Very disturbing pictures of a poodle with a crazy owner

The pics on this website are very disturbing. I can't imagine going to all that trouble to trim and dye my dog's hair to make it look so weird.

Here's one of the pics to whet your appetite.

A reminder of how good we have it today!

I had one of those rotary telephones he talks about until I was in my mid 20's. Had to laugh at what he had to say about people with zeros in their telephone numbers.

StoryCorps is declaring November 28, 2008 the first annual National Day of Listening.

from StoryCorps

This Thanksgiving, StoryCorps asks you to start a new holiday tradition—set aside one hour on Friday, November 28th, to record a conversation with someone important to you. You can interview anyone you choose: an older relative, a friend, a teacher, or a familiar face from the neighborhood.

You can preserve the interview using recording equipment readily available in most homes, such as tape recorders, computers, video cameras or a pen and paper. Our free Do-It-Yourself Guide is easy to use and will prepare you and your interview partner to record a memorable conversation, no matter which method of recording you prefer.

We hope that you’ll make a yearly tradition of listening to and preserving a loved one’s story. The stories you collect will surely become treasured keepsakes, growing more valuable with each passing generation.

I'm reminded of the wonderful stories my grandfather Brian used to tell me. How I wish I had recorded them as a youngster. I plan on having Ben and Shira call their grandparents and great grandmother this Friday and record a story from each of them. They are both entranced by the stories Marc and I tell them and they love the story that their great grandmother tells of how the doctor wrote out her birth and death certificates at the same time, 94 years ago. She was born prematurely, in a blizzard in rural Maryland and weighed a scant 2lbs. The doctor wrote out the death certificate because he said there was no way she was going to survive and no way he was coming out in the blizzard again. Her aunt put her in a shoebox and placed her at the back of the coal stove. It worked! Two weeks ago we celebrated her 94th birthday.

I think that this is a great project for the kids. This is a project with legs. Seeing as my parents live half a world away, we'll wait until we see them again so that the children can video tape them telling more of their stories.

Gore's "Farenheit 9/11"

The Irish Times reports:

A new Irish film claims that climate change guru Al Gore is an alarmist and that those who think they are saving the planet are only hurting the poor

IF THE ADVANCE publicity is anything to go by, Not Evil Just Wrong will do for Al Gore what Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 did for George W Bush.

"This is the film Al Gore and Hollywood don't want you to see," declares the website for the latest work by film-makers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer. The site even features a big picture of Gore, with his lips in the photograph seemingly digitally enhanced to make them look like Heath Ledger's Joker from the latest Batman film.

The website goes on to say that their latest film - which takes on what are described as global warming alarmists - is "the most controversial documentary of the year". Indeed, it could very well be the most controversial. And Al Gore and Hollywood may well not want you to see it

. Read more.

Homeschooling cranky, convalescing children

We're just spent nearly 2 weeks in the Silverberg home battling the crud. Each child had a high fever for around a week, of course, there was very little over lap so it felt like it was never going to end.

Ben is now well but Shira, while her fever has broken, is still not feeling great and is very, very, very, very delicate. Did I say she was delicate? Perhaps I understate things when I use the word "delicate". She's my child who cries at the drop of a hat, who becomes frustrated at the drop of a hat and who beats herself up at the drop of a hat. That's when she's well. Take this behavior and multiply it a thousand fold and you have Shira when she's not feeling well.

We had half a dozen eruptions before 8am. I then decided that school was just not going to happen today. Instead we're listening to Patricia Wrede's, "Dealing with Dragons".

Amazon.com Review
Cimorene, princess of Linderwall, is a classic tomboy heroine with classic tomboy strengths--all of which are perceived by those around her as defects: "As for the girl's disposition--well, when people were being polite, they said she was strong-minded. When they were angry or annoyed with her, they said she was as stubborn as a pig." Cimorene, tired of etiquette and embroidery, runs away from home and finds herself in a nest of dragons. Now, in Cimorene's world--a world cleverly built by author Patricia C. Wrede on the shifting sands of myriad fairy tales--princesses are forever being captured by dragons. The difference here is that Cimorene goes willingly. She would rather keep house for the dragon Kazul than be bored in her parents' castle. With her quick wit and her stubborn courage, Cimorene saves the mostly kind dragons from a wicked plot hatched by the local wizards, and worms her way into the hearts of young girls everywhere.

