Category: homeschooling

  • Non-negotiables. Part One.

    This morning resembled most of my mornings for the last half a dozen years. Wake up at 5:00am. Enjoy the stillness of dawn. Coffee with Chris. Read. Write. (And I am in our outside living room.) Chris takes the dogs for some hill running and I pour my second cup of coffee. There are slight […]

  • Rome, Star Wars, and a Family Activity.

    I am about to talk about the most unsexiest thing about homeschooling. But first, a story. This month the kids have been studying United States history (the teens), Ancient Rome (the middles schooler), and stories and myths related to local culture (the grade schooler) including the life of plants outside our door which can’t get […]

  • Welcome to the Homeschool Club.

    Dear Parent, Welcome to Homeschooling. It maybe was never going to be an option for you or that you would never consider keeping your kids at home but here you are. I wanted to write you an official welcome to the club type of letter. We are normally a crafty bunch so if I could […]

  • MayBE 2019: Day Twenty-Eight

    MayBE 2019: Day 28 I had an inheritance from my father, It was the moon and the sun. And though I roam all over the world, The spending of it’s never done.” ― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls Sometimes I bribe my kids in an unusual and on closer thought, maybe even in […]

  • The First Day of “School.”

    Yesterday my kids all woke up early on their own. They got dressed, fed themselves, packed their bags and brushed their teeth (or so they told me). I watched my son tuck and untuck his shirt several times before settling on “tucked” and he put on his favourite sweater and pushed up the sleeves. Just […]

  • Mama Mondays: Accepting An Unfinished Life.

    “I’m not finished yet.” My 9 year old pleads with me for more time to finish a drawing but we have to go.  We have one car and we have to drop off his big sis early at her job and then head to trapeze class for the rest of them.] I give him a […]

  • Not a Vacation. Part two: Not a Plan.

    An aside:  Sorry for these late follow up posts on our trip.  It feels a bit anti-climactic now. Sigh. Chris had to leave unexpectedly as soon as we returned from our trip to California so needless to say it has been quite the week without him, managing my first time in the jungle with the […]

  • love note no. 23: dear colours.

    Dear Colours, After the last couple of days, I have come to the conclusion that we take you all for granted.  In fact, I am quite sure that this love letter will seem silly and even trivial to some who read it. But you have a depth that intrigues me. In a sense, one could speak […]

  • love note no. 20: dear homeschooling.

    Dear Homeschooling, This is one of many letters that I will write to you because you appear in my daily gratitude list over and over again. Because of you I was able to hear myself say these words over the weekend: “Put your schoolwork away.  We have to go to the beach! You have all weekend […]

  • love note no.12: dear youngest child.

    Dear youngest child, It’s rare to have time alone with you these days.  You grab your baseball glove and call your dad to come play with you.  I’m the one who calls you in to get a drink or take a break or give you a kiss on the head.  You wave me off and […]