adminJenny Harwood
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Weather All Around Us
October’s Mother Goose Time theme is Weather All Around Us, and it couldn’t be more timely. With the crazy weather that has been hitting the past few months in the States and Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, storms have been one of the main topics of conversation. We had family come stay with us while
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Be Brave
October is here and we are SO excited that it is fall! Well, at least I am. My daughter has told me on more than one account that shes’ a little tired of how excited I am about fall. But I cannot help it! I just love this season! (I can hear Olaf in my
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Sensing a New Season
Today is the beginning of my favorite season! My kids are already sick of me talking about how much I love Fall! But I really do! I love all things fall! The cooler weather, which allows us to open our windows and enjoy fresh air comfortably! I already love hot coffee, so now I can
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Hidden Treasures
I’ve found that sometimes the simplest of plans are the most effective. Take our set-up routine, for example. Each month with our Mother Goose Time curriculum, we receive a new calendar with separate date pieces to assemble. The first go-around with Mother Goose Time, when my oldest was 4, I would the calendar, along with
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September’s School Theme: My Amazing Body
While we are not officially starting our 2017-2018 school year until next Monday, when your little boy asks you if you can do some Mother Goose Time, you pull out your lesson for next Monday and just decide to dive in early. Now, don’t get the wrong impression. My kids are not constantly asking me
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Getting Ready
It is officially September and we are gearing up for our new school year! I’m pretty excited and optimistic about this year’s dynamic with two kiddos participating in the school day! We won’t get officially started until Monday, September 11th, so we are wrapping up our current theme and this mama is getting all her
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Capes, Masks, and Superpowers – Part 2
Continuing on in our Superheros theme for August with Mother Goose Time, today we finished our personal superhero apparel as we counted down the hours for the solar eclipse. Still enjoying the casual schedule of summer, we haven’t made much progress yet into this month’s theme as of yet, so the kids were excited when
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Peter’s First Bible Curriculum
September will start a new school year for us, with Natalie (“The Sweetness”) starting second grade (what?!) and Peter (Little Prince) starting 4K. We are eager to get into a new routine, and by we, I mean me, the structured, task-oriented, lover of plans and routines. We will be continuing My Father’s World with Natalie,
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Capes, Masks, and Superpowers
As I mentioned in my previous post, this month’s theme for Mother Goose Time is Superheros! One of my favorite little resources each month is the Little Journal! This is something we’ll work through all month, with daily activities that highlight different letters or topics that the kiddos will be reviewing all month. A couple
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August is for Superheroes
This month Mother Goose Time’s Theme, Superheros, is taking a close look at real life superheros – police officers, firemen, peacekeepers (military personnel), volunteers, and good neighbors. While I’m sure we will have fun imagining what it would be like to have our own super powers, I love that we are focusing on real life
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Pinecones and Purpose
This Monday morning started out hopeful and optimistic. I had quite a bit on my to-do list portion of my planner and the week ahead of me to knock it out. Despite a little bit of a sore throat, I was ready to face the week. A week full of purposeful activities planned out ahead
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Summer Fun (Yes, I mean school)
This week, I was reminded of one of the MAIN reasons that I love our preschool curriculum, Mother Goose Time. Yes, it’s super cute with adorable, colorful graphics so that it’s visually appealing for the kiddos and me! (Don’t underestimate the importance of the appeal for the teacher!). And it’s really easy to facilitate. One
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Living Room Camping
It’s already July! I cannot believe it! Even though we don’t keep a traditional school year, we have still acknowledged that it is very much summer, and it’s flying by crazy fast! We have found ourselves almost two weeks into this new month, and are just now breaking open our July Mother Goose Time box,
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Inside the Box: A Peek Into Our Preschool Curriculum, Part 3
Wrapping up my series on our new preschool curriculum, Mother Goose Time, I am going to focus on the Daily Discovery Bags! If you missed my previous three posts, feel free to check here (1), (2), and (3). I don’t know why, but I get so giddy opening up these bags. I love, love, love
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Inside the Box: A Peek Into Our Preschool Curriculum, Part 2
Hey there! So this is the third post in the series on our new Preschool curriculum, Mother Goose Time. We have LOVED our time with this curriculum in the past (we used it for about 6 months when my daughter was 5 years old) and we are excited to be using it again our second
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Inside The Box: A Peek Into Our Preschool Curriculum Part 1
Last week, I shared my excitement about receiving our first Mother Goose Time box, and promised I’d share more pictures. So here we go! As I mentioned in the previous post, each month we receive this awesome box full of pretty much everything we are gonna need for the month: a teaching guide with the daily
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Summer School – Box Day!
