You're Only Old Once!

Today was my folks' 50th wedding anniversary. We celebrated with a big picnic at a nearby forest preserve. It was really nice to see all the extended family and friends who came out to celebrate! My parents renewed their wedding vows, and even had their best man and maid of honor standing up with them. My brother also gave a nice speech. The "show" aspect of the picnic ended up with 10 of their 11 grandchildren doing a dramatic reading of Dr Suess's book, "You're Only Old Once." The book is hilarious! It was enjoyed by everyone. It was nice to see the older cousins helping out the younger cousins with reading their parts. It's a blessing to have a heritage of marital longevity to remind us to keep the course. Amy's parents celebrated their 48th Anniversary last week, so I'm glad to see it runs in the family.

Our Summer So Far (In Fragments)

We have been up to a lot already this summer.  Today I thought I would express it in fragments.  Videos and photos of the first few weeks of the summer.

Fragment V1  - Spider Droid Shoots and Jumps

Fragment P1 -  Bunny and Dad Bike

Fragment V2 - Kite Flying Fun

Fragment P2 A Hike in the Woods

Fragments P3 & V3  - Puppies and Dolphins Unite

Fragment P4 - Volunteering at an Outdoor Food Pantry

Fragments P5 & V4 - More Fun at the Pool

That is all the photos and footage I have for now.  Hope your summers are fun also.  For More Friday Fragments stop over at Half Past Kissing Time.  

Homeschoolers Song

OPV

Other People's Videos

As much as I'd like, this can't all be all about me.  Every once in a while I like to post other people's videos, (OPV), such as this one from Rhett and Link:

Take A Hike

Yesterday we went on a hike. Besides swimming and biking we are trying to take a hike once a week. Yesterday we went to Raceway Woods, which was a speedway in my town in the 50's and 60's and the remains of the racetrack now make a number of great trails.

I made Bunny Girl write a post about the hike. Her blog at homeschoolblogger wasn't coming up so I had her write at old blog. I decided to lead by example. and post about the hike as well.

This picture was posed. I actually had everybody turn around and hike back to me. It was either that, a picture of their backsides, or me running up to catch them.

The view from the top of a broken bridge

Swimming Stories

Super Party

Puppy's best friend had a birthday this month and this Saturday had a birthday party.

He had a superhero party. Puppy designed her own supergirl costume. They had a fantastic time.

Wait! School isn't over yet!

We are spending 1-1 1/2 hours each morning working on reading and writing. We are using some super old-fashioned, but highly effective and engaging SRA cards for reading (with a little writing) and then using story starters from www.thewritesource.com to elicit some creative writing. Some handwriting for those who need it is also snuck in, along with typing for the oldest. Our 12 year old is expected to write 5 paragraphs, our 6 year old writes 3-5 sentences, and our struggling 10 year old is writing 5 sentences. It's going swimmingly, oh, and we are spending the rest of our days, well, swimming :). We're doing a few fall/winter/spring neglected jobs around the house as well, and teaching some kitchen skills too. Oh, and let's not forget the continual read-alouds at lunch. I think we, as home educators, need to admit the truth: school is never over! And we like it that way!

Puppy Plummets and Paddles

perfect soloution for imperfection

 We were visiting a church yesterday, when the pastor said to tell person sitting nearest that they are not perfect.  I was sitting nearest to Spider Droid and I decided to switch it up a little.  So, I leaned over and said "I'm not perfect."    S.D. leaned  back into me and uttered one of his new found favorite phrases: "Not my problem."

In his own 10 year old obnoxious laden way he nailed it right on the head.  My imperfection is not ostensibly any other person's problem.  Later in the sermon, the pastor spoke to that issue by saying that God loves you.  God's love is the only way to perfect the imperfect.    I am so glad that when Jesus made a way to deal with my imperfection, He uttered "It is finished"  rather than "Not my problem."

Carnival of Homeschooling Out Loud

Carnival of Homeschooling # 336

Presents . . .

 Me

I am Dave.  My main blog is Home School Dad.

Last week's carnival  was at The Informed Parent.

Melanie Grant presents Top 10 Things I can't live without in my homeschooling day posted at Mel's Mouthful on Mothering.

Barbara Frank Online presents Don't be Intimidated by Homeschooling for High School Part I

Tamara chimes in with Summer Fun Activities at Tales of a Pee Dee Mama.  Before you head over to PeeDeepedia, the Pee Dee is a region in the northeastern corner of South Carolina.

Speaking of summer, It is a great time to nurture family relationships and make learning a pleasurable experience. So says Susan of At Home and School in Family summer fun: 10 ways to learn and connect. 

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer.  Jeff of Do It Yourself High School  says:  "While most families spend Memorial Day weekend at the beach, we go on a hike and learn little known, yet interesting, information."  Jeff shares some of that info in  Homeschoolers hike Indiana Dunes State Park.

Mindy of Den School asks Television -helpful or harmful?

Liz E presents Homeschooling Failures posted at Homeschooling in Buffalo.


What to Teach in Homeschool at Letters From Nebby

Julie who hosts the Homeschooled Kids Blog Carnival at  Homeschooling-ideas  asks the excellent question, Whose homeschool is it anyway?

Resources for Shakespeare's Hamlet presented by Annie Kate of Tea Time with Annie Kate.

Beveryly Hernandez is pleased to announce that the 14th annual Summer Reading Club is being hosted at Homeschool Journeys.  She invites us to Join the Homeschool Summer Reading Club.

Here's Erin  of Nirvana Homeschooling with   Free Homeschooling Curriculum, Textbooks and Resources.

Alasandra of Alasandra's Homeschool Blog wants us to Remember the Raisin all 1,812 of them.

Lincoln & Latin is a summary of Jen's week  in Forever, For Alawys, No Matter What.

Speaking of Puppy,  Over at Home School Dad, I present Tired of School.

Pamela Jorrick presents Less Screen Time and More Conversations posted at Blah, Blah, Blog.


Laura Grace Weldon  explains the Benefits of Special Interest Groups

Want a shock? Try Grade Shock  by Christine from Our Curious Home

Misty Z invites us to have a ball at Homeschool Bytes by Learning Geography with Games and a Beach Ball.

Katherine presents School Choice  at No Fighting No Biting


Abrianna's take on Vouchers  can be found at Cowgirl Yankee. 

What If? as presented by Linda Dobson of Parent at the Helm.

Travel is an important part of education.  So says Cristina of Home Spun Juggling in An Education one (Foot)step at a Time.

Henry Cate of  Why Homeschool announces We are losing our first homeschooler.

Andrea Hermitt presents Last Day at Notes from A Homeschooled Mom


Christine MM of The Thinking Mother has a plan, A halfday homeschool plan for the last two weeks of the  year. 

Next Week's Carnival is at

CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED

Submissions are due to: CarnivalOfHomeschooling@gmail.com by 6:00 PM (PST) on the Monday evening of the week. It will be greatly appreciated if 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
(With "carnival" or "submission" in the subject field of the email.)


You can also send in a submission via Blog Carnival by going here.

I'll be back in a day or two with some Carnival outtakes. 

Tired of School

Good thing the semester ends today