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4th Carnival of SAHMs 2007-05-28 09:35:40
Welcome to the 4th edition of the Carnival
of SAHMs! I’m excited to be hosting it here at Mom Is Teaching. Though this is mostly a homeschooling blog, the majority of homeschooling happens because of dedicated stay-at-home moms. I hope this blog carnival has something that everyone can enjoy.
As Stay at Home Moms we face unique challenges. Caring for our children and our homes is a 24/7 job, one that we get no vacations or sick days from. We often feel overwhelmed with the pressure to nuture, teach, and discipline our children without a thought to our own needs and wants.
“A man’s work is from sun to sun, but a mother’s work is never done.”~ Unknown
We often try to be everything to everyone, at the sacrifice of ourselves. Erica Douglas tells us to Stop Trying To Be a Perfect Parent at LittleMummy.Com.
Sometimes we get so overwhelmed we don’t know what to do next. Dexie suggests Feeling Overwhelmed?, Go Take A Walk posted at Superwoman.casaying,
Unschooling Voices is up 2007-06-02 14:21:37 June’s UnschoolingVoices
is up and ready. There are some great posts sumitted this month. Stop by and see for yourself, and maybe see about submitting one for July.
unschooling, unschooling voices, homeschooling, blogging, blog carnival
Low Impact toys? 2007-06-02 09:27:26
Today’s Low Impact post was inspired in part by a post I read at Finding Bongga Mom. Her post, The Simple Toys of Childhood, is a great list of the “toys” kids love that you don’t have to spend any money on. An added benefit of being free is that you don’t have to deal with all the wasteful packaging that toys are often sold wrapped up in. Like the thirty billion little plastic ties that take an hour to get off of each toy.
Reducing the amount of garbage you throw out each day is a great way to have a lower impact. Try to buy items that have little, or no, packaging about them. All the packaging can add up quickly. Try recycling more of the items that you buy and commonly toss out. Cardboard box, soda cans, plastic shopping bags, many of the every day items that we deal with can be recycled in one way or another. You can eve recycle the food that goes uneaten. How? Composting!
Why not help your kids set up a compost bin? You can make a large one for the
Low Impact Week begins! 2007-06-01 09:12:32
Welcome to Low Impact Week!
I thought I would start us off with a little self-motivation. Homeschool your kids and save the planet!
At first glance it amy seem odd, but homeschooling really can be an environmentally friendly choice. I recall an old article from 2005 (and was actually able to find it quickly) about the state of school lunches.
A single student produces 45 to 90 pounds of garbage a year in disposable lunches, according to New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation. A federal review of the National School Lunch Program found that wasted food costs more than $600 million, plus an untold nutritional loss.
Does that chill anyone else to the bone? So what are some tips that you could do to make lunch a little more low impact? I found this great page, How environmentally friendly is my lunch? that is a great lesson plan to start with. Get your kids thinking about what foods have a low impact
and are healthy to eat, then let them plan a picnic lunch full of low
Is homeschooling anti-feminist? 2007-05-31 08:15:10 I found an interesting article being talked about over at Just Enough, and Nothing More. The article can be found here.
But it’s frustrating to me that it goes without question so often that mothers are obligated to turn those brains and energy over to their children, keeping nothing for themselves, and not even getting that (meager) paycheck at the end of the day that professional teachers receive.
(more…)
Read more:feminist
Too many printables? 2007-06-05 08:59:52
Homeschoolers are netorious for printing things off. Worksheets, activity sheets, information, recipes, and more. If you can find it you can print it off. But what does all that printed off paper equal out to? Crunchy Chicken offers these tips for being low impact on your paper supplies.
Reduce your dependence on paper products -
print out only what is necessary
try out a a 100% recycled TP and tissue brand
don’t use paper towels; when you can, use cloth napkins or towels instead (e.g. public restrooms)
What other ways can you find to reduce your paper use? Try buying some laminating sheets so that you can reuse pages that you have printed off.. This can be really helpful if you have younger children that you will be homeschooling also. Being able to reuse the sheets will save you from needing to print new ones off as your children grow.
What tips do you have to share with other homeschoolers on reducing paper waste? I’d love to hear your ideas.
paper, paper waste
Low Impact week continues! 2007-06-04 08:59:40
We’re on day 4. More than half way through.
Today I was thinking about the plastic shopping bags that we bring home from the stores by the truck load. What do you do with yours? Do you toss them out? Reuse them? Recycle them? Here are a few facts you might not have known.
The average American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags per year.
If everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together in a giant chain, the chain would reach around the Earth not once, but 760 times!
According to the American Forest and Paper Association, in 1999 the U.S. alone used 10 billion paper grocery bags, requiring 14 million trees to be cut down.
Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photo-degrade—breaking down into small toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food-chain when mistaken for zooplankton or jellyfish.
So what can you do to use less plastic and lower your impact? There are many reusable options available. You can buy special
I’ve been tagged! 2007-06-03 22:41:23 MomToAnAngel from Homeschooling with laughter and love tagged me to do an 8 things about me meme.
The rules are simple…Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
So, for those curious, here are 8 things you might not know about me.
Tomorrow (Monday the 4th) is my youngest son’s Very First Birthday. Yes, I am gushing over with joy.
I’m not just a homeschooling mom, I’m also certified as a breastfeeding counselor through Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and I’m a labor and birth doula.
I was officially homeschooled myself only the first half of my freshman year of high school. However, since I was born I spent my summers with my uncle (the smartest man I ev
Water water everywhere? 2007-06-03 08:37:36
Day 3 of Low Impact week. How are you doing so far?
Here is a question for you. Do you know how much water you are using? APKimberMama over at Red Dirt Life knows she has a 90% Water Usage. What does that mean? That means its time for her to learn some water cutting strategies.
Some of the suggestions for Low Impact Week deals with your daily water usage. Water is something that so many of us take for granted. After all, it has always been here and always will right? Maybe not. Here are the suggestions for lowering your water usage.
take shorter showers and/or use a water saving showerhead
turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth
be aware of water usage when at the kitchen sink - turn it off in between tasks
save the water in a bucket that is discharged while warming up the shower and use it to water plants or for other things
Whynot take the time to teach your children about water conservation today? Not only will it lower your impact on the earth it can also sa Read more:everywhere
Do you know your ABC’s? 2007-06-08 08:16:23 I found a great post over at For Such a Time as Now called The ABC’s of Summer School. In her post Karen lists the ABC’s of what she plans to do this summer with her kids. I thought it was such a great post I had to steal it! So here is my list of summer fun, ABC style.
Act our age (in a fun way)
Blowing bubbles in the yard
Car trips
Dinorsaur adventures
Eat something cold every hot day
Find new things to learn about
Go swimming
Hunt for faeries
Ice cream!
Jump on our friend’s trampoline
Kid’s museums are fun to visit
Light firecrackers in the backyard
Make handmade books
Name every day of the week something silly
Organize some fun with our friends
Play in the mud
Quietly relax
Read, read, read
Sewing
Treat the kids to homemade treats
Underground exploring in caves
Volunteer our time
Watch fireflies
X-ercise
Yo-yo, or at least learn to
Zoo time!
fun, summer, summer fun, kisd, play
Thursday thirteen great books 2007-06-07 09:28:15
Since this is the last day of Low Impact week I wanted to combine it with the Thursday
Thirteen and share some great books that I think any parent wanting to help their children understand the environment should have. I was lucky enough to be tipped off about a bookstore called Barefoot Books. Why this book store rocks my socks is that the books are beautiful, delightful, and geared towards the hippie in all of us. The latest spring catalog is called The Whole World its in our hands! Support Global Conservation. So you can already guess that this is a bookstore I can really get behind. So I want to share my top 13 book picks, including some of my favorites from Barefoot Books.
(Books are in order from young children’s to young adult)
1. Whole World A percentage of sales from this title benefits global conservation.
2. Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon
3. Home for a Tiger, Home for a Bear
4. My First Green Book
5. A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History
6.Going Green: A Kid
Get out of the house and learn to love something. 2007-06-06 09:28:29
Today’s Low Impact Week tip blends together with the Works For Me Wednesday theme over at Rocks in My Dryer. Today’s theme is Mom-I’m-Bored.
One of the great ways to be low impact suggested over at the Crunchy Chicken is to turn off the tv when you are not watching it, or even better turn off the tv period. I know I can already hear the cries now. “But the kids will be so bored!” “But then I’ll have to listen to them whine and complain!” “But what will we do!” OK, so I may be over-dramatising that a little. But still, I’m sure there are some read to scroll down and add their comment right now for me telling them to unplug the tv for a whole week. I mean, didn’t we already have TV turn-Off week months ago?
Let me start by sharing this article, How to Entertain Your Children Without TV. There are some great ideas in there, and I’m not just saying that because I wrote it.
