The Good and the Beautiful science curriculum: Is it rigorous enough?

The Good and the Beautiful science curriculum: Is it rigorous enough?

This review contains my honest opinions. I wasn't compensated for this review and didn't receive free copies of the curriculum. When I first started homeschooling my kids—then in 7th, 5th, and 2nd grades—I relied heavily on my sister's library of used homeschool curriculum, which was mostly made up of Memoria Press workbooks and teacher's guides. [...]

How to read “Pride and Prejudice” along with the BBC miniseries

How to read “Pride and Prejudice” along with the BBC miniseries

This winter I'm reading through one of my favorite books of all time, Pride & Prejudice, with my thirteen-year-old daughter for her homeschool literature course. It's the perfect time of year for it, when we can pull up blankets by the fireplace and read out loud to each other...kind of like the Bennett sisters would have done. [...]

Don’t suppress your pandemic rage. The world needs it.

Don’t suppress your pandemic rage. The world needs it.

I had mostly succeeded at scrubbing my vocabulary of curse words when my oldest child became sentient, but lately they've crept back into my head. And also my speech. Apparently dropping an F-bomb here or there releases endorphins, which is probably why these words keep rising to my lips unbidden. There is a serious lack [...]

Our 2020 printable summer read-aloud list is here!

Our 2020 printable summer read-aloud list is here!

We're excited to share our 2020 printable summer read-aloud list with you all! With pools closing or limiting attendance, camps cancelled, and so many other disappointments for our kids this summer, we're trying to look for the silver lining...and (ahem) some activities that will keep them busy during these long days. So, we've created this [...]

How to turn all this quantity time into quality time…without losing your mind in the process.

How to turn all this quantity time into quality time…without losing your mind in the process.

This post is based on a talk we gave to the Moms & More preschool moms group at Christ Presbyterian Church. Week 1 of the quarantine: we're rearranging our homes to start the new and exciting, if unexpected, process of homeschooling our kids. We're sitting by the fire and reading books. We created a sourdough [...]

Daily quarantine thought: De-sentimentalizing Motherhood

Daily quarantine thought: De-sentimentalizing Motherhood

We're heading into Mother's Day season (although, it's going to be very different this year) and that has us thinking about how much we've sentimentalized motherhood. And it's not all that helpful. Caroline took a deep dive into the topic, which left me in tears after reading it. You can see her post, The Un-Sentimentality [...]

Daily quarantine thought: You don’t have to save the world. You just have to get through today.

Daily quarantine thought: You don’t have to save the world. You just have to get through today.

This new way of living is hard. My body aches by the end of the day, and I wake up in the morning exhausted. We were already a homeschool family, so that hasn't changed for us. But my five-year-old with autism has lost all her therapeutic services that we rely on. Actually, that's not technically [...]

The ancient family way: Is ‘raising our kids to leave us’ actually a terrible idea?

The ancient family way: Is ‘raising our kids to leave us’ actually a terrible idea?

Nine years ago, my husband and I jumped at the chance to buy a house we hated. It was ugly and stuck in the '70s. And not the good kind of 70s. It had bad shag carpet, damaged parquet floors, mustard-yellow formica, peeling siding and all. We did some upgrades, but no Chip-and-Joanna level renovation. [...]