“Covering from prehistoric art to computer art, this information-packed book is filled with lessons, stories to share, and journal, art and drama activities to engage children. Each chapter includes sections devoted to standards-aligned curriculum connections and lists of annotated book selections.”–Curriculum Connections

You can also “search inside the book” at Amazon.   I explored the index and think it looks like it might offer some great resource for anyone wanting to explore art history.

Art in Story: Teaching Art History to Elementary School Children Second Edition (Paperback) by Marianne C. Saccardi

Here is a quick shot of what it looks like:
They also offer a free downloadable holiday spelling lists here.

If you want to give this program a try, visit Spellquizzer and download the free trial.

Magazines and Books
for Toddlers to Teens! From their site:

Cobblestone Publishing has been producing high-quality nonfiction magazines for young readers since 1980. Our philosophy is that nonfiction, whether it deals with American or world history, world cultures, archaeology, or science, should be a combination of fascinating pleasure reading and factual resource material that educates and enlightens. Cobblestone Publishing’s magazines let young people experience the pleasure of reading through an accurate, fascinating, and authoritative resource that is appropriate in the library, the classroom, and the home.

Two teachers who were looking for a way to promote reading and history to children developed the idea for COBBLESTONE magazine in 1979. Their legacy is now a successful publishing company that produces seven theme-based magazines – covering the areas of American history (COBBLESTONE), geography and world cultures (FACES), world history (CALLIOPE), science and space (ODYSSEY), African American heritage (FOOTSTEPS), general social studies / reading (APPLESEEDS), and archaeology (DIG). All of the magazines strive to educate and entertain through a creative mix of articles, primary source documents, photographs, and illustrations, as well as fun activities, puzzles, and cartoons.

Wikibooks is a Wikimedia community for creating a free library of educational textbooks that anyone can edit. Wikibooks began on July 10, 2003; since then Wikibooks has grown to include over 35,175 pages in a multitude of textbooks created by volunteers like you!

Wikibooks

• PBS KIDS® will have Earth friendly episodes of Clifford,  Arthur  and others all ready for Earth Day on April 22nd. They will be celebrating Earth Day and their  new Web-based Earth Day Channel on http://www.pbskidsgo.org.
• Disneyature Earth looks like a pretty cool looking movie. I don’t know if I’ll see it at the theatre, but I’m very, very tempted. Perhaps a matinee.
• Earthday Network offers a variety of resources at their site here and they even offer Earth Day in Box resources here.
• Envirolink offers history of Earth Day, a place to add your own link to your event and a list of events.

Happy 40th Earth Day!

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:

Bilingual Chinese/English Peter Rabbit

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.

Noggin’s Friendship Garden