Carnival of Homeschooling: Celebrating Autumn Edition

Welcome to the October 12 edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling! I know I'm not alone in calling autumn my favorite season, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some of the beauty here in the Smoky Mountains while showcasing some fantastic posts from around the homeschooling world.

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
~John Muir

How can you build your child up and help him become the best person he can be? Vicki suggests various ways in her post Building a Child Up at High on Homeschool.

Katherine sings the library card blues at No Fighting, No Biting! After all, she says, shouldn't homeschoolers should get special treatment at the library and be able to check out many more than a measly 30 books per card?

Carolyn at Guilt-Free Homeschooling lists the Bottom 10 Worst Parts of Homeschooling. But rather than just telling you the bad news and leave you hanging, she includes valuable coping strategies for each point, based on how this real-life family survived their own "darker days of homeschooling." This is a fantastic post, filled with practical ideas!

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
~Albert Camus

Calling all Sonlight lovers! Lips That Speak Knowledge has a Sonlight Showcase for users of Sonlight curriculum to link up, showcasing some way they’ve supplemented the curriculum or work their child has done using Sonlight. This particular Showcase also features a handwriting curriculum giveaway.

This week in her homeschool co-op blogging class, Denise presents ways to make reading posts easy and fun in Week 5: Reader-Friendly Editing and Format posted at Blogging 2 Learn.

Elena LaVictoire presents Why my family decided on College Plus posted at My Domestic Church.

Do you have a child about to head for college? Henry explores just Where Does All the Money Go on Why Homeschool.

Cristina writes about her family's growing pains as their oldest starts college in If All the Other Kids Go to College.... posted at Home Spun Juggling.

I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house.

So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne

While homeschooling gives us some immunity to what is planned for public schooled children, what about the zero to five ages? With changes planned for the youngest we need to educate ourselves now on the proposed changes. Heather Laurie presents Reform a nation by starting young! posted at Special Needs Homeschooling.

Rational Jenn has mixed feelings about her homeschooled kids' first experience with homework and the trophy-reward system at On Homework posted at Rational Jenn.

e-Mom discusses the importance of the arts in education in Arts & Culture: Does Art Matter? posted at C h r y s a l i s ?.

Denise of Let's Play Math! presents math puzzles called soriteses or polysyllogisms in Lewis Carroll’s Logic Challenges.

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face.
~John Donne

Illinois public school authorities have some misconceptions about homeschooling rights. Susan Ryan provides some explanations in Regarding Learning Time posted at Corn and Oil.

In her post Wish You Were Paid to Homeschool Your Children?, Barbara Frank of Barbara Frank Online says that while there's a government that pays parents to homeschool their children, you should also consider the downside.

Finally, if you're looking for some resources and activities for celebrating autumn, check out my recent post here on SmallWorld. And then consider hopping over to The Homeschool Classroom to read my post Biting Into Apples. I hope you'll spend some time enjoying this season!

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird
I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
~George Eliot

I hope you've enjoyed this edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. As always, thanks to Henry Cate at Why Homeschool for running the carnival. Tune in next week at Homeschool Buzz for another great carnival. Anyone can submit an article. Just pick one of your favorite homeschooling posts and fill out the submission form by Monday at 6 p.m!