37 Fun Ways to Celebrate the First Day of Homeschool
It's that time again! We've rounded up some great ways to celebrate your first day of the new homeschool year, whether you want to keep it simple at home or take a big adventure together.
It's that time again! We've rounded up some great ways to celebrate your first day of the new homeschool year, whether you want to keep it simple at home or take a big adventure together.
Those yellow school buses and crowded bus stops are a sign that school is back for traditionally schooled kids, but how do you celebrate the first day in your homeschool? We homeschool year-round, but we still make a big deal out of our First Official Day of the new school year. Is it just an excuse to buy fun school supplies and eat ice cream? Maybe, but it’s something we all look forward to, and little celebrations are an important part of homeschool life. If you’re looking for a little First Day of Homeschool inspiration, one of these ideas might be just right for your homeschool celebration.
Go roller skating.
Visit a paint-your-own pottery studio to create a special back-to-school souvenir.
Have a backyard campout.
Give everyone a small budget, and hit a flea market to refresh your homeschool space for the new year.
Spend the whole day in your pajamas.
Work on a volunteer project together.
Plant a container garden.
Drive to the nearest river and go tubing.
Set your alarm to wake up and watch the sunrise together. (You can take a nap later!)
Go out for a fancy brunch.
Ask everyone to make a First Day of School mixtape and trade your mixes.
Take a hot air balloon ride.
Have a karaoke party.
Make a first-day-of-school time capsule.
Take back-to-school photos.
Compete in a backyard Olympics competition.
Write a letter to yourself to open on the last day of the school year.
Go geocaching.
Pull out your art supplies, and create self-portraits.
Make new school year’s resolutions.
Take a day hike.
Have a karaoke party.
Paint a mural.
Dress up in last year's Halloween costumes.
See a movie matinee.
Have a backyard luau.
Build and launch rockets.
Bake and decorate a back-to-school cake.
Have a tea party.
Wash your car.
Decorate your driveway with sidewalk chalk.
Take a personality test, and compare results. (Try the Enneagram or the Myers Briggs test.)
Fill up your wall calendar with holidays, birthdays, events, and celebrations you are looking forward to this year. (Our monthly inspiration guides can help you out with this!)
Solve a jigsaw puzzle together.
Write your autobiography.
Go shopping for school supplies.
Make official school t-shirts.
Making Art a Family Project
If you want to make your homeschool a place that values creativity and creating, you can’t sit on the sidelines and wait for it to happen — you’ve got to get messy with them.
If you want to make your homeschool a place that values creativity and creating, you can’t sit on the sidelines and wait for it to happen — you’ve got to get messy with them.
In my early years of parenting, I’d set up crafty-type art activities for my first two children, and my creative interests would be pursued during the odd kid-free moment. Then I had a third child, who did not agree with the concept of kid-free moments. That’s when I shifted my approach and began setting up art explorations for all of us. This was purely a desperation move; I felt shrunken and depleted and needed to get my hands in paint and charcoal, even if only for a few moments in between assisting my children. I aimed for at least once a week. With three young children and homeschooling and life in general, it’s too easy to let non-necessities fall through the cracks. But art, for me, was a necessity, and I wanted it to be a regular part of my children’s experience, so I made it a priority.
We’re never going to fit everything in, and if we don’t consciously schedule those things we need and want to have happen, chances are, they will fall by the wayside as we fill our time with other things. We had a lovely art area at the time that I’d created when we had the chance to finish our basement, but nobody was using it. Just creating the space wasn’t enough; I needed to dedicate the time, too. For a long while, Sundays were art days. I carved out the time and treated it like any other commitment. Art wasn’t limited to just that time; once we made a habit of using the space together, we found ourselves there more and more. Before too long, the art area was being used as I’d hoped: my older kids were comfortable going in and out and finding what they needed, and my toddler soon asked for what she wanted with detailed specificity, often daily. They came up with ideas for explorations as often as I did, and we continue to make art together and separately.
The key, of course, is to form the habit of art making. This requires space, materials, and dedicated time. I often hear that the first and second items are difficult, but I suspect the real roadblock is number three. Decide when art time is going to be and write it on the calendar. Make it as high a priority as co-op or that class at the library or the play date at the park—all of which, I bet, get written on the calendar. Block out the time even if it doesn’t all get used up at first. It doesn’t even have to be a lot of time. It just has to be protected.
When I decided we needed to explore art, though, I had no idea where to begin. I realized most everything I’d done with children up to that point was properly classified as “crafts,” so I tried to educate myself. Susan Striker’s Young at Art book has been a fabulous resource, and is all you need if you have young children. For older children and adults, it all depends upon interest, but a challenge might be just the thing for kickstarting an art habit. Brainstorm a list of items to draw until you have a month’s worth, and then draw one per day. (You can also search the Internet for drawing challenge lists, or borrow 642 Things to Draw from the library. That will keep you busy for a while!) The “Lab” series of books is a wonderful resource for digging deeper into certain areas. We have Paint Lab, Drawing Lab, and Art Lab for Kids on our home bookshelf, but the series also includes books on color, collage, printmaking, and more. These are all good places to find ideas to jump start your art explorations.
I can’t stress enough that art in the home is, ideally, open to everyone, and by that I specifically mean adults. I don’t believe it’s fair for the kids to have all the fun. I’ve spoken to far too many parents who believed they just weren’t artistic. If you feel that way, I hope you sit down next to your child and play with the paints, too. Don’t set out to make anything in particular; give yourself permission to make a mess. See what the materials can do. See what you can do. One of the biggest gifts of homeschooling and parenting, in my opinion, is the way it lets us adults tap into the creative, curious enthusiasm of childhood. Join in at the art table. Have fun!
Stuff We Like: Weekend Roundup
It’s been a while since we’ve done a Stuff We Like post, but here are some things that are inspiring our homeschool life right now.
