Carnival Of Homeschooling - The Boy Scout Edition

July 29th marks the founding of the Boy Scout Movement - In 1907 - Sir Robert Baden-Powell set up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England. The camp ran from August 1-9, 1907, and is regarded as the founding of the Scouting movement.

Here is the Boy Scout oath, law, and motto.

I come from a scouting family. My dad was a scoutmaster and my brothers were both scouts. My son earned his Eagle scout rank. My husband was also a scout in his youth and later became an assistant scoutmaster, just like his dad. I have fond memories of family camp at Ten Mile River in New York State as well as many other camping experiences.

Scouting represents to me educating our youth to be independent, resourceful and well-rounded individuals. Scouts are educated in many areas of life. Just look at the long list of subjects covered in merit badges.

Homeschooling also teaches our kids to be independent, resourceful and well-rounded individuals.

With that in mind, let's see what merit badges our homeschoolers are earning this week.

First off - Since the Boy Scout Motto is "Be Prepared" Bettina warns you to be prepared when relocating and homeschooling with her post "The Importance of Research Before Relocating" over at her blog The Life Without School Blog

Gardening

:: Suzanne :: earns her gardening merit badge with her piece about writing & gardening posted at her blog entitled :: adventures in daily living ::.

Scholarship

Heather Johnson earns the scholarship merit badge (along with others below) and offers some discussion and thoughtful insights with this GUEST POST: Homeschooling – Is it for Your Child? at her blog Weapons of Mass Discussion.

Melitsa shows how play is an important part of learning with her post about Toddler play activity 5 posted at Play-Activities.com.

The post School of the Future talks about how Private Christian Schools are thriving due mainly to the ineptness of government schools. If private schools succeed, they will be generally unnecessary in 2 or 3 generations. If they fail, they will persist indefinitely, and even thrive. How so? This homeschooling dad recently attended the annual conference for the Association of Classical and Christian Schools and offers a peek at the future of this movement. Read more over at Every Good Path

Amy Cortez says, "Brain melting Summer time fun! Some take summer off and some people don't. I guess it all depends on where you are in your life!" She offers us Summer Pursuits: Year Round Homeschooling wich can be found at The Eclectic Telegraph.

Denise has an interesting mixed math bag over at Let's Play Math!. She calls it Christmas in July?. Let's just say it is our "just for fun" part of scholarship.

Homeschooling can be successful, but it isn't for everybody. Dana writes Homeschooling is not the gospel and she brings up some very good points at Principled Discovery.

Rose shares with us some Thoughts on starting to homeschool presented over at Learning at Home.

Tiffany Washko earned this Scholarship merit badge with Knowledge Adventure Games for Homeschoolers posted over at Natural Family Living Blog.

Cooking

HowToMe earns the Cooking merit badge this week by showing us How to Slice and Core an Apple, Professionally! over at HowToMe.

Leperdy shares some wonderful photos along with Tea Tasting Fever . Bring your favorite Tea cup to the Alex and Leperdy blogspot.

Jacque cooks up some Healthy Snacks for the (Large) Homeschooling Family and you can read all about it at Walking Therein. Jacque says, "With so many children who love fruit, it can get expensive, so these are some healthy ways we snack!"

American Heritage

Renae earns her American Heritage merit badge with an exploration in the American History Series- My Heritage is Beautiful to Me. Please take a look at Life Nurturing Education.

This post entitled "Erie Canal Village, Rome, NY Part 1 " offers some terrific pictures and historical information. It's a good read over at New YorK Traveler.net

Homeschooling allows parents to walk with their children as they study difficult subjects. This post entitled, "Multiculturalism" over at Successful Homeschooling shows how multiculturalism can be presented with the use of American history as its backdrop.

I didn't know if icybooh should get the Cooking merit badge or the American Heritage merit badge, so I'll award the latter. Here is a review of the video called "Food Fight" which homeschoolers might find useful in their studies of American and World History/Wars. icybooh presents Featured Video: Food Fight. It can be found at icybooh.

Art

Dawn Adams gets her Art merit badge with Cursive and Art posted over at Day by Day Discoveries.

