Wednesday, 20 November 2013

Carnival of Homeschooling {Edition # 412}


Welcome to the 412th edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling where home school families share their homeschool wisdom with us from all over the world via their blogs.

Carnival of Homeschooling was started by the Cate Family over at Why Homeschool and has been a tremendous source of home school support and information.

This Week . . .

Ben and Me
Marcy from over at Ben and Me shares E is for Everyday Epistles. . You too can become a walking epistle! Memorize the entire book of Philippians in 28 weeks!


A Slice of Homeschool Pie
How We Use Stuffed Animals In Our Homeschool over at A Slice of Homeschool Pie. Read about how this family use stuffed animal toys to create a happy learning environment in their day to day school activities.  Yes Mom plays too :)



 3rd and 4th Grade Grammar and Spelling---How We Do It for Free! Susan from over at Homeschooling Hearts & Minds explains how she is doing 3rd and 4th grade language arts for free, the philosophy behind it, and links to free resources so others can follow a similar path.



 Lisa Marie from over at The Canadian Homeschooler is sharing some thoughts on Bullying Awareness Week. A full list of resources and information for you can be found here.


Cristi from over at Through the Calm and Through the Storm is sharing This Year's Favorite Crew Review Items. Christi has a show and tell of their families top ten products and why they are still using them.



52 Homeschool Tips for Every Homeschooler – #27 Use Bath Time as Learning Time Tawnee is doing a series on Homeschool Tips for Every Homeschooler over at Adventures in Homeschooling and todays tips covers Bath time learning.


Crystal shares all about her families Our Sugar Cube Castle! Homeschool Fun! over at Crystal Starr Blog. See the process and adventures to be had building a Sugar Cube Castle.




Homeschooling and the What If game by Janine Cate over at Why Homeschool. She shares because we, as homeschoolers, have a nearly endless supply of educational options, it can be very hard to be satisfied with our choices.


Annie Kate from over at Tea time with Annie Kate shares Delight-Directed Learning, Part 1: Pitfalls We have been learning in a delight-directed way for over a decade and a half, and we've been fallen into some common pitfalls. Once you know what they are, you can more easily avoid them.


Barbara from over at Barbara Frank online shares some thoughts this week One response to the question, "How many hours a day do you homeschool your kids?" in her post  How Many Hours?


Highhill Homeschool
Julie from over at Highhill Education shares some great resources for a Rome Unit Study - Government and Military. Please join us each week as we continue to learn about Ancient Rome through books, videos and activities. At Highhill Education we believe kids learn best when they are having fun. We do lots of entertaining and education activities which support this philosophy.

Knowing what the Bill of Rights guarantees us and fighting to not let those rights be taken away will keep our country strong. Do your children know what those rights represent? Chris from over at Homeschool vs Public School is working his way through the Bill of Rights with a short post each day covering a different aspect. This week he shares on Bill of Rights 7th, 8th,9th &10th Amendments. 


Sarah over at Mustard Seed Mommy shares An Introduction to Tot School this week. This post is an intro on how Mustard Seed Mommy's family has introduced tot school into their day to day life.


Katherine from over at No Fighting, No Biting shares some thoughts on children learn at their own paceand what to do with extra-curricular activities when a child is in multiple grades?


Suzie's Home Education Ideas

Suzie from over at Suzie's Home Education Ideas shares about the different learning activities her son has been doing to learn about fractions. 10+ ways to play with Fractions contains links to FREE printable resources to help your children learn fractions.




Kate from over at The Alternative Family introduces us to …The ‘Grow-Learn-Go’ Series   a free book for your Kindle.



Photobucket

Bernadette over at the Barefoot Hippie Girl shares some thoughts on What to Do When You Run Out of Fuel 



Navigating By Joy

 Lucinda from over at Navigating By Joy shares some great resources on Hands-On Russian History

 


Thank you for visiting the carnival this week may you be as encouraged as I have been reading what has been shared.

Blessings

Chareen 

Next weeks Carnival will be hosted at Petticoat Government
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For Future editions of Carnival of Homeschooling
Email submissions to: CarnivalOfHomeschooling@gmail.com
When: by 6:00 PM (PST) on the Monday evening of the week. It is greatly appreciated when the submissions come in earlier.
What: Please send the following information
Title of Post
URL of Post
Name of Blog
URL of Blog
Brief summary of the post
Brief introduction of yourself
(With "carnival" or "submission" in the subject field of the email.)  

Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Homeschool Burnout

Homeschool burnout is one of those things we all experience somewhere along the line as home educators.  Those feeling of being overwhelmed and just not wanting to carry on yet in our hearts we know that is not true but our fickle feelings seem to tell us on occasion we are done for.  There are many signs and sypmtoms of being burned out and there are many posts out there telling us to just get over it and keep going.  The truth is we all need a helping hand and some encouragement.  My favourite self help for the times I'm over whelmed is practicing Mother Culture and if you want to know more practical ideas of implementing this in your home take a read of: How Important is Alone Time and Home Schooling ? .  Here are some further thoughts on homeschool burnout.

Symptoms
  • Feelings of being inadequit (above the norm)
  • Exhaustion 
  • Depression type emotions
  • Wanting to run away and put the kids back in school
  • Do you suffer from CHAOS {Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrom} due to the state of your home.
  • Short fused ?  Constantly frustrated/angry with the children ?
  • Feelings of being overwhelmed
  • A lack of hope or enthusiasm.
  • Feelings of anger and resentment towards members of the family
Help
  • Sleep are you getting enough ? Did you know "Sleeping only 4-5 hours a night induces mental impairment equivalent to a blood alcohol level above the legal driving limit." - Dr. Caroline Leaf 
  • Exercise such as a stroll will greatly improve your mental state and allow the household to enjoy the great out doors.
  • Do you practice Mother Culture on a regular basis ? Regular means just that regular or daily. 
  • Think seasonally. One interest per season, coupled with thirty minutes of reading a day, may be all that is needed to keep up the Mother Culture and regain any lost enthusiasm for living - Karen Andreola
  • Get some home help. Hire a teen to babysit for an hour if you have small children.  If you need the ironing taken care of hire a teen to spend a couple of hours a week assisting you.
  • Find a good support group of like minded homeschool mothers.  Take the time to go out and participate in fellowship with these woman.  The group I'm with meets fortnightly and has a cup of tea while the children play together.
  • Read a few good books to support you as a homeschool mom.
  • STOP partaking in the comparison game.  That is one merry go round you do not need to ride.  As home educating families we are individual and thus each and every familiy has different needs and ways of doing things.  If you are trying to do things the same as someone else you will burnout.
  • Take 15 min a day to organise.
  • Take a good look at your expectations ?  Are they realistic or idealistic ?
  • Put perfectionism on the shelf

On the www
Charlotte Mason advised the teacher to replenish her soul with a continual supply of ideas. ...stimulates your educational thought in many directions and keeps you from drifting into mere routine... Do not think this is a selfish thing to do, because the advantage does not end with yourself."


Blessings

Chareen

This post is part of the Homeschool Help series brought to you by a group of homeschool Mom's from around the globe.  Do not forget to visit and read their inspirational insight.



This week
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Sunday, 17 November 2013

HSMJ it's been a Botanical Week

In my life this week…
It's been a delightful week this past week.  Paul and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary on Saturday by spending the day out at the Royal Melbourne Botanical Gardens.
I enjoyed looking at this info graphic:  What People Think I do {Misconceptions about Stay-At-Home Moms}


In our home school this week…
  • We spent a delightful day on Monday with our local homeschool group touring the botanical gardens and potting up some plants. 
  • We have been learning times tables in math and started three digit addition.
  • Last week we presented Sir N with his very first bible which he has loved reading and using in biblical studies this week.  We have been reading about the  Ten Commandments and Gideon and completing the pages in Studying God's Word Book C  

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
  • Royal Botanical Gardens 
  • Tennis
  • Kelly Sports
  • Mom's Group
  • Church
My favourite thing this week was…
Questions/thoughts I have…
Things I’m working on…
In Bloggy world I’m reading…
I’m cooking…
On Pinterest I found...
  • Kelly from over at The Spunky Coconut
  • Amy from Homeschool Encouragement
  •  
I’m grateful for…
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…


Oh watching this was so much fun. A surprise performance at a wedding :) To Life: Vanessa's Wedding Surprise

Blessings

Chareen

Homegrown Learners

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