Homeschooling

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  • Homeschooling: the infographic

    HomeschoolBuzz.com
    Gary
    11 May 2012 | 10:20 am
    Some comforting statistics about homeschooling brought to life here by this inforgraphic.  One interesting point, homeschool sucess is not significantly affected by household income, teacher certification or curriculum budget. These are all the things public schools reflexively cite for the reason for their failures.  Created by: CollegeAtHome.com

  • Four Common Misconceptions About Homeschooling

    Homeschooling
    22 Apr 2012 | 9:05 pm
    A list of the most common misconceptions regarding home education.

  • Every Day is Mother’s Day

    Sprittibee
    Sprittibee
    14 May 2012 | 9:35 pm
    It isn’t too late to thank a good mother just because the national holiday has come and gone. Moms don’t get a day off – and it seems kind of silly to limit the gratitude to one day per year. Trust me. I know first hand (times 4) how much encouragement a mom needs all year. Motherhood is hard. Sticky. Gritty. Taxing. Never-ending. [Sometimes painful.] It’s also wonderful. Amazing. Beautiful. Fulfilling. Fun. It’s hard to explain. A blogging friend of mine decided she wanted to capture the “mess and glory” of motherhood. She gathered the thoughts, experiences, and photographs…

  • Methinks You Just Did

    Melissa Wiley
    Melissa Wiley
    16 May 2012 | 10:07 am
    Huck: “Mommy! Me spilled something.” Me, reaching for towel: “A lot or a little?” Huck: “…me not telling you.”

  • Workshop Wednesday: Sugar Cube Math, Part 2

    Guilt-Free Homeschooling
    CarolynM
    16 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    This topic has been explained in a previous post, but now we can supplement that with a photo. See the complete post HERE for detailed activities to make math understandable in such a fun way that it will prompt you and your kids to call it “SWEET!” Notice that several activities are demonstrated in the [...]
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    Sprittibee

  • Every Day is Mother’s Day

    Sprittibee
    14 May 2012 | 9:35 pm
    It isn’t too late to thank a good mother just because the national holiday has come and gone. Moms don’t get a day off – and it seems kind of silly to limit the gratitude to one day per year. Trust me. I know first hand (times 4) how much encouragement a mom needs all year. Motherhood is hard. Sticky. Gritty. Taxing. Never-ending. [Sometimes painful.] It’s also wonderful. Amazing. Beautiful. Fulfilling. Fun. It’s hard to explain. A blogging friend of mine decided she wanted to capture the “mess and glory” of motherhood. She gathered the thoughts, experiences, and photographs…

  • A Hallmark Mother's Day

    Sprittibee
    12 May 2012 | 12:19 pm
    I know that Mother's Day is tomorrow, and that this video is telling you to get your cards in the mail... but my crazy life prevented me from warning you on time. You can hear the chaos in the background. Just listen for the gleefully mischevious toddler and the little "not-happy-unless-I'm-in-mom's-arms" baby. Don't make fun of me for my first vlog attempt, please. I know I look and sound ridiculous on video. I thought I would share my crazy kids with you for mother's day - and show you the kind of amazing teenage 'tude I'm dealin' with on a regular basis. #pray4me I so enjoyed meeting up…

  • Girl Interrupted

    Sprittibee
    6 May 2012 | 6:28 pm
    It's been a while since I shared a random list. Or reviewed my to-do list. Or ate six chocolate chip cookies. No, wait, I just ate six chocolate chip cookies a minute ago. Now, where did I put that glass of milk? TO DO THIS WEEK: bills and checkbook budget for trip in June / email contact for lease / pray hard menu / groceries thank you card for Pop - who paid for my break job (I heart him.) plans for the weekend finalized unpack / laundry homeschool assignment lists for the week 'heart over mind' - part 10 of "accidental unschooling" series back up photos edit bluebonnet pix / review…

  • 10 Days of Accidental Unschooling - Day 9: Reading to Succeed

    Sprittibee
    3 May 2012 | 7:49 pm
    NOTE: This is Part 9 of a 10 day series on Accidental Unschooling that is taking me LONGER than 10 days to write (sorry). I have had a little distraction in my life last week (hosting a blogger retreat weekend at my house) and it has been a very busy homeschool week following. If you are OCD and want to start from the introduction or Part 1, hop to the bottom of this post and use the conveniently provided links! Reading is the gateway to all other knowledge. Students who do not learn efficient reading skills are blocked from every other subject in their schooling. ~ (The National Center to…

  • 10 Days of Accidental Unschooling - Day 8: Carschooling and Fieldtripping

    Sprittibee
    28 Apr 2012 | 2:10 pm
    NOTE: This is Part 8 of a 10 day series on Accidental Unschooling that is taking me LONGER than 10 days to write (sorry). If you are OCD and want to start from the introduction or Part 1, hop to the bottom of this post and use the conveniently provided links! Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.  ~Seneca A NEW VIEW I talked to an old friend recently who had gone on vacation for the weekend with her spouse. They left the kids behind and traveled a few hours on a short road trip to a nearby town to stay in a bed and breakfast. During that time they went on a "field…
 
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    Melissa Wiley

  • Methinks You Just Did

    Melissa Wiley
    16 May 2012 | 10:07 am
    Huck: “Mommy! Me spilled something.” Me, reaching for towel: “A lot or a little?” Huck: “…me not telling you.”

  • If it’s May, it must be time for me to make redundant statements about agapanthus.

    Melissa Wiley
    15 May 2012 | 10:25 pm
    The Lilies-of-the-Nile are being impish again. I was going to remark that as much as I adore their purple spheres of bloom, this bud stage is when I love them best—but I see I already said that, a year ago. I really am repeating myself; I see too that I posted an agapanthus bud exactly one year ago today. Impish they may be, but they are punctual little fellows!

  • RPG(-ish) Games for Kids

    Melissa Wiley
    12 May 2012 | 10:52 pm
    David writes: This [the Mouse Guard RPG] looks fantastic. Thanks! I grew up in a house that wasn’t comfortable with RPG’s, but I think our boys would love it. Any other suggestions for the 8-12 crowd? Yes! Do you know the Munchkin game? It’s a card game based on RPG mechanics—a great choice for when you want the fun and flavor of a role-playing game but don’t have time to embark on an elaborate campaign. This just may be my favorite non-electronic game because it doesn’t require elaborate setup and inevitably becomes a total laughter-fest. Like this moment last…

  • Quick Answer: Mouse Guard RPG

    Melissa Wiley
    10 May 2012 | 8:46 pm
    Maria asked about the book Beanie was poring over in this photo. I replied in the comments, but in case you missed it: it’s the Mouse Guard role-playing game manual, a gorgeous hardcover, fully illustrated book by David Petersen, published by Archaia. You may recall my gushing about the Mouse Guard graphic novels many times over the past several years; Petersen’s artwork is phenomenal and my children, especially Beanie, have thoroughly enjoyed the stories and have reread the books many times. We’ve had the RPG manual for a couple of years and I know Beanie has put dozens of…

  • Two Thousand Words: My Boys

    Melissa Wiley
    9 May 2012 | 11:04 am
    Last day of speech therapy for the year. Between bouts of making mischief of one kind and another.
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    Guilt-Free Homeschooling

  • Workshop Wednesday: Sugar Cube Math, Part 2

    CarolynM
    16 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    This topic has been explained in a previous post, but now we can supplement that with a photo. See the complete post HERE for detailed activities to make math understandable in such a fun way that it will prompt you and your kids to call it “SWEET!” Notice that several activities are demonstrated in the [...]

  • Workshop Wednesday: Pipe Cleaners

    CarolynM
    9 May 2012 | 12:11 pm
    A supply of pipe cleaners, also called chenille sticks, in various sizes and colors provides a great quiet-time activity that will keep almost any child busy for a good, long time. For teaching purposes, pipe cleaners can be formed into a variety of shapes as versatile manipulatives for your tactile students who need to get [...]

  • Workshop Wednesday: Macaroni as Manipulatives

    CarolynM
    2 May 2012 | 1:10 pm
    Have you ever found yourself wishing you could afford hundreds, or maybe even thousands of letter or number manipulatives? Head for the pasta aisle in your favorite grocery store—a bag of alphabet macaroni contains both letters and numbers! The pasta is low-cost, so if you have several children who would each enjoy their own supply, [...]

  • Workshop Wednesday: Play Money

    CarolynM
    25 Apr 2012 | 2:38 pm
    Time to head for the game closet and dig out some play money! This stuff is a fabulous tactile learning tool that can be used for much more than just collecting $200 for passing “GO.” Use play money to practice counting by 1’s or skip-counting (by 5’s, 10’s, 100’s, etc.)with the littles,  demonstrate place value [...]

  • Workshop Wednesday: Building Blocks for Success in Math

    CarolynM
    18 Apr 2012 | 8:00 am
    Math is called a foundational subject for good reason: if you don’t have a solid foundation, anything you try to build on top of it is in danger of falling apart. Math is also called a sequential subject, meaning that math skills must be mastered in sequence, each skill building on the skills before it. [...]
 
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    Why Homeschool

  • Homeschooling will change for us this fall

    Henry Cate
    14 May 2012 | 7:43 pm
    Our oldest daughter will be graduating from homeschooling in the next couple weeks.  She has been taking classes at the local junior colleges and will start full time this fall.  She is excited to start.  And I think she is well prepared.  She has been doing just fine in the classes she's taken so far.It will be a bit weird for me.  Ever since she "started" kindergarten we have been homeschooling her.  The current plan is she'll live at home for the next year or two.  She isn't gone yet, but she is taking her first steps to moving on with her life.  I'm…

  • Experience

    Henry Cate
    14 May 2012 | 11:12 am
    From Dan Galvin's Thought For The Day mailing list:Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

  • Claiming to be busy relieves us of the burden of choice

    Henry Cate
    14 May 2012 | 9:03 am
    I like this article: Are You As Busy As You Think?Laura Vanderkam makes some great pionts.If you feel overwhelmed by all you are trying to do, take five minutes and read column.

  • Charity Navigator

    Henry Cate
    12 May 2012 | 3:56 pm
    A friend at work was in a really nasty car accident two weeks ago.  A drunk driver going around sixty miles an hour in the wrong direction hit the car.  My friend is lucky to be alive.  They airlifted him to a hospital.  It looks like he will evidently be OK, after a few months of recovery.His family has been providing updates via CaringBridge.org.  This is a nonprofit group.  One of the things they do is to help people set up a temporary blog to share information as a patient progresses.  The web site asks for donations.  At lunch recently we got…

  • Life is good

    Henry Cate
    12 May 2012 | 2:06 pm
    My son and I went on a father and sons activity yesterday.  We had a good time.  My son would be happy to go camping again next week!We just returned to find our internet access has been restored.Life is good. 
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    AtypicaLife dot net

  • The recapping brain dump

    andrea
    15 May 2012 | 6:07 pm
    I’m trying to get back in the habit, because I’m going long enough without blogging I can’t remember what I did. Not that it takes much for me to forget. Went to Austin, met awesome co-workers, some of whom I had met before. Actually, now that I remember again – our flight to Dallas couldn’t land due to thunderstorms, so we diverted to Shreveport LA for fuel. Turns out since we were all connected us passengers found out the Dallas airport was closing and even if we could get there out flight from Dallas to Austin was cancelled. So we got off the plane in…

  • Mother of an update

    andrea
    14 May 2012 | 1:55 pm
    Right now, I am skipping over the whole “haven’t posted in HOW long” part and just diving in. Sarah came up for the weekend – actually, we picked her up on Tuesday when we went to Fredericton for an orthodontic consultation for Emma. Guess who is getting braces? One of the things we did while Sarah was here, was dye our hair. All the hairs! Sarah wanted to bleach out the bottom half of the back and then do blue and purple streaks, so she needed extras hands and eyes. Hassle her for pics or look at her twitter. And then, since the dye was there and all, she added a pink…

  • Still with the feathers

    andrea
    18 Feb 2012 | 3:19 pm
    I am almost done Kaytlyn’s quilt. At least the quilting part. I ran out of yellow thread *again*. That’s two spools if you are counting, plus a spool each of pink, purple and orange that still have lots left, but I need the yellow for the back. This quilt is using a LOT of thread. I read another tutorial from Diane Gaudynski, and I swear this is the one I was looking for before, but someone forgot I read it. This time I clicked. Diane Gaudynski “Echo Feather Plume” Here’s what I did the other day. This was the third block I did, nice and relaxed and happy with the…

  • More quilting progress and how to get out of a boo boo

    andrea
    11 Feb 2012 | 2:36 pm
    So I’ve worked on Kaytlyn’s quilt a few more times, after I unpicked the last screw up and worked on something else instead. Here’s what that same block looks like now, all done properly. I went swimmingly, until I flipped the quilt over and realized I made yet another boo boo. But this one was more recoverable and did not involved taking out stitches. It turns out if you are near the edge and don’t pay attention to the backing fabric, you get this: It flips over and you wind up quilting it. Uh-oh. But then you just find your tiny scissors, turns on some bright lights,…

  • Who knew washing your pillow was so difficult?

    andrea
    8 Feb 2012 | 4:41 pm
    So we got a new mattress this week. This lead to a bunch of jokes all over twitter when I said we were off to test mattresses. (“Excuse me sir, ma’am.. we’re going to have to ask you to leave.”) AND! Best part? The sales guy knew what WordPress was. This after explaining on please do not call us for a delivery before 9am, we work at home any time after that is just dandy. Also he was just beside himself when I tested a smaller chair and exclaimed, “Hey! They have chairs for Hobbits!”. He had just that weekend marathoned all the LOTR movies. So, we are best…
 
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    Notes From A Homeschooled Mom

  • Count down to graduation (video)

    15 May 2012 | 10:25 am
    Video Summary:Sharing my excitement about our upcoming graduation ceremonies this weekend.The college admissions process was actually pretty easy, and my best tip is to apply early.We've come a long way from the depressed child we pulled out of public school over 8 years ago.We are very happy to be graduating our first homeschooler... one more to go- next year!FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITEMY BUSINESS WEBSITE

  • I love being weird

    14 May 2012 | 7:40 am
    As long as I can remember I have been strange.  My family told me so.  The only problem is that they made it seem like a bad thing.First I was the quiet one in my family.... always thinking.  (yes, that was said negatively)Then I was the bookworm. (also an insult)Then I was the home-girl (which was a good thing in the 1980s' if you were hip and cool, but in my case, they meant it quite literal.  Everyone else was a homegirl, and I was a home....girl. get it?  Not funny.)   Then I was just strange (my mother's own words.... expressed after I brought home a…

  • Silly Homeschoolers

    10 May 2012 | 6:16 pm
    Everybody makes mistakes but when we make mistakes we like to blame it on being homeschoolers (in jest of course). Today, we had two doozies!#1: After driving across the county twice, I stopped for a quick appointment that was supposed to take 5 minutes.  We were tired and out of gas, but it was important.  After 10 minutes waiting to see the person I had to speak to, I called my kids out in the car and told them to turn on the air conditioning, but watch the gas.  (Don't call DFACS, they're both teens).  As I walked back out to the car, I heard what sounded like someone…

  • What are you going to do when the kids are gone?