Comic strips are also an art form. Cristina shows us a comic about aligning schedules to plan a homeschoolers show entitled Home Spun comic strip #251 posted at Home Spun Juggling.

Citizenship In The World

Sonja Myers helps us to be citizens in the world with her post about learning German entiled: Sprechen Sie Deutsch? posted at MTheads.

If you've ever watched a telenovela "Spanish-language soap opera" you know that Spanish speakers are infamous for speaking very rapidly. The Eclectic Female shows us an interesting way to master the Spanish language with this post about Developing Speed in Spanish Speaking posted at Women's Lifestyle.

Michelle Rothwell also earns her Citizenship of the World merit badge with her post about Homeschool Spanish From the Biblical World View entitled Why Should You Choose Spanish For Your Homeschooled Children? posted at Dora & Diego Homeschool Spanish.

ChristineMM also earns this merit badge with her endeavor entitled Excited to Host a Foreign Exchange Student This Summer. Their next big family learning experience; they are going to host a Japanese foreign exchange student for a month this summer. Learn more over at The Thinking Mother.

Of course learning English is also important in order to be a citizen of the world. English is spoken in many places around the globe. Unlike many other languages, there is not always an exact pattern to the way English is spoken and written, so 1-Language helps us to Learn English Articles » Blog Archive » Easy Ways to Practice Time frames in English posted at English.

Hiking and Climbing

Living By Learning said, "Exploring a book's setting can be an exciting way to share a story. On a recent family adventure, inspired by My Side of the Mountain, we decided to follow Sam's journey into the Catskill Mountains". They help us earn these three merit badges with Exploring My Side of the Mountain, Part I posted at On Living By Learning.

Speaking of reading....

Reading

Kerry offers some ideas and resources to help you teach a late-blooming reader with her article about Helping the older child learn to read which can be read over at A Ten O'Clock Scholar.

Kathy gets her reading merit badge with her review of The children's book "The Iron Giant" and she suggests it for your next family read-a-loud. The Iron Giant (A story in five nights) posted at Homeschoolbuzz.com Reviews.

Reading also helps you get organized. Prepare yourself for the school year ahead, through household organization and reading some ideas posted by Erin called New Year -- preparing your brain posted at Delighting in His Richness.

writer2b submits a book review of Elisabeth Elliot's encouraging book 'The Shaping of a Christian Family.' The Shaping of a Christian Family is found at Findings.

If you like reading - you'll love Book Giveaways - Hands-on-History Projects! found over at Pass the Torch. It is two giveaways - one for each of two Kris Bordessa hands-on-history books. On is about the Ancient Greeks and one is Colonial America. I hear the projects in both books are awesome!

Personal Fitness

In an emerging, dynamic, high growth market, like brain training, it is difficult to make precise projections. But, we can observe a number of trends that bloggers should watch closely in the coming years, as brain fitness and training becomes mainstream, new tools appear, and an ecosystem grows around it. Part of having a better functioning brain is making sure you take care of yourself, and that is part of the Top 10 Brain Training Future Trends posted by Alvaro Fernandez at SharpBrains and is awarded the Personal Fitness merit badge.

Family Life

Successful homeschooling has at it's heart Family Life. Yankee Mom says, "I hope to encourage mothers who are struggling with homeschooling through high school -- especially if their children are reluctant students." She shows that even the most reluctant students can become welcomed and respected college students by virtue of their past homeschooling achievements, with her post entitled Success over at Yankee Mom.

Speaking of graduations: Barbara Frank says, "If having a class ring is important to your homeschooled senior, there are definitely options for obtaining one." Read more at the post Homeschool Class Rings at Barbara Frank.

therapydoc also presents a view of Why it's Good to Enmesh Your Children over at Everyone Needs Therapy.

HappyCampers gives us a glimpse into Snippets From The Week & The Big Plan written for Reese's View Of The World. happy campers says, "I'm trying to decide which path is best for our Kindergarten year...I have many thoughts and am so conflicted!" (Congratulations! you are normal! aren't we all conflicted about such things?)

Alasandra earns her Family Life merit badge with a rebuttal to a piece written by Jennifer Graham in her post Embracing the Joys of Summer, with Kids posted at Alasandra's Homeschool Blog Awards.