Now, I could suggest a lot of great w Read more:learn
, something
Homeschooling online 2007-06-11 08:01:51
I read a great article calledHomeschool Goes High Tech from Homeschool World. While the point of the article is to remind us not to get so wrapped up in all the glitz of the computer age, it did remind me that many homeschoolers are embracing the modern ways with a gusto.
Online programs are popping up all over the place to help homeschoolers who want to gettheir education online
. From the K12 or Progress Academy or even Laurel Springs the number of places to go for online homeschooling are growing each day. Secular, Christian, relaxed, or structured there is something for everyone. Don’t believe me? A Google search for “online homeschooling” produced 1,590,000 results.
But why are so many parents looking towards using an online homeschooling program? I was looking for an answer to that queastion and came upon a great article, How - To Choose And Use An Online Homeschool Curriculum. In the article I found this quote on why some parents may prefer to use an online cu Read more:Homeschooling
I love blogging - the meme 2007-06-09 09:00:00 Jo from Life With Heathens tagged me to say 5 reasons why I love blogging. The rules are simple, give five reasons why you love blogging and tag five other bloggers. No tag backs either but be sure to let them know who tagged you.
I get to meet so many awesome people blogging. There are a lot of great people out there writing their thoughts daily on this big web, and I am honored to get to “meet” them thanks to blogging.
I love to talk. Often to the point of driving my freinds and family crazy. blogging lets me talk to my heart’s content without annoying too many. And hey, if you’re annoyed you have the option to click a button and make me go away. There’s a certain man here who wishes he had the same.
I love being able to share opinions, advice, and information with others. We are like a giant, global think-tank. Blogging our way to perfection.
I’m saving a piece of myself digitally. My thoughts, memories, and feelings are all saved on the web fo
Homeschooling in the press 2007-06-15 08:30:10 Did anyone read this acrticle from the SFGate.com? Homeschooling
is a viable alternative to public schools. I have to say that I love reading some positive press for homeschooling.
Why do homeschooled students do so well? Koret Task Force member and Harvard professor Caroline Hoxby has shown that, of the factors affecting student performance, home environment and family support greatly outweigh school inputs: “Families matter most.”
So often homeschoolers are seen in the media as bumbling, anti-social, kids with no understanding of anything outside their homes. Some people in the media have gone so far as to mock homeschoolers, claiming that they are not being educated correctly. Rude comments to the effect that they will bee when they are out of the home and realize that everything they were taught was wrong are too often spit out at homeschoolers.
Comparisons in achievement tests of homeschooled students to national averages for all students show that homeschooled child
The Country Fair 2007-06-14 08:15:48 Get your submissions in now for the Country
Fair of Homeschooling! The last day to get them in is Saturday, June 16 and the fair will be up Monday, June 18. The theme is How we celebrate diversity, though you don’t have to go with the theme if you have a great post that you’re just itching to share.
You can go to the Call For Submissions post to see how to submit your blog post to the fair. And read the FAQs to see what is and isn’t allowed.
And don’t forget to thank Doc for all her hard work getting the Country Fair back up and running!
homeschool, blogging, blog carnival, Country Fair
Buying used homeschool curriculum 2007-06-13 09:00:48 My local homeschool group is hosting a bookfair next week and many families selling their old curriculum packages. For the family without a lot of money to spend, or the one just trying not to spend too much, buying used curriculum can be the way to go. You can easily find everything you are looking for at half the cost you would spend new.
Most people know about Ebay for buying used curriculum, but did you know there are many other places online you can shop as well? You can search within your local homeschool group and those around you. Check out your local craigslist and see what others have up to offer there. Or you can check out these sites that are just for curriculum. Happy curriculum shopping!
www.usedhomeschoolcurriculum.com
www.homeschoolclassifieds.com
www.vegsource.com/homeschool
www.thebackpack.com
www.usedhomeschoolbooks.com
theswap.com
www.edexbooks.com
homeschool, curriculum, books, used currirulum, homeschool curriculum, shopping
Read more:Buying
A bit of our day 2007-06-12 08:45:48 Over at Earth Ember we were fortunate enough to get a glimpse into her typical day. in her home with 4 kids and homeschooling. I loved it! And after already reading Quaballah share a bit of her day with with her boys I was just feeling the love. So I thought I would share what we did Monday.
I was up by 8 AM, woken by a boy in need of some breakfast. A little fruit and yogurt and a couple slices of toast later and he was happy as a clam. Meanwhile the little one was up and had taken his place curled on my lap nursing and occasionally babbling to his brother.
