The Big White Farmhouse

intentional living, little by little

{learning} Our Homeschool Curriculum Choices for 2015-2016


Today is our first day of school!  

 Last year, I went with a boxed curriculum, but ended up tweaking it to fit our needs.  For this year, I pieced together a curriculum and I’m really excited about my choices.  Buying curriculum is a tricky thing, at least for me.  There are so many wonderful books and for as many people who love a product, there are just as many who hate it.  My method is to research as much as I can, then trust my gut and make a decision based on that particular child.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  


Here are our choices and goals for this year:


3rd Grade

My third grader is a strong reader and average mathematician.  This year, we are focusing on improving his spelling skills, writing more clearly and sharpening those math facts.

1st Grade 
We believe my first grader may have symptoms for dyslexia, but it’s not going to hold him back!  His learning has been slower and more deliberate and I am so thankful for the opportunity to homeschool him.  This year, we are focusing on reading fluently and helping him find his confidence in learning.  

Pre-Kindergarten
I am dedicating Tuesday and Thursday afternoons as special time for the little kids.  While I generally would keep things really light and easy at this age, these two are just dying to be like the big boys, which makes things tricky.  This year, we are going to focus on our letters, numbers and lots of read-alouds.  

All Together
This year, we’re going to do a few subjects together as a family.  It helps lessen my work load a bit and I like that we can adapt the work to each person’s level and pace.

Linking up with Micaela – be sure to check out the link-up if you need homeschool inspiration!


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{around here} Week 31/52: Week of 8.3.15

A collection of our ordinary days, recorded every week.  At the end of the year, I’ll publish them into a keepsake to treasure.

Around here, I have been:


starting T25.  On a Tuesday.  I’m done choosing the “right” day to start something, so Tuesday it is.  The workouts are hard, but manageable and even fun.   Mark and I (and even M) have been doing them together first thing in the morning and it has been a great beginning to my day.


eating clean and finally on week two of Whole30.  I’ve done this before and knew what to expect, so it was a little like childbirth: you know it’s going to hurt, but it’s worthwhile in the end.


enjoying Brain Games on Netflix with the kids.  The show is educational and entertaining and we have learned a lot.  (Note: I would suggest skipping the episode on fear.  I previewed it and determined it was WAY too scary for my kids.)


taking care of D as we found out he has double ear infections.  He feels so much better now that he’s on antibiotics.


setting up our new birdfeeder!  It is acrylic and sticks directly to our window.  We are still waiting for the neighborhood birds to realize it’s there, but hopefully we’ll have some visitors soon. 


stitching like a mad woman!  I set a personal deadline to finish Sophie’s “girls” by the time we started school and now we’re only three days away!  Hoping I can finish up this weekend.  (Finally linking up to Erica’s Summer Stitching Stash Blast #11 too.)


watching TJ all the time.  He is climbing stairs, dancing to any and all music, loves peek-a-boo, and hits and throws everything in sight.  He also does a full cross-body waving thing that I’m crazy about.  I love this age.


buying Do a Dot markers for the little kids.  They have been a little jealous of all the cool books and supplies the big boys have been receiving for school, so it was fun to tell them that this package was theirs.


laughing at Sophia and her adorable and hilarious comments.  A few of her latest: “I a goose!’ (meaning: she’s a silly goose), “I go to bed in…um, thirty years!” And my absolute favorite, asked every single evening as I start getting ingredients out: “We cookin’ family dinner, mama?”

{thrive goals} 100 Little Things: Round Two


If you’ve been reading here for awhile, you may remember my first 100 Little Things list back in 2014.  I loved the process and while I didn’t cross everything off by year’s end, the list was so helpful when I was feeling uninspired or overwhelmed.  At the beginning of this year, I tried to change things up, but that quickly crashed and burned.  


So it comes as no surprise that as I’ve been learning more about myself, I’ve been thinking, “How do I like to get things done?  What fires me up?”  And the 100 Little Things list immediately came to mind.  I considered starting on my birthday in October or waiting until January 1st, but then I thought, “Why wait?  Why put off what I can start right now?”  So here I am, making a list of little things I’d like to accomplish, smack dab in the middle of summer.