Also earning the Family Life merit badge is Tiffanie who shares her story with Homeschooling; An Unintended and Challenging Yet Fulfilling Adventure posted at Our Life.

Mammal Study

Erica Burgan gets the Mammal Study merit badge for Cool Off with Arctic Animals Study posted over at The Sojourner.

Insect Study

Summer earns the Insect study merit badge by sharing a day in the life bug chasing, creek crawling, slime tossing boys. Mud Stompin' is the post over at Wired For Noise.

Music

Our Music merit badge is earned by Thomas J. West who presents Music Practice Tip #3: Five Ways to Make Music Practice Un-Boring which can be enjoyed at Thomas J. West Music.

Citizen of the Community

Denise earns this badge as a community organizer. She says, "Summer is time for planning ahead to the next school year, which makes it a great time to think about starting a homeschool co-op. Would you like to get together with a few other families for semi-regular playtime or field trips? Or do you envision a large organization with several classes for each grade level?" She gives us some tips about Planning a Homeschool Co-op which can be found at Frugal Homeschooling.

Getting together with friends at the library to do some gaming is definitely some community fun. Sally Thompson presents Bringing Gaming (and Gamers) to Your Library: 100 Tips and Resources | OEDb posted at OEDb: Online Education Database.

Homeschoolers are lucky to have such a supportive community. Why Homeschool says, "When people ask us about homeschooling, tell them they are well supported." Read more at their post entitled You get a parachute

Personal Management

Kelly Sonora takes care of some money questions and earns this personal management merit badge with some worthwhile information about 100+ Places to Find Funding For Your Research | OEDb which can be found at OEDb: Online Education Database.

Elena LaVictoire shows how she has managed to work as a medical transcriptionist from home while homeschooling with Medical Transcription and the Homeschooling Mom posted at My Domestic Church.

Saving money is important to personal finance. David Cassell tells us about how to get Free College Textbooks over at selectcoursesblog.com.

Citizenship in the Nation and Law

Mary Nix earns the Citizenship in the Nation and the Law merit badges for pointing out some crucial Ohio education funding interpretations with her piece entitled Funding losses are not Ohio homeschooler?s fault?.. posted at The Informed Parent.

Spunky also earns those merit badges for her post which asks Should the state require parents to tell government officials of their intent to homeschool? Spunky looks at that question in light of a proposed bill in the Michigan legislature and emphatically says, "NO." her post is entitled Truancy and Parental Rights and can be found at Spunky Homeschool.

Susan Ryan ponders the reasons homeschoolers say that compulsory attendance changes don't affect homeschoolers. She opines: I don't get it: compulsory attendance changes over at Corn and Oil.

Miss Amanda penned this excellent piece about The Original Intent of The Preamble which was an essay she wrote for her Senior year of Homeschool about the Preamble. It's over at The Daily Planet. She is deserving of those badges too!

Camping

Elisheva Levin says, "Our summer projects curriculum always includes travel. And travel to Camp Aunt Madge is always educational as well as entertaining! After all, Madge graduated from Dad's Kitchen Table University the same as I... " so she gives us Camp Aunt Madge which is posted at Ragamuffin Studies.

"I sent my 9 year old son to a week of summer camp where he had fun, got along great with the other kids and caused relatively little trouble. Here's why his summer camp experience showed me I do not want him enrolled in school", said this blogger. She shares her post entitled: Summer Camp and Peer Socialization which can be read over at The Upside Down World

Engineering

These little homeschool engineers made the longest marble run they could possibly make. It turned out to be nearly 43 feet. Just imagine the fun, 4 young children, hundreds of marbles and the world's biggest marble run. Shez shows us a Marble Ruuuuun....... proudly posted at Homeschooled twins.

Communication and Computers and LifeSaving

To all of you participating Carnival of Homeschooling bloggers: You also get the Communication and Computers merit badges! And since your advice and columns have been a help to so many - you also get the LifeSaving merit badge!

As always, "Do a Good Turn Daily", and I hope you all enjoyed the Boy Scout Edition of our Homeschool Carnival!

Don't miss next week's carnival at The Homeschool Cafe

Lord Baden Powell