I am so excited to announce that we’ve decided to use the Mother Goose Time curriculum again as our official Pre-K curriculum for Peterman! We’ve been waiting until The Sweetness finishes first grade to start a new, longer learning routine with Peter (now that he’s a big boy four), and it’s finally here! Call us crazy,
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The Best Gifts
I have this friend. She says that she pursued me and convinced me to be her friend. I will only agree with her on the fact that she did come over to my house about a week or two after our first babies were born (1 day apart), because Lord knows I wasn’t going anywhere
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In The Messy Middle
This post has been a long time coming. A little over 3 months, to be more specific. I have sensed the Holy Spirit calling me to write for a while now. But I didn’t want to, plain and simple. I can give it a bunch of names and some pretty good excuses, but at the
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My Truth Is…
I entered the kitchen this morning to find my daughter sprawled out on her back in front of the refrigerator (not unusual), and my son standing next to her. Our little white tower fan was to his left, now pulled out into the middle of the floor instead of its normal spot next to the
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Embraced In The Middle
Just this week the Lord showed me in an intimate way how He loves me in the middle of my disobedience. It was a week where it seemed my kids had lost their minds, forgetting every rule we have ever had in our home, and finding new creative ways to act out (sneaking out of
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New exciting things
“I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. ” -Eric Liddell I have always loved this quote, for as long as I can remember. I loved what it represents, this possibility that when you are fully in your life, connected to the
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A New Word for A New Year
I love these types of posts. These are the posts where I get to share what the Lord has been pouring into me, to proclaim His Presence that has so faithfully been here the whole time (even when my eyes can’t see and my ears can’t hear), to acknowledge what He has been doing in
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Do you need to go to time-out?
I had this thought today, as my daughter is whining about sitting down for her devotional & school time. Shouts of “I’m going to be so bored” (her newest phrase , thank you, Sofia the First) and “But I’m going to be exhausted after this and not be able to play with my shopkins” where
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A New Season (A New Default)
This past December was really enjoyable. It hasn’t always been this way. Years past, this was a crazy-busy time of year for our family and I hate to admit it, but Advent was the last thing on my mind. We loved Jesus (still do!), but there were ‘more pressing’ things that needed to be done,
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January – Going On Safari
This month, Mother Goose Time is taking us on safari! Here’s a sneak peak into some of the fun we’ll be having with our last month of Mother Goose Time! As much as we have LOVED using this curriculum and still will highly recommend it for anyone looking for quality, fun curriculum for their littles,
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Joy
This December has been filled with a lot of things. A lot of questions. A lot of doubts. A lot of seeking the Lord and in His faithfulness, a lot of finding Him in all of it. I’ve been reminded of the truth of this passage: “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find
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More Math and Literacy with Peter
This December our family is taking a break from school as we reassess how things have been going this past year and prayerfully approach 2016. But it’s been nice to focus and enjoy our Advent season, anticipating Christ’s ultimate return and also His movement in our lives now. It has been great to be able
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Christmas Fun and the Evil Boo-ba
We’ve had some fun getting into this month’s special Christmas activity pack. We spent a whole morning exploring some of the crafts and games that were included, and it was fun to see the kids’ creativity come out. The first was a number game where we had Santa’s beard, some cotton balls, some numbered stockings,
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Pattern Play
One morning this week, we decided to do some pattern play with our tangram shapes that we have received in an earlier month’s package of Mother Goose Time curriculum, making abstract Christmas trees while trying to stick with patterns. It wasn’t super complicated, but it was fun to see how the kids were innovative with
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Thankful Turkey
This week have been hit hard with the fall sickies. It started with Peter and spread pretty quickly the rest of us, with the exception of Natalie. Somehow she managed to come through the week unscathed (amazing gummy vitamins for the win!). So we’ve had a pretty low-key week when it comes to pretty much
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On The Go
I’ve mentioned before how impressed I am with Mother Goose Time, the preschool curriculum that we started this past June. It’s been a huge blessing for us as we’ve started to incorporate Peter into more of our structured homeschool day, and allowed for him to be right there with us as we’ve been doing crafts,
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T is for Turtle (and Thankfulness)
This week we are wrapping out the October In The Orchard theme from Mother Goose Time with some critter fun. We have been learning about turtles through Natalie’s Kindergarten curriculum and so we decided to make some turtle pets out of previous MGT materials that we have had laying around for a couple of months.