We're having such fun. While we're listening, Shira's drawing dragons, Ben's building dragons with legos and I am having peaceful times blogging and futzing around in the kitchen.

Every time Cimorene tried to do an activity she enjoyed, she was told that "girls did not do that", when she questioned it, she was told, "because that's the way it is". This was a great springboard for a discussion about perceived roles and societal pressures.

Our children are being brought up by parents who make choices that don't fit the mainstream or their extended family's preconceptions of what is right and proper. It's good for Ben and Shira to read literature that deals with these issues.

Thermins

One of the reasons I am so attracted to Marc is that he always has some odd interest on the go. One of his odd interests is playing odd musical instruments. The theremin is one of his favorite odd instruments. What is a theremin you ask? I'll let the guys at Theremin World explain:

The theremin was invented in 1919 by a Russian physicist named Lev Termen (in the United States his name was Leon Theremin). Today, this marvelous instrument is once again in the musical spotlight.
Besides looking like no other instrument, the theremin is unique in that it is played without being touched.

Two antennas protrude from the theremin - one controlling pitch, and the other controlling volume. As a hand approaches the vertical antenna, the pitch gets higher. Approaching the horizontal antenna makes the volume softer. Because there is no physical contact with the instrument, playing the theremin in a precise melodic way requires practiced skill and keen attention to pitch.

Originally, the theremin was intended to play classical music and even replace entire orchestras with its "music from the aether." While that never quite happened, it has been used in many recordings over the years. Several big band conductors featured the theremin in numerous specialty ablums. During the 60's and 70's, bands such as Lothar and the Hand People, the Bonzo Doo Dah Dog Band, and Led Zeppelin brought the theremin into the public eye for a short time. (However a theremin did not play in the song "Good Vibrations", but the instrument used was based on it.) Then, the theremin slipped back into obscurity until the recent revival of the 1990s. Today, lots of bands use theremins, though few in a musical context.
The spooky sound of the theremin was used in several movie soundtracks during the 1950's and 1960's. It provided background mood music for such sci-fi classics as The Day the Earth Stood Still, where it played a serious musical role, and It Came From Outer Space, as well in classic, well composed, thriller soundtracks such as Spellbound and The Lost Weekend.

Here is a theremin master, Clara Rockmore playing The Swan (Saint-Saëns)



One of my equally odd friends, Shell sent me a link today to a Make video on how to make an optical theremin in a petrie dish.

Might be a fun project for a teen.


Beep-it from Michael Una on Vimeo.

We've had some fun with the theremin. One Halloween Marc played spooky music but we had to stop that after we ended up scaring the daylights out of some of the littlies.

The Food Miles Mistake

My favorite magazine, "Reason", has written a good article on why the concept of food miles is flawed.

So just how much carbon dioxide is emitted by transporting food from farm to fork? Desrochers and Shimizu cite a comprehensive study done by the United Kingdom's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) which reported that 82 percent of food miles were generated within the U.K. Consumer shopping trips accounted for 48 percent and trucking for 31 percent of British food miles. Air freight amounted to less than 1 percent of food miles. In total, food transportation accounted for only 1.8 percent of Britain's carbon dioxide emissions.

In the United States, a 2007 analysis found that transporting food from producers to retailers accounted for only 4 percent of greenhouse emissions related to food. According to a 2000 study, agriculture was responsible for 7.7 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In that study, food transport accounted for 14 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with agriculture, which means that food transport is responsible for about 1 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Food miles advocates fail to grasp the simple idea that food should be grown where it is most economically advantageous to do so. Relevant advantages consist of various combinations of soil, climate, labor, capital, and other factors. It is possible to grow bananas in Iceland, but Costa Rica really has the better climate for that activity. Transporting food is just one relatively small cost of providing modern consumers with their daily bread, meat, cheese, and veggies. Desrochers and Shimizu argue that concentrating agricultural production in the most favorable regions is the best way to minimize human impacts on the environment.

Local food production does not always produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the 2005 DEFRA study found that British tomato growers emit 2.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide for each ton of tomatoes grown compared to 0.6 tons of carbon dioxide for each ton of Spanish tomatoes. The difference is British tomatoes are produced in heated greenhouses. Another study found that cold storage of British apples produced more carbon dioxide than shipping New Zealand apples by sea to London. In addition, U.K. dairy farmers use twice as much energy to produce a metric ton of milk solids than do New Zealand farmers. Other researchers have determined that Kenyan cut rose growers emit 6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per 12,000 roses compared to the 35 tons of carbon dioxide emitted by their Dutch competitors. Kenyan roses grow in sunny fields whereas Dutch roses grow in heated greenhouses.

