our dozen beautiful feet

If you have not had the opportunity to go to one of the Great Homeschool Conventions, I can't encourage you enough to start planning right now to go to one near you next year! This was my second trip to the GHC in Fort Worth, TX. I went last year and was so encouraged and blessed by the trip. I just took in as much as I could from the "mentors" I had been following online and learning from. I got to listen to Dr. Christopher Perrin, Sarah Mackenzie, and Andrew kern, among other excellent speakers.  I was eager to go back again this year! While I was anticipating my trip this year, I thought of some specific things I wanted to research or get answers to. Over the past year, I've done a lot of comparative analysis of many of the most popular Great Books programs out there, trying to wrap my head around what it means to teach/read the Great Books and how to do it in high school. (The spreadsheets I've made of book lists make my head spin...)  I went really ...

Since this is our first year as a family to observe Lent together, I'd like to keep a diary of sorts with pictures of the things we've done and remember our first experience through this season. For the family, I opted to follow Rich & Rooted Passover. It's organized with three study days a week, a day of Prayer, a day of Alms (either giving money or acts of service), a day of feasting, and a day of worship. We began on Ash Wednesday with our own little ceremony. We talked about the purpose of Lent being a time to remember that we are made from the dust, and we will return to dust. Thinking of the end of our life encourages us to contemplate what it means to live fully and well today.  We spent some time talking about what it means to live well and to live fully, a life more abundant, and what things might keep us from living that way, things that hold us back.  We all wrote those things down on a sheet of paper and burned them in a small bowl.  After that, we se...

When our kids were small, we began the tradition of observing Advent as a family. Neither Paul nor I grew up observing Advent or Lent, or celebrated things like Ash Wednesday. But a mentor friend of mine had given me a set of Jesse Tree ornaments, and a devotional guide for the Advent season to go along with it, and we began to do this every year for our children. As we've returned to the US and found ourselves most at home in a Presbyterian church, we have been introduced to the celebrations of Lent and Ash Wednesday.  These were very unknown things to us a year ago, and I will always remember vividly my first Ash Wednesday service last year!  This year, I wanted to be much more intentional to embrace this season of anticipation. I'm learning a lot about and hope to grow through it these next six weeks, as well as lead my kids to some self-flection. Here are some resources we'll be using to help us navigate this season as newbies: I found this article that is a grea...

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...