I made it through three birthdays, our co-op Christmas party, houseguests, and the church play, but I was left feeling depleted and emotional.
As I read through day 16 of #unearthingwonder, I realized that I needed to get back some rhythm. Some amount of busyness is unavoidable at the holidays, but we won’t enjoy them at all if we don’t take some time to assess what’s working, and to keep some reasonable rhythms.
This could look like-
Morning story time
A daily walk
Evening advent readings
Daily nap/quiet time for the whole family
Your holiday rhythm can be different than your normal rhythm, but keeping some kind of daily routine that provides a sense of peace and calm will make the actual Christmas celebration a happy one. The more depleted we are as a family, the less able to regulate our emotions, and a houseful of meltdowns is no fun for anyone.
If you need some inspiration for creating a Christmas rhythm, check out our Christmas bundle. You can read one day of Unearthing Wonder each evening (the winter animal stories are perfect for the days after Christmas as well), and then pick a few activities from the Christmas Guide to do during the day. You don't have to do everything, just keep a little rhythm.
This planning sheet can help you pick and choose what to do. Just jot down the activities that sound fun to you and check them off as you go.
Christmas Planning Sheet
Grab our Christmas bundle with Unearthing Wonder: A Family Guide to Advent and The Peaceful Preschool Christmas Guide. Just $12 each when purchased separately, or save $5 by purchasing together as the "Christmas Bundle"
I started school with my children today. I've been doing morning time off and on all summer, but I was ready for a break from the lack of rhythm, and very excited to learn together in a more intentional way.
It was really wonderful, and I was excited to see the development that had occurred in my youngest child over the summer. He's a busy child and has had the hardest time of all my children settling into formal learning, but today he expressed so much excitement about learning, and applied himself with care.
While one day is too early to predict the course of the whole semester, it gave me hope for a great school year.
Many of you are preparing to do school with your children, and some of you might even be dreading it a little, based on the stress of managing last year. Take heart. Children do keep growing and maturing, and steady efforts will produce results.
Tips For Easing Homeschool Frustration
Make sure that your expectations match your child's development. Most children even out in their learning by middle school, and many alternative schools don't even start formal reading lessons until age 8. Don't rush your children, and make sure you schedule in slow time, playful projects, and reasonable expectations. Click here to try our one month guides for an early elementary student who needs more hands on learning.
Schedule breaks. Whether it's a chance for children to blow off steam outside, or for you to blow off steam in your closet, when you see that emotions are rising, take a break, and don't expect young children to work for very long without one.
Read aloud during meal times. If you are doing plenty of reading aloud in the early years, your children will build language skills, even if their reading and writing seems to lag, but it can be hard to corral young children to get them to listen. Use meal times, when little ones are at the table, to read aloud. Even 15-30 minutes a day will make a difference.
Smile at your children. It's easy for our faces to reflect the heaviness of our calling, as we try to meet the needs of babies and toddlers while schooling young children. Put a few reminders up to smile, so that your children know that you enjoy them, even if the job is hard sometimes.
What are some of your concerns for the coming school year? Hit reply and let us know.
I wanted to let you know about an upcoming Elementary Homeschool Bundle. It's got some beautiful resources included, you can sign up to learn more, and at the same time get a free vision planning guide. Just click here to sign up.
If you need help with planning a great year, you can also grab the Peaceful Press Planner, it's less than $10 with code "conference" (expires 8/15) and will help you create a framework for a sustainable year.
The Peaceful Press Parent Guides make homeschool planning very simple. They include engaging poetry, art, living books, copy work, nature study, and narration prompts to help busy moms of young children provide a beautiful education without a lot of preparation.
Are you planning school for next year? Let us know if we can answer any questions as you formulate a plan and save 20% on any resource with code "conference". Expires August 15.
Preschool- Grab the classic Peaceful Preschool for an open and go preschool year, or continue your learning with our one month nature bundles.
Kindergarten-Many families are combining our one month nature based guides with some supplemental math and phonics for an engaging, hands on approach to kindergarten. You can read more about these guides here. We have Ocean, Mountain, Garden, Freshwater, Tree, and Christmas
Purchase the Summer Bundle and save!
