Not Another Homeschool Blog

While she has gone through all the motions of applying to colleges with great results, she has yet to show any real passion about going to college. She only wants to go...  one might say, to get away from parental micromanagement.  (Trying to not take it personally.) In an effort to help her find a college that would put a smile on her face, I started talking about colleges in NY.  That makes her really happy, but once again, since she is so young, it has been agreed that NY isn't going to happen right away.  Then came the magical words.   Grad School.

I have been raising kids for 18 years.  I have been homeschooling for 10.  It is almost over because my youngest is finishing early with college acceptance letters in hand.  Time for the happy-dance, right?  Wrong. People, other homeschoolers, and also some family members are trying to get me to reconsider LETTING my child go to college at 17 (summer birthday).  Apparently they don't know her like they think they do.  Just like myself, no one LETS her do anything.  She bulldozes through life, leaving accomplishments and her wake and woe to anyone who tries to stop her.  I certainly know better.  So

Photo generously provided by another parent My daughter (and some years my son too), has been in chorus for 6 years.  Last night was my daughter's last Christmas concert  performance as a high school student.  The concert was amazing.  I hope to be able to follow up with this some video... which I myself did not take, but several other parents did. They started out with sacred music, much of which was performed last month at competition, and as they evening progressed, the music got more jolly, and ended on a positively hilarious note.  And after all was said and done, a few kids got back on the stage and performed "fruitcake", a song they had done in previous years but was not on their program this year. Here's a list of some of the songs, just to give you an idea of the depth and breadth of the concert: Bethlehem Procession Thanks Giving Prayer Silver Swan Gloria Swing Down Sweet Chariot Dance at the Manger Tollite Hostias Feliz Navidad All I...

Whenever I host a Carnival of Homeschooling, I read the posts as they come in and try to see how they may tie in together- to see if a theme may emerge.  This time I found less similarities than in previous issues.  To me, this shows how homeschooling has evolved since I began 10 long years ago. Back then, every homeschooler I met was an Evangelical Christian, and homeschooling mostly for religious reasons.  This made me stand out because while I am Christian, I wouldn't call myself Evangelical, and I was homeschooling out of what I felt was necessity.   Personally, I find comfort in the diversity that has evolved in the homeschooling community, and would like to celebrate in this edition of The Carnival of Homeschooling.   Peeking in:   If you were to peek into the houses of several homeschoolers, you would find some busy at school.  You would find others laid back.  Others still would seem to be in a state of complete Chaos. The followin...

I am hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling this coming week (Tuesday) and would love submissions from my readers and favorite homeschool bloggers. Here are the directions for submitting a post: http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2005/12/where-to-send-your-submission-for-next.html Or send your submission by email to CarnivalOfHomeschooling@gmail.com include this information: 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.)

In my last post, Grading subjects that haven't been taught , I touched on integrating language arts into other subjects.  The comment that followed made it clear that I must be more specific. Here is how I would, and in some cases, have integrated language arts into science and social studies, and art, etc, eliminating the need to do a lot of painful language arts exercises. Lower Elementary: Trips to the science museum, zoos, and science experiment workshops are always preceding by reading about the subject matter and the scientists or historical figures involved.  Their interests were most piqued in anticipation of the outing, and so they payed attention, and they were always ready to discuss the subject matter during the outing.  There was one circumstance when we went to an art museum, for

I can't tell you how many times I have heard people ask, "how do you decide their grades?"  "How do we know you are even teaching the subjects you say you are teaching?"  That's a really good question, and I suggest people start directing that to the brick and mortar schools and away from homeschoolers. It is actually a fact  that there are teachers giving less and less science instruction, and just filling in the blank or report cards.  Yes, grading a subject they never taught.  It's a shame really.  It's clear that there is little time to teach science due to all the testing and preparing for tests that are going on.  But with a