Thoughtful Thursday Week 1 – Stop Learning

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Last year, I published a series of weekly devotional posts for homeschooling moms called Mom Monday. Fifty-two weeks later, it is time for a new series. A new series for a new year. Introducing Thoughtful Thursday, a collection of essays about homeschooling and how it forces everybody to think outside the box. In some cases, it forces people to think. Period.

It’s sad, I know, but some people go through life without thinking, simply accepting the status quo, just believing everything that is handed down to them by the previous generation, and feeling scared and challenged when someone comes along doing a new thing.

Thoughtful Thursday Week 1 - Stop learning

When I started this blog, I knew I was going to focus on homeschooling. I also knew that homeschooling touches so many aspects of our lives – because it is a lifestyle – that it inevitably brings about some basic questions about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Which is why a personal friend unfriended me on Facebook and declared herself “highly offended” by one of my posts on socialization, for instance. She chooses to put her children in public school and once told me, “I believe in public school.”  Continue reading »



Little Bits Review

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When I watched the TED talk on Little Bits, I knew I was going to have to get a set for my son. He loves all things LEGO – I have not blogged enough about his LEGO projects, a thing I intend to change in 2015 – and Little Bits seems like the next step as he continues to explore building, electronics, and technology.

I suggest you watch the TED talk I mentioned above. It’s only 5 minutes. Their creator explains what Little Bits are better than I could. In short, Little Bits are electronic modules of different colors, each color performing a specific task (like pulse, sound, light, wire etc), and which snap together via magnets. No soldering needed.

Little Bits - Deluxe Kit

Little Bits – Deluxe Kit

Little Bits are intended for children 8 to ∞. Our son turned 7 in November, but he looks like an 8-year-old and he reads at a 6th grade level. He builds LEGO projects intended for 14-year-olds. So who’s to say that we should wait another year to get him Little Bits?  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 52 – The Best Mom in the World

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My son slipped into my bedroom at 6am one morning. I was sleepy, so I decided not to move. There was plenty of room for him to just get under the covers next to me. We did not have to speak. I did not have to welcome him as I usually do, by raising the cover and saying something sweet. I knew he knew he was welcome. I just could not speak or move – I was sleepy.

He slipped under the covers without a word. Just when I thought I was off the hook and we would go back to sleep, he said, “Mommy, please turn around to face me.” I obliged without saying a word. Then he said, “You are the best mom in the world.” Now that’s something to wake up to, isn’t it?

mom monday wk52

It was not the first time he said that to me. He says it to me a lot in different settings and at different hours of the day. Continue reading »


Goodbye, TOS Review Crew!

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2014 will go down in my personal history as my first full year blogging my heart out about homeschooling. It was also my first year on The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. I learned a lot about blogging, curriculum, and homeschooling through this experience. I received wonderful products in exchange for my honest opinion, expressed in a review on my blog. I met some amazing homeschooling moms and bloggers.

So why not re-apply for 2015? In all honesty, because I put too much on my plate in 2014. I re-evaluated my priorities and receiving free products is not one of them. I have chosen my curriculum very carefully and am blessed to be able to afford it. I know I will not do justice to these other educational products sent to me through the Review Crew because I will not focus on using them instead of my regular curriculum.

Review Crew Team Member

Besides, in my desire to accomplish so many other things besides homeschooling and keeping house, I can sign up for a few too many things. I am learning to simplify and do less. In fact, that’s my motto in 2015: Do less. In doing less, I can be more present in everything I do. I can derive more satisfaction and fulfillment out of the things I do do. And, hopefully, I can be more calm and peaceful and not feel so stressed out.  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 51 – Merry Christmas!

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This year, I discovered the secret to a peaceful and relaxed December. Are you ready for it? You know, the ONE thing you need to do in order to stay sane through the holiday season, Christmas shopping, and the end of the semester. Drum roll, please… Get sick.

Yes, friends, get sick. If you get sick, the amount of work your family will allow you to do is minimal. Everybody will pitch in a bit here and there. You discover that the whole operation will move on just fine without your efforts. It’s brilliant!

mom monday wk51

I should patent this idea: eat a lot of sweets through November and extra pie at Thanksgiving, so that your immune system gets overwhelmed and completely unable to deal with the viruses going around. And work extra hard through November, too, to the point of exhaustion. That is a sure recipe for sickness in December. And you’re off the hook with the Christmas preparations.  Continue reading »


101 Tips for Kindergarten at Home – FREE Kindle Book

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It’s finally here! 101 Tips for Kindergarten at Home, the second volume in my How to Homeschool series, is available now on Amazon, on Kindle and in paperback. During this season of giving, I am making it available for free. Please read on.

101 Tips for Kindergarten at Home welcomes parents into the official world of homeschooling their children.

101 Tips for Kindergarten at Home

Ten chapters share ten tips each. The eleventh chapter shares tip #101. It’s an easy-to-read format, quick and to the point. Who has time to read hundreds of pages while taking care of children and keeping house?  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 50 – The A-Bear

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Recently, I came across a great blog on gentle parenting or, as the blogger herself puts it, on how to yell less and love more: The Orange Rhino. Many of you may already be familiar with her work. I had never heard of her experiment to live yell-free for a whole year.

Her blog provides lots of tools for calming down. Her book, which I am in the process of reading, will walk you through 30 days of learning why we yell and how to replace yelling with successful parenting techniques.

As parents, we should all take the responsibility of calming our own nerves and temper down. Only we can do that for ourselves. The world around us will never be peaceful enough, quiet enough, or perfect enough to soothe our psyche.

mom monday wk50

I applaud anybody who takes the time to share what has worked for her in that department. Showing some vulnerability in the parenting blogosphere helps, too. How many of us have read a blog and felt completely intimidated by the perfection exemplified there?  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 49 – Christmas Gifts

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What do you want for Christmas? I hope you get what you wish for. Here are my wishes:

1. Health for everybody in the family. Right now, my daughter is complaining of ear aches and is coughing at night. My son just finished his cold. I am still struggling with a bit of a cough myself.

2. Patience with my children and myself. I certainly need it as we homeschool and enjoy each other’s company 24/7.

Mom Monday Week 49

3. Peace on earth, good will among men. You know how that goes.

4. Good weather so we can spend some time outside every day throughout the winter. Fresh air does wonders for the mind and the body, but freezing cold air does not appeal to me at all.

Continue reading »


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 8

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Chapter 8 deals with the Assyrians: Shamshi-Adad and the Story of Gilgamesh. If you don’t mind the subject of cruelty and dictators, then you should be OK with this chapter.

Other than that, this was a fairly easy chapter to go through because I decided to read to them only Gilgamesh the King (Ludmila Zeman) and not the next two books. I am not trying to be mysterious here. It’s just that Susan Wise Bauer has specifically asked us not to publish her reading lists, so I will not go into details about all the other titles.

Gilgamesh the King Book Cover

Suffice it to say that I learned the hard way to preview these titles and, as I looked at them, they just seemed so pagan and raw for my young kids, I decided they should be in middle school before reading such matter.   Continue reading »