Hello and Welcome

“There is a little danger in these days of much educational effort that children’s play should be crowed out, or… prescribed for and arranged until there is no more freedom of choice about play than about work.” Charlotte Mason, Original Homeschooling Series

Yesterday I watched Attila the Hun attack Joan of Arc while the some two legged hunting dogs looked on! The children turned our jungle gym into their siege engine and spent the afternoon playing outside. Living books feed living minds and childhood play is based on most of this.

On Father’s day we took an hours drive out to an apple farm. The children and my husband went for a 27.7 km ride – no kidding. I sat on the grass with my two younger children and we looked at the flowers and the creepy crawlies that happened onto our picnic blanket.

When the children returned after their 4 hour mountain cycle, they were famished. It was so wonderful to be out in the fresh air for the day. You can see some of our pictures on my “all about me” page.

I had to have a heart-to-heart chat with our older son about chores. He has become more and more slack with them over the last while. While we were chatting he expressed great frustration that his chores felt like punishment to him.

It was a great time as we spoke about how chores equip a future adult for life. And that if we learn these habits when we are young, they are already in place for when we are older.

Moms, train your young men now to do their jobs properly. Teach them to put the dirty clothes IN the washing hamper not next too!

Susanna Wesley said on her mothering beliefs: "No-one can, without renouncing the world in the most literal sense observe my method and there are few , if any, that would entirely devote above 20 years of the prime of their life in hopes to save the souls of their children." I am sure you know she had 19 children, 11 of whom lived to adulthood and some of them were those who changed the course of history.

I found a wonderful book at the library about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. (by Mary Hoffman) It is in the form of a first hand account of a young slave boy travelling with his Master, who is a true historical character to the 7 wonders. A real living book!

Another one I read to David our 4 year old is called "Gregory and the magic line". I don't know who enjoyed it more - David or me! Its about al little boy who draws with the help of a "living" pencil. It covers all shapes (3 D) and colours, characteristics of lines and feed the imagination. The artwork is also top class! Author is Dawn Piggot.

As I have always been a Work at Home Mom in one form or another, I have added a page to my site about how my webpage came to be as my new Work at Home mom Adventure.

I have added free printable childrens chore charts and some help on how to implement them.

And last night I started a blog! My site now has RSS Feed which, should you subscribe to it, will keep you up to date with any new additions to my site.