Keiglets
The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs.
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island thoughts. the difference four years make.
The rain never came. King Solomon, the weather ap, the forecasters behind that free tool – they were all wrong. And we were grateful. We held the day like a gift (as all days are). Fripp Island. It’s been four years since we last visited. And goodness, how the years have changed us. Years measured by the height of my son against the waves. And I can’t stop myself from saying . . . “Last time we were here -” Otto didn’t even exist! Piper Finn was wearing swim diapers. The preschool crowd we ran with was afraid of waves. No one except Riley could even swim. And now. And…
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six flags over georgia.
Summer reading programs abound. In fact, I often lose track of them. Suddenly it’s September and I realize that I missed out on the chance to get three free books from Barnes & Noble. Six Flags offers a year-long reading program that we took advantage of last school year. For reading the required number of books, each child receives a free ticket (and one teacher ticket too!) to the Six Flags amusement park of your choice. We chose Georgia. And yesterday. Thanks to my kind friends Hannah and LIndsey, Otto and PIper were well cared for all day so that they did not have to wait in long line and…
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Summer Field Trippin’
Summer definitely looks different than the school year. We sleep a lot later. Our meals are routinely consumed at less-than-normal intervals. We find ourselves in or near water with a higher degree of frequency. But all school isn’t completely shut down for us. (We’re actually continuing math for the summer and we never stop all that good reading.) Plus. We get to go on some fun field trips too. Last Friday we joined a handful of fellow homeschoolers for a drive into the North Carolina mountains to visit the Cradle of Forestry. I love any excuse to drive into the Pisgah National Forest, to enjoy the always-slightly-cooler temperatures, to be…
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Tradition.
The farm has little to no Internet. So it’s phone entries again for this girl. But I’d say the view makes up for the Internet-less. And then some. It’s that wonderful holiday. Sort of my favorite holiday. (Especially if we don’t count birthdays.) July Fourth. The week where the farm in Virginia is completely over run by hordes of romping, dashing, enthusiastic children. And we eat our meals all together and we always have dessert. We stick ourselves on top of old tire tubes and willingly place those tubes and our bodies in the muddy cold waters of the Pigg River. We gather all together and eat picnic foods all…
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swim lessons.
Isn’t it weird how one moment can change your life forever? And how your life is actually kind of made up of loads of life changing one-moments? I mean, you don’t really know it at the time, or you do, but you can’t really wrap your brain around it. And as parents we are watching those moments happen practically every day. When I think about this for too long, I begin to feel as if I’m swimming in water way too deep for me. And it’s funny that I use a swimming metaphor because it’s last week’s swim lessons that got me started thinking like this in the first place.…
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Duke Botanical Gardens: A Lovely Halfway Spot
During the school year we spent a lot of our history time studying British history and the early exploration and settling of North America. Knowing we had family living in the Jamestown area, we began planning an end-of-the-school-year Virginia trip back in the winter. And last weekend, we headed northeast for a couple of days of relaxing educational adventuring. Looking at the map, it seemed we would be passing through Durham right around lunch time. Our good pal PopPop lives in Durham and when we contacted him to see if he’d be available for lunch that day, he said more than just “yes”. Bob (that’s the name his momma gave…
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lo-mo
A sister is a little part of childhood that can never be lost. -Marion Gerratty
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haphazard. erratic. random.
How cute is this kid when he’s wearing only a pair of pants? I’ve been trying out a handful of recipes from my “cook this” Pinterest board. This weekend I made the recipe for Oatmeal Sandwich bread. I laughed when one commenter said, “Our family devoured this in three days.” Our family devoured this, warm from the oven, piled with butter and strawberry jam, in about eight minutes. It was the best bread recipe I’ve come across in a long time. (And another great way to use some of the fifty pounds of oatmeal I bought in bulk. Yeah – fifty pounds.) I also created our own taco seasoning. We’re having…
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let them play
Sometimes I feel so guilty when I don’t “do” school. When hours creep by and we haven’t read a book, drawn imitation Picassos, blown up a volcano, mapped out the radius of the Mayflower in our front yard, explored geography, performed interpretive dance movements to Mozart’s compositions, crafted an afghan from the hair of goats .. . Ha – like we’re doing any of those things! But still, I feel guilty for all that I should be doing. (And sometimes it’s the exact right kind of guilt that I should feel. I know that.) But sometimes, sometimes, it’s not. And a friend reminded me, a friend who has seven lovely…
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The Bean Store
I don’t do a lot of sticker charts. I can’t remember to keep up with them. I’m not all that great at rewards systems. But sometime last year I found myself answering the same question one trillion and two times each day. “Can I play a game on the computer?” And I was always making up and then breaking various rules and guidelines. I’d try to time the kids but then forget to see how many minutes they’d actually been on that day. What eventually developed out of my frustration was a counting system of sorts. The kids could earn beans for various tasks – chores, completing schoolwork without being…
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a real thursday.
What is it about a plan, anyway? Seems like whenever you make one, it goes awry. Our homeschool’s motto is stolen directly from Charlotte Mason. I am. I can. I ought. I will. I get the first three. No problem there. It’s the stinkin’ “I will” that always throws me for a loop. It’s not the man getting me down, it’s me. This week I have once again renewed my efforts to establish a daily routine and a nearly-hourly plan for our days. (These schedules have ebbed and flowed for me over the many years of homeschooling, in accordance with our lives and the number of children running around in…
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dinner plans.
The kids are in love with a series of movies all created by the same guy. Hayao Miyazaki. (Yeah, I had to use my Goggle search tool to be certain of dude’s name.) That same Google search claims he’s Japan’s greatest animator. I don’t know. I don’t even actually care. I’m not even trying to write about him today. Not really. What I’m trying to say is that the kids love his movies and they wanted to watch a new-to-them one and have a little celebration. You know, I love celebrations for no real purpose other than the love of celebrating so I said sure! We had decided to fashion…
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you look great today.
This woman has no idea how her words affected me. She’s basically a stranger to me. Monday mornings are the busiest mornings of our week. It’s our home school co-op day and that means a substantial shift in the morning routine for us. Six kids need to be out the door and in the car by 8:15. (And in a non-home school world, 8:15 is no biggie. I hear you. But in our world – it is.) Prior to the departure of all six children there are lunches to be packed, shoes to locate, homework to be accounted for, breakfast to be served, children to be clothed and some surprise…
