Carnival of Homeschooling, Thank You Edition

None of us would have any success at homeschooling without the help of others. All of us have been inspired, supported, encouraged, counseled, and befriended by a more experienced homeschooler, and if it had not been for them, we would not be here to pass on the torch.  

Let's start with If It Weren't For Them  at Dewey's Treehouse.  In this post, our blogger, Mama Squirrel,  thanks homeschool veterans like Nancy Wallace and Mary Hood, Author of The Relaxed Homeschool, as well as community and family members who helped and inspired them along the way. 

One of the people I would like to personally think is Henry Cate. The Cate's have kept this Carnival of Homeschooling going week in and week out, through holidays, and through easy times and hard. This Carnival has been a major source of inspiration in my life.  


With that said, Henry Cate presents A homeschooler's summer goals at Why Homeschool, in which Henry's daughter shares some of her summer goals.


I was very afraid to homeschool in the beginning. The enormity of the responsibility for being single-handedly responsible for my kids' education was quite paralyzing. Could I do this? Could I take responsibility for their success and or failure, preferably successes?  One book helped me shake off a lot of my fears because it showed me that not only was I capable of homeschooling my kids, but that as African American's I would not be doing so in a bubble.  There were more people out there like us.  Paula Penn-Nabrit wrote Morning by Morning - How We Home-Schooled Our African-American Sons to the Ivy League (03) by Penn-Nabrit, Paula [Hardcover (2003)] That mouthful of a title showed me that it was probably more likely that my kids could reach excellence outside the school systems since it was clear that the chances within the school system was slim.

Meanwhile, Mystie  shared Our 2014-2015 Homeschool Blocks at Simply Convivial

Simply Convivial in which she gives details of their plan for the upcoming school year with an 11yo, 9yo, 6yo, 4yo, & 2yo.  

I have found parents of 4, 5, and 6+ homeschool students to be especially inspiring for me because if they can do it with their large families, then surely I could do it with my two!  So, Thank you Mystie!

Susan R. presents What are "Teachable Moments"? at At Home & School.  She shares that Teachable Moments are about asking questions and listening, not lecturing.

These teachable moments appear to be an updated version of my mother's form of teaching at home.  She was a special ed teacher, and strongly believed in the "look it up" method. We would ask her a question, or just ponder something out loud, and he would point to the wall of Encyclopedia Britannia and World book Encyclopedias and tell us two LOOK IT UP. We would spend hours and hours, first, researching out question, them following the "see also" prompts at the bottom of each item.  We probably learned a lot more than she intended in this manner, but it rubbed off on me, and I knew that my kids could learn a lot more through curiosity than a scope and sequence.  So... This Thanks goes to my mom!

Thanks to the internet, we didn't need a wall full of enclopedias in our living room to keep the kids looking up things, but we did enjoy these two encyclopedias in our homeschool. 



Personally, I,  Andrea H, would like to present Homeschool Flip flopping  at Notes from a Homeschooled Mom.  This is my best homeschool advice-pulled from the archives of my blog.  I hope this post portrays the importance of helping other homeschoolers, but also being honest about instances where we feel the new homeschooler needs some guidance they may to want to hear.

Since we are just getting over the 4th of July week, and participation is low, I am going to add a few homeschool blogs to this Carnival that I am especially thankful for:

The HomeScholar Helper by Lee Binz for showing us how to turn even the most relaxed homeschool experience into a kick-butt transcript that will get kids college scholarships.

Sprittibee by Heather: For her engaging spirit through ups and downs, and also being the first person to show me that being a homeschool mom is just a part of who you are.

The Thinking Mother by Christine MM for admitting that homeschooling isn't easy... especially in the teenage years, but through constant re-evalution and flexibility, you can make it work.

Homeschool and Etc, by Happy Elf Mom, AKA Christine, for showing what it looks like to have some kids homeschooling, and some kids in public school, and to be dealing with autism and other issues on top of it... and still survive... AND THRIVE!

And Paula Penn Nabrit:  After reading her book  mentioned above many years ago, I went to a homeschool convention and met her and the boys that she had recently finished homeschooling.  At that point I knew that homeshcooling would not be something I would try, but something I would commit to until the end. Over the last few years I have also gotten to know her more though an online homeschooling group.  She continues to speak to my heart on a regular basis and shows me that even after you have spent many years giving you all to your kids, that there is still life after homeschooling.



SUBMIT A POST TO THE CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING!
  Here are the directions for submitting a post:

http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2005/12/where-to-send-your-submission-for-next.html

        You normally could submit via Blog Carnival:

http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_199.html

        But Blog Carnival is down again, so please email your submission to:

CarnivalOfHomeschooling@gmail.com

        include this information:

Title of Post
URL of Post
Name of Blog
URL of Blog
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(With "carnival" or "submission" in the subject field of the email.)