Get your kids to LOVE poetry with Vintage Poetry for Modern Kids

We have been incorporating more of a Charlotte Mason-style approach to our homeschool this year. One of the things that we have added is poetry and I just wanted to share the book that we’ve been using as it has been really great for us!

The book is called Vintage Poetry for Modern Kids: 52 Classic Works and Hands-On Projects to Delight Students Throughout the Year and you can find it on Amazon. You may be able to find a used copy for a better price or you may find it at another bookstore for an even better deal!

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Getting Ready for the Holidays Weeks 1 & 2

Is it ever too early to think about Christmas? Probably not, especially when you consider all of the extra things that happen during that busy season. We just got everything decorated for Fall… I think this might be the first year we have really decorated this house as I kept waiting until we had everything ‘just right’ but who knows when that will be, so we might as well try to make things a little nicer today.

 12 Weeks of Holiday Planning – Pollywog’s Place Blog

Continue reading “Getting Ready for the Holidays Weeks 1 & 2”

Life Updates – October 2023

I think it’s been a little while since we’ve posted any life updates and quite a bit has happened over the past few months so I thought I’d give a quick summary of what we’ve been up to.

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Preparing for Daylight Savings Time

It is almost that time of year again and when you have so many kiddos with so many unique needs then this is something that can cause complete CHOAS in your household… along with weather changes, moon changes, and just about any kind of unexpected changes.

‘Losing’ that hour of sleep can wreak havoc on your body and upset your circadian rhythm which isn’t good. Here in our house, it’s really not good because we have kiddos who don’t understand the concept of time change and they just get unbearable to be around.

This year we’ve been trying a little experiment to hopefully prepare us for the upcoming time change and maybe keep things under control around here… fingers are crossed.

We’ve been setting our alarms 15 minutes earlier every Sunday night for the past 2 weeks and getting in bed a tad earlier at night… with the idea that when Daylight Savings Time actually rolls around they won’t have so much trouble with the adjustment… fingers and toes crossed now!

The kids have been a little grumpy the first couple of days of the week with the earlier wake times but it doesn’t last long. We usually head outside first thing in the morning to feed up and that seems to chase the grumpies away… yay! It has been shown that getting some daylight early in your day can help with your circadian rhythm and we already know that fresh air can work wonders.

On the night before the actual change, we always set the clocks ahead to prepare for the next day. Sometimes we do it directly after dinner so they go to bed a little early without realizing what going on… lol.

I will also try to have a ‘light’ school schedule for that first week after the time change so kids can get outside to work those grumpies out or take some naps if they need to. We already have some good routines in place so hopefully, they will help to keep us going on the right track without too many interruptions in the next few weeks.

What are your favorite tips for preparing for Daylight Savings Time?

You can read more about how Daylight Savings Time affects your body and ways to adjust HERE and HERE.

Free Homeschool Resources – Under the Home Online Homeschool Curriculum

I just wanted to pop in and tell you all about this wonderful site that I’ve recently found… I don’t know how I haven’t discovered them before… maybe I have and just forgot? Who knows anymore?

I do know that they can make homeschooling much easier and it’s completely free… all you need is internet access so you can get to the lessons. Navigation on the site is fairly simple and they have everything listed for grades K-5.

I’ve been leaning more towards the Charlotte Mason style teaching as you can read about HERE so this has been quite a blessing to help me supplement a few areas that I had trouble deciding on what to do. I also love that they use our beloved McGuffey Readers and Ray’s Arithmetic books. The site is child-friendly and ad-free as well so I haven’t had any concerns about what the kids might accidentally see on the pages.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in then you can check them out here.