Making Theater Costumes

 If I could ride a bike I would say that learning to use the sewing machine again was as easy as riding a bike.  I guess I could say it was easier.

In a weeks time, we have made a Western Costume, for Annie Get Your Gun as well as a skirt for her Can-can costume, and altered a ball gown.  My daughter is circle-skirt queen, so I am just sewing on the ruffles which she finds tedious and doing the waistbands.

I also had to alter an outfit to make it more Disco for a different performance.


 As my daughter wants to study Theater and costuming in college, and I really enjoyed sewing this week, I am seriously considering making and selling costumes on Ebay, especially with the web-content business being shaky right now.  (Google changed algorithms and my pay per-read article income got cut.

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Carnival of Homeschooling: Thanks for the Inspiration

Welcome to the March 1, 2011 edition of carnival of homeschooling.


I am happy to be hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling once again.  As a homeschooler of 8+ years, I find the Carnival as my best source of inspiration and education when it comes to homeschooling.  From new Ideas to encouragement, you fellow homeschoolers truly inspire me.  I am entitling this Carnival, Thanks for the Inspiration for that reason.  I am truly appreciative.

Here is this week's Carnival: 


Teaching and Learning:

Katherine presents storytime hits posted at No Fighting, No Biting!, saying, "Big kids enjoy (and learn from) storytime as much as preschoolers."



Elena LaVictoire presents The necessities of kindergarten posted at My Domestic Church.

nak presents Economics for Nine-Year-Olds : The Mississipi Bubble posted at Sage Parnassus.


Carol J. Alexander presents Homesteading Homeschoolers--Meet the Beachy's posted at Everything Home...with Carol.

Nadine presents Partnered Reading~ moments I treasure at Practical pages

Team work:


Jennifer in OR presents A Peek into a Homeschool Co-op posted at Diary of 1.

Linda Dobson presents Five More Ways the Learning Coach Approach Is Different from Traditional Teaching posted at PARENT AT THE HELM, saying.

Projects:


Jennifer presents Completion posted at a glimpse of our life.


Miss Nirvana presents Watch Our Bean Plant Grow Up Close posted at Nirvana Homeschooling, saying, "Fun project to get us ready for Spring. Include microscope images."

Ina presents ROMAN MOSAICS AND OUR DAY at Ina's 5 & Our Native Homeschool blog, saying  "It was an intellectual day. From the discussion of poetry (pop music), to social issues to Roman mosaics"

Miss Nirvana presents Watch Our Bean Plant Grow Up Close posted at Nirvana Homeschooling.

Brandy Ferrell presents Studying South Korea posted at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood, saying, "Involving Daddy in homeschooling, even when he's across the world!"

Encouragement:

Dan presents Letter From a Concerned Mother posted at Opting Out.

Mrs. White presents The Legacy of Home: Going to Meeting posted at The Legacy of Home.

Renae presents Thankful Monday Morning posted at Life Nurturing Education.

Barbara Frank presents Self-Control Has Long-Lasting Benefits at Barbara Frank Online, saying Recent studies show more benefits of self-control...and the best place children can develop self-control is in the home.


Nadene presents Partnered Reading ~ moments I treasure « Practical Pages posted at PracticalPages, saying, "Partnered reading - special homeschooling moments I treasure!"

e-Mom presents Mary Mohler in the Spotlight posted at C h r y s a l i s ღ, saying, "Five Quotes from Mary Mohler's article "Motherhood Matters.""

Carletta  presents Mom's Dirty Little Secret 2 Bad Kids at Successful Homeschooling Blog. 

Homeschooling and Money:

Money Crashers Blog presents 7 Costs of Homeschooling - Homeschool Curriculum, Programs & Books posted at Money Crashers, saying, "Here are 7 expenses you should keep in mind if you are considering homeschooling your child."

The blogger who wrote the last post is planning to homeschool in the future.  It is only fitting that that post is followed by a veteran homeschooler with a slightly different viewpoint.

