Seven Quick Takes on GHC, Circle Time Grammar, Another Birthday, and MORE!

:: 1 ::

If you didn’t catch my Facebook post yesterday, I’m headed to Ft. Worth in February to speak at GHC! Hip hip! I’m bringing my husband along, and you can catch us at my booth, which I have given the very long title of Afterthoughts/AmblesideOnline/Charlotte Mason. Just to cover all my bases, you know. {Should I add “Psychiatric Help 5¢” ??} Some of the amazing Dallas-area AO-ers are helping me with my booth. At least, I think they are. Also, I hope they are. They have a whole lotta collective wisdom.

Anyhow, I hope a bunch of you are going to be there and that you will come say hello at the booth!

:: 2 ::

On Monday, my baby turned eight. As usual, I’m freaking out {on the inside} that my children are growing up. As is our tradition, part of today is designated Party Prep. We’re hanging out at Great Grandma’s house, swimming and decorating the cake. She always hosts Son O’s birthday parties because it is too hot to move this time of year. I really shouldn’t complain because it’s actually cooling off quite a bit; the high is only supposed to be 97. But still. The pool keeps us from having to play hot and sticky party games.

Ew.

I’m making an ice hockey cake. It may be summer, but that kid loves hockey. I’ll try and post a photo on Facebook later on if I can.

:: 3 ::

This week’s links collection:

• Looks like Rio police were the biggest liars in the Lochte drama… if anyone still cares about the truth from HotAir
  • Interesting.
• Hard Words for Homeschool Moms by James Nance
  • This sort of goes along with my Don’t Look Theory of Parenting. We mothers are naturally inclined to intervene; I find removing myself can be a helpful thing — a way of protecting my children from ME. Of course, as mentioned above, my youngest is eight. This is the sort of thing we grow into. I find that dropping my teenager off places instead of escorting him in and out means that he can be completely independent of me for a time. And I think that’s a good thing.
• On David Gushee’s Dishonesty from Mere Orthodoxy
  • Good read. Also: long read. I feel like I learned a thing or two about literary technique, though that wasn’t the point of the post.

:: 4 ::

This month in 2014:

I had sort of forgotten about this — if you’re using this book this year, you might love it!

:: 5 ::

Grammar. This is how it’s done, people! We are in our second year of white board grammar and I am so glad Cindy Rollins convinced me it could be this easy. I love it so much. Putting grammar into Circle Time has saved me time, energy, pain … and also from my slacker self that put it off when I scheduled it into other parts of the day.

By the way, does anyone know how to pronounce “schooner?” My daughter and I disagreed. I suppose I could look it up, but I figured you all would like to boss me around a little and set me straight.

:: 6 ::

Scholé Sisters is back in business! We debuted our first Episode of Season 2 — Find the Right Scholé for Your Type — this morning. You won’t want to miss it.

:: 7 ::

The past week has been an absolute whirlwind. We’ve had a number of wonderful opportunities come our way, none of which we expected. So now we are in the midst of making some decisions. Pray for us, if you think of it. I feel we are in need of extra wisdom these days,