    9 May 2012 | 3:06 pm
    With my son graduating this year and my daughter graduating next, the end of my years as a homeschool mom are fast approaching.But people keep asking me "What are you going to do when the kids are gone?".... in a response, I do a little dance.Aren't you sad, they say... NO I reply.But your kids are leaving they say...  I reply with a big grin.It's not like I am glad that my kids are leaving me soon and it's not like I am glad homeschooling is almost over.  It's just that I am just so darned proud of them and excited for them.I also don't want to steal their thunder.You see, my mom…

  • Strange but true homeschool behaviors

    5 May 2012 | 11:36 pm
    Here are a few of the more interesting things my kids have reported about their homeschool friends (some of them lifted from facebook)Girl finds that someone put $70 Euros IN in her wallet. A lightsaber duel breaks out in the middle of prom (it was the May 5... National Star Wars Day... May the Fourth be with you... never mind) One girl has a notebook in which she records the most interesting comments.  Best quote of the year is probably "Who died and made you Jesus?"In a conversation about Ho's vs Bros, it was agreed that once a girl and guy become close, the girl moves from…
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    By Sun and Candlelight

  • And the book goes to ...

    Dawn
    16 May 2012 | 8:53 am
     Cristina! Congratulations, Cristina! I absolutely loved your apron comment: "I've recently come to appreciate aprons, the more feminine and lovely, the better! They help me to embrace my work at home as something special." How beautifully put, Cristina! I'll be in touch soon to sort out mailing details. I hope you enjoy Apronisms as much as I have! And thank you to everyone who shared their apron sentiments with me. I so enjoyed reading each comment, and I truly appreciate the time you each took to participate! Oh, and by the way ... author EllynAnne Geisel has…

  • Tuesday Tidbit: On Housekeeping

    Dawn
    15 May 2012 | 1:50 pm
    Good afternoon, everyone! Wow, has my day ever been busy so far! I feel like I've barely had a minute to think. Well, that's not entirely true ... I did have my chance. Crackerjack had an orthodontist appointment this morning, which went rather long (as these things tend to do) and so I got to sit (SIT!) and just relax. So I perused their extensive magazine selection, and once I'd exhausted that, I dug into the book I had stuck in my bag ... The Apron Book, which I mentioned to you all yesterday. And as I really enjoyed this particular quote, I thought I'd share it…

  • "A Bit of Cloth and Comfort"

    Dawn
    14 May 2012 | 2:48 pm
     (And another giveaway!) It's National Apron Day, my friends! Are you wearing yours? I'm wearing mine ... or I will be, later today when I head into the kitchen to start supper. It's a national holiday after all! In the spirit of the day, I'd like to share a quote from a book I am enjoying right now, The Apron Book: Making, Wearing, and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort: "Even though women are now fully entrenched in the workplace, they are also back to cooking and sewing and crafting and nesting like never before. Seems like there are whole cable channels devoted…

  • Masterpiece Monday: Sherlock & OUaT(!)

    Dawn
    14 May 2012 | 6:26 am
    Well, that was a great night of television! First up, we had Once Upon a Time ... thie big 1st season finale ... and it did not disappoint! If you haven't seen the episode yet, please do no read on because there will be SPOILERS! Some random thoughts - because it's a bit too early for much else - I'm so glad Henry is OK. For a moment, I seriously thought they'd go there ... but thankfully they didn't. And what a great message for Mother's Day: it was his mother's true love that saved Henry's life. Hooray! And I was surprised (happily so) that Emma finally…

  • A Happy Mother's Day Brunch ❤

    Dawn
    13 May 2012 | 3:42 pm
    Well, this has been such a lovely day! We had an early start (natch) ... I savored my first cup of coffee in bed ... then headed into the kitchen to bake something special for brunch. And just before leaving for Mass, I pulled this buttermilk-blueberry breakfast cake from the oven ... Earlybird helped, especially with the lemon zest and the tossing of berries with flour. (He has a special love for lemons, lol.) I highly recommend this recipe ... it's very easy to make and super delicious to eat! In my big red glass decanter, I mixed up a cold, fruity punch - it was just a strawberry juice…
 
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    Dewey's Treehouse

  • Have some cake with your icing?

    Mama Squirrel
    15 May 2012 | 2:35 pm
    Crayons/Dollygirl's birthday cake this year was a Small Chocolate Cake frosted with "Lorna's Super Chocolate Chip Icing" from Edna Staebler's More Food That Really Schmecks.  The amount given here will frost a layer cake reasonably, or a one-pan cake extravagantly.  We went with extravagantly.  But you could probably cut the recipe in half.I put some of the icing into a decorating tube and made ruffles along the edges, along with a few powdered-sugar butterflies.  How do you make powdered-sugar butterflies?  Sink a small butterfly-shaped…

  • Carnivals this week: updated

    Mama Squirrel
    15 May 2012 | 7:19 am
    No Fighting No Biting hosts the 333rd Carnival of Homeschooling.  Next Tuesday's CoH will be hosted here, so start sending submissions!  (Early would be nice, because Monday is Victoria Day and I would rather be watching fireworks than playing on the computer.  Just saying.)Delightful Education hosts the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival today, with the theme "Education is a Life."MoneyWise Pastor hosts the Festival of Frugality #337: Personal Finance from 30,000 Feet Edition.

  • From the archives: "Pizza with the works curriculum"

    Mama Squirrel
    15 May 2012 | 5:35 am
    First posted November 2006. The Apprentice had just started high school, Ponytails was doing an Ambleside Online Year 3.5, and Crayons/Dollygirl was in kindergarten.In Ruth Beechick's booklet A Home Start in Reading (part of her 3-R's series, but we won't hold that against her), she describes the following experiment carried out by a school district:"Some kindergartners in the district received extensive instruction in reading. Others spent the same amount learning science. They melted ice. They observed thermometers in hot and cold places. They played with magnets, grew plants, learned about…

  • The Big WHAT NOW Book of Learning Styles (book review)

    Mama Squirrel
    14 May 2012 | 5:49 pm
    I don't read many how-to-homeschool books anymore.  In the first place, I've been homeschooling for quite awhile, and in the second place, my youngest Squirreling just turned eleven.  Of course good advice is always welcome, and there's always something new to learn (especially about Charlotte Mason's philosophy), but I'm not usually looking for a whole bookful of teaching advice at once. Even a few years ago I was posting about giving away some of my how-to books.However, I recently came across a fairly new book that I recommend enthusiastically:  The Big WHAT NOW Book of…

  • What's for supper? Odds, ends, counting and measuring

    Mama Squirrel
    14 May 2012 | 2:19 pm
    One thing I think you need to know how to do, to make the most out of what's on hand for cooking, is figure out how to cook or bake things in different proportions, according to what you have and the number of people eating.  Today's example:  I had leftover mashed potatoes and thought of making a Perogy Casserole.  There were about seven lasagna noodles, plus some broken pieces, in the cupboard. But my recipe makes a 9 x 13 inch panful and calls for fifteen noodles.  Since that usually leaves us with leftovers, I figured it would work just as well to…
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    Heart of Wisdom Blog

  • Amazing Virgin Coconut Oil Secrets

    admin
    10 May 2012 | 4:47 pm
    Some time back, my sweet, health-conscious friend, Dolores,  told me about the benefits of coconut oil.  I bought a jar and put in on my shelf until I had time to find recipes to use it in. Then when my boys and I were sick  (Maybe strep throat) and  I looked up natural cures on [...]

  • 66 Love Letters by Larry Crabb

    admin
    6 May 2012 | 10:34 am
    I am reading Larry Crabb’s magnum opus,  66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God That Invites You into His Story. So far I really like it. Crabb  that takes you through each book of the Bible giving his opinion as to what message he believes God is trying to get across in each book.   It is written as a [...]

  • Rethinking How & Why You Read the Bible

    admin
    6 May 2012 | 5:07 am
    I encourage homeschoolers to have a daily Bible time and to try to read the Bible through in a year or two.  But this is not the goal. The Pharisees read the Bible daily and  memorized large portions it, but when the Lamb of God stood right in front of them they didn’t recognize Him. [...]

  • Why Are Christians Keeping Passover?

    admin
    7 Apr 2012 | 6:17 am
    Jesus shared the Passover meal with his apostles saying, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 22:15-16)

  • Unleavened Bread Recipes and Freebie

    admin
    6 Apr 2012 | 12:21 am
    This week begins the (Lev 23:6, Exodus 12:15-17).During this week-long feast, nothing with leaven (yeast) in it may be eaten. Leaven is the symbol of all that is unclean and evil and therefore must scrupulously be removed from all houses before the Passover feast. Free Download!
 
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    Camp Creek Blog

  • take them for what they are

    Lori
    10 May 2012 | 6:59 pm
    COLBERT: What’s the best thing a parent can do for a child? SENDAK: Love him, or her. COLBERT: What does that mean? SENDAK: Take them for what they are. — Maurice Sendak’s last video appearance

  • a good resolution

    Lori
    2 Jan 2012 | 3:15 pm
    hat tip: Maria

  • resolutions get a bad rap

    Lori
    30 Dec 2011 | 8:43 am
    It's that time of year when people either announce their resolutions for the new year, keep quiet and mull them over alone, or loudly denounce having them at all. Personally, I am pro-resolution. After all, how often do we see meaningful change where the first step wasn't a firm resolve to see that change occur? In that spirit: Resolution 1: It's not all or nothing. Resolution 2: Break it down. Resolution 3: Take real baby steps. Resolution 4: Use the upward spiral. Resolution 5: Quit.

  • ’tis the season

    Lori
    23 Dec 2011 | 8:47 pm
    “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” — Hamilton Wright Mabi

  • raising entrepreneurs: making things happen

    Lori
    20 Dec 2011 | 10:56 am
    Ideas are one thing and what happens is another.    — John Cage (hat tip: Andrea) An entrepreneur isn’t just on fire with an idea; (s)he is able to do what needs to be done to make it really happen. Inspiration is not enough. Between the idea and the execution is a lot of hard work. How do children learn how to make their ideas happen? How do they learn how to forge ahead when things don’t come easily? Talent and ability is not enough. Calvin Coolidge said, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than…
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    Camp Creek Blog

  • take them for what they are

    Lori
    10 May 2012 | 6:59 pm
    COLBERT: What’s the best thing a parent can do for a child? SENDAK: Love him, or her. COLBERT: What does that mean? SENDAK: Take them for what they are. — Maurice Sendak’s last video appearance

  • a good resolution

    Lori
    2 Jan 2012 | 3:15 pm
    hat tip: Maria

  • resolutions get a bad rap

    Lori
    30 Dec 2011 | 8:43 am
    It's that time of year when people either announce their resolutions for the new year, keep quiet and mull them over alone, or loudly denounce having them at all. Personally, I am pro-resolution. After all, how often do we see meaningful change where the first step wasn't a firm resolve to see that change occur? In that spirit: Resolution 1: It's not all or nothing. Resolution 2: Break it down. Resolution 3: Take real baby steps. Resolution 4: Use the upward spiral. Resolution 5: Quit.

  • ’tis the season

    Lori
    23 Dec 2011 | 8:47 pm
    “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” — Hamilton Wright Mabi

  • raising entrepreneurs: making things happen

    Lori
    20 Dec 2011 | 10:56 am
    Ideas are one thing and what happens is another.    — John Cage (hat tip: Andrea) An entrepreneur isn’t just on fire with an idea; (s)he is able to do what needs to be done to make it really happen. Inspiration is not enough. Between the idea and the execution is a lot of hard work. How do children learn how to make their ideas happen? How do they learn how to forge ahead when things don’t come easily? Talent and ability is not enough. Calvin Coolidge said, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than…
 
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    The Common Room

  • If You Were Building Your House Today....

    Headmistress, zookeeper
    16 May 2012 | 8:25 am
    I am a mom of 4 so far. We are getting ready to build and was wondering if you had any advice for a growing family? I know big everything and more cabinets. But is there something you really wish you had? That's a recent question from the older post Four Moms Open House! As I said in another more recent post, I wish I had given the girls essentially a dorm room instead of private bedrooms. We have several places where we put outlets midway up the wall instead of down near the floor.  I *love* this. We have a bathroom in our large laundry room, which also has an outside door.  I…

  • A Lunch Of (Cheap) Champions

    TheHeadGirl
    15 May 2012 | 4:15 pm
    (or, What Happens When You Accidentally Cook Too Many Lentils And  Have To Use Them Up ASAP) * 4 c. cooked lentils * 1 large can diced tomatoes (purchased on sale for $0.75) * generous dash of basil * sorta generous dash of garlic powder * sorta generous dash of celery salt * sprinkling of pepper * 1.5 cups chopped ham (purchased on sale for $.99/lb) Heat. Serve. Enjoy. We had it with a sliced pear on the side. "Is this a dish you just made up or one based on a recipe?" was the question my husband asked. uhm.... both? In my head, it sounded like a few of the recipes I've read in…

  • Free Stuff For Your Listening Pleasure or Instruction

    Headmistress, zookeeper
    15 May 2012 | 1:57 pm
    Because we all have pockets full o' free.... Audio Bibles KJV Old Testament - King James Version (Dramatized) KJV New Testament - King James Version (Dramatized) ESV New Testament - English Standard Version (Dramatized) CEV New Testament - Contemporary English Version (Dramatized) CEV Old Testament - Contemporary English Version (Dramatized) Music: Traditional Gospel Hymns The Artist Sampler - A Home for Singer-Songwriters folk music- you'll want to preview first. I like it, but some of y'all will not like The Reverend's Son, for instance ("ain't no fun for the reverend's son to carry the…

  • My Great Grandmother's Journals

    Headmistress, zookeeper
    15 May 2012 | 10:39 am
    I've written about these before, you can catch up quickly here. I thought I misplaced most of them, and I looked through several closets, boxes, and drawers over the last couple of years.  I only had the most recent two or three years worth, not the older ones. Then last week Mom, (Granny Tea), revealed that she had them- I had brought them over to show my aunt, and learned Mom had never read them either, so I left them here for her to read. My great-grandmother and her husband had four children, two girls and two boys.  I think he was a supervisor in a steel mill. Her oldest child…

  • Wenzel and the Fed

    Headmistress, zookeeper
    15 May 2012 | 9:33 am
    A retired employee of the Federal Reserve System about his colleagues and overlords: I have developed a level of cynicism about the character of the people that play the role of government (sort of) economists.  ...they have no interest in any economic ideas that don't lead to the growth of governmental power, a portion of which rubs off on them personally. That's in response to a speech Robert Wenzel delivered at the Fed, about, of all things, Austrian Economics. You can read it here.  Here's an excerpt:  \In the science of physics, we know that water freezes at 32 degrees. We…
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    Monica with mobile

  • Visiting Grounds for Sculpture

    monica
    8 May 2012 | 1:24 pm
    Last week we met up with other homeschoolers for a long-overdue visit to  Grounds for Sculpture. As a lover of art and long-time New Jersey resident, I’m embarrassed to admit this was my first visit to Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey – a mere 52 minutes from my house. Now I can’t wait to go back, because even though we spent a good portion of the day, we didn’t get a chance to see all of the sculptures. Here are a few of our favorites: This first sculpture is “Summer Thinking” by Seward Johnson and it was one of the many pieces that we…

  • 43

    monica
    28 Apr 2012 | 9:24 pm
    Today is my 43rd birthday. I’m too tired to write much about it. That’s aging, I guess. The tired trumps desire. The day in pictures: This is the card the 7-year-old girlie wrote for me. She’s subtle, this girl. “Mommy, how do you spell hope?” With a sly, backward glance she walks away. Moments later, the card. Lilacs from our yard, via 12-year-old son. They smell wonderful. Red velvet cupcakes. As for the mystery box which I told you about the other day – one final picture: My husband knows me well, what can I say? I adore my iPhone, but this iPad is a…

  • Anticipation

    monica
    25 Apr 2012 | 7:45 am
    What could it be? Books? Jewelry? A kitchen appliance? I always guess household items when it comes to presents and my husband. That vacuum cleaner was a Christmas present years ago, when our house was still new to us, and I needed a good vacuum. Last Christmas, a blender. I don’t mind practical gifts. I love getting gifts, love the anticipation and surprise. I think I typically get practical gifts because I’m a no-frills kind of person. Buying my own gifts for holidays and birthdays is usually how it works around here. Not the most romantic or exciting way to celebrate, but…

  • Lucy is learning : an Unschooling update

    monica
    23 Apr 2012 | 5:12 pm
    I played on my laptop this morning, drinking coffee, surfing the web, trying to wake up fully. Lucy, my youngest and newly 7-years-old, used my aerobic step as a desk on the floor next to me. I wasn’t paying too much attention to what she was doing. Like  I said, I was trying to wake up. “Mommy, I want to read my story to you, ” she said. Ok. And then she told me the story of the mermaid and the sea and “the girl cool and kind.” Cute, I thought to myself, still only vaguely paying attention. She’d been working in the purple notebook with her birthday…

  • Books-a-weekend

    monica
    21 Apr 2012 | 9:30 pm
    It’s been books, books, books since Friday. Here is the evidence in pictures. The above photo is from yesterday when I – along with other homeschooling moms – attempted to unload our unwanted curriculum on those in search of a good deal. I made $26, plus spent a few dollars on a few select teaching books. I’m a sucker for anything for teaching writing and literature. That was Friday night. Earlier in the day, I drove Susan to her book group which happens to meet at Princeton Public Library. Have I ever told you how much I adore that library? Such a gem. I think one of…
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    Blessed Among Men

  • 10 May 2012 | 12:04 pm

    Suzanne Temple
    10 May 2012 | 12:04 pm
    Micah, when he saw that I made popsicles yesterday that are ready today: I love you lovely, lovely Mama!

