This week I started a sourdough starter. So far it's doing pretty well. I really want to figure out making sourdough products. Knowing how to use sourdough helped Ma feed her family through "The Long Winter" when she did not have yeast available. I also asked my children to write how their ideal day would …
People almost always exclaim in amazement when they hear I have eight children. The comments usually run along these lines:You are so brave. (whatever that means - I talked about what I think about that statement here.)You must be busy. (really? I thought that's what being a mom whether you have one, two, eight or …
Recently I had a day that demonstrated to me how important it is to teach our children how to help around the house. It started with a headache when I first woke up. I had planned to get up early and have some quiet time to myself to think and organize my thoughts for the …
This has been a busy week with what seems like an abnormal amount of errands. As well, the baby has taken to nursing a lot at night which leaves me functioning on partial brain capacity during the day. I usually like to get up an hour before the children. The house is quiet and I …
Another great week. School - for some reason sadly unknown to me - is going so smoothly this year. I've thought about it a lot and have come up with two possible reasons for this. First, my second son has always had a problem focusing. This slows him down in his schoolwork which frustrates him. It …
Homeschooling, as I have been finding out to my great surprise, is not for the faint of heart. Actually, nothing about motherhood is for the faint of heart. Sometime in the dim past I thought being a mom would be so easy. I loved babies and children. I had lots of experience with babysitting. I …
High school is where we really become free-wheeling in our curriculum choices. By the time children reach Grade 9 their likes and preferences for what they study are really coming out and you can tailor their schooling to these desires. So far in Math we have done a general math course and a business math course from …
Now we're getting into the grades I really enjoy teaching. I taught in these grades before I was married and loved it. In Grades 7-8 I still use mostly Rod and Staff. In Grade 7 I start teaching Literature. That is not to say that up to that point my children have not been doing …
Intentional Simplicity 