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Feeling Discouraged in Your Homeschool Endeavors?
Sometimes we may get discouraged because we feel we’re dropping the ball in our children’s education. We read the writings of Charlotte Mason or another modern day guru on education and feel the wash of failure sweep over us. We wonder, we wish and we think desperately what we might be doing wrong because our homeschool doesn’t look like what others describe. But I want to challenge us today to consider what it would be if we didn’t have an ideal to strive for. Lofty thoughts, ideals and a vision of something bigger than ourselves are what gives us inspiration to keep trying. It’s what makes us…
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Keeping the Tradition and Celebrating Their Success
Thanks everyone for the well wishes for Justus after his calf riding incident. Justus is getting around but gingerly. He definitely favors his leg and it’s still very tender for him. On Monday we headed up to Lake Powell as a treat for Audrey (age 8) since she finished her phonics program. Celebrating my children’s successes is very important to me. Why not celebrate and make the most of our moments with the kids? We were only a year late in going. 🙂 We weren’t able to go last year and promised we would do it this year but we were almost too late since the weather is starting to…
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Seeing the Fruits of Our Labors
Isn’t it rewarding when you see your children taking on something that you have tried to make a part of their education but maybe never felt you did quite right? I had one of those rewarding moments a few weeks ago when we were in route to our camp site at Knoll Lake. We had stopped along the Mogollon Rim to enjoy the beautiful and sweeping views. Zoe, my niece, Serenity and Audrey started collecting little bouquets of wild flowers. And then it happened. A great moment for me as a teacher. 🙂 My girl said, “The variety of flowers is so amazing,” and in her voice were the sounds…
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Protecting the God-Given Curiosity in Our Small Children
For many a new school year is here. Wee ones will be toddling off to their classrooms at the public school or the homeschooling mom will be getting her classroom in order in anticipation of a great year with her bright and curious students. But wait. Should your little one really be starting school? Yes and no. What is school anyways? From Dictionary.com an institution where instruction is given, Children have a natural curiosity from almost the time they are born. They love to explore, examine, feel, taste, touch almost everything they come in contact with. And the curiosity continues as they get older. What 5-year-old child do you know…
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Limitations in Our Homeschool Day
Only so many years to have our children home Only so many days Only so many hours Sometimes we put too many things on the schedule and then struggle to keep to it. We cannot possibly do it all but we valiantly struggle on determined to succeed or burn out trying. 🙂 But we have limitations. Just like the poet who writes a haiku. I have been reading the book The Power of Less by Leo Babuata and in it he writes about the haiku form of poetry. The poet must write his poem in 17 syllables which he can quickly write so he can be finished or…