Entire article here.

I sometimes feel as our entire society has suspended rational thought when it come to the environment. People grasp at poorly thought out ideas and then take them as gospel. I am finding it dreadfully difficult to keep Ben and Shira from believing some of the environmental nonsense that abounds today. I thought that being homeschooled would help. I suppose in a way it does, but every outside activity they do is full of this poorly thought out, environmental gospels.

I am now on the look out for a book/program/blog/anything that can help me teach young children how to question everything they read/hear. It's tough because young children are genetically programmed to believe what their elders teach them. Our poor children have mom and dad teaching them one thing and the masses of humanity teaching them something else.

Shira asked me a question the other day that made me realize that she's been reading "Reason". This is good. I leave copies in the bathrooms and she and Ben are obviously picking them up. It's been great for their reading skills. Most of the topics are too complex for them to understand at age 7, but it does give me good starting points for discussions.

The Woman Who Lived On The QE2

This BBC story piqued my interest. It tells of an 89 year old woman who made the QE2 her home on and off for 14 years.

She pays about £3,500 a month and says she prefers it to any retirement home.
With elegant surroundings, lavish meals, cocktails and dancing every night it is easy to see why Mrs Muller fell in love with the ship.
She said: "We're spoiled to death, we get to see the whole world and meet the most incredible people."
In the morning she reads a print-out of The New York Times, works on her memoirs and calls on friends.
Then she plays bridge until tea, followed by cocktails and dancing.
Once the liner reaches Dubai, Mrs Muller, known as Bea to the crew, will be without a home, although she has no plans to return to dry land.
"I'll keep on staying at sea, I don't want to go back to housekeeping," she said.

What a wonderful way to spend your retirement if you can afford it.

This story made me wonder if there isn't a more cost effective method of doing this so that a homeschooled family can sail the seven seas for a year or so. I know there is the option of sailing your own yacht, but that defeats the purpose, sailing your own boat involves work. I really like the idea of having a serviced cabin and all food cooked for you. Then all I would have to do is see the world and educate my children. Mmmm. another dream to add to my list. LOL. Of course, I would have to overcome my antipathy to cruise liners. I had the misfortune to spend a week on one in the Indian Ocean. I couldn't find any privacy. Cruise directors made it their job to make me miserable. They ferreted out everyone who wanted quiet, alone time with a book and tried to cajole them into having "fun". UGHH. It was horrid.

Parenting beyond belief

Dale McGowan, author of "Parenting Beyond Belief" has compiled a very useful list of rational, secular, parent bloggers over at his blog The Meming of Life

Our greatest deficit — the lack of a connected, mutually supportive community — is slowly being erased. Equally important, this chorus of voices helps us to build consensus about the best practices for nonreligious parenting. So visit ‘em, read ‘em, comment and link up — and let me know who I missed.

Next week he's listing secular homeschool bloggers.

""Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake,"

According to the Houston Chronicle, this December The American Humanist Association will run an ad campaign where they will write, ""Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," on the side of busses.

As you can well imagine, certain sectors of society are up in arms about it.

The humanists' entry into the marketplace of ideas did not impress AFA president Tim Wildmon.
"It's a stupid ad," he said. "How do we define 'good' if we don't believe in God? God in his word, the Bible, tells us what's good and bad and right and wrong. If we are each ourselves defining what's good, it's going to be a crazy world."

I worry about people who need an extrinsic reason to behave morally. If the fear and punishment factor were to be removed from these people, are they telling us that they will stop behaving morally? Are they saying that the only reason they behave morally is because they fear their punishment in hell? Or if it is not punishment, why do they feel that they need an external authority to tell them how to behave?

The Objective Standard has a good article that addresses the root of "good" behavior for non-theists.

Todays ramblings

from today's Virginian Pilot

More than 60 percent of its investors lived in four areas: Norfolk, New York, Chicago and Israel, the report said.

