I recently found Tim Challies’ 2016 Reading Challenge post. Since I am trying to make a conscious effort to do more reading, I decided to jump in with both feet, even though 2016 is half gone. In his challenge he lists 104 categories of books to choose from and the idea is to read one […]
Teacher’s Institute
February 5, 2011 by ·
During the school year, public and private school teacher’s take a few days of teacher’s institute for encouragement, skill development and planning. Why shouldn’t we do the same? We recently took a few days off. Part of this time, for me, was spent evaluating our year. What is working for us this year? What needs […]
The Job Jar
November 3, 2010 by ·
I got this great idea from my good friend and fellow blogger, Homeschool Dawn, who blogs at Olive Plants. You can read all the details about this “chore time strategy” at the above link, but here’s the idea in a nutshell: take index cards and write a job on each one. Assign each task an […]
Year-Round School
June 3, 2010 by ·
The middle boy in the blue coat is my husband; the boy in red on the left is his twin brother. One benefit to homeschooling is that we do not need to be bound by a traditional school schedule. Our family has been starting school in July for a few years now so that we […]
Pressing On
January 25, 2010 by ·
It’s January. At this time of year I find my energy seems to wane. But I don’t want our homeschool to suffer from the winter blahs! Here are some tips which help to keep me going during the winter months: I start every week with a “must do” list. I write out a sheet which […]
Getting Organized for a New Year
August 10, 2009 by ·
It’s that time again! We’ve started back to school. Have you? We’ve left the Ancients behind, and have moved on to the Middle Ages. New books, new projects, new feasts await. But first, I always have to get organized. One of the most important things, for me, is to get my history and science […]
Home Library Builders: Buying and Organizing Books
April 20, 2009 by ·
Several months ago, when I started this Home Library Builders series, I promised to write a post about finding books and organizing your library. This is a topic near and dear to my heart…I am always on the lookout for a treasure! I use Tapestry of Grace, a curriculum centered around living books. Some […]
Tweaking the Schedule
August 23, 2008 by ·
Well, it is time to tweak the schedule! We have almost finished our first 9 weeks of school. Enough time has passed to make it abundantly clear where the weaknesses are, and what needs to change. The biggest problem is, as always, unrealistic expectations about how long it will take to transition from one activity […]
Ideas for Schoolrooms
June 21, 2008 by ·
When we started homeschooling, we did all our work at the kitchen table. This became impractical rather quickly, especially as younger children grew and I had more kids doing school. At that time, we didn’t have much space for a dedicated school room, but we got around the problem by putting two children in one […]
The best laid plans…
June 20, 2008 by ·
I had this school year all planned out. I knew exactly how it would all unfold. Or so I thought. I did not anticipate that one of my children would spend four days in the hospital our 3rd week of school! Nor did I imagine that all my other children and I would be diagnosed […]