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N is for Nest
This was such a fun activity! We’ve been studying nests this past week through my daughter’s Kindergarten curriculum, and so when I ran across Day 12’s “Baby Nest” activity in our Mother Goose Time curriciulum, I was so excited how well it would flow into our lesson plan for the day. Here is a glimpse
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Rejoicing in the Little (and we have a reader!)
This week we rejoiced in the little things. And for me, that is a BIG thing. Let me explain… This week was hard. I’m not going to sugarcoat it or try to put a positive spin on things. It was just hard. I saw a lot of my selfishness, my lack of patience, my short
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When It All Comes Together
This is my first official fall homeschooling and I am discovering how much I love, love, love being able to gear our lessons around seasonal fun, like ripe apples and changing fall leaves. We just started incorporating an official “recess” time because Natalie insisted this was her favorite part of our Wednesday Co-Op day. I
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Serving Jesus
A while back, a friend encouraged me to surround myself with meaningful things, objects that would remind me of what God has been speaking to me, as well as reminders of what He had spoken and done in the past. I had resigned from my full-time position at a local church to be home with
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Leaves and Laughter
As I mentioned before, we’re doing a unit on leaves right now with Natalie’s My Father’s World Kindergarten curriculum. And it just so happens that Day 5 of our October “In the Orchard” theme for Peter’s Mother Goose Time curriculum is on leaves! I love it when things come together! So tonight we had a
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October: A Week At a Glance
Fall is here! I am so so happy about this. It has allowed this past week’s gloomy and rainy weather to be a little bit more bearable, knowing that fall has arrived with all things good: sweaters, hot beverages always, smores, scarves, fires, brightly colored leaves. I could go on and on. As I mentioned
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First things First
When it comes to “box day,” which for those of you not in the homeschool arena or are new to it is the exciting day when your new curriculum comes in. For some, that’s once a year if you’re ordering all-inclusive, holistic curriculum. For those of us in the Mother Goose Time community, this exciting
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October: In The Orchard
The hubs and I just got back from a week-long, kid-free vacation to find October’s box had arrived while we were gone. Wahoo! I’ve been really looking forward to October’s In The Orchard theme for a while now, so I’m pretty pumped (plus a week of cruising has definitely helped to allow me to return
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Friends and Creative Play
September is proving to a be a fun-filled, but FULL month for us. I was so excited when I found out how closely September’s Mother Goose Time theme, Friends and Feelings, was coordinating with a local homeschool co-op that we recently joined. One of our primary goals for joining this year was for Natalie and
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Friends and Feelings: More Math
As I mentioned here, I love this resource! So I’m going to walk you through this month’s book so you’ll get an idea of why I love these like I do. Friends and Feelings (September’s Theme). As I mentioned in the previous post, these workbooks can work hand-in-hand with the month’s 20 Daily Activities
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Friends and Feelings: More Literacy
I’ve talked about these books before, but I love, love, love the More Literacy & More Math add-ons from Mother Goose Time. Although they are targeted at older preschoolers to help them transition into Kindergarten, I have found that they are a great resource for both my kiddos. And I love that you can do
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September Box Day!
One of the most exciting days of our week is when we get in our shiny new little school bus box, otherwise known as BOX DAY! However, the beginning of the school year (September) means an extra special box, because it includes the “Getting Started” kit! YAY!!! We received one of these kits this
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Night School
Tonight Daddy joined us for school! It was so fun to have him be a part of the lesson. I’m so thankful for the flexibility that homeschooling allows us. I was able to go get a much-needed second round of antibiotics from the sinus infection that wants to hold on all.year.long, and we were still
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The Crow and the Pitcher
Today was Day 6 – The Crow and the Pitcher! The kids were so excited because this meant we got to play with water and what they call “jewels,” the little blue stones that came with a previous month’s curriculum as math manipulatives! They were stoked! This is not my first ball game. Towels were
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It Is All Fun & Games
Looking over the pictures I took this past week during school time, it occurred to me how much my kids are learning while having fun. Part of our activity on Day 4 was literally a board game based on the day’s Fable, The Hare and the Tortoise. A lot of this pictures speak for themselves,
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For The Love of Math & Cuteness
Over the past several months, I’ve had the privilege of being part of a group that someone lovingly nicknamed #the500. This is the launch team that was assembled to promote Jen Hatmaker’s newest book, For The Love. One of the awesome perks of being part of the team (and there have been SO MANY) was
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August: Fables & Folktales
I realized this month that I’ve never posted the wonderful elements I get each month with each new theme-based Mother Goose time curriculum box. This month’s theme is Fables & Folktales. Each month comes with a flow-chart to show you the daily topics, grouped by weeks, that you’ll be discussing. I love that this helps
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