Category: Parenting TIps

The Elimination of the Afternoon Decompression

Pauline
a Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte

(written by Anonymous guest poster) I started on this homeschool journey a mere 8 months ago. As a mother of 2 (an 8-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl) I was aware of the obvious benefits of homeschooling – more time spent as a family, slower start for the kids and customized curriculum to fit each child’s learning style to name a few. However, there was a benefit we experienced as parents that, strangely enough, I never read about on message boards or discussed with other homeschool moms. This benefit is one Read More …

Fostering Hope: My Motherhood Journey

Pauline

By Ashlea Anderson In 2014 I was at a routine eye appointment. I did not expect to be diagnosed with an eye disease that required immediate treatment. Within a week, I was in the parking lot of an eye specialist waiting for my appointment to treat my retina. This was already a season of discouragement for me. After seven years of marriage, I longed to be a mother. I began to feel the discouragement that brings hopelessness and that was compounded by the fear of possibly loosing my eyesight. As Read More …

The GIFT of Homeschooling

Pauline

By Bridget Elkins I started my homeschooling journey when I pulled my son out of public school halfway through his fifth-grade year.  I did not know what I was doing, just that I was doing it and that was it.  I am not the type to make big decisions (or little ones) without much thought and research.  It takes me forever just to buy an area rug because I have to read all the reviews and shop around until I am convinced I am getting the best possible deal.  This Read More …

Quotable Mom Tips

Pauline
Moms sharing homeschool tips

November 2021 Excelsior Newsletter Leeann and I had been discussing on Marco Polo (video) chat that Latin had lightly introduced the third declension but they don’t yet expect you to fully understand it—but just to grasp a little of it is all that is expected. The thought of what we don’t yet know or think we “ought” to know to be “proficient” in homeschooling could be a cause of stress— but what she said in response was SO profound and worth repeating. “I’ve made a deal with myself…you know that Read More …

Thanksgiving: Cultivating a Heart of Gratitude in All Seasons

Pauline
country homeschool thanksgiving

By Guest Post Author Ingrid Pechin Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Hooray for Thanksgiving! For many of us, it’s our favorite holiday; a time for family traditions. School studies are set aside temporarily for another kind of labor, a labor of love and memory making. Favorite recipes (Mushrooms Berkeley comes to mind for our family) are simmering in shining saucepans on a crowded stovetop. A young lady is setting the table with fine china and real linen napkins, the ones with great grandmother’s carefully embroidered initials in the corner; Read More …