Monday, September 01, 2008

The Carnival and Blog Award Alternatives

There is a big, huge, homeschooling carnival, to which I often submit, and which I often read, that was started by the Cates at Why Homeschool. It's massive, has a long history, and its host blog rotates from week to week. My greatest interest in reading this carnival, which sometimes showcases gems of posts but also always includes stuff I don't really see as relevant to homeschooling, is to get a gauge on what people are interested in, in any given week, and what the authors of these blogs see as the best of their blog for the week. There's always something useful and thought-provoking, but the whole list is usually too much to digest.




Then there's the Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers, now in its eighth edition, hosted by my excellent friend Shez at Homeschooled Twins. This carnival has a strong editorial presence, as Shez reads and comments on all the posts she includes, and illustrates the carnival with example pictures. Whereas the "big" carnival is too big for the host blogger to really read and analyze all the posts, and give a summary in her own words, the COCH (pronounced WOOHOO!) is definitely filtered through Shez's opinions, her judgment, and her selection process. So, the COCH (pronounced YEAH BABY!) is more like a magazine's edited pages, where the big carnival is sometimes more like classified ads. COCH (pronounced HA-CHA-CHA!) is smaller, more chewable, and lemon-scented! Read the eighth edition of this Homeschool Carnival.

Now let's talk about blog awards. The original Homeschool Blog Awards, which have obvious cache in that they own the domain name, have been rather controversial over their short history, as some have claimed they favor and focus on the Christian and right-wing blogs. Be that as it may, or may not, or really who wants to get in a shouting match over it, there is an alternative Homeschool Blog Award hosted by Alasandra at her Homeschooling Blog.


Yes, I'm nominated, and so is Shez, because we cleverly nominated each other! When the voting opens, please vote for us. Or yourself. And I will vote for you too. You can see who nominated who in the comments to the original list of nominees, and you can also still nominate yourself or someone else, because the list is still open here: Homeschool Blog Awards.

5 comments:

  1. Don't give up completely on the big carnival though! I've noticed that some of the hosts do take the time to read through entries, and some have even commented in the carnival on particular articles. It depends on who is running it.

    I'll vote for your blog! Let me know when voting starts.

    Peace and Laughter,
    Cristina

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  2. Anonymous2:17 PM

    I love Shez's blog and carnvial. I have to agree with the other commenter, though, that how well the other one is done depends on who's doing it that week. There have really been some great weeks. And, there was one week in which the sponsor emailed me about my article, so she had taken the time to read it. I always do it and Shez's (okay, "always" as in "the last few weeks since I discovered both of them. lol).

    I also discovered Alesandra's Blog Awards this week, too. (And properly thanked Shez for nominating me. *grin*)

    Anyway, about your comment/question on my blog about the preschool learning center...

    I posted an update this week with a change to the way I'll be doing the colors, since Nim already knows most of her colors. I went ahead and introduced the number 2, as well, since she already seemed to get the concept of 1.

    The original schedule for changing things up was loosly based on the way it was done by the lady who ran the home daycare that my oldest went to until I quit work to be a full-time mom.

    Changing the color only once a month allows for some fun theme planning (red = apples, orange = pumpkins) and allows for kids who don't know their colors at all to learn all the basic ones in a typcial school year. However, it was easy to see that Nim needed things to move faster.

    It all really boils down to just oberving your child and letting him/her set the pace.

    HTH!
    ~Kris

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  3. Thanks for the tumble and congratulations on your nomination, even if your friend did it, LOL. I hope you win.

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  4. Oh, I totally agree, the old big strong handsome one is very valuable and interesting -- I didn't mean to dismiss it. I guess I just kidn of assumed no one could go through and read that many posts, especially when I'm sure they come in quite late in the week!

    Love to all carnivals. Charmed by all.

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  5. Anonymous8:38 PM

    Oh poo on the Christian vs secular thing...tired. of. it! I'm a Christian and I post Christian stuff from time to time (aka: today) but it drives me NUTS that people might make these huge, grand and oh-so-correct assumptions about me because of it.

    Grr. So I know that's not what this post is about, and that's not even what the controversy with the HBA site, but dearest homeschooling community at large, thou shalt know when thou hast pushed my buttons! LOL! :D

    Oh and BTW...Best of Luck to you! You deserve the utmost of congratulatory verbiage. :)

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