Classical gifts galore
I’m happy to announce that my shop now includes several different gift items that have a classical theme. There are t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, pillows, prints, and more in a variety of designs that I hope will appeal to a wide variety of interests. I thought...
Unconventional therapy
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and the following post should not be considered medical advice. If you have recently been diagnosed with cancer, please do your own research and seek professional medical advice as you make decisions for your own health and well being. I...
Food as medicine
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and the following post should not be considered medical advice. If you have recently been diagnosed with cancer, please do your own research and seek professional medical advice as you make decisions for your own health and well being. I...
Onconaut
When I received my cancer diagnosis a few weeks back, it felt like I had landed in a different country—a different planet, even. I wasn’t scared of my new surroundings—I was surrounded by kind and caring medical professionals who successfully convinced me that the prognosis with their recommended treatment was good—but I could tell that I was massively unprepared to be in this new place.
Thoughts on an MRI
NOTE: I realize that most of my readers are here because they subscribed to my blog through CC and are mainly interested in homeschooling resources. This is a big part of who I am but my blog is also a reflection of a lot of other aspects of my life. A couple of weeks...
Surviving the storm
Last week, we lost our cat, Tina. Not lost as in died, but rather lost as in couldn’t find her. It happened so quickly that none of us really knew what happened, but after piecing together our individual recollections of the last time we remembered seeing her,...
Want/Need/Wear/Read gift tags
Last year, I gave away a set of Christmas gift tags: something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. Here’s a new set for 2016! I originally designed them with a hole punch at the top, but decided to take that out in case some...
4 in 7: lessons learned in my first week with the Instant Pot
If you were on social media at all in the days leading up to and immediately after Thanksgiving, chances are very good that you saw something about the Instant Pot. If you didn’t, then the good news is that I’m going to be telling you all about this...
Advanced Latin vocabulary is here!
Well, the flash cards took longer than I’d hoped to complete, but I’m happy to say that the remainder of the vocabulary necessary for a student to begin to translate more advanced Latin passages from Henle I is available here! Best of all, they are 100%...
2016 board game recommendations
{That would be the year 2016, not the number of board games I’m about to recommend, although sometimes it does feel like we have thousands of board games at our house! Also, this post was co-written by my friend and fellow board game enthusiast, Renée Harris....
A Litany of Thanksgiving
As we approach Thanksgiving on Thursday, I wanted to share a litany and a prayer, both from the Book of Common Prayer, that you might want to consider using as a part of your celebration with friends and family: A Litany of Thanksgiving Let us give thanks to God our...
Orleans board game giveaway (ENDS 9/7/16)
Last fall, I wrote a post about some board game recommendations for Christmas gifts hoping to help readers—especially those in my homeschooling community—discover some new board game gems. Little did I know then that I would be the one to discover the greatest gem: a...
Evolution of the B notebook
Last year, I tried something new with my Classical Conversations Challenge B class. You can read all about my B notebooks here, but in case you were wondering how it turned out, let’s just say it was a mixed bag. I had a class of 11 (5 girls, 6 boys) and it pretty much fell along gender lines: the girls seemed to love and use them, and most of the boys used them for drawing (which isn’t necessarily bad).
My 5 favorite homeschool tools
It’s that time of the year again: time to go to your favorite superstore of choice and load up on notebooks, binders, pens, pencils…basically all the things! I’m headed out to do that very thing later today, but I started thinking about the things that I don’t have to buy and wanted to share my list with you. These are, quite simply, the workhorses of my homeschool and I would be lost without them. They don’t really fall under the supply list, but rather I would call them my favorite homeschool tools.
Using the Book Patch for Challenge B Anthologies
So you’ve decided to publish your anthology through The Book Patch. Where to start?!
First off, take a look at some of your own books and figure out the general size that you want your self-published book to be. Trade paperback? Letter sized? Something eye-catching and unusual like a square? The Book Patch has an extensive list of sizes to choose from so once you’ve figured out that part, go here and download the appropriate template.
Board game review: Istanbul
You are a merchant, scurrying to and fro with your assistants through the bustling bazaar district of Istanbul. Your assistants load their wheelbarrows with warehouse treasures, then scurry away to sell them at a premium with rubies being the ultimate reward for their efforts. This is the basic storyline of Istanbul, a fun, family game for 2-5 players that plays easily within an hour.
Awards certificates and flash cards update
I have a brand-new free download for you this week: awards certificates that you can use for your Classical Conversations’ End of Year program! This package include cycle-specific PDFs as well as sample Word .docx files that have already been set up and are ready for you to customize.
Playing with Pigments
There are great games, and then there are games with mechanics so smooth and flawless that they border on near perfection. In my home, this near perfect experience would be known as Fresco, a game that is jam-packed with rich theme and simply stunning components. Fresco is a European strategy board game where players are transported back in time to the Renaissance as they become master painters, who are restoring a ceiling fresco in a local cathedral.