  • Marriage Amendment

    Suzanne Temple
    10 May 2012 | 11:45 am
    The kids heard about the marriage amendment from father's homily at mass on Sunday and that it was all about defending marriage. They've been counting lawn signs of those who stand for marriage rights and knew their parents went to cast their votes for the protection of family life this past Tuesday. Nothing more came up, it was all so simple. Then today, on the way home from piano Zachary asked me if the amendment passed. "It did." I told him. "Good," Jacob said, "Now you can't marry your goldfish." What? "That's what Dad told us. The amendment says marriage is between one man and one woman.

  • Smiles

    Suzanne Temple
    9 May 2012 | 5:28 pm

  • New Bistro Set

    Suzanne Temple
    4 May 2012 | 12:55 pm

  • I Wasn't Going to...

    Suzanne Temple
    29 Apr 2012 | 12:18 pm
    ...but now that I know you don't want me to.Me: Wake up, Ethan, I have milk for you.Micah: Mom, don't say "nipples."
 
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    Karen Edmisten

  • Meme Shortcuts

    Karen Edmisten
    15 May 2012 | 5:30 pm
    Lori passed on her "Versatile Blogger/Seven Things" meme, and I thought Haley tagged me for "11 Things" though I can't find my name on her list ... maybe I dreamed that part? (That's entirely possible. Probable, even.)Anyway, I'm cheating/combining/answering Haley's questions, and throwing out seven things, too.Haley's Questions:1. What’s your favorite musical (I know, how to choose, right?!) If you don’t like musicals…oh, wait, that’s impossible because we couldn’t be friends.It's a close call between Wicked and Les Miserables. I was so surprised that I liked Wicked, but I really…

  • On the radio

    Karen Edmisten
    14 May 2012 | 9:18 am
    Today, at about 10:10 a.m. central time, with Dina Marie Hale, at KBVM.fm.I added a Radio/Appearances page to the blog -- I'll add direct links to mp3s of the interviews as I can.

  • Poetry Friday: I Many Times Thought Peace Had Come

    Karen Edmisten
    11 May 2012 | 8:43 am
    I used this Emily Dickinson poem in After Miscarriage because it captures the ebb and flow of grief for me -- the uphill climb, the slide backward, the ongoing search for hope.There are fictitious shores, yes -- but the Harbor is out there, waiting.***I many times thought Peace had comeWhen Peace was far away—As Wrecked Men—deem they sight the Land—At Centre of the Sea—And struggle slacker—but to proveAs hopelessly as I—How many the fictitious Shores—Before the Harbor be—~~ Emily Dickinson************The round up today is at Live Your Poem.

  • TV and Movie Talk

    Karen Edmisten
    9 May 2012 | 8:46 pm
    Last month, we got rid of cable TV in order to save a little money, so now we watch stuff past its prime via Netflix or Hulu. This is working extremely well (and thanks to my friend Beth for telling me about Roku, too) since we don't mind watching stuff a day or two later (or years later, in some cases.)There are two situations in my life that make me want to turn to TV:1. The end of a long day. Dare I say this is many days? Not always, and much more often on the weekends. But, at the end of a long or stressful day I like to curl up next to Atticus and watch something we both really…

  • Ramona, Writer at Play

    Karen Edmisten
    7 May 2012 | 7:21 am
    Ramona (upon coming inside after playing an imagining game in the backyard): Brrrr! I got cold out there!Me: Why didn't you come in sooner?Ramona: I wanted to find out what happened.
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    Mental multivitamin

  • Link. Think.

    Mental multivitamin
    13 May 2012 | 8:33 pm
    ■ Sketchbooks: Turning the Pages at the Art Institute of ChicagoArtists have long used sketchbooks to jot down ideas and to work quickly outside their studios. This selection of Art Institute sketchbooks ranges from the eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries, and appears in order by artist name. The Cézanne, Redon and Weber books were standard issue for the late nineteenth-century, and all include an extra flap inside the front or back binding for holding a pencil.■ Learning That Works (Time, May 14) Unfortunately, the education establishment's response to the voc-ed problem only…

  • No words needed

    Mental multivitamin
    12 May 2012 | 6:20 pm

  • 12 May 2012 | 6:04 pm

    Mental multivitamin
    12 May 2012 | 6:04 pm
    Semicolon hosts "The Saturday Review of Books." Consider participating this week.

  • Volkening Heritage Farm

    Mental multivitamin
    11 May 2012 | 6:02 pm

  • "You must be very angry at your mother."

    Mental multivitamin
    6 May 2012 | 6:05 pm
    Are You My Mother? (Alison Bechdel)Graphic memoir Having branded Fun Home "Don't miss!" (related entry here), I wanted to read Bechdel's follow-up memoir on its release. Reviews have been mixed, though, even within one publication: the NYT and the NYT; Slate, Kirkus Reviews, and NPR.And my own review is somewhat mixed, too. Intelligent, insightful, and abundantly gifted with both text and illustration, Bechdel blends personal history, including conversations with her therapists, with wisdom culled from her close reading of both Donald Winnicott and Virginia Woolf -- all in an effort to…
 
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    Heart of the Matter

  • Going Old-School: Final Projects, Part 2

    Debra
    16 May 2012 | 6:00 am
    In our house this is it – our last month of the school year.  My kindergartener and fourth grader are rounding the bend into summer.  But we’re not quite done.  There’s still time to introduce them to some experiential, time-tested projects that I loved when I was a kid.  And if the teacher is excited, the students will be enthralled.  Last month I outlined 8 “old-school” projects.  This month I’m finishing my list of 15 with 7 more.  See if you remember doing these and make time for one or two in your final school days.   The Mobile.  Every child has probably made…

  • The Formula Trap

    Elizabeth Curry
    16 May 2012 | 6:00 am
    Homeschooling a large family has its own challenges and rewards. On the plus side, there is a lot of fun involved. I love having a large group of people to do big projects or for playing games. I love having all levels of learning materials available, because it’s funny how often an older child can be engaged with something that is designed for a younger child. I love that I finally feel as though I have found math curriculum that seems to work for our not-in-love-with-math family. One of the things I struggle with, though, in homeschooling a large number of children is avoiding the…

  • Enjoy Handicrafts This Summer

    Cindy West
    14 May 2012 | 6:00 am
    For those of us who take breaks from school in the summer months, those weeks can be wonderful times of relaxation from the regular hectic schedule.  Because of the extra time, the lazy days of summer can also be perfect for learning or practicing new skills known as handicrafts. What are handicrafts?  Things you create which prove to be useful.  A very small list of possible handicrafts includes: Sewing Quilting Knitting Crocheting Embroidery Woodworking Wood Burning Whittling Model Making Jewelry making Pottery Photography Videography Gardening Flower Arranging Rather than waste away…

  • The Power of Teamwork

    Guest
    14 May 2012 | 6:00 am
    Brother A steps over the fallen fork of Brother B. Sister A points out the failings of Sister B. We don’t even want to talk about the wranglings of Brother A and Sister A over whose turn it is to sit in the front seat. I know I have asked myself before, how do I move past the petty struggles on daily display in many homeschool families, including my own? I think we find the answer in the wisdom of Dr. Ruth Beechick. One time, Dr. Beechick and I were talking about the bickerings that can become big issues for moms. I asked her how she handled that problem with her boys. She paused for a…

  • This Week At Heart of the Matter

    admin
    12 May 2012 | 6:41 am
      During this Mother’s Day Weekend, grab a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to catch up on these amazing articles from this week at Heart of the Matter! HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!   Housekeeping Tips for Disordered Moms Are We There Yet? Embracing Spring Blessing Your Children Striving to Rest The Homeschool Experiment by Charity Hawkins – Review and Giveaway Teachable Moments in Spanish Homeschooling While Facing Chronic Illness -------------------------------------- Great Products: Learn Our History | Amanda Bennett Unit Studies © Heart of the Matter
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    SCHOLA

  • Hello, again.

    L
    2 May 2012 | 12:24 pm
    Well, well, well...  Where were we?Sarabelle has just finished her first year at college.  Proof that an eclectic education doesn't completely screw you up.  She's happily pursuing a degree in communications and working on the local radio station.  Next year she will have a regular show of her own and will be the station's music director.  She established the first strings ensemble at the college and has been invited to join the city's community orchestra.  This month she is New York City interning at a major record label and basically living her dream.Grice has…

  • Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of Homeschooling

    L
    25 Dec 2011 | 3:57 pm
    Just received an email from the charter school's administrator advising us that at the board meeting this coming Tuesday, she is going to announce her recommendation to close the school.Disappointed.  But looking forward to rejoining the homeschooling world.  Working full-time but now with the added benefit of a brand new iPad, I should be way more mobile and able to let Elle participate in more of the outside physical activities she craves.I have already had some negative feedback from family, but when has that ever stopped me?

  • All Apologies to Nirvana

    L
    13 Dec 2011 | 8:52 pm
    While updating my 2011 Reading list, the date of my last post sat there taunting me, so here's a quick update:The whole Progressive Democratic public charter school thing is imploding. Parents who claimed to have been at all the introductory meetings where the unconventional aspects were explained kept wondering when their kids were going to bring home some worksheets or a report card, teaching their children a valuable lesson about the importance of listening carefully. The dissatisfied parents tried to change the school to something more to their liking, were shot down, left en masse…

  • I am an Opportunist

    L
    11 Aug 2011 | 4:04 pm
    Just when I was liking the idea of Elle being tutored, and Elle was actually cooperating, along comes another twist. Years back, right after Hurricane Charley, Elle attended pre-K at a nearby school. Set in a beautiful rural environment, it was meant to provide the kids opportunities to garden and raise small livestock. Theoretically it was great. Practically it never came to be, and a few years later the school eventually closed.Now, however, the county has taken the property over and is reopening a small, "progressive democratic" public charter school. The progressive part comes from the…

  • TAM 9!

    L
    2 Aug 2011 | 7:43 pm
    The Amazing Meeting, the James Randi Educational Foundation's celebration of science and skepticism was such a blast I can hardly wait until next year. It is hard to imagine how they will top the line-up. This year the get together, themed TAM 9 From Outer Space, featured such big names as Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye (who, I am not too proud to say, I stalked until I got a photo), Phil Plaitt, and of course The Amazing Randi. I got to meet some of my blog heroes: PZ Myers and Hemant Mehta among others. Penn Jillette hosted and performed at his private Rock-n-Roll, Bacon,…
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    Home*School*Home

  • Today, we've got 4H.

    Fatcat
    15 May 2012 | 1:26 pm
    I'm excited about the lessons we are going to do today.  We're going to make terrariums and then if there is any time left over, which I suspect there will, I'm going to make the kids do a drawing of some sort.  They can enter several different things in the county fair and one of them is a drawing.  I've been to Art Projects for Kids and got some good drawing instructions.  If you haven't visited that site, you should.  I also looked at ton of fun terrariums on Pinterest.  There are some really cute ones.  If you go there, be careful.  I don't consider…

  • Interviews.

    Fatcat
    14 May 2012 | 2:19 pm
    I asked the kids one interview question today.  What are you going to do now that school is out? Boy said "Play heroscape." and he is doing this quite loudly behind me as I type this. Girl said "Nothing." So there are their exciting summer plans.  LoL.

  • Sometimes my work is kind of funny.

    Fatcat
    14 May 2012 | 11:25 am
    This was just dictated to me.  Notice the numbers. DIAGNOSES: 1.  Rhabdomyolysis.. 2.  Equivocal cardiac enzymes. 2.  Permanent pacemaker. 3.  Hypothyroidism. 6.  Diabetes mellitus. 8.  Hyperthyroidism. 9.  Hypertension. 11. Advanced age. 9.  History of normal echocardiogram. Seriously, he numbered them this way.  I didn't, of course, on the report, favoring the more traditional 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,  numbering system myself.  :-)  I think it's kind of interesting that he ended up with 9 at the end, which actually is…

  • The First Day of Summer.

    Fatcat
    14 May 2012 | 9:37 am
    Okay, we realize that it isn't officially the first day of summer but for us, it is.  Woo hoo!  No school today.  No whining about school today.  We need to sit down and make a summer fun and a summer work schedule.  Must do both.   Mom wants to lose some weight this summer and so we need an exercise plan.  We also need to get the house in order and do the rest of the spring cleaning.  We also don't want to neglect doing some fun and interesting things and getting together with our homeschool group.  It might be helpful to combine some fun and…

  • Happy Mother's Day.

    Fatcat
    13 May 2012 | 7:40 am
 
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    Homeschool Math Blog

  • Mother's day freebies & more

    Maria Miller
    10 May 2012 | 6:38 am
    Aurora from Supercharged Science  is again giving away a great free gift! She has one of the top homeschool science curricula out there, and this is a free selection of activities and experimentsfrom her summer e-Camp program. You're going to get actual sections of e-Camp, complete with all the explanations, step-by-step videos, and lots more. And yet more... Currclick is giving away several Mother's Day freebies, one of which is my book Math Mammoth Place Value 2. So, here's your chance to get one of my books completely free. Enjoy! Maria

  • See the first 4 million digits of Pi

    Maria Miller
    25 Apr 2012 | 7:47 am
    This online visualization represents the first 4,000,000 decimals of Pi within a single image. Each unique digit of Pi corresponds to a specific color, and is rendered as a 1x1 pixel dot. You can also search for the first occurrences of any specific decimal combination.

