The longer we homeschool, the more we realize that homeschooling isn’t merely about spelling, math and history. It’s really about Life, the Universe and Everything, but not quite the way Douglas Adams meant it! It seems like when you start to homeschool, the scales fall from your eyes and you realize all the many, many things you need to teach your children. That’s why a homeschooling blog carnival is so very interesting! Welcome to the October 11th edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling!  For your visual pleasure, we are including a series of photographs taken by our son, Matt, at Prairie State Park in Missouri.

Life is one of the biggest challenges – and blessings – of homeschooling for us, how about you?

There’s just so much to do and so often we don’t feel like we’re doing it all well. Today’s Carnival of Homeschooling has some help! Jenny Herman is pretty convicting for us plugged-in parents in Limiting “Tomorrow’s Homeschooler” posted at Home Educating Family Publishing, though maybe I should have saved this one for the end! If you’re in computer angst, check out Jacqui’s post with Tech Tip #88: 20 Techie Problems Every Student Can Fix « Ask a Tech Teacher posted at Ask a Tech Teacher.

The house seems overwhelming for most of us at some time or another. Mrs. White encourages us to get up and get busy with Only Rich People Have Clean Houses posted at The Legacy of Home and Angela Gray faces the challenges of Autumn head-on in It’s That Time Again – Team Gray! posted at team Gray!.

And Gidget encourages us in these difficult times to get our children involved in Giving in Order to Get posted at Homeschooling Unscripted.

Sometimes You Need School Stuff – Great tips, inspiration and ideas

Gina Glenn challenges us to focus on what’s important in The Tyranny of Tidbits! posted at A Cherished Keeper.

Nancy Kelly intrigues and inspires us with My Calendar of Firsts posted at Sage Parnassus, while Jenny Herman uses schedules to help her son on the autism spectrum in Back to School with a Simple Schedule | Many Hats Mommy posted at Back to School with a Simple Schedule.

Adam Faughn shares Children’s Project: Bible Time Line posted at The Faughn Family of Four. I really enjoyed seeing his family’s unique timeline — my younger ones could really get into this!

Jamerrill Stewart posted this Free Literature Based Civil War Study at Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling | Living the Life of Faith.

Lisa presents Memory Monday posted at Golden Grasses and Denise tells us How to Conquer the Times Table, Part 5 posted at Let’s Play Math!. Also, with regard to teaching math, Alexander Bogomolny presents Thought provokers to start a class with posted at CTK Insights.

Jennifer posts a very interesting Lesson 14: Dairy – Cheese, butter, milk, curds & whey, buttermilk, yogurt posted at Nutrition for Healthy Kids, while Aunt B reminds us to keep our children safe with Fire Safety for Homeschool at Homeschool 4 Free.

Great things to think about – or discuss

Nancy Flanders talks about The Cooperative Toddler posted at Parenting Squad and Kelly, a public school teacher planning to homeschool, reflects on Keeping Curious: Retaining Our Love of Learning posted at The Homeschool Co-op.

Darlene Franco is looking to the future in Life on the Franco Farm: Message to My Daughter posted at Life on the Franco Farm and Barbara Frank presents a guest post by Rachel Poling, who’s already there in “Debt-free College Grad at 19” on Thriving in the 21st Century.

Christian musician Stephen Bagasao brings up some important issues in The Death of Steve Jobs: The Real Story posted at Stephen Bautista Music.

Pamela presents Relaxing Family Yoga…. Well….Not Really posted at Blah, Blah, Blog and Alasandra wants to explain that homeschoolers are diverse in NOT a Republican Foot Soldier at Alasandra’s Homeschool Blog.

Henry Cate, the father of this Carnival, asked one of his daughters what she liked about homeschooling and wrote A benefit to homeschooling – the flexibility at Why Homeschool and Linda Dobson reminds us all our sacrifice is worth it in Yes, You May Have to Give Up Some THINGS to Homeschool posted at PARENT AT THE HELM.

Matt Binz, Lee Binz’s dh, Mr. Homescholar posts a video blog on how parenting sons changes as they get older. It’s Raising Boys v. Raising Men at The Homescholar Record.

And Mike Smith of HSLDA, wanted to me to tell you something: “Melanie, tell the moms that the legend has it that Notre Dame’s star player in the 1920’s, George Gipp, lay dying in a hospital, his famous coach visited him and the last words of dying Gipp to Rockne were, “When the boys are up against it and they seem to have no where to turn, just tell them to win one for the Gipper.” Ronald Regan played Gipp in the movie. When the moms’ backs are against the wall and they can’t see light at the end of the tunnel and all hope is gone, tell them, “God didn’t call them to raise their children for Harvard but for Heaven.. Focus on that and God will take care of the rest.” We’ve certainly found that to be true – the more we focus on Christ, the more satisfied we are with what we’re seeing in our sons, whether the Lord takes them to a top university to shine for Him or whether we just see it in doing a messy job for the family cheerfully.

Our final contribution is our own. Tonight Hal’s mother took us all out to the movies. The ladies went to see Dolphin’s  Tale (I’ll review it in a few days) and Hal took the boys to see Courageous. It impacted him so much he came right home and wrote a review of it for you. Read it here!

Thank you for joining us for the Carnival of Homeschooling today – be sure to share it with others! While you’re here, we hope you’ll take a moment to sign up for our newsletter (you’ll get one of our most popular downloads free once we add your email if you do!), like us on Facebook, and check out our book (Raising Real Men was Christian Small Publishers Book of the Year this year!) and other resources. Thanks for stopping by!

Hal & Melanie