I see this all the time in the American media. American "things" are given greater status than those in the rest of the world. This is like Africa being a country (and Palin is not the first American that I've come across who believes this. We walked out of a library storytelling session when the librarian told the children that they were going to learn about the animals from the country of Africa. She then proceeded to start with the tiger. I was willing to let Africa go, but when she started on an Asian animal, I was out of there. I called the librarian later to discuss her errors. Her reasoning was that continent was too large a concept for little children. What total BS.)

Anyway, back to the Virginian Pilot. Norfolk has less than a quarter of a million inhabitants but it's an "area" just like Israel, a country is an "area". LOL.

The story that was attached to this sentence is very sad. Joseph Shereshevsky was a neighbor who defrauded millions from the orthodox Jewish community. I think he is the lowest form of pond scum. I am really irritated by the entire fiasco. He lived large and very visibly donated vast sums of money. I keep on hearing people talk about how he is a good man and should be let out on bail. He was arrested at the airport with a one way ticket out of the country. This is not a good man. He was convicted on fraud charges before he came to live in Norfolk. Then he milked people of their hard earned money so that he could live a life of luxury and have his name associated with a myriad of charities

Is effective solar power around the corner?

IT Business reports that researchers from MIT have discovered a new way of storing energy from sunlight that could lead to unlimited solar power.

Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and researcher on the project, said in a statement. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.

The problem, however, is how best to harness that energy.

The research is a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale, said James Barber, a biochemistry professor at Imperial College London who was not involved in the solar project.

Nocera said he's hopeful that within 10 years people will no longer power their homes using electricity-by-wire from a central source. Instead, homeowners will be able to power their homes with solar power during daylight hours and use this new energy storage method for electricity at night.

Ragamuffin Studies: Making Ready: Cross Quarter, the Election, and Saecular Winter

Ragamuffin Studies: Making Ready: Cross Quarter, the Election, and Saecular Winter

Elisheva Hannah Levin has written an excellent blog post in response to Christine over at The Thinking Mother's suggestion in her post Election Outcome a few days ago:

"Now that we have elected a new President I have an idea. How about if we all write down our thoughts about our futures and our hopes or worries?"

Marc and I have been talking about nothing else for days. I was going to blog about it but then I read Elisheva's post and knew that I had very little to add. So when you read her eloquent words, know that I agree with them wholeheartedly.

I liked this quote from her post (the emphasis is mine):

As an American who loves and respects the Constitution of the United States, I accept Obama as the Constitutionally elected President of the United States. However, my loyalty must be to the US Constitution, not to his person, or the person of any president or government official. Government is our servant, not our master; the duty of government is to protect our rights, not to save the world. I am uncertain as to whether Obama and his supporters understand this. (I am certain that his predecessor did not). I will know by what he does and not what they say. At his inauguration, he will swear to preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in this duty I wish him success and resilience. The Presidency is an awesome job and a great responsibility, and so I wish him health, long life, and good courage. But I do not promise him unquestioning loyalty or unwavering support. That would be inappropriate. I am a citizen, not a subject.

Project Feeder Watch

This info came through on a homeschool list I am on. We've signed up and are eagerly awaiting our materials.



You can download your handy, dandy, Homeschooler's Guide to Project FeederWatch -- a free science module for homeschoolers that focuses on Project FeederWatch! You can also learn about your backyard birds here.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has just released its newly revised, FREE Homeschooler’s Guide to Project FeederWatch.

For more than 20 years, Project FeederWatch has been an easy, fun way for children to learn about birds and strengthen their skills in observation, identification, research, computation, writing, creativity, and more. FeederWatchers keep track of the numbers and kinds of birds at their feeders through the winter and report what they see to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The Homeschooler’s Guide to Project FeederWatch will guide you through bird-related activities that promote learning across many disciplines, including science, math, history, and the arts. Examples of these activities include:

Natural history: Observe and research a bird’s behavior and life cycle
Math: Calculate average seed consumption rate and graph data
Writing: Keep a nature journal to write stories and poetry
Geography: Research the geographic ranges of birds
Art: Keep a feeder-bird sketch book or create a papier mache mask To download the Homeschooler’s Guide to Project FeederWatch, visit www.FeederWatch.org and click on the “Education/Home School” button. You’ll be able to download the PDF in low (2.2MB) or high (6.7MB) resolutions.

You may choose to use the free guide as a stand-alone resource, or sign up for Project FeederWatch to submit the data you gather. If you would like to be a project participant, the signup fee is $12 for members of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, $15 for non-members. There are discounts for group participation.

