Homeschool Showcase (Formerly The Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers) #15

Welcome to the January 12, 2009 edition of Homeschool Showcase: Where the spotlight's on you! The Homeschool Showcase (formerly The Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers) seeks to create a unique niche where the encouraging, inspiring, hands-on, and just plain fun ways that homeschooling families live, learn and enjoy life together can be showcased so that we can learn from and inspire each other.


I hope you'll get some new ideas, find some fantastic resources and discover posts that make you think. I also hope you'll consider submitting something for the next carnival, scheduled for January 26.


The first featured post is a prime example of what Homeschool Showcase is about: one of those ideas that makes you think, "Hey! I want to do that with my kids!"

Fine Arts

Amida showcases her children's fabulous artwork in her post, Journey Into Unschooling: November Art Gallery. Not only does she feature many of her kids' works of art, but she also includes their narratives of their techniques, their thoughts about each painting and their opinions of each particular style or technique. Be sure to visit the art gallery at Journey Into Unschooling. Admission is free, but the art is priceless.

Thomas J. West of Thomas J. West Music says, "Many students of music go through their entire career as a member of a public school music ensemble and never achieve true independence of ability on their instrument. They can only play their part if someone else is playing along with them, and even then there are still parts of the music that they have to either leave out or water down. Can an average music student ever develop true mastery?"

Of course, we don't have to worry about that public school thing and my family is blessed to have a wonderful homeschool music teacher. We love that she teaches five years of classes that build on one another. As a matter of fact, she doesn't take new students after second grade, so that no students are ever playing catch-up and she can continue to build upon the skills being taught. For those not blessed with a wonderful homeschool music teacher, you might benefit from the tips presented in Technique Targeting: Becoming Your Own Music Teacher.

Science

Our family has just begun a new science book, Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space, so I was excited to see these next two entries, which should really help supplement our studies. I'll definitely be bookmarking Heather Johnson's Top 100 Space and Astronomy Blogs posted at Find Schools Online.com.

The second is Sarah Scrafford's exhaustive list of Earth science blogs: 100 Best Blogs for Earth Science Scholars presented by at Learn-gasm.



While you're studying Earth science, you may want to check out Nature's Evolutionary Gems posted by Greg Laden at Greg Laden's Blog. It's up to you whether you use it to teach evolution as fact or as a teachable moment as you discuss God's creation. I know how we'll be using it. ;-)


Presenting the other side of the coin is Joe Hayes of Teaching Intelligent Design. You can find Joe's thoughts on Intelligent Design in his post, Teaching Intelligent Design.

Wondering what to do for middle school science? Kris, of At Home Science, reviews two resources that she'll be using to present a unit on what has always been, for my kids, a very high interest topic, the human body. Be sure to check out her post, Blood and Guts to pick up some ideas for your own human body unit.

Kids of any age will benefit from Amy Smith's low-key, but highly effective learning idea of a nature and science table. For those of you looking for ways to strew learning in your kids' path, this will be just the ticket. You can find the details in Amy's post, Our Nature and Science Table at Kids Love Learning.

Michael Gold presents some sound thoughts on the reasons we should be including hands-on activities in our homeschools. He backs up his reasons with A Wright Brothers Anecdote from a fantastic book about the famous inventors (Brianna and I really enjoyed this particular book when she was younger). You can find the article posted at MGTutoring.com.

Study Skills

Have you ever wondered how your memory works? Why some things are so hard to remember and other so easy? Britannica Blog has some interesting facts about memory and suggests that "Study Skills" Ought to Include an Understanding of Memory posted at Britannica Blog.


Citing some of the same ideas about memorization, Scott Palat presents 6 Tips for Success in School posted at Tutorfi. Though the wording of Scott's post is geared toward parents with kids in a traditional school setting, the tips offered are relevant for study in any educational medium, including homeschool.


For many of us, it's the time of year when we have to start thinking about state-required standardized testing. Though we, as homeschoolers, certainly aren't "teaching to the test," it is a good idea to spend a little time teaching our kids some test-taking skills. If you have standardized testing coming up this year, be sure to check out Rita Phillips' post Teaching Test Taking Skills Doesn’t Mean You Are Teaching to the Test found at YourTeacherLinks.com. Although the first part of the article is geared toward a classroom setting, you can find some adaptable ideas if you read towards the end.

