Carnival of Home Schooling: Library Week Edition

This is week 212 in the carnival of home schooling. If this was the carnival of home schooling for dogs it would be week 1,484.



Before I get started with the theme of this week, I thought this would be the best time to talk about the big news story going on right now. I certainly don't mean Leno vs. Conan. Laura presents 21 Ways For Your Children To Help Haitian Earthquake Victims posted at Practical Homeschooling.



Twice a year, our family embarks on library week. It is a week where we go to at least 1 library every day during the week. It serves our family as both a break in the academic year and also an opportunity to discover the various amenities and learning opportunities afforded at these libraries. In past years, we have crossed state lines to see how the other book lives. This year we kept it strictly in Illinois. Interspersed amongst the fine articles that I have assembled for you this week, I will tell you of our library travels during our Christmas break.

Our first home school article comes from Jenn who presents More Homeschooling (Plus Bonus Funny Interlude!) posted at Rational Jenn. She says: "As the needs of my kids (ages 7.5, 4.5, and 1.5) change and grow, things are getting harder to juggle in our homeschool! Yikes! "

Speaking of juggling, Cristina presents Home Spun comic strip #435 posted at Home Spun Juggling.

Not all schooling takes place indoors as Becky Johnston informs us in Animal Tracks posted at Wide Open Campus.

The outdoor learning continues, as Amber presents October Nature Walk posted at The Mommy Earth.



Day 1: St. Charles Public Library. I previously blogged about our trip there but for those who missed it is Emma's report of our time there:


Name of Library: St. Charles Library. St. Charles, IL.
Something I liked: I liked all the Animal Ark Books they had.
One thing I didn't like: They didn't have one of my favorite books, Bunnies in the Bathroom.
A book I read while I was there: 2 Minute Mysteries by Donald Sobol author of Encyclopedia Brown.
Dad asked me to ask the Librarian a question. Lucy said she would, so I followed her with my notebook.
Lucy: Knock Knock
Librarian: Who's There?
Lucy: Emma
Librarian: Emma Who?
Lucy: Emma Kayrene (My Middle Name)

Next up, we have Cindy who wanted to get into the nitty gritty world of the planning of her unit studies. This she has done with gusto in Unit Studies Revisited, an informative Q&A, posted at Our Journey Westward.

A good homeschooling book to add to your personal library is The Socialization Trap by Rick Boyer. Click here for my review. I thought of that book when I received a carnival submission from Molly Cook of Southern Spunk. It seems she wrote this piece in response to having had her fill of ignorance outside of the homeschooling circle. She had heard the socialization word one too many times and decided to set some people straight. Well, you go girl! Here she is with, Don't Go Hatin' On The Homeschoolers.

Molly is not the only one out there confronting stereotypes and misinformation. There seems to be a plethora of education "experts" out there essentially making up their own facts and bending those facts to meet their agenda. To that end, last week's host Alasandra presents Robin L. West takes a potshot at homeschooling posted at Alasandra's Homeschool Blog.



Elena LaVictoire weighs in on the Robin L. West issue with The Double Standard of Robin West - Author of The Harms of Homeschooling posted at My Domestic Church.

Day 2. Our library Journey continued to Lake Zurich, Illinois where we visited the Ela Public Library. Emma and Lucy had a play date with some girls from our church. Things we liked: We could use our library cards there and what we checked out would show up at our regular libraries website. They also had a cool super hero section that Charlie enjoyed.


Sebastian from Percival Blakeney Academy has submitted Egyptian Art Projects for Kids. It is an insightful post rounding up links on ancient Egypt.



Sandra Foyt presents A response to the New York homeschooler arrest case, describing our typical homeschool day, and arguing that there is no such thing as "no-schooling." in Homeschooling, Unschooling, But Not "No-Schooling" posted at On Living by Learning.


e-Mom presents Family Life: Top 100 Books for Kids posted at C h r y s a l i s. This is an excellent list. A great place to get a hold of those books would be your local library.


And speaking of libraries that brings us to day 3.




That's a picture of Charlie and me at the entrance of the Oak Park library. Oak park is a lovely Chicago suburb that actually feels more like downtown than a suburb. No offense to my friend Patti who grew up there, and has fond memories of the previous library building, this one has all the warmth of a bus depot. A children's section that is on tile rather than rugs did not add to that impression. They did have a very good selection of books to choose from. I also taught Charlie how to use a microfilm reader, which he was extremely keen on.

When I visit libraries I spend a lot of time with a kid and a book in my lap. Lapbooking is the subject of our next post, as Lynn presents Lapbooking Ideas posted at Eclectic Education - Homeschool Blogger.


