It was about 5 years ago now that I deleted my old blog and started over from scratch, choosing the name Convivial Home for my new effort. A real estate agent promptly offered me a large sum for that domain, so I sold it and switched my name to Simply Convivial. I did not want…
Ordo amoris is a concept that touches every homeschool day, whether or not we realize it. Imagine the typical scene: The math page looms. “But I don’t want to,” the child moans. The book awaits. “But I don’t like it,” the child whines. Maybe you start off homeschooling with grand visions and high hopes. Maybe…
So. It’s February. In our neck of the woods, it’s been a harsher winter. We’ve had inches upon inches of snow, then ice on top of that, when a typical year rarely sees snow that stays on the ground for more than a day or two. The sky is covered in gray, and often so…
“Mommy! He hit me!” “But he was being annoying!” How easy is it to start barking out the orders: “You, don’t tattle.” “You, don’t lie.” “You, don’t hit.” “You, mind your own business.” …and then collapse in a heap on the floor, exhausted and ready to throw up hands in dismay. We can sense that…
One of the mottos in our Morning Time binder this term is a Shakespeare quote: “Expectation is the root of all heartache.” As we’ve repeated this saying day in and day out for the last 5 weeks, I’ve been contemplating how true it is. It’s biblical, echoing James: But each person is tempted when he…
Ah, interruptions, the bane of the homeschool mother’s day and destroyer of her sanity. We troll through the internet, seeking the secret that will keep our children occupied whenever we want to get things done, that will magically make our children notice when we’re engaged with someone or something else and can’t listen at that…
We’ve all experienced it. The frustration when right after folding the towels, an infant crawls over and spreads them around the room. The exhaustion of cleaning the corners in one area, only to find the area we cleaned yesterday has been – heaven forbid – used and dirtied already. The surprise that the grocery run…
It’s so easy to lose our joy as moms while we rack up a to-do list longer. But joy is more than a nice extra or a good feeling we can take or leave. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. We can not only stay sane at home, we can find joy as well…
What is education? I love to collect quotes on what education means. Definitions are important, because without them we can be using the same word but with entirely different understandings of what we’re talking about. Without understanding what it is we’re trying to do each and every day with our children, we flounder and fall…
Years ago, when my third born was just a baby, I hated housework. I was torn between wanting to be a good, competent homemaker and thinking that the state of my bedroom or the kitchen wasn’t a big deal. I could get meals on the table, keep things stocked, and complete a project just fine….