school
-
reflections on 10 years of homeschooling.
This week on the Read-Aloud Revival Premium membership, I listened to Sarah McKenzie’s Monday podcast for mamas. She spoke of God’s grace, which is given in the exact moment we need it. Not a minute before. It’s the grace that enables us to do things we previously thought impossible. When we need to be ready to do something, God makes us ready. When our kids need to be ready to do something, God makes them ready. I think her words are a fitting way to sum up ten years of homeschooling my children (eleven, if you count 4K). Quite simply, my journey of homeschooling is a journey of “I could…
-
homeschool convention, 2023.
Can you believe I’m about to complete my tenth year of homeschooling? I sure can’t. I don’t often attend homeschool conferences and hadn’t planned on it this year, but our friends, the Franklins, decided to drive down from Pennsylvania to attend one in Greenville, and so David and I made a sort of last-minute decision that Judah, Amie, and I would join them. When I calculated how often I’ve attended a homeschool convention I realized that I’m on an every-five-year schedule. I went to one at the very beginning, one five years ago — both of those with my cousin Liz — and one this spring. So three total across…
-
january 2023.
2023 started off with a sinus virus that several members of the family passed around. No fun. Being home sick is a good time for organizing new Christmas gifts. Noah was eager to take pictures of his growing rocks and gems collection and to show his friends. Rainy, sick days at home are also good for puzzles. We’ve been doing some fun ones lately, loaned by my parents and friends. I say the word “we” loosely, because I never do puzzles if I can help it. I’m a happy flipper-over of pieces when it first comes out of the box, though. After we got healthy, a group of…
-
august.
I’m playing catch-up here on the blog, so here’s August, half-a-month late! A friend generously let us use his pool for a couple of weeks. It was blissful. Amie and I spent the summer learning different ways to propagate our plants. We’re enjoying sharing them with friends. We loved celebrating Alyssa’s birthday at Sakitumi. Favorite book of the summer. Please read it! It will break your heart, but in a good way. We spotted the biggest moth we’ve ever seen (a Polyphemus moth), dead in our driveway one morning. We’re sad it died, but if it had to, Noah was very happy to mount it…
-
a new school year.
We’ve done it! We’ve successfully started a new homeschool year. This is our ninth year homeschooling, and every single spring and summer, at some point, I think, I can’t do this anymore. I just cannot educate our kids at home. I research school options. I think about selling our beloved house and moving to a different school district. But it never feels right. So I pray a lot and say, “Okay, Lord, we’ll try it another semester.” It’s a step of faith for me to order the curriculum and make the commitment, when I feel homeschool-weary and unsure of how it will all turn out. But then we have a…
-
a new school year: our routine.
We’re 30 days or so into the school year, and this fall semester is always the best part of the year. We’ve found our daily routine, the weather’s turning cooler, and we have all the fun holidays to look forward to. I haven’t taken time to list our curriculum in a few years, so I thought I’d do it now. Since this post ended up getting long, I’ll post the curriculum list separately for easy reference. Curriculum changes So far, this is the year I’m happiest with all our choices, and I can tell because I actually look forward to helping the kids with their subjects each day. Every year…
-
2020-21 school year: curriculum.
You may notice that I don’t include Bible as a school subject, although we do Scripture memory together. The two older kids read their Bible each morning; David assigns different books and they meet from time to time to discuss their readings with him. We are starting this new edition of Pilgrim’s Progress together as a family in the evenings. The Curriculum List Judah: 7th grade Math: Saxon 87/PreAlgebra (DIVE lessons online) Grammar: Analytical Grammar Writing: Lost Tools of Writing, Level 1 (Classical Village) Literature: Memoria Press’ literature selections: The Bronze Bow, Treasure Island, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, To Kill A Mockingbird, Shakespeare’s As You Like It (CV)…
-
a new school year: classical village.
We’re two weeks into our new school year, and thus far, it’s been a much smoother start than last fall. If you remember, last year at this time, we were still neck-deep in our kitchen renovation, and I despaired of ever having a quiet, clean house again, much less starting school. This month feels delightfully quiet in comparison. We’re still homeschooling, but we’ve made a few changes to our routine and curriculum, which I’ll tell you about. First of all, like I mentioned in an earlier post, we’re no longer apart of Classical Conversations. It served us well for many years, but when it was time to quit, I knew…
-
monday update.
Happy April, blog friends! There seem to be various and sundry things to update you on, so I’ll consolidate into one post and try not to be too long-winded. Last week just so happened to be our single busiest week of the semester. We knew it was coming. We prepared in advance for it. But it was still a doozy. David had not one, but two out of town trips, and I had a couple big commitments here at home. I managed to get sick smack in the middle of everything with a sort of sinus thing, probably pollen-related, which I’m still battling. But God was faithful, my mother-in-law was…
-
authors & adventures.
I can’t believe we’re nearing spring break, and I’m only just posting about our homeschool group. We officially have a name now, folks! It’s Authors & Adventures (which we make sure to shorten to A&A, not AA). So, if you’re curious why our family feels the need to be apart of not one but two homeschool groups, let me explain: Classical Conversations helps us with our academics and curriculum. And Authors & Adventures provides the fun extra stuff: field trips and book clubs. We’re blessed that both groups have provided wonderful community and friendships — for both me and my kiddos. My friend Kelly started Authors & Adventures…
