Being organized seems like an elusive goal. When do you know if you’ve reached this state of bliss? For some of us, being organized feels like a moving target. We’re almost there, we think, then something changes and we’ve slid back down onto the mire. Honestly, I have not arrived at some final destination known…
For nearly a year I gave all-digital planning another go. I tried a few different configurations, a few different apps and options – all in the name of research! – with mixed success. I tried Evernote for a weekly summary note and a place to keep routines. I tried a spreadsheet version of my previous…
If you are starting out homeschooling with a bright-eyed little 5-year-old – a toddler tagging along and another on the way – you eat up the stories of those ahead of you on the journey. What curriculum do you use? What is most important in a homeschool day? What should I be doing? How do…
Write your plan the night before and supercharge your day. The day was over. The kids in bed, the house quiet. Time to sigh, breathe deep, and decide how to relax. I glanced down and I caught sight of my daily index card plan I’d made that morning. Ugh. I’d totally forgotten about it after…
An organized attitude, scholé, and ordo amoris are all tightly connected, at least in my mind. The threads are coming together in the book Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness which I purchased and began chiefly on the strength of the title. Of course I checked out the author and a…
A morning review creates a power-start to your day. The process I recommend will take you less than 10 minutes, but it will give you peace and clarity about the day ahead of you and what you can reasonably accomplish. The best time to do a morning review is before the children are up and…
It’s time to be browsing curriculum materials for next year, and I am excited to share a few resources with you that you may not have heard about before. Kathy Weitz, owner of Cottage Press and keeper of The Reading Mother blog, produces some fabulous language arts resources. Yes, there are numerous writing programs out…
One more post about Michael Horton’s Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World if you’ll humor me. I think this is a book any mom deep in the trenches of raising kids would appreciate. Horton grounds us in solid teaching that centers us on the Gospel, in the finished work of Christ, rather than…
Updated to add: Please note that this was written in 2015. We’ve switched Latin programs several times and I’ve not yet done the same thing with any set of kids. Because we are following the classical model of education in our homeschool, we have added Latin to our average days. I have zero background in…
I recently finished Sally Clarkson’s new book, Own Your Life. The Clarksons are authors of one of my favorite homeschooling books, especially for starting out with young kids: Educating the Whole-Hearted Child. Owning your life is hard work and there are no easy answers. [pullquote align=”center”] We are all born with the capacity to live…