It’s been a little while since we’ve done a Stuff We Like roundup, but here are some things that inspiring our homeschool life right now!
at HSL
on instagram: It’s my dog’s birthday!
on the blog: I’m always hearing from people who wonder if they should quit working to homeschool, and there’s no simple answer — but these three questions can help you figure out if it’s feasible and worth considering.
at the academy: We’re on spring break, but you can join us for our open house on the 26th.
on the library list
I LOVE LOVE LOVED this short story collection.
My son is deep into quantum physics right now, so I’ve queued this up to the top of our reading list.
I’m finding decent dinnertime inspiration in this book — and on the raggedy edge of a pandemic, I think that’s pretty good.
in our homeschool
I am pretty passionate about making quantum physics a big chunk of high school physics, but I appreciate how challenging it can be to wrap your mind around a concept that you can’t really see out in your everyday experiences so I am always looking for ways to make it more accessible. One resource I love is the Quantum Shorts Festival, in which filmmakers make short films about the ideas in quantum physics.
We’re reading Purple Hibiscus as part of our African lit course this semester, and I keep going back to Chimamanda Adichie’s amazing TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story.” I think we’ve watched it three times and found something different every time.
ask me anything
(If you have a question, you can ask it here.)
Who do you ask for college recommendation letters for homeschoolers? This one is easy: Anyone who has taught your teen and appreciated their work. Outside classes are the easiest for this, which is why even in you’re at-home homeschoolers for the most part, it’s worth looking for an outside class every year while you are in high school. But you can also think about activity leaders (like the ones who head up your Girl Scout troop, youth group, YMCA, etc.), internship or apprenticeship mentors, employers (even from long-term baby-sitting or dog-sitting work), etc. Tip: Don’t wait until the last minute to ask for recommendations! If you take a class with a teacher your kid loves, ask about the recommendation at the end of the class, even if you know you won’t be needing it for a couple of years. Then your student can check in with that teacher a few times over the course of high school, sharing relevant achievements or connections to current studies.
What was the hardest age to homeschool? Oh, that’s an interesting question. With elementary, I was figuring out what to do, so I think it might have been the most confusing, and high school was certainly the most intimidating (though way easier than I thought at the time now that I have the luxury of looking back), but I think middle school was probably the hardest. We had to experiment a lot to find the best ways to study things like math and history, and my kids needed a lot of support and direction right at the time when they didn’t want any support or direction from me. Now I know that all of this is really developmentally normal — the tween years are hard on parents, and so it’s not crazy that they would be doubly hard on homeschool parents — but at the time, I took it all so personally and was so worried that I was messing everything up.
What do you make for breakfast? I don’t! Unless it’s a special occasion, I let everybody be in charge of their own breakfast. I burned out fast on cooking three-plus meals a day, so I only deal with dinner now.
at home
I’m so happy to have gotten my first vaccine shot this week!
I have loaded my entire wardrobe into the Stylebook App (which was a pain even though my wardrobe is not particularly giant, if you don’t include all my t-shirts), and I am obsessed.
Games to Make You Forget Cabin Fever
Break out the board games to beat the mid-winter blahs in your homeschool.
Break out the board games to beat the mid-winter blahs in your homeschool.
CASTLE PANIC
In this cooperative game, players team up to keep invading goblins and orcs from breaking through the protective castle walls.
TERRAFORMING MARS
Think big with this game, which lets you gradually turn the Red Planet into one that’s habitable for humans.
QUIRKLE
My kids are hooked on this pattern sequencing game, which can get fast-paced and intense as you try to make the most of your tiles.
MUNCHKIN
Whether you prefer to play competitively or cooperatively, you’ll find this build-a-deck game is different every time you play it.
FORBIDDEN ISLAND
The fun part about this cooperative game is that you can increase the difficulty level as you get the hang of it.
AZUL
This tile-based game calls on everyone to channel maximum creativity in an effort to be named the official tile designer for the Alhambra.
THE MIND
This is technically a card game rather than a board game, but its addictive gameplay — it’s like really complicated communal solitaire — makes this game a family favorite.
Nevermore: Fun Facts about Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”
Edgar Allan Poe’s Raven turns 176 years old this January, but there are still things to discover about this most mysterious of birds.
Edgar Allan Poe’s Raven turns 176 years old this January, but there are still things to discover about this most mysterious of birds.
Every Halloween, our homeschool group hosts “The Raven-ing,” a competition to see who can memorize the most of the classic Poe poem and who can give the most dramatic reading thereof. It’s an annual highlight, mostly because the weird, eerie poem appeals to almost everyone. It’s even more fun if you slip a few of these surprising facts into the conversation:
What the Dickens?
Poe’s raven was inspired by the raven in Charles Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge — which isn’t surprising when you remember that the author of Oliver Twist was the pop culture hero of his time.
Meter Maid
Poe dedicated the book “The Raven” was eventually included in to English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, another Victorian literary pop star. Poe may have been acknowledging more than his appreciation for the poet — some critics think he borrowed the complex poetic meter from one of her poems for “The Raven.”
Lincoln Log
“The Raven” hit instant popular success and inspired hundreds of parodies. Abraham Lincoln enjoyed one parody, “The Polecat,” (this was the best-formatted version online, but I’m not familiar enough with this website to recommend or not recommend it!) so much that it inspired him to look up the original poem — the 19th century equivalent of reading the book because you liked the movie.
Celebrity Flockers
Kids followed Poe around, flapping their arms and cawing until Poe delighted them by turning around and dramatically saying, “Nevermore.” That’s how popular “The Raven” was.
Stuff We Like
Here’s some of the stuff making my homeschool life a little happier lately.
Here’s some of the stuff making my homeschool life a little happier lately. (We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
I have been rocking this awesome t-shirt all week. (I don’t even want to take it off to wash it!)
I read this, and I loved it. I was a little worried because it’s different from Jemisin’s other books, and it was a much slower build for me. But I love the idea of cities coming to life in people who represent them, and — as a former New Yorker! — I appreciated the loving, funny tributes to all of NYC’s boroughs.
I’m knitting these mitts for Hanukkah this year.
This is our current readaloud — I found it on a list of “books for people who love Diana Wynne Jones,” and while I have never discovered any books that are actually like Diana Wynne Jones, these lists often point me in good directions. We’re about halfway through, and it’s pretty fun so far.
