Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers #7

Welcome to another edition of the Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers. I hope you enjoy reading the entries as much as I did.

I am very privileged to live 5 minutes from one of the most gifted and energetic teachers I have ever met. Lydia has a gift that I wish I had. She takes complex information and turns it into something that is fun and understandable for young minds. She taught the 7-9 year old boys in our co-op, "Treasure Island" last year and this year she is doing Homer's "Odyssey" with this age group. What makes her even more admirable, is that she puts her lesson plans on her blog for all to use.

Her latest offering to the community is very timely.Vote For Me! An Elections Unit Study for Young Candidates is a free e-course on the elections process.



Lydia writes:"Come join the free elections seminar for homeschoolers. A weekly class where you'll develop your own campaign from the mascot animal to the commercial background music! Learn hard stuff like polling demographics and electoral math while wearing funny hats and singing the presidents in order. All taught via my blog -- no driving, no fee, you can do it in your pajamas!"

A good way for you to help your children understand the power of the people would be to have them become involved in
Rose's campaign to have Public Television keep Mr Rogers on television.

PBS will cease transmitting the program as part of their daily syndicated lineup beginning in September. Instead, PBS will provide member stations with a single Neighborhood episode on weekends. This unfortunate decision essentially silences the special nurturing voice of Mister Rogers in the daily lives of today’s children.
Local public television stations, who make the final decisions about which programs to offer and when to air them, can still opt to broadcast Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood each weekday, but they are much less likely to do so without the program being included in PBS’s syndicated feed.

Rose writes: "I suppose there are network executives who would argue that faster-paced, in-your-face programming is the norm these days. So-called reality shows and tell-all talkshows dominate the airwaves. All the more reason, I say, to preserve a little corner of sanity, of gentleness, in one corner of the neighborhood.
If you would like to take a stand for preserving a classic, there are many things you can do. First, you can spread the word to others. You can also contact your local PBS station to request that they keep running Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood daily. Finally, you can contact PBS to ask them to keep the show in their daily syndication feed. "

Alasandra offers us an opportunity to show our children that debates are a worthwhile process. She asks for homeschoolers' help in her blog post My response - THE HOMESCHOOL DEBATE and HOMESCHOOLERS, HELP ME

I love road trips. My husband detests them. Guess who wins? I like to think I do. LOL. Actually we both win. I tend to take the kids on road trips while he stays to bring home the bacon. We have at least two very long road trips planned for the next 6 months. One trip will be to Atlanta to see the King Tut Exhibition (this will coincide with when we finish studying ancient Egypt with Scott Powell of History at Our House. We also plan on visiting Atlanta's aquarium. If you have any other recommendations for great activities for homeschoolers please drop me a line. The drive is at least 10 hours, so I'd like to make the most of our trip. We're also going to Disneyworld in early January with my cousin who will be visiting from South Africa.

Two weekends ago Shira and I drove 7 hours each way to pick up our puppies. This was the first time she had ever been without her twin brother for this length of time. She did not enjoy the road trip without him.

I just wish I had Shell's creativity. Road trips with her must be a blast if this post is anything to go by.

I let them know that the Mayor of Sourville just called me and they need some help in city planning. No one will come to work in the middle of a feud between Sally Fay, Bubba Jenkins, and Johnny Ray so they're asking for outside help.

They need a sign to warn people of the dangers of being out in a rural area. Can they help?

"Crayons at the ready?!?!" Sketch pads open furiously. They can't draw fast enough. They are laughing, hiding their pictures from each other, and asking me questions like, "Do they have armadillos here?" (No, they don't, btw.) I think if I were going to draw a sign it would be a yellow caution sign with a dead skunk and those wavy lines coming off of it. THAT'S a smell that lingers, let me tell you! Whew! It smells like a stinky sneaker left in a pile of rotting cabbage near a sulfur spring. (Tell me *I* couldn't have helped Sally Fay along!)


The writing prompts are usually a favorite, though.

"Pencils at the ready?!?!" They eagerly look for their mechanical pencils, rummaging through the back seat.

"A haiku about an outhouse."


