our dozen beautiful feet

After all the food had been eaten and all the playing had been accomplished and all the dishes had been washed, Paul and I sat down in a quiet, lamplit home and gave our kids a few minutes to write a list of things they were thankful for.  Some of them chose to write a list based on the alphabet. Others went for a free-form list. :) Here's what our kids are thankful for this year! Luke, age 12 Apples Books Charlie Dad Eggs Family God Holy Bible India Jazz music Kiryn Levi Mom, Meryn Nerf guns Oxygen Playing Quarters Running Snakes Trees Uncles Work Zoo Kiryn, age 11: Aubrey Baths Charlie Dogs Einstein Food Good-lookin' Dad Hedgehogs Itch ointment Jesus Kaylee Laughter Mom Nadia (pen pal) Other People People Riley Sister Tristan Umbrellas Violin Winter Yogurt Levi, age 7: Mom Dad Papa Grammy Outside Brothers Sisters Aunts Uncles Music Animals Cousins Great Grandma Great Grandpa Dogs Cats Bunnies Life Jesus...

Each year when we begin our studies, I always think I'd like to do weekly post on how we're spending our time and growing. But somehow, it seems kind of like measuring the kids' heights every single week. You do it so often its hard to see the growth. While I have managed to write about some specific things we've done so far this year, I'm going to try to do end-of-term reviews to see more significant growth. By looking back at 12 weeks of school work, maybe I'll see bigger strides of growth, more accomplished, and generally be more encouraged to keep on. This week we are taking the week off of school, so I had planned into the week to have a day of reflection, and to walk through the Simply Convivial Homeschool Audit . That's what I'm doing today, so here's a review of the past 12 weeks of our learning! Morning Time We have read a lot.  We have two stacks of books: completed, and in progress.  This is our completed stack. The kids h...

It bears repeating.  The Writing & Rhetoric series by Classical Academic Press is really amazing.  My 5th and 6th graders are in Ch. 5 of the sixth book. They are learning to write commonplace essays, which are six paragraph essays refuting bad character traits.  They wrote their first essay this week.  We were behind schedule, and weren't going to finish for class. I was fine with that and wasn't rushing them, but they both wanted to finish their essays for class so badly they stayed up late Thursday night in order to finish it. This is their first attempt at a commonplace essay. I was SO pleased with the results. They had minimal help with these! :) (These were typed as they were written. Any mistakes are not typos, but the kids' grammar and spelling errors.) :) Against Boasters by Kiryn Preedy (10 years old) Boasters cover up weakness by puffing up their deeds and can cause real harm. When boasters exaggerate things they have done, they don’t kno...

I always find other people's daily routines fascinating and helpful for me. I've gotten some great and lasting habits from posts like this: Morning Time, chore cards, reading aloud.  I love how the homeschool community inspires each other! So it is in that spirit which I write a post about a typical day in our home. 7:00 - I wake up to a quiet house. I sit in my favorite place reading until 7:30. My husband works from home, and some days, he's here all day. This morning though, he left a couple of hours before I woke up. About three mornings a week I get up and go for a nice long walk while I listen to a podcast. Starting my day with a walk or reading time in this chair is good for my soul. 7:30: Shower time for me. Some of the kids are now stirring, laying in bed reading themselves, quietly playing in their rooms. 8:15: Breakfast. This is one of those rare days that I made breakfast the night before: banana bread. So we quickly gather around the table and get to ...