I first heard of Gather ‘Round two years ago, at the beginning of the school year. I was at a Creation & Worldview class with my girls (taught by the creator of Jonathan Park, Pat Roy—what a cool opportunity!). I introduced myself to a mom who was sitting on the floor at the back of the … Read more
Choose one or more books from this page to read aloud to your children throughout the school year. Please do not attempt to read every book listed on this page. Remember that there are four cycles, and that, eventually, you will come back around to this cycle, and at that time you can choose other … Read more
Bible Memory Claritas Publishing schedules a Bible passage each week for twenty-eight weeks. If you begin with Claritas when your child is in kindergarten, you will get through all four cycles three times. Because of that, I decided to create two alternative passages for each of the twenty-eight weeks. “Passage One” is blank, because that … Read more
Enrichment consists of the following subjects: The Cycle 4 Composers are: The Cycle 4 Artists are: The Cycle 4 Poets are: The Cycle 4 Handicrafts are: You can download the pdf files at the STAR Store Composers Term 1 Composer: Frederic Chopin Links are to Spotify. Week 1: Nocturne No. 2 in E flat major, … Read more
Claritas Publishing schedules a Bible passage each week for twenty-eight weeks. If you begin with Claritas when your child is in kindergarten, you will get through all four cycles three times. Because of that, I decided to create two alternative passages for each of the twenty-eight weeks. “Passage One” is blank, because that information can … Read more
Sunday evening, we had guests over for a taco night. I made iced tea, taco meat, and rice, and our guests brought toppings and taco shells. The rice I make is a Chipotle-style Cilantro Lime Rice, and it’s so good. Since I was cooking for a crowd and I didn’t want to make two pots of … Read more
I mentioned this week that I have been homeschooling since our oldest son was two–which means I’ve been homeschooling for TWENTY years. That’s a long time, and a good chunk of my life so far. Homeschooling has changed drastically over the years, and I want to share what I’ve witnessed here. When I entered the … Read more
I mentioned yesterday that I only planned to homeschool through preschool and kindergarten at first, because I thought those years would be easy enough. And yet, here I am, the mom of three sons who have graduated and two high school aged daughters, whom I am still homeschooling. What happened, and why am I still … Read more
Homeschooling wasn’t on the radar when I was in college, planning to teach middle school English. I grew up in the public school system, and so did my husband. We planned to enroll our children in that exact same system. Fast forward to 2001, when our first son, Isaac, was born at twenty-six weeks gestation. … Read more
Homeschool planning shouldn’t be stressful, overwhelming or complicated. I’ve created the STAR reading plans with families like yours in mind. The reading plans follow four cycles of history, science, enrichment, and so many other subjects. All children in the family will be following the same timeline, the same artist, composer, poet, habits, life skills, and … Read more