Here’s 4-minutes of my off-the-cuff thoughts about training our kids’ quirkiness. SOME HIGHLIGHTS: 00:25– “it’s just an annoying habit; should we train for it or not?” 01:00– example from my real life, yesterday, with my two-year-old 02:00– encouragement from Gregg Harris 02:45– why this is extra-important to me as a homeschooling mom 03:00– how I…
Josh Duggar and the Problem We All Have
Well, so here it is. After Josh Duggar molested a number of girls and got caught a number of times, he went on TV, got himself a wife, and sold purity and courtship and not kissing until marriage. We all watched as his dad gave him a purity talk, which we now know, he did solely for the camera, because he…
Mama, What Habits and Norms Are You Giving Your Children?
We have a family habit of taking off and dropping our shoes by the back door when we come in. Then, twice a week, one of the little boys has a chore of tidying them all. Looking back, it would have been better for me to teach them all to practice diligence from the beginning, by having…
What Our Kids Crave From Us
What do our kids want from us? Of course there are different possible answers to this question: time energy loving affection Or, as my five-year-old just said when I asked him, “candy.” Good grief, I love him. If you’ve been a parent for almost any length of time, you know that kids reveal things about you that weren’t…
What I’m Reading, Thinking, Doing – 8/14/15
READING: The disappearance of childhood and what we can do to get it back ~ by Jamie @ Simple Homeschool I appreciate this article: Is Self-Promotion Sinful?— it hits at a lot of questions that have nagged at my brain. Authors are in a different place now than in the last hundred years because publishers have…
The 7 Times I’ve Heard “It’s a Boy!”
There have been seven times in my life I’ve personally heard the words, “it’s a boy!” 1. In July 2002, following a painful, long delivery, after fearful words were spoken about meconium and the baby didn’t breathe for a long while, I heard, “it’s a boy!” as an afterthought before the NICU team whisked him away….
10 Reasons I Believe Formal Education Is “Better Late Than Early”
Early in our homeschooling journey, someone put the book, Better Late Than Early, by Raymond & Dorothy Moore, in my hands, and it has invaded not only our homeschooling, but every area of our parenting. “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” ~W.B. Yeats There is a general approach to education in…
37 Encouraging Quotes for the Homeschooling Mother
Before we jump in, let me say: if you are not a homeschooler, this list is not meant for you. Please don’t read these– intended to *encourage* one group– and take it as if intended for you. It is not. Just as words intended to motivate a woman to continue breastfeeding might unintentionally offend those who…
How to Respond to “I Can’t Do This, Mama!”
Every kids gets to this place. Or at least every kid in our home has reached it. I remember reaching it in school… heck, I’m feeling it right now (as I write this) in regard to camping. I feel like I can’t. I know, in my head, that other people do it. But it feels…
Homeschool Book Giveaway
Yay, it’s August! Nearly time for a new school year to begin!! We’re actually going into our tenth year of homeschooling… which is crazy! In January of 2007, we began curling up together, Ethan and I, with Sonlight books. We discovered the world together through books like Twenty and Ten (WWII– Nazis, rations, resistance), Understood Betsy (farm life, lifelong learning), A Grain of…