If you’ve never heard about it before, the Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading program can be an easy way to motivate kids to read while enriching them with carefully selected Living Books. They’ll be reading books like Blueberries for Sal, Madeline, Little House on the Prairie, Sarah, Plain and Tall, and Anansi the Spider, […]
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Temperatures are occasionally dipping into sweater-weather {I really mean leggings as pants} these days {hurray!}, so we have been pulling out some of our favorite Fall read-alouds. I am sure there are dozens more high-quality picture books and novels that are set {at least partially} in the Fall, but the ones listed below are some […]
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Character can easily be learned through experiences and life lessons, and picking yourself up after failure is an important part of growing, but we don’t ALWAYS want our kids to be learning things the hard way, do we? My kids learn plenty of lessons through the natural consequences that come from their actions, but they’ve […]
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We are a TJEd family. Or rather, the educational philosophy we most identify with is Thomas Jefferson Education {Leadership Education}, and it informs much of the WHY, WHEN, and HOW of our homeschool. Charlotte Mason has also been highly influential, especially in the area of WHAT we teach and sometimes the HOW, but right now […]
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The kids and I hit up the Dollar Tree for a little bit of school year prep and I wanted to share some of the items we got. In today’s haul, most of the items were organizing and paper supplies, but I took photos of a bunch of art and teaching supplies you may need […]
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Some of the best advice I’ve ever been given is to not buy any new curriculum for the first 6 months to a year of homeschooling. And I’ll tell your right now it’s tough, but worth it. Take those first months to slowly slip into some gentle learning routines together, start reading aloud more, and […]
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After reading Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne we did some major toy purging in our house. We have never been excessive toy buyers and tried to keep to a one in/one out mentality for most things, but the book changed our perspective on the type of toys to keep around. We now shop with […]
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I’ve never been very successful with the whole “word of the year” thing. Sure I’ve tried a few times, but, without exception, at some point in the year the word I chose stops being the thing I really need to focus on. Has that ever happened to you? So, I’ve decided that I am going […]
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