If you have any questions, please let us know how we can help by emailing feederwatch@cornell.edu.

Sincerely,
David Bonter
Project Leader, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Searching for a spelling program

I'm looking for a computerized spelling program for my kids. I want something that teaches all the rules, then gives them practice with that rule. I'd like something that uses programmed instruction.

I know I could teach this manually but I am looking for something my children can use while I am doing one-on-one teaching. If Ben isn't working on something while I teach Shira he becomes disruptive. I find that something computer based works better than if I give him pencil and paper work, or worse, reading to do.

When Ben and Shira were learning to read we used a great program called, Reading Horizons. I truly believe they are the strong readers they are today because of this superb program. It touches on spelling but does not focus on spelling which is why we now need a spelling program.

Do you know of a good computer based spelling program that works on Macs?

I tried Spelling Time from Big IQ but it is a joke. It just provides 5 days of playtime for a set of words. The words they set for each grade level are way too easy and it relies on brute memorization. I want something that teaches from rules.

Before you comment about all the exceptions. I know there are exceptions in English, but if the kids get the rules down pat, the exceptions become easy. Also please don't comment that spelling programs are unnecessary, that if the children read, they will learn to spell. I agree, the more a child reads, the better their spelling, but I like to work with rules as I feel it helps provide structure. I'm also becoming tired of all the "mom, how do I spell......?" questions when I am focussing on something else.

Just like fluent handwriting, good spelling makes a child's life easier and gives them more time to focus on the more interesting things there are to learn.

Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers # 12

Welcome to another edition of the Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers. I've taken a break from blogging for a few weeks and now am pysched about blogging again.

Before we launch into this edition, I'd like to talk about two carnivals that are targeted at homeschooled children.



The first run by Julie and her daughter from Homeschooling Ideas. They host Homeschooled Kids Carnival.

This is THE place to show off your blog if you are homeschooled - and to see what other homeschooled kids are blogging about.

The second is one that I am have started. Hopefully once it is up and running, other homeschool bloggers will start hosting it. Read all about it here. This is your child's chance to showcase his/her creations, be they something made with legos, a frosting work of art, a drawing, a painting, a photograph, a sculpture, a poem, a short story or something I haven't yet thought of that shows his/her creative spirit. Each carnival, the winning entry will receive a book of the child's choice from Amazon.com (max value $8).




Kris from Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers gives a step-by-step tutorial on how to make papier mache projects.

If your children, like mine, have celiac disease, or a wheat allergy, papier mache projects become a problem. I sent a query to a large celiac listserve and was given this recipe to use instead of the flour mixture and then follow Kris' instructions..

Gluten Free Papier Mache mixture- Take 1 heaped soup ladle of powdered cornstarch
- Place in a heat proof bowl
- Add enough COLD water to form a paste and to dissolve powder to consistency of thick cream.
- Pour in one kettleful (1.7 litres) of RAPIDLY BOILING (MUST be bubbling away...) and stir like crazy...!

It is very very HOT like porridge and it can form lumps so I usually give it a whisk or beating with my electric mixer to smooth it. Paste should change from opaque white to translucent once the boiling water is added. It will keep a few days and can be microwaved to be heated so it's less "jelly-like". Kids love to use it while it's warm, but it works equally wellcold.

Salt can be added to prolong shelf life."

Amy Smith presents Fun With Paper . She gives a good list of websites that give patterns for children to do fun paper projects. Definitely a keeper.

Kris presents Bird Cinema

Bird-Watching meets You-Tube at Bird Cinema. You can upload your own clips or view other amateur and professional videos about birds. I find this great for matching bird sitings with bird sounds, and other informative videos are available, too. Here is one from the BBC:

Shira is entranced by this website. She's crazy about birds and this feeds her need to identify every bird she sees. My kids have asked that we register for Cornell's Orinothology Bird Feeder Project

Julie of Homeschooling Ideas writes about her family's experience with Computer games in their homeschool

I can only speak for myself and my children, but thinking about it, we have seen some wonderful learning opportunities that have arisen as a direct effect of computer games. Of course, I couldn't dictate these results - we have played many games where nothing educational seemed to happen and the children enjoyed only the entertainment value! But looking back, a lot of valuable learning has been initiated by certain games.

I wanted to give some specific examples so my thoughts on this are below. Note that I am not recommending these games - merely outlining the effects of computer games on our homeschool learning.

