's summary of her summer in A report from my youngest daughter.

Of course we hope that a person who graduates from high school or college never really "finishes" their education, but continues learning their whole life. Just as a quilt is completed and the quilter goes on to another project, a homeschooling parent or child can go on to another phase of life and learning after they receive their diploma. My 10 year old daughter Maggie is currently making her own quilt after finding a simple pattern.

I'm cutting the pieces since I would rather she not cut off her finger, but she is doing everything else. Perhaps one day she will also teach her own children, not only how to quilt, but how to read and think, and be contributors to the world around them. 

Thank you for reading the Carnival, if I have missed your submission please accept my apologies. We are off this morning to enjoy another lovely Maine summer day at the pond with our company from North Carolina. 

carnival of homeschooling # 365

 

Welcome to the last homeschool carnival of 2012! The season of Christmas is a time of kindness, love, joy, and being grateful. One of the gifts that makes us the most grateful is homeschooling, because it helps increase kindness, love, and joy. Our family wishes yours peace and much success in the coming year. 

This is our first Christmas on our farm in Maine and for the first time we went out into the woods and chopped down a tree instead of buying one from a lot. Actually Tim sawed a 30 foot tall tree down  and cut the top out for our Christmas tree. It may look a little Charlie Brownish, but just as I was so proud at Thanksgiving that some of the ingredients for the pumpkin pie, the stuffing, and the mashed potatoes came from our own garden, I am proud that our tree came from our own land.

Steven at Hudson Valley Geologist shares with us his thoughts on the rewards and sacrifices involved to teach his kids on The Gift of Homeschooling.

A Guide to Raising Great Kids gives us a little insight in how we came to this point in our culture in What Can We Do?

 

 After 9 years of homeschooling, we enrolled the three oldest children in a local Catholic school. I can see how homeschooling helped them in mastering some topics, and how I could have done better in teaching them others. For the most part they have thrived, putting all my extended family's fears to rest that they were academically and socially deficient. They have played sports, attended dances, and here is Maggie portrayed as the Blessed Virgin Mary in the school's Christmas concert last week. 

Chris shares with us some wonderful stories about children in Miracles and Blessings at Home School vs. Public School.



A Net In Time Schooling shares with us some pictures of her son's homemade slingshot in Weapons That Work.  

Time 4 Learning gives us some advice on how to make the Christmas season a little less stressful in 5 Steps to Making a Snazzy  Super Simple Christmas.

 Since we had to take a few trees out of the way to get our tree out of the woods, we used this one on the front porch for the birds. We made garlands of cranberries and popcorn and hung orange slices from the branches. Yes, we had to tie the tree up so the wind wouldn't make it fly off, something that happened to our trampoline a few days ago.   

Victoria of Den School made some original and beautiful Christmas tree Cinnamon Ornaments.  

Dewey's Treehouse shares a positive book review Praise for the Number Devil, a story that "was supposed to be a mathematical version of The Phantom Tollbooth or Alice in Wonderland".

Henry Cate at Why Homeschool shares with us the myriad of reasons to teach your own children, but that homeschooling to avoid school shootings isn't the best reason for homeschooling.

Our family has many Advent traditions to prepare for the holiday: reading Christmas picture books every night, opening numbered calendars with chocolates inside, taking turns lighting the Advent wreath, setting up the creche and "walking" Mary and Joseph toward the stable. The youngest child places Baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas Eve night after returning home from Mass before setting out the Wise Men to slowly make their way to see the infant on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6. 

Carol of Everything Home With Carol shares a review of the HEV project, a library of hundreds of short videos for homeschoolers available for subscription at The HEV Project Review.

Deborah at Life With GQ shares her blog's attempt to share the spirit of the holiday with others in Life With GQ Holiday Givaway.  