Cristina Payne presents Home Spun comic strip #585 posted at Home Spun Juggling, saying, "Comic and article where I ponder, "Can we afford to homeschool?""

Personally, It is the post homeschool years that have me quaking in my boots:  Andrea Hermitt presents Changes to the HOPE Scholarship at Notes from a Homeschooling Mom, adding... here's more on this subject: HOPE Scholarhip, Budget Cuts, and Homeschoolers.


Resources:

Amber Morris presents Time Management posted at The Mommy Earth.

Robin Phillips presents Home School Astronomy and NASA: A Fresh Serving Every Day posted at Crack the Egg.

Henry Cate presents Do you live near Santa Ana, California?  At Why Homeschool



Things to Think About:


Arby presents Pinky, We're Going to Take Over the World! posted at The Homeschool Apologist.


ChristineMM presents To Ponder: Race to Nowhere Post Screening Discussion posted at The Thinking Mother, saying, "ChristineMM of The Thinking Mother shares videos of discussions after a screening of the documentary Race to Nowhere and shares her thoughts about education."


Jamie Gaddy presents TOP SECRET ISSUE...RE: Creative Writing - Blogs - Parent Community and Forum posted at Homeschool Online, saying, "Need an interesting way to get your children writing creatively? Take a peek to find my favorite idea!"

Thanks Again!

--Enjoy this free Kindle Ebook on your Kindle, Iphone, or Laptop


That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of homeschooling using our carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Changes to the HOPE Scholarship

 I wrote this article on the proposed changes to the HOPE scholarship here in GA.

Governor's Proposals Would Dim HOPE Scholarships

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal's proposed changes to the HOPE scholarship would significantly alter the pledge that Georgia made to students back in 1992. 

Read more

 Basically, the HOPE scholarship is taking a 10% cut plus fees will no longer be paid.  This may cost the average student $1500 a year. If students are superior with a 3.5 GPA and 1200 SAT, they get the full ride, minus fees.

But what about homeschoolers?

As of right now, homeschoolers need a 85th percentile score to get HOPE as a Freshman.  They can get it retroactively if they maintain a B average. 

So, why do homeschoolers need a higher SAT/ACT score than the Top public school students who will get a full ride.  And, if they do get that higher score, do they get the full HOPE or HOPE lite.  And if there are two tiers now, do they set a higher tier for homeschoolers to get a full ride, or do they set a lower threshold for them to get the 90% grant?

Has anyone heard?  I'm very curious.

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Tapping Into Their Genius

From the time  I began homeschooling, I always worked from the premise that my kids were gifted... that they had genius potential.

Hearing a mom say that surely has many rolling their eyes, but I have always felt that every child was gifted at .. something.  It is up to the parent and educators to help them find what that area of giftedness is and to bring it out.

Over the years I have become frustrated with people who told me that my child wasn't ready for this or that based on their age or based on what other kids were doing.  It seemed strange to me that I was homeschooling and that people still expected me to follow the crowd.  It has been hard fighting a tide of when a child is supposed to do what and when, but as the parent and educator is has been my goal to and my responsibility to advocate for my children and to get them the resources they needed.

I wish I had met these people (The Staffords) a few years ago and known that they had a program to help parents accelerate their kids.  (I was aware of them, but not the program Mrs. Stafford is running.)

My kids are almost done homeschooling, but I will glean what I can.  Meanwhile, I feel this is important information for all of you homeschoolers with younger kids.





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We need a one-room schoolhouse mentality

 In speaking to a homeschooling mom whose 18 year old homeschooler could really use one more year to be ready for college, but because of his age and the fact that he has done 4+ years at highschool level, he is determined to graduate and head to college, it dawned on my that we need a one-room school house mentality.

If you ever read Little House on the Prairie, you might remember that grade levels were not so cut and dry.  The child finished school when they had completed the required work.  It was not unusual to graduate young.  It was not unusual to graduate at an older age.

