Time management is hard. Books and YouTube videos abound with all manner of tips, tricks, and systems. You can make an Ideal Week with Michael Hyatt, time block with Cal Newport, or manage your calendar with David Allen. Maybe you even landed here at Simply Convivial because you came across my articles or videos on…
I just began my 15th year of homeschooling. I only have a 15-year-old, a 13-year-old, and a 10-year-old left at home, and every one of them is digging into good books I want to read with them. Sure, almost all those books are repeats for me, but as C.S. Lewis points out in Experiment in…
When live wires connect, electricity flows. When roots connect to moist soil, nutrients are sent up so the plant can grow. When magnets connect, they can hold up an astonishing amount of weight. What happens when ideas connect in the mind? Learning. Making connections is learning Education is about understanding relations, the connectedness of things. Seeing…
I always go into summer thinking that I’ll use the time to clean and organize the whole house, make a perfect plan for the next school year – which will solve all our logistics issues and make it so much better – and probably lose ten pounds while I’m at it. But it turns out…
All classical educators, since before Plato and extending all the way through the centuries until the progressive movement began dismantling education, have been obsessed with teaching virtue. If their educational program didn’t produce virtuous men and women, it was effort spent in vain. This is why Plato railed against the Sophists – their goal was…
One evening, four months postpartum, I was folding laundry. Everywhere my eyes landed, I saw work I ought to do. Nothing was satisfactory. I felt like I was busy all day, going no where. I indulged that story, replaying it over and over with each towel I folded, a towel I’d probably be washing again…
My oldest son is getting married this summer and my second son just moved out. The family inside my home, the ones I feed and instruct are contracting, not expanding. At least, that’s the way it looks and feels when I plan dinners and school schedules. Once, before our youngest was born, my husband reminded…
As we decluttering our living spaces, finding the motivation to start and maintain progress can often feel daunting. However, by understanding the concept of traction and applying it to decluttering, we can unlock the potential to create organized spaces. In February, during our annual Declutter Challenge, we discussed what decluttering traction looks and feels like…
Homemaking is a truly honorable endeavor, but one that’s easy to lose the vision for as we get lost in the details and distractions of a busy life. Homes are the building block of society, so tending them is much more than the physical upkeep. Our work as mothers is spiritual even in the midst…
Instagram is not good for our homeschools. It’s not good for our homemaking, either, or our mental and emotional health as women. Instagram works as a comparison machine. An image from someone else’s life pops in front of our eyes and our minds are instant evaluators, analyzers. That’s what our mind does. When presented with…