Again, our family wishes you many blessings during this season of giving and may you have a wonderful second half to your homeschooling year. 

keychains, backpack pulls, and fun

A few weeks ago I found a Shrinky Dink Klutz book at the thrift store for $0.99. Yeah, perhaps a couple of times in my childhood I traced and colored pictures and watched someone bake them in the oven (it wouldn't have been my mother though, she recoiled from anything crafty to do with kids). The special plastic was all torn out, but I headed up to AC Moore, our local big-box craft store with my handy-dandy 50% off coupon in hand. Not only did I get a package of clear plastic discounted, I added on my teacher discount (by showing my HSLDA card) and received another 15% off. Every week on my errands I made a point to stop by and pick up another packet for less than $3. At first I was stressing out about baking them and having them ruined by curling up on themselves, but after purchasing an embossing tool (it's a cross between a glue gun and a mini hairdryer) I can bake and shape their little pictures without even turning on the oven. 

The little boys have gone wild, and while Julia Ellen may have ruined a few of their projects, the results are impressive. The most money I've had to expend in this creative explosion are for a handful of keyrings to attach them to backpacks, lunchboxes, and whatever else they can imagine. 

carnival of homeschooling

This week is my 3rd time hosting the carnival of homeschooling and it also happens to be the 333rd carnival, started over 6 years ago. If I think about what I was doing on that very first day the Cate family published this weekly collaborative resource, it was, of course, homeschooling. My two oldest children were just learning how to read and write the most simple of book reports and I was also coping with a toddler and expecting baby #4. 

Today we have our oldest child in Catholic school, are homeschooling four of the others and still have a toddler underfoot. But it won't always be like this, in another 6 years I will have graduated two children and the youngest will be finishing 3rd grade. 

But we must focus on what today asks of us and so...

A Net in Time shares a fun and educational day in Science, math and more...

Let's Play Math gives us some instruction on how to teach place value in PUFM 1.2 Place Value.

Three Girls and a Minivan shares a trip to the Daniel Boone Homestead and some fun nature study in Lesson Ideas and Activities.

Simply Convivial gives some pointers as to how to improve memory work in Memory Work Binders.   

As for My House shares with us a day of learning up high, doing school in the treehouse in Wherever School. 

MomSCHOOL gives us some pointers about overcoming writer's block in The Fear of Writing.  

Homeschool Programs gives some ideas as to how to not miss sports or the SATs in Can You Homeschool Without Missing Out on Important Moments?

Escape is Possible shares some fascinating pictures and information about a field trip along the shore in Seattle in Tidepools, Bridges, and Locks. 

Mindy at Den School shares all the holidays between now and the end of May and links of resources to use to learn and celebrate in Holidays May 13-May 19.

A Child's Garden has an absolutely wonderful, informative post that all homeschoolers should read about literacy entitled You, too, Can Teach Literacy!

Boys and a Dog share some ideas on how to stay cool in Countdown to Summer Tips.

Juggling Paynes wonders aloud about how some of our children share our interests and some don't in Learning Their Way, Not Mine. I can so relate to her comments about the computer, Will came to the farm for the weekend and set up my new computer just the way I wanted it, though it is humbling knowing that my child is smarter than I am.

Dewey's Treehouse gives an enthusiastic book recommendation in The Big WHAT NOW Book of Learning Styles. 

Our Curious Home gives us a glimpse into an afternoon of fun and earning medals in Jr F.I.R.S.T. Lego League Expo a week ago Saturday.

A Guide to Raising Great Kids shares her ways to keep the kids entertained in Summer Plans, Again.

Time for Learning gives us some tips on planning a homeschool prom in Dashing Another Homeschool Myth.

Barbara Frank Online shares part #4 of how to organize and shop smart after getting home in Keys to a Successful Homeschool Convention Experience. 

Learning at Home gives us some tips to help get our children back on track after play time in Spring Fever- The Cure. 

Why Homeschool shares with us Homeschooling Will Change for Us This Fall. Since our youngest won't start kindergarten until 2015, the year our oldest will be in 11th grade,  I can relate.

Homeschooling Unscripted shares some reasons teens need to shut off the lights so they can focus on their studies in Teens and Sleep.   