  • Math Mammoth Grade 2 aligned to the Common Core Standards

    Maria Miller
    20 Apr 2012 | 11:13 am
    Math Mammoth Grade 2 Complete Curriculum is now aligned to the Common Core Standards. I will record here the main changes in its content as compared to the earlier edition / version (through April 2012).You can tell the new edition and the earlier ones apart by their cover image: the edition aligned to the Common Core Standards has these new cover images.The topics of rounding and finding 1/4 of a number were taken off as they are not in Common Core Standards for grade 2.The topics of regrouping in addition and regrouping in subtraction are now split so that 2-A contains regrouping in…

  • Math Mammoth Grade 1 aligned to the Common Core Standards

    Maria Miller
    20 Apr 2012 | 10:22 am
    Math Mammoth Grade 1 Complete Curriculum is now aligned to the Common Core Standards. I will record here the main changes in its content as compared to the earlier edition / version (through April 2012).You can tell the new edition and the earlier ones apart by their cover image: the edition aligned to the Common Core Standards has these new cover images. What used to be chapter 4 (Place Value) switched places with Chapter 3 (Addition and Subtraction Facts within 0-18).  The topics of rounding, even & odd numbers, and parenthesis were taken off as they are  not in the Common…

  • Geometry problems (challenges)

    Maria Miller
    13 Apr 2012 | 3:43 pm
    Someone sent me this linkhttp://fivetriangles.blogspot.com/It contains challenging geometry problems for middle and high school level. Unfortunately I didn't see solutions!This blog for teachers contains an unordered series of problems for middle and junior high school students. The problems are not intended to be ``clever'', but rather require only a knowledge of already-learned basic mathematics principles, applied in a more sophisticated manner than for the problems found in a typical textbook.
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    A Holy Experience

  • Links for 2012-05-15 [del.icio.us]

    16 May 2012 | 2:00 am
    Top 10 Most Read Books in the World ... @ Galley Cat ...thought-provoking. Hard work on the right things @ Seth Godin.... "The secret, I think, is in understanding what matters." And it comes back to priorities unseen.... priorities unseen like love and relationship and souls... yes. Just Guide Gently @ Mom Heart Online... and I'm posting over here today with Sally Clarkson and community --- and how to really manage the day. If Life is an Adventure… @ "So if life is an adventure... Why aren’t we out there loving bigger and bleeding grace? Why aren’t we seeking out the hurt and the…

  • The Purpose of Pain: When Life Hurts

    Ann Voskamp
    15 May 2012 | 9:39 am
    She stood under all that blue sky and watched the windmill spin round and was it the all the world turning that she could feel? How it spun and hurt and unfurled. Dandelions unfolded at her feet — suns, risings everywhere. The rooster turned. Laundry slapped on the line. Something in her, the hurting places, stirred awake right there. That’s what she could feel: The surrendered accept that pain is always but growing pains. And growth is always a gift —  even when trials are the tutor. One of the ducks duck settled down by the barbed wire fence. Out in the far field, a horse…

  • The Happy Mom Manifesto

    Ann Voskamp
    14 May 2012 | 12:23 pm
    The Happy Mom Manifesto 1. The only thing that has to be written in stone is when to pray. Because it’s not schedules, busyness, or deadlines that keep one from prayer. The only thing stopping one from praying is self. {Excuse-making can be a cheap cover for idolatry.} If one’s not praying regularly, it’s only because something else is regularly loved more than God. 2. Even if everything goes wrong, love is always right. There is ridiculous hope in this. 3. Whenever you want to throw your hands up, throw them around someone instead. Holding someone always helps holds…

  • Links for 2012-05-13 [del.icio.us]

    14 May 2012 | 2:00 am
    Out of the Mouth of Babes by Rebekah Lyons.... An esteemed and dear friend, Rebekah's raw and honest and exquisite post speaks of the hardest and the hope on Mother's Day.... Beautiful.

  • A Perfect DIY Mother’s Day …………… {or “How to make Your Own R&R Day”}

    Ann Voskamp
    12 May 2012 | 8:40 am
    Because there are days when every mother – every woman – just needs to have her own perfect little DIY project: 1.  Go for walk just anywhere quiet, just for a moment — somewhere this weekend, go for a walk?   2.Turn on the music: Fill the house and your heart and mind and bones with Praise to God music (Play it loud and let the whole house dance in praise! Really — just for  a moment: dance in praise!)   3. Make a tasty little treat – just because. Nibble on this sweet  with with a cup of your favorite tea. Use your best china! {It’s like…
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    Radio Free School

  • School closure? A golden opportunity.

    rfs
    14 May 2012 | 7:48 am
    What children need is not new and better curriculm but access to more of the real world; plenty of time and space to think over their experiences, and to use fantasy and play to make meaning out of them." John Holt Three high schools are closing their doors in my city of Hamilton and no, it's not so that kids can unschool. We are told that there are not enough students to fill these schools. So what do they want to do? Build a super school down town that students from area catchments will attend. The school will cost a pretty sum of 32 million dollars. Humm. While I agree that these…

  • An Open Letter to Lisa Luper-author of 'Open Letter to Lazy Homeschoolers.'

    rfs
    11 May 2012 | 7:40 pm
    Photo by a lazy homeschooler You have enjoyed the freedom to homeschool that previous generations have worked so hard to earn and have forgotten the price they have paid for your freedom.  With freedom comes responsibility.  We were expected to outshine our public-schooled peers, and we did.  All this said with that pious, 'purer than thou,' accusatory, judgemental attitude ("we are superior") masquerading as concern. Oh soooo concerned is Lisa Luper, the conscientious and well-schooled author of An Open Letter to Lazy Homeschoolers. She is so worried that homeschooling will…

  • Taking Kids Seriously

    rfs
    10 May 2012 | 12:02 am
    The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them. Henry David Thoreau These days, expect to read here, more words that come from kids of all ages- starting from babies all the way up to young adults.This is because unlike what society says, young people have much to contribute to daily life and it is time we acknowledge that. We're in a culture where kids are viewed mostly as beings who need taking care of, or who need things (usually expensive…

  • Unschooled Musician

    rfs
    9 May 2012 | 12:58 pm

  • The path less trodden (The road not taken).

    rfs
    7 May 2012 | 8:13 am
    I was reading an article by Kate Wong in the latest copy of Scientific American. 'First of our Kind' is a piece that starts with an introduction about how the origin of our genus, Homo, is one of the biggest mysteries facing scholars of human evolution. Based on the meager evidence available, scientists have surmised that Homo arose in East Africa, with Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, giving rise to the founding member of our lineage, Homo habilis. But, recently discovered fossils from a site northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, could upend that…
 
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    Unschooling Site News, SandraDodd.com

  • Book Discounts

    Sandra Dodd
    15 May 2012 | 10:55 am
    #1 because I'll be away from home for ten weeks or so, beginning tomorrow, I'm going to disable book orders from my site, but #2 you can get them from Lulu.com, and they have a special until May 18 (link below), and #3 you can order directly from Amazon (without shipping, if you have an Amazon Prime account). Direct Amazon links: The Big Book of UnschoolingMoving a Puddle

  • Minecraft, Nest, Add Light and Stir

    Sandra Dodd
    15 Apr 2012 | 8:55 am
    Learning from Minecraftsandradodd.com/videogames/minecraftlearninga new page joins the Minecraft page you might already have seen, but for the benefit of new readers...sandradodd.com/videogames/minecraftNew bit on Building an Unschooling Nest, third section or so, Caren and Pam:sandradodd.com/nestJust Add Light and Stir has over 1000 e-mail subscribers not, and over 400 by other blog-notification means.My daughter Holly created a facebook page for Just Add Light, after I used one of her friends' photos (David Jio)and yesterday I used one by her boyfriend.The facebook page is here:…

  • Breathing, socialization and cake

    Sandra Dodd
    14 Apr 2012 | 10:25 am
    Something new, about yoga at work, and parenting is work!! (Work you can't well leave, so the info can be very useful, right away.)http://sandradodd.com/breathingSocialization, new link to an outside blog, upper lefthand photo (in the "all photos are links" section)and I put something short there (top) from a talk I gave.http://sandradodd.com/socialization/Cake (new cake by Marin Holmes, first in the lefthand column)The page is about what cakes represent, and the juju of cake sacrifice, but the art is just FUN!http://sandradodd.com/cake

  • Child's partner, Portuguese, and a poetic rant

    Sandra Dodd
    7 Apr 2012 | 8:36 am
    Addition to being your child's partner, a quote of Schuyler Waynforth, which quotes Pam Sorooshian and links to something she wrote. (The new material is the second item on the page.)http://sandradodd.com/partners/child.htmlThere is a page for Portuguese translations. At the moment it has five "Just Add Light and Stir" entries, but there is a translation of an interview in its final editing stages, and that will be added when it's ready. http://sandradodd.com/portuguese/Marta Pires is the translator, and also the organizer of a gathering in Lisbon a year from now at which Joyce Fetteroll and…

  • Bonding, refreshing, noisy peace

    Sandra Dodd
    21 Mar 2012 | 3:25 pm
    This page is NOT finished, but Schuyler wrote something worth reading all by itself, and I can add to it later.http://sandradodd.com/bondingBig Noisy Peace, a sound file, is in two places on my site now, free to listen to there or to download:http://sandradodd.com/peace/noisyhttp://sandradodd.com/refreshThe sound files page is cleaned up a bit:http://sandradodd.com/listenAnd part two of the Peaceful Parenting talk from years ago is easily available to hear freely now, here:sandradodd.com/com/parentingpeacefullyJust Add Light and Stir has nearly 1000 subscribers now. You can click the photo to…
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    Sandra Dodd

  • Conference in Florida in October!

    Sandra Dodd
    15 May 2012 | 5:03 pm
    Testing a link/button for the Florida conference this October: Not a good day for it, as I'm leaving town in the morning, but I just spent a long time changing reservations for me and Holly (the conference dates changed) and getting Keith a ticket on the same flights. Those things stress me, and I'm a little shocked by the price of changing a flight. But it's done, and I have a few months to recover. :-) Holly says this will be the second time she's gone on a trip with just me and Keith. The three of us drove to see Kirby a couple of years ago.

  • Home Alone

    Sandra Dodd
    12 May 2012 | 4:24 pm
    Everyone's gone but me. It's very overcast and looks like it could rain. Yesterday it rained. I stood in the garage leaning on Keith, smelling that first-rain-for-a-long-time smell, and being glad to be home, looking at so much rain we couldn't see the mountains. Today Keith and Marty are in Colorado Springs (Dragonsspine, actually, for Outlands coronation).  They went separately.  I woke Keith up at 1:30 so he could leave before 2:00.  He'll spend the night at Needham's house in Pueblo.Marty went with Jeff early.  I was asleep, from 2:00 to nearly 9:00, and stayed in the…

  • Cat's ass night

    Sandra Dodd
    3 May 2012 | 10:00 pm
    The phrase/word on Wheel of Fortune looked like _ _ _ _ L E _ _ A P and I was thinking "rattle trap." But it was bubble wrap. And I had just two hours before bought and used bubble wrap. And it reminds me of DrawSomething, which I was playing a lot for a while and not so much lately. :-) For the past ween and some I have off an on read and read at Amazon to see how to get books from my house to their warehouse so they can sell them directly. I would read until I was too confused to go on, or until I came to a place that seemed I needed to upgrade my version of Excel, or something else…

  • Heather and Camden's visit

    Sandra Dodd
    9 Apr 2012 | 7:15 am
    Heather and Camden Brown stayed a few days at the end of May, and here are some of the photos:

  • Schuyler's sock

    Sandra Dodd
    9 Apr 2012 | 6:42 am
    I have a note to send Schuyler some photos, but Schuyler is moving to Australia, and is kind of busy, My last note from her said: Lately most of what I'm thinking is "I'm moving to 'Stralia". No punctuation, just deadpan.Sold the van, selling the hot tub. In 5 1/2 weeks our stuff goes, 6 1/2 weeks Buster and the cats and 7 weeks until we go. Not long before before she wrote that, and far, far away, Jill visited my house, and was knitting with some yarn Schuyler had sent from England. And then later, we were playing Draw Something, and Holly's boyfriend, Will, was drawing (and he's great, so…
 
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    HomeschoolBuzz.com

  • Belated carnivals of homeschooling

    Gary
    11 May 2012 | 10:55 am
    I’ve been lax again. More belated carnivals of homeschooling.  May 9 - The NerdMom is hosting Carnival of Homeschooling – jump right in Welcome to the Carnival of Homechooling! Won’t you come on in, get a cup of coffee and make yourself comfortable? We have quite a few great entrys this week so lets jump right in!  No matter what your education style is we all agree that life happens. One of the blessings of homeschooling is that homeschooling can work with the chaos of life! We have some great entries that specifically look at life and the…

  • Homeschooling: the infographic

    Gary
    11 May 2012 | 10:20 am
    Some comforting statistics about homeschooling brought to life here by this inforgraphic.  One interesting point, homeschool sucess is not significantly affected by household income, teacher certification or curriculum budget. These are all the things public schools reflexively cite for the reason for their failures.  Created by: CollegeAtHome.com

  • A month’s worth of Homeschool Carnivals

    Gary
    22 Apr 2012 | 3:36 pm
    I have been lax in posting carnivals recently. Too much going in the non-virtual world. Here are the carnivals I missed but you don’t want to miss: April 17 – Carnival of Homeschooling: The Balloon Dog Lessons via Home Spun Juggling April 10 – Carnival of Homeschooling – instead of TV… via bugs, knights and turkeys in the yard April 3 – Blog Carnival Spring Edition via The Faithful Homeschool March 27 – Texas Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling via Sprittibee

  • Carnival of Homeschooling – Creativity Edition

    Gary
    20 Mar 2012 | 1:04 pm
    Homeschool Bytes is hosting theHomeschool Blog Carnival – Creativity Edition We’ve all chosen to homeschool for a variety of reasons and many of us have discovered that every child is a bundle of different needs, learning styles, and undiscovered talents. Nurturing the creativity of our children fills the journey with diverse and amazing discoveries.

  • Carnival of Homeschooling, to those who homeschool because of illness

    Gary
    15 Mar 2012 | 11:23 am
    This week, Notes From A Homeschooled Mom is hosting Carnival of Homeschooling, to those who homeschool because of illness Hi and Welcome to the Carnival of Homeschooling at Notes from a Homeschooled Mom. I am have homeschooled for nearly a decade now and am near the end of the journey with my children. You may have noticed I have recently changed my blog name. It was a simple change of one word: Homeschooling to Homeschooled. The reason for the change is that I now know that I wasn’t just teaching my kids, they were teaching me all along. Homeschooling has made me braver, stronger, more…
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    The History of the (Whole) World

  • Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-05-06

    Susan
    5 May 2012 | 11:21 pm
    Finishing the book this month. Need theme music. Where's my theme music? # There's a skink in my office. It keeps popping out from behind books and then disappearing again. Not crazy about the jack-in-the-box act. # Note to self: Wasp spray does not work on really big spiders. # As my last two Tweets reveal, spring has come to the chicken-shed office. # Just turned our little flock of Angora goats out on 2 acres of newly fenced, lush, green forage. They are, naturally, chewing on the fence. # Powered by Twitter Tools

  • Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-04-29

    Susan
    28 Apr 2012 | 11:21 pm
    Heading west with kids for long-planned fishing trip. And it, is, of course, SNOWING. What state is this??? What month is it again??? # Desperate searching for adjective that means "able to be mixed together." Found it: MISCIBLE. But can't use it. Nobody knows what it means. # Today, spraying fruit trees for leaf curl, fire blight, brown rot, borers. Folks, there's a reason why all those colonies out here failed. # Wrapping up a chapter on the Ming this morning. Must find a better adjective than "bureaucrat-stuffed." Although that's pretty descriptive. # OK,…

  • Just finished spraying the fruit trees. And in the mood for a rant.

