Steve Weeks’ Dandelion is one of those rare CD’s that everyone in my family enjoys and whose lyrics don’t cause embarrassment when the kids serenade their grandparents. My kids and I have memorized all of the acoustic, folksy songs, and they are so much fun to sing. Weeks has an incredible talent for…
Continue ReadingMy sister sent me this link this morning with the note, “This video made me think of you.” So of course I watched it right away. And as I watched it, my stream-of-consciousness went something like this. “Um. Ok. But I quit smoking when I became a mom. . . Does my sister really…
Continue ReadingIt’s that time of year. Christmas is behind us, spring seems so close and yet so far away. The winter doldrums have set in and we all feel restless. We want to shake things up. We want to breathe some life into the dreary surroundings. We want things to feel fresh and new rather than…
Continue ReadingI just came across a post on Scary Mommy on the difference between parenting a first and third child. It made me chuckle with recognition. But she left out a few things, so I thought I’d add my own. Food First Kid: Introduced one food at a time waiting three days in between each new…
Continue Reading“If we taught babies to talk as most skills are taught in school, they would memorize lists of sounds in a predetermined order and practice them alone in a closet.” Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford Graduate School of Education In the first few posts of this series, we talked about taking a relaxed approach to homeschooling and…
Continue Reading“Just as eating contrary to the inclination is injurious to the health, so study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” – Leonardo da Vinci In the first two posts in this series we looked at taking a relaxed approach to homeschooling in the early grades and examined the…
Continue ReadingIn my last post I suggested a new set of “R’s” to guide our homeschool philosophy, particularly in the early grades. I proposed A relaxed approach based on relationships and real experiences. I then encouraged us all to take a deep breath and relax. Today, I want to think about the role of relationships in our homeschools….
Continue ReadingI recently had the honor of speaking at the Rocky Mountain Catholic Home Educators Conference where I gave a talk entitled Homeschooling the Early Grades: Rethinking the Three R’s. It was well received, and I thought I would share my thoughts here as well. So here are my 3 R’s: A relaxed approach based…
Continue ReadingSo far we haven’t had any complaints about our change in diet. I made sure to fully stock the house with favorite “safe” foods so no one would feel deprived, and it seems to be working. Some of the behaviors I’m noticing that I’m hoping will go away. Henry’s shirt chewing has increased again this…
Continue ReadingHelen asked loudly at breakfast this morning, “Don’t you just love this diet?!! We get to eat scrambled eggs and bacon and fruit!” The boys weren’t as enthusiastic. They left their tacos untouched. BreakfastScrambled eggs in corn tortillas with salsabaconwatermelon SnackChocolate Chex LunchHelen ate leftover meatloafI think Henry ate ham.I don’t know what Thomas ate….
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