Vacation Pics

Next Time: Six Word Saturday. For more Wordless Wednesday (all week long)click here.

The panorama of homeschooling

It's carnival of homeschooling time again and I am serving as your host. I just discovered recently that our digital camera has a panorama setting. It allows you to take up to 3 shots and it will automatically blend the image into one shot.

I recently took a picture of some items on our kitchen counter.

I then took a picture of each individual item and combined them in the panorama setting.








I have decided that this week's carnival will look at the panorama that is home schooling. I will intersperse the fine posts offered by fellow bloggers with panorama shots I have taken with my camera since my discovery of the setting.

To get us started Rhonda Miller of Time4learning offers up some beginning of the school year encouragement in Extreme Makeover - The Homeschool edition. So move the bus and head on over there.

Our next post is from Jennifer Lavender of Princess Momma. She introduces a new feature of her blog in Home School Answers. What's it all about? Need I say more?

Alasandra of Alasandra's Homeschool blog says You are not a homeschooler if you send your child to public or private school.






I asked each of my children to run towards me and as they did I took their picture and combined it here. My kids all responded to that task differently. One aspect of the panorama of homeschooling is the many different types of students it involves.

Sandy Davis talks about dealing with students who are creative, easily bored and highly distractable in Sizzlers at Falling Like Rain.

Jennifer presents How To HomeSchool PreSchool - What I Have Learned posted at HomeGrownMommy.

Mama Squirrel presents Another year of boxes, bins, notebooks: trying not to duplicate posted at Dewey's Treehouse.

Deana shares a Lesson Plan Outline for A-Beka at The Frugal Homeschooling Mom.

This is a panoramic view of spider droid's first horseback ride. It kind of looks like clones on horseback.

Speaking of nature, (You might not have known we were, just try to keep up.) Laura Grace Weldon of her eponymous blog www.lauragraceweldon.com says: "Consider making a nature study of something nearby. A tree's lifestyle through the seasons, the activity around a wasp nest in the eaves, the behavior of birds at a feeder." Interested? read her fine piece entitled How to make spiders your teachers, trees your guides.

NerdMom presents A Day in the Life posted at NerdFamily Blog.

E-mom shares 13 Bible Trivia Questions: Patriarchs and Matriarchs at Chrysalis. She says: Test yourself first. Then test your kids. I Say: There are no questions about the Noaharchs.

Sebastian of Percival Blakeney Academy shares their plan for music appreciation focusing on pieces written for and about children in Music Appreciation - Children's Music.








I am not the only one in the family taking panorama shots. Last weekend the girls were sick and we took the t.v. out of theoretical mothballs and put on Star Trek Generations. My son snapped these pics near the end of the film. I like it because the height of the pictures gives the illusion of 3 different televisions all showing Star Trek at the same time.

The next section will feature the various "treks" that our intrepid home school explorers have made. Starting off is Kim at Homeschool Peeps with a couple of firsts. Our Summer of Learning: Part I is the first of hopefully many posts "dedicated to sharing the fun and educational experiences" they had this summer. It is also their first submission to the carnival.

Lizzie at a Dusty Frame takes us on a trip to an art museum for an "amazing visit with" La Donna Velata, The woman with the veil - Raphael.












The next panorama is pure genius. Word Girl (Word Up!) sandwiched between a sandwich villain (Chuck, the evil sandwich making guy). Word Girl survives to lead us into our next section a panorama of language:



Alphabet

Cristina of Home Spun Juggling presents Home Spun Comic Strip #514 where she begins to unveil her homeschooler's alphabet.

Words
April from Question the Culture presents a post on the power of words to develop our minds in Words, words, words.

Reading Books
The Family presents Once Upon a Family: Book List for Grades 4th - 7th posted at Once Upon a Family.

Understanding Grammar
Nak presents "Why Should Anyone Be Tense About Tense?" posted at Sage Parnassus.

~Kris~ presents Top Ten Ways to Review posted at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Janine Cate of Why Homeschool gives an update on whether Math Counts counts homeschoolers in Banning Homeschool teams - Update.

There are several posts about hopping right back to a new school year.

Jamie Gaddy another blogger from www.time4learning.net shares A peek in my Window.

Now that school has started, Lynn from Electic Education is going to show us what to do when our kids say Mommy I'm Bored. I've never had my kids say that to me, but then again, I am a Home School Dad.

Mrs. C of Homeschool + Etc. poses the question How much do you spend on back to school items?