(Garden, Freshwater, Ocean)
Elementary school-We follow a three year history cycle with our resources to correspond with the Classical Conversations Foundations memory work. This means that our coming year will be spent studying European history with The Kind Kingdom and then we will cycle back to American history with The Playful Pioneers, and in two years we will be studying world history again with The Precious People.
We add in math and phonics, spelling or a writing curriculum along with The Peaceful Press resources, in order to provide grade specific instruction in those subjects. You can read more about our favorite resources for homeschooling older children here, and favorite math resources, or phonics resources as well.
As you plan for the next school year what are your biggest questions? We would love to help answer them.
This post contains affiliate links.
Your homeschool journey can be joyful and peaceful and effective. Click here to see how our resources can help.
declutter
As we get closer to the end of the school year, I'm starting to get excited about throwing open the windows and beginning the end of year clean up. We are finishing our last week of The Precious People and enjoying its focus on spring, and I'm going to also focus on spring cleaning.
Many times we start out the school year with perfectly ordered bookshelves and a shiny fresh start with our homeschool organization. By the time we are on the home stretch looking at spring, that order is a distant memory.
School must go on though, for at least a few more weeks, but it goes so much smoother when I am organized. I’m making it a priority over the next few weeks to declutter, and organize our learning spaces.
Our bookshelves are organized by subject, one for arts and crafts, another one for history resources, and another for science. I also have a shelf of our Peaceful Press teacher books and resources. Towards the end of a school year, I will cull the shelves for unwanted fiction or nonfiction titles, and switch out our display books for new selections that correspond with our upcoming studies (this year it will be choices from The Kind Kingdom book list).
In addition to all the books, I like to have easy access for my children to markers, colored pencils and stick glue. In this way they can put together creative notebook pages, or quickly make a greeting card without having to ask me for supplies. I keep most of these supplies in a caddy in the middle of our school table, but several times a year I sort through each jar full of pencils, brushes, and pens to toss broken bits and resharpen pencils.
While there are tons of books to reshelve and organize, and pencils to sharpen, I'm also inundated by all the papers. Throughout the school year, I simply place finished work in a folder in each child’s school file. Then, at the end of the year, I will save a couple for their books or proof that we did school, and toss the rest.
School at home can be so much fun, but it's more fun when our space is at least a little bit organized. Organization isn't just about having a nice looking room, it is also teaching our children good mental sequencing skills and making our homes more functional places to learn.
When I first started homeschooling, over 20 years ago, I used just a few resources to get started. I found a simple guide to hands on learning, and a few books on homeschool philosophy, and I was off on this exciting journey. After all these years, I still circle back to some of these basic principles for creating a strong foundation for our children's education.
Read engaging books-All of the Peaceful Press resources include picture book suggestions for developing imagination, creativity, and connection. As you read beautiful books and poetry, you are creating the foundation that later educational output will be built on.
Teach reading through phonics-We love All About Reading for the way it promotes a strong phonics foundation. The readers are engaging, and busy young children will appreciate the multi sensory approach to learning.
Do hands on math-After trying many math programs, we have become huge fans of Right Start Math. It builds a strong foundation for later abstract math learning.
Spend time in nature-Time outside promotes health and creativity, and provides the sensory input young children need. It doesn't always have to involve a lesson, or nature journaling, but it should be a regular practice, and is a great way to space lessons so that children don't become distracted and frustrated.
Check out our month long nature based guides for young learners.
Build strong attachments-Homeschooling will be more cohesive and fun if your children feel secure in their attachment to you. Part of this involves being brave enough to lead so that they can feel the safety of knowing that someone wiser is in charge, and part of this involves keeping enough margin in your schedule so that you can enjoy them instead of just endure them. (Read Hold on To Your Kids and Simplicity Parenting for more on this subject).
Develop good habits-As you take the time to develop daily habits of bed making, tidying up, and self care, along with a rhythm to your day, you create a framework to build upon. All of the best educational intentions and resources will avail little if the habits of listening, follow through, and mutual respect haven't been developed.
The Peaceful Press Chore Pack- A Visual Habit Training Tool
As you wrap up your school year, and plan for the next one, what are your biggest questions? We would love to help answer them in upcoming posts and videos.
I birthed three babies in December. I'm not sure how that happened, and I'm also not sure why I consented to throw them each a party, but I did, and it has definitely made Christmas even more task oriented for mama.
