Afternoon Quiet Time for All Ages

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All this week I’ve been sharing the learning layers of our homeschool day. First, we place a generous helping of prayer, next we layer all those helpful homeschool habits, we stir around the 3 Rs on five levels. After lunch we sprinkle the wonderful spices of enrichment, showing how we fit in all the extra [...]

How To Fit In All The Extras

One More Thing After Lunch

One more thing after lunch. One more thing after lunch. This is the one thing that really changed our homeschool. When the children were all little we could usually get most of our learning completed before lunch. As they grew and the needs of the age range grew as well, I struggled to fit it [...]

A Recipe for Teaching Multiple Ages

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Welcome to 10 Days of Lasagna Learning! I’m so glad you are here. As homeschool mothers, parents, we can all learn from and help each other. I hope that some part of this series will bless you – whether you are balancing the needs of an age range or just starting your homeschool journey. So [...]

Continuing Education at Your State Homeschool Convention

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The sheer number of homeschoolers. That’s what impressed me most the first time I attended my state homeschool convention. Others, like me! Filling an entire convention center! That alone helped me know I was not the only one on this journey. There are other families like us – and lots of them! (There’s my family [...]

How to Get Back in a Routine

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That was the question this week. How to get back into a routine after a couple weeks of sickness. The answer? A hodgepodge. A mixture of these: Lower expectations. Do just the basics. Then, fall back into your habits. Leave room for spontaneity. Lower Expectations I reminded myself it was ok. Really it was ok, to [...]

Homeschool Makeover: School Books on the Mantel

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Sometimes rearranging refreshes learning. Sometimes it also helps remedy the winter blahs. Me? I like to rearrange furniture. Especially in the dead of winter. But this idea took me a while. It took giving myself permission. See, I thought a mantel was supposed to look a certain way. A touch of formality. But when the [...]

Hodgepodge Homeschool Highlights

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Favorite photo of the week – on our nature walk in the backyard. We stayed close and really got to learning this week. You know, those afternoons when all of sudden it’s time to make supper? Yep. Whew! One highlight – the two older girls tried out for the spring Drama Troupe production of The [...]

The Biggest Lesson

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Hold your hat – it’s a real Hodgepodge this week… Why did this girl deserve an Oreo McFlurry? Another ER visit. All because of a whiffle ball. But you won’t believe it. So I have to tell you. It was deserving of a whole ‘nother post. And was the biggest lesson we learned all week: [...]

The Habit of Improving

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Last October, the Human Resources department where I work scheduled a leadership conference. All of the managers and directors for the organization were required to attend. Most of the people I work with thought this would be a colossal waste of time.  There was simply too much to do to spend two days away from the [...]

Layers and Levels of Unit Studies 2

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Making a salt dough map of Italy as part of our Tapestry of Grace geography studies. This was another one of those weeks when the layers and levels of unit studies were the highlight of our homeschool. There were many subjects that we enjoyed together – all ages. Plus several subjects that overlapped and complimented [...]

Helpful Habit: When do you write?

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In the shower. While I’m driving. Late at night. At the crack of dawn. During afternoon quiet time. On a family walk. In batches on a Saturday morning. A Hodgepodge of writing? With a busy, homeschooling household there really are no long, quiet stretches of writing time. I have to carve them out. Or snatch [...]

Top Ten Helpful Habits of 2011

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Watching the music box at our aunt and uncle’s house. This week we were still in the midst of celebrating Christmas with family. Visiting friends at Starbucks. Just enjoying break. I also got in the little bit of homeschool planning each day. New readers! I’ve reserved our Tapestry of Grace library books, done a bit [...]