Thank you for participating and stopping by the Carnival of Homeschooling this week. Some of us homeschool year-round and some are wrapping up our official academic year. Let us strive to focus on what is important in our daily lives, so that years from now we can look back and feel proud of what we have accomplished in educating our children. 

back in the blogging groove

My old computer that I was having blackout issues with for the past year finally bit the dust completely the day Tim dropped us off at the farm. Four days with no access to news other than the radio made me so crazy that Tim scrounged up enough money to buy me a new fancy-schmancy laptop that will NOT have children's games/Minecraft/13 year old boys downloading illicit copies of Windows 7... and I think that means it will last longer than the old one that had its inside fried. Just in time because Henry Cate emailed me this morning asking me to host the Carnival of Homeschooling next week.

So, if you have a post relating in ANY way to homeschooling, such as a funny event, a field trip, a craft you taught the kids, a new book or curriculum you bought, please email it to: CarnivalOfHomeschooling@gmail.com by 6:00 PM next Monday evening. It will be greatly appreciated if the submissions come in earlier. Please send the following information:

Title of Post
URL of Post
Name of Blog
URL of Blog
Brief summary of the post
(With "carnival" or "submission" in the subject field of the email.)

However, since I have no access to my 13 year old computer expert, I am having trouble figuring out if my Ipod music list is on an account somewhere or lost inside my old laptop. If you know, please let me know.  

(almost) wordless Wednesday

My bet is that this guy who lives in our town would likely be voting for Rick Santorum over Barack Obama...

Also check out the totally awesome 6th anniversary edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.

carnival of homeschooling

Dewey's Treehouse is hosting this week's carnival, the 304th edition with lots of interesting posts.

Carnival of Homeschooling- Logistics of a Homeschooling Family

As the mother of 6 children, my life is complicated already. Just getting all the children up, dressed, teeth brushed, and fed before noon is a major accomplishment. Add homeschooling 5 of the children to the mix, ferrying them all to various extracurricular activities, and fitting enough time to keep the house tidy and at least one cooked meal on the table each day keeps me moving at a frantic pace.  

We have never put our children in "away school" so this will be our 9th year sitting at the table learning phonics, arithmetic, spelling, science, history, English, and religion. If our family continues to homeschool all the children, we could conceivably still be sitting at the table each day reading and working out math problems for the next 15 years since Julia Ellen won't even be starting Kindergarten for another 3 years.    

Logistical management is what every homeschooling mom spends much of her time doing: planning days so learning occurs in whatever form that takes, while also fitting in housework, cooking, shopping, bill paying, doctor's appointments, errands, volunteer work, exercise, children's activities, and squeezing in a tiny bit of alone time to renew her spirits. Some families also sign up for extras for the kids such as music, sports, arts, and/or scouts outside the home. Making the schedule "work" is sometimes a difficult task, but sometimes it all clicks, such as me signing all the kids up for this fall's swimming classes on Saturday afternoon. Let us learn how others homeschoolers cope with "trying to fit it all in."

Summer is a great time to try out all those extra classes and projects. Neo at The Tiger Chronicle shares her son's summer vacation in Summer: Part 1 and Summer: Part 2.  

Denise presents More Than One Way to Solve It posted at Let's Play Math!.

Kim shares some great ideas to learn art, poetry, and science outside in A Child's Garden: How We Conduct Nature Study posted at A Child's Garden. 

Read Aloud Dad shares one of my favorite children's authors, Robert McCloskey, with his kids in Burt Dow, Deep Water Man. The setting for many of Mr. McCloskey's books is just across the Penobscot Bay from us and my kids love getting out the Maine Gazetteer (page 14 and 15) and tracking the rainstorm in Time of Wonder as it goes across from the Camden Hills to Little Deer Isle. 

M.O.B. Mothers of Boys shares some ideas to get those creative juices flowing in Storytelling Games for Boys. 

Annette at A Net in Time share her upcoming year's routine for her son at Organization of my school year. 
 
Amy at Hope is The Word has already started her school year and shares a typical day in School Day Snapshot.  