    Susan
    28 Apr 2012 | 6:18 pm
    This week, I sprayed a witches’ brew of toxic chemicals all over our fruit trees: eight peach, eight apples, three plums, two cherries, two persimmon. I’ll be doing this every ten to fourteen days for the rest of the summer. This is southeastern Virginia, after all. I live just down the river from Jamestown; it is, as the early settlers remarked, a Pestilential Swamp, Most Steamy and Hot, with swarms of Insects. There are good reasons why the colonists died in droves. Pre-pink apple spray: Sulfur 90W 2.0-4.0 Tbsp., plus 2.0 fl oz. permethrin and 2.0-4.0 Tbsp esfenvalerate. For scab,…

  • Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-04-22

    Susan
    21 Apr 2012 | 11:21 pm
    Just got inflight notification: "We are contacting you because it appears your bag(s) traveled on an earlier flight." That's good, right? # Just had amazing chef's special at Local 127 in Cincy. Like the Le Bernadin of pork (yes, been there, I can say that). http://t.co/HGYIWtgi # "Thrilling, hilarious, and brilliantly executed." I love superhero movies. http://t.co/2DMlP320 # Heading out for a second day of talking to many, many, many home educators in Cincinnati. # Powered by Twitter Tools

  • One more update about future plans…

    Susan
    19 Apr 2012 | 1:31 pm
    I’ve already posted about my decision to restructure the History of the Entire World series, and my intentions to balance out all that researching and writing with a little more farming. That’s two updates about future plans, but–as my favorite writing handbook points out –triads are always rhetorically effective. So here’s the third part of the update. Next year, I’m taking a break from conference travel. Since 1999, I’ve been going to conferences, speaking at educational gatherings, schools, retreats, you name it. I have always loved talking to…
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    The Thinking Mother

  • We Toured the New Devon Energy Building

    ChristineMM
    16 May 2012 | 6:27 am
    Our family had a tour of the new (and still under construction) Devon Energy building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This is now the tallest skyscraper in the city and cost to build it is said to be $800 million. It is amazing.I was proud of my kids for being well-mannered and well-behaved as they conducted themselves properly while on the tour and while being introduced to the company's top executives. My kids loved the building and were fascinated by many of its features. My older son has always been interested in building and he sees the beauty in the aesthetics of architecture…

  • You Heard It Here First

    ChristineMM
    15 May 2012 | 4:51 pm
    Here is my January 2010 blog post where I share frustration as a homeschool conference attendee that the sessions are too lifestyle oriented and not education or learning focused.My Issue with Christian Homeschool Conferences and MagazinesHere is a recent blog post by Susan Wise Bauer, co-author of The Well Trained Mind, where she shares her decision to not speak at homeschool conferences in the year 2013 due to increasing pressures from conference organizers."I love to teach; I love to help parents and teachers teach. That’s part of what I do. But conferences seem, increasingly, less…

  • My Older Son Fractured His Ankle

    ChristineMM
    14 May 2012 | 8:36 am
    Yet another reason why I am not writing long blog posts is that at his last practice before the regional rowing championships, my older son broke his ankle while doing warm-up's playing soccer at rowing practice. He just rolled his dominant leg's ankle to a 90 degree angle and heard a snap. After this he was in dire pain but rowed anyway. He reported, "It hurt for the first ten minutes then stopped hurting after that so I just kept rowing."That night he begged to go to the ER and it was swollen mildly with a bruise. It is just a hairline fracture which is good to know. However we had to hear…

  • Busy Looking for a Texas House to Buy

    ChristineMM
    13 May 2012 | 8:15 am
    Another reason for the skimpy blogging lately is I am spending a lot of time shopping to buy a house in Texas. I have gone on showings on four of the last seven days.It is a seller's market in my town and it is just crazy with activity. The sales have jumped up in the last one month. Houses in our price range are getting sometimes three and four bids on the same day. The priced right homes in great condition are being snapped up in days one, two, or three. Some are going for full asking or over asking price. We have had to resort to looking at locations that are farther away (adding…

  • Going East for the Summer

    ChristineMM
    12 May 2012 | 8:46 am
    I'm not quite ready to nail the dates down yet, especially now with houses in flux. However it looks like my sons and I will drive back East for seven or eight weeks this summer. Public school lets out on May 31 in my town in Texas. We started homeschooling right around August 15 if I recall. It's been a long year.We plan to visit our family and stay some nights at my mother-in-law's house. We plan to spend weeks in Cape Cod at her vacation home. I have invited some friends to spend time there but so far everyone is so busy with various child-centered enrichment activities that it has been…
 
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    Consent Of The Governed

  • Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

    Judy Aron
    15 May 2012 | 4:00 am
    With the Greeks defaulting (again) and the EU economy in a shambles, it is no surprise that some representatives of EU countries are forcefully saying, enough is enough: The countries that have been fiscally irresponsible can no longer be propped up by the more industrious and hard working nations and their taxpayers... and it would seem that the Socialistic nature of "spreading the wealth" is beginning to wear very, very thin. There's just too much government borrowing and spending going on. The "Takers and Looters" of European countries that are in the crapper (because of the Takers and…

  • Happy Mother's Day!

    Judy Aron
    13 May 2012 | 3:00 am
    For all you moms out there, I hope you have a lovely day doing whatever it is you enjoy doing! My family is planning to do some painting in our house today.  I am looking forward to spending a lovely day with the people that I love most. I hope that you all get to do the same. My own mom passed away in September 2007. I miss her so very, very much, but I know she is with me in spirit: So wherever you are mom - Happy Mothers Day and I will always love you! "A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity;…

  • Chinese To Build City In Michigan

    Judy Aron
    11 May 2012 | 4:00 am
    While many are busy worrying about the "Muslim invasion"....or the "Mexican invasion"... perhaps we should also be concerned about the Chinese invasion of America! A Chinese backed company, Sino-Michigan Properties LLC, recently purchased 200 acres of land outside of Ann Arbor. Their intention seems to be to build a self-sufficient Chinese city, ... in Michigan. This would include residential housing units, commercial units, and manufacturing all contained in what they hope to be a special economic zone, a model that the Chinese government has used to great effect on mainland China. now it…

  • Fed Clears The Way For China To Buy American Banks

    Judy Aron
    10 May 2012 | 4:00 am
    This is why we need to End The Fed! This is outrageous! CNBC is reporting: For the first time in its history the Federal Reserve gave the thumbs up to an acquisition of a U.S. bank by a Chinese bank, opening the door for other Chinese banks to follow suit. “It is a signal the Fed has gotten comfortable with Chinese banks,” said Fred Cannon, Keefe Bruyette and Woods Director of Research. The central bank approved the application by China’s largest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Investment Corp. (CIC)and Central Huijin Investment Ltd, to buy 80 percent of the…

  • The Nanny State Bans Bake Sales

    Judy Aron
    9 May 2012 | 4:00 am
    Massachusetts has decided it knows what is best for the children... and doesn’t recognize any limitations on its power as well.   They will mandate what can be sold where and when and to whom, and woe be it to those who decide to buy a brownie from a school fundraiser. Starting on August 1, groups like PTAs and booster clubs will no longer be able to raise funds by holding bake sales in Massachusetts schools. “At a minimum, the nosh clampdown targets so-called ‘competitive’ foods — those sold or served during the school day in hallways, cafeterias, stores and vending…
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    H. E. R. P. & E. S.

  • CONGRADULATONS

    dcobranchi
    16 May 2012 | 7:12 am
    That’s what the banner read on last night’s “Glee.” They can sing, but they cannot spell.

  • IT WAS 20 10 YEARS AGO TODAY

    dcobranchi
    9 May 2012 | 7:48 am
    This blog was born. That 1st post was just as inane as most of the rest of them.

  • TEBOW BILL IN SC

    dcobranchi
    26 Apr 2012 | 5:11 pm
    The SC Senate just passed a bill to allow HEKs to play sports at their local schools. Interestingly, the vote was 36-0.

  • LIFE IN PARKERSBURG, WV

    dcobranchi
    6 Apr 2012 | 3:27 pm
    There’s an idiot down the corner from here standing next to the main shopping drag waving a big photo of Obama with the single word “Remove” under the image. Oh, and Obama is sporting a Hitler moustache.

  • CAN’T SAY I’LL BE PRAYING FOR THEM

    dcobranchi
    24 Mar 2012 | 12:25 pm
    But I’m sure my fellow travelers meeting in DC today would be A-OK with that.
 
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    Pass The Torch

  • Free Service-Learning Curriculum!

    Kelly
    9 May 2012 | 5:40 pm
    The YMCA Center for Asset Development has made available a new resource entitled, Seasons of Service: Engaging Youth in Service-Learning Throughout the Year curriculum. It has been nominated for a 2012 National Service Impact Award. This offers a 3-in-1 curriculum package to engage and equip youth as change agents in the community. [...]

  • C.R. Mudgeon – Book Review

    Kelly
    28 Apr 2012 | 8:02 am
    The story, C.R. Mudgeon, by Leslie Muir is a fun story about a sensible hedgehog who likes to know just what to expect. He is uncomfortable with surprises or excitement that changes anything in his predictable life. When a noisy new neighbor, Paprika the squirrel moves in, C.R. is very uncomfortable with [...]

  • Prudential Spirit of Community Awards

    Kelly
    19 Apr 2012 | 8:32 pm
    The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards singled out America’s most outstanding youth volunteers to reward their good work and hold them up as examples for all of us — kids and adults alike. Established in 1995, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards represents the United States’ largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer service. [...]

  • UnBEElievables – Book Review

    Kelly
    11 Apr 2012 | 11:11 am
    Do you have a honey lover in your house? Or maybe a child that already understands the important value bees have in your ecosystem? UnBEElievables is a collection of honeybee poems and paintings by Douglas Florian. This colorful and informative book offers a unique and interesting blend of poetry, artwork and scientific explanations about [...]

  • Cabo San Lucas Ziplining

    Kelly
    30 Mar 2012 | 8:09 pm
    For spring break this year, my family visited Cabo San Lucas. Our first excursion was to the rugged and hilly desert to go ziplining. We had planned for the trip ahead of time, by purchasing vouchers through Los Cabos Guide, which saved us 35% of the $380 bill (four of us ziplined.) And we [...]
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    Homeschool Journal Dot Net

  • All good things come to an end.

    tinderbox
    15 May 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Back in November, we decided to scale way back on Five in a Row. I scheduled one FIAR book every five weeks, so that in the intervening periods we could devote more time to lab science and history. We’ve done a few good rows since then. But yesterday we picked up the FIAR book I scheduled for this week and realized… we were done. It’s funny how a curriculum can go from right to not-right. In the past, I’ve seen people complain that the FIAR concept felt weird and disjointed to them. Their children didn’t understand why they were having a lesson on some random…

  • May Joy dare {3 gifts about me}

    liese4
    15 May 2012 | 7:54 pm
    Wow, I hardly ever think of me and gifts in the same sentence. I think of gifts that my kids have, gifts that God gives, but…3 gifts* about me? I have the gift of passion, that can be good and bad. Passion drives me to dance, even though I’m not very good at it. Passion drives me to be married for almost 20 years to my love (I am very good at that.) I have the gift of cheer; even when I am down I try my hardest to be cheerful and bring a laugh, a smile, a grin to others. I have the gift of talking. I can talk to others and use my speech to teach, to inform, to help or to hinder. I…

  • The gossip column

    liese4
    15 May 2012 | 7:34 pm
    I wonder why women, in general, love to gossip….I guess we like to share juicy tidbits with others, maybe we like to see their reaction, maybe we wonder what they think about the thing we are gossiping about. Today I heard two things that made me stop and think, well three actually. One was that the ones we are gossiping about are EGR people (Extra Grace Required), one was that we should pray for them and one was that if we think they are EGR people, then we must be EEGR people (that whole take the log out of your own eye and then you can see the speck in others bit – Matthew 7:5)…

  • Why I Chose Homeschooling

    Daughter of Maat
    14 May 2012 | 4:41 pm
    When I got pregnant 6 years ago, I was on the fence about sending my daughter to formal school versus homeschooling her myself. I didn’t have the greatest experience when I was in school. I didn’t have any friends and I was routinely picked on by bullies. My mom told me it was because they were all jealous, and looking back, she was probably right. I had a high IQ, and I was told by adults that I was very pretty. I’m very analytical. I despise emotion because it’s just too irrationaly for me, and that got me into quite a bit of trouble in school. I interacted with my…

  • Moving on…

    lapazfarm
    14 May 2012 | 1:33 pm
    It’s that time again. We are once again surrounded by boxes, tape and bubble wrap as we shove everything we own into boxes in preparation for a major move. This time: back to the beautiful Appalachian mountains of western NC. We leave at the end of the month and after a week or so of travel should be happily settled in to new digs in early June. Why? Lots of reasons, but mostly to be nearer to family. In these hard economic times none of us can travel as much as we had hoped to and visits with extended family and college kids have grown way too infrequent.  It is a long, expensive trip…
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    The Homeschool Jungle

  • Astra Taylor on Unschooling

    Jana Miller
    4 May 2012 | 5:00 pm
     via Penelope TrunkRead more homeschooling articles at Homeschool Jungle™ 2008-2012

  • Donald Miller +Blue Like Jazz

    Jana Miller
    22 Mar 2012 | 6:06 pm
    Donald Miller is one of my favorite authors. I almost gave up on the first book I read of his. Actually, I did give up. And then my son told me about it. He read the book and told me I had to read it too. Chase is not a big reader so I knew I was missing something. After reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, we both read more of Miller's books. He's real and down to earth and transparent. I can't really explain what his books are about. I'll try and sum it up like this, live a good story, give it all you've got, it doesn't matter if you win, there is no formula to get close to God.

  • That Conversation

    Jana Miller
    15 Mar 2012 | 7:00 am
    Read more homeschooling articles at Homeschool Jungle™ 2008-2012

  • Twitter Chats for Homeschoolers

    Jana Miller
    12 Mar 2012 | 7:52 pm
    Twitter earns its fair share of criticism, warranted or not, but all the same, nobody can deny just how much it's revolutionized communication and networking. Homeschooled students and their parents especially benefit from its offerings, with numerous scheduled chats available addressing the unique needs that crop up in such arrangements. No matter the methods or learning styles, there exists at least one other user with something to share, hopefully improving classrooms on both sides of the monitor. The following stand as some of the best resources the social networking site currently…

  • Stuff People Say to Homeschoolers

    Jana Miller
    8 Mar 2012 | 6:08 pm
    Read more homeschooling articles at Homeschool Jungle™ 2008-2012
 
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    My Home Sweet Home

  • The Evolution of Our Instagallery

    Dawn
    15 May 2012 | 10:54 pm
    Last summer I wrote How to Create Your Own Instagallery, the story of a DIY magnetic chalkboard project that became a place to display our Instagram photos. Eleven months later, I thought you might like to see how we continue to use and update it. Periodically I take down some photos and put them in albums and print new ones to take their place. Other odds and ends have joined the mix, such as my autographed Straight No Chaser concert ticket from December, . . . my Help-Portrait volunteers’ group photo, and Smilebooth shots from Relevant. Everyday Moments + Instagram = Memories…

  • Is Radical Change Possible?

