Status Update

My blog seems to be dying a slow death.  In April it had a mild resurgence because I participated in A to Z Blogging.  I have not given up entirely on blogging.  However, I will not be doing any homeschooling this Summer. Now that her school is off for the summer,  Amy will be teaching the kids for 1 hour a day 4 days a week in what we used to call skills roundup.  I am hoping to land a summer or part time job. 

This week I am working on a carnival of homeschooling at Dave Out Loud.  I plan to post once or twice a week at each blog this Summer.  But finding a job is the priority. 

I also plan to catch up on all the posts I owe to various people before I go onto other stuff.  To that end,  I will be announcing the winners of the quarter give-a-way soon. 

Dave Out Loud is hosting June 4th Carnival of Homeschooling.

I will be hosting next week's Carnival of Homeschooling.  Not here at HSD but at my other blog, Dave Out Loud.  That's my vlog.  It will be like watching a talk show and reading a magazine at the same exact time.  Click here to check out my Carnival Promo.  WARNING: The previous link contains a video which contains silly jokes.  This really shouldn't surprise you, but consider your self warned.  This weeks Carnival  of Homeschooling is at the Informed Parent.  Check it out.

COH @ DOL 6/5/2012

 

This weeks Carnival of Homeschooling is at the Informed Parent.

send a submission by e-mail to CarnivalofHomeschooling@gmail.com.  Make sure to include the following:

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.)

Also Henry Cate, the grand poobah of COH, explains what a blog carnival is in his 2005 post, What is a blog carnival?

My Friend Dan

I have several friends from college who home school.  One is Dan, who lives in the same town as my sister-in-law and her 2 kids.  He is a police officer who spoke 2 years ago at our local homeschooling conference about internet safety.  Earlier this year he took his family on a missionary trip to South Africa.  He is now in the process of switching careers and going back to South Africa as a full time missionary.  His wife is planning on continuing the home education of their children.  Here is a link to their blog, which you can also find on my blogroll starting today.

Blogging A to Z FAQs and a Puppyism

April was my first foray (actually I only wrote one a post not four) into the Blogging A to Z Challenge.

Today, I am going to tell you a few reflections about my experience there, Since it is now 12:00 a,m Friday which as you know is Half Past Kissing Time, I will give these reflections in fragment form. I will do this in Frequently Asked Question format, since I haven't done a FAQ's of Life segment ever so long

FAQ/Fragment # 1 What was it like?

A to Z was fantastic, fun and frenetic. It was also several words that don't begin with the letter F, but I was on a roll. Starting Sunday April the first and ending Monday April the thirtieth with the exception of the subsequent Sundays, I blogged about a word beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. I did this in alphabetical order, because that's the kind of guy I am.

FAQ/Fragment # 2 Did you plan ahead or just fly by the seat of your pants?

yes. The first few weeks were planned out ahead of time and many were written days in advance as I knew I would be very busy the first few days of April. After about mid month, I still had a few letters I was planning on doing, but many I decided the word and wrote the post just hours before the end of that day. I was also very busy the last few days of the month and that's the only time I got into major panic mode?

FAQ/Fragment # 3 What was your most unusual experience with the A to Z challenge?

My wife Amy sometimes will write an unsolicited post for me, as me. Often these are jokes, to get a reaction from me. Many of those never make it to the light of day. Sometimes, she will write something very poignant as me, often saying my thoughts better than I could. Well for the letter O, she did a post for me, as me. This post got more views than any of my other A to Z posts. The unusual thing is that it was called Original.

FAQ/Fragment #4 What was your greatest challenge with the challenge?

I dropped my laptop about two thirds through the challenge. I have still not gotten it back. This really created many problems with getting the challenge done.

FAQ/Fragment #5 How would you compare Blogging A to Z with NABLOPOMO?

NABLOPOMO is something that I've never really enjoyed. I have participated in it three times, completing it twice. The first time, I did it was my second month of blogging. It nearly ended my blogging career before it got off the ground. I was able to complete it again a year or so later, it was less stressful but not very fun for me.

Blogging A to Z was fun. I enjoyed following other blogs. I enjoyed getting more readers and more comments. I really enjoyed getting Sunday's off. Even with my busy April schedule, and my computer mishaps, I would definitely Blog A to Z again. Next year I might even enter from more than one of my blogs.

For more A to Z Blogging experience reflections click here.



Fragment # 6 Puppy on the Wagon

Today, technically yesterday, while the bigs (my name for our oldest 2 kids) were running an errand for me, I told puppy I would take her on a wagon ride.

Here's a snippet of conversation as I started getting ready to leave the house.

Me: Hey Puppy are you ready for our walk?

Puppy: I'm not walking, I'm riding.

Me: That's right. I'm walking and you're riding.

Puppy: You're exercising and I'm restercising.

For more Friday Fragments click here.