The busiest time of the year has arrived, starting in October with my husband’s birthday. To keep things simple, I make Christmas ornaments for friends and family.

To make them, I use Natural Wood Slices, acrylic paint, and YouTube tutorials. I also use these paintbrushes because I love the case, and they are really good.

Making these ornaments is a way to keep things simple and pretty for Christmas. People love handmade gifts because each one is made with special love.

What will you be making this Christmas?

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

Dear Mama,

I love notebooking. I learned about this tool during my student teaching, and I fell in love with it. I was so sad that I didn’t get to have my own fancy, pretty notebook because the strategy was fairly new.

Read more

Dear Mama,

This week, we are wrapping up term one with exams before taking our fall break. So I want to share with you some changes we are making for term two.

Read more

Dear Mama,

An acrostic poem is a great way to create a narration. Poetry is a powerful way to process and share information because it requires students to use their attention and creative skills.

An acrostic poem is one where the first letter of the title retells the lesson in poetic form. This poem does not need to rhyme. The acrostic poem has its own challenge because it forces the students to remember the lesson while being creative with the letters.

What is great about this narration is that, although it can be done individually, it can be done as a class. Below is the example we did as a family from grades 1-6.

AFRICA

Africans left out of the Berlin Conference

France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium got pieces of Africa

Rich in minerals

Ignored the African tribes

Christians spread the Word of God

Africa broken into pieces by Europeans

I hope this acrostic poem example inspires you to create your own!

Warmly,

Mama

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

Dear Mama,

Charlotte said, “Every day, every hour, the parents are either passively or actively forming those habits in their children upon which, more than upon anything else, future character and conduct depend, “ (Home Education, p. 118).

These habits are easily formed in the home with three great resources:

1. Begin with the Bible: Every day begin with God’s Word. Read it, narrate it, and understand it. In the Bible, we will learn what God expects of us in behavior and thought.

2. History: History not only teaches us what happened in the past, but also shows us how human behaviors lead to dark or glorious paths. Choices have consequences.

3. Literature: Stories are a great way to explain truths that may be hard to explain in history or in real life. They create scenarios that humans can philosophize about, discuss, and understand.

With those three subjects, you'll get a rich amount of character building. You don't need to purchase a separate curriculum to cover them.

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

Dear Mama,

Notebooking is a process used after a lesson for students to show proof of learning using different skills.

Although right- and left-brain theory is now seen as a myth, both sides of the brain must activate to process and retell information.

Notebooking helps students learn to:

- analyze the information
- retell the information in a linear and sequential fashion
- learn the difference between fact and fiction
- be logical
- be creative
- be intuitive
- be artistic
- handwriting skills
- be imaginative

All of these skills are learned through notebooking.

Have you seen your student’s academic growth through notebooking?

Warmly,
Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

Dear Mama,

Narrations allow students to show what they learned in class and can look different from lesson to lesson because they don’t need the same structure.

This week we did a Haiku narration for our Japanese history lesson plan. It was so fun to see the kids get excited about creating this poem. The best part is that haiku can be done as a class and not individually. You will see students work and struggle (in a fun way) to compose their haiku.

What is a haiku?

A haiku is a short, unrhymed Japanese poem that follows a 5-syllable, 7-syllable, and 5-syllable structure. To create a haiku, follow the following format:

1. Line 1: 5-syllable phrase (beginning)

2. Line 2: 7-syllable phrase (middle)

3. Line 3: 5-syllable phrase (end)

The haiku captures the main parts of the lesson. Because it is a restricted poem, students will work hard to share the main idea.

Here is our haiku example we did as a class for grades 1-6.

The Last Samurai

Samurai lose sword

Peasants with guns fought Bushi

Samurai lost war

I hope this gives you another idea for narrating.

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

Hey Mama,

Have you tried making visual charts yet? Visual vocabulary charts are a great left-hand page assignment because they are teacher-led. The purpose of creating visual vocabulary is to help students remember a new word or concept with illustrations.

Begin by dividing your paper into three columns. One for the vocabulary word, one for the definition, and one for an illustration to help you remember it.

Let me know if you try this left-hand side assignment.

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

Dear Mama,

The new school year is right around the corner, and we are looking forward to it.

Four resources I’m using this year to help me organize the school year are:

1. The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Bower
This is such a great resource to have a different perspective on homeschool education. This book is helping me select a curriculum and plan out the day. I love having this resource and combining it with the Charlotte Mason method.

2. Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie
This book is a wonderful resource to remind us of how to plan the school year without the overwhelm.

3. Homeschool Curriculum Blueprint
I created this resource to help lay out the school year without the overwhelm. I love this blueprint because I am a paper-pen type of person and love to write, erase, and write some more until the plan I want makes sense.

4. Teachers Planner
I used the Simplified teacher planner last year and love it. It is not a homeschool planner, but I love it anyway because it is simple and doesn’t have all of the extra stuff. This makes my school year feel more peaceful.

What resources do you use to get ready for the school year?

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool resources.

• Shop at Toups & Co and receive $10 off your first $50 purchase.

*** Links above are to affiliate links for the book recommendation.***

Dear Mama,

This year I have one Form II student and two Form I students. This makes lesson planning a little tricky because I like to keep everything on the same page. So here is how I organize my day.

First, I divide my day into blocks. This keeps me organized and helps me know what everyone is doing. This allows me to help each student accordingly.

Next, I write down which subjects we will study each block. We may do this as a family or individually. Each student gets his own checklist to complete each day.

If my timetable isn't going smoothly, I make changes to help the day's rhythm.

What does your timetable look like?

Warmly,
Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

Download a copy of the picture and use it in your classroom.

Download

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

• Shop at Toups & Co and receive $10 off your first $50 purchase.

Dear Mama,

Newspaper article narrations are a fun way to mix up narrations. Not all narrations need to be illustration and summary. We can mix it up. It keeps things interesting.

Doing a daily traditional narration can lead to boredom and apathy. It’s like eating the same meal every day. Changing the structure of the narration gives life to notebooking.

For a newspaper article narration, you need a computer and access to Canva best for students in 4th grade and up).

1. Open Canva (free resource) and look up newspaper article templates.
2. Choose the preferred template and get to work.
3. Allow the student to name their newspaper.
4. Write the article using who, what, when, where, why, and how
5. Allow the student to either draw, color in, or download a picture from the internet.
6. Print it and add it to the right-hand side of your notebook.

My daughter created this newspaper article narration and had the most fun doing it. She was really proud of her work.

Isn’t it fun when our kids love their narration?

Warmly,

Mama

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

• Shop at Toups & Co and receive $10 off your first $50 purchase.

Dear Mama,

Narrating is the art of retelling what you learned. This is a skill that is natural to us. Think about how children recall a movie they watched and even recite their favorite lines.

Today, I want to share with you ten different ways students can narrate.

1. Orally: Have the child retell you what happened in conversation form.

2. Narration paragraph: who, what, when, where, why, how

3. Acrostic poem: This is where the first letter of each line spells a word. Each line summarizes the most important information about the lesson.

4. Haiku: A haiku captures the emotion and idea of the lesson and does not have to rhyme.

   1. Line 1: Phrase contains five syllables

   2. Line 2: Phrase contains seven syllables

   3. Line 3: Phrase contains five syllables

5. Five important things: Write a summary of the lesson using the following format.

   1. The most important thing about ___________________ is ______________ .

   2. It _______________________________________________________________.

   3. It _______________________________________________________________.

   4. It _______________________________________________________________.

   5. But the most important thing about __________________ is _____________.

6. Song rewrite: Using any melody, rewrite the lyrics by including information about the topic. Write at least tow verse and a chorus.

7. Newspaper article: The newspaper article includes a headline (short and to the point), a picture hand-drawn, created on Canva, or printed straight from the Internet. Write an article explaining the event, including: who, what, where, when, how, and why.

8. Bio poem: After learning about a person, write a ten line poem about the person in the following format:

   1. Line 1 - Name

   2. Line 2 - Three traits

   3. Line 3 - He/she is from

   4. Line 4 - He/she cares deeply about…

   5. Line 5 - He/she gives

   6. Line 6 - three traits

   7. Line 7 - He/she fears

   8. Line 8 - He/she would like to see

   9. Line 9 - He/she is remembered for

   10. Line 10 Name, years of life

9. Original speech: Write a persuasive speech as to why a certain topic is the correct one.

10. Diary entry: Write as a person living in the past. The diary entry should include two factual pieces of infomraiton, detailed descriptions of what people looked like, smells, how they probably felt, and a date.

    Mixing up your students’ narrations will keep narrating interesting and fresh.
    
    Do these ideas help?
    
    Warmly,
    Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

• Shop at Toups & Co and receive $10 off your first $50 purchase.

Dear Mama,

One day, I was posting about notebooking when a mother told me, “But my child doesn’t like to draw.” I quickly responded, they can color a coloring page and add it to their creative box. But the fact is you can do so much more!

How is the notebook divided?

The notebook is divided into three sections -

1. Left-hand side: The left-hand page is for teacher instruction. Here the teacher can go over a map, poem, primary document, chart, etc, with the student. The left-hand page is part of the lesson.

2. Right-hand side: It includes two sections: the creative box and the lined paper for narrations.

What are the options for the creative box?

The creative box is an artistic way to demonstrate understanding. This section is traditionally left open for drawing; however, there are many more creative ways to demonstrate understanding.

1. Vocabulary: Define and illustrate

2. Collage: create an illustration using construction paper, magazines, newspapers, the internet, and/or clipart

3. Advertisement: create an advertisement that could appear in a magazine or newspaper (This could be done on Canva)

4. Newspaper Article: This could take up your whole right-hand side. Your newspaper article would include a headline (short and to the point). The picture could be hand-drawn, created on Canva, or printed straight from the Internet. Write an article explaining the event, including: who, what, where, when, how, and why.

5. Monument: Have your child create a possible monument to an event or person and write in their narration who, what, when, where, and why. Explain where they would locate the monument, and why it’s worth remembering this person or event.

6. Epitaph/Gravestone: Draw a grave stone with a short epitaph stating

   1. Here lies…born

   2. Died…

   3. Husband/sife of …father/mother/brother/sister/son/daughter of …

   4. Famous for …

   5. Remembered for … (add two pictures of the person)

7. Wanted/Hero Poster: Create a wanted person poster for a villain and a Hero poster for a good person with a quote. In the narration, explain why the person was a villain or a hero.

8. Magazine Cover: Create a news magazine cover like Time (can be done on Canva). The magazine should include at least three clear, easy-to-understand news story leads that accompany the cover story, interviews, and stories about events or people. For the narration, write a magazine article.

9. Venn Diagram

10. Postcard from the past: create a postcard that you would send home to tell your family about the civilization you are studying. For the narration, write a short note describing something amazing about the era you are learning about.

I sure do hope this list helps expand the possibilities you can do with your notebook. Let me know if you have any questions.

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

• Shop at Toups & Co and receive $10 off your first $50 purchase.

Dear Mama,

I’ve finally decided on my curriculum for the upcoming school year. I’ve decided to go with A Gentle Feast. Even when I try other curricula, I always go back to A Gentle Feast, and in the end, my school year goes smoothly.

A Gentle Feast is a homeschool curriculum rooted in Charlotte Mason methods and philosophy. It includes beautiful books meant to inspire children to love what they are learning. It is for grades 1-12.

That said, I will be switching out a couple of subjects to better fit my style and family needs.

Below is a peek into our homeschool feast:

- Spine: A Gentle Feast
- History: Story of the World, vol. 4
- Science: Masterbooks
- Math: Masterbooks
- Language Arts: A Gentle Feast
- Notebooks: Notebooking with Delight

I also give myself two weeks to test out my new timetable and make adjustments accordingly.

What spine will you be using?

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool

  resources.

• Join A Gentle Feast for a smooth, stress-free school year.

• Shop at Toups & Co and receive $10 off your first $50 purchase.

*** Links above are to affiliate links for the book recommendation.***

Dear Mama,

I don’t know if you are keeping up with the World Cup, but if you are, I hope you are enjoying it. Ever since I can remember, my family and I have watched the World Cup. It is the only sports tournament that we keep up with faithfully because it’s so much fun!

The World Cup is so much more than soccer. It is geography, history, culture, religion, and more!

What is the Tournament Like

The World Cup takes place every four years, and for the first time ever, the tournament features 48 countries. This is an expansion from the previous 32 countries. The first round of the World Cup is the group stage, where teams play one another in their group. First and second place move on to the round of thirty-two, and the eight best third places advance. All other teams go home. From the round of 32, move on to the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, third place, and the final.

Geography

One way I learned geography was by watching the World Cup. This year, I learned about a new country I had never heard of before, Cape Verde, a small island off the coast of Africa. I learned that they speak Portuguese based on the names on their shirts. Then I confirmed it by listening to their interviews.

History

History is always popping up in the World Cup. I don’t mean soccer history, but actual political history and wars. When I was a small child, I learned about the Falklands (Malvinas) War because when Argentina and England play, they boo each other’s national anthems.

Now I’m seeing fun memes of Vikings sailing into England in preparation for the Norway-England match.

Culture

A great way to learn about different cultures without traveling is through the World Cup. I had never heard of the Norwegian row until this World Cup. If you listen carefully, you can hear music and chants from the fans of the countries playing.

Christ

One of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in this World Cup is countries unashamed of giving glory to God. They proclaim Christ, pray before the match, and I’ve even seen some of them pray with team members of the other side after the match. It is truly a beautiful sight. What a wonderful way to minister to others.

Anyway, if you were wondering what all the fuss is about, if you are not a big fan of soccer, no worries, the World Cup is so much more than the sport.

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool resources.

• Shop at Toups & Co and receive $10 off your first $50 purchase.

*** Links above are to affiliate links for the book recommendation.***

Hi Mama,

I finally finished my kid’s school portfolios. It doesn’t usually take that long, but with printers out, it took a little longer than usual.

Portfolios are a great way to collect your children’s work, whether you homeschool or don’t, and whether you live in a state that requires portfolios or doesn’t. Portfolios help you condense all the work your children did into a simple binder.

Since we cannot keep everything, my children keep their best work from each subject. They love looking back over the years and seeing how they have progressed.

Portfolio materials include:
- 3 in. Binder (will last 6-7 years)
- Dividers
- Sheet protectors

Student work and Parent Notes include:
- Student title page (made by student)
- Cover page (made by parent describing the school year and curriculum)
- Report card (optional)
- student picture (optional)
- attendance (optional)
- student favorite and dreams (optional)
- 2 - 3 examples of work for every subject (picked out by the student)
- Certifícate of completion (optional)

Creating portfolios is a great way to collect your students’ work concisely and in a way they can take with them as they grow up. Plus, the fact that they help put their portfolios together means they will appreciate them more.

How do you collect and organize your students’ work?

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool resources.

• Shop at Toups & Co and receive $10 off your first $50 purchase.

*** Links above are to affiliate links for the book recommendation.***

Dear Mama,

Summer break has arrived, and I am looking forward to it. It’s a great time to work on home projects, learn, and catch up. Although we won’t have a regular school schedule, we will still have our Morning Time essentials.

What are our Morning Time essentials?

* Monday: Bible, music, Harry Potter 3, clean bathrooms
* Tuesday: Bible, drawing, Harry Potter 3, dust the house
* Wednesday: Bible, handicrafts, Harry Potter 3, vacuum
* Thursday: Bible, bake, Harry Potter 3, wash floors
* Friday: Bible, field trip & nature journaling

In addition, my children will be working on math or writing, depending on what they need more help with.

Why these essentials?

The Bible is the foundation of the truth. Therefore, it is important for us to start with God’s word and keep it in our hearts. Having a family read aloud is a great way to build a family culture around good books, and our enrichment activities are a wonderful way to use our skills and creativity.

Keep Summer School Simple

Summer school should be simple. It may include a course the student needs more help with, as well as classes you may not be able to attend during the school year, but simplicity is key, so children have more time to explore and create.

I hope your summer goes smoothly and is enjoyable.

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool resources.

• Shop at Toups & Co and receive $10 off your first $50 purchase.

*** Links above are to affiliate links for the book recommendation.***

Dear Mama,

This summer, I’m going to take advantage of the time to learn, read, and paint in watercolor.

My reading schedule will continue to be one fiction book and one non-fiction book. Currently, I’m reading through the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I have never read them, so I’m excited to do so. I’m also going to read Kurashi at Home by Marie Kondo. I love cleaning out my house every summer.

As for advancing my education, I will be studying Ancient Christianity and C.S. Lewis on Christianity at Hillsdale College for free!

Next, I will continue to learn watercolor. I still can’t draw and watercolor on my own. But that is a goal of mine.

What do you plan to do this summer for your mother-culture?

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool resources.

• Shop at Toups & Co and receive $10 off your first $50 purchase.

*** Links above are to affiliate links for the book recommendation.***

We are wrapping up our school year, and I’m starting to plan our summer. Our summer school consists of Bible, Literature, Handicrafts and Arts, and extra practice for math and language arts if needed.

Here is what our Summer Feast will consist of:

1. The Ology: I have not read this to my children yet, so I will do so in the summer.

2. Harry Potter: My children are growing up with Harry Potter. So, ever since my oldest daughter was 9, we've been reading these fun stories. We are reading one book a year, followed by watching the movie.

3. Handicraft: Every child will work on a handicraft project. I got ours from Barnes & Noble.

4. Field Trips: The summer is the best time to visit places we haven’t seen yet.

What does your summer feast look like?

Warmly,

Mirley

Stuff I Like:

• Follow me on Instagram for more tips on notebooking, mother culture, and homeschooling.

• Explore my Notebooking Catalog for interactive notebooks, exam books, and more tools that I have created for mother-teachers.

• Explore my Amazon Storefront for my favorite books and homeschool resources.

• Shop at Toups & Co and receive $10 off your first $50 purchase.

*** Links above are to affiliate links for the book recommendation.***