    Dawn
    15 May 2012 | 10:50 am
    Major changes can be difficult to make and to maintain, just ask anyone who’s tried to lose weight, stop smoking, or quit a bad habit. We’ve all heard the stories; however, there are successes, too, and that’s what I’m interested in examining. What does it take to make a radical change stick? Please join me and read the rest today at (in)courage! Is Radical Change Possible? is a post from: My Home Sweet Home © 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

  • Sometimes I Need to Think Small

    Dawn
    14 May 2012 | 12:13 am
    A day devoted—at least in theory—to honoring mom {me} sounded like a good excuse to plan big. Two years ago I requested a family outing to the High Museum and I seriously considered the same this year, until a conversation with a friend on Saturday night made me stop and think . . . Iris asked what we’d planned for Mother’s Day and I told her my big museum idea. Then she pointed to the recliner behind her and said, “I want to sit in that chair and read my book while everyone cleans the house,” and I knew in that moment that she was the wiser. Saturday we’d…

  • In Case Mother’s Day Sneaked Up on You

    Dawn
    11 May 2012 | 9:49 pm
    Is it just me, or do birthdays and holidays have a way sneaking up on you? I tried to be ready this year and got our Mother’s Day gifts ready early. Unfortunately, because of work and sleep schedules it took two days to get everyone in the house to sign the cards, and then I forgot to tell my husband (a.k.a. my own personal postman) that they were ready to mail. And then he forgot they were in his car until Friday . . . Even with good intentions, things go wrong. Well, I’ve got good news for you if you’re still searching for a thoughtful gift. Perfect for any day and any…

  • Camera Phone Friday: Good Reading and Homemade Body Wash Edition

    Dawn
    11 May 2012 | 10:52 am
    1. Sunny day baseball, 2. Yellow, 3. #cincodemoes @Moes_HQ, 4. Heading to the lake! Life is starting to slow a bit this week now that we’ve wrapped all of our outside classes and one of our two baseball seasons. Yesterday the pollen got the best of me and I felt pretty lousy, so it seemed like a good day to start a new book. I actually restarted a book I bought about a year and a half ago, Saving Leonardo. It’s listed in the new Classical Conversations catalog as optional reading for the class I teach, but I think I’m going to recommend it for summer. The most frugally…
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    The Official HSB Community Blog

  • Homeschool Mother’s Journal ~ 5/16

    JoAnn
    16 May 2012 | 12:08 pm
    In my life this week…I enjoyed a great Mother’s Day. I always tell my family that they don’t have to do anything, but they always like to spoil me. They bought me a game I really wanted, Scrabble Flash. I was quite excited when I opened that gift, and we’ve been playing it a lot since then. We also had a great lunch with friends from church, there was about 20 of us. It was truly a blessed Mother’s Day. In our homeschool this week…Sarah, our oldest, is done with school for the year. Paulie will be done by the end of the week. Kind of hard to believe the year is…

  • Gardens, fresh produce and farms

    JoAnn
    14 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    Last week you’ll remember I wrote about the freedom of not feeling guilty if you and/or your children are not big craft/art people. Well today I want to write about another thing the Lord helped free me from guilt on, having my own garden and/or farm. I’m a city/suburb gal by nature, not country. We did move to a more country area about 8 years ago, and could have easily started a garden, had our own cow, pig, chickens and the like. And at first, when we moved, I did try and start my own garden, ugh what a flop. But I was a homeschooler, and homeschoolers were self sufficient.

  • Featured Blog Post ~ Young Earth Timeline

    JoAnn
    11 May 2012 | 10:52 am
    Laurie wrote a very interesting post about putting together what she calls a Young Earth Timeline. I think she has some great information and explains things very well. She also has some helpful links to share about timelines. Make sure you stop by and see what she’s put together. And don’t forget to congratulate her on winning this week’s Featured Blog Post Award. ~ JoAnn

  • Homeschool Mother’s Journal ~ 5/9

    JoAnn
    9 May 2012 | 8:03 pm
    In my life this week…I’ve had a blessed week full of fellowship. After church on Sunday we had some great fellowship with new friends from church. I met with a friend for a bible study and even got to have a cup of hot chocolate with a friend today. Like I said, it’s been a blessed week. In our homeschool this week…The kids are working hard to finish up their lessons. Their lessons should be done by next week, so only one more week of school left. Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…Library and they plan on taking me out for Mother’s day, just not sure if it…

  • Children and crafts

    JoAnn
    7 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    When I started homeschooling I, like lots of other moms out there, read and studied all I could about homeschooling. What curriculum people were using, how they made it on one paycheck instead of two, how they kept the house clean, etc… And at first, I tried to copy what I read. I wanted to be the homeschooler that I read about. The ‘perfect’ homeschooler. The one who had all their kids learning foreign languages. They were always straight A+ students. They ran their own farm and business. And of course they made everything, even their clothing and such from scratch. Early…
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    Forum Discussions - The Homeschool Lounge

  • Classic Movies for Kids

    lily
    16 May 2012 | 1:07 pm
    I was wondering what are some of your favorite movies for kids? Like classics that you think every kid should see. Or classic stories or literature that were made into films. Whether they are classics or just ones that you personally love. I am hoping to find some at our library to sort of break things up a bit. We've been pretty much in a rut of workbooks and such, and I would like to toss in a movie here or there. Biography movies or documentaries could be included, but in particula are looking for literature type film. But any thing you have personally loved I'd be happy to hear about. …

  • Need suggestions for High School Science

    Tera H. Bare
    16 May 2012 | 7:44 am
    We've been using Apologia with my other two high schoolers and I really like it.  Here comes the but......But, it takes too much time to use with my youngest.  We've done the elementary/middle school version and those worked great!   My daughter has EDS and needs short lessons that aren't worksheet intensive. She has days where she's just not able to do school or days where we work quickly to get it all in.  I'm not sure maybe I should do unit studies.  She likes things really hands on, but I don't want dumbed down stuff either.  She's extremely smart and I don't want to make too easy.

  • Nature Adventures in Southeast Connecticut

    Jessica Gates
    15 May 2012 | 2:46 pm
    We are looking for fellow homeschoolers who are interested in going on weekly nature walk adventures with us! Seaside, Nature trails, parks and gardens etc. I have two sons ages 8 and 2. Any ages welcomed, hoping to get a small group together to meet each week!??

  • Last day of school...

    marnie perez
    15 May 2012 | 12:38 pm
    How do you determine when your last day of school is..?  We are planning on moving out of state next month and things are hectic..!! I'm  trying to organize, pack, and do school .... plus  ALL of the above...H-E-L-P your suggestions are needed ladies. Thanks a million 

  • Homeschool Lounge Bugs & Glitches

    Tiany
    15 May 2012 | 12:28 pm
    Hello Ladies, I wanted to send out an FYI to let you all know we are dealing with some glitches on THL that have been very difficult to fix. The developers have not been able to figure out what is wrong as of yet. If any of you have had any problems with any of the site features, spacing or our theme / visual, please let us know. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Blessings,Tiany
 

 
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    Robin Sampson's Blog

  • Amazing Virgin Coconut Oil Secrets

    admin
    10 May 2012 | 4:47 pm
    Some time back, my sweet, health-conscious friend, Dolores,  told me about the benefits of coconut oil.  I bought a jar and put in on my shelf until I had time to find recipes to use it in. Then when my boys and I were sick  (Maybe strep throat) and  I looked up natural cures on [...]

  • 66 Love Letters by Larry Crabb

    admin
    6 May 2012 | 10:34 am
    I am reading Larry Crabb’s magnum opus,  66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God That Invites You into His Story. So far I really like it. Crabb  that takes you through each book of the Bible giving his opinion as to what message he believes God is trying to get across in each book.   It is written as a [...]

  • Rethinking How & Why You Read the Bible

    admin
    6 May 2012 | 5:07 am
    I encourage homeschoolers to have a daily Bible time and to try to read the Bible through in a year or two.  But this is not the goal. The Pharisees read the Bible daily and  memorized large portions it, but when the Lamb of God stood right in front of them they didn’t recognize Him. [...]

  • Why Are Christians Keeping Passover?

    admin
    7 Apr 2012 | 6:17 am
    Jesus shared the Passover meal with his apostles saying, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 22:15-16)

  • Unleavened Bread Recipes and Freebie

    admin
    6 Apr 2012 | 12:21 am
    This week begins the (Lev 23:6, Exodus 12:15-17).During this week-long feast, nothing with leaven (yeast) in it may be eaten. Leaven is the symbol of all that is unclean and evil and therefore must scrupulously be removed from all houses before the Passover feast. Free Download!
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    Katie's Homeschool Cottage

  • Educators connected with Harvard Suggest More Play for Kids

    kamrg
    2 May 2012 | 6:49 pm
    I just finished reading a very interesting article about the benefits of play from the perspective of two educators connected with Harvard University. Their opinions in the article connect the lack of play during learning affects students’ abilities to communicate and interact effectively with others, even into college. I found their experience and observations surprising that they would be able to make this connection based on what they have observed in Harvard freshman students. Here is the link to the article:…

  • High School Grad to Walk but School Board withholding Prom and Senior Trip

    kamrg
    17 Apr 2012 | 8:32 am
    The Carrollton School Board decided Monday afternoon, 24 hours before a scheduled meeting Tuesday night (tonight) has decided to allow Austin Fisher to walk across the graduation stage. However, there are still withholding other Senior priviledges, such as prom and a senior trip. A meeting is scheduled tonight in Carrollton, OHIO to continue and decide on this debate. Another petition has been started to show support for Austin in granting him all of his Senior priviledges. Here is the link to that petition…

  • High School Student Taking Care of Mom with Cancer is Denied Graduation Walk

    kamrg
    16 Apr 2012 | 5:16 pm
    I was recently made aware of a news story in about a young man in OH, a senior in high school, who has been taking care of his terminally ill mother with cancer while keeping up his grades, holding a part time job, and participating sports, who now has been denied the right of the “Graduation Walk” due to too many absences. If you agree that this seems unfair, please read the following petition letter and click on the link to sign the petition. This website is a “social change” organization, so while I do not agree with a number of the issues that they promote, there…

  • Oops! Our 40% Off Sale is Now Up and Running!

    kamrg
    12 Apr 2012 | 9:04 am
    We apologize to everyone for the confusion and inconvenience with our links to the special discounts on our unit studies. It appears we had a glitch. The links to the special discount prices should now be fully operational. If you run into any problems, please let me know. Thanks! Tagged: autumn nature study, autumn unit study, Charlotte Mason, Copywork, Dictation, homeschool curriculum discount, homeschool curriculum sale, homeschool lesson plans, insect unit study, Living Books, Narration, Nature Journal, Shakespeare unit study, spring nature study, spring unit study, summer unit study,…

  • 40% Off ALL Nature, Insect, and Shakespeare Unit Studies during April!

    kamrg
    11 Apr 2012 | 11:04 am
    Spring has definitely sprung and to celebrate nature coming alive all around us, we are offering a super deal on all of our nature and insect unit studies! And, because April is the month of Shakespeare’s birthday, we have a special discount on our Shakespeare unit study to help you celebrate “The Bard’s” birthday! These 40% discounts last only until the end of April! So stock up now! Using Nature Study, Nature Journals, and Poetry Through the Year - Regularly $14.95, NOW only $8.97 Add to Cart Spring Nature Study and More - Regularly $6.50, NOW only $3.90 Add to Cart…
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    Homemaking 911

  • The Tea Times Magazine from Joyous Home

    Malia
    9 May 2012 | 8:46 am
    I know you have heard me talk about The Tea Times magazine before. This is the MOST beautiful publication for mothers and daughters, produced by Theresa Powers of Joyous Home. The Tea Times is a home eco­nom­ics newslet­ter for moth­ers and daugh­ters. This precious magazine, which will become a keepsake for your family is pro­duced to enhance the rela­tion­ships with your daugh­ters. It is meant to be read/done together. Fea­tures include: Encour­age­ment in keep­ing your home Learn­ing a specific home­mak­ing skill with your daugh­ter Grow­ing a Godly young lady Tea time…

  • How Home Educators Can Benefit from Online Courses – Guest Post

    Malia
    9 May 2012 | 6:21 am
    The following is a guest post from Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online courses. She welcomes your comments below and at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com. For some more information on online courses, you can check out: http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/ Online education has been growing and expanding in the academic world for many years now. With an ever climbing demand for affordable and accessible education, it’s no wonder online classes and programs have become so popular in the last decade or so. Today, many people outside of the “typical”…

  • Mother’s Day Giveaway- What to Expect Books!

    Malia
    1 May 2012 | 5:16 pm
    I admit it.  Even though we are expecting baby number six, with each pregnancy, I still drag out my 21year-old copy of What to Expect When You’re Expecting books.  I love to read what is happening with the baby every month.  I also love reading all the questions and comments about each stage of pregnancy.  Each pregnancy comes with its own unique  issues and problems and delights.  I love looking through the chapters and browsing to see what the “experts” have to say about the little hiccups and bumps along the way.  I love the nutrition suggestions, and the coping…

  • Stocking Your Pantry

    Malia
    1 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    A well-stocked pantry will be full of all the basic necessities for cooking meals. It will include dry goods as well as some canned or bottled goods.  The reason a well-stocked pantry is important is because you can easily create a healthy variety of meals from what you have on hand. If you are careful and buy things at their lowest prices, you can be sure you are making the most of your grocery budget. A well-stocked pantry can save many hours of driving to the store to get a few ingredients needed to complete a meal.  With gas prices being crazy high, saving a few trips a month can save…

  • Freezer Cooking Day with Christina of www.YouthfulHomemaker.com

    Malia
    29 Apr 2012 | 5:38 pm
    It has been awhile since I have done any freezer cooking. I love the benefits of lots of meals in the freezer, but we have had a few barriers.  First, our wheat business has been very busy and when I was baking an entire day for the local farmer’s markets, it left precious little extra cooking day to just do bulk cooking. Second, we had a FULL freezer.  We had several folks give us venison and that, combined with our beef order and bread in the freezer, we simply did not have space for freezer meals. This week, after being finished with the bulk of our convention travelling, I decided…
 
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    Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

  • 10 Reasons I’m Excited About Summer Break

    Kris
    15 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    I am so excited about our upcoming summer break! I always am, but this year it’s not because I’m burned out…and that’s an exciting statement because I wasn’t able to say that the last two years. We are loving Trail Guide to Learning. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that we started on it in January, so we haven’t had time to experience the normal burn out or if it’s the plain and simple fact that it’s such a good fit. Either way, I’ll take it. In spite of the “no burn out” thing, though, I’m still excited about summer break. Want to know why? 1. Time to catch up.

