School Outline

Recently, I’ve shared a bit of the reasoning behind the alternative school schedule that we have implemented for years (this conversation happened via our Instagram community, you may want to follow along there if you aren’t already). Our school year runs year around, with the fullest schedule happening from May-September; a time when most are [...]

Bare Feet in Frog Fruit

Bare Feet in Frog Fruit

September rolled in and rolled out on a King Tide. In between it seemed to creep. Slow time bookended by rising sea. I drove east today. Unplanned and entirely needed. What used to be near-endless pasture is all neat rows of identical houses now. I couldn’t breathe until I passed it. Once it hit the [...]

Seven Summers

We have braced for the flood of wedding vow promises - for better or worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health - and emerged from each deluge gasping and holding tight. We did not begin with any naive illusion of ease, but we did underestimate the possibility of growing such strength. Perhaps because, [...]

Living Things

Part One: I didn’t hear any wheezing or see breathing struggles. But I did see a strangely pale face and expressionless eyes. Like someone had flipped a switch to drain the color and energy from her vivacious self. I knew something was wrong. But when I left for the ER, I still expected to return [...]

Homeschool chat: What is forest schooling?

Forest Schooling is outdoor learning which is learner - led and emphasizes self discovery, risk taking, and problem solving. The first official forest school was in Denmark. It started as what they called a “walking kindergarten” in the 1950s. Interestingly, the concept actually derived from the Waldorf approach. Soon the concept arrived in Sweden. They [...]

Homeschool chat: What is Unschooling?

John Caldwell Holt is often referred to as the “Father of Unschooling”. He was an educator in the 1950s who documented the glaring issues he saw in the school system through a total of eleven books. His ideas led him to be a consultant for many schools. But he then became an early proponent of [...]

Homeschool Chat: What Is the Montessori Method?

The Montessori Method is used in both classroom settings (in Montessori schools, led by certified Montessori teachers) and home environments. It was developed by Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, at the end of the 19th century. Here are some of the main tenets of the philosophy: • Mixed age learning groups. In classrooms, it is [...]

Homeschool Chat: What is the Charlotte Mason method?

Charlotte Mason was a British educator. She lived at the turn of the twentieth century. She believed that children should be respected as people and taught the motto: “I am. I can. I ought. I will.” She also believed that children were natural born learners and that the desire to learn need only be facilitated. [...]

Homeschool Chat: What is Classical Education?

For the final transcript posts from our most recent homeschooling chat, I will be providing a breakdown of the most common homeschool methods. None will be a completely exhaustive explanation, but they will provide some historical context and a basic framework of the main tenets for each method. We are starting with the Classical method. [...]

Homeschool Chat: Curriculum

This post will cover our own curriculum choices for this year, how to tell when a curriculum (or method) isn’t working, how to make a switch and the many ways that life can be a curriculum of its own. Much of what we do is pulled from multiple sources and then I compile it into [...]