From the official Crayola site:

The seeds of creativity live in everyone. Some individuals are fortunate — their sprouting imagination was nurtured and grown into strong creative thinking abilities. Their parents and teachers nourished them with creative experiences and confidence building responses to their attempts, throughout their childhood.

Creative people invent, imagine, problem-solve, create, and communicate in fresh, new ways. Every business requires creative thinkers in the form of scientists, engineers, medical researchers, technology innovators, business entrepreneurs, artists, performers, writers and illustrators, designers, inventors, educators and parents. Those with the ability to “think outside of the box” will lead the future and make special things happen.

Take a look at all the links on the Crayola site for fun ways to inspire and encourage creativity in your family.

Check out the free Power of Creativity Guide to Encouraging Creative Expression. From the Guide: Decorating with children’s artwork is a wonderful way to celebrate their creativity. Show that you value what kids create. Hang their artwork in mats or frames. Take some art to work to brighten your office or work area. Send artwork to relatives. Decorate your child’s room with personally created art originals. A fun place to hang artwork is above your children’s beds, so they have something special “to look up to”.

Crayola Creativity Guide

…While Homeschooling is a fun and clever new Facebook page for homeschoolers with a sense of humor, and it serves up great doses of common sense. Recent posts have included these things best avoided:

• Forcing a reading program on a preschooler. Life’s too short, and your sanity is too valuable.

• MAKING them do a craft for every thing we study, then getting frustrated when they leave them all over the house.

• Forcing your child to sit at a desk while you’re teaching him about history. My son learned best while on the floor with the dog.

And a favorite:

• Mummifying a chicken. For weeks, you have a raw chicken on your counter, you go through pounds of salt, and at the end, there’s a dried up chicken! Is this really the best way for kids to learn about ancient Egypt?

365 Things to Avoid…

Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.- Beatrix Potter

I attended school, but many years later when I heard this quote by Beatrix Potter, I was reminded of a teacher who did attempt to squelch my creativity for a bit when I didn’t pass her “art test” and she refused my enrollment in her freshman art class. Thankfully, passion is rarely stopped by such obstacles and a friend shared the useful bits of the lessons she learned in the class with me.

Home education not only prevents creativity from being rubbed off, but encourages each child to create, explore and discover their place in the world. In honor of the Easter holiday and Ms. Potter, I present the Peter Rabbit Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling, starting with some great Peter Rabbit Resources:

Online Digital Peter Rabbit

Freedom to Explore

Home education offers hours of time to learn and explore. Here are some wonderful posts from families who are doing just that:

Once Upon A Family sent along A simple little activity. I love that my kids will see something and on their own get out the supplies and try it. If I had put this together for them I don’t think it would have had the same punch. Visit their site to explore the Floating Ping Pong Ball.

Percival Blakeney Academy wrote, We shook off the winter blahs to go see Japanese cherry blossoms. You can explore Japan:Kamakura , the lovely cherry blossoms and more via their photos and excellent field trip description.

Cherish shared a post about an advanced math concept that came up in the Transformer’s Movie, at her Faraday’s Cage is where you put Schroedinger’s Cat blog. You can read Fourier Transformers to learn more about the concept.

Renae at Life Nurturing Education provides us with More Simple Ideas for Storing Memories.

Mary presents Professor Garfield’s Comic Lab posted at The Informed Parent.

Sarah presents Rainforest Lapbooks posted at SmallWorld.

Shannon presents Weekly Scout Badge Work/Show-and-Tell posted at Mountaineer Country.

Misty presents Kids Cooking Ideas Turn into Math Lessons posted at Homeschool Bytes.

Dana presents How to make a nesting bag posted at The Science Mouse.

Nurturing Environments

Another important part of encouraging creativity is the wonderful nurturing that is provided by parents. Here are some posts that take a look at parenting and homeschooling perspectives.

Lara DeHaven presents What Grade Are You In? posted at Texas Homesteader.

Tammy Takahashi asks, Where do working homeschoolers fall in the Mommy Wars? Is it a new way to look at feminism? in her post, Are Working Homeschoolers “Working Moms” or “Stay at Home Moms”? at her Just Enough and Nothing More blog.

Barbara Frank Online shares, It’s exciting when any child takes the initiative to use what he’s learned from his “schoolwork” in his daily life. When he’s developmentally delayed, the wait is longer but the excitement is every bit as strong. Read all about this via Worth the Wait.

Beverly Hernandez writes, Sharing your story can be encouraging to other parents that are homeschooling their autistic child or are considering it. Visit Beverly’s Homeschooling Blog to read Do you homeschool your child with autism?

Susan Ryan presents Turning something good into a law posted at Corn and Oil.

Dana presents Is our culture too overprotective of children? posted at Principled Discovery.

Denise presents Calling Homeschoolers: Teaching Advice Wanted posted at Let’s Play Math!.

Karen presents Why Do You Homeschool? posted at The Stone Age Techie.

Jen presents My Children and TLC’s “Table for 12″ TV Show Collide at the MOST posted at Cage Free Monkeys.

Kris presents Homeschooling Styles: Unit Studies posted at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Susan Gaissert presents A Conversation Overheard posted at The Expanding Life.

Henry Cate writes that he is grateful their efforts to teach history and politics is paying off. You will learn why when you read, We must be doing something right at his Why Homeschool Blog.

Mary Nix presents Glimpses into Homeschool Lives posted at Taking a Closer Look.

That concludes the Carnival of Homeschooling, Peter Rabbit Edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling using their Carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on their blog Carnival index page.

Carnival of Homeschooling – Peter Rabbit Edition

One of my children sent along this link to What’s that stuff? that he found at the Chemical and Engineering News site. They have an alphabetical list that gives you a look at the chemistry behind a wide variety of everyday products.