It's only 5 days now until Christmas and I finally feel like I can settle into celebrating. Sure, I've read lots of Christmas themed books to my children so far, but we've only made cookies once, and most of the handcrafting was geared towards a sale we participated in.
It's never too late though, to create meaningful celebrations, and there are three easy things you can do today to make it feel like Christmas.
1. Read a Christmas story. Check out this post for our favorites, or look on Youtube for read aloud versions of the ones we include in our Christmas Guide (just $7 with code "merrychristmas")
2. Put on some Christmas music and dance. It's as easy as finding a favorite playlist on Spotify or Youtube. My husband loves the Bing Crosby albums, and I'm especially partial to Andrea Bocelli, but Christmas music can instantly infuse our homes with holiday spirit.
3. Bake something. You can use the foolproof sugar cookie recipe from the Peaceful Preschool, or even just roll out some store bought dough, but nothing says "Christmas" quite like cuddling together over cookies and cocoa.
Whatever your holiday has looked like until today (we've had a grand mix of crisis and fun), it's never too late for new beginnings. Every day we get a fresh start, and simple acts create treasured memories with our children.
Our new Christmas Guide is full of inspiration for making sweet memories in your family. We include heartwarming literature, nature based crafts, and developmentally appropriate counting and phonics activities to create a Christmas to remember. You can purchase the guide here and take $5 off with code "merrychristmas".
We've also got a little gift for you. Click the link below to download a simple handmade gift tutorial. It's one of the activities from our guide, but we wanted you all to have it. It's an easy activity with some added benefits.
Wishing you all a peaceful and crisis free Christmas.
I am excited about Christmas! We will be home for the first time in two years, and I'm brainstorming now for a happy holiday.
We've celebrated the winter holidays many different ways, and in many places, which has helped break any expectations that extended family might have had on us. We love and honor all of our relatives, but we want to make traditions that reflect our own values, and we appreciate the grace we have received to do so.
Some of the checklist items on our list include-
Winter Cleaning- I don't want to decorate until I've first taken time to organize, dust and tidy our living space.
For Cleaning and Organizing Inspiration Click Here
Service and Giving- We are filling boxes for Operation Christmas Child this week, and have plans for a few other acts of service this season.
Shopping-I've been pushing all of my credit card points to Amazon so I can purchase books and gifts for my children without going into debt.
Check Out Our Christmas Book List Here
Baking-We will make Peaceful Press favorites such as sugar cookies and ginger snaps to share with neighbors and friends.
Crafts-We are making a few crafts for a winter fair, and a few just for fun, but making together is one of our favorite ways to create precious memories. Our new Christmas Guide includes loads of fun crafts and recipes. Click the link to order.
Cocoa, Cuddles and Books-I'm especially excited to cuddle up with my children over a good book, with some homemade hot chocolate to sip on. I'm keeping gifts simple and doing my best to stay out of stores so that time together can be the main thing.
It's been a week since the Wild and Free conference in Franklin, Tennessee and I am still feeling the warmth of that weekend with so many amazing mamas. I loved the chance to connect with new friends and old.
Many of you were there, and heard me share about my journey to become a more playful parent, and I wanted to share with you this video series I created about a few of the things that we have done the same and differently over many years of homeschooling.
I talk about how we added in more play, but I also address some practical things we have done to cultivate strong learners and a peaceful home atmosphere.
If the videos bring up any questions for you, please let me know. I would love to develop more teachings to encourage you in your efforts to love your children well.
You can watch part one here.
And click here to watch part two.
If you are needing some parent guidance to incorporate more developmentally appropriate and playful learning in your home, check out our parent guides. We just released a new four week guide for 3-5 year old students which is similar to our The Peaceful Preschool:Ocean Guide , and is created with the same weekly grid that you know and love from The Peaceful Preschool. Our new The Peaceful Preschool: Tree Guide was a collaboration with our friend Lisa Wilkinson and includes four weeks of hands on learning for your 3-5 year old students. It's a perfect resource for fall, and you can take 15% off this new guide or any resource from our shop with code Fall. Offer expires 10/15.
You can see a list of suggested books and activities for the guide here.
If you are looking for resources for teaching a child to read, I have a few favorites listed here.
