Barbara Frank

Be inspired, be encouraged: check out this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling!

I don’t always find time to promote the Carnival of Homeschooling as I should. It’s such a great resource for both new and veteran homeschooling parents. Every post gives you a peek into the world of homeschooling. You learn about the enormous variety of ways that parents are educating their children.

This week’s edition of the carnival is no exception. As a bonus, it’s very pretty, thanks to the artwork of Swedish artist Carl Larsson, whose work I adore because his favorite subjects were his family and his beautiful Swedish home (yes, I’m part Swedish). Visit the carnival and you’ll see what I mean!

This week’s Carnival of Homeschooling celebrates its 5th anniversary, and is hosted by the Cate family, who originated it. It’s one of the longest running blog carnivals out there. Its theme is the movie “Princess Bride,” which is beloved by many homeschoolers, including a few that used to live in our house 

You won’t believe how many great posts there are at this anniversary carnival…….see for yourself!

This week’s edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling is hosted by Judy Aron, and she did an awesome job. Check it out!

This week’s Carnival of Homeschooling is themed “All Things Austen.” Check it out here; you’ll learn more about homeschooling and you’ll probably want to watch “Pride and Prejudice” again too. 

Escape those winter doldrums with a visit to this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling. There are quite a few interesting posts this week about things like:

science project ideas

scrapbooking

life stress and homeschooling

how to use free audio books

And much more….check it out here.

I can’t remember when I’ve seen a more interesting range of posts than at this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling. You really have to see it for yourself! Go HERE. 

Another cold January weekend….the perfect time to stay home where it’s nice and warm and spend some time visiting this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling.

We can learn so much from others on this homeschooling journey. The carnival makes it easy to check in with a variety of bloggers and get their take on all sorts of homeschool-related topics. It’s a great way to relax and learn at the same time. See you there!

Back in the day, when I was a wannabe homeschooler, there weren’t many places to go to learn about homeschooling. I received a lovely little newsletter from the Moores that I devoured as soon as it arrived in my mailbox. I got the name of a homeschooling parent several towns away, called her, and soaked up her advice with gratitude. But that was about all the encouragement I could find.

Who could have imagined back in 1984, when I first learned about homeschooling, that someday there would be this thing called the Internet, where you could find more homeschool encouragement than you could ever absorb?

Of course, with so much available about homeschooling, it can sometimes be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. That’s why people like the Cates are so cool. The Cates began the official Carnival of Homeschooling, where each week you can read an assortment of posts related to homeschooling. It’s the best place I know to find bloggers you’ll want to visit again and again.

The Carnival takes a lot of work, and none of those involved get paid for it. I think it’s a labor of love. We bloggers love this lifestyle, and what it does for our kids, and we want to share that good news with anyone who’s interested in learning about it. That goes double for those who organize the posts into each week’s carnival.

This week is the carnival’s fourth anniversary. Wow…..210 weeks’ worth of informative blog posts, laid out in clever themes for your enjoyment. And you can still check any of them out, if you wish, right here.

Many thanks to the Cates, and to all the others who have hosted or will host the Carnival of Homeschooling. You do a great service to parents everywhere.

You won’t want to miss this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling post. It’s the “Christmas Ornament Edition,” and it’s packed with entries related to homeschooling. Check it out now!

It’s Saturday, a good day to run errands, catch up on things, and make a little time for the Carnival of Homeschooling. This week’s edition has some really interesting posts: don’t miss it!

So you’ve been hanging out at the pool or beach with the kids, making meals that don’t heat up the house, enjoying the nice weather and just plain appreciating the fact that it’s summer.

Me too.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with taking a few minutes to tiptoe over to this week’s edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling and see what other homeschooling parents are thinking and doing these days. After all, whether or not you’re taking the summer off of homeschooling, fall is just around the corner, and it never hurts to keep that homeschooling fire going, even if you just set it on “simmer” for the time being. 

With the renaissance of homeschooling in the early 1980s came a trickle, and then a flood, of books and magazines about homeschooling.

These were eagerly read by homeschooling parents wanting to know how others were teaching their children, because there weren’t many homeschoolers around to talk with.

Today, reading about how other families homeschool their children is almost too easy. There are more magazines and books than ever, plus countless blogs on the Internet where parents reveal every last detail of their homeschooling journeys, or so it seems.

There’s a very real danger here, however. With so much personal revelation out there, it’s way too easy to compare your family and your homeschooling experience to others. This is not a good thing!

You can always find someone whose homeschooling experience sounds far more successful than your own. It’s way too tempting to think, “We have so many struggles, and after reading about this family, it’s obvious that I’m in over my head in this homeschooling thing. Her kids are doing so many wonderful projects, and I have to fight to get mine away from the video games to do anything. I give up!”

The fact is that every family is different, and no family can imitate another and come up with the same results. It’s not fair to compare another family to yours: different kids, different parents, different financial situations.

When you read about other homeschooling families, try to think about which of their ideas would work for your family instead of imitating everything they do in a misguided attempt to “succeed.”

Besides, homeschooling success is defined in many different ways. For one child, it’s getting to college on a full scholarship. For another, it’s making his or her way in the world on their own. For a few, like my teenage son, it’s functioning to the best of your abilities despite multiple disabilities.

So go ahead, read all the homeschooling books and magazines and surf homeschoolers’ blogs. Visit the Carnival of Homeschooling each week. Glean as many great ideas as you think might work for your family. Discard those that turn out to be wrong for your family. And always keep in mind that there’s no one right way to homeschool. The beauty of homeschooling is that it can be tailored to each family, each child, and each parent.

Renae at Life Nurturing Education is hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling this week, which is based on the theme of Top Ten School Supplies. She has an nice variety of posts, too.

This week’s Carnival of Homeschooling is being hosted over at the NerdHouse; check it out!