A question Andrea from Notes From a Homeschooling Mom answers in How much does it cost to homeschool? What we pay. Speaking of paying, I'd like to pay it backward, and say that Andrea did a fantastic job with last week's carnival. Way to go, Andrea, Way to go. Clap. Clap.

Water is more than just to swim in. As Pamela fron Blah, Blah, Blog tells in Well, well, well .... Water Troubles.

Charla Pearen presents High Park Home Daycare: Playdough Recipe posted at High Park Home Daycare.

In the blog Thriving in the 21st Century, Barbara Frank lets us know The Skills Every Worker Needs. She says "Homeschooling gives parents the best chance of raising their children

with the job skills they'll need in the new economy.".

Speaking of the economy, Margaret Simpson of Two Kid Schoolhouse gives her musings on the future of education as she'd like to see it in This is How Education Should Work.

We have come to the end of our panorama of homeschooling. Homeschooling, like the expressions of my children in the above photo, can be painful, thought provoking and goofy, sometimes at the same moment. I hope you take time to read all the fine articles assembled here.

Amy Bayliss is hosting next weeks carnival. To submit an article click here.

Next Time: Wordless Wednesday

Summer's out for the school year

Zero weeks until school starts.





















Today is in fact the day. It seems odd to start school 2 whole weeks before Labor day. Amy's school started classes last Monday so I guess I shouldn't complain.


I have been promising to post about our recent vacation. That doesn't look like it will happen.

Starting today, I will be including some vacations pics in the next few posts. That will have to do.

I'll be back tomorrow with the Carnival of Homeschooling. Right now I have actual homeschooling to attend to.

Next Time: A Panorama of Homeschooling

Overheard

Yesterday's post wasn't the warmest fuzziest post on the block. I decided to lighten things up a little to tell you two of the funniest things I've ever overheard.

1) A few years ago I passed by my manager's office space while she was in a meeting with another of her employees. The only thing I heard was the employee say, "I haven't fallen asleep at my desk again." He said it nonchalantly and so matter of fact, and I got the idea it was a
non sequitir.


2) Prior to the November 2008 general election, I was at a restaurant with my kids and an older married couple. They basically ignored us and had a conversation about a proposal on the Illinois ballot to have a constitutional convention. The wife was talking the ear off the husband and after he responded, she dismissed him by saying, "You don't understand politics. You've never even watched The West Wing!"

What's the funniest thing you ever overheard ?

Next Time: Summer's out for the school year.

Six Word Saturday

http://www.showmyface.com/ hosts an extravaganza called Six Word Saturday.

My Six: Swimming against the dead pool current.

A couple of my relatives are participating in a dead pool this year. A dead pool is basically like any office pool but instead of best actor or super bowl halftime scores you pick celebrities who you think will croak first (Kermit the frog excluded).

One of said relatives likes to talk about it all the time and preface it with "I know you don't like me to talk about this, but ..." I'm in many ways drawn to death. I used to have a page of my now defunct geocities site where I posted recent obituaries of the famous. I didn't have any qualms against calling the page, Currently Dead. But Death Pools? No Way!
I think there are just a few main reasons why I'm against death pools:

1) On some basis you are rooting for the death of someone else for your benefit. (Note: My relatives have no money at stake in their pool. Just bragging rights.) One of my relatives likes to tell me proudly who she picked correctly. The other is "jokingly" mad that someone on her list has been twice hospitalized but has not paid off for her.

2) I think it is insensitive to the families of these famous people to speculate on the demise of their beloved. Sometimes this speculation is on perfectly healthy famous people. Many dead pools give more points the younger the deceased. This point ties in and overlaps with my first. My relatives and I all lost a dear family member (my brother) in the past 18 months. I questioned one of my relatives about this asking her what would you say if I said "cool! I had Keith in my dead pool."? The reply was that He wasn't famous. But these famous people have relatives too. Where is the empathy?

3)The greatest reason I am against Death Pools is that it is counter to my entire philosophy of life: A)We were made by a creator for the ultimate purpose of eternal fellowship with Him. B) In life we have the opportunity to follow Him reject Him. C) Those who follow will have eternal fellowship, Those who reject eternal torment. D) As long as life continues there is opportunity to follow.

Many of you may not hold to the same philosophies as I do. That's not the point. The point is I would never want to hope in any way for the eternal torment of anyone. For me, participating in death pools or tolerating them would in my mind, be a way of doing so.

So thanks for visiting the Illinois Suburb of Downer's Grove today. You can participate in Six Word Saturday by clicking here.

Next Time: Overheard