April 25, 2018

I'm Impatient with My Kids {Because I'm Distracted}

April 25, 2018/ Erin Cox

I want to openly admit that I've been completely distracted lately—by an overwhelming to-do list, endless obligations, spreading myself thin, and spending WAY too much time on social media. It has resulted in my being irritable and impatient with my kids.

The insane amount of time I spend on my phone is one of those things that I've been aware of for some time, but it's also something I find myself making a ton of excuses about. I work online, so I need access to my email, my blog, and my social media. Plus, I'm a stay-at-home mom with littles, so I don't get out and have many adult conversations. I have friends and family who don't live close by, so I need to keep up with their lives too. And of course, those same family and friends want to see what we're up to. RIGHT?

With many life changes going on right now and various tasks popping up left and right... my mind is overflowing 24/7. My brain is an internet browser with 4.7 million tabs open at all times.

April 09, 2018

When You Want to Quit Homeschooling (Part 5 of 5)

April 09, 2018/ Erin Cox

In part 5, we wind up this series ask the big question that brought you here:

SHOULD I quit homeschooling?

I’m going to be brave. I’m going to say the thing that feels almost forbidden in the homeschool community. There’s one option we’ve yet to address in this series, so I want to say it here:

You can stop homeschooling.

There! I said it! You can put your children into public or private school—or whatever suits your family’s needs best during this season (however long that may be). The Homeschool Police will not come and arrest you. (I’m pretty confident they don’t actually exist!)

April 09, 2018

When You Want to Quit Homeschooling (Part 4 of 5)

April 09, 2018/ Erin Cox

Here we are! We are almost finished! This has been a long series, but rightfully so. The idea of drastically altering how you approach education for your children is no small matter. We are now on the final "question" of this series, question 3. There are worksheets (FREE) in the Practical Joy Resource library to add significant depth to this exploration. You definitely, definitely want those. Grab the workbook from the Resource Library here.

Question 3: Should I just take a break from homeschooling? Will that fix whatever the problem is?

I want to explore a few different aspects of this question, but I want to assert up front that there is not a right or wrong answer. As has been the case in every portion of this series, what's right for YOU and your family, your season, your child, will not be the right answer for everyone else. This is a journey of finding YOUR place in homeschooling and being certain that it truly is best for everyone involved.

March 25, 2018

107 Books to Read Before Age 7 (FREE Printable List!)

March 25, 2018/ Erin Cox

Wow! Have you looked lately for books for your little ones and been completely overwhelmed? There are SO many- and how can we know they are good books that are of high literary quality and don't counter with our beliefs and family culture until we've bought them? My sweet friend Hayley and I wanted to combine forces and share a powerful list of 107 books that we feel like every child should have read to them (or read) before age 7.

Many lists like this include a majority of chapter books or books for children with longer attention span. We have many of those, but rest assured that this collection also includes shorter picture books with gorgeous, engaging illustrations and fewer words per page.

March 22, 2018

28 Ways to Keep Your Toddler Busy {FREE Printable List!}

March 22, 2018/ Erin Cox

Our littles ones can stay soooooo busy... right underfoot... all day long. Or even worse, when they disappear for a moment and get super quiet! Oh no! Rarely does that end up a good thing (sharpie vs the wall, anyone?)

Through parenting four kiddos, I've found that the best way to keep a toddler busy without pulling your hair out is to integrate them INTO your day. Sometimes, we tend to default to building our day, our schedule, our home environment around the child. This bring everything down to their level. Sometimes, it has the unintended consequence of bringing US (and our behavior) down to their level too. EEEK!

March 14, 2018

How to Cultivate the HABIT of JOY

March 14, 2018/ Erin Cox

We make thousands of small decisions daily, my friend.

Should I get out of bed?
Should I work?
Should I cook breakfast?
Should I shower?
Should I drive safely?
Should I respond to this text?
How should I respond to my husband?
When should I respond to my whining child?

Opportunities to decide come relentlessly. We make so many in a day that we develop habits to overcome the overwhelm of the constant thinking required for all of these decisions. We don’t consciously think through every single decision. At some point, we made a choice in the past, and it went well, so we settled into following those ruts. That way we no longer have the stress of having to remake that decision every single time.

Our habits help us cope with the sheer magnitude of the everyday.

Basically, we set our lives on auto-pilot, and we do this despite the fact that our habits (pre-decided decisions) change our lives.

The truth is this:
Our habits don’t just change our lives; they are our lives.

March 08, 2018

Confession: I Am NOT an Encouraging Mom

March 08, 2018/ Erin Cox

I've recently admitted that I yell at my children... and it's all because I'm lazy. I'm confident I'm not alone in that, and so far the internet hounds have not come baying at my door. So, just to be fully transparent, I thought I'd also confess that I'm not an encouraging mom like I once thought myself to be. And this realization has hit me like a ton of bricks.

March 01, 2018

The Secret Hidden Inside Contentment

March 01, 2018/ Erin Cox

Joy, joy, joy- count it all joy. Choose joy. Joy has become a chant of the faithful as the ultimate side-effect of living a Christian life. John Piper refers to it as Christian hedonism in his book, Desiring God.

But what IS this pursuit of joy? How do we tackle it in the rough seasons- the desperate seasons- the I AM DONE seasons? How do we even get started pursuing it? For Pete's sake- where is the joy!?!

February 08, 2018

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Math-U-See {Even through High School!}

February 08, 2018/ Hayley Croft

I’m so excited to share this review with you! This is the ONE curriculum that I have never once been tempted to stop using! I tend to get my head turned by shiny, new homeschool curriculum. It’s so much fun to try new things, and there are always new products coming out that I can’t wait to check out. But not when it comes to math.

When I first started homeschooling, one of my mentors gave me some great advice. I was sharing with her how I worried that I wouldn’t be able to give my kids a strong math education because I had struggled so much with math in school. Her advice was to find a program that had a good reputation, that suited my teaching style, and that my kids didn’t hate, and then stick with it all the way through. Her reasoning was that the best way to avoid gaps in math knowledge is to use one program from beginning to end...

February 02, 2018

How to Homeschool Preschool {with no regrets!}

February 02, 2018/ Erin Cox

There's nothing as delightful (and challenging!) as educating our little ones at home. Some of us homeschool preschool and intend to be "long haul" homeschoolers. Others may plan to send their child to school later, but want to make the most of their days with their sweet babes. As a Mama of four with two toddlers underfoot, I've had some experience in preschool and "toddler school." I've made many mistakes, but I've also learned some valuable lessons that help me approach educating my two little ones with a "no regrets" mentality.

Here are five tips to approach those early years that you won't regret!