Linda and Arby of The Homeschool Apologist share the difference in their homeschooling methods and styles since they started teaching their kids years ago in He Said/She Said #2: How Has Your Teaching Changed?.  

Christina at Home Spun Juggling shares some great advice in What I've Learned This Summer.
Alejandra at A Guide to Raising Great Kids shares some tips on making sure our kids are having fun and learning to be good hosts in The Perfect Play-Day. 

Linda Dobson presents Just One of the Many Reasons to Choose Homeschooling for Your Family posted at PARENT AT THE HELM.

Gidget shares a resource to help kids learn those multiplication tables in Favorite Math Resource - EVER! posted at Homeschooling Unscripted.

Mrs. Gaddy gives us some tips on Using Life Experiences to Teach practical living skills to our kids at momSchool. 

Jamie at Homeschool Online Blog reminds us that we homeschooling moms need to care of ourselves and exercise to maintain a positive attitude and stay healthy in Too Busy for Exercise?

Miss Nirvana shares an easy and recognizable craft in Eric Carle Style Art posted at Nirvana Homeschooling (we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar just last night to the little ones).

Kelli presents September as Chicken Month (!) in Monthly Unit Study posted at 3 Boys and a Dog Deals.
 

Victoria reviews Lesson Planning via Bento posted at Teaching Mommy. 

Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers shares A Typical Homeschool Day at her house.  

Pamela at Blah, Blah, Blog writes about her method of trying to logically fit in all her children's activities in I Guess It's Fall.  

Merit K gives us some ideas about higher level classes in Back to School with AP | Your Mission, should you choose to accept it posted at Mission Possible!.

Janice at Why Homeschool shares some of the challenges of having a homeschooler apply to college in Homeschool to College- Part 2.

I had some logistical challenges hosting the carnival this week with my computer performing the "black screen of death" early in the week and a planned 2 day trip with the big girls to go down to our new home (with no internet access) to clean and receive delivery of our new washer and dryer. Luckily the Auburn, Maine library is WiFi capable. But these are just the sort of little time-consuming glitches that we homeschoolers have to deal with every day.

Thank you for coming to the Carnival of Homeschooling and hope to see you next week at The Common Room. 
 

carnival of homeschooling

This week's carnival is being hosted by Home Spun Juggling with lots of pictures of art her kids have made.

Speaking of homeschooling, I filled out our enrollment form for Seton yesterday and have been stocking up on cheap, cheap school supplies from Walgreens and Staples like $0.10 index cards and highlighters, $0.39 notebooks, free pens, $0.25 reams of copy paper, and free Crayola markers.

Before we start school in a few weeks we have to drive down to Virginia, supervise the packers and movers, visit the aunties in Maryland, have our household goods delivered, attend the closing of our new house, and move some of our stuff again. I think I'll wait until the last minute to send off for our books, if I piled up the huge stack of lesson plans I think it might send me over the edge.  

carnival of homeschooling

Dewey's Treehouse is hosting this week's carnival. Go check it out!

carnival of homeschooling

This week Consent of the Governed is hosting with a homeschooling journey theme.

This edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling offers some fine "nuts and
bolts/back to basics" blog posts about homeschooling our children (teens
included). Everything from remembering why we chose homeschooling to how we do
homeschooling to how we celebrate our choice to homeschool (and more), is
presented in this carnival this week.

carnival of homeschooling

carnival of homeschooling

Raising Real Men is hosting this week's carnival. I have guilty for the past 6 months since I received a free copy of their book from Melanie and still haven't blogged about it yet. the reason? Guilt, since I'm apparently not doing such a great job with my boys. Will still gives me grief some days, I still have to nag him incessantly about practicing the piano, and most of the time he doesn't appreciate his parents. On the other hand, Charlie is becoming quite a gentleman, holding the door open, running to help bring in the groceries, and watching after his little sister when they play outside.