Have a look at her post, there are good reviews on various computer games.

We fit into a very strange subset of homeschoolers. We use the computer as a learning tool but don't often play computer games. I see that Ben has a tendency towards electronic media addiction. The best way for me to manage this is to keep his screen time severely limited.

Alison from Homeschoolers' Guide to the Galaxyreviews Nebel's Elementary Education saying: "If you were to ask me to recommend just one reference book to guide you through homeschooling the elementary years I'd recommend Nebel's Elementary Education. Keep reading and I'll tell you why."

Amy Smith from Kids Love Learning writes about a fun way she taught her son to read.

We love Raggedy Ann and Andy and the original stories written by Johnny Gruelle. In one of the many books I have read, I came upon a great idea to encourage beginning readers to practice reading. The idea was to have the child's doll or stuffed animal do the reading for them. I tweaked the idea a bit and this is how it worked

read more here. I love this idea. I met Johnny Gruelle's books when Ben and Shira were around 4. We listened to them over and over again. Audible.com has a very good reading if you are interested.

Amy also blogs about one of my all time favorite preschool activities, viz felt boards

Felt boards are a fun and useful learning tool and we have been using ours to teach Rosa about numbers and shapes. I made my own numbers and shapes felt set which was quite simple to do. The numbers were traced from

Alasandra reminds us to Vote for our favorite homeschooling blogs

You can vote for your favourite adult, group and teen homeschool blog in the side bar. There are 58 days left for you to vote in Alasandra's Homeschool Blog Awards. So far 170 people have voted. Little Blue School is in the lead for Adult Homeschool Blog, The Homeschool Classroom is in the lead for Group Homeschool Blog and Quilted Story is in the lead for Teen Homeschool Blog.

. I'm very excited because my friend Lydia's blog is currently winning the race.

Talking about Lydia, she has posted a great song about The Wreck of Odysseus' Ship.

These lyrics remind us of the folly of Odysseus' silly crew and their willingness to eat anything that wasn't nailed down, including the cows of the sun god, which they had been specifically told not to eat. The song is sung to the tune of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot. If you don't have this song on CD, go to Project Playlist and search for it, then add it to your playlist and listen to it whenever you like!

Ben and Shira are full of songs about Odysseus' travels as they are studying the Odyssey with Lydia at our co-op.

Sharp Brains addresses the problems of children multitasking.

Today's kids are into multi-tasking. This is the generation hooked on iPods, IM'ing, video games - not to mention TV! Many people in my generation think it is wonderful that kids can do all these things simultaneously and are impressed with their competence.
Well, as a teacher of such kids when they reach college, I am not impressed. College students these days have short attention spans and have trouble concentrating. They got this way in secondary school. I see this in the middle-school outreach program I help run. At this age kids are really wrapped up in multi-tasking―at the expense of focus.

If you only do one thing for your family this week, reading this article should be the it.

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.

the carnival of cool homeschoolers, blog carnival.

New Blog Carnival - Carnival of Homeschooled Children's Creations

Few things inspire my kids more than being able to show off their creations. Every time they create something of which they are very proud, they ask me to photograph it and post the pic to my blog.

Working on the Book Arts Bash has shown me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that homeschooling children are incredibly creative.

I thought that a blog carnival dedicated to children's creations would be a perfect way for children to showcase their work.

Do your children love creating with their building toys? Ben's latest craze is building vehicles with his Zoobs.



Or do they, like Shira, love to walk around the neighborhood with camera in hand?



Perhaps they love to cook. Ben made his first ever gluten free, dairy free flat bread the other day.



Shira loves to bake gluten free, dairy free, soy free chocolate chip cookies.



Perhaps your children have been inspired by the Sorted Books Project, like my two have. Notice the sentence the kids made here. Think my political cynicism has rubbed off on them? Please note that this is not meant as a dig to the current president. They took this picture during the primaries.


Enter their poetry, short stories, photographs, pictures, collages, lego creations, just anything that your children have created - please include your child's age and first name.

There are two ways you can enter, write a blog post about your child's creation and then submit to the blog carnival via the Blog Carnival submission form or email the entry to me at shez dot silverberg at gmail dot com and I'll include it into the carnival.

Each carnival, the best entry, as judged by me, will win a book of their choice from Amazon.com (valued up to $8)