Here is a quick family science experiment submitted by The Family which I give two big thumbs up. It is aptly titled Genetic traits of the thumb and posted at Once Upon a Family.


Michelle Dennis Evans presents an excellent work titled Freedom and Kids posted at Michelle D Evans.

One thing I have noticed about libraries, is that they often have good craft ideas especially around holidays. Libraries aren't the only ones with good holiday ideas. Here are some valentines day articles worth looking at . . .


Shannon Dodds demonstrates with Valentine Craft (sun catcher) posted at Mommyapolis.




HappyCampers presents Valentine's Day Homeschool Ideas posted at Reese's View Of The World.

Day 4





Johnsburg is a small town in Mchenry County in Illinois. It has a population of less than 7,000 people. Yet it boasts one of the finest libraries I have ever been to. For homeschoolers it is a special library. It houses a homeschool resource center with shelves of curriculum and other materials available for checkout. Homeschoolers can check out material for 6 weeks at a time and renew for an additional 6 weeks as long as there are no holds on the material. I am test driving an Abeka spelling book I checked out from there with Emma.

Since socialization gets brought into the home school discussion so often, I have decided to bring it into this week's carnival again. Janine Cate wrote a very insightful article on socialization based on a recent conversation she had. She says it comes down to what socialization means to you. I proudly present It depends on what you value posted at Why Homeschool.




Kathy says Read my review of the first Camp Club Girls book, a fun new book series for your tween girls. You can find Camp Club Girls and the Mystery at Discovery Lake posted at Homeschoolbuzz.com Reviews.



Misty shares a couple of tricks to make multiplying by 9 more fun. Check out (Library Pun Intended) Fun Multiplication Tips and Tricks – 9’s posted at Homeschool Bytes.

Katherine from No Fighting No Biting went out on the first non-frigid Saturday in a long time and took her big kids to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. She says the inspiration was worth the long lines. Read all about it in National Archives.


You know what else has archives? That's right, libraries. Let's get this fun over with and move on to day 5. Amy read on-line that Downers Grove library was having a game day so we decided to end our library week there. There were tunnels and little rooms for the kids to explore. Lucy played on a children's computer while Amy and the kids played games. Their favorite was a dice game called Shut the Box. We liked it so much we ordered one from amazon.


Speaking of Downers, very few downers are more depressing than thinking about the many terrorist acts that have been in the news lately. ChristineMM shares ideas about how to talk to young children and tweens who ask about news stories about terrorist attacks against American civilians. Take a peek at Thoughts about Parenting Kids in Times of Terrorism posted at The Thinking Mother.


We check out all manners of things out from our library. The main 2 staples are books and DVD's. With that in mind, Rachel Lynette presents Comparing the Book to the Movie posted at Minds in Bloom.



Linda Dobson revisits The Animal School saying it's a wonderful classic. It's posted at PARENT AT THE HELM.

Lynn presents 10 Ways Save Money on Homeschooling posted at Lynn's Gather Page. I just want to say that 3 of the 10 ways include using the library. Way to stay on theme Lynn!

Well we did it! We got through library week. 5 days, 5 libraries in 5 different counties. There were several things we did during library week that didn't involve going to the library. I'm sure we ate, shopped, I think we might even have bowled once. I didn't really go into detail about them here because I was focusing on the library part of library week.

In the same way, I received many submissions this week that had nothing to do with homeschooling. Some were fine articles, but I just didn't think they fit here, so I left them out. One exception to that was a fine article from Leah, The Danger of Parenting Books posted at Ingathered. It really described a perspective to parenting that I think is similar to my home school tale on it.

Next week's carnival is being hosted at Corn and Oil. Susan has a post this week entitled Don't burden the innocent. She says The public schools seem to be making attempts in several states to close in on homeschoolers by using truancy as their weapon of choice

Announcement: The library week carnival of homeschooling is closing in 5 lines. Please select from the articles above and then go on with your homeschooling Day. You can submit a post by clicking here.

Next Time: Looking forward to our trip to Washington DC.

Book Review Blog Carnival - 35th Edition

This is my first shot at hosting the Book Review Blog Carnival. My special thanks to Clark Bjorke, who runs this fortnightly literary lovefest like a well oiled machine, for giving me a chance to drive the zamboni. I'll try to do him proud.

A quick explanation of format before we commence with the reviews. I have divided each review into 4 components. 1) Title, Author, Reviewer and blog information. 2) A picture of the book being reviewed. 3) The reviewer says, which is a place where I include the remarks the reviewer included with his submission. Not every reviewer included comments. 4) Review Nuggets where I have included a quote from each book review. Also, there were a few literary based submissions that were not exactly book reviews. I include these at the end of my post in a section I call, beyond reviews.

