Since the early pandemic months of 2020, I knew this would be a good year for reading. One of the gifts of being sequestered, quarantined, or otherwise detained at home is having plenty of quality reading time. I loaded myself up with online book orders this year and spent my grateful-for-everything days and nights tending…
A Little Christmas Library
Our Victorian-era house has a library, so collecting gorgeous and favorite books is not a new thing for us. Our library is ‘artfully curated’ – which means it is interesting, but not exactly organized. I have it laid out in sections by genre and again by the author but fall short of actual cataloging, and…
Home for the Holidays
Well, this is different! For the first time in seven years, we are spending the holidays at our house in Newport. All the traditions of Christmas’ past that we had set aside in lieu of travel, have found a home in our hearts easily this year as if we never left. The recent days we…
Halloween Week Hoopla
When big things are happening in our world – holidays, elections, major sporting events – that are out of the ordinary, we like to embrace these, as opposed to assuming our regular-school calendar is more important. There is no use drowning out the buzz and hum of what is exciting for kids and teens, and…
Poetry, the Easy Way
“Without poetry, we lose our way.” —Joy Harjo, current U.S. Poet Laureate & Academy of American Poets Chancellor A favorite children’s book with beautiful illustrations by Jean Pierre Siméon; paintings by Oliver Tallec. … Want to add in some easy poetry to your homeschool world? Start by checking out poets.org. Housing the works of over 3,000…
Board Games for the Win!
Did you know that “Game-Schooling” is actually a thing? It is! Our school is Travel and Literature-based, but we are not traveling (at all) right now which means we need to shift our focus to something else. This year, we are incorporating more games than ever to fill the travel void. The presence of games,…
Hey Mama, Welcome to the Club!
I want to extend a hearty welcome to all the new Homeschool Mamas out there. And there are a lovely lot of you! There are a thousand reasons to homeschool, all grounded in quality of education, health, safety, travel, opportunity, personal development, experience, sports, etc. But sadly the number one reason many people are driven…
Curious about Homeschool?
Introducing: GO TIMBALERO HOMESCHOOL COACHING By now, I think everyone understands that distance learning is not homeschool. They are near opposites at their core. But how to transition from one to the other? I can help you explore this idea and provide direction for preparing your homeschool plan – whether you want to give…
Road Trip Basics
Me and my adventurous sibs, Smokey Mountains, 1971. I remember family road trips when I was a kid with vivid detail. My parents, two siblings and I would jam into our dark cherry red Oldsmobile F85 (lovingly nicknamed, “the Bomb”) and drive the three-point-five hours from Indianapolis to grandma’s house in southern Indiana about once…
Homeschool Heroes
When we first started homeschooling in 2014, I was excited, but apprehensive. I felt empowered to create a unique school for my then 2nd and 4th graders, and worked diligently to make it fun for all of us, but this was new territory. I knew it had to make sense for everyone in our family,…
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