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Thursday, July 26, 2018

Homeschooling

As I mentioned in my previous post, we are going to give homeschooling a try this year. There are a few reasons for this, and decisions about education are so personal that I hesitate to share those reasons with you. I'll just preface this by stating that I know homeschooling is not an option, or a desire, for everyone. And that's totally fine! Better than fine. For our family, in this particular season of life, homeschooling just so happens to be an option and a desire that we have.



The "desire" part comes primarily from a longing to see Lucy enjoy her early childhood as much and for as long as possible. For her, that looks like more time to play and be outdoors, less time in a classroom or doing homework.

Now that the WHY has been covered, I am much more excited to talk about the HOW. There are so many different educational philosophies and methods, and all of them have something different to offer. I was initially drawn to Montessori and Waldorf methods of early childhood education, but there are a lot of aspects of Classical education that appeal to me as well. Enter Charlotte Mason.

Charlotte Mason was a Victorian-era educator whose philosophies were centered upon the idea of "children as persons", which would have been quite counter-cultural in her day and age, when it was commonly held that children should be seen and not heard. This fundamental belief in the "personhood" of children is counter-cultural for us too; in our statistics-based education system, children are reduced to test scores. 

Charlotte Mason emphasized the importance of allowing young children to enjoy their early years (ages 0-6) without any formal schooling. She believed young children should be allowed hours of unstructured time outdoors in the fresh air. And she believed in the nourishing of little minds with only the most wonderful of books. At the risk of oversimplifying, that's what we're going to be doing this year. I'm excited to share more with you as we get started.


"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life."
- Charlotte Mason

Alice is 3!

This past week, we celebrated Alice's 3rd birthday! It feels like just yesterday that Alice was born, and now she's a big girl with a new, big girl haircut:


I love her little bob with bangs!

We had a small family party for Alice, complete with cupcakes and princess costumes (two of her favorite things). She was not a fan of her birthday candles and looked very worried when M put the cupcakes down in front of her. I guess a little caution around fire is a good thing, but I am always surprised when my adventurous Alice is hesitant about something. She is so full of life and so eager to greet each new day! We love our sweet Alice so much!


Alice Pearl, every day is a jolly holiday with you! You are fun waiting for a place to happen! Your big heart and joyful disposition are so refreshing to my soul. I am very thankful to be your mama. I love you forever, sweet girl!

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

A New Chapter

Hello again!

It's been a long time since I've posted on this blog, and so much has happened that it would be impossible for me to catch you up on everything. Here are the highlights:


- Lucy is 5 years old and getting ready to start Kindergarten in the fall. We will be homeschooling (which is another post for another time). She loves books, ballet, and imaginary play.


- Alice is about to celebrate her third birthday (!!!) next week and has been potty-trained for several months now. Alice is our comedian; she makes us laugh constantly. She also loves to snuggle.

- We bought a house. After living in a friend's barn when we first moved back to Georgia, we rented a little house in a great neighborhood for about a year. We loved that house, but it was TINY. So, we bought a larger fixer-upper and have been {slowly} transforming it for the past 11 months. I'll post more about our home another time.

- We are currently expecting Baby # 3, due November 13th of this year. We don't know if baby is a brother or sister; we want to be surprised this time around! Obviously, the girls are very excited to welcome this new little one to the family!



There is much more to share, and I look forward to recording our adventures once again. Even though I haven't posted in the past couple of years, I have looked back at this blog many times, just to soak up all the memories and show my girls pictures of them when they were small. With all the negativity out there on social media, it's nice to have a space to celebrate what is good and real.