  • Mother’s Day Recap

    Kris
    14 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I had a whole weekend of wonderful. Saturday, Brian, Brianna and I went out to breakfast before taking her to work since the younger two had spent the night elsewhere. After dropping Brianna off, Brian and I went mountain bike riding. It was so much fun! The trails – beginner and intermediate – still freak me out a little bit, but I haven’t wrecked yet or run into a tree (almost, but not quite) and it’s so fun being off-road. In addition to beautiful scenery, we saw a gorgeous deer just off the bike path. She just stood watching us. I…

  • Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the Really Busy Week

    Kris
    11 May 2012 | 4:40 pm
    Have you been wandering around aimlessly looking for the Weekly Wrap-Up? Oops! It’s been such a busy day I almost forgot that I hadn’t posted it yet. It’s actually been a really busy day, capping off a really busy week. Monday started with me getting up bright and early so I’d have time to meet with our evaluator to discuss Josh’s dyslexia screening results. This was followed by the whole business of getting back to school after a week off. Funny how being so close to the end of the school year makes that more palatable for everyone. As of today, we have two weeks left. Erasing the…

  • 5 Ways to Celebrate the End of the School Year

    Kris
    11 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    Way back at the beginning of the school year over at The Homeschool Classroom, I offered suggestions for 10 Ways to Celebrate the First Day of School. Today, I’m offering 5 Ways to Celebrate the End of the School Year. Wondering why there aren’t 10 ways on this list? Well, let’s just face it. By the end of the school year, my family is so happy that it’s time for summer break that confetti and back-flips couldn’t make the day any more celebratory than it already is. Somehow, the last day just doesn’t require as much effort to get excited about. Still, it’s no fun for the school…

  • Homeschooling with Dyslexia

    Kris
    10 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    It strikes again. Dyslexia. This time, though, it’s official. If you’ve been a long time – and I mean, a really long time – blog reader, you may remember way back when, when we had Brianna screened with a really extensive eye exam. They discovered that she had tracking problems and some auditory processing delays, but they stopped just short of saying that she had dyslexia because “true dyslexia is a neurological problem…” blah, blah, blah. But, I knew. Still, being the painfully honest person that I am, I often find myself qualifying Brianna’s dyslexia with the words,…
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    Homeschool Entrepreneur

  • Calling All Inventors!

    Deb
    16 May 2012 | 11:18 am
    Here’s another competition you can enter from Edison Nation. Market your invention on Season 5 of Edison Nation! Deadline is May 31. Click here for more info: http://www.edisonnation.com/live_product_searches/EE312

  • 7 Ways To Know If You’re In The Right Business

    Deb
    22 Apr 2012 | 2:01 am
    Choosing a business is by far the most difficult decision you will face in your entrepreneurial journey. You may have that idea for a business that is stuck in your head that you dream about daily, but will it succeed? You may need to adapt your idea a little differently to suit what the market will bear. It’s absolutely essential that you are passionate about the field that you want to start a business in, but thinking long and hard about the factors that will make it succeed is a sub-category you really need to consider carefully. You may need to adapt your idea a little differently to…

  • Sign The E2 Petition For Entrepreneurship as Required Core Curriculum in High School!

    Deb
    16 Apr 2012 | 2:25 pm
      “If Entrepreneurship is the engine of our economy, creates jobs and puts food on tables, why wouldn’t we place as much emphasis on it in our public schools as we do Math, English and Science?” —Anthony Delmedico OK, I know that the title for this post  is way too long for a WP blog title, but I wanted to be sure you saw what is happening. I’m sooo excited!  …but…wait – if I homeschool, why would I be so excited about what is happening in the public school sector? Let me explain. . . How We (HSE) Got Started and WHY We (Homeschool…

  • Only 3 Days Left To Enter Edison Nation Season 5

    Deb
    30 Mar 2012 | 2:38 pm
    Sorry for the late notice, but I just discovered the deadline to enter Edison Nation’s call for unique and innovative inventions (say THAT 5 times!) is April 2nd. An Emmy Award-winning public television show, Everyday Edisons has been a huge hit now for 4 seasons.  If you have never heard of Edison Nation, just watch the video above or go to EdisonNation.com. It’s a great way to present your invention and see where it can go. Here is  Eric Huber’s story to give you an idea of what to expect. Let us know if you make it, we’ll feature you on Homeschool Entrepreneur!

  • 5 Signs You’ll Succeed as an Entrepreneur

    Deb
    30 Mar 2012 | 6:52 am
    Finance guru Robert Kiyosaki is well known in the business world by the fruit of his success. When he talks, people listen. While I don’t think any ONE person has all the answers, here are 5 good qualities that every entrepreneur should have or work on developing. Life is a process, and we all want to continue to grow in who we are in Christ. Working on these 5 qualities will give you good material to set goals in your entrepreneurial journey. Have these items in place and you will be well on your way to succeeding at whatever God has led you to do. A Successful Entrepreneur will have:…
 
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    Simply Charlotte Mason

  • New 2012-13 Calendar Journal: Wisdom for Moms

    Sonya Shafer
    10 May 2012 | 4:52 pm
    Over the past three weeks we have pondered some wonderful gems of wisdom from Charlotte Mason. Wisdom Gem #1: “Always remember that persons matter more than things. Don’t say anything that will leave a sting.” Wisdom Gem #2: “State your theory and practice, but attack nothing. Be indignant at nothing. When people’s minds are put on the defensive they have no room to receive new ideas.” Wisdom Gem #3: “It is pleasant to know that, even in mature life, it is possible by a little persistent effort to acquire a desirable habit.” If you enjoyed those…

  • Even in Mature Life

    Sonya Shafer
    3 May 2012 | 9:31 am
    My friend Ruth is 61. She is an exuberant veteran homeschooler who has graduated three and spends her days encouraging other homeschool students and parents. She also recently lost 120 pounds. When I asked Ruth to tell me her story, she related how she had grown tired of feeling miserable in her overweight body. She knew her health was declining; she knew her blood pressure was high. She also knew more grandchildren were on the way, and she wanted to be around to see them. She wanted to be healthy again. So one day she drove to a weight-loss center and learned what new habits she needed to…

  • State But Don’t Attack

    Sonya Shafer
    25 Apr 2012 | 4:39 pm
    Most of us have chosen a “different” path in life. We homeschool. And even more than that, we don’t use a traditional method of homeschooling. We use Charlotte Mason’s approach. Those choices can be unsettling to onlookers. And if that’s not enough, many of us have chosen to wander away from the crowd in other areas of life too: what we eat, the size of our families, what we wear, our goals for our children. Onlookers sometimes become more than just curious; at times they may share their “concerns” in no uncertain terms. When those moments happen,…

  • Persons Matter More Than Things

    Sonya Shafer
    18 Apr 2012 | 10:40 pm
    I’ve been reading The Lord of the Rings lately, and one striking illustration has leapt off the pages again and again: whenever the enemy inflicts a wound, a deep sting is embedded that stays and debilitates even after the flesh has healed around it. What an evocative picture of the power of words! Charlotte told her student-teachers, “Always remember that persons matter more than things. Don’t say anything that will leave a sting” (The Story of Charlotte Mason, p. 62). I’m sure our mommy-hearts cringe at the thought of one of our children being stung by a wasp.

  • Three New Modern History Books

    Sonya Shafer
    12 Apr 2012 | 12:13 am
    Simply Charlotte Mason is delighted to announce three new resources to help you teach modern history in a living way! The new books cover people and events from 1850 to the present day—both American history and world history. Over the years I’ve discovered that the modern time period is one of the most difficult to find good living resources for; in particular, a good living spine book that will tell the stories of the time period and provide a continuous thread to which you may add biographies and other great living books. So I’m especially excited about Stories of America,…
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    Texas Homeschooling

  • Math Mammoth: Real Life Math!

    8 May 2012 | 10:19 am
    Teach your child why they are learning math and how they will be using it in the "real world." Each book takes mathematical concepts and creates word problems based on cell phone plans, autism, population growth and allows the student to apply their knowledge of math in REAL LIFE. List of available workbooks: Arithmetic I - for grades 3-6 Fractions, Percents, and Decimals I - for grades 4-8. $4.99 Fractions, Percents, and Decimals II - for grades 6-11. $4.99 Sets, Probability, and Statistics I - for grades 6-10. $4.99 Linear Functions I - for algebra 1 and algebra 2. $4.99 Linear Functions II…

  • The Green Series by Math Mammoth: Worksheets by Topic!

    3 May 2012 | 9:55 am
    The Green series covers grade 3 to grade 7. Each grade has a set of worksheets covering one topic: Measuring (grades 3-6) Multiplication & Division (grades 3-6) Numbers & Operations (grades 3-6) Fractions (grades 3-6) Decimals (grades 3-7) Geometry Integers (grades 6-7) Ratio, Proportion & Percent (grades 6-8) Statistics (grades 3-7) These are on page worksheets to help the parent see how well the student understands the concept through practice and application in word problems. Find the Green Series at Currclick.com : http://www.txhomeschooling.com/Downloads.html

  • The Gold Series! Worksheets by Grade

    1 May 2012 | 9:43 am
    The Gold Series is a series of worksheet collections for each grade from Gr 3- Algebra. There are 120 to 150 worksheets per grade with a Part A and a Part B for each grade For example Grade 3 has 3A: Addition, Subtraction, Place Value, Intro to Multiplication, multiplication tables 3B: Division, Geometry, Fractions/Decimals, Measuring and Money, and Graphics Check out The Old Schoolhouse Review: http://homeschoolcrew.com/784723/ And find Math Mammoth Curriculum downloadable at Currclick: http://www.txhomeschooling.com/Downloads.html

  • The Blue Series for Math Mammoth

    28 Apr 2012 | 9:20 am
    I did a summary on the LIGHT BLUE series months ago. The LIGHT BLUE series a complete curriculum. Now, for the BLUE series. It makes me think of Alpha Omega LifePacs. The BLUE series is a worktext which is a textbook and workbook combined. The explanations to the concepts are all in there for the child to read with the variety of problems to solve. Now the BLUE series is different in that it only covers a few topics in one worktext. It can be used a supplement, a remedial device, or review work. What's great is that the worktexts only cost from $2 to $7. Go to…

  • 24 Jan 2012 | 8:46 am

    24 Jan 2012 | 8:46 am
    Math Mammoth has many different series offering Complete Curriculum, By Topic, Worksheets by Grade, Worksheets by Topic, and the Real Life Math (activity based. The
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    Living and Learning

  • Where the Sidewalk Ends, Keep Going

    Sherry
    15 May 2012 | 7:59 pm
    What did you see the last time you came to the end of a road, where the sidewalk ends?   Those are some of the best places for exploring, you know. You never know what you'll find! This post will be linked at: Friday's Nature Table

  • Seven Snippets (5.13.12)

    Sherry
    13 May 2012 | 12:41 pm
    -1- Last Sunday, Gerrick bought, built, and played with the LEGO Droid Escape kit. He and his daddy also built and played with an original battle arena: -2- Early in the week, he built a lava pit (blankets and pillows) in the living room and played around jumping over it while listening to me read aloud.  (I always cringe when I hear parents complain that there children won't sit still while they read to them.  So what?!) -3- He asked me to help him find pictures of a Republic Frigate online, and then he drew one: -4- We walked over to our neighborhood creek on Wednesday and spent…

  • Delta Sun Farm

    Sherry
    12 May 2012 | 2:27 pm
    We've joined Delta Sun Farm's CSA program.   This morning, Gerrick and I went to visit the farm and pick up our food. "I'll never eat pork chops again." "I can still eat chicken." He found a dead mole; looks like the dogs have been earning their keep! These things are definitely made for digging. We'll be enjoying lots of salads over the next couple of days!  I'm juicing the radishes and their greens along with some carrots and apple, and I'm going to try these two recipes:  Sausage, Beans, and Broccoli Rabe Soup and Bacon-y Bok Choy over brown rice. Yum!

  • Creek Treasure

    Sherry
    9 May 2012 | 4:24 pm
    We went exploring in the creek that runs along the edge of our neighborhood today. "I always knew one day I'd find treasure in this creek!" (He was so excited to find a nasty leather coin pouch with five corroded dimes in it.) We saw three snakes today (all Northern Water Snakes). This is the only one that stayed still long enough for us to observe well; it was about 2.5 feet long.   When I saw this worm in the water, I first thought it was an artificial fishing worm.  When I realized it was alive, I pulled it out for closer inspection.  It was huge--about 8" long! Have you…

  • Seven Snippets (5.06.12)

    Sherry
    6 May 2012 | 8:14 am
    -1- Last Sunday, Gerrick bought and built the LEGO X-Wing Starfighter. (He only asked for help with the stickers.) Throughout the week, he continued with his online research concerning which kit to buy next with frequent visits to lego.com and legoman7777's youtube channel. (And when he was away from the laptop, he apparently didn't want me to get on it.) -2- Monday was our 11th anniversary.  Rick and I spent the day together while Gerrick played at a friend's house. He had a great time and came home talking all about the obstacle course they built. -3- Tuesday was the monthly meeting of…
 
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    The HomeScholar Blog

  • Three Reasons for High School Testing

    Lee
    15 May 2012 | 7:00 am
      Don’t you just wish sometimes people would tell you EXACTLY what tests a high school student needs to take?  Unfortunately, it’s not that easy! The number and type of tests depend... Need more help homeschooling high school? Check out www.TheHomeScholar.com to learn more.

  • Outside documentation with Community College

    Lee
    14 May 2012 | 7:00 am
      I’m not a big fan of dual enrollment at community college, but I know that it makes sense in some situations.  If it’s a good fit for your family, I want to make sure to pass along... Need more help homeschooling high school? Check out www.TheHomeScholar.com to learn more.

  • May Day is Important to Seniors

    Lee
    12 May 2012 | 7:00 am
      So many holidays in May!  For parents with young children, you may be thinking about May Day and celebrating with flowers.  Moms of all ages are thinking about Mother’s Day .  Patriotic... Need more help homeschooling high school? Check out www.TheHomeScholar.com to learn more.

  • Withdraw from Public School

    Lee
    11 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    This is the time of year when parents may consider homeschooling for the first time.  It can be a scary thought! This first step is to locate your state homeschool law.  Search for the name of your... Need more help homeschooling high school? Check out www.TheHomeScholar.com to learn more.

  • May Calendar Reminders

    Lee
    10 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    Calendar Reminders Seniors It’s time to make the big decision!  Compare college acceptances, looking closely at the actual cost out of pocket. Choose a college and contact admission to accept... Need more help homeschooling high school? Check out www.TheHomeScholar.com to learn more.
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    Sparkling Adventures - Articles

  • Calista cuts

    lauren
    8 May 2012 | 7:09 pm
    Calista wasn’t satisfied with her recent haircut. She didn’t like her fringe hanging in her eyes, and she didn’t want to keep tucking it behind her ears. So she cut it. Calista gets fed up with having hair in her eyes and decides to give herself a trim. Calista proudly shows off her new hairstyle — David has trimmed some of the more obvious loose ends. Watching my girl-child cut her hair is a very difficult thing for me to do. However, I believe it’s a necessary step in modelling a life that is not dependent on the opinion of others. Almost two years ago, I received…

  • A new smile

    lauren
    8 May 2012 | 7:58 am
    Early in the morning, Aisha woke me up to give me her front tooth. After wiggling it for days, it finally fell out while she was sleeping. This is Aisha’s first tooth that has fallen out without being a shark tooth. Aisha uses her tongue to test out the new hole in her mouth. There's something delightful and fun about the space where a tooth used to be. It's going to take a while to get used to Aisha's gappy smile. She has now lost three teeth. It’s been startling to see Aisha’s gappy smile during the day. All of a sudden, she’s looking quite grown-up, and sometimes I…

  • Too much

    lauren
    7 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    Playing at the beach, travelling and shopping proved to be too much excitement for one little girl today. Delaney falls asleep in the shopping trolley after a long day out. While shopping at this local supermarket, I supervised our girls’ use of the bathroom and left my purse behind. The next person who used the toilet turned it into the service counter — with all its money intact! Amazingly kind encounters like this remind me how wonderful the world can be when we embrace it with love.