Click here to check out my list of favorite math teaching resources .
My oldest daughter just headed back for her second year of law school, and I was remembering some of the messy moments of her early childhood, as I worked through my sadness at her leaving.
Sometimes when we are in the difficult days of early childhood, we feel like the hard parts will last forever, but I can say from experience that the days will fly by so fast, the messy moments were over way too quickly and I wish I had savored them more. I want to help you not just survive these days, but love them.
Two of the biggest enemies to savoring and maximizing these early days are comparison and over-scheduling. Young children thrive on low pressure days; days that allow for exploration, walks that make space for them to stop and look at a bug on the sidewalk, and learning moments that feel like play instead of a test.
As we internalize the truth that our children are always learning, we can begin to approach lessons and learning times with a relaxed attitude, which will help them relax into the lesson.
When we start a lesson feeling time pressure, or fear that our children aren't on track, they will often pick up on our emotions and have a harder time settling into learning.
If you feel like some of your school days have started this way, try beginning your day with singing or cuddles. Both actions help us relax and connect with each other and the subsequent introduction of a new letter, math skill, or other concept will be more lighthearted and memorable.
If over-scheduling is an issue for you, try spending some time with our daily and weekly plan sheets to see if you have too little margin between activities. The best way to avoid meltdowns is to leave plenty of time for preparation. Getting small children out the door takes a lot of effort, and you will be able to keep it peaceful if you give yourself enough time.
Check out our Chore Pack and our Planner for helpful resources for planning and habit training.
If you are just starting your first year of school this year, check out our new guide to help you transition. The Peaceful Preschool:Ocean Guide is created with the same weekly grid that you know and love from The Peaceful Preschool, and includes four weeks of hands on learning for your 3-5 year old students. It's loads of fun, and will continue to develop important skills for school success.
You can see a list of suggested books and activities for the guide here.
If you are looking for resources for teaching a child to read, I have a few favorites listed here.
Click here to check out my list of favorite math teaching resources .
I'll be speaking next weekend at Wild + Free, and I'm so excited to see many of you! Send me a quick note if you will be there.
Many of you are using The Playful Pioneers or The Precious People with your elementary students and asked about how to keep a timeline. I recorded this video with several tips for making history memorable and include some tips on keeping a timeline. Let me know if there are other topics you would like me to chat about in these videos.
We've got several new resources coming soon! We are working on one month units for children transitioning from The Peaceful Preschool, and are excited to share them with you in the next few months.
So far we have a tree unit, mountain unit, and Christmas unit in development, to add to the Ocean unit already available. Let me know if there is a topic your 3-5 year old would love to learn more about!
Last week I started back up with morning time, and this week I made new chore lists for each of my children. I'm working on systems now so that when our full days of school start, my children won't all be relying on me to give them directions.
Now, instead of giving my 4 youngest children multiple directions when they are home, I can just ask them to complete the tasks on their chart before they move on to their other pursuits. I think we can sometimes get so overwhelmed with all of the tasks that we have to accomplish in a day, and not realize that there are little people in our home (or big ones as the case may be), who need to be needed, and who love to be with us, even if it is just washing dishes or folding clothes with us. The bonus is that if they can help us with our work, we get more time to play with them. We all win.
As we raise our children, we are working towards them being self governing; able to manage themselves. This is one reason why habit training can be so helpful with young children. If we take the time when they are young to instill in them healthy routines, we take tons of pressure off of ourselves, while giving our children a great start towards accomplishing their own goals.
This last week felt like the pinnacle of summer. We packed almost everything on our summer bucket list into one single week and then pretty much collapsed today. We had swim lessons and a VBS last week, and then spent Thursday night high in the mountains watching an outdoor movie in a lakeside amphitheater. All the events of the week were fun, but they also made me feel very excited to start school again this fall. I love our morning times, where we gather together and read aloud, discuss great books, sing, and pray. A too full schedule equals too few moments of connection, and connection is one of the main reasons that I homeschool.
We compiled this list of picture books and projects to give you some ideas for making special memories this summer. As you work through the list you are creating radiant connection with your children.
Picture books and projects for summer memory making.
The rest of this month we will begin to ease back into a school routine. I follow a simple routine for school planning that helps me create a sustainable year.
