I left the BEECH Retreat 48 hours ago, turning north off of Captiva Island, FL to head home. My fellow blogging friend, Mary of Homegrown Learners and I rode the 11 hour trip back to Georgia together. The long trip gave us focused time to talk about all we had learned. To share how we [...]
What does Christmas look like at Hodgepodge? In our homeschool? I invite you to come and sit by the fire, enjoy a warm cup of coffee, hot chocolate or tea and put your feet up – for about five minutes. Just five minutes because in December things are changing moment to moment. Like most families, [...]
My two youngest children have outgrown our long-time homeschool habit of morning room time. Today I am sharing the benefits of this habit I’ve seen in all my children. But first, a short recap to answer, What is Morning Room Time? What About the Little Ones? …Morning Room Time. This is when the two younger [...]
A dear reader, Kimberly, asked: Any advice on starting the homeschool routine for the first time? For us, it’s kindergarten so our first “school” day routine ever! I’m wondering how to make the transition from six years of all day, all play! Homeschool Habits 101 Oh how exciting Kimberly! In all our years of starting [...]
I slept really well every night this week. That’s because we’ve ramped up to full homeschool schedule. Yes, we’ve been back to school since July. And I felt like we had our basics down. We’ve had good practice with our Before 8:45 Checklist, math, English, and spelling. And last week we started adding back in [...]
A dear reader asked the question: Have you posted somewhere your schedule? Her question made me realize I have shared many of our homeschool habits here and there – even in a gigantic list. However, I’ve never typed out our basic school schedule, or order. Today’s 10 in 10 theme is 10 Things You Should [...]
Welcome back to 10 Days of Lasagna Learning: Teaching Multiple Ages. For over a dozen years we’ve turned to our habits as the ‘bones’ of our day. Our habits help us accomplish a basic school day and get food on the table. We leaned on one or two more heavily when all were age 10 [...]
I have an old hymnal – one passed down. I’m not sure how it came to be on my end table. But I’m sure glad it is there. I’ve always loved the old hymns. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul, When at the cross the Savior made me whole… Like many, I was [...]
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 [...]
I thought it was about time for an update on the Hodgepodge workboxes! As with all aspects of homeschooling now and then, our workboxes needed a makeover. See, I was quite taken with workboxes about this time two years ago. I still, very much, appreciate their usefulness. When my friend Angie first introduced me to [...]
I feel like Pinterest is a party. See, I can breeze by all this visual inspiration and plan. I can scan through my Google Reader and pin ideas from posts. But Pinterest is a party because Pinterest is fun! Here’s how I use this virtual bulletin board. 1. Party Planning. Pinterest sure makes it easy [...]
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: [...]
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