Christmas 2017

It's been a while since I've written a “Christmas Letter” of any kind. Actually, I can't remember when I did this last, so if this is a bit long-winded, you will understand why.

Fairy Tales - Beauty and the Beast

In 2017 we have had several fairy tale project themes!  The first was in the spring (and I am only now putting up the pictures) and it was all "Beauty and the Beast"!!!

Click the "see more" if you want to know how we created a fairy tale project in our home (this can be for homeschoolers or just a fun family activity!)

Bunny School - Education Tailored to Delight

I have shared before about the books we have used and projects we have done and so forth, but this blog post is more about how you could bring a theme or specific interest that your child has all together to build a full curriculum based on that.  My child's special interest is rabbits-- how can that be enough to cover all the subjects?  We have covered (with bunnies!) reading, writing, math, history, science, good citizenship, geography, art and some practical life skills.

"Follow the Child, but follow the child as their  ."  -- Maria Montessori

Three thinking tree books that are quite rabbit themed!  

The two on the left are basically the same style inside "core journal" type that you can use many books with and they could easily be used one after the other if your child goes through it more quickly.  The core funschool books are how they can practice writing and art and keep some variety and surprise in the "work book" part of school.  I like having something to look back at and see what they were learning and each stage.  The Bible verse one on the right is learning spelling of course, but in the context of Bible verses!  You can see a video showing the inside of the Bible verse books here. and to see the insides of the two core journals (along with some others to compare) the video to see inside those two is here.

Peaceful Perspective Planner (For the non-planning type)

I start to feel panic rising when considering the idea of planners.  I don't like reading blog posts about them either!  However, I know that having a calendar of some sort (even if I'm mostly writing what we DID rather than what is coming next) it does help me feel calm about what we are doing being enough.  I have tried so many planners though and none have been the right fit for my personality.

This is the front of the planner after I added some color!  You could color or doodle in this planner or just use it as it is.  Or you can get ideas from this and make your own pages!  I love visual journals and the idea of bullet journals and I've looked into the "happy planner" and other things, but I wanted something that was a bit more manageable and not expensive and something that would SAVE me time rather than give me more to do.

These pages are the "weekly" pages and I went ahead and printed out 5 of them even though I will probably only keep one at a time in my planner.  Too many pages can be stressful to me so having just a few pages to look at is much better.

For more pictures and a video about how to put it all together (and the link to the free printable of course!) click the "read more" below.

Herb Fairies & Poetry PIZZA Time!

We just got something that I have been interested in for about half my life!  *Healing Herbs! * But this is amazing because it's told in story form (I am all about the stories!) And with fairies (hello, love fairies!) And it is technically made for kids, but I would want it for me even if my kids didn't want to join me.

We live in a town home apartment so potted gardening is all I can do right now and I have to haul watering pots to water everything (which means my main problem is letting things dry out too much), but I have had a few herbs growing now for a few years!