History

We've just begun studying the Middle Ages and are really enjoying the change of pace from studying the Ancients. I wish I'd had Fiona King's list of Top 50 Ancient History Blogs, found at Learn-gasm a few months ago. I really love when someone else does all the legwork for me. If you're studying the Ancients this year, be sure to check out some of these blogs to enhance your studies.


Whether you're interested in learning more about the history of the Iditarod or simply want to follow this year's race, which is coming up soon, you'll want to visit Delighting in His Riches where Erin presents lesson plan ideas, information and lots of links in her post, Iditarod Overview and Lots of Links. My youngest, Megan is fascinated with all things sled dogs and we'll be studying Alaska in a couple of week, so this is one post I definitely won't miss!

Mom, I'm Bored!

Whether it's a long break from schooling or a rainy or snowy day, kids can quickly run out of ideas for entertaining themselves when they can't get outside. Ask me how I know! I wish I'd had these wonderful ideas from Destroy Debt a few weeks ago when I was ready to pull my hair out: 20 Inexpensive Ways to Entertain Your Kids in the Winter. These fun and fabulous ideas, posted at Destroy Debt, will give your kids hours of creative fun when you're all stuck inside. If we'd had one more day of rain last week, I would have broken into these ideas soon enough to post a review with today's carnival.


For more rainy day -- or any day -- fun, try The Best Activity for Preschoolers presented by Becca at Inspiration for Mothers. I bet I've got some early elementary-aged kids who would enjoy this one, too.


My preschool-aged niece enjoyed matching objects with numbers and number words this past week, and she was able to check her own work with the answer key cards I made for her.




News and Travel

At Alasandra's Homeschool Blog Awards, Alasandra highlights a case in which media bias has taken the focus off a tragic death due to child abuse and placed it instead on the fact that the child was homeschooled in her post, Daily News puts homeschooling in the headline.

Jessica Leonard tackles the age-old question that is probably among homeschoolers' top ten questions about homeschooling: what about socialization. I know it's my favorite question; isn't it yours? Okay, not! Read Jessica's response to the masses, Life Learning Leonards: Socialization & Homeschooling posted at Life Learning Leonards.


Homeschoolers know that one benefit to homeschooling is being able to vacation during the off-season when travel is cheaper and destinations less crowded. Jessica offers more tips to use this to your best advantage in her post, Save Money with Off-Season Travel presented at Jessica's Travel Tips: Travel For Cheap.


Anytime you travel, whether it's during the peak-season or the off-season, one hazard of air travel is the possibility of losing your luggage. Matt K. shares some tips on how to avoid losing your luggage and what to do if it is lost with Corporate Flight Attendant Community posted at Flight Attendant.


Need some ideas on where to travel? Statue of Liberty Visitor offers a list of New York attractions to put on your "don't miss" list. You can find them posted at Ellis Island - Statue of Liberty.

Language

I'm a pretty quick reader and I really enjoy savoring my books, but there have been times when I've considered that being able to speed read might be a benefit. If you've ever considered that idea yourself, you might want to readLearn to Speed Read in Just a Few Hours by Mike King at Learn This.


For those teaching grammar, you'll enjoy Simon Cowell's A Basic Introduction to Adverbs posted at Learn English Online.


And, finally, for those of you teaching Spanish this year, you'll be able to pick up some good tips from the Spanish Learner as he presents Using Connecting Words In Spanish posted at Learn Spanish Blog.

This concludes this week's edition of Homeschool Showcase. I want to thank everyone for submitting your posts. If you've done anything inspiring, exciting or just plain fun in your homeschool -- hands-on activities, a field trip that everyone enjoyed, a great science experiment, or a learning activity that everyone enjoyed -- I hope you'll consider submitting the post for the next Homeschool Showcase, scheduled for January 26. For guidelines or information on where to submit your post, please read Homeschool Showcase Submission Guidelines.

Earth photo courtesy of Space Today Online.

Testing photo by melting mama.

Iditarod photo by dweekly.

Rain photo by law_keven.

Luggage photo by geishaboy500.