This Week’s Homeschooling Carnival

 
It has been nine years now since the future Baron left his home school and went off to a local private middle school to begin his secondary education.

I was dreading trying to get him through high school level in my weak subjects – Chemistry, Physics, and any language but English, just to name a few – so, when the scholarship opportunity came up, we were glad to take it.

Back then we had just started using the internet, and the rich collective and connective world that we take for granted now was only just beginning. We were not totally isolated – we joined a homeschoolers’ group, our son was in Scouts, and there were drama groups and other activities with fellow homeschoolers – but the resources available now are so much more plentiful and accessible.

Take, for example, this week’s Homeschooling Carnival, hosted by The Common Room. There are too many entries for me to detail here, so I’ll just give you a selection at random:

Dad’s Corner talks about the difficulties of being a one-income family in a dual-income culture in It’s Not About the What-If’s, writing from a father’s point of view. Formerly in the ministry, he focuses on the unfolding events in terms of his connection with God:

We have two opportunities for my profession in front of us, and either one looks shaky at best. I want to do what God is calling me to do. Pursuing both is also an option, but I’m really not sure how they will fit together. That’s not my main concern, however. What concerns me the most is the timing. What if this doesn’t work out? What if I can’t make my mortgage or utilities? What if our credit rating gets trashed? What if–what if–whatif-whatif-whatif???

My wife was driving to pick the kids up from their weekly activity today and she got the impression, “People spend too much time thinking about the what-if’s and not about the I-AM.”

Principled Discovery is teaching writing to her child, and in Writing Lessons...Descriptive Writing she presents scanned images of her child's writing pages as well as a written account. I couldn’t do justice to it without the images, so I recommend that you go over and take a look.

Nerd Family explores the internet touring opportunities for homeschoolers in Tour the World for Free! The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station plant tour sounded like the most interesting to me – but that might be because I’m a nerd, too.

There’s much more, but you’ll have to go look for yourself. And if you’re one of those people who equates homeschoolers with chinless wild-eyed fundamentalists, you’ll be disabused of that notion by the Headmistress and her fellow participants at The Homeschooling Carnival.