One of the strangest assumptions about homeschooling is that learning becomes legitimate only after it has been turned into a lesson. Bake bread, and you're simply baking bread. Measure the ingredients on a worksheet, and suddenly it becomes mathematics. Build a fence and it is a chore. Complete a workbook page about perimeter and now we are safely back in school. I understand why we think this way. Curriculum is easy to recognize. There are pages, objectives, chapters. P

"I'm bored." There are few sentences more capable of making a parent suddenly begin listing household jobs. You can clean your room. You can unload the dishwasher. You can fold laundry. It is remarkable how quickly boredom sometimes disappears. But I have come to think boredom deserves a little more patience than we usually give it. Not because boredom itself is particularly noble. It isn't. There is nothing magical about lying upside down on the sofa announcing dramaticall

There is something about a short homeschool lesson that can make a parent suspicious. Fifteen minutes of mathematics? Twenty minutes of grammar? Surely that cannot be enough. We have been conditioned to associate time spent with seriousness. If children spend an hour doing something, it feels substantial. If they finish in fifteen minutes, we begin wondering whether we ought to find another worksheet. I have fallen into that trap too. But over the years I have become far mor

One of the questions I am asked most often about homeschooling is some version of this: But what do you actually do all day? I understand the curiosity. When you remove the school bell, the classroom, the timetable taped to the wall, and six neatly divided subjects before lunch, it can be difficult to imagine what is left. At Hazel Creek, quite a lot. Just not necessarily in the order people expect. Our days have never looked particularly impressive on paper. There are no col

There is something about the changing of seasons that makes me reflective. (And yes, I know we're still in the midst of summer but the days are getting shorter and I live for fall so I'm getting excited.) Perhaps it’s the way the light shifts across the kitchen table, or the first cool morning that calls for a warm sweater and a mug clasped between tired hands. As the garden begins to surrender what it faithfully produced all summer (which for me was a ton of weeds and the o

This morning, before Luke opened a workbook, there was already learning happening. There were boots by the door, dishes at the sink, animals waiting to be fed, a garden needing water, and a son noticing the Raven came to steal the duck eggs. It did not look like school. But it was education. Somewhere along the way, we began to believe that learning only counts when it is written down, measured, scheduled, or checked off. But children are always learning. They are learning fr

Rethinking what readiness really means There is a quiet pressure that finds its way into most homes at some point. It doesn't arrive loudly. It comes through passing comments, curriculum pages, well-meaning questions. Are they reading yet? What level are they at? And slowly, almost without noticing, we begin to look at our children differently. We start to measure. When Learning Becomes Something to Chase It's easy to believe that reading is something we need to start early.

Homeschooling in a Season That Refuses to Be Contained There is a moment each spring when the rhythm begins to shift. It doesn't happen all at once. There's no announcement. Just a subtle loosening. The snow softens. The air changes. The boys start drifting toward the door before breakfast is finished. Boots appear by the step. Jackets are forgotten. Whatever carefully held rhythm we carried through winter begins to feel… too tight, and just no longer right. Spring Doesn'

There are things grief takes from you... certainty, illusion, the sense that life can be managed if you just work hard enough. And then there are things grief gives. It strips away everything that is not essential. When leukemia entered our home, education was no longer theoretical. It was no longer about curriculum choices or pedagogy. It became about steadiness, about about what truly forms a child when the ground feels unsteady. Hospitals replaced days in the forest. Sc

There’s something about the first crisp mornings of autumn that makes me want to slow down. The air carries a new sharpness, the trees...

Why do we use Waldorf Education for our homeschool curriculum.

Children need to spend time in nature, and sadly, most are not getting near enough of what their little bodies need to thrive

Learning to read - earlier is not always better

Back to school…. the world seems to be a buzz with the excitement of a new school year approaching (and for many in the US it’s already...

This is why we Waldorf. This beautiful mess is real and raw and filled with so much heart and memory.

Waldorf education meets children where they are at. It aligns with the unfolding of children's natural developmental stages.

Homeschooling is not easy for me. I can say that it is worth the personal self-development that is required, to homeschool the kids.

Life is enough, as long as you truly live it.

Before I became a mom, I was a teacher. And here is why I chose to leave the public school system.

"Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives."

Happy New Year!!! Oh how I love the first of January. There is something so refreshing about the start of a brand new year. I always feel...

The Christmas season is upon us and there are SO many wonderful traditions and practices that are common to many Waldorf families. Today...

So here we are and another month has come and gone already. As my boys and I navigate our first year of homeschooling I've learned that a...

It may seem "antisocial", but to me it means they are learning about their boundaries, learning about what and who they can trust...

Oh October how I love thee! October has got to be my favourite month by far! Cool crisp breezes, warm sun, abundance in harvest, so much...

With the opening of Hawthorn Hill Academy being delayed until next year, I have chosen to homeschool my boys this year. I have decided to...

With public school set to start in less than a week, I "should" be gearing up to walk my 5 year old to the bus stop and send him on his...