Well, well… Italy lost today. They do not qualify for the second round. It looks like we need more comfort food for our agony. So I thought I would share a pasta dish I make when we feel like pasta but no marinara sauce.
Caution: garlic ahead! If your children do not appreciate the taste of raw garlic, you might want to add the garlic bits only to your plate. Continue reading
This spring, I started three paperback books written by Grace Fox, a Christian author, speaker, coach and global worker: Tuck-Me-In Talks with Your Little Ones, 10-Minute Time Outs for You and Your Kids, and 10-Minute Time Outs for Moms. I started reading each one because I use them on different occasions – two with my children, one on my own.
I don’t want to wait to finish them all before I share these great resources with you. In no particular order… Continue reading
One of the objections people have to homeschooling is that they do not feel qualified to teach every subject or any subject at all. I understand. I had to wrestle with that issue and here’s what I came up with. Continue reading
This is my second post in the World Cup for Kids Series. Be sure to visit that link for our blog community and our Pinterest Board.
Well, Italy lost today to Costa Rica (0-1). Sorry, guys! Why don’t we have some comfort food to help with the agony? Let’s make it a little healthy, too, so we don’t drown our sorrows in too much fat.
Spinach pizza (Source: Wikipedia)
Good news! We don’t even need to knead the dough. The bread machine can do that for us. Also, you can choose your own toppings. Continue reading
The Handbook of Nature Study blog challenged us to study mosquitoes. I hesitated because I really dislike mosquitoes. But how long can I keep avoiding Ms. Barbara’s challenges?
We live in a heavily wooded neighborhood and, as such, mosquitoes abound. One morning I got bitten 10 times on my legs while watering my small garden. Not fun.
Another day I wore long pants and long sleeves for protection, in 88F weather, and I still got bitten, through clothing.
Meanwhile, I am trying to rise to the challenge of spending at least two hours outside with the kids, every day. I have been spraying our clothes with repellents of the “deep woods” variety and mosquitoes still bite us. Continue reading
“I don’t feel like doing math right now.” Has your child said that to you? Probably, in the beginning of your homeschool career, when the child was all new to the experience of homeschooling.
Surely, since then, your child has learned that we do our school work first, regardless of our feelings, and then we get to do what we feel like doing, within reason. If not, you have a long homeschooling life ahead. Continue reading
Italy is not one of the 15 countries I have visited. But I have been there many times in the spirit as I listened to Italian music, watched Italian movies and ate pizza, pasta, gnocchi and pesto.
Speaking of Italian music, I have been an Eros Ramazzotti fan since 1986, when he won Sanremo (the most important music festival in Italy) with Adesso Tu.
Fifteen years later, while living in Stockholm, Sweden, I watched an interview with Eros on Swedish TV. They asked him what he thought was the secret behind his success. He said it was “la melodia italiana.” Translation: the Italian melody. Continue reading
A few days ago, I ran our first French Play Group according to Lesson Plan Numéro 1.
We had five children ranging from one to ten, two girls and three boys. One family traveled 45 minutes to attend and said they would be back.
Everybody behaved well. All the kids showed great interest in learning French. They made an effort to sing and pronounce the words when I asked them to. Continue reading
Back in April, our rhododendrons were putting on a show. Their explosion of color soothed our eyes, tired after a long winter.
We have several rhododendron bushes around the yard, mostly purple, my favorite color.
Our neighborhood has many of these flowers, too. My eyes feast on them as I take my morning walks.
They finished showing off for the year though. The leathery leaves will stay with us through the winter, but the flowers are gone for now.
Some of the showy rhododendron flowers in our yard, plus a bee
Here are four facts on rhododendrons: Continue reading
I am very excited to share with you about these Parenting Cards from We Choose Virtues. I received these materials through The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew a couple of months ago. We have used them several times a week, at the end of our devotionals. A happy homeschool cannot happen without character education. These parenting tools will help you with teaching virtue to your children.
We Choose Virtues offers many products, but the goal is the same: teaching children different virtues, like honesty, contentment, patience, helpfulness, obedience, diligence, perseverance, gentleness, attentiveness, a forgiving spirit, self-control, and kindness. Continue reading