133rd Carnival of Homeschooling

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. ~Sam Keen

Welcome to the 133rd Carnival of Homeschooling at the Red Sea School. Life is moving slowly here in the humid Midwestern plains, so this is the Summertime-and-the-livin-is-easy edition. Try not to worry about the white ring the sweat from your iced tea glass is going to leave on your desk, and consider that if you sit very very still in front of your screen, you just might start to cool off.

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. ~James Dent

Amen I say! Carnival founder Henry Cate describes his family’s more laid back style in Summer Homeschooling posted at Why Homeschool.

A common theme in these posts, however, is that parents are still keeping busy looking for great resources for this summer or next fall.

Thursday Bram suggests you check out the free Books on Uncle Sam’s Shelf, posted at Wise Bread.

On Living By Learning serves up tasty Kids Cooking Activities from all across the web.

We’ve always wanted to try lapbooks, but I have just never quite figured out how. Denise has found ideas for Free Homeschooling LapBooks and shares them at Frugal Homeschooling.

My feisty blogger friend Adso of Melk suggests a Good Option for Gifted Kids–distance learning—at her education blog Lorem Ipsum. We’re about to get on the distance learning train ourselves – feel free to share your experiences in the comments.

Poetry is the focus on Shez’s recent online finds, posted at Homeschooled twins.

For visual arts, Kerry has Art History Links for Homeschoolers – July 2008 for you at A Ten O’Clock Scholar.

Happy Campers links to the video of Ken Robinson’s speech on creativity, a favorite among homeschoolers, in the post Do Schools Today Kill Creativity? at Reese’s View Of The World.

How sweet I roamed from field to field, and tasted all the summer’s pride.—William Blake

Summer isn’t all lazing about—even when we’re taking it easy we can cover a lot of bases.

Nature study
Erica Burgan of The Sojourner reminds us that we don’t have to go far to study science, when there’s Nature in Your Own Backyard.

Some of the “nature” in your backyard isn’t welcome, but it’s still a learning opportunity. Ask Mrs. Happy Housewife, who is Tracking Hurricanes at Mrs. Happy Housewife.

Math
My Google reader has lots of starred entries from Denise’s blog, Let’s play math! This week Denise takes a historical, biographical approach to her subject in her post Math History on the Internet.

Arts and crafts
SeaBird has cute and really unique Crafts for young children. Scroll down for cute pics of little ones at work at SeaBird Chronicles.

Phy ed
Silvia’s kids are having a really good time with Riding Lessons. See the evidence at Po Moyemu–In My Opinion.

History
is a favorite at our house. Elena LaVictoire has ideas to bringHistory Alive! posted at My Domestic Church.

English
Kim has suggestions for making a Homemade picture dictionary for young writers at In Our Write Minds.

Lifeskills
Barbara Frank knows that Teaching Your Girls About Money is more important than ever.

And Laura Williams has the kids gardening Around the Homestead Today…

Geography and more
OK, I saved this for last, because you have never seen a geography lesson like this before. Please go see my good friend Patience’s lesson on How to Rescue a Snow Leopard at Knitting the Wind.

There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want. – Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes

Even when you’re not doing anything, a little planning never hurts.

Just getting started? Kevin offers a A Beginner’s Checklist at M4K Homeschooling & Education.

Procrastinating? ChristineMM warns us to Fish or Cut Bait Before It’s Too Late at The Thinking Mother.

Even unschoolers have to do some planning, if not for the kids, then for themselves. Summer shares her efforts to be a relaxed planner in Home Is Where The School Is, posted at Wired For Noise.

Mother Hen talks about the tools she uses to keep to her plans in Habit Reformation posted at Ship Full O’ Pirates.

Soul Pockets is mapping out her plans for her first year of homeschool with a Catholic focus. Check out her Home School Curriculum at Soul Pockets, and let her know if you have any great ideas to share (like Catholic Mosaic or Haystack Full of Needles!).

For musicians, Thomas J. West presents Practice Tip #1: Make a Practice Session Schedule posted at Thomas J. West Music.

Mama Squirrel has been revising her plans for Grade Two: The Very Last First Time? posted at Dewey’s Treehouse.

Sallie talks about the foundation of her homeschool planning in Homeschool Focus — Prayer, posted at Seaside Tales.

You could not do better than to adopt the list of Some Books and Ideas made by wise and gentle Mariposa of Mariposa Academy.

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

We started homeschooling for academic reasons, but now we just love the lifestyle.

For example, I don’t think of reading aloud as curriculum or English – just life, wonderful homeschooling life. Shelia articulates this so beautifully in What We Learned From Laura Ingalls Wilder, J.K. Rowling, and Diana Wynne Jones at Greenridge Chronicles.

This kind of sharing is as much for the parents as it is for the children. Thus Susan shares My Favorite Poem at The Expanding Life.

Dawn Adams is a blogger after my own heart – Christian mom, atheist dad, educational anarchy? It’s like looking in a very general mirror . . . or something. She’s got the handicraft and the social justice/service angle sewn up in One Simple Activity, Lots of Rewards, posted at Day by Day Discoveries.

Somedays the rewards feel hard to come by. Alchemista2 turned things around at her house with Motivation and Joy.

“Everyone” knows homeschool families have tons of kids (preferably shepherded around by a mom in a denim jumper, right?) Well, some homeschool families actually are pretty large, and for them Michael Davis presents 20 Money Saving Tips For Traveling with a Large Group. posted at Family Hack.

“Everyone” also knows that socialization is the bug-a-boo of the homeschooling lifestyle. Angela takes on That Nasty “S” word
 with her usual wisdom at Mother Crone’s Homeschool
.

Speaking of socialization, I know all you Catholic homeschooling bloggers out there already preordered your copy of Haystack Full of Needles, by Alice Gunther, but just in case you haven’t, Leticia Velasquez has a review of the much awaited book posted at Cause of Our Joy.

Ah, summer – what power you have to make us suffer and like it – Russel Baker

Much as we enjoy our easy livin’, homeschoolers don’t mix with the wide world without a few bumps along the way.

Missy talks about The Dark Side of public school/homeschool generalizations at The Life Without School Blog.

Beverly reports a happy ending to the Subway kerfuffle in Subway keeps promise to homeschoolers, posted at Beverly’s Homeschooling Blog

There is still prejudice to overcome. Elisheva Levin discusses disturbing Accusations of Neglect and Abuse of Power: The Shaman Case at Ragamuffin Studies.

But let’s end on a lighter note.

Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a moose singing ”Embraceable You” in spats. – Woody Allen

What’s a carnival without a comic from Cristina at Home Spun Juggling?

If you are supposed to be on this list and you aren’t please contact me and we’ll see if we can figure out what went wrong.

Thanks to all who submitted and visited, and if you enjoy reading a variety of homeschooling points of view please consider hosting yourself. The next carnival will be hosted by Life on the Road. It’s lovely if you submit your post via the spiffy blog carnival site but you can also do it the old fashioned way (who knew you could e-mail and still be old fashioned?) by e-mailing
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.)
to carnivalofhomeschooling at gmail.com by 6:00 pm next Monday.