Category Archives: Homeschoooling

carnivals, Homeschoooling

Carnival of Homeschooling: Homeschool Open House

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I am so honored to be hosting this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling! Welcome to my Homeschool Open House!!! So come on in and relax for a while. There are some great entries into the carnival this week.

So the tree is up but has nothing but lights. I can’t believe it is already Christmas. Some of our party attenders have great pieces to help us prepare for the holidays. TheGaddy5 over on the Time4Learning Blog has a great piece on Teaching an Attitude of Gratitude in an “Its All About Me Age”. Beverly over at About.com’s Homeschooling has some links to Advent calendars! Jamerrill Stewart presents Have Yourself a Merry Thrift Store Christmas {FREE Quick eBook} posted at Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling | Living the Life of Faith, saying, “Free frugal Christmas eBook for single income families, “Have Yourself a Merry Thrift Store Christmas.””

Have a cookie and settle in on the couch for a nice chat. Tea Time with Annie Kate asks, “What if You Could Do Anything for a Week?” And in a similar vein No Fighting, No Biting claims that her Life is a Giant Jigsaw Puzzle! Christyn Raymond presents How To Keep Mom From Running Away From Home posted at Striving For Simple, saying, “Suggestions to other family members (with humor) on how to support Mom in the household” These women sound like my kindred spirits!!

Over at the kitchen table they are talking about the theory and logistics of homeschooling. Olive Plants All Around My Table conducted a little interview with her kids about their new educational approach. Home School VS Public School asks which is safer? They came to the same conclusion I did;). Why Homeschool has an eye opening piece called NaNoWriMo and the Value of Quantity! Michelle presents The Face of Homeschooling posted at Holistic Homeschooler.

Over at the desk the kids are actually doing a little homeworks! Miss Nirvana presents How I Taught My Preschooler How to Multiply posted at Nirvana Homeschooling, saying, “Simple way to teach multiplication using a “bucket” system” Tiger’s Mum presents Medieval India posted at The Tiger Chronicle. Pamela Jorrick presents Hands On Chaos posted at Blah, Blah, Blog.  Kelly @ The Homeschool Co-op presents A Box of Goodies: Loving & Learning from our Nature Exchange posted at The Homeschool Co-op. Fred Lee presents 5 Activities for a Harry Potter-Themed Party posted at Parenting Squad.

That brings us to the close of this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling! Thank you so much for coming and visiting! Please make sure that you visit all the awesome contributors and comment!!! Also consider submitting 1 of your pieces for next week’s carnival that will be found over on the HSBA Post.

Homeschoooling

Welcome #theonlinemom Gang!

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I was blessed to get to guest on #theonlinemom twitter party tonight! So if you are here from that welcome!

I just wanted to post some links that I spoke about during the chat!

Frugal Homeschooler is a wealth of resources and lives over on NerdFamily Things! I have a variety of groupings for lessons on things like fractions, grammar, St. Patrick’s Day and even a unit on Peeps!

And here is a collection from here on the NerdFamily Blog!

 

Homeschoooling

Homeschool Omnibus

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We are speeding into fall, when thoughts turn from summer barbecues and turn toward school and football. In the spirit of fall I have put together a list of my homeschool posts that look at why and how to homeschool! Happy reading and please comment;)? In addition if you have a question that isn’t answered here please let me know! Then I can either answer it or find someone who can!!!!

(This is a repost from September 2010)

carnivals, Homeschoooling

Carnival of Homeschooling: Welcome to My Homeschool

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Hey, it is Carnival of Homeschooling time here at the NerdFamily House! I hope that you all had an awesome 4th with friends, fireworks and food! By the way, Team Gray wanted me to tell you Happy Fourth! Come on in and make yourself at home!

If they want the kids can stay here in the play room. Mine love spending time building and playing some of the summer away! There is even a  couch so they can read! Hope is the Word has Chapter Books for the Youngest Listeners. 1 name: Cynthia Rylant! Golden Grasses is talking Bardology.

Check out our little garden! It is amazing how much schooling and learning happens outside our homes, isn’t it? Teaching Mommy has Summer Learning-Pea Harvest 2011. I have 1 green bean on my bush, I hope I get enough to harvest! No Fighting, No Biting tells us how Maine is Certainly Wild. Blah, Blah Blog tells us all about Dinosaurs and Crazy Ladies at Lake Powell.

Can I offer you a cookie or something else? We can join this group on the couches that is just sharing and relaxing. Adventures in MamaLand talks about a magazine subscription in Can’t Beat Em’. Waiting for Charlie talks their Homeschool Speech Therapy. The Legacy of Home talks about Inspiration for Home Life. Poor Bit of Earth Farm have had their Pioneer Delusions Doused. Why Homeschool gives us an update in Summer School part 2. Go give her a little support!

Did you see the group by the book shelves talking shop? Homeschool Mo is talking about Homeschooling Approaches, Philosophies and Styles. Homeschooling Ideas has an interesting piece on Goal-Free Homeschooling. Inside the Child has a piece on Order, Co-ordination, Concentration and Independence. Can you believe that fall is rapidly approaching? Mama Mary is Planning & Preparing for a Strong School Year. Jazzy Mama talks about What Is and Isn’t Reading. Then hop over to Read-Aloud Dad and he will tell you the #1 Way to Excite Children About Reading!

Some of the kids are doing projects over on the kitchen table. Our Journey in Him has 3 Simple Science Experiments to inspire us. Harvest Moon by Land has You are on the Map-Smart Summer Challenge Week 1. I wish we were doing some of those awesome projects!

