Every year, like clockwork, I slide into a January or February homeschool slump. The excitement of the holidays – and the direction that provides – has passed. The enthusiasm and novelty of back-to-school energy has faded in the rear view mirror. The days are dreary and monotonous and without fail I start questioning my decision …
Our homeschool in December was dominated by one thing: The Nutcracker. It is (I now know…) a tremendous commitment for a young child to participate in a professional ballet production. My nine-year-old was in Oregon Ballet Theater’s Alice in Wonderland back in February, so the Nutcracker was her second show, but this time around there …
November was a good reminder of the gifts of homeschool, though it really didn’t feel like it at the time. We were hit with illness after illness in November and struggled to maintain our usual rhythm. I had to remind myself that it was a gift that we were home. Because we are home we …
The older I get the better I become at knowing my strengths and outsourcing the rest! I so admire mamas who make handmade gifts for their children, but I simply don’t have the time or talent to make many of the things I’d like to gift for my kids this year. Etsy to the rescue! …
October felt like the answer to all of September’s questions. In October we settled into our routine, which in September had me asking “how can I maintain this for nine months???” We found our groove with new curriculum that I spent way too many hours researching in September. And we found a babysitter for our …
Last year was a challenging year. In October our baby – our third child – turned one and somewhat overnight went from a sweet, amiable baby to a really needy, challenging toddler. My older two children had been pretty easygoing toddlers and I suddenly had full sympathy for mamas who struggled with meltdowns, temper tantrums, …
I’ve decided to play around with writing a monthly recap of our homeschool life. I share a fair bit about homeschooling over on Instagram, but find it quite limiting as far as really exploring things in-depth or really processing my thoughts on a topic. Instagram offers glimpses. Sometimes I think I’d like to have something …
My oldest child will be starting her fourth year attending a one-day-a-week forest school this week and (very exciting!) this is the first year our middle child will be attending as well. I cannot overstate the massive contribution the forest school experience has made to our homeschool and to the development of my oldest child. …
I started homeschooling four years ago. My children have always been home with me but I remember when my oldest child turned five there was a real sense as back-to-school photos flooded my social media feeds that we had embarked on a different path. Now, my second child is five and will be starting his …
Now that we are three kids in, I can see the pattern clearly. When we have a baby, we become total homebodies who think a dinner out is a big excursion. The baby phase is exhausting enough without throwing in curveballs like travel. But then sometime after that baby turns about 18 months old, the …