HomeSchooling
That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not alone and isolated from anyone. You belong. - F. Scott Fitzgerald
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U.S. 4D Map Puzzle: A Timberdoodle Review
_____________________________________________ This is a review post. Timberdoodle graciously sent me a free product in exchange for a review. A review that is always my own, honest and truthful, and hopefully helpful. _____________________________________________ Every March a homeschool conference takes place in our town. People drive from miles away, they stay for several days, they attend lectures and listen to experts and shop for new school curriculum and seek out advice and opinions and new ideas for their own homeschools. This annual event happened just last week. Although I didn’t attend the actual conference this year, I did head over to the exhibit hall for the free evening of perusing the curriculum…
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five finds friday (the one about writing a book and my daughter going to college)
We’ve made it. Cheers and high fives because it’s been a long week. But look – wasn’t the beach beautiful? funny I’ve been working my way through a couple of boxes in the attic that are stuffed to overflowing with keepsakes and memories. And I keep finding gems like this. Behold the glory of ALL of our haircuts. What a family! flavorful Last week I ate dinner with Jo and Jason at a local restaurant – Hare & Field. It was delightful. (And the company was oh-so-fun.) I can never seem to stray from their Fish and Chips, which I love. But I also tried their parmesan gnocchi – my…
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Thinking Putty: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and words and opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own. __________________________________ You’ve probably heard of this before – thinking putty. It’s like a new take on Silly Putty. Except, it’s better. I think we first found some years ago at a little toy store in Hendersonville. The thinking putty is stretchy and forms easily into shapes. It’s actually a great tool to have on hand for kids who are easily distracted. It’s quiet and they can stretch it and…
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An Ode to EB White
Classes have fired back up and I have ten students in my World Lit. & Writing class this year. I don’t always follow through on this ideal, but I try to do assignments with my students from time to time. (Not the research papers or critical analysis papers – come on, you guys, I already served my time and paid my dues.) Last week I showed them a famous portrait of E.B. White by Jill Krementz – the wonderful author who brought us Charlotte’s Web, among other enduring classics. Then I assigned them the task of writing an ode to Mr. White, sitting there in his simple space, trying to…
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mid-week ramble. is that a thing?
Well. It is now. It’s already September and I don’t know anything about anything except that TIME ALWAYS DISAPPEARS. Even when you think it’s going slowly. Our homeschool co op begins this week. Prepping for teaching other kids, therefore, also begins this week. Honestly, that prepping started a while ago. But the routine, week part of prepping is upon us. My home is now officially a Teen House. More teens live here than non-teens. Otto and I are outnumbered. We must join forces to survive. Homeschool is underway entirely. Which means my kitchen table is a war zone all day every day. London is learning that college classes aren’t all…
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Wile E. Coyote Science: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and words and opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own. _________________________________ Everyone’s a homeschooler! Wheeeeeee! It’s a weird world, am I right? I’m not making light of our current world situation. But in my life I’ve never coped with any hard thing without a certain touch of levity. (It’s how I manage.) So you and your friend and your neighbor and the people who never thought they’d give it a try are homeschooling this year. Even if you aren’t…
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Five Finds Friday (last first day, a giant sweatshirt and tomatoes)
Oh it’s Friday? I didn’t know. funny I was opening my car door and I noticed the side pocket. What’s in that pocket made me laugh – and kind of offers a snapshot of my actual life. A knife. Because – safety and preparation. You just never know what the future holds. Bubbles. Because – fun. Lotion. (That almost never gets used). Because – in theory I’d like to have soft skin and smell nice. In reality, I just can’t seem to make those things a priority, even when I put the lotion directly in the car. Cleaning Wipes. I’d say because of the current situation we’re all wading through.…
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school planning over here …
I’ve spent the last two days deeply immersed in academic planning. Yes, for my own classroom of students here at Wildwood. And for my classroom of students in the Writing and Literature class I teach at Meadowlark. It’s been pretty exhausting. It always is. But this year it seems extra . . . unsettling. Because we all know (now more than ever) that plans are just ideas we hope get to happen like we wish they would. And we ALL know that plans never one hundred percent travel along the rails we’re laying down, but right now it all feels pretty train wrecked anyway. And I don’t love the act…
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Bear Grylls Survival Camp: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and words and opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own. _________________________________ Since they watched the first show with this guy, they’ve been hooked. My boys love Bear Grylls. They’ve watched lots of iterations of his show and they’ve read a handful of books by this guy. (They even share the animal name in common with him. Although I don’t think Bear is his given name, my boys’ actual middle names are Fox and Hawkeye. Well, I guess technically Hawkeye…
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connections. relationships. education.
Education is about relationships. Charlotte Mason said this and I believe it. I believed it theoretically when I first read it, decades ago. I believed it experientially when I thought back over my own education, both formal and self-chosen. When what I learned well and best, thoroughly and ingrained as part of my psyche, was when I had a relationship with the material. That’s why Spanish for three years has vanished into the mist but words have stayed. Stories have stuck. And I believed it theoretically for my children when I said yes to homeschooling. And I believe it experientially as I watch my kids make their own connections, mourn…
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five finds friday: at home edition
I just wanted to bandwagon every celebrity and make this an at-home edition of my regular Five Finds Friday post. Except, of course, it’s always the at-home edition since I live and write from home. I mean, usually I do all of that. From home. But sometimes from coffee shops or outside somewhere. But this week everything is exclusively from home ALL THE TIME. This week has felt, like all of yours I’m sure, very long. A giant glass bottle of lotion broke on the tile floor yesterday. It smelled amazing and the shards of glass didn’t hurt so badly when swimming in lotion. At the beginning of the week…
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Should I Stop Homeschooling?
For years I’ve said a handful of absolutes about my homeschooling experience. (I do like to speak in absolutes, although I am working hard to remove them from my vernacular. I know they are not helpful, generally speaking.) Two of those absolutes are this: I will make a decision for each homeschool year for each kid on a case by case year by year basis. No homeschooling parent (and no teacher, maybe no human) should make life changing decisions in February. And yet. Here I am, having just spent most of February pondering and thinking and researching and looking into a wide variety of Other Options beside homeschooling for one,…
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WWII Graphic Novels: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and words and opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own. _________________________ It was a quick and easy yes when Timberdoodle presented two graphic novels as a review option. As a kid – and as a grown up, frankly – graphic novels never pulled me in. I liked hearty, thick books. Descriptions. Dialogue. Details. But my kids. My goodness, they ADORE a good graphic novel. (And, let me tell you the truth, they adore a whole host of bad ones…
