Tag Archives: children

Our Homeschool Curriculum (I Bought a Whole Program!)

Our Homeschool Curriculum (I Bought a Whole Program!)

I know a lot of you are thinking about next year’s curricula for your homeschool and some of you may be thinking about homeschooling for the first time. I’ve received numerous emails asking what we are currently using. I haven’t posted our plans in awhile because we’ve been trying something, and I wanted to give… Continue Reading

Summer Picture Book Recommendations

Summer Picture Book Recommendations

I have vivid memories of spending long summer mornings at the library picking out piles of books to read. My very first trip to the library was the summer after my kindergarten graduation. The elderly librarian handed me a vintage hardback of Betsy’s Busy Summer by Carolyn Haywood–a little treasure in a sweet series of… Continue Reading

Best Secondhand Bookshops in the UK

Best Secondhand Bookshops in the UK

This entry is part 13 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Before we ever left for the UK, I knew that I wanted to bring back books. I am just a build-a-library, rescue the out-of-print books kind of person. I have been a reader since childhood, I majored in English literature at university and I’m currently working on a PhD, and now I homeschool my children,… Continue Reading

Grand Adventure on the Isle of Lewis with Kids

Grand Adventure on the Isle of Lewis with Kids

This entry is part 12 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

If you’re headed to Scotland–and especially if you’re headed to the famed Isle of Skye–please, please leave time in your itinerary, hop on the ferry, and head to the Isle of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides. We had the opportunity to spend an idyllic month on Lewis, and I want to share some… Continue Reading

How to Help Kids Love Travel: Finding Balance

How to Help Kids Love Travel: Finding Balance

This entry is part 1 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

In the year before we left, I read two books that really influenced how we took our sabbatical with four kids, and I am eternally grateful. The first book I read was David McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback (a thick biography of Theodore Roosevelt). I know that a biography of a president seems like an odd… Continue Reading

3 Days on the Isle of Skye with a Baby and Toddler

3 Days on the Isle of Skye with a Baby and Toddler

This entry is part 9 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

The Isle of Skye has been on my bucket list for years, ever since I read a book set there. So when I was researching ways to get to the Isle of Lewis for Scott’s ministry with Stornoway Baptist Church, I immediately looked for ways to incorporate Skye into our trip–and I’m so very glad I… Continue Reading

Amazing Family Road Trip in the UK: English Peak District and Scottish West Highlands

Amazing Family Road Trip in the UK: English Peak District and Scottish West Highlands

This entry is part 8 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

We’ve been in the Outer Hebrides for two weeks now, and I’m going to write a separate post on the Isle of Lewis (where we’re staying this month), but today I wanted to highlight our road trip up here, because it was amazing. When you’re planning a road trip in another country, it’s hard to… Continue Reading

London with Kids and Jet Lag Recovery

London with Kids and Jet Lag Recovery

This entry is part 7 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Today marks three weeks in the UK! We spent the first five days in London, and we loved it. The weather was perfect, the crowds were nonexistent, and we made lots of friends. Here’s what we did and what we learned about traversing London with four children (including a baby and a two year old).… Continue Reading

Why We Let the Little Ones Come to the Service

Why We Let the Little Ones Come to the Service

I remember the Sunday driving home from church when Becky said, “Wow, I think I was able to listen to the whole sermon today.” Our kids had finally reached the age where they were able to sit still in our church’s service without needing attention. Now we’ve “started over” with two more children. There is… Continue Reading

Beautiful Poetry Anthologies for Children

Beautiful Poetry Anthologies for Children

In honor of national poetry month, here is a list of my favorite poetry anthologies to use with children. A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (My favorite illustrated versions are by Tasha Tudor and Jessie Willcox Smith.) A Child’s Book of Poems by Gyo Fujikawa A Child’s Treasury of Poems by Mark… Continue Reading

Beautiful Baby Books: A List of Recommendations

Beautiful Baby Books: A List of Recommendations

I got a great question recently, and it’s one I’ve given a lot of thought to since Christopher was born last June. The question was about baby and toddler books. Last summer I went through our picture books and board books to set up the bookshelves in our nursery, and what I found is that… Continue Reading

Help your children learn the content of Scripture

Help your children learn the content of Scripture

Several years ago when my oldest was beginning his homeschooling in earnest and my wife and I were choosing our curricula for different school subjects, I set out to find just the right Bible curriculum. Our family does regularly read the Bible together as a family, but it is my firm belief that it also… Continue Reading

Order your Christmas Family Devotional Now!

Order your Christmas Family Devotional Now!

A few years ago we published a new daily devotional for the Christmas season by Pastor Taigen Joos that has been very well-received. This devotional is perfect for both families and individuals to use as they prepare to worship Christ during the Christmas season. Each daily reading is a rich, yet brief meditation on an event or characteristic… Continue Reading

Why music should be central in your homeschool

Why music should be central in your homeschool

My goal in this essay is to convince you that it is important that music be a part of your homeschool. My goal is to persuade you that music is essential to your children’s educational development. For you this may not be necessary — you recognize the benefits of music in the lives of your children. But perhaps you view music… Continue Reading

A Homeschool Mom Reads: My Book List for 2016

A Homeschool Mom Reads: My Book List for 2016

First of all, if you follow this series, you know I didn’t post the books I read in October through December. The truth is, I can’t remember all of them! I’m usually very good at keeping track on Goodreads, but we did a lot of traveling, which meant a lot of library downloads to my… Continue Reading

Review: Just Like Jesus Bible Storybook

Review: Just Like Jesus Bible Storybook

Today I’m reviewing the Just Like Jesus Bible Storybook by Stephen Elkins, published by Wonder Kids, a division of Tyndale. This retails for $14.99 (currently $10.95 on Amazon). A few notes about the format: Comes in a padded hardback with 173 colorfully illustrated paper pages Scripture verses taken from the NLT (and a few from… Continue Reading