“How did you remember that?!?” I can’t tell you how many times our children have surprised us by spouting off some seemingly random fact or idea. It’s perplexing to consider that we spent so many years focusing on memorization of facts through songs, chants, and hand motions, only to find that over a period of […]
Curriculum Choices: Elementary through High School
It’s been a whirlwind of activity in our home this month! Our oldest son finished his first year of college, our youngest son finished up second grade, and our two middle sons have wrapped up their seventh and tenth grade years. It usually takes all summer for us to re-set and finalize curriculum selections, but […]
Favorite CC Cycle 1 Picture Books
Welcome to our family’s list of CC Cycle 1 picture books correlating with the Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Foundations program (Ancient to modern world history/geography, biology, earth science, prepositions, and fine arts). After investing in several books over the past several years, we’ve decided to share what our favorites have been! After many hours of […]
American History CC Cycle 3 Reading Plans
By special request from many classical families, we’ve updated our American History Reading Plans for the 2023-2024 school year! Click here to purchase. Note: After designing curriculum plans for over a decade, we’ve developed a Christian Classical Curriculum series called Mission: Great Commission, which integrates the study of the world (including U.S. History) and the […]
American History Read Alouds
Of all that I share here on this website, searching through books to develop our reading plans is what I spend the most time doing. My hope is to choose books that our family cherishes reading together (and your family cherishes as well, should you choose to use our reading plans!). Here I share our […]
CC Cycle 2 Planners
Due to special requests from Classical Conversations families, we updated our Cycle 2 planners to include reading correlations, book lists, and a Memory Work Review plan to keep the memory work fresh without review becoming cumbersome and overwhelming. Check it out here. If you’re interested in a basic planner without the booklist, reading correlations, and […]
Using We Choose Virtues
Several weeks ago I mentioned a virtue-training tool (We Choose Virtues) and how we’ve been using We Choose Virtues not just in our own family but also during opening assembly in our classical homeschool community for the first time this year. After receiving some questions about how we use it – and purchasing yet more We Choose Virtues […]
Our CC Cycle 1 Booklist
After many hours + hours + hours, I’ve finally finished updating my booklist for Cycle 1. In compiling this list, I have sorted through book reviews and recommendations by others I trust, including (but not limited to) Sonlight, Tapestry of Grace, and Veritas Press, as well as the 1000 Good Books List, Gospel Coalition, Old-Fashioned […]
New to Homeschooling (or not)? Plan to Be Flexible!
Raise your hand if your homeschool days always go as planned. {My hand is not raised. And crickets are chirping.} If it’s not already absolutely apparent, I want you to know that I love to plan. I’ve written plans and checklists down on post-it notes since… before I was born? (Okay, okay, okay. I’m exaggerating. […]