HSBA Awards and Carnival of Home Schooling

The 2011 HSBA awards were announced yesterday. I have all the links to the 20 winners blogs on the sidebar to the right. If you want to see who won for what catefory click here.

Today I have listed the blogs I voted for in each category as well as a link to each blog. I am currently working on making a page that will incorporate who I voted for in each category along with the winner of each category. There were some awfully good blogs nominated this year and I am looking forward to familiarizing myself with the winners.

Here is who I voted for . . .

Favorite Homeschool Mom Blog Home Spun Juggling

Best Homeschool Dad Blog Home School Dad

Best Blog Design Homeschool Hacks


Best Photos Blog Adventurez in Child Rearing

Best Crafts, Plans & Projects Blog The Science Mommy

Best Family or Group Blog Why Home School?

Best Encourager A Holy Experience

Best Current Events, Opinions or Politics Blog Why Home School?

Best Homemaking or Recipe Blog Tammy's Recipes


Best Teen Blog God's Daughter

Funniest Homeschool Blog Home School Dad

Best Special Needs Homeschool Blog Special Needs Homeschooling

Best Homeschool Vlogger 10 Million Miles


Best Homeschool Variety Blog Marine Corps Nomads

Best Thrifty Homeschooler Blog Angi's Place

Best SUPER Homeschooler Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Best Nitty-Gritty Homeschool Blog Home Spun Juggling

Best NEW Homeschool Blog Homeschool Hijinx

Best Homeschool Methods Blog Homeschool Mo

Best Homeschooling Nature/Field Trip Blog Charlotte Mason in the City

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The Carnival of Homeschooling Thankfullness Edition went up today at Mom School. I am gratified that they included my post on receiving and believing encouragement. Check out the entire carnival by clicking here.

Next Time: Pilgrim Hat Cookies

9 score and 18 years ago

I wasn't planning on participating in Six Word Saturday today. But here I am, and here's my six:

I learned something without using google.

Today Spider Droid finished reading the book, Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel to, which he has been doing over the past week or so. The book tells the story of the battle of Gettysburg and culminates with Lincoln giving the Gettysburg address.

As he was reading I realized that Lincoln gave the speech 148 years ago. So that's 9 score and 18 years ago. I'm 47 so it's also 3 me's and 7 years ago. In honor of the Cubs hiring a new manager, it's the last time Cubs were world champions and 45 years ago. Okay, you get it. It was a while back.

While I am good at remembering birthdays and anniversaries in our family, Google's little fancy designs are usually what tell me of the commemoration of a historical birth or event. Today I learned about it without Google. In fact if you take a look at a Google, you will see I scooped them. How about that?

For more Six Word Saturday Click Here.

Next Time: Aliens on the street?!?

Puppy Uppers

This morning Puppy crawled into bed with me to snuggle. My part of the snuggling was a semi comatose dream state. She would say stuff and I would respond partially consciously. When I was almost fully awake we had this conversation:

Puppy: Daddy

Me: Yeaaaaaaaaaah.

Puppy: You are the best Daddy ever.

Me: The best? (This wasn't a question, as much as a wake up technique I have of repeating everything I hear,just in case I am dreaming. I have had conversations with Amy in the morning. Except the Amy next to me wasn't talking. I was responding to the Amy in my dreams.)

Puppy. Well, . . . God is the best. You are the second best Daddy ever.

I am not sure about the second part, but she sure nailed the first part. For such a great beginning of the day, it turned out rather lousy. Mainly, because I forgot or did not acknowledge the first part. When I forget the first part, there is no way the second part can be true.

Tomorrow is another day. A day that God will be the best Daddy ever. I'm gonna remember that and try for second!

This post is being featured in the Carnival Of Homeschooling:Thankfullness Edition at Momschool.

Where are the Birds? A Puppy and Bunnyism

I am sitting here at the library using the computer and voting for the HSBA Awards. (Vote for me in funniest blog and best home school Dad if you have not already by clicking here. Puppy is at the computer next to me playing Club Penguin. After Puppy picked up some videos to check out, she started watching Bunny play. That is how I overheard this conversation.

Puppy: Where are the birds?
Bunny: What birds?
Puppy: The birds you are going to destroy.
Bunny: Oh (Puppy's real name) Kill two birds with one stone is just an expression.

Oh well. Just had to share that. Now back to my HSBA voting.

COH #307 Tweeting The Carnival

My response to twitter when I first heard of it was exactly the same as my response to Facebook when I first heard of it was about the same. Why would I ever do that. With twitter I was intrigued about the process of condensing my thoughts and even did a few twitter sized posts on my blog. Finally I warmed up to the idea of twitter and started using it from time to time.