BIOGRAPHY

Hold the Roses by Rose Marie reviewed by Rick Sincere at Book Reviews by Rick Sincere

Rick Says: My project for 2010 is to archive all of the book reviews I have written over the past 30 years on a single blog site. This review -- of Rose Marie's memoir -- is a sample I unearthed from 2003, previously published in The Metro Herald.

Review Nugget: Hold the Roses—a chatty memoir by radio, TV, Broadway, and nightclub star Rose Marie—is fascinating but flawed.


Clark Bjorke presents American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia by Joan Biskupic posted at I'll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book!

Review Nugget: Outspoken and opinionated, Scalia has not hesitated to "tell people what they don't want to hear." This biography focuses on his most colorful, written opinions and public remarks, of which there are plenty.

NOVEL

KerrieS reviews BLOOD BORN by Kathryn Fox posted at MYSTERIES in PARADISE.

Kerrie says: Australian crime fiction author who is up there with the best. Forensic physician Anya Crichton risks her own life in her search for justice.


Review Nugget: There is no doubt that this is a novel that can hold its own in the world market of this genre.

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood reviewed by Clark Bjorke at I'll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book!

Clark says: The second in a two book trilogy, The Year of the Flood explores the consequences of climate change, genetic engineering, religious cults and corporate irresponsibility in a future nobody could love.

Review Nugget: Atwood has extrapolated on climate change, genetic engineering, privatization of government functions and corporate irresponsibility and immunity, all trends we can see today, to create the distopian future of The Year of the Flood.







Nicole presents The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova posted at Linus's Blanket.

Review Nugget: Kostova’s writing is a reader’s dream. The rich language is descriptive of characters and setting, and I was seamlessly folded into Andrew Marlowe’s quiet life as a psychiatrist and dilettante artist, which is suddenly disturbed by the curiously urgent need to delve so deeply into treating this particular patient.

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Diana Hall reviews Marked by Steve Ross at damascusmoments.

Review Nugget: Fast-paced, terrifying… this graphic re-imagination of the gospel of Mark in a contemporary fictional setting is clever and deep.

NON-FICTION

After The Stroke: My Journey Back to Life by Mark McEwen reviewed by Sparky Bates at Accidental Reads

Review Nugget: Although I have had some personal exposure to friends and family who have experienced relatively minor strokes, reading this book made me acutely aware of how little I really knew.










June Tree presents A Parent's Guide to Wills & Trusts by Don Silver posted at The Digerati Life.

Review Nugget: This book will help you make sense out of what you may feel is a complicated subject. The six page glossary in the back of the book is probably worth the cover price of the book alone, with some of the more complicated terms described in easy-to-understand language.






Viviana Widjaja reviews Learning Early by Dorothy Eidon posted at Resources for Moms and Kids

Review Nugget: This is the parenting book that will give you a complete guide about your child’s learning during the first 5 years, from newborn to preschooler.







Adam presents Interview: Jane White, author of “America, Welcome to the Poorhouse” posted at RabbitFunds.com.

Adam Says: In America, Welcome to the Poorhouse, Jane White sounds a strong warning to the nation’s citizens that change is needed in order to retire with enough in the bank. White uses this book in order to promote specific political changes and bills that she is sponsoring in Congress.

Review Nugget: Although White does an excellent job of raising the right red flags, there are several flaws in the changes proposed in her book. For the most part, I found that her argument lacks a strong understanding of economics as well as a false sense of entitlement.



Jim presents Career Comeback by Lisa Johnson Mandell posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

Review Nugget: I liked the book because it was both practical and realistic. . . . It’s good practical advice from someone who recently went through the job hunt roller-coaster, . . .

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Craft Stew reviews Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions by Maxine Anderson posted at Craft Stew.



Craft Stew says: I’m a big fan of technology books written for kids. I first discovered them when I homeschooled my son for 7 years.

Review Nugget: If, like me, you’re a crafter who enjoys bringing a bit of technology into her projects, take a look at Amazing Leonard da Vinci Inventions.

BEYOND REVIEWS

Emily Moser presents The 50 Best Free Online Comic Strips You've Never Heard Of posted at Graphic Design Degrees.







Sandra Lopez At Best Colleges On Line Dot Com presents The Evolution of The Book




Well that wraps up the 35th edition of the Book Review Blog Carnival. Two weeks hence, the show moves on to the capable hands of Deanna Dahlsad. Click here to submit a review.



Next Time: Carnival of Homeschooling: Library Week Edition.

Six Word Saturday

As I wrote earlier this week, I took the week off, for the most part to concentrate on regular old life. Any blogging I did do was in preparation for the blog carnivals I am hosting next week.