9 AM and we’re all done, dressed, and pretty much ready to go. We read a little, but the sunshine outside was too tempting for us. So out we went for playing in the yard, in mud puddles, and a bike ride.
11:30 AM we came back in to cool off and drink a big glass of ice water. I set my oldest up with coloring and the yougest with toys while I made lunch.
12:30 PM After lunch my little one goes down for a nap, so my oldest and
Homeschool tips and advice 2007-06-18 09:37:15
Pass the Torch is calling for homeschoolers to share their best tips. Go to her blog on Friday, June 22 and add your link to the Mr Linky she’ll have up. I’ll be adding my own post to the collection and I hope you will too. It will be fun reading all the great posts submitted.
This is another of the reasons why I love the blogging community available for homeschoolers. We can connect and share with other families hundred, even thousands of miles away. We can exchange tips, advice, stories, and concerns. No matter what is going on there is usually at least one other family that has lived through the same situation.
homeschool. homeschool tips, advice, blogging
Read more:Homeschool
Homeschool Tips and Advice 2007-06-22 07:00:47 Pass The Torch has her Homeschool
Tips and Advice post up. Everyone should rush over there now to check it out. And because for whatever reason my post didn’t save and I was in too much of a rush to double check it, here’s my post for it off the top of my head.
Relax.
No, seriously. That’s it. Relax.
I noticed a trend when I’m reading a lot of homeschool blogs, especially of families new to homeschooling. They sometimes get worked up into a frazzle. 30 different classes, constant educational field trips, trying to fit in this and that. Some spend more moeny each month buying toys/games/ resources than most spend each month on food. They feel that they not only need to have everything that the public schools have, they also have to have better. And their children are pushed to be fluent in Latin by 3, doing algebra by 7, and outperforming the local high school kids by 12. They worry that they have to have it all, be it all, and do it all every day or else they&r
Oak Meadow Spring Sale ending soon! 2007-06-21 08:57:05 In case anyone is interested in buying Oak Meadow
but hasn’t gotten to it yet, their Spring
Sale ends June 30th. Buy now and save 10% off all Kindergarten through High School Enrollments, all printed High School Curriculum, and all Craft Kits and Craft Supplies. Or get 20% off Preschool through 8th Grade Curriculum (printed and online) and All Teacher Manuals.
You can order by phone through Friday, the 29th, but you can place orders on our web site through Saturday, the 30th.
www.oakmeadow.com
(802) 251-7250
homeschool supplies, sale, Oak Meadow
Read more:Spring Sale
What is a home schooler? 2007-06-20 10:06:16 I came across A question for home schoolers over at Greg Laden’s blog and wanted to air it here.
I’m on my way out the door right now so I can’t give his questions the answers they deserve, but it is still an interesting post. The basic question seems rather simple, then he goes into a tangest that has me scratching my head. Or maybe the coffee just hasn’t kicked in yet. No matter, it is an intesting question on the term homeschooler.
Is a homeschooler a child who is being home schooled? Or is a homeschooler a parent who is homeschooling their child?
homeschool, homeschooler
Homeschooling and diversity go hand in hand 2007-06-19 08:48:09 The 7th Country Fair of Homeschooling
opened yesterday with a bang. The theme was diversity and the posts submitted certainly shared what diversity was all about. I wanted to share my top 5 favorite posts from the Country Fair, though there are certainly a lot more posts worth checking out.
When Tammy, of Just Enough, Nothing More, said “Homeschoolers are Weird“ I couldn’t help but giggle. I should put a banner up that reads “Weird, and proud of it!”.
Tammy, of Life Without School shared a post called Unconditional Teaching that really made me stop and think.
Owl, of Owl Flutter hit my heartstrings in her post on feminism and motherhood, in “Because We Treat Children Like Little Mental Patients“
Melissa, of Read Mommy, Read! shared a post that really made me smile, “Diversity and Compassion“.
RegularMom, of Like I Have Time For This, talked about the diversity all around her in her post Diversity.
Choosing just 5 to showcase was hard, as there are so
News Flash Five 2007-06-25 08:45:29 I saw this posted over at Homeschool Hacks and thought it was a great resource. It is called News Flash
Five and is ran by PBSKids. The site offers helpful lesson plans and information for parents to help teach their children about the news and current events.
