This has nothing to do with loyalty, but I love that my kids were camped out in the crib reading books together.
I’ve been thinking a lot about loyalty lately and being loyal to my family has been at the forefront of that thinking. In society, we talk a lot about loyalty–to country, to employer, to spouse. But I don’t think we talk enough about another very important kind of loyalty–loyalty to our children. Often, I find that in an attempt …

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Oh, sure. Montessori work is great for things like developing hand-eye coordination, teaching autonomy, encouraging responsibility. But you know what else it’s good for? Distracting hungry kids. Pure and simple.
It was that time of the day. You know the one. I’m trying to get dinner ready in the kitchen. Dinner prep is taking twice as long as it should (or maybe could?) because Monkey wants me to hold him and show him and feed him. It’s an hour before bedtime, …

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Happy Earth Day, one and all!
Before I continue, I must confess that I didn’t do these activities specifically for Earth Day. But I wanted to showcase some of the growing we’ve been doing and this seemed like the perfect day to do it.
On to the green!
Back at the end of March, the little homeschool co-op that we belong to had an Easter activity. Part of that was planting seeds to grow our very own Easter grass–how fun is that? We …

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The other day, I happened upon Teacher Tom’s blog. What a great resource! I’ve enjoyed reading about the adventures in Teacher Tom’s preschool and am quite interested in his educational philosophies and how he manages his cooperative preschool–very cool stuff!
Anyway, the other day, he wrote about the song he sings to signal to the children that it’s time to clean up. He also talks about encouraging a sense of ownership and responsibility by giving children the time and space to …

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I love when you read something and it’s like, “This is exactly what I needed to hear at this very moment.”
I had one of those moments today and it was like a shimmer of sunlight parting clouds.
While reading through some blog posts about homeschooling with youngsters, I stumbled across this blog post over at Delighting in His Richness. Just looking for some tips about teaching with a toddler running around, I was blown away when I was given something much …

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Okay. I need your help.
I have this dream, see? A nice long low bookshelf with neatly arranged trays of carefully placed Montessori work. In this dream, Pearl would see the inviting display, walk over to the shelf, choose her activity, and carry it to her table to work with it. Like this:
No bookshelf, but you get the idea.
When she was done, she would take the tray back to the shelf and decide which work she’d like to do next. A …

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Someday, we’ll live in a home with enough rooms to spare one for a homeschool classroom. At the present, we live in a modest condo. But I refuse to let lack of space get the best of me. If anything, our current lack of space highlights how homeschooling is becoming a lifestyle choice. Drawings, cuttings, learning toys, and books are all over the place and I can’t say I mind it that way. I think it makes it easy for …

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