April 2nd Carnival: Parenting

Welcome to this 379th edition of 

Carnival of Homeschooling!

If you are like me, you look forward to this carnival because so many different homeschooling parents get together and share their wisdom, their activities, their queries, their homeschool world, and their passions with us! It is like a big, wonderful coffee klatch! We get to be the lucky recipients of all of that goodness all in one location! I am delighted to present this week's carnival to you.

Many THANKS to the Cate Family for creating this carnival.

So, please Friends, grab your coffee, tea, or favorite beverage and settle in for some good reading and good fun.

I think of homeschooling as an extension of, as a part of, parenting. I don't even know how to separate the two! So I find, on my blog, that many of my posts are more parenting than homeschooling at times, and more homeschool than parenting at others! This week I am happy to present some wonderful blog offerings to you.

Check them and and PLEASE remember to leave a comment or two 

when you read a blog post.  

Bloggers love your feedback in terms of questions, comments, commiserations, 
confession, acclimation, compliment or salutation!

If you like what you read, please share the goodness on your blog, 

on Facebook, in your homeschool group, and with friends!

 

• Our first post is from Mindy at DenSchool, a homeschooling mom of eight wonderful children. Her post offering for this carnival is a magical piece entitled Find a Rainbow Day. Check out the idea of CLIP (Creative Learning in a Pinch) on this blog...what an inspirational idea - I LOVE it! The blog also has a lovely feature called "Homeschooling Site of the Week" and one called "Homeschooler of the Month", both unique ideas that I might just borrow! 

• I've got a treat for you!  We're going to pop over to visit Brandi, homeschooling mom of two extraordinary children, and visit her blog Adventures of a Homeschooling Mom. She wrote us a new post for this carnival entitled Don't Forget the Fun. As parents, we sometimes forget to sit at the table and play games with our kids. This post might just get you out there looking for some activities for your family! Our family, in fact, loves playing games, even so far as to have a regular Family Game Night! Brandi, thank you so much for the post!

• Next let's visit Christine at The Thinking Mother Blogspot. This Texan homeschool mom of two focuses a great deal of reading and a love and appreciation of books. Her post Seeing It in Writing shares her story about having her son tested by a professional for his learning abilities. This post is about a very emotional time for Christine and her family; every mother can appreciate. Thanks for sharing, Christine. You are amazing.

• Let's drop on over at Fill Your Bookshelves with Natalie, a bibliophile of the highest order! This homeschool mom is using the platform of her blog as a way to encourage and educate readers. Be informed and read some great literature! Six Mile park - The Real One is a post highlighting another of Natalie's true passions:  being out in nature. In her mind, a major value to pass along and support is that it is important that people get out and experience nature, which lets them learn about the limits of their body and the importance of the natural world. Thank you, Natalie, for this post and for your sharing your passions!

• Sarah over at Small World at Home is a homeschooling mom of three living in the shadow of the Great Smokey Mountains. Sarah has a gorgeous family-centered blog with colorful design and many homeschool-focused posts. Her submission for this carnival is entitled April is National Poetry Month. If your family enjoys poetry units as much as ours does, you will love the links on Sarah's post. And may I also recommend Classic Poetry Aloud....com! Thanks Sarah for passing your love of poetry along to us!

• It's always nice to visit Liz E. at Homeschooling in Buffalo blog. Liz and her husband Tom homeschool two children. It looks like they had a wonderful homeschooling moment, as evidenced by her carnival post Making Our Own Soap. 
  * Let me put in an aside here, my kids put the kibosh on us doing this activity even though I begged...darn. *  
  While you are on this blog site, make sure to also read her post entitled Where Raising Independent Kids Meets Modern Mothering Guilt. (or is it just me who can relate to this one?)   

• Let's pop over and visit Phyllis at Proclaiming God's Faithfulness blog where she is talking about the effects of journaling on one's life, and how she is encouraging her own kids to include it in their homeschool day. Phyllis's post Do I Really Feel Like That? extolls her love of journaling! I hope you drop over to this beautiful blog and read a bit...get your daily dose of inspiration! Thank you, Phyllis, I can't thank you enough!

• Let's surf on to the next blog, Trivium Pursuit, a communal blog, and see what Laurie has shared with us. As parents we spent a good deal of time interacting and teaching and modeling for our children. In her post A Communication Time Bomb Laurie reminds us to keep the exchange of ideas clear and fair and free of drama. Who can't relate to that?! This blog spot seems to be a place where like-minded bloggers share ideas...just like this carnival! I'm glad to have Laurie's post in this carnival!

• Chris from Homeschoolvspublicschool blog took on that parental mine field How Do You Inspire Your Children to Learn? in his post of the same name. Checkk out this fledgling blog and remember to leave some encouraging comments for this homeschooling parent!
  Welcome to the carnival, Chris!

• Kristy K, homeschool mom with a focus on social justice and environmental issues felt moved to remind us to have perspective with teaching history to our children.  In her blog Another Step to Take she offers the post entitled Homeschooling History where she asks the questions:  How can we avoid making history simply a celebration of empires? How do we keep from seeing ourselves as the pinnacle of history?  Her blog has other provocative-sounding posts including Is There Such a Thing as Neutral Education System? and Non-Standard Units of Measure in Children's Books.  I look forward to reading more by Kristy.

• Lana, a homeschool graduate of a dozen years, who loves to write, connect deeply, read philosophy, and take adventures around the world keeps a blog called Wide Open Ground. Her blog is a font of information for homeschooling parents who want to get to know a homeschool alum; she speaks honestly and from the heart. Check out her blog post entitled Homeschooling and Signing Your Kids Up To be Different - For Life. Lana will not stroke or comfort the egos of homeschooling parents. Be prepared to THINK and to rethink "socialization" with your kids. Thank you, Lana, for this invaluable submission.

• Here on my blog Homeschool Atheist Momma I recently wrote an article called Are Homeschoolers Weird? that is getting a good deal of online traffic.  This blog post gives an honest look at some honest and brave homeschool alums who reply to this weirdness accusation: Yes, Yes we are!  You may also enjoy these posts:

• My Essential Homeschooling Strategies
• Top Ten Habits of a Happy Homeschooler
• Great Reads for Teens and Tweens:  For the Love of a Good Book
• How do I Homeschool? or
• Homeschooling and Socialization 

 

I have included clip art that I have created especially for this carnival.
You are welcome to use these freely.

Thank you for visiting the carnival this week. Next week's Carnival of Homeschooling will be hosted at The Common Room by an amazing homeschooling family in the area of the Great Lakes.
Your submissions for that carnival will be due by Monday, April 8th, 2013 unless otherwise noted on that blog. If you wish to submit your blog post with a homeschool focus for the next carnival, follow these instructions:

Submissions are due to: CarnivalOfHomeschooling@gmail.com by 6:00 PM (PST) on the Monday evening of the week. 

It is greatly appreciated when the submissions come in earlier. 

Please send the following information:

Title of Post
URL of Post
Name of Blog
URL of Blog
Brief summary of the post
Brief introduction of yourself
(With "carnival" or "submission" in the subject field of the email.)

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This Carnival has had something of an early publish because our family

 is heading out for a few days of vacation.
If you send a submission for this carnival after Monday Night, Australia Time,
 and it doesn't appear in this carnival,
Please submit it to next week's carnival.
I published early!