Our Christmas Read Aloud Picks
I LOVE the Christmas season and want to enjoy every last minute with my kids who are growing all too fast! With a toddler in tow, our time is scattered, and I'm yearning to bond with my big kids in…
Non-Brick Gifts for LEGO Fans
After many years of not jumping on the LEGO bandwagon, we are now fully immersed in the LEGO universe. I didn’t grow up building with LEGOs, so it’s a whole new world for me! As much as I love purchasing…
Recent Family Read Alouds {Summer 2023}
This summer we read some classics that I've been itching to read with my kids for years! I have one sensitive listener, and I'm glad we waited until he felt ready to tackle the more intense plots. If you too…
Exploring Nature Around the Year: 365 Days of Nature Journaling
Our family starting using the Exploring Nature with Children curriculum FIVE years ago, and repeated it year after year! That guide has served us well. So well. It taught me right alongside of my kids. We delved into the nature…
Homeschool 5th Grade Curriculum Choices
Looking at my stack of curriculum choices, it can feel like "not enough"... and I think that's in large part because it doesn't encapsulate our homeschool. The longer I've been at this, the more strongly I feel that home educating…
What We’ve Memorized in Our Homeschool
My kids enjoy memorizing! We've been part of a "classical-lite" co-op since my rising 5th grader was in kindergarten, so memory work has been a staple. As I often spend a good chunk of my summer searching for new memory…
- Age 3-5, Age 5-8, Age 8-12, Age early elementary, Homeschool, Homeschool Curriculum, Our Literate Life
Gentle Phonics with Dash into Reading: Our Journey
This week I boxed up our Dash into Reading curriculum until my next child is ready. (She’s 18 months right now.) As my now-fluent reader blew through the final story, let’s just say I felt quite sentimental. It has been…
Family Read Alouds {Spring 2023, Age 8 & 10}
As our read alouds get longer, these lists get shorter! And although it's been increasingly challenging to find time to sit down and read together with my kids amongst busy schedules and a busy toddler, we have plodded along and…
Homeschool 2nd Grade Curriculum {What Worked}
Our school year is winding down, so I wanted to share in one post what worked this year. Rather than a rosy-eyed, hopeful post of what I'm *planning* for an upcoming school year, this post shares what we actually DID,…
Books About Birds for All Ages
Spring is for the birds! We have been seeing so many nests, hearing little chirps of baby birdies, and even found a robin’s egg on our hike today. And there are so many lovely books and educational materials about birds!…
- Age 5-8, Age 8-12, Age early elementary, Chapter Books, Family Read Alouds, Homeschool, Our Literate Life
Favorite Family Read Alouds of the School Year
As we wrap up 4th and 2nd grade, I am sharing our favorite read alouds of the school year: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn a small commission on eligible purchases. Chasing Vermeer by Blue…
A Simple Easter & Holy Week
I love giving gifts to my children as much as anyone. It’s one of my primary love languages. But as I sat contemplating our Easter plans and I found myself scrolling wishlists and looking at my Amazon shopping cart, I…
Family Read Alouds {Winter 2023, Age 8 & 10}
We’re in a season where family read aloud times feel hard-fought for; between a baby-turned-toddler and increased academic reading for older kids, the leisurely pleasure reading hours have grown shorter. Interestingly as well, the kids have taken to asking for…
Favorite Family Read Alouds {End of Year Wrap Up}
What a year! Amidst morning sickness and later adjusting to a new baby, we managed to read a nice stack of novels together. Truth be told, that was all I was able to muster a lot of days, and it…
Family Read Alouds {Fall 2022, 2nd & 4th grade}
There’s a distinctive middle ages theme to our book list this time around, with a sprinkling of Christmas stories, too. Novels provide such a rich way of delving farther into our history topics, so we enjoyed the books below to…