Growing Up

Gathering FAQ

August 2019 Gathering for families - get the details on this morning time practice for the month.
This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Gathering

What is “Gathering?”

I started creating these simple Gathering placemats for our morning time. We call it Gathering simply because my invitation to begin our family’s special time is, “Gather ’round!”

Our Gathering was super simple in the beginning. It included Bible time, singing, and poetry. And honestly, that is all we had time for.

Why placemats?

I knew there were so many more riches I wanted to share with my precious little learners.

BUT we never seemed to get around to the beautiful art I wanted to show my kids. Rarely, we got to create our own art together. We never had time to just have simple conversations about little things. And we didn’t spend time delighting in the little bits of our day…until we sat around the kitchen island at meal times and snack times.

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Growing Up

Simply Genius Homeschool Printing Hacks

You know those things you do in your daily routine that make you feel like you are pretty smart? They are usually the solutions you happened upon after banging your head against a wall (problem) for a while. Or maybe they are the things that you thought of the moment you laid eyes on an object (cue lights and music) – and you instantly saw a solution.

Maybe it is pride…well, yes it is pride, but I glory in those solutions. I just love when I find something that makes me feel like a genius. When something makes life just one tiny measure easier. (How does one measure ease anyway?)

Our homeschool is dotted with solutions such as these. They are little genius-level hacks that make me delight in the doing of our daily tasks. And honestly, until I mentioned them to other moms, I thought they were so mundane that everyone was doing them. Turns out they aren’t that common.

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Nest Building

I Don’t Use a Spoon to Stir my Coffee and Other Coffee-Related Epiphanies

As humans we are proud of truly odd things about ourselves. We find odd ways to congratulate ourselves for a job well done, no matter the strangeness of the job. It starts when we are young. Our little selves pull a shirt over our heads and push our arms through the sleeves and we celebrate as “Big Kids!!”

It just continues from there.

I am no different in this celebration of the mundane. In fact, as I was preparing to make myself a cup of coffee this morning, I congratulated myself on my brilliance.

What is so brilliant about a cup of coffee?

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Growing Up

One Thing More: CC Cycle 2 Geography

This entry is part 7 of 5 in the series Classsical Conversations

Here’s a funny story about the geography memory work for Clasical Conversations. I will tell you the moral of the story ahead of the story: simple doesn’t mean nothing.

Our first year of CC we didn’t do much. I had a 5 year old, a 4 year old, a 1 year old (and found out about baby #4 in January). Oh, and there was a hike – literally. Every week, when we went to Community Day, we drove an hour, got everyone piled out of the car and hiked downhill to the classroom. I didn’t really have much energy for more than just listening to the memory work. So, most of the time, that is what we did. We listened in the car every week, for an hour. And we would add a bit here and there.

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Growing Up

August 2019 Gathering

August 2019 Gathering for families - get the details on this morning time practice for the month.
This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Gathering

Incorporating the practice of Gathering in our days has been one of the most natural processes we have undertaken. In large measure, the ease with which we have done this is due to the addition of our Gathering placemats. As they are always out on the counter for breakfast, ready to be devoured along with the cereal and cinnamon toast of our mornings; they constitute a simple feast.

They drive conversations in the early part of our day. Much to my delight, they are also lovingly shown off to pretty much anyone who comes by our house. And they have become precious to me.

As I have developed a set for each month of the upcoming school year, I have had private celebrations. There is a moment of glory when just the right piece of art lines up perfectly to just the right quote from Shakespeare. A blessed sigh of relief is exhaled when there are just 4 boxes left. Followed by an internal dance party when a full month’s set is complete.

And then I just have to put the party on hold…

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Growing Up

One Thing More – CC Cycle 2 Science

a list of simple matchups for Classical Conversations Cycle 2 Science - perfect for repeat cycles
This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Classsical Conversations

As I transitioned into teaching my kids at home, I was the new student trying to get the lay of the land. The landscape was vast, dotted with an immense amount of information. Feeling overwhelmed with the task of teaching my kids was not a possibility, it was a reality. It seemed a mountain range lay before me. I had to choose one to climb. Even when I settled on a specific mountain (curriculum) to climb (Classical Conversations), I found a valley lay beneath it, filled almost to brimming with books to match every detail of the curriculum.

I saw match-ups for science for each week, nine to ten books a week…and crafts, and worksheets. Then I saw match-ups for history, 4-5 chapter books a week, and crafts, and worksheets. It seemed I could reserve two-thirds of the library and still only be “covering” two subjects with my kids.

Isn’t this whole Classical Conversations supposed to be done with a stick and some sand?

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