Bringing up boys is hard work and imagined while reading that it might be just fine to ship them all off to have Hal and Melanie civilize them, sort of like the English aristocrats did with their little ones, only allowing them back into the big house when they could "sit at table" and exhibit proper manners. So, tell me where the nearest airport is so I can buy their tickets and send them back when they will eat their veggies and wipe their mouths. Yes, I would miss all the lovely things about my boys, all the hugs, all the times Timmy says, "I loooove you Mommy", the funny things they do, the not so funny jokes they try to make up, all the cards and pictures they draw for me...

Oh, never mind, I think I'll just keep them. Imperfect, but my little men are lovable all the same.    

carnival of homeschooling

Misty is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at her blog HomeschoolBytes with a world school theme.

carnival of homeschooling

The Cates are hosting the 262nd carnival this week, with a The Princess Bride theme. Henry and Janine have been in charge of the carnival for 5 years now, giving an way for many bloggers to be heard beyond their loyal readers, and an opportunity for homeschoolers to learn from each other. I have incorporated many tips and ideas into my teaching from the carnival and have laughed at the antics of their children. I have been a part of the carnival since we were only homeschooling a couple of kids and have hosted 3 times. A thank you to the Cate family for all their hard work and dedication each week!  

carnival of homeschooling

Janice Cambell is hosting the carnival this week with a Making Time For Things That Matter theme.

The Homeschoolers 12 days of Christmas

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!).

On the 12th day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is reading books together...

because homeschoolers do this every day! On the first Sunday of Advent I gather all our Christmas books and put them on the coffee table so we can read a few every day

nak presents an in depth post featuring the songs and books about Good King Wenceslas posted at Sage Parnassus.

Karen presents some tips on teaching your children to read aloud in A Lost Art and Why It Matters posted at Candid Diversions.

Jenn at Home Is Where You Start From branched out from the Sonlight history curriculum with books and websites in Knights and Medieval History-Learning Without School.

Amy @ Hope Is the Word shares some great Christmas books and crafts in Christmas around the World: Mexico posted at Hope Is the Word.

Annie Kate presents a common homeschool problem in Too Many Books and a Lot of Learning posted at Tea Time with Annie Kate. (with our 10 bookcases of children's books, I can relate!)

On the 11th day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is building snowmen...
because homeschoolers don't have snow days, just recess. This is the earliest snow here in Virginia that I can recall (though I remember many a Christmas Eve wearing short sleeves) so the children have already made snow forts in both the front and back yards.

Steven gives a response to parents who think bullying in public school builds character in Are we depriving our homeschooled children? posted at Hudson Valley Geologist. Hey, what do you think happened after the boys built that snow fort? Snowball fight!

ChristineMM's son combined dry ice and LEGOS to learn in Son's Self-Initiated Science Experiment posted at The Thinking Mother.

Annette teaches her son about animals, such as arctic hares changing their winter fur white in Creation Camouflage - DNG Review and Contest posted at A Net in Time.


On the 10th day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is shopping with mom... 
because homeschooling moms don't have the luxury of being able to shop without some of the kids in tow. Luckily mine can keep secrets so they don't tell what the other ones are getting.

Barbara writes about job skills that really matter in our homeschool graduates (just today I saw the cashier at KMart texting while ringing up purchases) in Our kid's competition for future jobs at Barbara Frank Online.

Alejandra presents The Best Christmas Gift posted at A Guide to Raising Great Kids.

Janine at Why Homeschool shares her family's struggle with how to squeeze in exercise in We have a new PE program.

On the 9th day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is singing carols...
I try to play our holiday CDs in the car all of December. I found some very nice Christmas music on piano CDs at the dollar store last week. 

Cheryl at Chrysalis Academy shares with us her lovely story of their homeschool journey in Why Homeschooling?

Mrs. White gives us a glimpse of  her home in The Little School at Home posted at The Legacy of Home.

On the 8th day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is cleaning the house...
So we can host family and friends without them calling child protective services. (just kidding since I vacuum almost every day)

Michelle is cleaning up the carpet after one of her 6 kids spill juice in My work is never done at Rosetta Stone. 

