If you like words, this is a great podcast for you!

"The Word Nerds is a weekly podcast about language and language change. It has been published on the Internet since March 21, 2005.

Three language teachers, Dave Shepherd, Howard Shepherd, and Howard Chang, talk about nearly any topic you could imagine having to do with language. "

The Word Nerds

EBay, for reasons unknown, decided that teacher's editions, teacher's guides, curriculum guides... all that stuff that homeschoolers desparately need -is now contraband.

Why we don't really know - we suspect pressure from publishers.

Anyway...

There's a big group of eBay sellers that got together and voted on the This Little Piggy Stays Home Website to post teacher's editions, homeschool books, and curriculum on.

I noticed today that word is spreading like wildfire - I got it several times on different listservs.

If you get any of those things, please consider listing here so we can all have access to these at used prices and please pass this info on to anyone that might selll homeschool or regular text books!

College students looking for teacher's editions may be interested as well.

Homeschoolers have NEW alternative to eBay for Teacher's Editions

By: Attorney Deborah Stevenson, Executive Director, National Home Education Legal Defense

"Nothing makes me angrier than a lie, except when a lie is repeated so often that people believe it to be truth. I’m sick of lies, distorted truth, spin, and revisionist history. Can we just get back to reality? Can we just hold people accountable for their purposeful distortions?

Can we just set the record straight?

The lie that makes me the angriest is the lie that “It’s legal to homeschool “now.”” The implication in that statement is the lie. The implication is that it wasn’t legal to homeschool before, or that homeschooling only became legal in the past 20 years or so. Nothing could be farther from the truth. "

The Big Lie about Public Education, Homeschooling and Compulsory Attendance

My son loves this site! It is a educational site that offers content for kids - lots of streaming videos, homework help, and brain games that are both educational and fun.

As a parent and homeschool mom with only one child, what I like best about the service is that they've found a way to encourage kids to use it. With my account, I am able to set up 4 children to use the account. In the terms it says these can be friends OR family, so we were able to set up accounts for 3 of my son's best friends.

For every video or activity that the kids engage in, they are awarded points. At certain levels of points, they are able to get games, simulations, screensavers.

Kids LOVE to "Unlock" things, and they love friendly competition.

At 99.00 a year, or 9.95 a month, we think Cosmeo is a good deal.

The search feature makes it particularly good for homeschoolers, especially eclectic homeschoolers or unschoolers.

It may not appeal as much to Classical homeschoolers, as there is very little support for Latin or classical studies.

Still, it is educational fun, and I'm all for that. :-) The streaming and animation are very well done.

Broadband IS a requirement.

Cosmeo.Com offers free 30 day trial

There's just so much here! I had to set this as my homepage for a while!

Basically a blog carnival is a select of recent
posts from blogs about a given theme. This third Carnival
of Homeschooling has posts from various bloggers who have
recently written about homeschooling.
If you've never looked at a blog carnival, go
check this out, you may enjoy it.

The 3rd Carnival of Homeschooling

While out at an antique mart today my son found an abacus and started playing with it. I told him that they were considered by many to be the first computer, and were the first kind of calculator.

Then he asked me how it worked. I had no idea.

We came home, and found this link. It has an java tutorial that takes you step by step through the operations.

Ever wondered how an abacus works?

ACT scores released

Average National ACT Score Unchanged in 2005; Students Graduate from High School Ready or Not
• Average national composite score is 20.9, unchanged from 2004
• More students consider college-record number of test-takers; sizeable increase in minority test-takers; Hispanic test-takers rise 40% since 2001
• New College Readiness Benchmark in reading suggests only half of test-takers have adequate college-level skills in reading
comprehension
• Majority of graduates still missing college-ready skills in math and science

See http://www.act.org/news/data/05/pdf/t11.pdf for comparison of
educational demographics.

HOME SCHOOLED: 8075 Average ACT score: 22.5

Homeschooled students score about national average on ACT

"Faced with declining literacy and the ever-growing distractions of the electronic media, faced with the fact that - Harry Potter fans aside - so few kids curl up with a book and read for pleasure anymore, what do we teachers do? We saddle students with textbooks that would turn off even the most passionate reader."

How schools are destroying the joy of reading

This is an excellent viewpoint to consider.

Could the conventional wisdom about education be wrong?

An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him AND his ex-wife from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals."

Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs