Letters From the Homefront

Well, it's finally come. The ONE YEAR anniversary of this blog!!! To read my very first post ever, just have a blast scrolling through every single post until you get there, or dig all through the archives..... Just kidding. You can  check it out here  if you are really interested. It's pretty clear in the beginning that I wasn't sure where I was going with this blog, nor did I know then that I was going to even open it up to let others know about it and read it.  I am so glad I did, because I have enjoyed making a small hobby out of writing here, and meeting so many wonderful bloggers/mamas. What an encouragement it has been! It is also so wonderful to have a place to record what's going on when I begin to get overwhelmed, or think that we have accomplished almost NOTHING - it helps to see it all in front of me. I thought I would take a look back on my top five, most visited posts from this past year. So, counting down, here they are: #5 -  Apri

We finally started getting back to some school this week. It feels like it has been forever, and the kids were ready. Monday started out with a review for Miss Priss on subtraction, which we had touched on just a little bit between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  She had been content to keep working with the materials I used for her first presentation of subtraction. I was just beginning to wonder Monday how long she would want to continue, when she asked me for something new. My next step was, in my mind, going to be the subtraction board for just a little while. She wasn't really excited over using the addition board, so I wasn't going to press it much. Which is a good thing, since some of our printable bars for the board were *missing*. Thankfully, we had enough that she got the picture, and like I thought, she was ready to move on to something else in the same day. I saw the lightbulb come on while she worked with the subtraction board with the bars we had, so I wasn'

Well, my plans were to start school, like so many public and homeschoolers were all over. I was so excited to get back to normal, we weren't going to have a very busy week - just hopefully get back in to the school room, maybe do some rearranging together, and have some fun. I was still working in my Well Planned Day planner, trying to map out what I needed to remember to do over the next few months. That's when I ran in to the only problem with the planner - it didn't tell me I would be sick this week! Monday brought on a horrible week of me being sick, that ended with me getting strep throat after all other flu like symptoms were gone. So we didn't get in the school room this week. I was almost discouraged, thinking this was a horrible start to a new school year. I'd like to take a minute though, and share why Montessori Practical Life can be very important. Before we were 'Montessori inspired' in name, there were many things I did normally that I did

We had so much fun over Christmas break! Riding our local train through the park, which is a Christmas wonderland every month of December! Lots of Christmas morning surprises!!!! A few non-Christmas shots: I found these water beads at the Dollar Tree one day while out shopping. The intention was actually for them to be scented beads to make your home smell nice and inviting - but this is what happens when you are a Montessori mama. What you see is not always what everyone else sees. The minute I saw these, I knew they were made for the perfect sensorial activity. They also ended up being a great diversion on a busy day before Christmas, when Buddy Boy was especially mischievous. The scent combined with the fun kept him busy in the bathtub for at least an hour, maybe more! I was also able to rescue most of them and use them a couple more times before tossing them. Not bad for $2.  Hoss also got a few lego sets (or the equiva