Wow, is it time for you go already? Well thanks for dropping in for this fun carnival! I want to thank all the contributors for sharing their knowledge and insights, make sure you go comment on all their wonderful pieces.

Make sure that you join the fun and contribute to next week’s carnival! Next week we will be hosted over at A Life Supreme so make sure you check it out!

Have a blessed day!

headlines, Homeschoooling

You Win, I Can’t Educate My Kids

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I mean I must not be qualified to educate my kids. I mean I would never think to have a classroom of kids circle around 1 and oink at him or call him a pig. I mean she has 38 years of training and experience as a professional teacher. And she must know best right? I mean could there be any other way to deal with a messy child? I am sure that it is such a social offense that we should contemplate an all inclusive banishment.

Oh, you might ask what was the kick back to treating a child like that? Well, she got a 1 day suspension and a letter in file. I say that the school should circle around her and tell her that she sucks!

(HT: Instapundit)

child rearing, Homeschoooling

When Math is More Than Math

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Math! While I love math (seriously, love math) and my kids do too, there are still those moments in which my kids want to cry;). But even within such conflict great revelations can be found!

My oldest child has already learned long division but as we all know, that is a talent that can use a lot of practice to perfect. So one of NerdBug’s math assignments recently had long division on it. I corrected his work and he went back to correct them. Then he brings them back and I correct those he previously got wrong.

Well, there was one problem he hadn’t even touched. So I told him to do it. So he erased the problem and rewrote the exactly same thing. The problem was instead of dividing the big number  in pieces (486 divided by 15), ie dividing the 48 by 15 he was just guessing what the whole number was. Then just subtracting 486 from the whole so he didn’t have a remainder. So I told him to take it step by step and sent him away.

I told him to first write what 3 time 15 was and subtract. He would say yes and then just erase his previous work and write the exact same guess. 7 times…. Finally he did as told and guess what? His answer had been wrong.

So why is this note worthy? I have been teaching my kids math for many years, this exchange can’t be all that special. Right? Well, it revealed a huge rebellion in his heart. It revealed a rebellion that cropped up a lot in the next couple of weeks (I will let you know if we ever dispatch it;). It boiled down to the fact he was sure that he was right and did not need to give what I said any heed. The Bible says that a fool does what is right in his own mind but a wise man seeks counsel. And it is my job to (try) rid my son of this foolishness.

This whole situation is something that I consider a homeschool win! After all that conflict why would I? Well, I received the opportunity to guide my child’s heart in a way that I would have never could have if he had been in school. I would rather deal with with a child who reveals rebellion through math than the rebellion going unchecked and revealing itself in a much more dangerous and damaging way.

education, Homeschoooling, politics

Time and Influence

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So I am reading the new biography of Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, and they were talking about the influence the children’s 2 Christian nannies had. They were talking about the importance of the nannies’ faith to Bonhoeffer’s mom and how they helped to form the children’s faith.

I started thinking about how important it is to really contemplate who you bring in to influence your kids for 8 hours a day (like sitters or nannies) or even how much we ponder whose homes we will allow our children to visit.  Of course that led me to thinking about school. We examine and re-examine who we bring into our homes but many are completely  complacent to allow the school to chose who will be influencing their kids in the schools. Now I have heard from many people how they have good, Christian teachers this year but not last, or may be next year it may not be good.

Would you employ a nanny agency that would maybe let you choose your first nanny but every so often was going to change nannies and you wouldn’t get a say? Of course not! You want control over someone who will be such an integral part of you child’s life. Why don’t people have the same outrage about the schools being run that way?

Is it because the government has told you that you don’t have the right to? And what do you think about that?

Homeschoooling

Evaluation

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I was chatting with someone at the doctor’s office a few weeks ago so of course the subject of kids came up. She said how many kids she had and I said about mine. Then she asked where my kids go to school. I simply replied, “They are homeschooled. Where do your kids go?” like it was a totally normal school and lets move on. So she told me where her kids went and came right back to the homeschooling;).

I got the “Wow, you homeschool? That is great. I mean I couldn’t do it, but its great.” which I always find mildly annoying. I mean, I didn’t ask you opinion but stated a fact. But overall it isn’t a big deal and I do like talking about homeschooling to the uninformed;). So she asked all her questions about how much school they do and if I am qualified to teach them. Then she asked about their testing.

Now I don’t really test my kids. I may drill them every once in a while but there really isn’t any testing or grading going on. I know some homeschoolers do but at this point I don’t really feel the need. I correct their homework and make them fix their mistakes. We dialog about books, history and science concepts. Over all I feel that I have a firm grasp on where they are at, their strengths and their shortfalls.

So as I explain to the nice lady, she of course has questions. “So how will they ever learn to perform on the spot when they have to be tested?” And it hit me! My kids do get quizzed and tested. By who? All those well meaning people out there who like to quiz them for me;). You know who you are. The person who asks me if my kids are learning math, then thinks it is cute to turns to the kids and starts doing math drills with them. The well meaning at church who decides it is their job to quiz them on what ever they are studying. Or the random person who starts pointing to words for the kids to read right after I say my 5 year old is reading. Because obviously I am unclear as to what the word reading meant.

So thank you people, both strangers and friends. I now realize that my kids are being quizzed, tested, graded and evaluated constantly. Just not by me. But no fear! They are passing with flying colors;)!