Welcome to the latest edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. Read more…

It is buzzing all over the blogworld… the annual homeschool blog awards are going on right now At The Post. You’ve seen me mention it a few times because there is something just exciting about having your blog enjoyed so much people vote you “The Best…. Blog”. Of course there are a great many blogs out there. Perhaps not in the awards at all, and still those in the awards that may not be at the top but still just as good. Read more…

Erina, Cairan and Cait are helping their mother bake bread in the family’s kitchen in Dubai. The children have ground the wheat and measured the ingredients, and are now kneading dough while singing a nursery rhyme in unison.

When the task is done, four-year-old Cait goes to her play kitchen to make bread for her dolls. Cairan, seven, walks to the living room and listens to her mother recite another chapter from Little House in the Big Woods, a book by the famous children’s author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Read more…

Welcome to this hundred-and-umpteenth Carnival of Homeschooling! Because November is National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo or nano), and I’m over 10,000 words into the writing process (and can’t think of anything but writing, writing, and more writing), I thought it would be appropriate to format this Carnival as sections of a book. I even consulted the Chicago Manual of Style for an authoritative list of book parts! Read more…

Today, I received a copy of a letter that my local MP sent to the education secretary, Ed Balls. This letter was prompted by my concerns about the Badman report, a review into home-education which was submitted in June and immediately accepted by Balls. The government may implement these recommendations by including them in the Queen’s speech on 18 November.

My six-year-old daughter is educated by me, at home. I am not a home-education evangelist and neither do I have any problem with the concept of school, but I do know that home education works for us. Badman’s recommendations would change what home education means to us – a positive and successful part of our family life – into an ongoing battle with the state. It would be compulsory for me to register with the local authority and a criminal offence for me not to. I would also have to apply to my local authority for approval which may, or may not, be granted. Even if granted, I would have to go through this process on an annual basis and, at any point the LEA could refuse my application and force my child into school. In terms of fostering an educational environment which feels secure for the child, it is hard to think how the government could be less helpful. Read more…

When Anne Marie Semke was a school-aged child, she said she thrived in the public school system. She loved it enough that she decided to become a teacher and taught at both public and private high schools in Vancouver, B.C. As an adult, Semke still has fond memories of public school but is choosing to homeschool her two children.

“When I became a teacher (I) realized this is a system that works for certain children and certain families but not for all,” Semke said during a weekly gathering of the ACTS HomeSchool Group at Sunrise Baptist Church in Puyallup. Read more…

Today, I received a copy of a letter that my local MP sent to the education secretary, Ed Balls. This letter was prompted by my concerns about the Badman report, a review into home-education which was submitted in June and immediately accepted by Balls. The government may implement these recommendations by including them in the Queen’s speech on 18 November.

My six-year-old daughter is educated by me, at home. I am not a home-education evangelist and neither do I have any problem with the concept of school, but I do know that home education works for us. Badman’s recommendations would change what home education means to us – a positive and successful part of our family life – into an ongoing battle with the state. It would be compulsory for me to register with the local authority and a criminal offence for me not to. I would also have to apply to my local authority for approval which may, or may not, be granted. Even if granted, I would have to go through this process on an annual basis and, at any point the LEA could refuse my application and force my child into school. In terms of fostering an educational environment which feels secure for the child, it is hard to think how the government could be less helpful. Read more…

When Anne Marie Semke was a school-aged child, she said she thrived in the public school system. She loved it enough that she decided to become a teacher and taught at both public and private high schools in Vancouver, B.C. As an adult, Semke still has fond memories of public school but is choosing to homeschool her two children.

“When I became a teacher (I) realized this is a system that works for certain children and certain families but not for all,” Semke said during a weekly gathering of the ACTS HomeSchool Group at Sunrise Baptist Church in Puyallup. Read more…

When Anne Marie Semke was a school-aged child, she said she thrived in the public school system. She loved it enough that she decided to become a teacher and taught at both public and private high schools in Vancouver, B.C. As an adult, Semke still has fond memories of public school but is choosing to homeschool her two children.

“When I became a teacher (I) realized this is a system that works for certain children and certain families but not for all,” Semke said during a weekly gathering of the ACTS HomeSchool Group at Sunrise Baptist Church in Puyallup. Read more…