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Earnest Echoes:We Are a Read Aloud Family.

Earnest Echoes:We Are a Read Aloud Family.

by earnestmomblog ♥ 1 Comment

Originally published 10/25/2020

What is a read aloud family you ask? Just as it sounds, we read aloud together. Every morning as a part of our daily rhythm we read aloud while the kids do handicrafts. We have scripture reading then we read a chapter book. Last month was the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, this month we are reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (of course to be followed by their very first viewing of The Chronicles of Narnia movie). They love read aloud time, in so much that they often request it goes longer or happens again later in the day. They even like the voices that I do, even though I feel silly, they only feel the magic of a character’s voice speaking to them.

I have always been a sucker for literature. I remember loving storytime in early elememtary grades, and with a sixth grade teacher who was obsessed with William Shakespeare (shout out to Mrs Matheson of Amherstburg Public School, you literally changed my life) I had read the entire works of Shakespeare by the time I was 13.

Every year at Christmas Little Women is a book I consume, and every January I follow Little Women with Jane Eyre. It is incredible how I can read these books over and over and I still cry in all the same places; marriages devistated on the alter, hidden secrets, and the death of a beloved. The aches from the first times my tears fell turning page after page ripples back up like an old friend that I had forgotten about until the sting of the words reveal the emotion again.

I love being read to; in full disclosure I have to admit that the last two years both of my favortie books listed previous have been read in audiobook form. No wonder I love sharing read aloud time with my children, I have it all the time for myself. While I fold laundry, wash the dishes, go for walks and even traveling – I am constantly being read to. This year is the 100th Anniversary of Agatha Christies’s Hercule Poirot and I am slowly making my way through the whole series. During the past COVID quarantine, I had been more on a self improvement book kick with an occasional “Agatha break” but as of June, I began The Mysterious Affair at Styles in honor of Poirot’s 100 years I have stuck to this egg-headed detective.

When I think of the adventures I have been on, the people I have met and the countries I have been. Through literature I have experienced life and death, marriages and ruin, love and loss; never having to leave the pages before me. I get so excited watching my children head out on those same adventures to the sound of my own voice. Reading aloud has been something we did informally all the time, but with home learning we now make it a part of our day. It is a daily family adventure that often leads to the hope of “just one more chapter before we start school.” We love it.

The View From Our Table: What’s Cooking at 10 Garden Street

The View From Our Table: What’s Cooking at 10 Garden Street

by earnestmomblog ♥ 1 Comment

The view from our table will be a feature where we look at some fun things we have done in our homeschool.

We are the kind of homeschool family that homeschools in the summer. It is less formal and much shorter, but we are a family that is constantly learning together. One our favorite times is “Morning Time.” We often start our homeschool days at the dinner table with our basket of books. Mama reads while the littles keep their hands busy with handicrafts. We love it.

This summer we decided to read, What’s Cooking at 10 Garden Street by Felicita Sala (can be purchased here – non affiliate link). This book was given to us by a dear friend who thought that we would have fun with it. We had so much fun!

Each page introduces the reader to recipes from all over the world. Salmorejo (a cold soup served with ham and boiled eggs), Little Trees (stir fried broccoli), Sole Meuniere, to name a few. Each day, we reread the book and then we chose a recipe we wanted to try. (I even discovered a mild allergy to pine nuts lol).

We had a such a blast trying flavors from all over the world and felt like we were joining the neighborhood for their pot luck feast at the end of the book. The illustrations are lovely and recipes rich and flavorful. So far this is one of the tastiest and fun books we have chosen for our morning time adventures.

If you are looking for something fun that will introduce your palate to flavors from many cultures, we highly recommend this favorite from our table. It has been a great way to try foods and cook with the three wild and three free and me!

Our View from Home

Our View from Home

by earnestmomblog ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Last year was our very first year (like many families) homeschooling. As we prepare for our Summer Home School I am caused to reflect on the last year.

First and foremost I am incredibly grateful that we have the blessed opportunity for me to stay home with the 3wilds and to homeschool. Homeschool as I have mentioned before, had always been in the back of our minds and hearts but never took the leap. COVID gave us that leap.

As much as we loved being home together, and as much as we drove each other barking mad, we definitely experienced some ups and downs along the way. The number one lesson we took was be flexible. I am not the person to set up desks and assignments and mimic school the institution. No way. However the curriculum that we chose made us be more at the table than I would have liked. For our 5th grader we went with a free online program which required more screen time than I anticipated plus all of the supply lists. I ended up with lots of surprise lists too which was frustrating and led to us skipping some lessons altogether.

Another aspect I struggled with was consistency of scheduling. We love morning time, it is our favorite part of the day where we all gather around the table for read aloud and the kids get to do quiet handicrafts. Morning time is the best! We struggled with the follow up and continuation of the day. Constantly being pulled from and very parent involved kindergarten curriculum and an online program that just was not a good fit for my fifth grader.

We made it through the year, all of us feeling like we barely did so. We ended up having a morning time meeting where we talked about the whole year, our likes and dislikes and what could be different and then my fifth grader said, “if we do online again, I would rather go back to school.” I felt like a failure with 12 words. I failed, ugh. It took some time to reflect and see where it went wrong, when I discussed it more in depth with him, it turned out he simply hated being online (I did not like it either) and so when I offered a different approach/curriculum he was quick to tell me with that change he would rather stay home.

As much as we struggled, I was so thankful for the ease in which our days continued, no phone calls from principals or teachers, no crying kids off of the bus because they were teased, taunted and even physically hurt like we experienced in years before. I am grateful that the whole bully issue does not even touch our door step and we are free from the worry of our children being hurt or harmed by their peers for no reason other than to cause pain. Our kids of course experience their own squabbles, teasing and regular sibling interaction – but we are in control of the problem solving and discipline that comes with it.

All in all, we are ready to take on a new school year from home. With a new curriculum that is created on a scaffolding scheme and a family style approach, the kids are already LOVING their summer mini unit (more to come when we are finished and we can give an honest review).