This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark of the Charlotte Mason method: narration. Have you ever heard of it? What would you like to know? 

I’m focusing heavily on how we use narration in our homeschool, but if you have specific questions about it, I would love for you to 1. Take the poll in my stories, and 2. Ask any questions you may have about narration in the comments so that I can answer them in my video! ❤️
Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encoura Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encourage those who are intentionally making a better life for their children than what they may have experienced as kids. It is not easy to change the cycle, but it’s well worth the effort. 

In the words of Louisa May Alcott, “A woman's happiest kingdom is home, her highest honor is the art of ruling it not as a queen, but a wise wife and mother."
📚 We are moving right along with term three of 📚 We are moving right along with term three of our school year. Slow but steady, we will finish up mid June and I’ll begin prepping for next school year in July and August! 📚

Here’s some of my random old and new tips + what I’ve been doing to help keep organized with the CMEC. 

01. Keep a regular day for nature outings or field trips. We have two days a week where I intentionally plan a hike or museum visit, etc. One is usually at the middle of the week and the other is at the end. It offers great variety to our weeks.

02. Notebook! I have had the girls consistently notebook this year, and it’s been such a delight to go back and see my form 1b student’s progress! I have a video coming out about how we notebook and why you should try it very soon! 

03. To stay on track with our morning timetable I’ve been writing the time we end each lesson in my logbook. It’s really changed how productive I am in making sure we get everything on our timetable done for the day. (I have a video on my logbook if you’re interested in learning more about that!)

04. And 05. Popsicle sticks! Friends, if you’re already a CMEC family, use these to help you choose which activities you review! I have on these for old singing games, French songs, folk dances or Swedish drill routines. I’ll share more on what I have on ours, specifically, but it’s fun because the girls and I get to be surprised rather than me choosing what we review!

06. Art instruction. Originally I had us doing three art lessons per week in the afternoon, but it didn’t allow for enough free choice, so we’ve reduced it down to one formal lesson a week for six weeks, then we change the method. So right now we are in week two of our chalkdrawing lessons. After six weeks we will switch to brush drawing instruction for the remainder of the term! As Charlotte Mason recommends, we draw from memory, model, and from imagination. 🌞

I hope this was helpful to you! So many of you guys are using @the.cmec next year! I am SO excited to see all of you at the online form meetings this coming year! 👏🏻 #thecmec #thecmecform1 #charlottemason
Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf o Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf or in a drawer? This drawer is right next to my stove and it’s my favorite way to store my spices! I reuse these little jars and fill them every couple of weeks with my bulk @azurestandard spices. 🧂
Are you planting a garden this year? What are you Are you planting a garden this year? What are you growing? Containers and raised beds? Or in ground? What do you plan to grow? Veggies? Flowers? We are doing a little bit of everything. 😍

It’s my third year growing food. (And ironically, our third house 😅) We just got our @greenstalkgarden planter, several @smartpots, and six raised beds that are ready to be filled next weekend. Really looking forward to this gardening season! 🥕🥬🥦🌽🌶🫑🫐🍓🥔
“Let then once get in touch with nature and a ha “Let then once get in touch with nature and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life.” -Charlotte Mason 

My kiddo had a birthday this past weekend. We do one main gift and a couple of small gifts; typically they’re  things they can use outdoors. Bikes have been a popular birthday item around here! My eldest wanted an apple tree last year. ☺️ But this year we got N a mud kitchen! Some friends of ours had one they built, and it inspired us. My kiddos have been playing on the forest floor in the mud for years now, but it’s exciting for them to have a little space in our garden for mud play. 🌳 What are some fun outdoorsy gifts you’ve purchased for your kids?
📚 When should I teach my child to read? How sho 📚 When should I teach my child to read? How should I teach my child to read? What does Charlotte Mason say about reading lessons? How did she teach children how to read? What curriculum do you use to teach your child how to read? 📚
These are all questions I answered in my blog post and video, “teaching reading the Charlotte Mason way” 📚 you can also swipe over to see some of my favorite CM quotes on teaching reading! 📚