It’s finally soup season, and this comforting soup is in regular weekend rotation at our house. (I’ve never been able to really get into cold soup — there’s this one fancy chilled onion soup I kind of liked, but mostly they taste weird to me — except strawberry soup, but that’s dessert, so it doesn’t count!)
Suzanne recommended the book, but I started the TV show instead, and four episodes in, I am HOOKED.
I’m in Georgia, where our January runoff elections will determine the balance of the U.S. Senate. (Gulp!) Democrats traditionally have a very tough time getting our voters back out to vote in a runoff. If you want to get involved, you can help remotely by phone banking, texting and writing postcards. Check out one or all of these organizations already doing the work here:
Stuff We Like :: 3.7.20
Evil-fighting babysitters, middle school testing, Japanese storytelling, magical houses, and more in this week’s roundup of Stuff We Like.
Evil-fighting babysitters, middle school testing, Japanese storytelling, magical houses, and more
Find me on Patreon
chatting about how to start your own homeschool group
sharing my Friday links roundup
(and you can also download our Time Cat reading guide)
What’s happening at HSL
What I’m reading
I have had Flora Segunda on my reading list for a while (mostly because of its delightful subtitle: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog) but only just got around to reading it. I feel like if I had read this in middle school, it would have jumped to the top of my beloved books list: Flora (Segunda because the first, prima, Flora mysteriously vanished in a war before her replacement sister was born) is the youngest of the once-powerful Fyrdraaca family, but she does not want to follow in her mother and sister’s military footsteps. Instead, she longs to be one of the forbidden rangers, a group of magic-users who work in the shadows. Honestly, though, she’d settle for not being the family’s de facto servant — ever since her mother banished their house’s magical butler, Flora’s been the only one holding the enormous magic house together. One day, when she’s late for school, she breaks the rules and rides the house elevator — bringing her into contact with the banished butler and a family mystery that Flora’s determined to solve. The world-building in this book is layered and complex, and there are plenty of tantalizing mysteries remaining after the story wraps up its main threads in a satisfying and surprising way.
I also read The Grey Sisters, which has a very dramatic set-up — two friends road trip to the place where their siblings died in a tragic plane crash and discover a doomsday cult living off the grid there — but ends up being mostly forgettable. I’m actually having trouble coming up with anything to say about it…
The Babysitters Coven, on the other hand, was as predictable as bubble gum lip gloss in the 1980s and really just as much fun. This mash-up of The Baby-Sitters Club and Buffy the Vampire Slayer doesn’t pack the punch of either of those works but is nonetheless a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours: Esme’s a babysitter — what else does she have to do? — and when new girl in town Cassandra joins her babysitting club, they discover that babysitters are responsible for more than just getting the kids to bed on time. In fact, babysitters are the superheroes who stand between the everyday world and unspeakable evil — and Esme and Cassandra are about to get in on the fight. It’s not a great book, but it’s fun.
What I’m learning
I’m in the midst of putting together a Japanese literature and film class for next fall, so I’ve been reading tons of books on Japanese storytelling, which is so different from western storytelling. I’m getting so excited about this class.
Typically, I don’t give written tests in junior high, but this semester, my middle schoolers insisted that they wanted to have a chemistry exam, and they all rocked it. There are a couple of things I take away from this: one, if you treat tests like something fun, they seem like they’re fun, and two, giving people two minutes at the end to check their answers against their notes really boosts their confidence. And, of course, tests aren’t the best measure of learning.
What I’m watching
I’m also teaching The Philosophy of The Good Place this fall, so I’ve been watching The Good Place with the kids. (We had just finished Parks and Rec, so they were very concerned when Bad Ben Wyatt shows up!)
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff We Like :: 2.14.20
The surprising fun of just asking why, the challenges of choosing a reading list, reading poetry, and more stuff we liked this week.
Find me on Patreon:
chatting about making the transition to middle school
in the most recent episode of the Library Chicken podcast
discussing strategies for teaching grammar through writing
(and you can also download the winter issue of HSL and our Gulliver’s Travels reading guide this month!)
What’s happening at HSL:
5 ways to read Robinson Crusoe
How to make volunteering a regular part of your family’s homeschool life
3 ways to teach art history
What I’m reading
Suzanne raved about Murderbot (All Systems Red is the first novella) until I finally broke down and read it just to make her stop talking about it, but as usual she was right. I love Murderbot, too. (I ramble enough about it in this week’s Library Chicken podcast that I won’t repeat it all here! If you don’t subscribe to the Library Chicken podcast, and you enjoy people rambling about what they’re reading, you can follow us on the HSL Patreon.)
I’m reading tons of poetry right now. The biggest hit with my high school students so far has been “I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party,” though they liked “Good Bones,” too. (They have excellent taste!) The junior high students have been harder to figure out — I thought they’d love the weird wildness of “Tyger, Tiger,” but they couldn’t get into it. I’m thinking of trying some e.e. cummings (maybe this one?) next to encourage them to think outside the stanza.
You can read my mini-review of 96 Miles over on Instagram. There seems to be an unending supply of these survival stories for middle grades readers right now, and this is a completely fine entry in that category.
What I’m learning
One fun thing about chemistry with middle schoolers is that they keep asking “why,” which makes me keep asking “why,” too. For example, did you know that glass isn’t technically a liquid or a solid? It’s something in-between, what’s called an amorphous solid. Most solids freeze into super-organized structures, but glass goes through a double-cooling process, which leaves it more disorganized than more traditional solids. Another thing you might not know: You can actually spend an entire class session talking about this.
There is a lot, like ridiculously a lot, of excellent Asian literature, and it’s hard to pin down what to read for a class I’m teaching in the fall. I mean, this is always a problem, of course — there are so many great books (and stories and poems and plays) and only so much time to read them — but it feels especially hard with non-European literature because I feel like I’ve got to represent the breadth of an entire literary tradition in 14 weeks. This is obviously not the case — all I really need to do is put together a sort of literary tasting menu, which should be easy when there are so many cool things to choose from but which feels overwhelming. Clearly the solution is to read more books so I have more to choose from. (Next up: Some Prefer Nettles)
What I’m watching
I’m keeping up my Galentine’s tradition of binging Crazy Ex-Girlfriend with my best friend.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff We Like :: 1.25.20
Being patient in pursuit of a routine, un-magic people at magic schools, teaching poetry to kids, and more stuff we liked this week.
