Cultivating Childhood

Well, I'm continuing my new tradition of keeping track of the books that I've read throughout the year.  Last year, I read 36 books.  This year, I read 59!  My goal was to read a book a week, but I was surprised how many more I read.  I did read more novels this year, so that definitely helped. I really enjoyed a new-for-me author, Kate Seredy.  Her book The Chestry Oak  is just fantastic, and I enjoyed The Good Master and it's sequel The Singing Tree as well.  I also read any of the Jane Austen canon that I hadn't read before.  I think that next year, I'll have to reread some of the ones I've read before. I also read a lot of Sally Clarkson's books.  I just love her encouragement for moms.  In February, I get to go to her MomHeart Conference in California that I'm super excited about.  Tim Kimmel's books are also excellent.  I reread his Grace-Based Parenting book this year, and read his new book Grace-Filled Marriage. ...

Fun Picture Books: In November Autumn Harvest Usborne Stories from Around the World by Heather Amery The Wheedle and the Noodle The Greedy Triangle Wolves in the Walls Lots of  Thanksgiving books  and  Christmas  books Science - We've moved into a more unschooling approach for our science this year.  Whatever N or Z is interested in, we quickly head to the library and check out as much as we can about the particular subject.  These months, we've been interested in salmon, volcanoes/rocks, and mushrooms. Salmon Forest Salmon Creek The Magic School Bus Goes Upstream The Salmon by Sabrina Crewe Life Cycle of a Salmon by Angela Royston The Bizarre Life Cycle of a Salmon by Mark Harasymiw What's It Like to be a Fish? Our Earth Kit from the KCLS Library (11 books) The Mushroom Hunt Mushroom Life Cycle Fungi by Steve Parker Let's Go Rock-Collecting Magic School Bus: Inside the Earth Life on Fire (video) History: Sea Clocks James T...

For those of you who have talked to me about homeschooling, you know that I've been very influenced by Charlotte Mason and her approach to children and their education.  I've tried to model what I thought her method would look like in our home, and I have been pretty happy with how it has been going. One of the biggest reasons I like it is her philosophy on who children are.  In fact, she had 20 Principles which speak of the nature of children how they should be taught.  Here are the first four (see link for modern day paraphrase): Playing at Garden Tots Children are born persons . They are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good or for evil. The principles of authority on the one hand, and of obedience on the other, are natural, necessary and fundamental; but-- These principles are limited by the respect due to the personality of children, which must not be encroached upon whether by the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or influence...

After months of constant goings-on, November was a breath of fresh air.  Although Phil had a conference to go to, for the most part everything was quiet in our household.  We were able to focus on what normal life looks like before we headed into the holidays in December. This month, the boys have played a lot of games with their daddy.  Phil actually created a table-top game that they have enjoyed playing together.   We went again to do our first Thursday of the month field trip to take advantage of the free museum days.  We were planning on going to the Nordic Heritage Museum since it was in Ballard near the locks.  We have been completing our study on Salmon so this made the most sense.         Of course, we had to end the day with salmon and chips at Ivars!   We also had a lot of fun decorating for Thanksgiving.  Below is our "Thankfulness Tree".  Everyday we added ...

Hey, look!  I'm ahead of the game for a bit.  It's not yet Thanksgiving, but I'm getting an Advent post up!  Of course, this is mostly because I needed to prepare for it in our schooling time, and Advent starts just three days after Thanksgiving.  Yikes! In the past, I've done a lot to prepare for Advent.  In both 2010 and 2011 , I made a daily activity project and Bible reading.  As fun as these were, I'm learning more about how our days go, and I know that we'll be setting ourselves up for failure if I try to do too much.  So this year, I'm planning on just coming up with some things that I'd like to see happen this December and let them fall where they may. Advent Readings and Books For our daily advent readings, we will be reading through Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent .  In the past I've found a lot of other devotionals , and our church usually comes out with one as well.  We also have a few other longer picture books abo...

For my 30th birthday, we went to go visit my family in Southern California.  And since I'm a mom of two small boys, we spent the day at Legoland. N loved it! Waiting in line.  My brother loved to photo bomb almost all of our pictures.  =) I got to meet my brother's girlfriend for the first time.  She's super sweet.   Hanging out with grandparents was very special In a moment of poor judgment, we decided to get on the wettest ride just before it closed at 5PM.  Needless to say, we were soaked and cold until we left the park.  The boys didn't seem to mind a bit! We also got to visit the Sea Life Aquarium at Legoland   Although Legoland was a big highlight, we also got to see a lot of our family.  N enjoyed going over to his great-grandparents' home, and reading to his great-grandma.   Two of my mom's sisters were in town too which made for a nice reunion.   N really wanted to hear...

Have you ever thought about the cultural factors that have to be in place for a person to be able to homeschool their children?  I'm not talking about government regulations or limitations although that is certainly a factor, but more about individual families. I've been blessed to be raised in a country that values education, including the education of women.  There may be a lot wrong with the school system here in America, but nonetheless, me and everyone else I know that has grown up here knows how to read and write.  Most people here graduate from high school and there are programs to help people succeed in their educational goals whether that be single teenage moms getting their GRE, a high school graduate going to a community college or university, or even someone pursuing their Masters or Ph.D.  Education through the twelfth grade is free through the public school system which helps keep kids off the streets and in a safe environment (usually). This is not...

Thanksgiving is next week, and we've been reading a lot about the Pilgrims to prepare.  We are at the Thanksgiving chapters of our Light and Glory for Children book, but we've been enjoying other things to supplement our learning as well. Chapter Books John Billington: Friend of Squanto by Clyde Robert Bulla I just can't say enough good things about Clyde Robert Bulla.  He writes great historical fiction in easy chapter books that work really well for N to read on his own or for me to read to both boys.  John Billington is a fun look at a life of one Pilgrim boy.  Bulla had also written about the life of Squanto , and I bought the book a couple of months ago.  Unfortunately, I lost it!  Hopefully, I'll find it next week or at least in time for next Thanksgiving! Magic Tree House: Thanksgiving on Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne and it's nonfiction companion Pilgrims by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Osborne We are taking a break from reading o...

October was busy, busy, busy!  We did lots of field trips, had a lot of fun with pumpkins, went to California, and I even turned the big 3-0.  Here is a snapshot of our crazy month.  (California will have to be a separate post!) The first Thursday of every month , many Seattle museums have a free day.  We took advantage of our Native American history learning and headed over to the Burke Museum on the University of Washington's campus.  They have a great collection of totem poles and other Native American artwork.  We brought the boys' journals for them to draw some different pieces.  They thought it was quite fun.     We continued to go on some nature walks.  We love Hamlin since it is so close to our home.  This time the boys made a "fort".   Of course, it isn't October for us if we don't go to the Pumpkin Patch.  It seems like every year we visit a new one.  This year, we went to Bailey's...