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Teaching Textbooks: Our Math Time Buddy
Dyslexia is a giving disability. It gives us trouble in reading, trouble in writing, and trouble in math. This equals hands-on Mom and me schooltime, all day long. When my student was still little this was a blessing. It was a time to reassure and comfort my struggling learner. The older my student gets the more independence they crave and the more frustrated they become when they NEED mom’s help. Enter Teaching Textbooks After hours of repeated and laborious instruction in reading and writing, the last thing my mother/child relationship needs is another round in math. Teaching Textbooks works fabulously for my struggling learner. I oversee everything, from a distance,…
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Meet Adrienne Wright
Time to say hello to this homeschooling indie Christian author. Let’s get straight into the interview. How do you find time to write? Especially with homeschool, housekeeping, work, and ‘real life’ happening all around you? I put time aside to write, just as I put time aside to homeschool, clean house, study the Word, pray, and spend time with God, spend time with my family, cook, etc. Time is of the essence and so I’ve learned to use it wisely. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Overthinking. Redundant writing. Cramming too much information into one chapter. Using Adverbs…a lot. And having trouble with Dialogue mechanics, such as; “he said”…
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Hit Reset
Long ago, when I first started homeschooling a friend recommended I label every good day with a happy face. I grabbed that advice and ran with it. The first year of school most of my family calendar boasted drawn smiles and stickers. Homeschool wasn’t a breeze but it was snuggly and fun. Fast forward a few years later and our calendar is peppered with doctor appointments, tutoring sessions, sports meets, and AWANA nights. The happy faces haven’t just vacated our calendar but sometimes our hearts as well. Busy is as busy does. Checklists, deadlines, and other appointments can eat up a homeschool day. It’s easy to forget homeschooling isn’t just…
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Mama’s Morning Basket
Many homeschooling families begin their day with morning basket time. What is morning basket time? It usually starts with a literal basket. Mom has packed the basket with books. She carefully selects books for spiritual growth, books for inspiration and encouragement, and books that tie family studies together. Mom rounds up her young ones, sometimes at the breakfast table and sometimes later, and they pull a book out their basket and begin the day. Some families start with a hymn of praise, prayer time , and the devotions. This moment of intentional worship creates the school day’s center and focus. It encourages bonding between siblings, between mom and child, and more…
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A Year in Cloth
WARNING: POST CONTAINS MAMA TALK AND GIRLIE TMI You’re grouchy and weepy. Your back is aching. Your stomach is swollen and you’re exhausted. You don’t have to check an app or a calendar to know what time of the month it is. Dashing through the store, you toss the familiar plastic package or cardboard box into your cart. You hate their embarrassing crinkle and ignore the health warnings on the side of the box. What choice do you have? Aunt Flo is on the way and you need to stock up. Worse, you’ve been too busy to notice your usual monthly aches and pains. You chuck up your insomnia to…
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Questions about Dyslexia
AKA THINGS I’M ASKED ALL THE TIME After publishing Diary of a Dyslexic Homeschooler, more and more of my acquaintances and friends are asking me about dyslexia. And not just the surface skipping question. Oh, No. They’re asking deep, nitty-gritty, open the underwear drawer, getting personal questions. Though I’m not shy to share my family drama, this story is not all mine to share. Yes, my book was inspired by family experiences but I’m not trekking the journey on my own. Though I do have permission to share, I will not divulge anything I believe may come back to haunt my loved ones. That and I am no expert. I am…
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Keys to Free your Struggling Learner
My struggling learner was different from birth. She has, this mystifying and mysterious form of eye contact. It is nearly its own language. She’d spend hours talking to me without words. She studied everything from the comfort of my lap, snuggled and sedate. She smiled and twinkled, as her brother performed for her infant eyes. When she did begin to speak, she talked in an accent and often flipped syllables in her words. Turing words like magazine into mazageen. She’d work for long minutes, explaining and describing simple objects, like broccoli, instead of using their names because you could not remember what to call them. Friends at church or at…
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Family Service
As a Christian Homeschooler my goal, for my children, has never been intellectual greatness. Sure, there are times I get wrapped up in the right now and push my kiddos harder than I should. There are days I get too focused on checking off boxes, mastering Latin, being the best debater or writer, and keeping up with the other schoolers. It makes me look and feel good when people mention how smart my kids are and how much they know. This mama can morph into a pride-fueled puffer fish, in an instant. But she can also jab and poke at her students like no one else. However, it doesn’t take…
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Our Classically Mason Day
Let me say first off if you haven’t yet read the post Classically Charlotte Mason you may be a bit lost. Second, I’ll add, we don’t have a true schedule. What follows is our routine. Subjects shift in order from day to day and their instruction times flex as needed. The schedule below is using our Jr. High curriculum. This is just our basic every ordinary homeschool day. I hope it encourages you to make your family homeschool your own. Bible and Reasoning We try to do this in the evenings as a family and so it doesn’t’ feel like actual “school work” even though it is. It takes about 15 minutes…
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Classically Charlotte Mason
Our family homeschools. For the last few years, we’ve also belonged to a community of homeschoolers who educate using a classical approach. We love our community. We love the conversations. We love our curriculum. What we don’t love, so much, is the unrelenting workload. Teachers, aka Parents, are encouraged to scale back the lesson plans to meet the needs of their individual children. We’ve done that with great success. Even though some of our community’s celebration seems solely focused on perfection, our family makes a deliberate choice to hone in on progress. This is no easy task when everyone (at least it feels like everyone) but your family goes home with a…