The new semester has started, and I’ve managed to mix up my binders twice, run out of batteries for my keyboard, and make a big ooblecky mess in the junior high classroom. I’m going to say it was a pretty great week.
What I’m Reading
I rave about The Word Is Murder in this week’s Library Chicken podcast, so I’ll just say here that I really enjoyed it.
I picked up Magic for Liars because Suzanne recommended it (and it was super-cheap for the Kindle one day — I should really change my half of the podcast to Kindle Chicken, in which I try to actually read all the books I download because they are on sale), and I totally get why she loved it: It’s about a bitter private investigator who is hired to investigate a murder at the exclusive school where her estranged twin sister is a teacher. This isn’t an ordinary school though: Ivy’s sister is magic, and she teaches at a high school for magicians. (They call them mages.) Ivy’s entire life has been defined by absence: the absence of magic (why is her sister magical but she’s not?), the absence of her sister (who went away to private magic school, leaving Ivy behind), the absence of her family, which fell apart after her mother died and her sister left home. This leaves Ivy, frankly, not a very likable or sympathetic character — she’s chosen to wallow in all of this misery, and she consistently makes choices that reinforce how unhappy she is. Even taking the job investigating a gruesome murder at her sister’s school is just rubbing salt in the wound — her sister belongs in this world, but Ivy doesn’t. That brings something I really liked to the book, though: The magical system is mysterious because Ivy doesn’t understand it — she’s not magic. She sees glimpses and has little flashes of understanding, but she’s always outside the big magical mystery, which works really well for the story. I kept waiting, though, for some revelation (beyond the identity of the murderer, which most people will probably guess early on even if the motive turns out to be a minor twist), some emotional conclusion or catharsis, but the books winds up almost too quickly, leaving none of the complicated relationships it’s set up resolved. I liked it — but I could have loved it, if you know what I mean, and I am bummed that I didn’t.
I picked up Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? Teaching Great Poetry to Children again because I AM teaching poetry to middle school students through creative writing this semester, and I remembered finding this book very useful with my daughter. And it is useful — if you want to help your kids write poetry and don’t know where to start, this is a terrific resource to get you over that initial hump. I was surprised, though, by how old-fashioned the included anthology seemed — I don’t remember feeling this way 10-ish years ago when I pulled it out for my daughter, but I was really struck by the sheer white-man-ness of the included readings. It’s easy — and fun! — to pull your own poems, so this definitely isn’t a deal-breaker for me, but it was a very noticeable absence.
What I’m Watching
Have you watched the first couple of episodes of The Outsider? I have no idea what’s happening, and it’s so weird, but I keep watching, so maybe it will turn out to be worth it?
I’m using a few episodes of Finding Your Roots this semester in my high school history class, and if you’re studying U.S. history, I highly recommend it. In the show, hosted by historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr., celebrity guests trace their genealogy through U.S. history, with fascinating results. (Comedian Wanda Sykes, in one of my favorite episodes, discovers that her family is one of the few in the United States with free Black people stretching back before the American Revolution.) I love the way they make archival discoveries seem exciting and accessible — I am at the front of the line thanking the internet for making information readily accessible, but not all information comes in quick-digest form, especially in historical research.
Television knitting: This scarf, just because it’s pretty, and I’m trying to use up my sock yarn stash so I can buy more sock yarn.
What’s Keeping Me Busy
One of my big goals for middle school with my son is to help him get into a routine with his academic work. This doesn’t come naturally to him — he tends to put things off and then be horribly upset that he doesn’t have time to finish them the way he wants to. This is hard for me because I am naturally prone to embracing to-do lists — and he just isn’t. So when I come in with my color-coded flags and bullet journals and highlighters, he nods and smiles, and nothing changes. What I have to do is be patient — I have to step back instead of forward, and I have to pay attention to him and how he gets things done. That, I know, is the secret to routines — you don’t “make” them so much as you discover them, but being patient through the discovering phase is hard for me.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff We Like :: 1.10.20
Knitting for chilly classrooms, remembering why poetry books are so fun to read, watching His Dark Materials, new highlighters, and more stuff we liked this week.
If you subscribe to the newsletter, this won’t surprise you, but I’m changing up the way we do Stuff We Like posts. Henceforth, I’ll focus here on the stuff I like in my own life in these Friday posts; in the newsletter, you’ll find my links roundup. (You can subscribe to the newsletter for free — this is just a way of keeping my own brain fresh and interested in what I’m writing about.)
What I’m Reading
I picked up Best American Poetry 2000 because I wanted to read Jane Bowdan’s “This Year” with my high school lit class (and that poem is impossible to find!), but I’ve really been enjoying reading through it — maybe because 2000 was one of the last years where I was really reading new poetry all the time, and a lot of this work felt familiar. I do okay reading poetry — I have loved subscribing to Matthew Ogle’s Pome (and highly recommend it) and The Paris Review’s Poetry Rx — but this happy feeling reminds me that I need to make more room for poetry in my life.
