Update: Cultivating Responsibility
Every semester, I revise my kids’ weekly to-do lists. I slide the sheets into a plastic sleeve for them to check off with a wet erase marker. Twice a day, I say...
Category: MOTHERHOOD
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Introduction: Shaping Family Culture One Habit at a Time
Children are a wonder. Their hearts are already inclined to drink deeply of knowledge and beauty and their hands are ready to take on new challenges. So, develo...
More about Cultivating Responsibility
In 2017, I started delegating little chores to my young children. I wanted to cultivate a habit of responsibility and an eye for service, so I taught them to ti...
Letters to My Children: Honesty is a Gift
In this life, you will be tempted. And sometimes you will give in to that temptation. When you do, do not lie about your sin. Your goal can too easily shift fro...
Six Months Practicing Drawing
When I was a child, I drew a lot. I drew at the table and on the floor and on my bed and in the yard. I drew while I listened or while I talked or while I daydr...
Willing: A Poem for Parenting Preschoolers
Rosy kitchen, my coffee steamy, podcast ready, muffin ingredients gathered. In waltzes the tiptoe maiden, carrying a stool. I pause the show, move my mug and si...
Six Months Reading Aloud
In 2016, I discovered Sarah Mackenzie’s Read Aloud Revival podcast and it changed the trajectory of my parenting. I binge listened as Sarah interviewed scholars...
Six Months Connecting with Nature
I remember being six years old living on Texas acres watching lightning storms from the porch with my dad and crunching through leafy woods with my mom. I remem...
Six Months Engaging in Family Worship
When our children were three and one year old, we began reading The Big Picture Story Bible together and saying thankful prayers at bedtime. This cherished habi...
Six Months Incorporating Imaginative Play
In 2019, I was waiting for my children to dive into the world of pretend play. But, at ages 7, 5, 3 and 1, they weren’t doing much of it. A dinner conversation ...
Six Months Embracing Solitude
Since 2016, I have focused on developing a different habit in my children every six months. Over time, they have added up! We have steadily built the habits of ...
Six Months Instilling Responsibility
Housework always took longer when little hands helped. Before 2017, I usually flipped on a flick while I cooked dinner, then tucked them into bed before I clean...
Six Months Learning to Cook
When my daughter asked me to teach her how to bake, I bristled and blushed. I didn’t want to. I didn’t know how. I was too busy to learn something new. And what...
Nurturing their Natures: Know Your Child’s Intelligence (and Yours)
Most people leave IQ tests with an air of superiority or a feeling of inadequacy. I am one whose confidence sank after a high school IQ test. Sure, I could draw...
My Journey to Becoming a Nurturer
“Cease endlessly striving for what you want to do and learn to love what must be done.” -Goeth I did not become a nurturer on my first child’s birth day. In fac...
A Poem on Life with Small Children
You may relate. – In Suzanne U. Clark’s The Roar on the Other Side: A Guide for Student Poets, she instructs students to write two poems, one about a cacophonou...
How I Study My Children and Nurture Their Natures
God designed the gambit of skills, interests, personalities, bodies, characteristics, learning styles and spiritual gifts then artfully whisked them together to...
What My Kids Do All Day: The Joys and Struggles of Low-Tech Parenting
When Abby complained, “I’m bored.” Her mother wisely responded, “That’s okay. You don’t have to be entertained all the time.” Few moms give grace to themselves ...
Letters to My Children: A Poem about Daughters
I wrote this poem after a springtime stroll with my 6-year-old daughter. It is about a tree, but really it about her. I wrote the poem into the journal I keep f...
The Early Years: Our Preschool Routine & Gentle Homeschool Plan
In my recent post, Homeschool Planning: A Guide to Finding Your Rhythm, Building Your Routine and Filling the Slots, I explained how to build a rhythm-rooted ro...
Nature, Art and Stories Collide: An Easy Start to Nature Journaling with Children
In all the host of educational projects and curricula and programs, I have found no greater teachers than nature itself and a stack of excellent stories. Natur...
Ideas and Resources for Daily Family Bible Study
Our family reads the Bible every morning and evening. We keep our study short to make it doable and peg it to everyday events, like breakfast and bedtime, to in...
Homeschool Planning Guide Part I: Finding Your Daily Rhythm
I realized a year into homeschooling that I was planning our days backwards. I had been making long lists of goals and resources that I wanted to implement, the...
Homeschool Planning Guide Part II: Building Your Rhythm-rooted Routine
In Homeschool Planning Guide Part I, you studied your daily rhythm. Now it’s time to use those insights to artfully form a routine for your family. Make a secon...
Homeschool Planning Guide Part III: Filling the Slots
In Homeschool Planning Guide Part I, you studied your daily rhythm. In Homeschool Planning Guide Part II, you used those insights to build a rhythm-rooted routi...
How I Focus on Instilling a Different Skill or Habit Every Six Months
Children are a wonder. Their hearts are already inclined to drink deeply of knowledge and beauty and their hands are ready to take on new challenges. So develop...
The Word of the Day: How We Learn Big Concepts in 15 Minutes a Day
Each day after math lessons, we gather around the table to read a poem, recite our memory work, track the calendar, read aloud, draw and study our Word of the D...
Choosing Solitude and Simplicity: My Story of Turning Down the Noise and Decluttering My Soul
Simple living is a hot topic lately, both in print and in the echo chamber of the internet. The idea is not so much a new trend as a return- we are grownup chil...
A Daily Action Plan for Parents Navigating School Closures
Nonworking parents, I created a potential daily schedule to help you as you plan your coming days with kids home from school. I don’t know your kids’ styles and...
Little Women and Becoming Marmee
When I first read Little Women, I was 23 and I was Jo. Adventurous, free-spirited, confident, loud, a bit self-absorbed and dramatic. Not pretty Amy’s pettish s...