I also shared what I do with my 3-year-old (which is very minimal) if you have younger children. You can view the post at the link in my profile! Are you up children school-aged? What do you use to teach reading?
I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more unpacking and organizing to be done, pictures to be framed, meal planning to do, laundry that needed folding, bike rides to be had, meals to be prepared, sourdough to be prepped and lesson planning + pre-reading to do. Oh and dishes. So many dishes. 😅

I do essentially all of the inside housework aside from taking out the trash + recycle, but for a season my husband helped out while N was small by doing dinner dishes and sometimes even preparing dinner so I could nurse her after we ate. But as of late, I’m trying something new where I don’t ask my husband to clean up after dinner and instead I do it myself. I don’t mind it, and since my girls are old enough to get their own pj’s on now, I’ve been doing dinner clean-up (as well as lunch and breakfast clean-up and prep!) before I head upstairs to tuck them in, read them a story and sit with them while they fall asleep. Call me old fashioned, but I’m happy to do it, and I delight in my husband being able to enjoy some time with the girls after dinner instead of clean up a mess after a long day of working.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this post - I’ve felt pulled in so many directions today and it’s something I feel often, (and I’m sure so many of you can relate) but after five months without a home to care for and nurture I simply can’t feel frustrated or annoyed at my list of 10,000 things I need to do. Instead I pray my way through each task. I sip tea in between. I light a candle and wear my great-grandmother’s apron as I work. I read notes like the one my six-year-old left for me this morning and I weep tears of gratitude and joy. Happy Sunday, my friends. ❤️ 
.
(swipe to read her note 🥰 + a transcription in the comments!)
Remember that word we heard so often when we were Remember that word we heard so often when we were parenting infants? Attachment.  What comes to mind? Breastfeeding on demand. Co-sleeping. Babywearing. All of those things that come pretty natural to us when taking care of a baby. But did you know that attachment doesn’t just end when your child gets bigger? Attachment is actually necessary THROUGH adolescence. 😳

Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté is a brilliant book that stopped me in my tracks. The book addresses the severe lack of attachment to parents that is incidentally replaced by an attachment to peers. I wrote all about it on my blog, but if you swipe over you can see a few passages that I underlined, highlighted, and wrote down in my notebook. 

Peer culture is more prevalent than ever. Not only because our society now prefers it that way, but because of social media’s ability to unite our youth in an unprecedented way. What we need is a shift in how we pass down culture to our kids from a horizontal attachment (peer to peer) back to a vertical attachment (family to child). I’ve often felt this long before I read this book, but we prioritize our Children’s friendships and relationships with others before we prioritize their relationships with us. We don’t value the family unit the way we used to decades ago, and it’s to the detriment of our children. 

I will gift this book to every new parent I meet from now on because of the wisdom the authors share. I wish all parents would read it so we could be on the same page as a society and those of us who choose to hold on to our kids wouldn’t be going against the grain. So this is my plea to you. If anything I’ve said piqued your interest, or struck a chord, please read Hold On To Your Kids! ✨

(For those of you who have read it! Share your thoughts with us! Help me convince everyone to read it! 👏🏻)
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Uncategorized • April 19, 2013

Lucky FABB Series: Day 2 Outfit

Wearing:
Top: Target (similar)
Skirt: Target (a summer must-buy!)
Shoes: Tahari (similar)
Belt: No Rest For Bridget
Bag: c/o Oasap
Watch: Michael Kors
Necklace: LOFT
Sunglasses: Prada
Oh, hello, Friday! It’s been such a long week, but here is a fun, trendy outfit to brighten up your weekend! A few interesting points: this is a men’s shirt. I specifically wanted it to be baggy and loose to have a very relaxed look. Let me tell ya, it looks amazing with boyfriend jeans and a cross-body coach (in cognac brown of course) but I wanted to make this shirt work with a more girly outfit. This is why I chose the brightest most feminine color and cut of skirt, then added a giant bow for emphasis. Of course, I just had to pair it with some bow toed heels to top it off. 
The trick to getting a feminine waistline in a baggy shirt like this is adding the skinny belt- it offers some more shape to an otherwise very masculine top. To be honest, though, I wanted to be different at Lucky FABB especially. I feel like there are bloggers who play it safe because there are so many other bloggers that will be in the same space, but I really wanted to showcase my style and taste rather than throw on a dress and call it a day.  Up next is a recap of Lucky FABB day 2, and that will wrap up the FABB series… until next year!
Special thanks to my dearest, lovely, and talented friend Brittany LeSueur for taking these photographs! Have a lovely, lovely weekend. Thank you so much for reading!