Well, I am back and back with my contribution to Six Word Saturday.

Here goes . . .

Six words for blogging. Reviews: four.

I really like Six Word Saturdays at Show my Face.com. It is a challenge to condense your week into six words. I guess that's why I enjoyed The four world film review (FWFR) so much.

It is strikingly similar to Six Word Saturdays but it is relegated to film reviews. Your reviews can be less than 4 words but not more than 5. The idea is you submit these film reviews and then they are either accepted or rejected by the editorial staff at fwfr. Once accepted then your reviews can be voted on by other members if they enjoyed them. From 2005 to 2008 I had 657 reviews approved which is good for 105th all time of fwfr reviewers.

My first review was of the movie Return to Me. (Love grows where transplanted).

I have reviewed films from 3 different centuries: Edison's Kinetoscopic record of a sneeze from 1894 (Lights. Camera. Ahchoo), 1986's Peggy Sue Got Married (Turner ignores time warner), and Crash from 2004 (Six degrees of segregation).

Other reviews I am quite fond of are

Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace: First shall be fourth.

Cars - Herbie Fully downloaded.

Legend of Bagger Vance: Golf War Syndrome.

Wizard of Oz: Garland's dream role.

Braveheart: Wallace lethal weapon too.

Emperor's New Groove: Me llama, David Spade.

American President: 1600 (Pennsylvania) First Dates.

Jonah: A Veggietales Movie - Animal, Vegetable, Biblical.

I especially enjoyed the ones where I actually was able to make salient points about the film even while making a pun or two. For example . . .

A River Runs Through It: Redford's Reel - Great Casting.

Breaking Away: Cycling down 'Rocky' road.

I mentioned that I used to like fwfr. I still do. I just kind of grew out of it. Writing 657 film reviews in 3 years will do that to a guy. I recently submitted a few new reviews. One that was just accepted was: The Dark Knight (Knight dark. Joker Darker.)

I will leave you today with four word reviews of my 3 favorite movies of all time.

I'll just say the reviews without the titles. The first person ( who is not my wife.) who can give me the correct title of each film will win a bag of ramen soup.

1. Angel gives Christmas absence.

2. Swampdwelling Muppet becomes star.

3. Brother drowns. Mother frowns.

So those are my six words about four words. To see more Six words click here. For more reviews, albeit book reviews longer than 4 words, come back tomorrow for the Book Review Blog Carnival.

Next Time: Book Review Blog Carnival. Didn't I just say that?

A Serious Call For Help.

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Alasandra's Homeschool Blog. I urge you to stop over and check out her cat and dog edition. Next Week I am hosting. If you home school I encourage you to submit a post. Especially if you never have before. Submission ends Monday night. But the more time you give me, the better off it will be for all of us.

Speaking of time, this is a busy week for me. I am trying to restore order to a chaotic home school class room, prepare my classes for our home school co-op that starts Monday and prepare 2 blog carnivals that I am hosting next week: The Book Review Carnival on the 17th and the Home School Carnival on the 19th. As a result I will not be posting here again until Saturday.

• Click here to see the current issue of the Home School Carnival. Click here to submit an article for the issue I am hosting on the 19th.
• Click here to see the current issue of the Book Review Carnival. Click here to submit an article for the issue I am hosting on the 17th.

Next Time: Six Word Saturday

Six Word Saturday

My six words for today . . .

A brief history of restaurant water.

I remember when I was a kid, we didn't go out to dinner very often, especially to "sit down" places. We went often enough I was at least acquainted with the restaurant culture. You would be brought to your table and there would be a glass of water set at each place.

Now sometime in my 20's water ceased to be set out unsolicited. It is still to this day available in most sit down restaurants at no charge to the patron, it just needs to be requested.

At about the same time that water was becoming an item that needed to be ordered it was also becoming bottled. Now the same water that you get at the water fountain or from the tap at no cost can be purchased. Recently we've found out that tap water is generally safer than bottled water as there are more regulations about how it is produced than bottled water. Not to mention the problem of the proliferation of plastic bottles.

Today, I was at one of those / fast food restaurants with my two oldest kids. I call it a / restaurant because it combines two fast food chains under one roof. I don't want say which two restaurants but let's suffice it to say that the menu was filled with poultry prepared in a method derived from the bluegrass state and pirated seafood items. I ordered milk for the kids and a cup of water for myself. I was charged 10 cents for the water! I have been charged for a cup of water before, but it is usually as a means of getting people not to just get free water never for paying customers. I wonder if this is a harbinger of things to come?

So that's the state of restaurant water from setting it out in advance to putting it on the tab. For other Six words amble over to Show My Face Dot Com

Next Time: Library Week Part II