You'd think that as homeschoolers, we'd have a little more flexibility where grade levels were concerned, but ...not so much if the goal is college.  It is not possible to put a six year span on a transcript and call it high school.  The goal college would call that a less-than-rigorous program and put them out of the running for competitive colleges.

To counter this problem, we can do this for younger grades up to grade 8.  We can set a bar of where we want the child to be before they start high school level.  For instance, they may need to be through Algebra in math, and their reading and writing would have to be at a certain level, as well as geography and basic science knowledge.  Once they have reached those guidelines, the child is ready for a high school curriculum, which you can do in the traditional 4 years.  If they are above average advanced, they can dual enroll in their senior year or use CLEP exams to accelerate their education.


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Am I homeschooling or am I working

My daughter wants to learn to sew correctly.  She technically knows how to sew and use the sewing machine but she skips steps and makes mistakes.  As usual, I surfed the internet for instructional videos for her to watch, but it dawned on me that she can't be the only homeschooler looking to learn these things... so I put it all in a Squidoo page (a site where you earn commission from people viewing and buying things from your page.

I can't tell you how many tutorials I have done for her, then turned around and did my website work separately.  Why did it take me so long to figure out that I could homeschool at work at the same time. 

Well, I guess I have a whole lot of material to get uploaded to websites... and from now on, as I create a program for her, I will be sharing it.



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HOPE Scholarhip, Budget Cuts, and Homeschoolers

With serious budget cuts on the horizon, there are a lot of grumblings about how the HOPE Scholarship should be cut.

It seems that most Georgians want to return the scholarship to it's original intent and draw a top income line cutting off upper income families... (they seem to forget there was also a lower income cut off too as you could not get PELL and HOPE at one time.)  As a homeschooler,  whose children have different and more stringent set of rules of earning the HOPE scholarship, my family would just miss that upper cut off amount and my kids would not get the scholarship if this happens.  But I am not fretting over it because I am not counting on it anyway, because homeschoolers have to be beyond exceptional to get the scholarship first year anyway.  Beyond that first year, my kids could get HOPE if they don't place the income restrictions, unless they use the sliding scale (also suggested), in which case my kids would probably get 80%.  But regardless, come hell or high water, as my mother used to say, if my kids want to stay in college, they will figure it out... I did. ... Although I might help them more than my parents helped me.

Anywhooo...  my point is this.  If homeschoolers need to score in the 85th percentile (SAT approx 1800, ACT 26)  to qualify for the HOPE scholarship first year, why are public school kids getting the scholarships with "B" averages only? And then, if they get the "B" average, why do they need remedial math and writing classes.  HMMMM...  Homeschoolers have to jump through these extra hoops because there is a fear that homeschooling moms will inflate grades.  Meanwhile there is no doubt that schools are inflating grades.

Fair is Fair.

In all fairness, I propose that anyone who can get into the 75th percentile on the ACT or SAT (SAT approx 1680,  ACT 24)  should be eligible for the HOPE scholarship.  Period. This is less than what is expected of homeschoolers... it is what should be expected of ALL students including homeschoolers.

Ok, but there are arguments that the SAT and maybe even the ACT is culturally biased.  So let's make an exception.  If the student does not fall into the 75th percentile on the ACT or SAT, but is in the top 25 percentile in his class based on GPA then he should also be eligible for the HOPE scholarship.  This exemption would leave homeschoolers out, but we are already used to waiting a year to qualify for the HOPE scholarship, and our kids still seem to manage to pay for that first year of college.

So either 75% or higher on the SAT or ACT OR top 25% in class rank and a student could get the HOPE scholarship.  These simple guidelines would eliminate any extra administration on figuring out who gets the Scholarship, and would still cut out the possibility of student who are not ready for college getting the scholarship based on inflated grades.  But to be fair to those students, if they can get a 3.0 average in their Freshman year, they should also be eligible for the grant.

Just saying...





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