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With Age Comes Acceptance
A couple weeks ago I had a conversation with one of the other teachers at school. She’s almost done earning her masters degree in classical education. She told me the story of how, last summer during a big presentation, she found herself tongue-tied in front of a group of people for the first time since she-can’t-remember-when. This actually resulted in her talking too much instead of too little, and she failed her presentation since she didn’t fit the necessary information into the alotted amount of time. This also means she failed the class, which is why she’s not quite done earning her masters degree yet. I admire this teacher and…
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Quotes from “Frontier Ways: Sketches of Life in the Old West”
I found the book Frontier Ways: Sketches of Life in the Old West, by Edward Everett Dale, on eBay as Brian and I were searching for living books for homeschool last year. Ever since I read the Little House on the Prarie books and the Kirsten American Girl Doll books as a child, the Old West has fascinated me–homesteaders in particular. What I like best about this particular book are the beautiful language Edward Everett Dale employs and the fact that he lived in a small town, surrounded by homesteaders, Native Americans, and cowhands, at the turn of the last century. He has first-hand experience of what life was like…
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A Day in the Life of a Homeschooling Family
My alarmed blared at 6:30am just as my kids came into the bedroom. Samuel had probably been awake since 5:45am when Brian left for work, and Ruthie still looked slightly sleepy. She sucked on her two fingers and pulled gently on her wispy blonde hair. “Can we have a snack?” asked Samuel. I sleepily rolled over and looked into his brown eyes. “Not yet,” I said. “I’ll get up and get ready and then make breakfast.” “Mommy?” asked Ruthie. “Can I have a snack?” “Not yet, girly,” I said. “We’ll have breakfast soon.” “Okay,” Ruthie said. She and Samuel shuffled off to play with their stuffed animals. I slid out…
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New to Homeschooling? What I Learned As a Teacher Turned Homeschool Momma
I’ve spent quite a few years teaching in various capacities. My credentials include teaching Sunday School at church, substitute teaching in public schools, and leading devotional Bible studies for women. Homeschooling, however, is a completely different arena. When you homeschool, you are both the teacher and the mom. Over these last couple years of homeschooling, I developed some thoughts and ideas about educating at home that those of you homeschooling for the first time or those of you gearing up for another year of home education might find helpful and encouraging! A few of my ideas about education are left over from when I was young, too. Although this might…
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How To Combine Charlotte Mason’s Reading Principles with “Spell to Write and Read”
A few weeks ago, I reviewed Wanda Sanseri’s reading curriculum Spell to Write and Read (SWR). I shared what I liked and disliked about the curriculum and gave some background information about our reading experiences thus far. (Here’s a link to the post just in case you missed it.) In this post, I’ll share how we combine Charlotte Mason’s reading principles outlined in the “A Delectable Education” podcast (ADE for short) with Sanseri’s methods and resources from Spell to Write and Read. In Spell to Write and Read, Sanseri recommends beginning by teaching your student all 70 phonograms. Students don’t need to memorize all 70 before they can move on,…