When I was a little girl, I loved playing school. It was my favorite thing to do. Surely I drove my sister crazy and when she didn’t want to play, I would play what I called “alone school.” I had imaginary students that I would make worksheets for, I had good students and bad students. I would play for hours. My neighbor had a shoebox filled with a toy school set that I absolutely adored. It had desks and little rag dolls and a chalkboard and a teacher. I loved when she brought that coveted shoebox outside and let me play. I think my obsession with playing school is why homeschooling felt so natural to me. My imaginary students came to life. Now, to be clear, I’m not suggesting that homeschooling is playing school, but I look back on both with fond memories. And now that my kids are grown up and graduated, I continue to “play” by making worksheets for my grandkids and your kids. 🙂

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Homeschooling Carnival and welcome to my new home at HomeschoolJourneys.com. If this if your first visit, take your shoes off and stay awhile.

Let’s start with some general homeschool issues and chatter.

In Homeschool Idea: Daddy Challenge Chair the Faughn Family of Four shares what they did to help keep daddy “in the loop” of what the kids are learning each day at school. I think this is a brilliant idea.

Lisa Nehring presents Homeschool Myth Busters over at Golden Grasses. She gives her perspective of five homeschooling myths.

In A Word to My Fellow People Pleasers… Jan Burt encourages homeschoolers to be true to their Lord and trust in Him alone as they walk the road of homeschooling. She says people pleasing is a common issue for those of us who homeschool.

As Rachel Noggle of Musings of a Reluctant Homeschool Mom sits on The cusp of school, she muses over the early start of local schools and is thankful to be able to start school according to her own schedule.

In Are You Ready for a New Puppy? Phyllis Sather shares the story of the loss of their dog a year ago and the purchase of their new puppy a year later.

Lorilynn Jones of 3 Partners in Shopping; Nana, Mommy, &; Sissy too! shares a couple of reasons why she believes that standardized testing is very wrong, a total waste of time and money in Another Great Reason to Homeschool Our Children.

Nebby presents The Goal of Education posted at Letters from Nebby where she discusses the different approaches to home education.

Curriculum and Resources

Christa Fairbrother of Mother of Discussionlinks to sources of Free Media for Homeschoolers such as audio books and sound recordings. Check out her Modern Pentathlon post – such fun!

In Back to School Plans, Part One: Changes to Dollygirl’s Grade Six Science, Mama Squirrel of Dewey’s Treehouse shares a review of The Great Motion Mission: A Surprising Story of Physics in Everyday Life.

For my post this week, I have a couple sets of Math Vocabulary Worksheets for you. The first set is basic arithmetic terms, the second is more advanced.

As a newcomer to homeschooling, Vincent Cate shares Computer as the Teacher at Why Homeschool. He is looking at having computers do most of the teaching for his two boys and possibly a small school.

Tea Time with Annie Kate reviews 101 Top Picks for Homeschool Curricululm by Cathy Duffy. She says like its predecessor 100 Top Picks, it’s the best book for beginning homeschoolers and for any homeschooler who is facing changes in family or homeschool.  She’s read it half a dozen times, at least.

Projects and Teaching Ideas

History:

Try this fun outdoor activity – Celebrating Lewis and Clark with To-Scale Mapping presented by Our Journey Westward. Even though it was meant for the older students, the younger student joined in.

Language Arts:

In Why Keep Reading Aloud – 5th grade, Monique of Living Life and Learning discusses the value of continuing to read aloud to your child even though they could read it themselves.

A Game for Making Your Own Oz Story includes instructions and cards created for a homemade board game made by Christy at Just Another Step to Take. They played it with another homeschooling family  as part of a unit exploring the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Nadene of Practical Pages shares some of the ways different types of puppets can be used to tell narrations in Narrations 103 Puppets.

Science:

Lindafay discusses nature journaling in Nature Journaling -Stage One continued posted at Higher Up and Further In. Do you have a child who just doesn’t seem to enjoy drawing in his nature journal? Does he draw his specimen in a few minutes and then is ready to go on to something else because this activity bores him? This is a normal behavior for children in the first stage of nature journaling. We must help them get past this initial phase or they may never learn to enjoy nature.

Nirvana Homeschooling shares Exploring Music and Science with a Wind Organ made from recycled plastic bottles. She says a wind organ will make music when the wind blows. Our wind organ did not make a loud sound, but you could hear it if you were standing about 1-2 feet away from the organ which was a nice treat when we were working in the garden. I had never heard of a wind organ before. Check it out.

In Chemistry Lab Camp Day 8 and 9, Janine Cate of Why Homeschool wraps of their Do It Yourself Chemistry Lab Camp. They look like a great group of kids and I love the funny face picture.

Out and About

In Important Fire Safety Tips – from the Professionals, Mindy Hoffmann of DenSchool shares about a trip to the fire station with some life saving tips to teach children about fire safety.

Ages and Stages

Jamie Gaddy of MomSCHOOL says homeschooling many children isn’t easy, and having little ones can be a challenge. In Keeping Your Little Ones Engaged, she shares a few tips to keeping them engaged.

Eclectic Momma shares some ideas on how they are doing Preschool this year. It looks like they’re having a lot of fun together.

Dee Trope discusses thoughts on when a child is old enough to be left Home Alone and safety measures for when you do.

In Homeschooling and Concurrent Enrollment in College posted at Harmony Art Mom, Barb discusses their experience with concurrent enrollment during high school and making sure to fit the action to the needs of the child.

In Conclusion…

With the 2012 Olympics on in the background and a 4.4 earthquake centered a couple miles from my home, I was able to stay focused and finish up the Carnival. I hope you enjoy the posts and try some of the ideas in your own homeschooling. The next carnival will be hosted at Under the Golden Apple Tree.

~ Beverly Hernandez

Chalkboard images by Scrappin Doodles.