Roars of laughter and I see them immediately start counting syllables on their fingers.

How I wish that just a fraction of Shell's creativity would rub off on me. Lacking that, I'll just copy down her ideas to use on our next road trip.

I'm a big proponent of bringing children up to be entrepreneurs. A game I play with my children is for us to take 5 every day things and work out ways to use them differently or to improve them. I actively encourage Ben and Shira to think creatively about things and to view themselves as inventors and entrepreneurs.

So naturally, I love hearing from families who encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in their own children.

Sandra Foyt writes:We're taking on a new summer adventure taking on The Thirty Day Challenge to learn about Internet Marketing and making money online. Our Digital Natives Team - Teens, Tweens, and Family - might not make any money in this venture, but we're having a blast.

Read about how The Awesomeness Has Begun! I look forward to reading updates like this one where she starts writing Amazon reviews to boost affiliate sales.

Julie of Homeschooling Ideas is my hero. Every year around this time I go searching for activities to link in with Rosh Hashanah. One year we went to a talk by a bee keeper, another year we went apple picking. Why bees and honey you ask?

Jewish holidays are rich in symbolism. Rosh Hashanah is the start of the Jewish religious year. Apples, dipped in honey, are sweet and when we eat them on this holiday we symbolically show our wish for a sweet year. Another symbol we use for this holiday is a round challah (challah is a sweet egg bread). The round shape symbolizes a perfect year. If you are so inclined, you can read about the other symbols associated with this holiday over here.

I thoroughly enjoy steeping my children in the cultural aspects of our Jewish holidays and like to draw connections for them between what we do and what other cultures do. However, I digress. Julie saved me from thinking of an activity to do with the children this Rosh Hashanah when she posted about how her homeschool did some needlefelting.


Her family needlefelted some bees and a hive. This is the perfect craft for my two little beans. I can't wait to try it with them. Thank you Julie for providing such wonderful inspiration.

Kris of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers very generously shares easy to understand, step-by-step instructions on how to make a salt dough map.



This is an activity that I know my children will thoroughly enjoy. I just have to work out what dough/clay we can use that doesn't contain wheat flour. Sometimes I truly wish that the kids and I didn't have celiac disease. I know that the problem is if we ingest wheat, not if we touch it, but I am not convinced that I can have 7 year olds work with wheat flour and still control for cross contamination. If you have any recipes for non gluten containing dough that can be baked, I'll be very grateful.

Greg Laden writes a post that should send chills down everyone who value's the rule of law's back.

Pamela Wilderman, the code enforcement officer for Marlboro, stated, "I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation."

Allow me to translate Ms. Wilderman's words into plain English: "Mr. Deeb hasn't actually violated any law or regulation that I can find, but I don't like what he's doing because I'm ignorant and irrationally afraid of chemicals, so I'll abuse my power to steal his property and shut him down."

Indeed, the phrase "crossed the line somewhere" should put a chill down the spine of anyone who does anything not absolutely typical in their home ... such as home schooling or messing around with science.

Christina provides a valuable resource where she lists The Ultimate Guide to Using Open Courseware: 70+ Apps, Search Engines and Resources for Free Learning

I thought long and hard about including this submission in the carnival. Heather Johnson gives some good study tips. I instinctively rejected the concept of study tips for homeschoolers because I see exams as a construct of institutionalized teaching. As a homeschooler, I have no need for exams, I can see on a daily basis whether my children are mastering the information or not. Then I realized that homeschoolers do end up leaving the nest and often to end up in some form of institution, be it school or college, so perhaps this information does belong in a homeschooling carnival.

Many of the readers of my blog are military personnel or spouses. I thought that this post by Laura might be of use to them.

Going back to school can be a difficult transition for any mid-career professional, adult student or other type of nontraditional student. Military service members, though, have unique challenges facing them when they decide to earn a degree or complete a career training program after seeing combat or spending time abroad. From finding military-friendly schools that accept transfer credits for experience to maximizing the benefits of your G.I. Bill, we’ve found 100 of the best back-to-school sites and resources for former military personnel to get you back in class and on the road to a successful career.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of the carnival of cool homeschoolers using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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