I was so excited to read Ruth Reichl’s Save Me the Plums, her memoir of her time as the editor of the late, lamented Gourmet magazine, and then when I finally did read it, I was SO DISAPPOINTED. Reichl is maybe my favorite memoirist — she manages to capture the sensations of being in a given place and time, and while she can be a little judge-y about people who make different decisions from the ones she makes, let’s face it, I am also a little judge-y sometimes, and it makes her seem more human to me. Garlic and Sapphires and Tender at the Bone are two of my all-time favorite memoirs, and that’s saying something because as Suzanne will tell you, I don’t even like memoirs. But Save Me the Plums felt … forced, I guess, in a way that none of her other books felt to me. Reichl has already written twice about the end of Gourmet, which was sudden and shocking for food and magazine people — I remember where I was when I heard about it, if that tells you anything. But it felt new and raw, and there was a bitterness about it that is missing in Reichl’s other books, which are always laughing with you and not at you. Maybe that’s why the book isn’t really about Gourmet — with one (admittedly great) bit about David Foster Wallace’s infamous lobster festival essay aside, the stuff she does at the actual magazine is hardly mentioned. She decorates her office (in shocking bright colors!), eats in the famous cafeteria, goes to so many parties, goes to Paris with her entire staff (!!) to work on a food issue, has endless lunches — but there’s so little about the actual magazine, which, frankly, is what I was excited to read. I’ve read a million stories about ordinary women (though calling The New York Times food critic, with several bestselling books “ordinary” does feel like a stretch here) thrust into a world of privilege and questionable values only to lose it all, and there was nothing new or interesting in that story here. I wanted to read about Gourmet — and about the really wonderful work Reichl did there. And that was glaringly absent, which maybe suggests a lot of things about how Reichl feels about her experience there but which didn’t make good reading for me. It felt, weirdly, like she just wasn’t ready to write about it yet. So I’m a huge fan of Reichl, but unlike all my back issues of Gourmet, Save Me the Plums is headed to donation pile.
I read The Hunting Party because it was billed as a “seven old friends from Oxford travel to a remote Scottish lodge to ring in the New Year, and when the resident Queen Bee ends up dead, everyone is a suspect.” I mean, I think we all know that I am all in for remote Scottish countrysides and friends from Oxford and house party murder mysteries, but this book was just meh. I loved the idea of it being told from multiple perspectives, but it ended up being just five perspectives: Queen Bee, her best frenemy, her new-to-the-group would-be bestie, and the lodge caretaker and security staff, who both have their own Tragic Backstories that come to light over the course of the novel. The problem is that I kept having to flip back to the beginning the section to see who was doing the narrating — except for the security guy, who conveniently thinks in the third person, all four of the women sounded alike a lot of the time — and none of them was particularly interesting. By the time the murder was (predictably) solved with a dramatic assist from a totally random side plot, I was just relieved to be done. Not a hit for me.
What I’m watching
The kids and I have been working our way through Parks & Recreation, and I love watching it with them. (We started it because they loved Making It, and I totally took Suzanne’s advice, which I did NOT take it when I watched it solo, to start with the first episode of season 3 when the show kind of does a soft reset.) The kids love teasing me that I’m like Leslie Knope, which I’m obviously not because I know better than to get a perm, however much my stick-straight hair yearns for one. (I do maybe have a lot of binders, though.)
Jason and I binged His Dark Materials, and I loved a lot of things about it. I definitely recommend it to Philip Pullman fans. I had some problems with it (particularly with the treatment of one — to me — key moment that — for me — turned Lyra from a stubborn, often unlikable girl into true heroine and which is notably missing in the adaptation), but overall, I’m looking forward to my follow-up binge. Lin-Manuel Miranda is (no shocker here) delightful, the armored bear Iorek is really well done, Ruth Wilson just channels repressed evil, and the scenery is spectacular. I love the actress who plays Lyra — she’s perfect. The first season is basically The Golden Compass, though they do weave in Will’s story from the beginning of The Subtle Knife so that the season ends with Lyra and Will walking through their respective portals. I imagine season 2 will start with them meeting up in Cittàgazze, which makes sense structurally for a television adaptation. If you’re a fan of the books, I recommend this series; if not, honestly, I’m not sure all the many, many explanation subtitles will be enough to help you totally follow what’s going on.
Current television knitting: This shawl because I need something to keep on the back of my chair for when I (inevitably) start freezing in class.
What’s keeping me busy
It’s planning season for me, since the hybrid school Suzanne and I run starts back in two weeks. One of my big challenges for this semester has been coming up with a list of contemporary-ish novels to read for my American Voices seminar, a big interdisciplinary class that covers philosophy, history, and literature in the United States. (I always hate using “American” when I mean just the United States, but I was voted down on this one because nobody — frankly including me — liked how U.S. Voices sounded.) We’ll mostly be reading poetry and short stories, but I wanted to include a novel as independent reading, and then I thought it would be fun to let students choose their own novels since they’re reading them independently, and then I thought it would be fun to have them choose their novels from a list of Twitter mini reviews: “It’s the end of the world as we know it, but all the world’s a stage.” I’m hoping this is half as fun for them as it is for me.
I also ordered new highlighters, and these are my favorite, and they never blur the writing, so I am recommending them wholeheartedly and will throw a big set in our summer planning subscription box.
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Stuff We Like :: 1.3.20
Memes as the new formalism, how predictive text works, reading trends of the 2010s, and more stuff we liked this week.
I hope you are all having as lovely a break as I am!
what’s happening at home/school/life
in the magazine: Look for the winter issue in your inbox this weekend!
on the podcast: Suzanne and I are talking about the things we’ve learned over two decades of homeschooling, our mutual obsession with Stardew Valley, and our favorite new comfort books. (This should be up on Patreon today and for everyone after next week.)
on the blog: It’s our 2020 Reading Challenge!
on patreon: This month’s free curriculum is our Gulliver’s Travels reading guide.
on instagram: We’re on vacation, and it feels so good.
from the archives: The power of thinking it through out loud; New Year’s resolutions for your homeschool; and an Ellis Island unit study
links we liked
Are memes the new formalism? “The formalists on Twitter have gotten better than the formalists of the classroom in reminding themselves how fun reading can be.”
Here’s a look at some of the book trends of the 2010s. (This is interesting whether you're on Team New Decade or not.)
The literary canon is so white we don’t even see its whiteness.
I never do those predictive text things that pop up on Facebook, but I was fascinated by this peek into how they actually work (your phone wants you to look good!).
Most of us rely on Common Sense Media to prescreen some of the stuff we watch with our kids, so I bet you’ll find this behind-the-scenes look as interesting as I did.
I think I should feel personally attacked, but I’m laughing too hard.
