Frugal Homeschooling: Women's Suffrage, and Playing with Wordle

[Image created using Wordle.]

When things calm down, I plan to get back to posting mini book reviews each week. For now, I'm doing good to get anything posted at all! But I have been looking for an excuse to play around with the Wordle online "toy," so I copied the carnival of homeschooling into it, just to see what came our. (If you have trouble reading the fine print, click to enlarge the image.) This ended up taking much more time than I thought, because my old screenshot capture program couldn't handle the java image. I had to install Jing, which worked like a dream.

This week's homeschool blog carnival celebrates women's suffrage. Stop by and enjoy the history and the wide variety of carnival entries:

139th Carnival of Homeschooling- Women’s Independence Day Edition

I haven't had a chance to read even a quarter of the posts. The carnival seems to grow longer every week, and there are always so many interesting articles that I have trouble choosing where to click first. But I like to post highlights each week, passing on a little link-love to my favorite bloggers. (Every little link helps, right?)

So here are several articles that drew my attention:

Your Year in Preview: Starting the School Year Off Right
"Don't write off the fantasy just yet. Allow yourself to see the possibilities of what could be, instead of wallowing in what is. We are capable of doing so much more than we think we can. The secret is to work smarter and make choices that reflect your priorities. Here's the challenge... pick just one thing. That's right, which piece of our fantasy scenario tugged the most at your heart-strings?"
180 Poems
"A poem a day for each day of the school year..."
Adventures with Alice - Another amazing free programming tool for kids and teens!
We tried this program, but didn't have as much success as Jennifer's boys had. Still, my dd is taking a college programming class that uses Alice, and I am interested in giving it another try. Meanwhile, we'll look into the scriptwriting link at the end of the article...
Waiting to Be Discovered: Primary Level Artist Appreciation-A Free 36 Week Art Curriculum from Little Acorns
Wow! This deserves a post of its own. Check it out!
iTunes U
University courses on the iPod? This is an article I must pass on to my dd.
Frugal Homeschooler: Preschool Printables
Our kids are past that age, but NerdMom offers five great links for anyone with littles.
Practicing Spelling: Yes, It Really Can Be Fun
"I know there are some homeschoolers who don't bother with weekly spelling lists. I suspect that my kids wish that their Mom was one of those homeschoolers. But, in case weekly spelling lists are a reality of your homeschool as well, why not try a new activity next week with your kids while they study their words?"
Home Spun comic strip #257
What do you call a homeschooler who is always on the run from one activity to another?
If you want to share give the author credit
A timely article, since just this morning I found one of my most popular (math) blog posts copied yet again---this time, it was passed on to a homeschooling Yahoo group, without attribution. In that case, I was glad to see that another group member recognized it and posted a link to the original. But it is good for all of us to remember that blog and forum posts are copyrighted, just like books. The content belongs to the original author, and they should receive credit due. For more information, read I Love Your List! I’m Going To Copy It!

Carnival hostess Renae is a homeschool mom of three in East Texas. She writes, "My days are consumed making a peaceful and nourishing home for my family. I desire to renew my mind according to biblical principles. This will be my life long pursuit. Truth is my passion. When my children are grown, I intend to go back to school to officially become a teacher, so I can inspire more generations to live in liberty. I will also finish at least half of the scrapbooks and sewing projects I’ve started."

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