TV Turnoff Week: Fast, Cheap, & Easy Life Enhancement!

Why not live a little this week? The Center for Screen Time Awareness is once again sponsoring the ever-timely TV Turnoff Week. Pointing out that “television cuts into family time, harms our children’s ability to read and succeed in school, and contributes to unhealthy lifestyles and obesity” (though otherwise, it’s not so bad?!), the Center suggests that during the week of April 21-27, families keep the television OFF.

They suggest that “Turning off the television gives us a chance to think, read, create, and do. To connect with our families and engage in our communities. To turn off TV and turn on life.” We always learn more when we choose to do and be, rather than sit and stare.

If your family usually watches a ball game, try playing a game outside. If you enjoy cooking shows, try cooking instead! If your children like to watch cartoon, introduce them to the comics, and try drawing a few. Do and be, don’t sit and stare! The key is to live, rather than watching someone else pretend to live. Read more

115th Carnival of Homeschooling: Oh, The Things That You’ll Do!

Welcome to the 115th Carnival of Homeschooling! The theme for this carnival is adapted from Dr. Seuss’s beloved Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Homeschoolers are a diverse bunch, and I thought it would be interesting to read about some of the things we do.

One of the things we do particularly well is read, so I’ve also included posts that develop the theme that “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” (I Can Read With My Eyes Shut, Dr. Seuss).

Grab some popcorn, and enjoy the Carnival!

The Joy of Home and Family Traditions

Our first post is a celebration of Dr. Seuss’s birthday. In Fun that is Fun, posted on PinkPaperPeppermints, Melissa Okonski shares her family’s multi-generational delight in Dr. Seuss stories, and announces that the next edition of her ezine will “be ready soon and [it] includes a printable pattern and tutorial for a [Dr. Seuss-themed] mini book that could be used for scrapbooking, lapbooking, and homeschooling as well as links and my favorite quotes!” Read more

California Homeschool Ruling: Why It’s Absurd

If you’re not stranded, like Robinson Crusoe, on a desert island, you’ve probably heard about the California court ruling that essentially outlaws homeschooling in California. You can read an overview of the case as well as a complete copy of the brief at the Home School Legal Defense website, and you may also join the thousands who have signed a petition to request that the decision be depublished.

As I read through the brief, one thing struck me as particularly absurd. I found it remarkable that the California legislature has, over time, apparently concluded that the only way to meet the constitutional mandate that “A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the Legislature shall encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural improvement” (Article IX, Section 1) is to enact draconian laws that criminalize parents who don’t institutionalize their young people full time during the primary formative years of their lives. Read more

Happy National Grammar Day!

National Grammar Day, sponsored by The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG), is celebrated annually on March 4. I’m sure that someone somewhere has scheduled an event with party hats and noisemakers. I thought perhaps we’d content ourselves with a quiet celebration and a few links to interesting grammar resources. If you visit the links from the NGD site, I’d suggest you preview them before sharing them with your family, as I haven’t checked them all.

Let’s begin with a podcast of “Top Ten Grammar Myths” from Grammar Girl. She tackles the myths that trip would-be grammar experts everywhere, including items such as the true definition of run-on sentences, possessives, the use of ‘a’ or ‘an,’ split infinitives, and the number one myth– ending a sentence with a preposition. Read more

Visit Your Library From Home (Count Birds, Too!)

Do you get tired of hearing that the internet has changed everything? It’s pretty much true, you know, and that isn’t a bad thing. For one thing, it brings a wealth of knowledge to your desktop, no matter where you live. As long as you can get online, you have almost unlimited resources!

I have to admit that I don’t always pay attention to what is available, but when I visited our local library system’s website yesterday, I was struck by the array of reference materials I could access from home, completely free. Many of them used to be available only if you were on site at the library, and some are subscription-only reference materials that would be quite costly if you were to pay for them individually.

To discover what your library offers, you can start by locating your library system’s website with a Google search. Once there, look for “electronic resources” or “links,” and starting exploring! Read more

A Science Mystery Solved- Color and Light

*Be sure to check the end of this post for news about upcoming events! NANOWRIMO starts 11/1!

We had an unexpected lesson in the science of color and lighting this past week. Donald graciously used most of his vacation week to paint our kitchen and dining room, and it was one of those snowball projects. We were going from a deep, warm red to a nice mellow Behr color called “Bagel”– a warm golden yellow.

Five gallons of paint of paint and six days after we started taping, the project seems to be all done except for untaping and putting everything back in. However, we had a most interesting science lesson along the way. I enjoy choosing paint colors, and can usually visualize exactly what the color will look like on the wall. This time, by day two of painting, I was getting worried. The nice mellow color on the chip was glowing a rather violent orange hue on the wall. It looked dreadful– but not all the time. There were a couple of times when I looked at it and it was perfect! Read more

Language Arts Workshop is Up- And You Can Get It Free This Week!

