Carnivals:

–> The Carnival of Homeschooling will be hosted here tomorrow.

–>The Charlotte Mason Carnival will be hosted @ The Common Room. You can submit an article here.

–>April @ ElCloud Homeschool is hosting The 34th Homesteading Carnival, submit an article for new week’s.

–>The next Carnival of Principled Government will be on February 11th @ The Daily Planet, so submit an article.

–>This week’s Carnival of Space is up at Dynamics of Cats.

Contests:

*COH Icon - Graphics Contest at Why Homeschool*

• Don’t forget the Cates are holding a contest for icons for The Carnival of Homeschooling! Why Homeschool’s Carnival of Homeschooling Graphics Contest

*Dianne asks, “Ready for a Contest?” *

• and challenges you to participate and enunciate something great to shoot for as a goal in 2008. You can even abbreviate, and please don’t be late. Contest ends 12:00 midnight on Thursday, January 31, 2008.

*“Write Like Mike” Homeschool Writing Contest *

• Calling all homeschoolers who think they can “Write Like Mike.” Know any sports-crazy children between the ages of 8-12? Get them to write a sports column about a local or national event (250 words or less) and have them enter Walden Media/The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s “Write Like Mike” Contest for an opportunity to have their sports column published in an upcoming issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine! SUBMISSION DEADLINE: February 14, 2008

*MamaArcher Book Giveaway*

• MamaArcher is having a giveaway! To enter, leave a comment. If you want a second entry, please post about his on your blog & link back to this post. Please leave a comment HERE with the url of that post. The last day for entries is February 3rd. The winner will be announced on Feb. 4th. Good luck & spread the word! She is offering the following book: Upper Grade Phonics by Joyce Codesa, Sarah McFadden Fornara, Jan Martin, and Norm Sneller

*Seeking Rest in the Ancient Paths Contest: 4 sets of The Comeback Kids

• Jacque Dixon of Seeking Rest in the Ancient paths is giving away 4 sets of The Comeback Kids by author Mike Lupicia (each set is 2 books). To enter the contest to win the books, all you have to do is leave a comment. You will need to link your blog or your email or both in your comment. If you want an extra entry, blog about the contest or link the icon in your sidebar and leave a second comment with the direct link to your post or that it is in your sidebar.
  The contest will end Jan. 26 at midnight EST, so leave a comment now!

*Heart of Wisdom E-Book Contest*

• I have not yet even blogged about the HOW E-Book I won in this contest! A Free Book Random Drawing will be held every Monday through the months of December and January starting December 10. Each week, THREE Heart of Wisdom subscribers will be randomly selected to receive one FREE Homeschool Book from Homeschool-Books.com. We will offer a new title each week. 1st place will receive the tree book 2nd and 3rd place will receive the Ebooks.

The Winter Reading Challenge

Trish’s Winter Reading Challenge is from Jan. 7th - March 17th, 2008. It’s not really a contest, but Trish is giving away a $25 Amazon gift certificate to one participant!
You need to read her original post so you know what to do, like sign Mr. Linky with a direct link to your post once you’ve had a chance to make a list of the books you intend to read between January 7 and March 17, 2008. Also, As an added incentive, she will be sending one lucky participant a $25 gift certificate to (where else?) Amazon.com. She’ll do a random drawing from the names of everyone who posts both an initial list by Monday, February 11, 2008 and a post about their results at the end of the challenge. The drawing will be held Monday, March 17, 2008 sometime in the evening. The winner’s name will be posted after the drawing. :)I am making a list of books I want to read this year. I will be adding to it as I go, and I will try to complete as many as I can in the WRC time. Please go to her original post to get all the details!

Homeschool Hilarity:
Need a good laugh? Or wanna share another’s homeschool hilarity with everyone? The HSB Company Porch has a new column, Homeschool Hilarity.

Welcome to Homeschool Hilarity an experimental new column here on the Porch that will highlight a homeschool blog post that has made me or someone else laugh.

If you know of a hilarious homeschool blog post e-mail me with the blog permalink and I will take a look. If I think it’s pretty funny too I will post it here on the Porch! Let’s share the fun of homeschooling and help brighten up some of those days for moms who really need the chuckle.

You know you’re a homeschooler if…

You know you’re a homeschooler if:

-you’ve ever been accused of being unsocial.

-you’ve ever worn a jumper (and/or white keds)

-you’ve ever worn homemade clothes (particularly those that dont match)

-you’ve questioned if you are ever going to graduate (or go to college)

-You find dead animals and actually consider saving them to dissect later.

-you’re the head of your class, the worst in your class, the average grade, AND class president

-spending too much time with your family actually happens. (it doesn’t happen for those who are at school 8 hours a day)

-If you get drugs at school, it’s probably Tylenol.

-You can’t make it through a movie without pointing out the historical inaccuracies.

-You live in a one-house schoolroom.

-Science was picking and arranging wildflowers, or making bread for dinner.

-You can (could) take ‘field trips’ to the greenhouse to buy garden plants, or downtown to run errands, or to the park to ride bikes and walk the dog.

-Someone asks you what school you go to, and you can look them in the eye, and smile, and say: “I’m home-schooled.” But you know that only other home-schoolers will understand what that really means…And then, not even all of them.

HOAC Continents Project Packs

Lapbooks -

They are such a great, hands on way to learn together as a family. So I am always excited when we add new lapbooks to the Store. Here is something that is now on my wish list! We now offer ALL 7 of the Hands of a Child Continent Project Packs! You can find all our Hands of a Child Project Packs HERE.

-Jamin @ HWTB

FreeKids Music - Freebie Finder

Here is a great music site called Free Kids Music. It is a site that has a lot of different kids music that is free to download. They are the complete songs and there are a LOT of them. Here are some titles that would make a great Educational CD! Here is an Artist that has several Christian songs to download.

Pray for Homeschool Families:

Heather, who is beating brain cancer. Read her testimony at Especially Heather.

Tristan Irwin, a two-year-old with Leukemia, and his family.

Lindafay’s family is being forced to leave their beloved home in Turkey. This is the land their children know as home. Please pray for them as they leave this land and people who hold a special place in their hearts, as well as their safety as they travel.

I hope you’ll check out the links I’ve listed here today and have some fun! Don’t forget to enter the contests as well!