• Books and Reading - Homeschooling - Uncategorized

    Reading Report Vol. 28: Junior Review Edition

    June 11, 2025 - By 

    This month’s Reading Report is going to be a little bit different! Summer is a great time for reading, but it is also a lot more spontaneous and lacking in routine for our family. (Traveling to visit family, camping, rearranging furniture, and sorting books are just a few of the things we been doing!) This means my reading life is honestly all over the place right now. So instead of the typical what I’ve been reading sort of post this month, I thought I would do something new. I recently signed up to be a reviewer for NetGalley, and the…

  • Books and Reading - Homeschooling - Uncategorized

    AmblesideOnline Year 8 in Review, Part 2

    June 3, 2025 - By 

    Welcome back for Part 2 in my review of our experience with AmblesideOnline’s Year 8 curriculum. I have been out of town for the last several days and don’t have a lot of time to write this week, so let’s just jump right back in where we left off last week! NOTE: The book titles mentioned in this post are part of the AmblesideOnline curriculum, which is under copyright of AmblesideOnline.org. The information in this post is intended for educational purposes only. Be aware that AO’s curriculum and resources are revised from time to time. Please be sure to check…

  • Books and Reading - Homeschooling - Uncategorized

    AmblesideOnline Year 8 in Review

    May 28, 2025 - By 

    Here we are at the end of another school year and the end of another stage in our homeschool journey. My son is completing AmblesideOnline Year 8 this week, and that means that next year he will enter high school and be in what Charlotte Mason called Form IV. Every new grade level and form comes with new challenges, and at the beginning of every year I feel woefully inadequate and unprepared for what is coming. Yet, at the end of the year, I look back and am amazed at what we managed to accomplish and how my children have…

  • Homemaking - Uncategorized

    May 2025: What’s in the Garden?

    May 21, 2025 - By 

    This month’s garden update is perhaps not as impressive as I would like. It turned out that many of my seedlings from last month’s update did not fair well, although I am not sure why. They were already looking a little sad before I set them out on the porch to harden off. And many did not survive the hardening off precess very well. Aside from the zucchini squash and kabocha squash, I am not sure any of the seedlings will survive now that they have been transplanted out. But it’s not the end of the world. At this time…

  • Homeschooling - Uncategorized

    Recap of Our AmblesideOnline Year 4: The Second Time Through

    May 14, 2025 - By 

    As we wrap up our school year this month, I am looking back over the year and reflecting on progress made and things I might want to work on changing as I plan ahead for next year. My daughter is about to finish AmblesideOnline’s Year 4, and this is my second time guiding a student through this year in our homeschool. Before beginning to write, I scrolled through some of my old blog posts and realized that the last time I recorded anything about our AO year, it was a 4-part series about Year 4 as I was in the…