Upon arriving at the Anchorage Airport, my niece proclaimed, "Aunt Bev, You're older than Alaska!" My immediate response was, "No, I'm not" and then a "Yes, I am." as I saw the gigantic 50th Anniversary sign. Ah, well, I am older than Alaska. I knew that, just never heard it put that way before.

Have fun learning about Alaska and all the 50 states as you begin your United States notebook.

Therese shared how her family uses their tablecloth as a patchwork quilt with mementos of their school year. I think it's a great idea and a unique way to share their homeschooling with family and friends. Therese writes:

We started homeschooling my 10-year-old and 5-yr-old sons last year after taking my older son out of a lackluster private school. Nervous about "structure" I decided to set up half of our rather long dining room table with a "school" table cloth. Every morning, after eating breakfast and scanning the newspaper, the boys set up the cloth, get out the books they need and we begin our day. We do literature reading on the front porch (living in Florida helps) and when the weather's too nice to be inside, we go to local parks or locations that fit the material - for instance, we went to the beach for The Old Man and the Sea and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea! In est, the world is our classroom!

The "cloth" has become a patchwork quilt of sorts - with interesting mementos of our busy year. We use fabric markers for notes, grammar & math "rules to remember" and funny pictures and quotes. The boys love to show their friends and family our crazy cloth and it is destined to become a family heirloom, I'm sure!

Janice Campbell of Taking Time for Things That Matter hosted the carnival this week, reminding us that homeschooling is more that textbooks. Homeschool families can be very creative when it comes to education. Enjoy the posts!

The next carnival will be hosted at Life Nurturing Education. Submissions are due by Monday at 6 p.m. I look forward to reading your submissions.

Carnival of Homeschooling Schedule

Megan Mathewson of Nevada is featured in the August/September issue of Discovery Girls Magazine. Megan is homeschooled in her home town of Las Vegas. Her favorite subject is science and she dreams of being an orthodontist. Megan's hobbies are ice skating and drawing. About ice skating she says, "Ice skating is graceful and elegant. When I glide across the ice, I feel beautiful and free!"

Does your homeschooled daughter want to appear in Discovery Girls Magazine? Details are in my previous blog. They’ve already chosen a homeschooled Discovery Girl from Tennessee and New York for future issues. They're currently accepting applications for Arizona, but hurry, the deadline for submission is August 22. Here are some tips on making a terrific questionnaire that stands out from the rest.

If you're not in Arizona, you can still submit a questionnaire and they'll file it away for a future issue.

Discovery Girls Magazine is available by subscription (buy direct) or at your local bookstore.