Homeschooling Hearts & Minds Returns After a Year Hiatus

About a year ago I decided to stop blogging here at Homeschooling Hearts & Minds.  My plan was to leave it up as an archive of resources for home educators, while I switched to writing about my more personal pursuits at a different web address. 

The archive bit happened, but the rest?  Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.

The short story is that I just needed a clean break from blogging for awhile.  What I thought would be a few week break turned into a few months and before I knew it almost a year had passed.

And then I realized that I wanted to come home to this blog and talk with you, not build up and create an all new blog and talk to all new friends. 

So, welcome back!  I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with you and sharing what we are doing in our homeschool. 

Let me give you a quick update on the family.

It’s been a very rainy spring and we are all kind of sick of being cooped up inside.  This morning the kids are building together.  And not fighting.  Bliss!

They are using Pinblocks, which are pretty cool (even the teen is fascinated).

Chris and I celebrated our 18th anniversary this January.  This picture is from his birthday a couple months before (his age on the cake is in binary---see if you can figure it out).

 

David is 16 and just finishing up his 10th grade coursework.

 

Mary is 12 and finishing 6th grade.

 

Peter is 10 and finishing 4th grade.

 

Emma is 7 and finishing 1st grade.

 

The girls after their ballet recital:

 

Peter bridged up to Boy Scouts this spring.

 

Emma discovered that selfies are fun.

 

We noticed that sometimes the sky looks just like a painting.

 

We engaged in plenty of learning…

…and a whole lot of silliness.

I’ve had some health issues this year.  There’s something about being in your 40s and suddenly having health issues that makes you take notice of your mortality.  Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere---but I am taking stock of the way things are and what I’d like change.  There’s only a couple more years before my oldest becomes an independent adult (eeps!).  This is a good time to be reflective and intentional.

 

Since we are finishing up our coursework and heading into summer, I’ll soon be talking about what worked and didn’t work for us this year. 

In the meantime, how have you been? 

I’d love to hear from you, whether here in the comments, or on facebook, or even by email.  Feel free to drop me a line at susan@homeschoolingheartsandminds.com.