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Teaching the Creeds to Our Children
Have you ever considered including the historic creeds of the Christian church in your morning time, personal devotions, or family worship? If you’ve felt ill-equipped to teach them to your children, or have wondered why they even matter, come walk beside me as we explore the reasons to memorize the creeds with our children. What is a creed, and Why do we need them? The word “creed” comes from the Latin word “credo,” meaning “I believe.” Many church traditions even have the pastor ask the congregation, “Christian, what do you believe?” prior to a corporate recitation of one of these confessions of faith. Learning and reciting the historically espoused creeds…
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Curriculum Plans: 9th, 7th, 4th, 2nd, and preschool
I always find it fascinating to see the curriculum plans from other homeschool families! Perhaps you share a similar curiosity? Enjoy this peek into our homeschool curriculum plan for 5 kids (9th, 7th, 4th, 2nd, and preschool) this year. {This is the post I was intending to write last week, but there were some important things to discuss first.} Morning Time for all ages I have described our morning time plans in more detail already in this post. This is always a favorite part of our day! I love that we can come together across the wide range of ages! Second and Fourth grades My 2 elementary learners will actually…
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Morning Time Plans (Fall 2019): adjusting expectations to meet the needs of a wide age range
It gets trickier to plan for morning time when you have a wide range of ages. Wake-up times vary from the pre-dawn energy of the 4-year-old to the sluggish morning brain of the teen. And that doesn’t even consider the differing needs and interests that span the grades. Yet having a time for shared memories and family culture is still important to me. While the logistics of our morning time may look different this year, its central values remain intact. Would you like to peek into my morning time plans for this fall? Scheduling morning time In years past, I’ve asked all the children regardless of age to be in…
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Ordinary Homeschool Planning: sometimes crazy, often simple, still beautiful
Planning for next year’s curriculum and schedule looks a lot like piles of books and papers scattered in semi-organized chaos across the corner of my bedroom. My intention was, eventually, to craft a beautiful and photogenic display. I’m an (accidental) homeschool blogger, after all. I think that’s part of the job description. Yeah. Um. That won’t be happening. I’ll just be happy if all those books and papers get to the proper shelves before we officially go back to a regular school routine in a couple weeks. This is a semi-metaphor for the way homeschooling often goes around here. Life is sometimes hard, and often surprising. I didn’t think my…
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Vintage Landmark Books Giveaway
When I was growing up, we never reached our destinations at the time anticipated. A large reason for this? We stopped at all the old bookstores and antique stores we could find. We’d hunt through the shelves for our favorite vintage finds, breathing deeply the beloved scent of yellowed paper, antique leather, and the joyful quest for out-of-print treasures. (Rabbit trail, but did you know there are scientists who study why we love the smell of old books? For real!) Our glee was immense whenever we discovered a hardback, vintage title from the Landmark books series. The Landmark books were published in the mid-twentieth century by Random House. With more…
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SQUILT: Music Appreciation the Whole Family Can Enjoy {Modern Era Review}
As the children and I prepared to delve deeply into the modern era for our textbook-free history studies, I knew I wanted to include the study of modern music as well. With 5 kids ranging from preschool to precalculus, however, I realized we needed something customizable and easy-to-use that would still give us a rich overview of the modern era of music. The SQUILT Modern Era guide was just what we needed. {This post contains affiliate links. I was compensated for my time in exchange for my honest opinion. Please see disclaimer.} What is SQUILT? Are you are completely baffled by musical terminology? Do you want to grow in your own…
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Ancient Greece: Textbook-Free History
I have been asked several times, “Do you have a Textbook-free book list for Ancient Greece?”. Now, the answer is finally yes! What exactly do I mean by textbook-free history? You can read all about it (or listen to the audioblog) here. Below you will find lists of living books, memory work, and other fun ideas so that you can craft a multi-age Ancient-Greece history curriculum for your family. Ancient Greece: Books Spine Title: Famous Men of Ancient Greece, Cindy Shearer This is perfect to give the big-picture context of the time period and makes a lovely read-aloud for all ages. History, Biography, Science Archimedes and the Door of Science,…
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Self-Care for Your Future Self
“Hello, Future-Self, this is your Past-Self sending you a fantastic self-care gift and a virtual high five! You are doing a great job, Future-Self, and I hope this makes your life a little easier and a little happier.” Do you ever send helpful gifts or encouraging messages to your future self? Ok, so we all know the basics like, “don’t wait until you run out of toilet paper to restock the pantry, because paper towels are really scratchy.” Maybe you are even on top of your birthday or hostess gift emergency stash. But here are four self-care gifts you can give your future self that might just make your life…
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Simple Summer Goals
Summer is the time to get to all the things you don’t have time for during the school year. Right? Um. Maybe, not so much. Maybe, if you set yourself up with a glorious plan a mile long, you’ll end up crying the first week of June. Not that this has ever happened to me. Ahem. Purposeful Summer Planning There are a million opinions floating around the internet this time of year that catch our eye. Apparently, we’re supposed to ensure our children have a screen-free, free-range summer filled with dirt and sunshine. But, we also need to beware the summer slide and make sure we’re keeping up with academics.…
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Homeschool Conventions, Teaching, and Repentance
We go to homeschool conventions for encouragement and inspiration. But sometimes we end up discouraged and overwhelmed. How can we leave with joy and not fear?