From the About the Site page:
News Flash Five is a news site whose mission is to encourage young people to take an interest in news and current events. Animated broadcasts offer a fresh way of receiving the news online. Additional interactive activities are designed to provide users the means to understand how current events relate to and can affect their lives. A section for parents and teachers will provide guides for teaching children about current events. The site will also give users guidance and a means to write and share their own news stories.
news, News Flash Five, PBS, PBSKids, kids, current events
Are you already planning for the new homeschool year? 2007-06-28 07:30:08 I read a great post last night at Tookshire about creating the skeleton calendar of the coming year. It is looking to become a multi-post series on how they plan and prepare for the year ahead. With three teenagers in the home I am sure that there is a lot of planning
going on to make sure they have great transcripts full of the things that impress colleges. It is certainly a great post to read and take a few ideas from, even if you have younger children to plan for. I personally love how the first two things she plans for are the important dates for the family (birthdays,holidays, anniversaries) and the already existing routine that the family has.
I have seen some families try to write a perfect schedule that looks great on paper, but falls apart in action. Often becasue they failed to look at the family’s normal rhythm first. Sure getting up early to take a family walk and them jumping into the math lesson may look great, but if your kids are naturally slow to get going in the
Works for me - Make your own fashion 2007-06-27 06:05:38 Being a single income family can have seom drawbacks. Like not being able to buy the latest fashions, or sometimes not even being able to buy a new pair of jeans when the old pair rips. But part of the joy of homeschooling is being able to use our imagination and creativity on our own terms, and that can mean finding new ways to deal with the need for new clothes.
Recycled fashions are actually pretty popular among teenagers in some areas. Thrift stores are hunted through for outstanding hidden treasures. An old pair of jeans with ripped knees and an old leopard print shirt with a ruffled collar can become a fun and funky jean skirt. Old t-shirts can be cut and sewn together to make unique new shirts, or used as patches on jackets. Even guys can get into the fun by adding images from concert and band shirts to jeans and jackets.
Spend some time looking through thrift shops and second hand stores, talk about fashion and using clothing to express yourself, then pull out the sewing machi Read more:Works
We’re learning all the time 2007-06-26 10:11:20 I’ve seen some people, homeschoolers included, who make the mistake of thinking the summer months mean freedom from everything. Including education. Comments like “We’re not learning anything new right now, we’re on vacation.” and “We’ve stopped teaching for a while to let the kids take a break” seem to assume that learning only happens during scheduled times.
The fact is though that humans are constant learners, and children are the experts of this. Every day they are actively learning something new without curriculum, books, or lesson plans. They learn at what angle to hold the garden hose to make a rainbow appear in the water, how many lawns they need to mow to get that new bike, and how to finally dive into the city pool head first. They will even learn things we don’t want them to learn, which can then give us a lesson as we try to explain why they shouldn’t repeat what Eddie down the street said.
While many kids are tak
Teaching children to socialize. 2007-07-02 08:05:53 Texas Ed has an interesting post about Schools and socialization yesterday. An article from the UK news source the Telegraph shared that teachers may be required to complete a detailed analysis of how their students get along with each other. This analysis is supposed to help the teachers be able to help their students with their social and emotional well-being.
But, as Texas Ed asks: If we are supposed to send our children to school for the socialization, then why do teachers need to teach their students how to socialize?
Never before have we needed teachers to teach children how to socialize. Being a part of the real world on a daily basis was enough to help children gain the social skills that they needed. Before public schools became commonplace children were often found along side their parents. And, one could also add that before video games children spent their time playing freely and being a part of their community.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you feel that teachers ne
What book got you hooked? 2007-06-30 09:54:22 First Book, a non-profit organization that provides brand new books to children in low-income communities, is celebrating the distribution of their 50 millionth book this summer. To celebrate they are asking people to share with them what book got you hooked on reading. Go to their What Book Got You Hooked? page and fill out the short form. Then select which state you want to win 50,000 brand new books!
You can vote once every 24 hours until July 31. In August the results will be announced and one lucky state will have a huge stack of brand new books for the low income families living there.
books, reading, literacy, First Book, low income families
Circle C Adventures - pick the cover contest 2007-06-29 10:31:21 Susan Marlow, homeschooling mom and author of the Circle
C Adventures
, a series of historical fiction novels for kids, is hosting a contest for her newest upcoming book. Visit her blog, Suzy’s Scribbles, to read a brief summary of the upcoming book and get a sneak peak of chapter one. But more than that, you get to vote on which of the two covers she should use for the new book. Leave a comment on which book cover you like and why. Even better is that one lucky person will win a copy of the book, Andrea Carter and the Family Secret, when it comes out winter 2007/08.
And don’t forget to check out her other two books in the series, Andrea Carter and the Long Ride Home and Andrea Carter and the Dangerous Decision.
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