23 May 2020

Our real-life homeschool plans & curriculum for the last decade

by | posted in: homeschooling | 2

There are so many choices to make when we start to homeschool. And the question: What homeschool curriculum best fits our style and needs? is at the top. After over a decade of homeschooling, here is what we’ve found works for us. Take, mix with brains, and experiment with curiosity to find out what works best for your family. As a second-generation homeschooler, here are ALL the best homeschool curriculum and books we’ve chosen over the last 12+ years (and some mistakes … Read More

20 May 2020

Make dinner faster with menu plan templates

by | posted in: homemaking, podcast | 1

Sometimes, it feels like getting dinner on the table is harder than it needs to be. Rightly or wrongly, we feel like we’re missing some secret or doing something wrong because we can’t make dinner faster – why does it take so much time to just get a meal on the table? Finding both a dinner and weekly meal planning template will help you make dinner faster, every day, with less stress and no decision-fatigue. Getting dinner on the table … Read More

16 May 2020

How to Classically Homeschool Multiple Ages

by | posted in: homeschooling | 2

We’ve been classically homeschooling our family of five for a dozen years now. When my oldest turned six, I was pregnant with baby #4 and had an eighteen-month-old getting into everything and a four-year-old wanting to do everything his brother did. Over the years we added a fifth baby, everyone eventually learned to read, and we moved through the middle school years with a full spectrum of ages. Now my youngest is seven, reading fluently, and my oldest is attending … Read More

13 May 2020

How to enjoy cooking more – 3 dinner time tips

by | posted in: homemaking, podcast | 3

It’s easy to slip into feeling like dinner is a drag, like it’s an interruption, like it’s something we just really rather not do. But since we do need to serve dinner everyday, why not learn how to enjoy cooking more? It truly is possible! Of course, there are times where it just doesn’t happen or it doesn’t work out or we don’t have the time, and so we have plan B meals. We have takeout—there’s pizza (whatever) sometimes that … Read More

8 May 2020

The Secret of Year-Round Homeschooling

by | posted in: homeschooling | 52

We have used a year-round homeschool schedule for over twelve years – for all of our homeschooling years to date. I believe it makes both planning and living a homeschool lifestyle easier and better. Here’s the scoop on the why and the how of homeschooling year-round. Yes, we are those sorts of homeschoolers who school year-round. It seems like people interpret this to mean we are always school, school, school. The truth is that I school year-round so I can have more of a … Read More

6 May 2020

How to keep a well-stocked pantry.

by | posted in: homemaking, podcast | 0

I had a dream. And in this dream my pantry always had everything I needed. I never ran out of ingredients to make dinner. I would go to the pantry, pull out what I needed to make dinner that day and it’d be there—no surprises. I had achieved well-stocked pantry perfection. But it turns out that making this dream a reality was much harder than I thought it would be. Still, it’s worth the effort to keep a well-stocked pantry. … Read More

5 May 2020

Stay organized with a weekly review.

by | posted in: homemaking, podcast | 0

The weekly review is a time set aside to remind yourself to what you have on your plate and choose your commitments so you can stay organized. You take some time and look at your calendar, make fresh to-do lists, decide what your biggest responsibilities are this week and then make sure those stay in front of your face so they can get done. Once we spend some time getting organized, the next step is to stay organized. We can’t … Read More

2 May 2020

Easy Family Dinners: How to Make Them Happen

by | posted in: homemaking | 0

Getting dinner on the table faster and with less effort – that’s the dream, right? We want easy family dinners because dinner is something we need to do every day, one way or another. When it feels like we spend half the day dealing with food, it’s easy to think we must be doing something wrong, that there must be some other way. Or, perhaps we aren’t spending half the day making food. Relying on convenience food or restaurants to … Read More

14 Apr 2020

The most effective to do list template

by | posted in: homemaking, podcast | 1

A short, prioritized daily card is the most effective to do list template you can use to make a planner that works for you. Do you have a planner that helps guide your moment by moment decisions about what to do each day? Is it working for you? Every week inside Simply Convivial Continuing Education, we do a live trouble shooting session and answer questions like that. Today, I have a clip from one such session all about our daily … Read More

11 Apr 2020

A metaphor for moms of teens

by | posted in: happiness | 0

Teenagers are a lot like newborns. They need lots of sleep, they need to be comforted, and they need to be fed in short intervals, roughly every 3 to 4 hours.  Instead of dirty diapers, now they have smelly hormones and stinking attitudes. We didn’t get angry or upset by diapers, and we don’t need get upset when issues flare up. We remind them to shower regularly and purchase deodorant, hygiene products, and other grooming supplies for their bodily needs. … Read More

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