People are always teasing me because I like to put my hands over my ears and hum over the author’s backstory, but this illustrates the problem with idolizing writers: What do you do when they exhibit behavior that’s problematic or just plain jerky?
what i’m reading
Since our Library Chicken podcast is on hiatus, I figured I’d round up my current reading here:
The Secret Commonwealth (I miss Will)
Save Me the Plums (I was so disappointed with this one!)
The Hunting Party (I had high hopes for this one, but it was pretty meh)
The Pale Horse (I’d forgotten almost everything about this book, but it’s a solid Christie)
Mapp and Lucia (a reliable comfort read)
what’s making me happy
peppermint Joe-Joes
my dog in his pajamas
literature-planning lunch with Suzanne
finishing the winter issue on time!
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff We Like :: 12.20.19
The myth of morning routines, the downside of immortality, the problem with online reviews, and more stuff we liked this week.
I love these slower-paced days of just being home so much now that I spend a big chunk of the week working elsewhere: Making lazy breakfasts, cleaning out the linen closet, knitting winter hats, moving around all the art in the family room — these things make me so happy.
what’s happening at home/school/life
on Patreon: Join us for a live chat today! (It’s open to everyone, even if you’re not a Patreon supporter.) I’ll be answering questions about balancing academics and passion in high school, whether you can (or should) count Dungeons & Dragons on your high school transcript, and talking about homeschool friendly jobs for parents and how to find them. I’ll also take other questions if time permits.
on the blog: Suzanne picks her favorite horror reads of 2019.
on instagram: Family art project
in the magazine: I had so much fine writing a step-by-step guide to creating minimal effort, maximum reward escape room for your homeschool. (Escape rooms were definitely one of the highlights of our fall learning!)
in the archives: We forgot to do a shoe check and other reasons you might not get to co-op on time; celebrating the winter solstice; and some of our favorite last-minute stocking stuffers
links we liked
I feel like there’s some interesting philosophical thinking to be done around the issue of online reviews — the whole process seems problematic, especially because some people know how to play the system, but I find myself making choices based on reviews all the time.
Leonardo da Vinci was also a bridge engineering genius.
“No matter how much Instagram would like to be viewed as a place users feel good about visiting, its entire existence is predicated on reminding people that other people are having more fun than they are.”
The best morning routine is the routine or non-routine that works for your life — this is about business, but it’s a homeschool life lesson if there ever was one!
Fascinating: Is the quest for immortality worse than death?
This is a good summary of what’s happening with the Common Core.
Books added to my TBR list
The Twisted Ones (because Suzanne recommends it and I loved Castle Hangnail)
The Story of a Goat (because sometimes you just have to judge a book by its cover)
The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny (because who could resist?)
things making me happy
Fair Fight 2020 (because we can fix the mess that our electoral process is trying so hard to become)
I mean, I’m always going to watch an ice skating movie
“They” is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year (because, sure, getting over your grammar habits is hard but not as hard as living in a world that refuses to call you by your name, right?)
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff We Like :: 12.13.19
Apprenticeships are the new college, what we lose when we lose local news, how we lost our sense of time, Hanukkah churros, and more stuff we like.
The busiest week of my semester is wrapping up, and I can’t wait to cuddle up on the couch with a box of peppermint Jo-Jos and watch Making It.
at home/school/life
on the blog: Four inspired ways to teach the history of U.S. expansion.
on the podcast: Suzanne and I posted a sneak peek — technically a sneak listen! -- of the Library Chicken podcast, which we record every week for our Patreon supporters.
in the magazine: Consider moving your subscription over to Patreon — it’s just $2/month, and you also get cool extra posts and other stuff.
on patreon: I’m talking about some of my favorite non-essay, non-test ways to check for understanding.
at the academy: Are finals actually supposed to be this fun?
in the archives: Some of our favorite games to give and get; why your stories may be the very best gifts we give our children; the lazy parent’s guide to holiday cheer
links i liked
I love this! I’m like the biggest fan of college ever, but college should be something you choose because it helps you grow in a way you want to grow — not something you choose by default. Lots of jobs don’t really require a college education, and I love seeing the list get bigger all the time.
I miss newspapers. And I really miss real reported local news, which is getting rarer and rarer.
This is sad: There are some awesome candidates in the running, but we’re watching the field of contenders get whiter and whiter. Why?
Oh my gosh, so much this: How the 2010s broke our sense of time.
This is hilarious! (I do feel obligated to note that the only Karen I know IRL is also one of the most genuinely nice people I know.)
books added to my tbr list
The Curse of the Werepenguin (recommended by my son)
The Grammarians (recommended by Suzanne)
Tuesday Mooney Wore Black (because even though it doesn’t even have a release date yet I cannot wait)
things that are making me happy
Holiday knitting
Holiday baking
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff We Like :: 12.6. 19
Decolonizing the canon, what to buy your favorite Nancy Drew fan, emphasizing the significance of the domestic arts in history, and more stuff we liked this week.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year — and also the busiest, with holiday parties and final projects and gift-making and all the other wonderful and busy-making things that make the holidays so fun. We are pretty chill celebrants, but even we end up with overflowing to-do lists this time of year. Happily they are to-do lists mostly full of stuff we want to do — which also means that they are to-do lists we can set aside to go for a winter nature walk or watch a movie if we want to!
what’s happening at home/school/life
on the blog: Suzanne gives us a special Library Chicken edition of her favorite graphic novels of 2019.
on Patreon: Premium subscribers can download my three-week thesis writing boot camp, and there’s a new episode of Library Chicken going up today.
on instagram: We really like Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. (It’s definitely my favorite of the Rick Riordan imprint so far!)
at the Academy: It’s project season in the junior high!
in the archives: Our year-long mythology reading list, a gift guide for people who love Nancy Drew, and a little Ellis Island unit study
>> Subscribe to home/school/life magazine.
links we liked
I am interested in shaping a new canon, and I do see literary awards as an important piece of that process — as they celebrate more diversity in their honorees, the canon will benefit from that, too, I think. So I found this piece about African fiction awards and some of the problems they can run into kind of fascinating and a little disturbing, especially the idea that white literary organizations may be trying to tell African writers what “African fiction” should be. An interesting read if you have time!