Like last time, this list is a mix of silly things and important things. They are things that really need to get done and things that just sound like fun.  They are things I’d like to do and things I really should do.  They are things that excite me and things that scare me.  My goal is to finish them all before the end of next summer, but we’ll see.  I love the process as much as the finish line.  


1. Donate my hair to Pantene
2. Buy succulents for the house 
3. Purchase art for above master bed
4. Take the kids to a baseball game
5. Make a pillowcase dress
6. Watch 20 documentaries
7. Read 15 books
8. Read a book of poems
9. Reread To Kill a Mockingbird
10. Read The Temperament God Gave Your Kids
11. Print updated photos for around the house
12. Make 2015 Instagram book
13. Make 2015 Around Here book
14. Have our family photos professionally taken
15. Send out Christmas cards
16. Bake a cheesecake
17. Grow spinach
18. Make marbled paper
19. Learn how to French braid
20. Have a picnic lunch
21. Install shelves in the boys’ room
22. Buy new duvet covers for the boys
23. Run a 5K
24. Run a 10K
25. Run another half marathon
26. Make my own vanilla extract
27. See my sister cheer
28. Blog everyday for a month (31 days in October?)
29. Move photos to external hard drive
30. Take 4 (out of the house) dates with Mark
31. Explore someplace new
32. Watch 10 TED talks
33. Make an emergency preparedness kit
34. Make a new recipe everyday for a month
35. Armknit another scarf (or a blanket?)
36. Take a bath
37. Wear my hair in a new way
38. Host 5 new families for dinner
39. Complete our wills
40. Purchase a “Thanksgiving meal” to donate to the food bank
41. Buy a birdfeeder
42. Take an online course
43. Potty train Sophia
44. Hang an American flag outside
45. Buy a new throw blanket for the living room
46. Make a quilt
47. Start a separate blog for our homeschooling 
48. Do a month-long running “streak”
49. Get carpets professionally cleaned
50. Participate in Screen-Free Week
51. Donate 100 items
52. Make milk & honey soap
53. Make bread from scratch, no bread machine!
54. Get Big White Farmhouse in a magazine ad
55. Purchase vintage items at a big fair
56. Re-do Big White Farmhouse packaging (business cards, thank you postcards, etc)
57. Make a frame for the big dining room picture
58. Grow cucumbers
59. Make the laundry room more functional
60. Send 5 “just because” gifts
61. Organize the linen closet
62. Try making new flavors of lemonade
63. Sew Sophie pajama pants
64. Learn flower arranging
65. Buy a bench for the dining room table
66. Find a vintage globe
67. Buy a fiddle leaf fig tree for the house
68. Paint anything on a canvas
69. Make homemade Larabars
70. Make homemade marshmallows
71. Read four books of the Bible slowly
72. Read an encyclical
73. Create a hand-drawn printable
74. Replace the pillows in the living room
75. Buy a wreath for the front door
76. Try 5 new local restaurants
77. Make 20 recipes from my cookbooks
78. Create a “celebration basket”: paper plates, napkins, candles, etc.
79. Go to the dentist
80. Buy a new winter coat
81. Rotate master bedroom mattress
82. Complete T25 or another Beachbody program
83. Launch a special project with Mark
84. Write 100 blog posts
85. Make strawberry jam with my mom
86. Go to the shooting range with Mark
87. Pay off remaining student loan debt
88. Make my handwriting a font
89. Go strawberry picking
90. Go apple picking
91. Do a pullup unassisted
92. Take the kids to see something in DC
93. Make a distressed wooden sign for my office
94. Milk paint a piece of furniture
95. Embroider one of Sophia’s drawings
96. Plant flowers in the front flower beds
97. Find a new playground
98. Buy milk glass containers to hold art supplies
99. Do something special to celebrate our 10th anniversary
100. See a movie in theaters

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