Homeschooling 
Our Latin studies have recently been hijacked! First, Dylan spiked a high fever, and then when that was done he broke out in hives and blew up like a balloon (an event that warranted a trip the the emergency room). With all of that excitement certain subjects just fell to the wayside. Just as things were beginning to settle down, and we were getting our school groove on, Dylan and Elliot, my two mischievous 1-year-old twinsies, figured out how to open the DVD player. Those little stinkers had our Latin DVD all scratched up before I caught them. We just received our replacement DVD in the mail yesterday and ...Read More
Foods Creamy Parmesan Dressing Recipe
For several months I've been making my own salad dressing. I prefer to make my own so we can avoid industrial oils, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and preservatives. Making salad dressing is so cheap and easy, and you are only limited by your creativity! This creamy parmesan dressing is sure to impress. We all know we need to eat our veggies, but it's just easier and more delicious when you can drizzle a healthy, flavorful dressing over your salad! Salads make a quick, easy, nutritious lunch, and it's even easier to get your daily vegetable intake if you have a jar of this dressing handy in the fridge. Be sure to also ...Read More
Write for us. Have us write for you.
We are looking to build connections and partner with other bloggers. If you follow our blog at all, you know we like to write about faith, health, food (focusing on whole foods, low-carb, and gluten-free), parenting, and our journey homeschooling our kids. If you are also interested in these topics and would like to write a guest post for us, would like us to guest post for your blog, or would be interested in swapping blog posts please contact us using our contact form or comment below. We're open to other creative ideas about how we can partner. Let us know! ...Read More
TruthQuest History: A Literature Based History Program (Review & Giveaway)
Are you looking for a literature-based, Christ-focused history program? Then you might consider checking out TruthQuest History. TruthQuest History is a program that guides you through the ages using living books with a focus on how Christ has worked throughout world history. (Go to the bottom of this post to enter our giveaway! We will be drawing two winners.) TruthQuest sent me American History for Young Students I & III to review. The 3-part American History series is meant for students in 1st-5th grades. TruthQuest also has an 8-part series that covers the beginning of time through modern American and ...Read More
3 Reasons We’re Not Giving Our Kids Christmas Gifts
It's that time of year! Yes, it's only October, but Christmas decorations and paraphanelia are showing up at many stores. I even saw a few strings of Christmas lights on some trees the other day. Truth be told, I'm not really ready to start thinking about Christmas yet, but I feel I must. You see, after last Christmas my husband and I determined to make some changes. One decision we made was that this year there would be no gifts. No gifts, you gasp?! Well, no gift exchanging will be done among our immediate family. We aren't going to cut off gift exchanges with the grandparents or other family members. Let me ...Read More
Memorization in the Elementary Years: Charlotte-Mason Memory Box
Memory work is so important in the grammar stages of education (kindergarten-6th grade). Classical education places a high premium on memory work in the early years of school. Children have a capacity to memorize huge amounts of information at this stage. Over the last two years, I've made it a priority to make memory work a focus of our school day. We use a modified Charlotte-mason memory box (you can download printables to make your own) to keep track of our memory work and ensure we are reviewing enough. We do memory time 4 days a week (Tuesday through Friday), but we also review our newest catechism question and ...Read More
Homeschooling for the 2012-2013 School Year (what I’m doing with my kids)
The 2012-2013 school year is upon us! Some of you have already begun school, and some of you won't begin for another few weeks. We have begun school, but not in full force yet. Last year and this year again I decided to ease into school. What that means is that in July we started working on Math and then a couple of weeks later added a subject and a couple weeks later added another subject. We continue in this fashion until just after Labor Day at which point we should be at our full schedule. I like starting school this way for a couple of reasons. 1. It helps ease Bradley (and me) back into school slowly. I ...Read More
Affordable and Contextual Grammar Curriculum: Fix-It (Review)
As I've posted before, the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year brought a number of changes, namely the addition of twins to our family, which in turn caused this mama to substitute out some of the more teacher/time-intensive curriculums in favor of easy-to-implement curriculum choices. Fix it! Grammar and Editing Made Easy with the Classics is a grammar curriculum from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) that I didn't even know existed until the middle of last summer. My interested was piqued. I checked it out. I found a winner! The Program (5 Levels) This year we went through the first story in the book, Tom ...Read More
