Why homeschool? Should I quit homeschooling?
Plus book update, baby news, and more!
My word for the year is “spring,” and it seems fitting after our first winter in Idaho and finishing up my final edits for Reclaiming Motherhood from a Culture Gone Mad (still coverless but available for preorder). Projects that have laid dormant for a while are popping back into life.
We just constructed several garden boxes in our backyard, and I’ve crowded them with veggies, hoping for a bountiful harvest come summer and fall. Each sprig of green rises in its own time when the weather is just right. Each has it its own idiosyncrasies, needs and fruits.
I used to feel conflicted about these different passions and projects of mine. Who writes about embryonic research and family prayer, IVF and Catholic subscription boxes?
Seeing the sheer variety of plants thriving together in my garden boxes, I don’t feel so conflicted anymore. God makes each seed pop up and bloom in its own time.
So what’s blooming over here? More articles, a new season of Brave New Us (including a bonus episode on the trauma of forced separation during my COVID birth), and here at Mama Prays, a monthly series of themed posts on sharing grace and raising saints, starting with…
The Homeschooling Series
Why We Homeschool
I’ve been asked a lot this year why we pulled our daughter out of our parish school a few months into kindergarten. Didn’t we time our move from California to Idaho specifically so that she could start school this past year? Yes, yes we did.
Our Catholic Homeschool Curriculum
After some trial and error in kindergarten, we have figured out what works for us (for now). I suppose you could classify our homeschooling style as “eclectic.” I suppose you could say we do homeschool the way my husband and I do date nights: we order a bunch of things so we can have a little taste of everything.
Should I Quit Homeschooling? Ask Ignatius.
Not so very long ago, I found myself calling a friend, another homeschooling mom, in the grips of indecisiveness. Several months in, I was second-guessing our decision to homeschool. Am I giving her enough? I wondered.
Our Catholic Homeschooling Routine
The following routine did not come easily. It was hard-won with lots of trial, error, screaming and crying (on both my part and the kids’). It comes after years of stay-at-home-momming through seasons successful and harrowing.
Our Homeschooling Year-in-Review
When we decided to homeschool, I devoured everything I could find on developing a philosophy of home education. I fell in love with Charlotte-Mason-inspired visions of our kids spending time in nature and being immersed in an atmosphere of education.
Food for Thought
What it Really Means to Be a Handmaiden by Taryn DeLong at Everyday Roses
The Troubling Ideals at the Heart of Abortion Rights by Erika Bachiochi at The Atlantic
How the Conversation About Transgenderism Affects Our Understanding of Womanhood by Madeline Fry Schultz at Verily
Chris Stefanik’s post on being persecuted as Christians on Instagram
The Gloria Purvis Podcast on the coercive nature of abortion
Gina Vides argues for funding for mothers who carry to term in The San Diego Tribune
Why the Devil Wants Women to Do it All by Emily Stimpson Chapman on Substack
Woke Makeup and the Christian Dilemma by Melody Lyons on Substack
What’s Been Brewing
Here’s our new little one just a few weeks ago. Name, gender reveal, and my thoughts on being open to life as a high risk mama are over on Instagram.
And on Mother’s Day weekend, I released the Mama Prays Devotional, an invitation for mothers to immerse themselves in the wonder of their everyday lives, to watch as the seeds of contemplation bloom in the messy and the miraculous, in fleeting moments and timeless truths. A new story each day offers a month of faith-filled reflections revealing that every moment of motherhood truly is holy ground.
Books: Mama Prays Devotional | Reclaiming Motherhood from a Culture Gone Mad
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Podcasts: Brave New Us | Mama Prays