The 31st Carnival of Homeschooling

// 7.31.06 // Filed under: Homeschooling, Link Love

When Melissa at The Lilting House ended last week’s Schoolhouse Rock-inspired Carnival of Homeschooling, she proclaimed, “Interplanet Janet Shannon – she’s a galaxy girl.” Turns out, she’s right (I wonder if she knows how much I love SciFi?) and the theme for this week’s Carnival was born. Welcome to the 31st Carnival of Homeschooling: Galactic Adventures.

As we begin our journey, Maria of Homeschool Math Blog starts us out with an astronomical post about Kepler’s laws and discoveries of new planets.

Next, Angela of Mother Crone’s Homeschool offers a fun way to use paper clips to visually demonstrate relative distance between the planets.

Beverly from About Homeschooling provides household organization tips to start our journey off on the right foot.

We arrive on Mercury. Standing on the surface, observers at some longitudes see the Sun rise and then gradually increase in apparent size as it slowly moves toward the zenith. At that point the Sun stops, briefly reverses course, and stops again before resuming its path toward the horizon and decreasing in apparent size. All the while the stars are moving three times faster across the sky. Observers at other points on Mercury’s surface see different but equally bizarre motions. (Source: http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/mercury.html)

As we witness this phenomenal display, I can’t help but draw a parallel to my feelings on homeschooling. It can grow large in your life and consume you, then fade back, then even change course. Homeschoolers are an eccentric bunch, with varied methods and ideologies. And that’s what makes the adventure so exciting!

Michelle of Texas Ed shares how homeschooling is like making pizza. She points out that there are many things she has learned that no one has had to “teach” her.

The Headmistress over at The Common Room gives a compelling argument in favor of old history books vs. new history books.

Kim from Life in a Shoe: the methods and madness of one mother of 8 explains how she often sees great advances during summer schooling. NerdMom of Nerd Family concurs, explaining how homeschooling year-round works for her family.

In her post, “Be a rebel. Don’t do subjects,” Mama Squirrel from Dewey’s Treehouse tells us that we need to learn as “an all” and not just as “parts.”

Christine of The Thinking Mother shares her story of how her son’s passion for space allowed her to see that children can and do learn easily.

Indeed, children can enjoy science at a very young age. Just ask Melissa from A Familiar Path, who extols the virtues of the Nature Reader.

We now travel to a galaxy far, far away and observe how homeschooling meets “science fiction.”

Carolyn of Guilt-Free Homeschooling shares her family’s Star Wars passion in Star Wars Goes Homeschool. She concludes, “The beauty of homeschooling is that we can shift our curriculum to meld with our students’ interests.” I can attest to that – it was a Star Wars trading card game that motivated my son to learn to read.

Rebecca of What Did You Do in School Today? discusses the importance of teaching through imagination.

Chris of O’DonnellWeb gives us his entertaining commentary on a press release from a company trying to appeal to homeschoolers. Apparently this company is from outer space.

**We interrupt this Carnival of Homeschooling to bring you a Web Exclusive! Spunky Homeschool reports on a new and dangerous threat to the political climate – Global Homeschooling.**

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Carnival.

As we return back to Earth, we contemplate the place homeschooling holds in our universe.

Janine from Why Homeschool points a worried would-be homeschooler in the right direction.

In his follow up to last week’s Carnival of Homeschooling entry, Steve Walden of Dad’s Corner takes on a comment that grades promote healthy competition and ensure the coursework is taught well. While it’s true that parents need to keep tabs on how well their child is learning, Steve contends that the over-emphasis of grades and classification by age are not constructive steps toward raising the ideal student.

Laurie of Trivium Pursuit posts an essay explaining that forced socialization among preschoolers tends more toward negative than positive.

Mary Ellen of Tales from the Bonny Blue House posts a challenge to discern the true goals of educating a child with a disability.

Loni of Finding Joy in the Morning shares the story of a seasoned homeschool mom: why she has homeschooled over the last 12+ years, and the results for learning disabilities and gifted children.

Karen from The Thomas Institute provides some useful ideas on what to do when your homeschooling is just not working.

Anne of PalmTree Pundit shares her excitement and details her plans for the upcoming school year.

At the pinnacle of our galactic adventure, we find Elinor of Fire In Mine Ears – a homeschooled high school senior who reveals (in an incredibly insightful and beautiful post, I might add) what happens in the mind when someone asks a homeschooled student “Where do you go to school?”

Finally, we look at our Sun. The brightest, hottest star in our system. Are you a sun to your children? Melissa from Mental multivitamin explains that many people home educate so they can tailor lessons, learning environments, and the like to their children’s unique needs and desires. But only so much of this sort of thing is (a) necessary and (b) realistic. Melissa is “raising planets. Each is on his or her own path around the sun.” And Barbara of The Imperfect Homeschooler advises us to appreciate our place in the homeschooling solar system while our children are young.

Step outside today and lift your face to the sun. Take a deep breath and relax in knowing that you are doing your best in raising your little planets. Have a wonderful week!

Next week’s Carnival of Homeschooling will be hosted by Sprittibee. Send your submissions to CarnivalofHomeschooling@gmail.com. You can find more information about submitting to the Carnival at Why Homeschool.

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