I am a firm believer that everyone should at least try gardening a few times in their life. No, I don't think it's easy or that everyone will love it. Heck, I don't even like it sometimes, but I know it is important. Taking an active role in our food chain gives a new appreciation to those who dedicate their lives to providing our world with food. But it's more than that. Above that is our Creator. God created our bodies, He knows each hair on our head and the intricate details that make us who we are. Who better to take nutritional advice from than the original Gardener? He created the very first garden: "And the ...Read More
Homeschooling Buy These 4 Family Passes and You’ll Have Access Over 3,300 Educational Adventures
When we travel, we love to take advantage of educational stops along the way. Sometimes these stops are planned. Other times they are spontaneous. Often we like to find educational adventures in our local area, and other times we travel out-of-state. Many nationwide associations sell reciprocal passes. Often, buying individual/family passes to one location will get you into many other locations around the country for free or at very discounted rates. We’ve purchased passes like these just because we knew we were going to be doing a lot of traveling and wanted to get access to a variety of educational ...Read More
Homeschooling Philosophies and Methods: Eclectic Homeschooling
What is "eclectic" homeschooling? Eclectic homeschooling is a wild ride that uses a variety of methods and tools to create a homeschool experience that best fits the goals, needs, and interests of the family. Sounds good, right? That’s why most homeschoolers fall into the “eclectic” category, whether they say so or not. A family may align mostly with classical, Charlotte Mason, or another method, but true purists are few and far between. One thing about homeschoolers is that we have a bit of an independent streak *grin* and even the most rigid among us will venture outside the box on occasion. However, with the ...Read More
Homeschooling Philosophies and Methods: Charlotte Mason
Charlotte Mason was an English educator in the early 1900s. She was taught at home, but both parents died when she was in her mid-teen years. She went on to become an educator. After much of her own learning about how children learned from her mentors, she began to write to educate parents on how to bring up children—although she never had any children herself. A few of the most popular quotes from Charlotte Mason are: "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life." "Education is the science of relations." "I am, I can, I ought, I will." ...Read More
How Doctors Gamble With Your Health: Testing & Treating Hypothyroidism
Dragging into the doctors office, I once again brought the same complaints I had on prior visits. Weight gain Dry skin Body aches Extreme fatigue I was only 22, I was too young to be feeling this way. But still, once again I was met with the same old response. "There's nothing wrong with you. You're perfectly healthy." Except this time, I was armed with information. I had a checklist the nutritionist sent me with. It was a checklist that screened for hypothyroidism and I had checked 2/3 of the boxes on the page. I also had a list of tests I wanted the doctor to run (I had no idea what these were at the time, ...Read More
Homeschooling Philosophies and Methods: Unit Studies
What is a Unit Study? A unit study is when you center your homeschool learning around a theme. You cover subjects in a way that relates to this theme. You can cover all subjects in a unit study or just a select few. For instance, here's what a unit study could look like if you were doing a study on insects: For phonics and early readers, you would look for readers that have a bug theme. For science, you would find non-fiction books about the parts of insects, what kinds of insects there are, and books that study individual insects. For art, you would draw, paint, or otherwise create something buggy. For ...Read More
7 Tips for Starting a Family Devotion Time
The past couple of months, we've been working with our oldest to develop his own quiet time. We want to instill in him a love and zeal for God's Word. But while we want him to have a personal quiet time of prayer and reading God's Word, we also wanted to have a time that our family could read God's Word and learn together. We've tried on several occasions to start a family devotion time, but have been unsuccessful. Through our failures, we have learned several things that don't work. But we have also learned a few things that can help make your family devotion time a meaningful time that you will all enjoy and love. I ...Read More
Foods Not Your Grandma’s Apple Pie: Sugar-Free & Grain-Free Recipe
My mom makes the best pie (she learned from her mom, my grandma). That delicious flaky crust gets me every time. Unfortunately, I never did master the art of pie-crust making. And when I went gluten-free and cut sugar out of our diet...pie was off limits anyhow. Until now. This recipe isn't your grandma's apple pie, but it will put a smile on your face and please your taste buds just the same! Looking for gluten-free recipes and resources? This Everything Gluten Free page is a library of everything gluten free we’ve worked on. Apple Pie without the Sugar or Gluten? I know it might be too good to believe, but ...Read More
