New Year – Time To Evaluate

re-evaluate
  As a homeschooler in the north, I often dread winter. Winter means months indoors with restless children. It means allowing an extra half hour of prep time whenever we need to go somewhere. And, there’s the inevitable illness that descends, striking each of them in turn. But, winter also brings a time of reflection,
Read more
1 Comment

Creative Ways to Get Chores Done

get chores done
  At this time of year, we often find ourselves frantically cleaning in order to get the house ready for visiting relatives. With small children, it feels like the filth multiplies and we can’t keep up. It certainly challenged me. I often felt like a maid on steroids. You can read more about that HERE.
Read more
No Comments

Trying to Focus on Gratefulness

grateful
  The Jar It’s that time of year again when we focus on gratefulness. For a few years, we kept a Thankful Jar. Every day, each person added one slip of paper on which they had written something they were thankful for. At Thanksgiving, we emptied the jar and read each slip of paper aloud.
Read more
No Comments

Today Was a Bad Day!

bad days
  Some days, nothing works out. The toddler screams and throws his toys. The four-year-old refuses to nap and the seven-year-old crosses her arms and pouts over her math. All. At. The. Same. Time. You cleaned your house yesterday, but today, dirty dishes cover the counters, an unattended spill dries on the carpet, and toys
Read more
1 Comment

Why My Child Isn’t Going to College

college
  We just graduated our second child from our homeschool. The first question everyone asks upon discovering this is—you guessed it—“Where is he going to college?” The question is uncomfortable, and I wish people would broaden their view of post-high school life. When I say that he isn’t going to college, the barely-concealed disappointment says
Read more
3 Comments

What We Don’t Need for School

homeschool
  I’m loving those back-to-school sales, aren’t you? Now is the time to stock up! Just because we homeschool doesn’t mean we don’t use school supplies, right? I’ve flipped through the pages of catalogs and scrolled through the websites, ordering the books and materials we will use for the next several months, if not the
Read more
No Comments

Homeschool Co-Ops – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

homeschool co-op
  When I started homeschooling, I visited a couple of local support groups, and joined one. That served our needs for a little while, until I discovered that a local church had a homeschool co-op. That seemed like a fun idea, so we tried it for a couple of years. Since then, co-ops have become
Read more
No Comments

Tea Time is Read Aloud Time

read aloud
  When my children were younger, I struggled to keep everyone at the table at the same time. Living books were important to me, but my rambunctious bunch wouldn’t quiet down. I was okay with them playing with LEGOs® or squishing clay while I read, but quietly? That seldom happened. At that time, only one
Read more
No Comments