HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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this might be a rant. or it might be the truth. or it could be both.
I’m not anti-higher education. I’m really not. (Although I think you already know how I feel about a system.) Shoot, I loved college. It was a good time. (Which promotes my point exactly.) I love learning. I mean, I’m dedicating my very life to the process, you know. But the more I teach, the more I learn, the more I realize that what I want to produce in our homeschool is not educated adults, per se. Not diploma-holding citizens. Not specific-abbreviations-past-your-given-name people. I want to produce learners. Thinkers. Imaginers. People who know how to find information and who want to get to that information. People who can think. And I’m…
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Wildwood Academy: Group Study
Homeschool is proceeding differently this year. A true statement I can make every year. Even though I waited in line a loooong time to get into a fabulous homeschool co-op last year, we’re not all doing the same co-op this year. (And it still is fabulous, mind you – just not what our house needs this year.) Riley is attending classes there but my younger crowd is heading in a different direction. I mentioned being excited (I might have said “wildly optimistic”) about an upcoming joint homeschooling venture with several other families. We’re two weeks in and it seems to be going swimmingly. The idea was born of thus: Four…
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Dear Every Friend I Have With Whom I Never Seem To Be Able To Spend Enough Time . . .
Dear Every Friend I Have With Whom I Never Seem To Be Able To Spend Enough Time . . . There have been times in my life when friendships were plentiful and times when friendships were few. High school was full of friends. Junior high not so much. Freshman first semester I was a little hard-pressed to land with solid friends, but by sophomore year I was golden. Post-college friendships took a pretty big fall. I think back then my only friend was my newly acquired spouse. (Well, I still had those beautiful college companions but we all lived too far away from one another to hang out regularly.) And…
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Today I Lived
Today I . . . Heard about cookie butter for the second time but have yet to actually see the food product. Forgot to bring the laundry in again after two days of rain showers. I think I saw a towel in the lawn but I just don’t want to walk over there and deal with it. Put off making applesauce with my bushel of apples for yet another day. Failed to have the girls clean their bedroom. Noticed mold growing on a book on our shelf. (This is the dampest house ever!) Wept with my husband over the heavy burden we feel to parent these sons and daughters tenderly…
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it is true
This is true . . . Bergen took a bath tonight using his snorkel and scuba mask. When I asked Otto what letter he learned in school today he said, “Two times”. I really meant it when I said to my friend, “I don’t mind the Legos strewn across the boys’ bedroom floor.” I almost refuse to clean out our stove. Mosely’s camping backpack is still not unpacked from last weekend’s trip. I frequently forget to return e-mails. I don’t always know when each child last bathed. We don’t own a regular vacuum. We use the shop vac for every day use. When I hang clothes on the line…
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Keigley Campaign: The Idea(l)
I think it was May when we first had the idea. Yes, yes it was May. (I like how a blog reminds me of things I forget.) And it was also May when I said my plan was to tell you about our camping campaign idea. (I don’t like how blogs remind me of things I forget to do.) And so far, all I have done is tell you about one particular camping adventure. And that’s okay I guess. I doubt you’ve been hanging on to the edge of your seats waiting for me to follow through with that. (But if you have – I’m sorry.) And today I’m going…
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toy wedded bliss.
Kids get attached to specific toys. Growing up, my younger brother and I had our favorites. We loved Cabbage Patch Kids and we loved these two plastic Care Bears we carried in our pockets everywhere. My Buddy and Kid Sister were popular pals for us (anyone remember their theme song?) and we had two koala bears that accompanied us on many adventures. (We cleverly named them KB and Willie. KB for Koala Bear – get it?) Our children are just the same. And for reasons only totally understood by them, the five youngest of them have become strangely attached to a series of toys called Beanie Boos. We didn’t know…
Keep Reading . . .
here we go ….
Taking Them on an Adventure: The Literature Odyssey
sunday matters.
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Weekend Company
It wouldn’t be a weekend visit from family if we didn’t introduce them to one of our favorite places. Sky Top Orchards, where the Honey Crisp are ripe for only a few weeks and the views from the orchard are life-giving. It’s so wonderful when an Ohio relative makes that long drive down South. The kids were thrilled to hear that Aunt B.A. was traveling our way with a cousin and a friend. For better or worse, our kids refer to Kevin’s sister affectionately as “the pickle aunt”. A name she has earned by presenting a giant jar of pickles to our many young ones upon each visit. (And then…
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that time ….
It’s that time of year. Summer’s demise. Sleeping in. Makeshift breakfasts. Lazy afternoons. Free range children. That’s all about to change. We’re heading toward morning routines, scheduled days, school work, regular bedtimes. And it always feels as if it has come so fast. I’m not drowning, but as I told my friend this week, I do feel a little sinky. There’s maybe a little too much water in my ship right now. I still need to pick up a couple of books to begin classes next week. I haven’t finalized what our daily schedule will look like this year. No one is used to waking up and eating breakfast at…
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good words. VI.
Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in. – Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”
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then. now. next.
Vividly, I remember it all. (Sort of.) But so clearly, so recently, it was true, that I often brace myself for the reality of it right now before I look around me and am reminded that time has escaped our clinging grasp and changed our present as it is wont to do. There was a time when our house was overrun by littles. A bevy of tinies we had. A stir. A commotion. An entrance – we made one everywhere we went. Five children under the age of six. That was our reality. Two toddlers six months apart. A newborn when those two were not even three. Diapers for a…
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Ages 8 to Adult
How do you know your children are growing up? When you introduce them to the game of Monopoly, that’s when.
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six flags over georgia.
Summer reading programs abound. In fact, I often lose track of them. Suddenly it’s September and I realize that I missed out on the chance to get three free books from Barnes & Noble. Six Flags offers a year-long reading program that we took advantage of last school year. For reading the required number of books, each child receives a free ticket (and one teacher ticket too!) to the Six Flags amusement park of your choice. We chose Georgia. And yesterday. Thanks to my kind friends Hannah and LIndsey, Otto and PIper were well cared for all day so that they did not have to wait in long line and…
