Painting Projects, Kid-Directed

About once a day the kids go poking through my art supply cabinets in the kitchen and pull out paper and supplies for a self-styled project. Watercolor painting is their favorite. They spread their canvases out on the floor, grab some cups of water, and go for it. Nutmeg is the most prolific artist so far. On this day, she had a line of about ten pages spread out: “This is... Read More

4th of July Pencil Topper Craft

The kids are begging to learn to sew, so I’ve been hunting around for children’s beginner sewing crafts that are easy enough for the earliest learners. I was inspired by some crafts that use felt, pinking shears, and embroidery floss. We tried a very simple version as a 4th of July sewing project. We made our flag pencil toppers out of rectangles of red and white felt.... Read More

Firsts in June

We celebrated several childhood milestones in the past month-ish. I can’t make them stop growing up. 🙁 First 100-piece puzzle (of course it’s a cat): First phonics reader (we love Nora Gaydos): First time riding without training wheels (with Grandpa cheering on): First – and only – time turning 2 (sob!): First time in five years feeling like there’s... Read More

Homeschooling Q&A with Mom

Beginning to homeschool can be nerve-wracking. In these early phases of gathering information and finding our homeschooling style, it has been helpful to gather people around who have “been there, done that.” I started counting the BTDT families around me (though not necessarily physically nearby). I’m blessed with at least nine or ten families who can field my... Read More

Turtle Shell Rabbit Trail

Last week… we ran across a hexagonal turtle shell pattern while looking at an art book… which led to looking at pictures of turtle shells to see if they’re ever truly hexagonal (sort of, just not symmetrical)… which led to our attempt to re-create the original, mythical, symmetrical, hexagonal turtle shell. It doesn’t take much to entertain us…... Read More

Décor à l’école

“When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” I learned this as a kid, and ever since, I’ve been mispronouncing words like bear, build, and group. Just kidding. But I taught this rule to my kids last week, and now I’m noticing exceptions everywhere. I’m also noticing that the kids don’t know which letters are vowels. We’re... Read More

Perfectly Destructible Piggy Banks

Junior has been fascinated with coins lately. He can regularly be found counting his 7 pennies, 4 nickels, 2 quarters, and 6 dimes. I bought him a piggy bank a few months ago. It shattered before it made it into the house. This is not at all unusual, and I’ve refused to buy another one until the kids can drive themselves to the store. (I figure I’ll have bigger worries... Read More

A Week of Homeschooling

As the kids get older, we’re slowly shifting our focus toward homeschooling activities. Last week was a good one for showing the types of things we do. Monday, it looked like it was shaping up to be “Duck Week.” An egg hatched in our incubator overnight! It was at least a week early, so the first thing on the agenda involved ditching our original plans and driving... Read More

An Update

In the last couple weeks I’ve: 1. Said goodbye to my sister-in-law. She went back to the city where she was living before she came to stay with us. We are very sad to see her go. 2. Made an awesome-tasting angel food cake with my sister. Pictures and recipe coming soon. 3. Watched Food Inc. and am pondering going all-natural, buying only organic, local food (except angel food... Read More

On My Mind Today

I was surrounded by young kids (all mine, of course) a couple days ago. They were climbing on me, crowding me, asking me repeated questions, with one request piling on another before I had a chance to respond even to the first one. This wasn’t how I imagined parenting to be. Some days I’m a walking sermon on child spacing. In the middle of this, my husband called. He... Read More