  • Scootering

    lauren
    6 May 2012 | 7:41 am
    During our last stay in town, David and the girls were captivated by a pair of scooters and we’ve brought them on board as part of our cargo. This satisfies our children’s desires — they’ve been missing their bikes which travel with us while we’re on the road in Australia. While staying at Rangiputa, David and I discovered a beautiful stretch of concrete footpath with a gentle incline. Thinking that it would be perfect for the girls’ scooters, we drove up the hill this morning and let them loose. As she spends more time on the scooter, Aisha's balance and…

  • Rangiputa point

    lauren
    5 May 2012 | 7:28 am
    After our motel stay, we now feel refreshed enough to spend a bit of time camping in the wild. Or the not-so-wild. In New Zealand, you’re never very far from houses and streets, even at a lovely beach-side spot like Rangiputa. Our camping site at the edge of Rangiputa gives beautiful views of both Rangaunu Harbour and the Pacific Ocean. When we came last year, we spied dolphins chasing fish for breakfast. This year, we didn’t encounter wildlife, but our girls enjoyed free-ranging on the beach. Delaney is confident and calm in her extra-large backyard. As long as she knows where…
 
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    Vegan Homeschool

  • Feeding a Vegan at a Non-vegan BBQ

    Vegan Homeschool
    10 May 2012 | 2:07 pm
    The origin of this post is here Feeding a Vegan at a Non-vegan BBQ. You might enjoy checking out more from Vegan Homeschool - Our days as vegan homeschoolers!So I just got a call from my hubby asking about vegan bbq food for a friend. Turns out his friend from work asked him A FEW WEEKS AGO if I could give him some ideas about feeding a vegan at a bbq. I started to write an email with suggestions, realized it was for a man and decided pictures would be probably be best.   Corn on the cob Either grilled or raw!! I vastly prefer my yummy sweet corn to be raw. If it’s grilled, spiffy…

  • Books the boys loved recently

    Vegan Homeschool
    2 Apr 2012 | 11:00 am
    The origin of this post is here Books the boys loved recently. You might enjoy checking out more from Vegan Homeschool - Our days as vegan homeschoolers!I thought I would share a few books the boys recently finished. They loved all of these! Books our 10 year son old loved A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (paperback, ebook with study guide included!) Fearless by Elvira Woodruff (paperback, ebook) Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (paperback, ebook with maps and illustrations) Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace (paperback, ebook free version) Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules…

  • Latin, Latin, Latin

    Vegan Homeschool
    21 Mar 2012 | 8:38 am
    The origin of this post is here Latin, Latin, Latin. You might enjoy checking out more from Vegan Homeschool - Our days as vegan homeschoolers!I am putting together my pricing lists for the homeschool convention this weekend and I am on the Latin part of my shopping list right now. I have come across some really good free resources in my search and, since I have been seriously neglecting my blogs, I thought it would be nice to share. I think it will be best to just break it down with the trusty bullet points by category. Bullet points are your friend. Don’t fear them. Loooove the bullet…

  • Notebooking Success

    Vegan Homeschool
    12 Jan 2012 | 9:11 am
    The origin of this post is here Notebooking Success. You might enjoy checking out more from Vegan Homeschool - Our days as vegan homeschoolers!Have you guys seen this new e-book called Notebooking Success? It’s written by Jimmie, aka The Notebooking Fairy. I got an email about it and decided to check it out. I’ve hit that “mid-year shake up” a bit early. I don’t normally buy e-books like this because I feel that there’s enough free info on the web that it’s not necessary, but the reviews were pretty good. It has a 30 day money back guarantee, so…

  • Quick and Easy Foreign Language Lesson

    Vegan Homeschool
    5 Jan 2012 | 10:21 am
    The origin of this post is here Quick and Easy Foreign Language Lesson. You might enjoy checking out more from Vegan Homeschool - Our days as vegan homeschoolers!We all have those days where we have 10 million things we need to do IN ADDITION TO our normal homeschool day. I seem to have them a lot. Once a week, max, I give myself and the kiddos a break. I have to set a limit on this because it could really become a nasty habit. What is my quick and easy foreign language lesson? I let my boys watch a movie. Not an educational movie, just whatever movie they want. The catch? They watch their…
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    The Curriculum Choice

  • Evan-Moor’s Building Spelling Skills – 2nd grade

    Betsy
    16 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    When my daughter was a second grader, she loved to write and create her own sentences and little stories. I was so pleased that she liked to write but not pleased with the number of misspelled words! I didn’t want to correct each word, as that would affect her free thinking writing attempts. So I consulted with the staff at our local teaching supplies store and the homeschoolers in my group. They all agreed that correcting each mistake was unnecessary and that the spelling skills would come over time with practice. When I found Evan Moor’s Building Spelling Skills – Grade 2, I knew I…

  • Timez Attack Multiplication and More by Big Brainz

    Tricia
    14 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    Big Brainz is giving away a deluxe version of Timez Attack multiplication and division, valued at  $59.99, to one Curriculum Choice reader – don’t miss it at the end! We’ve enjoyed Timez Attack by the Big Brainz company in our homeschool for several years now. These fun, multiplication games were recommended to us by my friends and fellow homeschool moms. It’s one of those resources we turn to when we know we need a little boost in multiplication practice. And, wow, how Timez Attack has improved since we first learned about it. See, we’d tucked it away because…

  • Charlotte Mason, You’d Love This Notebooking Resource!

    Daniele
    11 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    I think the favored 19th century educator would agree  – this resource is far from ‘twaddle’. Jimmie over at The Notebooking Fairy has made available an e-book which clearly and concisely explains the art of notebooking.  Not at all new to using this method, I was pleasantly surprised to find my definition of notebooking greatly expanded! It’s so much more than simple lines on a paper and a drawing, graphic or clipart at the top (or the bottom, or across the page…). Notebooking is not another subject to complete, nor does it need to be done everyday. The author…

  • Journibles

    Sam
    9 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    I have been using a fabulous Bible study tool called Journibles, The 17:18 Series. I have used it as a springboard for really digging into a Bible book and studying it deeply. I wanted to share it here because I think that it could also work well for your high school students as part of their Bible study, and plan to have my son, who will begin his high school studies this fall choose a Journible of his own. What is Journibles? Sam's Noggin It’s pretty simple-it is a book that has lightly written guides- to help you write the Scriptures as scribes once did. The mind behind this…

  • Go for the Gold with Olympic Games!

    Ellen
    7 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    Is your family looking forward to the Olympic Games this summer? My children are already talking about which events they hope to catch on TV. (My secret hope is that the stations show more sports coverage and less chit-chat, but that’s just me.) Even if Olympics fever hasn’t yet hit your house, now is a great time for Olympic Games: A Study of the Olympic Games from Ancient Times to the Present, by Charlene Notgrass and Mary Evelyn McCurdy. Available from home education publisher the Notgrass Company, this study provides 40 lessons on Olympic history, sports education, and notable…
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    About.com Homeschooling

  • 2013/2014 Printable Coloring Calendars

    11 May 2012 | 4:30 am
    The 2013 and 2014 Printable Coloring Calendars are up and ready for your use. As a special gift to grandparents, one homeschooling family printed the calendars, had the children color them, and then personalized the calendars with birth dates. I love the idea!...Read Full Post

  • Homeschool Promotion and Graduation Ceremonies

    7 May 2012 | 7:03 pm
    I attended the graduation ceremony for our homeschool group last year. It was held at the monthly park day. The park has a very nice amphitheater with a stage for the passing out the diplomas. We had kindergarten, 6th grade and 8th grade graduates. Parents, friends and grandparents came to make it a special day. It was simple, but nice....Read Full Post

  • Teaching Textbooks: Math books designed for homeschoolers

    7 May 2012 | 2:40 pm
    Plain language, friendly fonts, highlighted phrases, constant review and flexibility make Teaching Textbooks a very popular math program for homeschool students. The Teaching Textbooks program is designed to make learning math in a homeschool setting the best possible experience. Since it was designed specifically for homeschoolers, the text is self-explanatory and the CD-ROM teaching allows students to work through problems with a tutor in the comfort of their own homes. Having a solution worked out for each problem is invaluable, especially in the upper levels....Read Full Post

  • Homeschooling Preschool: Fun with Beans!

    7 May 2012 | 4:15 am
    mamaliof4 shared how she uses beans with her preschooler while working with her other kids. It's a great idea and and provides some sensory fun for little ones. My daughter sent this picture of her 1 year old playing with beans in a kiddy pool in her kitchen. What fun! I love second generation homeschoolers, things just come naturally to the moms....Read Full Post

  • Hula Hoops and Physical Education

    6 May 2012 | 9:09 am
    Did you know that Hula Hoops were first marketed in March of 1958? I discovered this in doing my research for March Holidays and remembered taking a picture of my granddaughter twirling 6 hula hoops at once. When was the last time you hula hooped?...Read Full Post
 
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    SpottyBanana

  • Learning Calculus and Quantum Physics Through Comics

    ginac
    13 May 2012 | 5:27 am
    Many people find calculus and quantum physics intimidating. These subjects are for geeky, smart kids with no social life, right? Well, geeky kids might find calculus fun and interesting in ways most others may not, but thanks to comic-style books on these subjects, calculus and physics feel more like reading the Sunday comics in the [...]

  • Ivan Illich – Seeing the Future of Education?

    ginac
    9 May 2012 | 6:43 am
    According to Ivan Illich in 1972, “Universal education through schooling is not feasible”.  His radical ideas regarding schooling provoked much debate back in the 1970s, with most dismissing him as an over-zealous new-age hippy.  Could it be, however, that he was rather a forward-thinking would-be educational revolutionary?  Are his ideas still valid today, and have [...]

  • Summer Fun: Easy Origami Projects

    ginac
    6 May 2012 | 9:05 pm
    Regardless of your plans this summer, its always fun to make stuff. We’ve found several really easy Origami projects that even younger children will enjoy. Best of all, the resulting art is functional and beautiful. Our favorite project is the box with lid.  Not only are these little boxes attractive, they are great for gift-giving, [...]

  • TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing for Homeschoolers and Unschoolers

    ginac
    28 Apr 2012 | 5:02 am
    TED videos have always been great for kids. We’ve been viewing talks as a family for years, enjoying insights into different ways of thinking. With TED-Ed videos, you can use, tweak, or completely redo any lesson featured on TED-Ed, or create lessons from scratch based on any video from YouTube. The featured lessons are mostly [...]

  • Google’s Erez Lieberman Aiden Makes Mathematics Fun

    ginac
    27 Apr 2012 | 7:19 am
    Erez Lieberman Aiden is an accomplished mathematician and physicist, winning many of the top prizes in math and science and all before the age of 35. If you are familiar with Google’s Ngram website, you’ve already had a peek into Erez Lieberman’s research. Lately, though, he’s been delving into the human genome and I was [...]
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    Enjoying the Journey

  • Sorting

    Having Fun
    16 May 2012 | 7:00 am
     Sorting time At age 2 years 5 months, Rarity is really starting to understand her colors. She get's most of them right by name.  When she sorts she's right on.  Sorting each color to the right cup each time.  She really does enjoy this activity.  While Rarity was sorting, Fluttershy was creating works of art on the computer using abcya.com  

  • Sensory time

    Having Fun
    15 May 2012 | 7:00 am
     Sensory mixing  We've done so many sensory experiences but I still find new ones to try.  Here I have supplied tinsel and two different colors of epson salt.  I encouraged them to mix the three together making a fun mixture.  Epson salt is a fun medium to practice writing letters.  First I'll write a letter with my finger.  Then I'll encourage both girls to make their own.  Fluttershy isn't really into writing yet so I'm encouraging her to at least learn how you form letters.  When it comes to learning to write she'll be one step closer.

  • Teaching children joy: Earth Part 1

    Having Fun
    14 May 2012 | 7:00 am
     Teaching children joy:  Earth Part 1 "Growing cup"  As part of our teaching children joy series we are moving on to joy of the earth.  With spring underway this is a wonderful time a year to focus on nature.  Today we made a visible "growing cup".   We chose to use beans for our seeds since they grow rather fast.  Using a clear plastic cup, fill it with potting soil.  Now push your seeds down along the side of the cup so that the seed is still visible.  Water and set in a window.  Fluttershy will be in charge of watering her plant…

  • Teaching Children Joy: Spontaneous Delight

    Having Fun
    11 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    Teaching Children Joy: Spontaneous Delight There are many ways to encourage and sanction a particular behavior; perhaps the best way of all is by participating in that particular behavior yourself.  (And perhaps the great benefit of preserving the natural, child-like joys in children is that we may recapture them ourselves)  (Teaching Children Joy Pg. 49)  Some ways to find joy in being spontaneous are: 1. Get excited with children   - When they say "Oh look,"  you say, "Wow, yes."  Don't say, "Calm down, son," or "Not here, dear."  Let them be your…

  • Teaching Children Joy: Body Part 10

    Having Fun
    10 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    Teaching Children Joy: Body Part 10 Teach simple songs Teach simple songs and offer the children praise for singing.  I thought using the video recorder would be fun so they could also watch themselves. Always give  total encouragement and praise.  A negative word can ruin fragile physical confidence and delay or thwart the very physical joy you are trying to create and teach.  If the result is good, praise the result: "You did skip!"  "You sang that right on tune!"  If the result is not good, praise the attempt, the effort:  "What a good try!  Before…
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    Soul Learning

  • A Weeks Worth - Springtime

    Megan Gray
    13 May 2012 | 4:48 pm
    Easy Sunday morning. Sundays are when Dad actual has breakfast with us. Usually he's up and out before we wake up.It's been rainy, so we aren't so used to the sun. Blue skies make us happy :)Clovers are everywhere!Daddy and our pup Dharma.It's Rose time at the beach.And they're off!We laughed so hard after we saw this pic. Our minds were in the gutter. But Nat said his ice cream tasted good anyway.Little YogisThis is how Saturday ended. I think some major fun was had.

  • A Ride to Target

    Megan Gray
    9 May 2012 | 10:29 pm
    As a kid I used to ride my bike all of the time. It's how I traveled to get to and from friends' houses. I studied Taekwondo from about the ages of 12 to 15. I received my black belt and even participated in competitions, but then I started high school, moved to a new town that was more rural, and was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Right when I needed to be more active I became inactive. Since then I have had spurts of being really in shape. I tried going to the gym everyday, but that soon wore off and got expensive. I practiced Yoga and even became a Yoga Teacher. Yet, once I had kids I…

  • One Family on One Cargo Bike - An Ice Cream Trip

    Megan Gray
    29 Apr 2012 | 6:12 pm

  • Fun in Town, at Home, and at The Philly Art Museum

    Megan Gray
    29 Apr 2012 | 1:21 pm
    Neighbors gorgeous Peonies. Learning words and typing on the Mac.Growing sooooo fast!He wore this costume for two days.All of us huddled listening to the audio tour at the Van Gogh exhibit.Nat's favorite room at the Philly Art Museum.Being silly, but at the end Ben said he wanted to be a painter. They were so excited to climb the big steps.Little boy armor. Making wishes at the fountain.Ben decided to keep his coins instead.He is really into writing these days.Ben at the chalkboard.Nat's portrait of Dad :)

  • Playing Under the Cherry Trees

    Megan Gray
    23 Apr 2012 | 8:56 pm
    Down the street from us are two beautiful Cherry Trees. They are just starting to drop their petals and are annoying the car owners, that have their cars parked underneath them, I'm sure. But all I can remember as a kid was how much I loved this time of year and standing below these awesome trees as the the petals dropped around me. Well, the boys loved it too and they even liked picking the fallen petals up and throwing them into the air. I'm glad they enjoyed it as much I did as a kid, and still do.Side Learning Note: Ben also came to the conclusion (all by himself) that petals, like the…
 
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