This week I finished reading Rethinking Positive Thinking by Gabriele Oettingen (referral link). I relate to the premise so much. I love to imagine achieving big goals, whether it is related to homeschooling, my website, a health and fitness related challenge. In my mind, I can feel the sense of accomplishment and my sense of…
April was a turn-around month. We quickly wrapped up our winter term, took a fleeting week off from lessons, celebrated a birthday, and jumped right into our summer term. Here’s how the month went. For reference, I have three boys and we are using AmblesideOnline. At the end of the month I now have: Age…
Last week we considered the limitations of habits. When we talk about habits, I think it’s always good to begin with a few qualifications. Habits are not a form of lifehacking. They are not a quick fix to our problems. They can be hard work, and as we saw in the Parents’ Review article last…
Sometimes it seems that if we could just get the knack of habit training, that we would immediately be better parents, educators, and human beings. Imagine doing the right things on autopilot! No power struggles, no internal arguments, just the “smooth and easy days” that Charlotte Mason mentions in Home Education. I do agree that…
After sharing a day in my homeschool, I’ve decided that it would be fun to begin recapping our homeschool months here on the blog. For reference, we use Ambleside Online and I have three boys. My eldest is 10 and in Y5T1, my second is 8 and in Y3T3, and my youngest is in Y1T2….
I have a bit of a fascination with Charlotte Mason’s Twenty Principles (see here). It seems like such a good idea: twenty short-ish statements, the perfect introduction to a philosophy of education. Grasp these ideas and off you go! You can educate the Charlotte Mason way! Except that reading the twenty principles often leave you…
Over the Christmas holiday I found You Need a Budget (h/t Rebecca from A Humble Place). I read the book, started my free trial on the app, and our family’s finances are on the fast track to better organization and stewardship. (FYI, those are referral links – if you click through and make a purchase,…
“What’s your takeaway from the workshop?” “I really need to work on my art anxiety.” I spent last week in the Lake District, with three days at the Charlotte Mason Centenary Conference in Ambleside, put on by the Charlotte Mason Institute and University of Cumbria, the institution that incorporated the Charlotte Mason College (formerly the…
What does it mean that children are born persons? This is Charlotte Mason’s first principle and one of the most important. If we don’t grasp her meaning, we will struggle to make sense of the rest of her ideas and apply them well in our homes. It is deceptively simple. We all have an intuitive…
Last month I had a chance to chat with Cherelle German about spreading the feast Charlotte-Mason-style in my homeschool. I know it’s very typical to say that it was a blast and a super fun conversation, but I genuinely enjoyed our conversation and it was a joy to spend some time with her. Cherelle has…