You can explore the latest issue or explore the archives back to 1998.

What’s that stuff?

HearthSong.

HearthSong – Toys You’ll Feel Good About Giving

Barbara Kane founded HearthSong in 1983 because of a growing conviction that, “..too often, in our culture, children are pushed to grow up too fast. I started HearthSong to make a statement reinforcing what parents themselves know is true, right and healthy–that childhood is a very special time.” Children need time to be children.

A catalyst for Kane was a major national news magazine’s cover story on “superbabies.” This article, and her own observations, made her more aware of how our society pressures parents to teach their children more and more facts, at earlier and earlier ages. In Kane’s view, “Earlier is not necessarily better. It’s important that children learn basic skills, but at the right developmental age. Most of all, children need time for creative, imaginative play. In fact, it is through play that children learn most readily.”

Kane chose the company’s name to reflect her values: the hearth, a traditional symbol for the center of the home, and song to symbolize the family spirit, the joy that parents and children can experience together.

Kane felt strongly that childhood is a unique period in the life of an individual, that the consciousness of a child is completely different from that of an adult, that there is a specific purpose and a specific pattern to childhood and to the development of a child’s consciousness, and that adults can help or hinder the accomplishment of that purpose and pattern.

With a love for children, a reverence for life, and a desire to support you in your task of parenting, we offer you our service and our products: toys you’ll feel good about giving.

Free full color catalog upon request.

HearthSong

Celebrating one of the most influential figures in jazz, this comprehensive biography incorporates the legendary Duke Ellington’s talents into engaging activities for children. Enlisting the musician’s gifts as a pianist, composer, and band leader, this interdisciplinary approach shows how to create a ragtime rhythm, make a washtub bass, write song lyrics, dance the Lindy Hop, and even design an album cover. Exploring Ellington’s life and career, this activity guide includes information on additional topics such as the Harlem Renaissance, the musical evolution of jazz, and how technology has changed over the years-from piano rolls and record albums to CDs, television, and portable music devices. A time line, glossary, selected bibliography, and extensive resources-including Ellington’s greatest recordings, related websites, and recommendations for further study-are also included.

Stephanie Stein Crease is the author of Gil Evans: Out of the Cool and Music Lessons. She wrote the liner notes for the Grammy award-winning CD set Duke Ellington Centennial Edition.

Duke Ellington His Life in Jazz with 21 Activities

Duke Ellington His Life in Jazz with 21 Activities by Stephanie Stein

This book starts out telling the history of money, offers tips for a successful financial life and includes facts about money, interest rates, loans, credit cards, finance charges, predatory lending practices, preventing and resolving debt-related problems and more.

Here is part of the description from the publisher:

Debt Information For Teens explains the economic fundamentals that govern the use of debt as a financial tool. It talks about the uses and abuses of credit and describes how everyday transactions serve to create a person’s credit history. Different types of loans, including vehicle loans, loans for education, business loans, and mortgages are described. A special section on credit and debit cards outlines the advantages and disadvantages of using plastic. Another section on predatory and problematic lending practices focuses on the types of credit often associated with exceptionally high interest rates and other abuses, including payday and title loans, refund anticipation loans, and advance-fee loan scams. Information on preventing and resolving debt-related problems is also included, and the book concludes with a directory of resources for additional help and information.

Debt Information For Teens

Debt Information For Teens

My newsreader settings include blog entries, and a blog post about free homeschooling curriculum was included in one of the alerts.  I was intrigued, because many of us like to refer new homeschooling parents to free information to ease their transition into homeschooling.

Free curriculum that spell out the process and make themselves readily accessible are the kinds I like.  There are no gags, gimmicks or enrollment. The instruction information is right there.

• Ambleside Online (Charlotte Mason curriculum)
• Annenberg Media (variety of videos for various grades and subjects)
• BBC Languages (online language instruction)
• BBC Schools (courses and reviews of material)
• Grade Skill Help Pages  (K – 8 curriculum)
• Handwriting
• Hoagies Gifted Free Online Text Materials  (links to free materials)
• Hoagies Gifted, High School Courses & Curriculum Materials  (links to free materials)
• MIT Open Courseware  (free college courses)
• Open University (free college courses)
• Project Gutenberg (free books)
• Wikiversity (free courses)
• World Book Typical Course of Study  (typical North American P – 12 curriculum description)

The curriculum offered as “free,” though, is not readily available.  As the website itself says, there is a “catch.”  That catch is your personal information.

• response to questions, surveys and offers
• evaluation of courses
• consider a donation
• acceptance of email and/or postal offers, which may be in developmental phases and must be held in confidence
• agree to consider participating in online discussions of products

Participation is limited each year.  People who apply to participate in the program may be denied.  Changes may be made without notice.  Higher demand that availability is expected.

Criteria for acceptance, if spaces are still available:

• U.S. citizens; parents and children must live in same household
• Completion of enrollment form, and payment of any “incidental” or “elective” fees using a debit or credit card.  Payment card is used to “help with identification.”
• Family may not have previously used any other private online education provider.  Only people with a “fresh” perspective, and apparently no experience with which to compare against, are eligible.
• Applicants may not have any immediate family members employed by any competitor in the K-12 curriculum business.
• Applicants must supply a telephone number, an email address that is regularly checked, a valid street address, credit or debit card number that is billed to the same street address.
• No negative comments about the program may be made in public.
• Applicants who do not qualify, and who try to enroll anyhow will be expelled and be “subject to legal remedies as allowed by law.”

Of course, this kind of structure will appeal to some people because they enjoy making a contribution to research, and the provision of the curriculum is compensation for their participation.  But for families looking for freely available materials without strings, other resources may be more to their liking.

posted by Valerie

“Free” homeschooling curriculum