My Favorite Things: "Keeping Toddlers Busy" Edition

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My Favorite Things: "Keeping Toddlers Busy" Edition

My sweet little boys keep life very interesting, especially as I try to homeschool a high school freshman and 6th grader with dyslexia. It's basically my mission in life to keep my boys engaged in fruitful activity throughout the day in order that I might have small chunks of silence to engage with my girls in as much of their schoolwork as possible.

I want to share a few ideas and several "go-to" items that I keep handy at all times, as well as my process for both planning and engaging my boys each day. It's not perfect, but it works well enough that we march through our homeschool day with some learning accomplished and with (arguably) half my sanity left!

Here are my current FAVORITE things for keeping my boys (currently 3 and 20 months) busy while I work in our home and teach their older sisters:

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The Purpose in Your Broken _____ (marriage, finances, heart)

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The Purpose in Your Broken _____ (marriage, finances, heart)

We all have it. We have all been broken- in so many different ways.

Sometimes our bodies are broken by disease, deficiencies, accidents, or abuse. Sometimes our hearts are broken by loss, betrayal, loneliness, or shame. Sometimes our minds are broken by anxiety, depression, or obsessive thoughts.

Whether your marriage is broken, your relationship with your child is broken, or your finances are broken- that brokenness can have a purpose. It HAS a purpose.

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How to Use a Preschool Morning Binder (PLUS all you need to get started!)

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How to Use a Preschool Morning Binder (PLUS all you need to get started!)

I have a tenacious 3 year old who wants to do a LOT of school. He loves to learn and do things just like the big kids. I love to encourage his desire to learn, so I created a "morning binder" for him after being inspired by Yoga Pants and Pearls when I ran across her on Pinterest. You can check out her take on morning binder here.  

I initially downloaded her cute little printable but my OCD jumped in and reminded me that it didn't match the rest of the materials that I had created to complement The Gentle + Classical Preschool (<--- Click that for a FREE Preschool Curriculum)... So I had to make my own, while also using a few resources I'd already created to assemble a full Morning Binder for my little one. So here's what's in our Preschool Morning Binder (also, it's not a binder but I'll chat about that too).  

5 Steps to an excellent, beautiful Preschool Morning Binder:  

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You ARE a Good Mom

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You ARE a Good Mom

You're a good mom. And I should know- I'm a good mom too, so I'm qualified to judge. 

Here's how I know that we are both good moms: 

I've also felt shame, self-hatred, condemnation, overwhelming guilt, and humiliation over every single one of those things. If you can fail in some way as a parent- I've done it. 

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If I Hear "Mama" One More Time

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If I Hear "Mama" One More Time

In the last 20 minutes, I've literally heard the beckoning of "Mama" 38 times. Literally. To keep my sanity, I started counting. As I lay my youngest down to sleep, I pondered the huge milestones we'd met this week of potty training and weaning all intermingled with the frustration and just plain exhaustion of, "Mama, Mama, Mama."

In my heart, I cried out to the Lord to strengthen, encourage, and bless me for the rest of this day and all that it still held... And for the many, many "Mamas" that had yet to be said... 

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The Ultimate List of Health Must-Haves (for Every Mom)

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The Ultimate List of Health Must-Haves (for Every Mom)

Do you love a recommendation from a friend as much as I do? I love to read reviews and hear the best experiences (and the worst) so I kind of know what to expect. BUT the best recommendations come from an unbiased friend. I especially want to hear from my friends who have lots of kids, lots of responsibilities, and lots of things pulling her in every direction- just like I do! I need to hear what has worked for her and how it's made her life better... because isn't that all what we are looking for? We desire the stamina to live a life worthy of our calling and to avoid sickness as MUCH as possible!

I've walked through a very unhealthy few months. Between being accidentally glutened a few times and the resulting gut damage and deficiencies from that, then finding mold in our new home which kept me sick for months, I've become very refocused on healing my body and getting adequate rest so that I can be the wife and Mom I like to be. Sometimes our own health can be the hardest habit to maintain.