This is so cool: Humans invented writing four different times: around 3,200 BC in Mesopotamia and Egypt, around 1,200 BC in China and around 400 BC in Mesoamerica.
What do you do if you’re a Native American comedian invited to weigh in on a racist video game from the “Native American perspective” on Thanksgiving? If you’re Joey Clift, you bravely and awesomely confront the giant problematic elephants cavorting through the room and maybe make the world a little better place.
Relevant to my interests: What if we called it the Flax Age instead of the Bronze Age?
Do I think Gaudy Night is under-appreciated? I don’t, actually. (I bond with strangers who also love Harriet Vane every week.) But will I take any opportunity to read some excellent writing about one of my all-time favorite books? I think we all know the answer to that.
things that are making me happy
My son’s awesome Deborah Sampson project for the junior high history fair
The really delightful utopian community my daughter created for her philosophy final project
My dog in his plaid flannel pajamas
Jason’s birthday!
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff We Like :: 11.29.19
Leftover pie, the language of the apocalypse, the myth of limited rights, be as nice to yourself as you would be to a stranger, and more stuff we liked this week.
Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving! Seriously, I think this is my favorite day of the entire year.
What’s happening at home/school/life
in the magazine: What’s even the point of a secular homeschool magazine in the digital world?
on the blog: It’s our holiday book wish list.
on instagram: Our cranberry sauce was a colossal failure, but it made me realize how homeschooling has changed my life for the better.
on patreon: Homeschooling in the news
in the archives: How do you organize your homeschool library? (Lists are key.)
Links we liked
I’ve been thinking about this a lot — this space in the progressive world where we end up in conflict with people who, honestly, really do share like 99 percent of our values and hopes. This essay is about trans women’s rights and radical feminism, but it could be about so many things: “We are being sold the notion that there is not enough space or safety in the world for all of us.”
A reminder we all need: Why shouldn’t we be as kind to ourselves as we would be to a complete stranger?
Latin is the language of the apocalypse. (But that’s a good thing: “We can still learn from the imperfect past to improve our imperfect present.”)
In this vision of the future, the Internet returns the world to a medieval-ish past, in which a few rich lords run everything, while peasants scramble to make rent. And what about knowledge? “Paradoxically, the ephemerality — and sheer volume — of text on social media is re-creating the circumstances of a preliterate society: a world in which information is quickly forgotten and nothing can be easily looked up. (Like Irish monks copying out Aristotle, Google and Facebook will collect and sort the world’s knowledge; like the medieval Catholic church, they’ll rigorously control its presentation and accessibility.)” Is it crazy that it doesn’t seem that crazy?
Things making me happy
I need this.
All the leftovers.
Also leftover pie because it deserves its own spot on the list.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff We Like :: 11.22.19
Games for storytelling, the problem with history curricula, eating alone, and more stuff we liked this week.
This week, I tried something new: We’ve been reviewing the plot arc, the path a story takes from exposition to conclusion (an essential piece of effectively summarizing a story before you analyze it), and I had an idea: What if we pulled out our trusty Dixit game? We numbered the major points on the plot arc (1. Exposition, 2. Rising action, 3. Conflict, 4. Climax, 5. Falling Action, and 6. Conclusion) and drew six Dixit cards, which we flipped over to inspire each new phase of storytelling. It was fun, but it also really pushed us to think about how stories come together, why you might leave loose ends dangling, what frustrates us when it’s unresolved. I wasn’t sure how this project would actually go, but it was a surprising hit. I love when that happens!
What’s happening at home/school/life
On the blog: Helping kids build focus and follow-through starts in elementary school.
On instagram: Dogs in pajamas!
In the archives: Working full-time and homeschooling — how I do it
On Patreon: I just finished Suzanne’s recommendation from last week’s Library Chicken podcast, and I can’t wait for book two to come out. (I do have to wait, though, because it’s not supposed to arrive until 2020.)
At the Academy: We were treated to a Schuyler sisters performance in the junior high, and it was EXCELLENT.
Links we liked
I actually really love having dinner alone.
This is so cool: Science jumps in with an assist for a historical mystery.
What is it about some fiction writers that makes us want to invent fictions about them, too? (And why do so many of these fictional inventions seem to make them less than they are?)
When it comes to history, we know better. So why are we having so much trouble doing better when it comes to curriculum?
Books that made it onto my TBR list this week
Herring Hotel (I like to keep a stack of picture books to read to my high schoolers at lunch, and this one sound perfect)
Valuing (I’m always in the mood for new poetry)
Things making me happy
Linzer cookies (the most annoying complicated but ultimately satisfying Thanksgiving dessert)
His Dark Materials (so far, so dazzlingly complex)
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff We Like :: 11.15.19
Why we love annotated bibliographies, Scooby Doo as Gothic lit, my new retirement ambition, why you should probably hang on to your notebooks in the computer age, and more stuff we liked this week.
This is that time of year where all-of-the-sudden it’s November, and where did the year go? Happily, it also the time of year when I get to eat a lot of pie, so it all balances out.
What’s happening at home/school/life
On the blog: How I use annotated bibliographies to practice more thoughtful research and critical thinking. (Plus: This has been an amazing week of book deals!)
From the archives: Shelli reviewed Better Chinese — a Chinese language curriculum for elementary school that's worked well for her family; 12 great book series to read together; and easy, thoughtful gifts you can make with your kids
On Instagram: Suzanne and I have been enjoying recording our Library Chicken podcast together in real life. (The Library Chicken podcast is on Patreon, but we are cooking up a new episode of the regular podcast, too — we definitely plan to keep it going, it just takes more effort on the front-end to put together.)
On Patreon: My ultimate U.S. history movie and documentary list.
At the Academy: Turning chemistry info checks into escape room puzzles has been the greatest learning innovation of my year so far.
