Little Pilgrim's Progress

The boys and I have been having a wonderful time reading Little Pilgrim's Progress. It is a retelling of John Bunyan's classic allegory about the Christian journey through life. It has been simplified for younger readers but contains wonderful literary language that completely captivates my children's attention. They ask me at least three or four times a day if we can read a few chapters of "Little Christian". I highly recommend this book!

If you look at the homeschooling links to the right, you will see a link to some coloring pages to go along with the reading of Pilgrim's Progress. They are beautifully done and are a great supplement. They are especially helpful for keeping little hands busy during the reading.

It always brings me joy to hear my boys begging to snuggle up on the couch to read together. I wonder what we will read next....?

Sowing Seeds of Character

I ran across a wonderful resource today that is so good I just had to share. Debra Fogelbach at Notebooking Pages.com has created a wonderful system for implementing the ideas found in Laying Down the Rails by Sonya Schaffer. (You don't have to own the book to use the system.) It is sort of an accountability system designed to help us instill godly character in our children. Best of all, it's entirely free! She has printable habit cards, calendars, and goal sheets. Check out her site and read her description of how it works. It seems a little overwhelming when you first read it, but it's really not. While you're there, check out the other notebook pages she has available for purchase. I highly recommend the nature notebooking pages. They are fantastic!


Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of this system or how it's working in your home.

Mom's Meeting

Last night I hosted our homeschool support group's monthly Mom's Meeting. What a wonderful time! Sometimes I get so focused on the minutae of our daily life and I focus too much on my ideals and all the ways we fall short. Getting together with other moms is a reassuring reminder that none of us completely live up to our ideals. There is always room for improvement and that is actually a reassuring thought. How boring life would be if we had "arrived" and there was no more left to learn or no growth to be had. I was also blessed to hear from many of the moms who are homeschooling middle- and high-schoolers. The stories they shared of how their children are maturing spiritually really encouraged me and reminded me that we are a work in progress and my children are on a path that, God willing, will lead them to a life that is deeply fulfilling and committed to the Lord. It is also good to know that I am part of a group of godly women who are so willing to come alongside and mentor those of us who are in the stages of life that they have already survived. They've "been there and done that" and they are willing to share their experience. I praise God for leading us to this group and I'm looking forward to getting even more involved.

I'm Back!

Wow, I can't believe it has been so long since I've posted. I seem to have lost the last several months. Actually, they weren't really lost so much as spent in a haze. To be honest, I spent several months trying to avoid admitting that I was depressed. I have dealt with it before so, deep down, I knew what was going on; but I had been fine for almost six years and I just didn't want to admit that I needed medication again. So after making my family crazy for several weeks, I finally went to the doctor and have been taking anti-depressants for the last couple months. Whew, now we can get back to normal!

Things are going quite well. We're just finishing up our study of the Middle Ages. Putting the lapbook together is our final project and we should have pictures of it up here soon. I have really enjoyed studying this time period. As usual, I've learned so much more than I ever did in school. The boys have enjoyed it too, of course. What boy could resist studying knights and castles, battles and crusades? We'll be moving into the Renaissance and Reformation which is another exciting time in history. I'm looking forward to studying all of the beautiful works of art that go along with this period.

I'll be posting about some of our recent nature studies very soon, so check back with us!