I am participating in the blog tour over at Minnesota Country Girl, where I provided a guest post for her series: “Summer in the Outdoors: A Series of Gardening, Foraging, and Nature Studies” In preparing for writing the post, I was faced with a little bit of a dilemma: I run. I hike. I love the outdoors, but I am not a gardener. Sure, there was that fluke summer, years ago, where I managed to grow a vegetable garden in my dad’s back yard, and it was successful. I think, though, that my dad may have been behind the scenes helping that garden to boom. We bought our house wanting…

Parents, especially those who homeschool, can get really caught up in ensuring their kids are always learning. Whether this is through ensuring that every toy is “educational” and every television program consumed teaches something or it’s through carting children from one enrichment activity to another, it’s a mistake. “What?” you may say, “but I thought that we’re supposed to teach our kids!” Yes, we are, but part of teaching and guiding children includes teaching kids how to just be. College Boy spends some of his time at home laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. Princess Boogie plays with her Ponies and flits about running in what seems…

Another week is done. What do you do to make it special? Do you think it’s important to mark the end of the week? Most of our Fridays end with Princess Boogie’s violin lesson. A few others end with a class at our local zoo. We’ve started to add in a special treat each week: Taking the kids out for ice cream. Not only does it make a nice incentive for Miss 4 to be on task during her lesson, but it also marks a nice transition into our weekend time. During the weekend, we don’t do lessons. We still read books, head out for various enrichment activities, violin practice,…