On Facebook: You can vote on which unit study you’d like to see as our Patreon freebie for this month: An Akata Witch reading guide or a thesis writing bootcamp?
Links we liked
You know how sometimes, you just need to feel happy for a minute, and you watch a bat eating watermelon or a hedgehog stretching, and everything feels a little better? That’s what this story about the KCS Senior Dance Team was like for me.
I’m totally beginning my next academic foray into Gothic literature with a screening of Scooby Doo.
I love this: Scientists have discovered a site where humpback whales seem to travel to share their songs with each other.
Pome is back!
I always feel like I listen better when I’m taking notes, so this totally makes sense to me.
Things making me happy
Thanksgiving planning (it’s all playlists and pie crusts and timelines at our house this week!)
Smoked maple bourbon chai tea toddy (it’s cold enough that I really wanted to be warmed up from the inside out this week!)
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff We Like :: 11.8.19
Reading before bed makes you smarter, happier, and healthier (ahem), the emotional labor of feeding your family, Rebecca paper dolls, spooky witch houses, and more stuff we liked this week.
Suzanne and I have launched a fun new weekly-ish podcast for our Patreon supporters, highlighting our favorite thing: what we’re reading right now. In our first episode, we raved about the Vanderbeekers series (which I declare the modern Melendys series I’ve yearned for) and Suzanne gets into magical Asian sci-fi with Steel Crow Saga. Check it out if you are interested!
what’s happening at home/school/life
in the magazine: Don’t forget to download your copy of the fall issue! We’re switching to a new subscription platform, so logging in is a little different — you should have an email with instructions, but if you run into trouble, email Amy.
on the blog: Our kindergarten through 12th grade guide for history/science/literature
from the archives:
on patreon: Need a little November inspiration for your homeschool calendar?
on instagram: Birthday fun!
at the academy: Latin Jenga is my everything
links we liked
Did you know about the witch houses of the Hudson Valley?
I love cooking — sometimes. But the mental labor of feeding everybody all the time can be A LOT, and it always feel good to not feel alone in something like that.
Chanel Miller has the kind of courage and strength that I can only wish to achieve. I’m really glad she’s speaking up.
Okay, but I wish these Rebecca paper dolls were a real thing.
books added to my TBR list this week
The Walls of Jericho (I kept running into this one prepping for the Harlem Renaissance unit I’m teaching)
Wilding (The premise of this book — a couple let their Sussex farm return to wilderness — is the climate change happy ending we’re all yearning for, if we can get over ourselves in time to make it happen)
things making me happy
in the vegetarian dinners department: parsnip soup (the crunchy parsnips are so good you can eat them by the bowlful); fried egg tacos with chile jam (like the best fried egg sandwich ever)
Dickinson (it’s so wonderfully weird!)
My ridiculously gorgeous yarn (What should I make with it?)
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff We Like : 11.1.19
The cultural relevance of fairy tales, Hamilton bathroom breaks, new words as old as you are, and more stuff we liked this week.
Big happenings at the HSL HQ this week as we celebrated my amazing daughter’s 18th birthday. Watch out, world! She can vote!
What’s happening at home/school/life
On the blog: Good books with homeschooled main characters
on instagram: Halloween shenanigans
At the Academy: It’s Halloween all over the place
In the magazine: The fall issue is (finally!) up!
On Patreon: Suzanne and I are launching a new Library Chicken podcast today. (The HSL podcast is still happening, too, but we liked the idea of doing something more casual every week-ish.)
Links we liked
Relevant to my interests: Bathrooms at ‘Hamilton’: Can 200 women make it through 16 stalls in a 20-minute intermission? (Spoiler: Yes! They are PROFESSIONALS.)
The same way Buffy delights me by making the demons of adolescence into literal demons, Nancy Drew wins my heart with mysteries that can actually be solved (unlike the one about where my morning went).
Right up my alley: How Japanese fairy tales differ from Western fairy tales — and what those differences suggest.
Yes, please, I am very interested in a Ziggy Stardust graphic novel.
I’m slow so you probably already looked up the words that entered the dictionary the year you were born — but if you haven’t, you should!
Books added to my TBR list ths week
Things Making Me Happy
Birthday cupcakes!
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Stuff I Like :: 10.25.19
Rapping The Iliad, historical costumes and racism, the yellowing of school buses, the problem with constant production, and more in this week’s roundup of Stuff We Like.
My daughter recently decided to go full vegetarian (she’s always been on the flexitarian side of the dinner spectrum), and it has been both delicious (caramelized garlic tart and complicated (how do you let go of Parmesan cheese?) for dinner planning. What are your family’s favorite vegetarian recipes? I’d love some inspiration for veg dinners that appeal to hard-core carnivores, too.
What’s happening at home/school/life
on the blog: How we’d answer last month’s most popular search terms.
on patreon: Amy’s discussing building a literature-based homeschool with an academic spine.
on instagram: Puppy love.
at the academy: I designed my first-ever midterm escape room for the junior high. It ended in a dramatic baking soda volcano explosion and was tons of fun to watch in action. (I think I may make all of my future middle school science tests about collaborative problem solving!)
Links I Liked
This is just glorious.
I mean, this may be true: Jason Mendoza from 'The Good Place' is The Greatest TV Character in Recent Memory. (He is definitely Suzanne’s favorite … after Agent Scully, of course.)
This is about fashion, but I feel like it’s about everything: The more we produce, the less truly innovative, original stuff we turn out.
I think around this topic a lot, but I found this take particularly interesting: When you’re not white, the world of historical costuming looks very different.
Things I didn’t know but now I do
How school buses ended up being yellow
That quinoa is apparently supposed to be the feminine option on the menu
What’s making me happy
Jamie Oliver’s new cookbook (especially the mushroom stroganoff)
Making my dog’s Halloween costume
Finally some not-90-degree fall temperatures
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
In this episode of the Podcast with Suzanne and Amy, we're talking about what planning for the new homeschool year looks like for us (it's a lot more relaxed than you might think), how we're navigating a weird quarantine world full of changes and disappointments with our kids and ourselves, and some particularly good books we've been reading lately.