Breathing Space

Last day of the winter vacation for the dayschool kids, and they made both lunch and dinner. Yes, that includes even my moody teenager. He w...

I'm back to blogging. Sort of. Not really. I want to be back. I want to blog. I NEED to blog. I have a visceral need to unload, to...

We finished our dinner. 10 yo: "Mom, can I have ice cream for dessert?" I don't want him eating my husband's Haagen Dazs...

Every once in a while, even if the day did not turn out to be perfect, even if it rained, and even if the kids got on my and each other'...

This week I am not doing formal schoolwork with the kids. 10 yo is on break from mishna, our coop classes are not meeting, and there is no t...

Every year, my kids look forward to Chanukah. Every year, I feel like a phony going into it. It is not a major holiday, yet the expectatio...

Before Last year, I got ourselves PVC pipes, draped them with LED lights, and called it our outdoor menorah. It felt funny, like channe...

It is November. As one of my veteran homeschooling moms reminds me (every year) it is a time for burning out, wanting to throw in a towel, o...

Look at this neat Montessori classroom: every object has its place, and every kid is working nicely with only one manipulative at a time, th...

"You are homeschooling? You must be so organized." "What do you do to make sure that they hit all the milestones and reach t...

4 yo started reading Bob books. I had them forever, and I was pretty sure that she knew her letters, or at least enough of them to start rea...

Friday morning. 9 yo is reading on the couch about the Battle of Gettysburg. He is excitedly telling me who was where and what they did, and...

Today was such a good day, that it would be a disservice not to share it. There were almost tantrums, and almost meltdowns, and, as I am typ...

I have not written about actual learning, so here are a few simple things that we are doing: Read aloud . About a year ago, the boys pol...

I woke up this morning to a smell of coffee (and yelling from the baby). 9 yo, who woke me and the baby up the previous morning at 6 am and ...

Here is a small sampling of what we did this past week: 7 yo hanging by his knees and holding on to his ankles.  Over the past year, b...

At some point we all have to fill out some forms: name, address, phone number, followed by occupation and employer. Ever since I started sta...

We have a bunk bed for the boys. We had it since they were 2 and 4. Since we got it when they were so young, we were very firm about the old...