Carnival of Homeschooling #239: Hosted this week by The Common Room.

Although a theme is not necessary to host the homeschooling carnival (I have hosted with no theme before), it can be fun. This week’s theme is a bit ambitious. It is… the history of homeschooling in America. Please understand this history is somewhat subjective and is in no way intended to be comprehensive.

For easier reading, I have tried to sort the posts into categories and have those category headings in boldface type. The homeschool history information will be italicized and in green, so I hope that makes it easier to read, and to skim ahead if you just wish to find the articles of interest to you. Read more…

Over on the Big Government blog, Kyle Olson has some harsh words for the teacher’s union president. This is related to her response to a documentary detailing just how bad the school system is how the unions and tenure are the problem.

So to the Queen of Gall, I say this: yes, everyone IS an education expert.

WE know what is best for our children. You do not. And until we no longer have to foot the bill for your pay and outrageous budget-busting benefits, we will continue to speak up.

If your union can figure out a way to pay for the system yourselves, then we’ll let you run the show and gladly seek school alternatives. Until then, taxpayers WILL have the final say – and what are you going to do about it? Have another protest? Brandish your brass knuckles? Read more…

The 238th Carnival of Homeschooling: Texas Wildflower Edition is hosted this week by The Homeschool Post. Check it out and read the collective wisdom of other homeschoolers.

Welcome to the Texas Wildflower Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling… Each carnival writer has the option to put their compilation to a ‘theme’ if they so choose. I always do the themes. It’s a sickness. In the past I have done an Old West carnival, a Bee carnival (of course), an Autumn carnival, a Pregnancy & Child Development carnival, a Homeschool Memories carnival, and here at the post we have done an Old Schoolhouse carnival and a Christmas Ornament Edition. We hope you will enjoy this ‘issue’ and click over to read the submissions for this week. Read more…

This is from a Swedish news site The Local. Parents barred from homeschooling son. An increasing number of countries top courts are deciding that parents do not have a right to direct the education of their children.

The parents of a student in a northeastern Gothenburg suburb may no longer homeschool the child, the Supreme Administrative Court (Regeringsrätten) ruled on Thursday.

In its ruling, the court pointed out that the parents refused to cooperate in an investigation. They have homeschooled their son until the fifth grade, during which time he has passed national examinations.

The municipality and county administrative court have previously ruled that parents are unable to provide special skills, training in group work or allow the undertaking of scientific experiments that require specialised equipment. The court added it will not give leave to appeal the decision.
Read more…

Via ABC News:

That organization has information on its Web site about the laws in each of the 50 states. Local home-school support groups also are good resources on state statutes and regulations.

Parents also must decide how they want to teach their children. There are different styles of home schooling, from a traditional, structured, school-type setting to “unschooling,” where the child sets the parameters for learning. “Unschooling is totally throwing out the curriculum,” said Hegener, who said she never had a textbook in the house when she home-schooled her children in Alaska. “Life itself is a learning resource.” Read more…

The carnival is hosted this week at Why Homeschool. This week it is interspersed with some very useful rules about Punctuation!!!

The Carnival of Homeschooling – The Punctuation Edition

Welcome to the Punctuation Edition*
of the Carnival of Homeschooling.

*Most of the grammar rules are courtesy
of Basic Rules of Punctuation at About.com.

1) End Punctuation: Periods, Question Marks, and Exclamation Points

There are only three ways to end a sentence: with a period (.), a question mark (?), or an exclamation point (!). And because most of us state far more often than we question or exclaim, the period is by far the most popular end mark of punctuation. The American period, by the way, is more commonly known as a full stop in British English. Since around 1600, both terms have been used to describe the mark (or the long pause) at the end of a sentence. Read more…

Via the Knoxville News Sentinel

Amy Lemmon says every day is different for her six children. Not only are they all homeschooled, but Lemmon describes their education as unschooling.

Basically, the stay-at-home mom uses what’s going on around her to educate her children, 1-year-old Willy, 2-year-old Sam, 4-year-old Rick, 9-year-old Jacob, 12-year-old Allyson and 15-year-old Caitlyn.

“I really believe our daily life is education,” she said. “I really believe whatever we do, whether we go to the grocery store and have the kids price shop and do math … everything is learning. It doesn’t have to happen at a desk, in my opinion.” Read more…

Don’t assume this can’t happen here. Via Lifesite

Previous regulations specified that home instruction must be a “fully satisfactory alternative” to state-run education, and officials may inspect homeschooling families to make sure they are keeping up to speed. The new law keeps the previous regulations but adds a third, highly restrictive clause: parents may only homeschool after they have demonstrated “exceptional circumstances.” Despite the fact that the council of the Swedish supreme court charged with reviewing the laws recommended a clarification on the meaning of the ambiguous term “exceptional circumstances,” the government moved ahead without doing so. Read more…

The Carnival of Homeschooling is hosted this week by Roscommon Acres.

Welcome to the Carnival of Homeschooling, Independence Day edition! Read more…

Via the Williamson Herald. An independent film maker created a film depicting a future where homeschooling in illegal.

A roomful of viewers laughed and cried at all the right moments as a local independent Christian film company, Starbreather Studios – a Franklin-based, family-owned studio (Don and Kayla Jarmon and their son and daughter-in-law, Ryan and Sarah Jarmon and son Caleb Jarmon) – and a host of unlikely actors and film crew, debuted a powerful message recently at the local premiere of “Home-Schooled?” at the Brentwood Library. The movie is a fictitious story about a situation where home schooling becomes illegal and the civil rights of dedicated parents are called into question.

The story is a touching and realistic tale of parents who home-school their children as they face the dilemma of enrolling their children in public or private schools or be in violation of SB0593, a law that makes Georgia the eighth state to render home schooling illegal. Read more…