Earlier this year it dawned on me that about the only time I read all the carnival of homeschooling articles is when I host the carnival. I even read other hosts say the same thing. Each time I have hosted I get so much out of the carnival since I do read each post. So as a writing challenge to myself and a chance to read an entire carnival I tweeted every post of COH#286 that was hosted @ As For Me and My House this past summer.

I really enjoyed all aspects of the experiment, I got to read every post and I got to work on my writing chops by reviewing each post in twitter sized chunks. So when my turn came up to host the carnival I decided to tweet the entire carnival. As each submission came in I tweeted intro and even made up a hash tag for the carnival, #CH307. Most of these tweets came on Monday night because like the title of the aforementioned COH 286 there were technical difficulties in getting all the links to me in a timely manner.

So, for your enjoyment, enlightenment, entertainment and 3 other words that don't start with an "e" or end with a "t", here is the Twitter edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling:

NOTE: By Clicking on the word Tweet in each submission you can see my original tweets.

Can you tell a good book by the award on it's cover? ReadaloudDad says kid's can't, and they are 100% right. Tweet


Chore could use more help at home. Chris of HomeSchoolvs.PublicSchool presents Encouraging Chore Participation Tweet

Charla & HighParkHomeDaycare made a fun tree & leaf decoration. Nothing says Fall like leaves and velcro! Tweet

BarbaraFrank chronicles the upside of downsizing now that her 4 children are adults. Enjoy Almost There Tweet

Amanda of DenSchool continues her WhyWeHomeschool series. Her guest Victoria answers Siblings as Best Friends. Tweet

Lisa of Golden Grasses has Basement Love. She says the singing and laughing of family outweigh the soreness. Tweet

Cristina of Homespunjuggling likes reading about testing & learning . I like her cartoons & book she's planning. Tweet


Linda of Parent at the Helm knows any endeavor has it's own vocabulay. Here's her Happy Home Education Glossary Tweet

LauraGraceWeldon talks about the lost art of "unmentoring" in Fancy Name For Grown-Ups Kids Need Tweet

If Blossom of NLH&S *NorthLaurelHome&School* feels outshone by others acheivements, she asks What about the rest of us? I love her answer. Tweet



Erin reviews #MightyMacs at CLHSN *Chicago Land Home School Network*. She says you can watch with preschooler and teenager and all 3 can enjoy. Tweet

Kelly at Thehomeschoolco-op shares her November Monthly Booklist: Top Ten HomeschoolingBooks Tweet

Amy of DCB *Delightful Children's Books* says before you "book" your next visit to the aquarium check out these 9 Children's Books About Fish Tweet

LindseyClair on Week 10 of her Homeschooling Journey at HSID *Home School in Detroit*: Report Cards, Leaf Contests and Lapbooks, Oh My! Tweet

I had a guest at HomeSchoolDad this week. Amber Paley had great tips on taking children on nursing home visits, Tweet

Maureen of SpellOutloud can't keep the lid on the newest toddler teaching tool. Top of your learning with lids. Tweet

Cindy at Getalonghome tells her friends who send their kids to public school why she won't judge them. Tweet


Susan of HomeschoolingHearts&Minds says she is hopeless, but Organizing Our Homeschool Week argues otherwise. Tweet

Henry Cate AKA Mr. COH, of Why Homeschool shares this cute video . . .The Homeschool Kids Who Don't Do Anything Tweet


Fall makes beautiful colors so does Allison at HomeschoolHappyMess in Poetry and Leaf Painting: Tweet

Yummy Yum Yum! Margot at Learningbeyondthebook says Science is Delicious! You butter not miss this post! Tweet

Maggie of ParentingSquad presents 7Reasons to Take Your Kid to a Protest. What will I do with the other 2?) Tweet

NEPC plan to control online education got HappyElfMom 's attn in Cyberschools: 800#Gorilla of School Choice. .. Tweet


@JamerrillWriter of HSLHS *Holy Spirit Led Home Schooling*talks about Homeschooling Boys. She had me at Lego's are to be embraced! :) Tweet

JeanetteDrew, TheAccidentalHomeschooler talks about a surprisingly fun educational fieldtrip to a landfill. Tweet

Jamie @ MOMschool says "Burnout, you are so busted!", with these 5 quick, doable homeschool stress relievers. Tweet

Kris of WeirdUnsocializedHomeschoolers says figuring out courses for highschool is a googlesized job. *Here is* her plan. Tweet

Jay3fer of AIML*Adventures in Mama-Land* hasn't dropped out of school. She says when food is involved, math happens even on a week off. Tweet

Maureen of Homeschool Mo gets your goat and takes the cake in her preschool at home week in review. Tweet

Thus ends the tweeting portion of this edition. I had a lot of fun. I hope you did too. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of homeschooling using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.