1. Pray about a focus for the year, and meet with children to discuss goals and essentials.
2. Choose a few extra activities that promote essentials (you can download our free vision worksheet to help with brainstorming yours).
3. Plan out a sample week that includes all extra activities, making sure there is margin for essentials (our Peaceful Planner includes a helpful weekly plan grid).
4. Plan a daily school and chore routine (our Parent Guides do much of this planning for you and our Chore and Routine Bundle is a helpful tool for developing independent learners and helpers).
5. Plan for a happy first day of school. Include a poetry teatime, or a few new school supplies to bring a festive feeling to your homeschool.
What is your routine for planning? As you create a plan, how can we help you implement it?
We are very excited about studying ancient and world history with The Precious People. Our year with The Playful Pioneers was so joyful and I know this year is going to be amazing as well.
If you are looking for resources for teaching a child to read, I have a few favorites listed here.
Click here to check out my list of favorite math teaching resources .
We are very excited about our upcoming year with The Precious People. We loved The Playful Pioneers and it was especially fun to be learning along with so many creative people in the Peaceful Press Facebook and Instagram community. This year is going to be similarly awesome! To celebrate, we are running a few giveaways in the upcoming weeks. You can check out the first one here.
If you are just getting started with The Peaceful Preschool, we just added a blog post about how one of the amazing moms in our community is using it. You can check that out here.
We also developed a simple grammar game which incorporates the Montessori command games, room labeling game, and a simple sentence builder. You can download it free here.. We will eventually get it in our shop, but for now it is exclusive to subscribers.
I know many of you are beginning to plan for the next year of school, and I compiled a list of favorite math teaching resources to help with that. I'd love to hear about your favorites so I can add them as well.
If you are looking for resources for teaching a child to read, I have a few favorites listed here.
Thank you for being such a beautiful community to learn with! I hope I'll get to connect with some of you at a few of the conferences I'm speaking at this year, and I love hearing from you via a simple reply.
Thank you to all of you who purchased the Saints study that I released earlier this year. I was very excited about our community learning about these great people together.
Charlotte Mason said, "We should allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and spiritual life of children; but should teach them that the divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their continual helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life."
One of the hopes that I have for The Peaceful Press, is that our resources would help your family in this aim to raise our children with an awareness of God's great love for them, and His tender care in every aspect of their lives.
This is one of the aspects of The Precious People curriculum that I am especially excited about. By incorporating some of the feasts that early believers kept, and by tying daily Bible readings into the history stories we are reading, we can give our children an overview of world history while still maintaining some of the wonder and innocence of childhood. Ancient history can feel a little dark and depressing, but in the Precious People, I have carefully chosen stories that will spread the feast, and ignite curiosity, while reserving some of the more intense aspects of this time period for older children or a later cycle through the time period. This period of childhood, from ages 5-10, is the time to cultivate hopefulness and wonder.
For those of you who already worked your way through the Saints study this spring, you could choose a different read aloud selection from our independent book list for that month, or add in some interest led learning.
Two of the changes I made to my week were mapping out a better morning routine and brainstorming a master list of meals.
I had gotten into a bad habit of getting on my phone first thing in the morning and letting phone time take up too much time. This new schedule gives me 20 minutes to check email, and then I switch gears so I can keep reading through my Chronological Bible and get some exercise. Taking some time to write down top priorities for me, and even asking a sister to help me stay accountable were the keys to success (but I've really only just started). I think that no matter how long we have been making schedules for ourselves, or setting goals, we still need a refresher here and there.
If you also need a refresher, our new 2018-2019 planner comes with helpful tips for planning success.
The other thing that I did this week was to create a master meal list. I feel like I make the same 5 meals over and over, but when I made a list of all the meals that we do make, it came out to more like 20 (hooray for small victories!). Homeschooling takes an enormous amount of energy, and having a regular pattern for meal planning can make a normal task so much easier.
Our 20 Meals
1. Spaghetti
2. Gluten Free Chow Mein
3. Pepper Rice
4. BBQ Chicken
5. Chicken Dill Curry
6. Enchiladas
7. Chicken Divan
8. Tacos
9. Burrito Bowls
10. Roast Beef and Potatoes
11. Ratatouille With Pasta
12. Chicken Adobo
13. Cabbage Roll Skillet
14. Potato Gratin
15.Scrambled Eggs
16.White Chicken Chili
17. Minestrone
18. Chicken Paprikash
19. Fried Rice
20. Lentil Soup
We occasionally eat gluten free, and in my house right now I have one person eating vegetarian and another eating no grains, so it makes meal planning extra fun.
