Designing a home-centered life: learning, exploring, and creating with our five littles
Gift giving is literally one of my favorite things to do. My littles are ages 3 - 12, and these are my top stocking stuffer ideas for this year. They're not necessarily stocking stuffers for cost reasons, but more for size. 1. Scrunch Map - We love geography! I anticipate these maps (U.S. and World) will hang on road trips with us and near the … [Read more...]
I'm more than five years into homeschooling and haven't found my perfect planner yet. I'm feeling very optimistic with my new planner for this year - the The Well-Planned Day family homeschool planner by The Well-Planned Gal. Let me walk you through my favorite parts! 1. I noticed straight away that there are tabs for each month, which will make … [Read more...]
When we begin Classical Conversations Cycle 3 in the fall, my littles will be ages 3, 6, 8, 10, and 11. This is our second time through this cycle and my oldest son's last time. I've decided to create a book list all my own this year. (As opposed to previous years where I've layered over an AO list.) I have consulted my best "book buds" - Five in … [Read more...]
In Spring and Summer, we're very nearly all baseball all the time in this family. Since my crew loves the game, I thought perhaps they would love some books involving the game. These books are their favorites, but they are more than baseball books. They're just really great stories. So, maybe they'd be home runs with your gang even if … [Read more...]
Lots of people homeschool for religious reasons. That's true. I guess you could call our reasons religious. Although if you asked me, I'd more likely tell you the reasons weren't our own but God's. However, if you think you can lump us together with those homeschooling simply to shelter their children from the sin of this … [Read more...]
Y’all, I love giving good gifts. It’s fun for me to have an idea and share it with someone with love. I’ve been talking with friends and we’ve all found it a little tricky to shop for this age. So I compiled a list of my favorite ideas. I think I could go on and on with ideas, but I’m just going to stick with the ones that I think my boys would (or … [Read more...]
"...he called out, 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'" Luke 8:8 Christmas is such an exciting time in our home, as I'm sure it is in yours too. We want to seize this exciting time to tell our children over and over again about Jesus. To praise His name, to speak of our love, to tell His story. It naturally provides even more … [Read more...]
"Art is one of the basics for little children. They love talking, listening to stories, and drawing or painting." Isn't what Susan Schaeffer Macaulay shares in For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School true? Put two of those together and I think you have some of the best building blocks for teaching art. I've made … [Read more...]
At the end of each school year, I pencil out a simple, summer schedule. Mostly full of hopes for our summer and a tiny bit of intentional learning. This year, I’m keeping it even more simple than ever before. Because I’ve learned something this year. I don’t want more, I want more in our less. I want to pick some really good stuff and … [Read more...]
Guys, seriously so many good books in this world! I get so excited when I find some we love and I love sharing them with you. Here are some books we love reading that just so happen to teach us great things about animals. They're like science in a storybook. 1. I Love My Daddy, Because... - In beautiful drawings of daddy animals caring … [Read more...]