Cultivating Childhood

Every year, I look forward to putting together my homeschool curriculum.  I usually start thinking about this in February in eager expectation of the following fall.  I'm so glad that I started this early this last year because with all the things surrounding the initial move, I did not get a chance to really think about homeschooling again until just two days before we started!  Thankfully, it was mostly prepared months in advance! I love writing these yearly posts about what we are doing in our school.  It helps me organize my thoughts, and I love looking back on what we've done in the past as I've often forgotten something that we did or enjoyed.  I also see how I've changed in my educational theories and priorities as I've gone along.  Look how crazy I was in preschool  2012 or even when I started my journey and had burn out in 2011 !  Here is is the plan I had for Kindergarten last year. I feel like this year is pretty straight forwar...

September was a month that I'd never want to relive again.  It was a month fraught with depression, loneliness, isolation, frustration, and uphill battles.  Everything that I had been pushing off in my busyness of the previous months suddenly came crashing down once there was a chance to breath again.  Yet, through it all, I've come to learn some pretty important lessons.  I've learned more about myself, my husband, and even my children.  I've been able to reconnect with my family and learn to enjoy them again.  My prayer life has taken on a whole new dimension, and I've learned so much about the God I serve.  My husband is a stronghold; a person who speaks truth into my life and loves me for just who I am.  My kids are a joy again instead of objects that often got in the way of what I had to accomplish for the move. I'm thankful that I was also able to go through this part of the transition on this side of the ocean.  My parents have been ...

After our Thailand trip, we had eight short weeks before we wanted to put our house on the market.  July and August were full of getting rid of almost all of our belongings, sprucing up our home to get it ready to sell, packing, trying to see friends as much as possible, and doing everything else that has to happen when you are planning on uprooting your family from a place you've called home for seven years. We did manage to do some fun things though.  Here is a quick peek at what we were up to... July We love going to Mercer Slough for blueberry picking.  We went at a great time this year, and we picked about 6 lbs of fruit in less than an hour! We played tourist at the Space Needle for Phil's birthday with his parents. The month ended with our church's Kids Summer Adventure.  The boys attended a lot of different summer church programs, but this was the only one that I volunteered in.  The theme was Jungle Safari, and I got to host the Cos...