Homeschooling Hearts & Minds: The Virtual Curriculum Fair Starts Monday, January 6th!

For the past couple of years, I’ve been honored to host the Virtual Curriculum Fair, an opportunity for homeschool bloggers around the world to share-and-tell about what’s really working for them and their kids.

The VCF was born at a time when I needed some inspiration. I needed to identify what was working in my homeschool and get some fresh ideas for fixing what wasn’t.

Because I was having a hard time seeing beyond my own household I thought that it might be helpful to other moms and dads to take an in-depth peek into what is working for us (and I wouldn’t mind peeking at what was working for them).

It turned out that a lot of other homeschoolers felt the same way…and so the VCF is now an annual January event!

What the VCF is (the short version):

The Virtual Curriculum Fair is a month-long blog carnival that posts each Monday throughout January (we do skip “New Year’s” week). The idea behind VCF is for participants to give other homeschoolers a peek into what they are really doing with their kiddos that works for them and why.

Take a look at all the wonderfulness that was shared during the 2012 Virtual Curriculum Fair and the 2013 Fair!

When I say “curriculum,” I don’t mean that we limit ourselves to published curricula, gridded schedules, or “core standards.” This is more about sharing the course of study you’ve plotted out for your kiddos, whether it comes from textbooks, library hops, or quiet afternoons digging in the garden. We’ve also had posts on favorite books, games, and even things that we don’t study in our homeschools.

These year’s dates and themes (links will be added here as each theme goes live):

January 6th---Playing with Words: the Language Arts---includes phonics, reading, writing, grammar, spelling, speech, literature, etc., etc., etc. Latin and foreign language studies could also go here.
January 13th---Discovering Patterns: Mathematics, Logic, and Science---includes anything to do with mathematics, mathematical thinking, numbers, arithmetic, symbolic logic, critical thinking, and math-y sciences (physics, chemistry, etc.).
January 20th---Exploring Our World: Social Studies and more Science---includes history, geography, world cultures, worldview, biology, botany, geology, etc., etc., etc.
January 27th---Seeking Beauty: the Arts and Everything that Brings Beauty to Our World---includes any of the arts, handicrafts, but really ANYTHING at all that adds beauty to your homeschool.

I’ve created a pin-board for this year’s posts, follow along so you can easily refer to it for inspiration all year long:

Participants for the 2014 Virtual Curriculum Fair:

Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses

Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Leah Courtney @ As We Walk Along the Road

Laura Hoggard @ Four Little Penguins

Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

Kristi K. @ The Potter's Hand Academy

Amy @ Eclectic Homeschooling

Tauna @ Proverbial Homemaker

Renata @ Sunnyside Farm Fun