So I've been at this homeschooling thing for awhile now and since I'm headed through Ambleside Online's Year 1 for the third time, I like to think I'm better at this than when I started. Some days that may be the case, some days maybe no. However, today was a day where some experience really came in handy ( Read more... )

Perhaps I would be cheered and encouraged if I wrote down some of what happened here in homeschooling this week ( Read more... )

You know those home repair sagas that start with the plan to replace one small non-functional item and then develop into having half the bathroom torn up for a couple months? Well thankfully I'm not having one of those moments with home repair. But I this evening I just realized that the situation we've got going with our Valentine's Day cards is ( Read more... )

Published just over 50 years ago, We Like Kindergarten is a simple children's picture book that follows one little girl named Carol through her day at Kindergarten. With lovely illustrations by Eloise Wilkin (I have friends whose children look like E. Wilkins illustrations) and simple prose in Carol's own voice by Clara Cassidy, the book is a quick ( Read more... )

The one downside of our housing situation is that there is a shared laundry room with a single washer and dryer set. I was a bit upset about that when I saw it because I've had my own washer since before my oldest kid was born and it seemed sad to go back to feeding quarters into a washer. And there are certain things that I miss (like running ( Read more... )

OK, things aren't really that dystopic around here. We are actually doing quite well. Basking in the endless sunshine (ok, there are some clouds and we like those too) Walking to places even though its really not done here (I mean you are allowed to walk to places, it's just that people look at you funny when you mention it. Some people have even ( Read more... )

Person in front of me in line at the grocery store: "are you from New York ( Read more... )

"Books are bulky and inconvenient - like rocks, and trees, and rivers, and life. It occurs to me that everything that can be said against the inonvenience of books can be said about the inconvenience of children. They too take up space, are of no immediate practical use, are of interest to only a few people, and present all kinds of problems ( Read more... )

Well we actually did school unlike the public schools, but I was happy not to have to go anywhere. The older boys' regularly scheduled "Reading with Granddaddy" (their buddy's Granddaddy) was cancelled. Nathan's class was cancelled but it's just around the corner from our house so we walked over there before realizing that they had cancelled. The ( Read more... )

(note: my last trip to the grown-up part of the library resulted in me checking out a bunch of books about food. here's a review of one of the three that I enjoyed, I hope other reviews are to follow soon. Many thanks to Matt's parents for facillitating my distraction-free library browsing ( Read more... )