At the end of May, my 10-year-old marked a full two years of taking piano lessons. In less than two years, he advanced to playing late intermediate/early advanced repertoire. This is quite remarkable, and for me, it finally sunk in just how remarkable this is over the past year. Of course, my husband recognized it … Continue reading Our 4th Grade Piano Adventures
Project-based Homeschooling
My 1st Grader’s Ongoing Projects
As I look back over our school 2016-2017 school year, it's been fun to think about what my boys' major projects were this year. For my eldest, it was pretty much piano and gaming. But for my seven-year-old, he pursued many endeavors, and I had fun pursuing some of them with him. Yet it was … Continue reading My 1st Grader’s Ongoing Projects
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Thoughts on Photographs and the Last Ten Years
Due to several reasons, we had not been getting out for regular day hikes as much as we used to, and this made me sad. But last week we woke up, the weather was good, the time was right, and we decided at the last minute to go to the mountains for the day. (We never … Continue reading Thoughts on Photographs and the Last Ten Years
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Project-based Homeschooling: It’s All for the Birds (in a good way)
A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. ~ Chinese proverb In past years, I wrote a lot of posts with examples of project-based homeschooling in our home, mostly because my eldest son was always making things. This year I have written only two! This is because both boys … Continue reading Project-based Homeschooling: It’s All for the Birds (in a good way)
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Update On My Bread Baking Project
I'm long overdue to tell you how my bread baking project is going. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that after watching the documentary Cooked, I decided to try capturing my own wild yeast and learning how to bake bread with it. (See my column Capturing Wild Yeast.) Actually, I had been wanting … Continue reading Update On My Bread Baking Project
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Project-based Homeschooling: Piano
If you told me a year ago that my son would be taking piano lessons now, and not only that, but he would be showing talent, dedication and a deep interest in classical music, you could have knocked me over with a feather. This has been the most surprising development in our homeschool for me, … Continue reading Project-based Homeschooling: Piano
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Thank you, Wild Republic
Something really neat happened to the six-year-old this week. As I've mentioned before, he loves birds, and he has a huge collection of Audubon birds -- those stuffed birds that make the real bird sound when you squeeze them. He was saying he wished he could get a golden-crowned kinglet because that's his favorite bird, … Continue reading Thank you, Wild Republic
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Waiting for Brother
This little guy will sigh and ask, "How much more does he have to play?" Older brother used to have more time to play, and quite honestly, he still has lots of time to play, but that doesn't make it any easier for a six-year-old to wait patiently through an hour (sometimes hour+!) of piano playing twice … Continue reading Waiting for Brother
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On Becoming a Birder
My six-year-old's painting of a yellow-bellied sapsucker. My six-year-old loves birds, and because of that, it's become an interest for the whole family. We watch them, identify them, draw them and paint them. It's a great project! Note: This column was published in the Barrow Journal on February 3, 2016. I’ve always liked birds, but … Continue reading On Becoming a Birder
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Making Time for Project-based Homeschooling
Projects and creativity are a natural part of a child's life. They can be big or small. They may last a few minutes or many years. Project-based homeschooling seems to be changing for us, and on one hand, it’s made me feel like I’m not doing it right, but as I sit here writing, which is … Continue reading Making Time for Project-based Homeschooling
