February 23, 2021

A FREE Skills + Activities Checklist For Your 2-5 Year Old

February 23, 2021/ Erin Cox

What are some milestones that I need to look for in my child’s behavior or abilities?

How do I know he’s ready for school?
How long should she be able to pay attention?
How much time should we spend on “school”?
My child doesn’t do ________, is that ok?
What are some ways that I can engage my child in a meaningful way during our busy days?

These are all questions I’ve asked over the years and questions I hear daily from busy, concerned homeschooling moms who want to make sure they’re doing best for their child.

October 09, 2020

Collecting Nature and Encountering Our Creator (GIANT FREEBIE)

October 09, 2020/ Erin Cox

My Instagram feed is filled with gorgeous nature tables, muddy rainboots, and wild and free children. This speaks to my heart in an unimaginable way. While I may often get too busy to truly spend the hours out of doors that I would like... and sometimes the complaints about the heat just wear me down (we live near Satan's armpit), I know deep in my soul that being surrounded and immersed in God's creation is as close as we can get to touching him on this earth.

When I first began reading Charlotte Mason's own personal work (and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT, start here), I was slightly put off. I almost felt as if she worshipped nature. But I knew I had to be missing something important, so I pressed further in. Through prayer, I realized that Charlotte was passionate about nature because she was passionate about the Creator of nature. She knew that being immersed in Creation was a sneak peak into eternity and into the heart of our Father in Heaven. Our task as mothers is to simply help our children become thoroughly acquainted with Creation, capable of truly SEEING it with clear observation.

October 03, 2020

HUGE FREE Gentle + Classical Nature Bundle Sampler!

October 03, 2020/ Erin Cox

Gentle + Classical Nature finally arrived just a few months ago. It has been a labor of love, and one I’m very excited to get into your hands after completely “revamping” the original release of Nature. Gentle + Classical Nature Volume 1: Inland Waterways and Forests explores all of the organisms and life cycles that take place in our freshwater, inland waterways as well as temperate forests. I won’t go into a huge amount of detail because you can download the FULL Teacher’s Guide 100% for FREE!

March 16, 2020

Saint Patrick’s Day Free Printables

March 16, 2020/ Erin Cox

St. Patrick left an amazing legacy on the isle of Ireland that hasn’t been quickly forgotten by the Irish in over one thousand years! Each year, we celebrate his gift of Christian mercy, love, and compassion on March 17th.

After researching and learning about Ireland over the past 2 months for this issue of On Mission, I can see why St. Patrick loved it so. Even after escaping from captivity as a slave there, his heart could not be separated from the land or the people. God called him back- to HIS CAPTIVES- to preach the Good News.

December 04, 2019

How do we make Godly decisions? (About homeschool, money, relationships...life?)

December 04, 2019/ Erin Cox

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. -1 Corinthians 3:10-14

We get to choose. We have this free gift of a solid, unshakeable, eternal, faithful foundation that can never be moved, and then we get to choose.

Whether it's who we marry, how we educate, how we parent and discipline, how we speak and serve and love, how we spend and earn our incomes--we have agency. And this freedom can be both liberating and simultaneously terrifying.

May 17, 2019

Our Curriculum Choices (10th, 7th, K4)

May 17, 2019/ Erin Cox

I did what I think no other homeschool blogger has ever done- I failed to write a “curriculum pick” post for last year. Eeek. Honestly, in hindsight, I’m thankful. I was full excited about a few programs over last summer, but when it came down to it, they weren’t a good fit and we swapped to new programs after a few weeks.

I’m thankful for the experience, as it was an incredible learning opportunity to me. It also shows that no matter how amazing a program seems, once you get into it, it just might not be a good fit! Suffice it to say, that after an initial “fail” of one program in the fall, we found our way to a program that I now am certain we will use for many years (as certain as an easily distracted homeschool mama can be!).

So, what are our choices for this year? Many of them are simply a continuation of last year…

May 01, 2019

Moral Imagination? Poetic Knowledge? What the What?

May 01, 2019/ Erin Cox

Our little ones are often big thinkers with big fears and big questions. Their experience of walking alongside Pinocchio as he develops his own moral conscience helps them to understand that we can all fail and be redeemed. Their experience of the complete evil depravity of Cinderella’s stepsisters helps them see how horrible the downfall truly is for those who worship self and selfish ambition. Their experience of Snow White gives them a comforting picture of a wise, loving father (in the REAL dwarves) and cautions against disobedience, with a redemptive ending of LIFE (a picture of the Gospel).

Through stories that present a VERY CLEAR distinction of right and wrong, good versus evil, our children practice making decisions, facing “dragons,” and overcoming loss alongside the characters they are journeying with. I love this quote from Chesterton:

February 17, 2019

Headed to the Zoo anytime soon? (FREEBIE!)

February 17, 2019/ Erin Cox

We are annual zoo members and have been for years. Our kids have always treasured days at the zoo, and when the weather isn’t sweltering, I always have too. I feel like it’s an excellent opportunity to get out of the house and do a little roamschooling.

I wanted to create a tool for us (and for you!) that would serve our whole family. I have babies from 2 up to high school freshman, so it’s not often we do anything or learn anythign that EVERYONE can enjoy and benefit from. However, the zoo is definitely an excpetion to that. Furthermore, with this zoo explorers pack, that’s even more true than ever.

February 14, 2019

Review of Foundational Phonics Program

February 14, 2019/ Erin Cox

ou may have noticed—if you’ve browsed this blog much—that I’m an enthusiastic supporter of All About Reading. So, it may come as a surprise that I’m sharing a review for a different phonics curriculum.
When the author of Foundational Phonics, Ariel Gunther, reached out to me with her gentle phonics program, I was more than intrigued. As we worked for years to get my dyslexic daughter reading on grade level, we tried more than a handful of programs. That process—along with the success my friend Hayley has also had with AAR—left me looking through Foundational Phonics with a discerning eye. So it’s only natural that as I share all I love (or might not) about Foundational Phonics, I’ll be making a few references to All About Reading as well.
What Is Foundational Phonics?

January 26, 2019

Dear Scared, Worried (Overwhelmed) New Homeschool Mom

January 26, 2019/ Erin Cox

I received a text from a sweet friend last night — one who is in the thick of her first year or two of homeschooling. As she’s been spending many sleepless nights cradling and nursing her newborn infant recently, thoughts and concerns have flooded her mind over the progress of her 6-year-old daughter’s reading.

Anyone who has been in the thick of homeschooling for one year or ten remembers those days well. Not one of us is impervious to fears, second-guessing, unmet expectations, and the torture of comparison.

What follows is a version of my response to her concerns — words she and I agreed should be shared with you as well. These words were once offered to me, small doses at a time, from the women ahead of me, speaking Truth into the midst of my fears. Some of these words are things I never heard but my heart desperately yearned for. And many of them are the result of hours, weeks, and years of pouring my aching heart out to a Father who understood and cared about it all.

Dear Scared, Worried, New Homeschool Mama,