Here are my top 5 favorite things that have been helping me nourish my body, restore balance, and prepare healthful meals for my family as we get back into the "school" swing of things and recover from prolonged sickness:

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How You're Sabotaging Motherhood (and don't know it)

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How You're Sabotaging Motherhood (and don't know it)
  • Breast or bottle.
  • Forward-facing or rear-facing.
  • Homeschool or public school.
  • Attachment parenting or cry it out.
  • Baby wearing or stroller.
  • Store bought puree or baby led weaning.
  • Cloth or disposable.
  • Early education or delayed instruction.
  • Formal lessons or unschooling.
  • Classical or Charlotte Mason.
  • Textbooks or living books.
  • Crafts or free play.
  • Packed lunch or lunchroom.
  • Organic or not.
  • Essential oils or a doctor visit.
  • Paleo or convenience foods.
  • Homeschool for life or homeschool for now.
  • Time outs... Positive reinforcement... Or spanking?
  • And let's not even get into the decisions we make with our teenagers!

It never ends. As moms, we make thousands of decisions daily, big and small, and no matter where we look, our friends, family, media, and experts are all telling us (directly or indirectly) that we are doing it WRONG. The world shouts that out of all the choices, the one we made isn't the BEST. There's a better way...

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How to Pursue Excellence Rather than Perfection

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How to Pursue Excellence Rather than Perfection

Criticism is something I’ve battled my entire life. It came from extended family members, friends, acquaintances, leaders, and even strangers.

My earliest memory dealing with it was as a small child. Being criticized for being a female while all my cousins and sibling were males was constant. Growing up in a family where my extended relatives praised males was challenging. I never felt enough, no matter how hard I tried.

As a young adult, I worked under a leader who didn’t fully agree with women in ministerial roles. I found myself receiving the same sort of criticism I did as a child. Nothing I did was ever good enough, and every time I opened my mouth I was told I said something wrong. I was given clear instructions, followed them exactly, but somehow I was still critiqued. It was constant, and it was heartbreaking. It crushed my spirit.

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HUGE Elementary Math Copywork Workbook (and how to get it for FREE)

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HUGE Elementary Math Copywork Workbook (and how to get it for FREE)

Who doesn't love copywork... especially math copywork, right? Well, besides your kids! While we get a fair amount of pushback from our students, the struggle is worth the outcome. In what other way can you practice slow memorization while also absorbing the fundamentals of English grammar and punctuation AND practice handwriting all at once? In my mind, math should be no different. While memorization of math terms is only one small portion in math instruction, it is an important portion nonetheless.

I personally usually take to the internet, mainly Pinterest, searching high and low for copywork pages that fit what we are studying each year in each subject. Truly, the hardest to come by have been copywork pages for math. AND if I did find them, it was rare to find them for the particular term I was looking for. I wanted a workbook of the vast majority of the terms my students would run across in elementary school without having to go look high and low or create my own every single time we found a new term. 

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When Your Homeschooled Child Can't Read Yet

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When Your Homeschooled Child Can't Read Yet

If you're reading this, you are probably in the midst of teaching one of your little ones to read OR you have that endeavor looming ahead of you in the near future... amiright? The singular biggest fear of every single homeschool mom I've ever spoken to is failing to teach her child to read well... and especially failing to teach them "on time".

In most of our minds, we envision that our homeschooled child would be reading well in advance of their public school counterparts (or at least at the same time). Simultaneously, in our little hearts, one reason we homeschool is to give our children the time and space to grow and develop on their own timeline. Sometimes these desires and expectations clash and can create monster homeschool mom anxiety. I know many mamas who have quit homeschooling (or never even began) because they were overwhelmed at the idea of failing in this important task. 

I want to share some actual evidence with you today that helped put me at ease when my own homeschool student just wasn't progressing like I felt she "should." 

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