On the 7th day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is lighting the advent wreath...
Our family's tradition is that the children take turns lighting the candles and blowing them out each evening when we say prayers. It is so sweet to see Mary holding her baby sister and letting Julia Ellen blow some out.

Maureen gives us a lesson in the gifts from the Wise Men in Studying Frankincense and Myrrh posted at Homeschool Mo.


On the 6th day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is wrapping presents...
It is so sweet to see the older children buying (with their own money) and carefully wrapping gifts for their siblings. I think they have as much fun picking them out and cutting ribbon as they do opening their own presents.

Jessica helps us to think about presents to those less fortunate than ourselves in The Gift of Giving posted at Teachable Moments.


On the 5th day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is working math problems...
I take the days between Christmas and New Years to help the children get some of the more time consuming assignments completed, such as book reports. Yeah, all the public school kids have 2 weeks off, but I tell them, "some homeschoolers do school year-round, so stop complaining!" 

Marlis presents a great and cheap way to teach little ones their numbers in Early Childhood Math Concept posted at The Itchy Homeschooler.

Alasandra tell us that homeschoolers are unique in the reasons they teach at home in Homeschool is not religious undertaking it is an educational choice at Alesandra's Homeschool Blog.

Linda shares her family's homeschool journey in You Can Help Your Child Learn: The Learning Coach Approach posted at PARENT AT THE HELM.

Jamie presents her reasons for homeschooling in Changing the Game - Blogs - Parent Community and Forum posted at Homeschool Online.

On the 4th day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is making crafts...
Paper snowflakes, cotton ball ornaments to really elaborate sculpted clay creches (I'm not saying we do any of these crafts, but I do know that other homeschoolers do).

Shay shares Homeschooling Revisited, her take on what homeschooling is really like as opposed to what she expected at Wonderfully Chaotic.


Carletta gives us some fun ideas with little ones in Last-Minute Christmas Crafts at Successful Homeschooling.

Phyllis Bergenholtz shares an art lesson with her boys in All Things Beautiful: Flexibility or Connecting to the Now posted at All Things Beautiful.

On the 3rd day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is baking cookies...
Our family takes several days off from school and bakes many kinds of cookies to send to relatives. Of course there are plenty left over for us.

Pamela turns baking bread into a homeschool lesson in Flour, Water, Salt, and Yeast posted at Blah, Blah, Blog.

Jennifer in OR was successful in organizing a group craft in Gingerbread...hut? posted at Diary of 1. (we actually attempted graham cracker houses this summer in Maine, our efforts without the proper kind of "glue" were not pretty... but tasty.)


On the 2nd day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is decorating the tree...
Perhaps with all those ornaments the children made during craft time?

Alejandra shows us how to get along better with those family members in Seeing The Good in Others: a necessary daily struggle posted at A Guide to Raising Great Kids.

Cristina gives us a glimpse of what her tree decorating (and ours to be honest) is really like in Home Spun reprints #296-8: Christmas Decorating 2008 posted at Home Spun Juggling.

Rachel Lynette presents Christmas Analogy Fun posted at Minds in Bloom.


On the 1st day of Christmas, our homeschooling family is setting up the nativity scene...
Tradition has it that Mary and Joseph take one step each day during Advent toward the stable and that the youngest child puts the baby Jesus in the manger late on Christmas Eve.

On a very sad note I regret to share the loss of Mattias, Dana's at Rosecommon Acres little boy. Our hearts grieve and our prayers go out to her family.

Merry Christmas from our homeschooling family to yours!

carnival of homeschooling coming up

I am hosting the carnival next Tuesday so please submit any posts you have about homeschooling, Christmas, and what your family is doing this week to prepare would be appreciated. You can email me directly (see sidebar)or use the carnival submission form here.

carnival of homeschooling

Nerd Family is hosting this week's carnival with an Open House theme, go check it out!

carnival of homeschooling

Susan at Corn and Oil is hosting this week's carnival with a Clark Kent theme.