This past weekend, while on a hike, Ali and I were talking about our Hiking Club Summer Bucket List. I told her I’d asked the other moms what they’d wanted to do this summer, and asked her what she wanted to do. She lit up. “I want to hike farther than I’ve ever hiked. I […]
Orr Park Scavenger Hunt.
You may have noticed I’ve been on a bit of an outdoors binge for a half a decade or so. (Which, by the way, is the most insulting word in the English language. “Outdoors.” AS IF doors had been there first, then nature cropped up all around them and so we had to call it […]
For the Mamas Thinking About Homeschooling.
Every year about this time, I have a fresh crop of preschool moms who ask me about homeschooling. I’ve never considered myself an expert at homeschooling – I don’t read all the books, attend all the conferences, or lobby for laws. But having homeschooled as a child for 12 years, and now having made it […]
How to Make Glow in the Dark Frozen Bubbles.
I discovered this just in time. I was about to completely lose my mind over the fact that it was COLD. And we didn’t get snow. And what was supposed to be a nice, iced-in, mid-week weekend compliments of the snow that visited everyone but us had turned into just another COLD day. And then […]
A Week In The Woods
From Monday to Thursday evening of last week, I was in the woods. No wi-fi, perilously spotty cell service, and all the fallishness I could ask for. (And Ali didn’t mind it, either.) We rented a cabin at Oak Mountain State Park, which is close enough for Chris to commute to work, and the children […]
When We Get Around To It…
…That’s when we’ll start school. (I answer that question a lot.) We do enough educational tasks during the summer (all of which I track on my templates, which you can download here) that we can afford to start school when God intended: In the glorious month of September. But this year, we actually started on […]
Hands-On Alabama History: The Conclusion.
From the beginning… I promise this was from the beginning of this school year. Ignore the wrong dates. I’m a qualified teacher really I am. To the end. It was an absolute adventure. And my most ambitious and longest school year yet is finally over. Although we’d finished most subjects, we officially ended it all […]
The Super Bowl of Homeschooling.
To a homeschooler, there is nothing more thrilling than standardized achievement tests. …Okay actually this is way too blanket a statement and is vastly over-applied. To myself and my daughter and perhaps a few other homeschoolers, there is nothing more thrilling than standardized achievement tests. I adored them every year when I was a kid. […]
Hands-On History: Sloss Furnaces
Sloss Furnaces, part of the reason for Birmingham’s existence, has always fascinated me – especially photographically. I’ve taken pictures of it for years, but have never truly explored it. I have left it so unexplored that I didn’t even realize they had a gorgeous visitor’s center, gift shop, and museum. But naturally it was on […]
The Genesis of A Palette.
An update to my last post, about the discovery of my children’s Grapheme-Color Synesthesia…it probably won’t make much sense if you haven’t read that post first. A couple of nights ago as I was lying in bed, I finally remembered what app Noah had played most when he was learning his letters – Starfall. I […]