I spend my days with a seventh-grader, a fifth-grader, a second-grader, a 4-year-old, and a 2-year-old.
We started out very gently homeschooling in kindergarten and maintained a very unschooling approach for our academically-minded firstborn. During his first grade year, I finally cracked open the first volume of Charlotte Mason's home education series that I had purchased at a used book sale years before. I was interested and influenced, but it wasn't until I read Volume 6 of the Home Education Series, A Philosophy of Education that my mind was completely blown and I became committed to following the Charlotte Mason method as fitted to our particular family. This has slowly turned into a highly literary education using the best books and materials, but more self-directed.
We are a frugal family by necessity as we continue in our long-term efforts to pay off educational loans that at one point topped $325,000. Through budgeting, hard work, good luck, and consistent efforts, we have paid off the majority of our debt, but we still have a few years left in our journey to be debt-free. You can learn a little more about our journey to be debt-free here.
We homeschool, like we do everything else, on a strict budget. We make homeschooling work with free ebooks, a library card, used book sales, and supportive grandparents who buy wonderful books and sometimes even math curriculum for our math-loving son.
I love morning time, read alouds, and being able to give my kids hours and hours of free time each day to follow their interests and be together with their siblings. It is a wonderful, bookish home-centered life!
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I went to law school and then become a librarian . . . I was a law librarian! I loved it, but after having my son in 2010 I didn't love how hard it was to juggle parenting and a career with a long commute. As soon as my husband went from grad student to professor I began my on-the-job training for my current career as a full-time homemaker.
I had a lot to learn! Back then I struggled so hard to care for and "entertain" a two-year-old and a baby while getting dinner on the table and not losing my mind!
As a bookish mom, I am thankful that I found so many great books to help me learn about the topics that were on my heart. From parenting to traditional foods, baking to fermenting, gardening to handicrafts, homeschooling to marriage, I've learned about them all through amazing living books. Plus lots of talking (aka narrating) and discussing them with my husband and friends. No wonder I was so drawn to Charlotte Mason's philosophy!
My favorite ferments are kimchi and kefir. My favorite novel genres are sci fi/fantasy and cozy mysteries. I am not a crafty person at all, but I enjoy feeding my family so cooking and fermentation are my serious handicrafts.
I grind my own wheat and bake all of our bread, but I still use a microwave and diet soda has ALWAYS been my guilty pleasure . . . so I'm not as crunchy as I may seem. But I'm pretty serious about eating locally so every fall, my basement is full of home-canned tomatoes, dozens of winter squash, a huge bucket of sauerkraut, a freezer full of chickens, and 100+ lbs of potatoes.
I love reading blogs but I can't handle being on Instagram or Facebook, so this is my quiet little corner of the internet where I make book lists and write about our homeschool plans and our favorite things so I can share them with my friends IRL and anyone who searches Bing for nature lore books or strict homeschool schedules.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you don't leave until you find a new living book for your to-read list. See below for some help with that ;-)