When I sent out last month’s newsletter, I fully expected to have my workshop, Teaching Language Arts the Easy, Natural Way, up by the end of the week. I didn’t count on having to move my website and fix all sorts of interesting technical difficulties!

The exciting part of all this is that you can get the audio workshop free when you purchase Lynda Coats’ wonderful phonics curriculum, All the Letters, All Year Long. Lynda is the author of the Far Above Rubies and Blessed is the Man unit studies, and she’s really hit a home run with her new phonics program. It’s unique, comprehensive, and amazingly affordable! There are several great reviews at Lynda’s website– be sure to read them!

So why am I offering the Teaching Language Arts workshop free with Lynda’s book? It’s because a group of the Coats’ friends have gathered together to create an amazing group of bonus gifts (over $100 worth!) in order to benefit Lauren and Lynda. You see, Lynda’s dear husband, Lauren, has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer. He is home from the hospital, under the care of hospice, but as in any situation like this, medical bills continue to mount. Read more

Homework Insanity- This Emperor has No Clothes

Did you see Jeff Opdyke’s column on homework in Sunday’s Wall Street Journal (How Homework Is Hurting Our Family, September 30, 2007)? It was heartbreaking. He vividly described how their family life is “a constant, stress laden stream of homework and tests and projects [that] overshadows everything we do, always hanging over our head… [affecting] our weekends, our meals, our vacations, our work time, our playtime, our pocketbooks.”

Is this crazy, or what? Opdyke goes on to describe how homework stress affects each one in the family, short-circuiting tempers, straining schedules, and causing his wife Amy to feel like the “worst mom in the world.” He has talked to other parents who have ended up with kids on anxiety medications in order to cope with the stress. His own son is showing signs of intense stress– sleeplessness, anxiety, forgetfulness under pressure, and distress over less than outstanding grades.

Frankly, this sounds like a new wrinkle in the enabling syndrome. Middle-class parents enable schools to not only institutionalize their children for the majority of their waking hours, but also to consume the remaining hours of family time– all in the name of potential future success. Think about it– it hasn’t always been this way. Read more

Lightning- Not Again!

You may remember that in February of 2006, our phone line was struck by lightning, and we had to repair or replace most of our electronic items and telephones. We promptly signed up for the electric company’s surge protection program and installed everything as directed (I think!).

Well, the old saying about lightning not striking twice in the same place may still be true– this time, it zapped the cable pedestal out in the woods, and fried my modem and printer, among other things. And of course there’s no internet access!

In the spirit of make-do, I’m standing outside in the neighbor’s yard, my laptop propped on their trampoline, with their dogs happily “helping” me. Their wireless network seems to be working just fine! The only downside is that it’s sprinkled on and off all day, and another shower is imminent. I guess I’d better take my office back inside!

The point of all this is to say that I may not be able to answer e-mails as promptly as usual, but I will definitely do so as I can. I will also be downloading and sending out orders regularly, so things should go on pretty much as normal. I’ll take the uninterrupted writing time to write on the literature curriculum, so those of you who are patiently waiting for the beta version can rejoice!

Homeschool Through High School Audio (and Benefit)

I finally have my Homeschooling Through High School: There’s Joy in the Journey audio workshop, with PowerPoint(TM) presentation and book list handout, available on my website! If you’ve been wondering about whether you should home school through high school, I think you’ll find this workshop very reassuring.

There’s something special about it this week, though– I’m offering it as part of an amazing benefit package for someone who is a very special part of the homeschool community. Tammy Cardwell, reviews editor for EHO (Eclectic Homeschool Online), is living with her family in a home that is virtually giving away in the Texas rains. Water, mold, and falling ceilings have created a dangerous situation for their family, and they just need to get out (read more). Several of us in the homeschool community have joined together to offer a collection of really good products in an amazing package deal, so that Tammy and her family can transform a little warehouse they own into a safe, dry home.

For just this week, you can get my brand new Homeschooling Through High School: There’s Joy in the Journey audio workshop package as part of the benefit special, along with over twenty other good things from other home school writers and speakers. CLICK HERE to read more about the benefit and to make a donatation to help Tammy and her family.

If you’d like to read more about Homeschooling Through High School: There’s Joy in the Journey, you can visit my website by clicking here. But remember, be sure to go to the benefit site to get it, so that you can receive all the other special products and benefit the Cardwells.

Among the things included in this workshop:

I’ll share some of the most important lessons I’ve learned as I’ve homeschooled my sweet boys from kindergarten into college. You can curl up with a cup of something cool, and listen, while I take some of the unknowns out of the homeschool high school experience. Remember– there’s joy in the journey!

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