Category Archives: Homeschooling

Smoking

I looked out my front window today to see a small cloud of smoke wafting through and over our fence and into our front yard, which was strange. But cars often pull over near our house so at first I thought maybe it was a car overheating. When I went outside, there was no carContinue reading “Smoking”

Creature of Comfort

I woke up at 6 this morning, which is uncharacteristically early for me, both in the time before and the time after. Our youngest is just two, so Eric and I both been stealing sleep from around the edges of the day for at least as many years. Most of the time, our night-before ambitionsContinue reading “Creature of Comfort”

Ten Tips for Thriving Through School Closures: Lessons from Homeschooling Parents

1. All human beings, including kids, are hard wired to learn. Every single person is made to take in their environment in whichever way or ways they can and to process their experiences. That’s all that learning is. I used to be a classroom teacher so I’ll let you into a little (actually, big) secret:Continue reading “Ten Tips for Thriving Through School Closures: Lessons from Homeschooling Parents”

Four Family Friendly Things to do on a beautiful sunny day in Montgomery County during a potential epidemic

Let the children make fairy houses. They are going to do it anyway. They will search the yard for materials, assess their resources and needs. They will experiment with different construction and design techniques. They will negotiate with each other and their younger brother as he threatens to stomp it all out, delicate little earlyContinue reading “Four Family Friendly Things to do on a beautiful sunny day in Montgomery County during a potential epidemic”

Let Your Yes Mean Yes; Let Your No Mean No

Estelle recently told me of an evening within the past few weeks when her daughter, Elizabeth, received a phone call from a friend of hers in distress and needing to talk. Elizabeth went immediately to her friend, another high schooler. When her daughter returned to Estelle in a few hours she also was upset. HerContinue reading “Let Your Yes Mean Yes; Let Your No Mean No”

Parenting Lessons from Saint Joseph: Showing Up

The Feast of Saint Joseph (March 19) quickly approaches and thus Eric recently began thirty days of prayer asking for Jesus’s adoptive father’s intercession and which will conclude on the day the church celebrates him, his life, and the sacrifices he made to care for and protect Mary and Jesus. In the Bible, Joseph isContinue reading “Parenting Lessons from Saint Joseph: Showing Up”

Faith Renewed, Part 1

(a fiber arts edition) We enjoy making things around here and this past winter, I was struck by the desire to start knitting again after a multiple year (and three kids) break. At a local yarn store (LYS), I decided to tackle socks. This obsession also led me to staring at images of gorgeous yarnContinue reading “Faith Renewed, Part 1”

Free Stuff and Podcasts

A few months back we came across and free math app that we were initially pretty excited about. We saw that it was free daily word problems that were newsy and cross-curricular and, given that most apps are pretty easy to use, we hope that it was something enriching that was also self-directed. And maybeContinue reading “Free Stuff and Podcasts”

Double Pointed Needles versus Magic Loop, an entirely made up (but still not completely implausible) history of sock knitting

I have recently become obsessed with knitting socks. And when I say “obsessed” I mean mostly that I knit a single pair of socks. But I have certainly purchased an obsessive amount of sock yarn and have certainly looked at an obsessive number of images of knitted socks on instagram and elsewhere (who are weContinue reading “Double Pointed Needles versus Magic Loop, an entirely made up (but still not completely implausible) history of sock knitting”