Our Daily Routine

Earlier this week, Maria of Dirt Under My Nails, wrote about the daily rhythms her family has developed and asked how other homeschoolers structure their day.  Like her family, we don’t keep a strict schedule but we do have a routine to fall back on.  More often than not, something gets out of order or [...]

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How We Do Read-Alouds

In a comment on this post, Nina asked about our read-aloud routine. I realized the answer was complex enough to warrant a post of it’s own. Read-alouds are the most consistent part of our day.  They are the one thing M and C can count on doing every day, typically at the same time. I [...]

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Comfortable at Home

This past weekend, several people asked me this question or one similar to it: “Aren’t you soooo glad that school will start back next week?” The implication being that having both girls home for two weeks must have me ready to pull my hair out. I was surprised both my friends and [...]

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Resolutions For A Peaceful Year

For the last few years, I’ve made New Year’s resolutions in several categories: health, family, personal goals. I’ve sent myself reminders every month to check in with my goals which I’ve written down in an outline-style list (as if resolutions would be any fun without a nice list to check off). I’ve not [...]

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Starting the New Year by Doing Nothing

We’ve been doing nothing a lot during these days of winter break and enjoying it immensely.  Of course our nothing is really something, making art, talking to friends, reading, but it’s nothing that would be considered productive or anything to be crossed off a to do list.
We’ve still got our tree up and our decorations [...]

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Letting Go of the Chaff

M and I went to church together on Christmas Eve.  It was late afternoon, not long before dinner, and we’d gotten a later-than-I’d-intended start from home.  When we got there, the church was packed.  I managed to find us a seat since M could sit in my lap.  There was a very antsy toddler in [...]

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Remembering Not to Panic

As the holiday frenzy gears up, it is easy to start adding more and more to my to do list, more presents to buy, more crafts to make, more new cookie recipes to try.  I had a conversation with a friend today who said she had to keep saying “the holidays are fun” over and [...]

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Advent Reading Week 1

I’ve been pouring through Christmas Mosaic by Cay Gibson since I ordered it a few months ago. We’re going to replace our Five In A Row time with books and activities from Christmas Mosaic during Advent and Christmas, and I keep having to restrain myself from thinking we can read through all the copious [...]

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Holiday Preparations

M and I started our holiday decorating this weekend.  When my parents came for Thanksgiving, they brought all the pieces of my Heritage Collection Dickens Christmas Village that I’d collected in the early 90s.  I thought M was old enough to enjoy setting it out and to carefully play with the pieces.

We had a blast [...]

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Thanksgiving Goodness

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner.  C who rarely eats meat loved the turkey and M thought the cranberry sauce made a lovely topping for the rolls, her favorite part of the meal.  I’ve only roasted a turkey a few times before and this one was definitely the best I’ve done one of the best [...]

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