Designing a home-centered life: learning, exploring, and creating with our five littles
Our family listens to a lot of audiobooks for 2 main reasons: 1. My littles love them and 2. They learn so much. I couldn't even begin to count the times my littles have quoted a line, asked a question, or made a connection based on a story they've heard. We borrow from the library or buy favorites. When we buy, we usually get the CDs, burn them … [Read more...]
Because I have a love of books and a desire for my children to learn, I've made a habit of purchasing the best reference books I can find and placing them around our home. As a result, I've stumbled upon how to study science without really trying. At least one or two of these great books are opened by my littles daily without any prompting … [Read more...]
Over the past couple weeks, I had the great opportunity to read a preview copy of The Conversation by Leigh Bortins. I really don't think I'm overstating when I unequivocally tell you, you should read this book! In the grammar stage with your littles? Read this book - it will fuel your excitement for the future! In the dialectic … [Read more...]
I love the conversations classically homeschooling our family has afforded. Because our core subjects are on the same topics, we are able to have conversations where everyone can join in. Today I was reading out loud to them, An Island Story, a child's history of England originally published before 1923. It's one of my littles' favorite … [Read more...]
Do you find yourself reading aloud a portion of a great story and then pausing to ask your children, "What do you think?" or "Was that right or wrong to do?" I certainly have been known to do so! Especially when I find myself reading an older book from a time when things were perhaps spoken about or handled differently than we would today. … [Read more...]
If I could, I would say to my littles, "If you get nothing else, get this." I'm not sure I'm the teacher I should be with this, but I do want to be. Reading this book brought me closer than before and reading Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan with my littles has reminded me. Maybe today you need to be reminded of the cleansing pleasure of … [Read more...]
Guess what? Life has gotten very busy - we're moving! I'm so glad I made a plan for simplicity for homeschooling this year. This week we've been reviewing our history sentence by reading one of the books from our book list, the Boston Tea Party by Pamela Duncan Edwards. It's a cute book with good drawings that traces the chain of events … [Read more...]
Recently during my 7 year olds annual check-up at the pediatrician's, the nurse was asking him to answer a list of prescribed questions prior to the doctor coming in. It went something like this -- Nurse: "What's the name of your school?" My son: Blank stare. Somewhat impatiently, the nurse repeats: "The name? of your school?" I was giving … [Read more...]
Y'all, please welcome Jennifer Courtney of Classical Conversations Writers Circle with part one of a guest series of posts all about getting started in homeschooling. There is something to be said for starting off right, so I hope you enjoy her series of posts! What should I do for my children’s education? Should I homeschool them? Where … [Read more...]
Each week, I'll post a fun idea or two related to the CC Cycle 3 memory work. In the past, I posted an idea for each subject, each week. But, it was a bit of overkill - at least for us and the time we have. I'm keeping it simpler this year. If you're keeping it classical, remember, the first goal is to memorize the memory work for each subject. … [Read more...]