What are your easy go-to meals?
I am homeschooling four children this year, and we also have a once a week preschool student.
This means that I need to be very creative about how I teach all of these students. It just isn't possible to teach a different curriculum to each child.
Because of this reality, I combine several subjects with my children in order to simplify my teaching. This means that my 2nd and 4th grade students do science and history together, and my older boys take an English class together, which combines many high school grades. We also do morning time as a group, which provides great opportunities for the oldest and youngest to learn cooperation skills.
If you are using The Peaceful Preschool curriculum, you may find yourself in a similar situation. You may be trying to teach preschool to a 3-5 year old, while also doing early elementary studies, and caring for a baby. This takes a lot of creativity, but you can very effectively teach multiple grades by combining subjects.Read on for a sample schedule...
We are celebrating Fall with a special sale on the full 26 week curriculum. Enter code "Fall" at checkout for 25% off your purchase!
Do you also want some help with your budget? The course,Bountiful Homeschooling on a Budget is full of helpful insights, and as a Peaceful Preschool subscriber, you can use the code, "Budget" for 25% off that course as well!
We wish you a Merry Christmas.
I am tucked away with my family, which includes The Peaceful Preschool customer service expert, Emmett, and my TPP IG partner, Emelie, at my aunts house in Northern Ireland, experiencing a very lovely Christmas. All of those intense early days are a bittersweet memory, as I can now sit through a meal, and endure 12 hours of flight, without the intensity of keeping an infant happy.
But those days were sweet, and they went by way too quickly. Few people in the world will look at you with such intense adoration as your own infant, and the first sentences that an adorable toddler strings together, cannot be recaptured.
Our hope for you this year, and this Christmas, is that you seize the day. Forgo presents if needed, so you have time to rock your baby. Throw the gifts you have bought in paper bags, instead of wrapping them, so that you can look at those toddlers and memorize what they are saying, and enjoy baking imperfect cookies with your preschoolers, instead of staying in the kitchen alone (unless some alone time is what you really need).
If you do want to bake cookies, this is a favorite sugar cookie recipe, but Christmas will be just as special with some Peppermint Joe Joes.
Rolled Sugar Cookies
1 c. butter, room temp
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
3 t. vanilla
3 c. all purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients. Separate dough into four parts, wrap well and refrigerate for an hour or until firm.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. On lightly floured surface, roll one dough part 1/4 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters. Slide carefully onto a pan, using a cookie spatula. Bake 8 minutes at 350.
Ice with buttercream (tastes amazing) or royal icing (perfect looking).
We hope your Christmas is full of cheer, and we pray that above all, you and your children enjoy each other during this season.
The Playful Pioneers curriculum is getting beautified for you.
We are shooting for a June 1 release date, but we are working on a free sample that we will notify you about soon. We are so excited to have Angie Warren working on a clean and user-friendly design for the curriculum, as well as the addition of maps and illustrated copy work designed by our friend Elizabeth Martinez.
In the meantime, Emmett and I created this sneak peak of the new curriculum for you to enjoy. We at The Peaceful Press can't wait to share this early elementary adventure with all of you.
If you need more encouragement for playful learning with your students, check out the podcast from
Wild and Free, as well as this podcast episode (which I was a guest on) from Pam Barnhill.
If you are already shopping for curriculum for next year, I wrote this post about teaching math for young children. The Playful Pioneers curriculum will allow you to plug your own math and phonics choices into the daily plans so that you can use it with a variety of younger students. This makes it a perfect choice for those of you homeschooling multiple ages.
Finally, we want to say a big thank you for joining us on the journey of peaceful, playful learning over the past year. We are grateful for your support, and overjoyed to be a part of your home educating journey.
The Peaceful Preschool is a literature and project-based curriculum for early learners. Written and designed by Jennifer Pepito and Angie Warren, homeschool mamas with hearts for encouraging parents to create a beautiful preschool experience in the comfort of their own home.