The 204th Carnival of Homeschooling

Welcome to the latest edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Henry writes about how positive reenforcement can do a better job of changing behavior.  Henry and I share a respect for Glenn Latham's book, "The Power of Positive Parenting".  Like Henry, I've found that the tools that Latham teaches work wonders with our children.

Christine of the Thinking Mother, writes about the challenges of homeschooling older children.  I had never thought of those challenges before.  She's definitely given me something to think about.

Under the Golden Apple Tree shares a beautiful photo essay of what homeschooling means to her family. 

Latte Lady ask what homeschooling means to you and gives an inspiring list of what homeschooling means to her.  When I read the list I was struck by how much she enjoys her children and her homeschooling life.

Nerdmom shares her angst about homeschooling gifted children. She's not alone. I doubt there is a homeschooler alive who doesn't second guess herself every so often.

Special Needs Homeschooling talks about what every aspiring homeschooler must do before she starts homeschooling.

Texas Homeschooler's love of her family and homeschooling life is clear in her blog post about cooking 101 with children.  I competely agree with her, children need to learn to cook and need to learn to cook well. This is a skill that we should not forget to each our children.

As always, Kris from Weird, Unsocialized, Homeschoolers inspires us with her great homeschooling ideas. In this blog post, she outlines her unit study on the Twilight series. This is sure to be a hit with your teen.

The Reluctant Homeschooler reminds us that not all homeschooling is book learning.  Her family recently visited a city mission to see how others serve the poor and to determine whether they might be able to serve as well. They were amazed by this huge ministy started only a few years ago by a single woman with a vision, who happened to be one of her coworkers a few years ago.

Barbara Frank gives good advice to homeschoolers who are hosting Thanksgiving meals. The most sage advice is to declare Thanksgiving week a vacation to reduce mom's stress. 

We handle things differently. We don't do a Thanksgiving meal. Instead we work at a local soup kitchen. Nothing brings home how good life is than helping feed a hundred or so homeless people. Also, it makes my life easy during the week of Thanksgiving. No family squabbles, no agonizing over menus, no cooking for days on end or running out of fridge space. We show up at the soup kitchen and do what we're told to do.

Pamela Jorrick  bewails the fact that her library has misplaced a magazine she returned and is now charging her a $15 fine.  I feel Pamela's pain as I've been in her shoes. I finally decided that those library drop boxes were just too expensive to use (at least at our Norfolk libraries). Now I stand in a line and watch the librarians check our books back into their system. I refuse point blank to agree to let them do it later. I want to see it being done. I wonder how many more homeschoolers have fallen victim to misplaced books and the resultant fines?

No fighting, no biting shares an account of her family's trip to the US Capitol. It's hard enough with 6 kids, but when you throw in lunch with an anti-homeschooling relative and you have a mess! 

Kathy Davis reviews "Journey to Nowhere",  a great historical novel.

Do you have a child who is obsessed with dinosaurs? Perhaps this information at the K12 directory of blogs will be of use to you.  One of life's mysteries to me is why so many kids become dinosaur obsessed. Thankfully that particular obsession skipped over our home. Whenever I see dumbed down school material I think of young children who know every obscure fact about their particular obsession and know that once again someone is short selling children.

Oftentimes we tie ourselves so to our curriculum that we fail to see teaching opportunities right in front of our eyes. Carol from Everything home had fun with pumpkin seed math.

If you are looking for ideas for Advent calendars, look no further than Sandwich INK.com.

If an Advent calendar doesn't float your boat or if you are looking for more ideas for Christmas, look no further than Lynn's blog, "Eclectic Homeschooling". 

Rachel Lynette shares an interesting idea for writing prompts. She suggests having your children write out long lists of things they are thankful for and to use those as writing prompts. Read her full blog post here

Are you in the process of trying to help your high schooler choose a college? Here's something to be thankful about. A list of the top 50 college blogs. 

Dual enrollment has been a hot topic on lists in Virginia for the last few weeks. I suspect, from the emails, that more than one homeschooler is finding this issue to be a minefield. Misinformation appears to abound. Homeschool College Counselor has done a good job of explaining the  benefits and pitfalls involved in dual enrollment.

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