p.s. Don’t miss out on all of the fun! Since GFC is going away in July, follow Living in Color on Bloglovin’ by clicking HERE and hitting “follow”.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: camo, camoflauge, Lucky FABB, Lucky Magazine, Orange county bloggers, Outfit of the day, prada sunglasses, target style

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Comments

  1. ravenlocks says

    April 19, 2013 at 5:41 am

    You have such pretty hair! I love this look too. The camo with pink looks amazing. And I really like the pretty bougainvilleas in the background. They match perfectly!

    xo Azu

    http://www.raven-locks.blogspot.com

    Reply
  2. nicole s. says

    April 19, 2013 at 6:12 am

    i love how luxe this looks, despite it being from target! i definitely know what you mean about wanting to stand out in a room full of bloggers. this was a great choice. i'm secretly already planning outfits for the texas style council conference in august–sh!

    xo nicole
    writeslikeagirlblog.com

    Reply
  3. Amanda Massie says

    April 19, 2013 at 6:13 am

    Love this look! I would have never thought to pair the two, but it looks great! Thanks for sharing!

    Xo, Amanda

    theamandakathryn.blogspot.com

    Reply
  4. Natali says

    April 19, 2013 at 6:37 am

    Looking great! I like this outfit very much 🙂

    http://lartoffashion.blogspot.com

    Reply
  5. kamila says

    April 19, 2013 at 7:34 am

    fine bag ;]]

    i invite to me

    http://www.live-style20.blogspot.com

    Reply
  6. Kate Lees says

    April 19, 2013 at 9:42 am

    Love the camo print with the pink! Looks great, lovely photos x

    http://raincheckfortimbuktu.blogspot.com.au/

    Reply
  7. Nico says

    April 19, 2013 at 10:04 am

    I love that skirt!

    http://lowbudget-lowcost.blogspot.it/

    Reply
  8. Tasia |Ruffles and Sequins| says

    April 19, 2013 at 11:39 am

    Very cute! Love this photoshoot 🙂

    Reply
  9. Marta says

    April 19, 2013 at 11:40 am

    Hello from Spain, lovely outfit. You are always very elegant. Keep in touch

    Reply
  10. Anna D Kart says

    April 19, 2013 at 11:54 am

    Camo and pink? You look stunning! Love the outfit idea! 🙂

    happymedley.blogspot.com

    Reply
  11. Jessica O'Donohue says

    April 19, 2013 at 1:36 pm

    Oh Em Geee is all I can say! I LOVE this outfit! Amazing!!!

    Reply
  12. Blue Dog Belle says

    April 19, 2013 at 1:43 pm

    This is PERFECTION! Love the skirt/top combo! and the flower is everything.

    Reply
  13. Alyssa says

    April 19, 2013 at 3:05 pm

    What a great, unexpected combo. That floral pin is so adorable!

    Reply
  14. L.M.A. says

    April 19, 2013 at 3:19 pm

    Looks so great with the pretty pink flowers in the background!!
    xoxo

    Reply
  15. Ladies in Navy says

    April 19, 2013 at 4:03 pm

    ooh adore the camo!
    kw ladies in navy

    Reply
  16. Laura @ Chaotic Domestic says

    April 19, 2013 at 5:54 pm

    Love the combo of lace with camo! It's unexpected but you pull it off perfectly with the girly flower pin! 🙂

    Reply
  17. BREI says

    April 19, 2013 at 6:53 pm

    So in love with this outfit!

    Reply
  18. Brandy Saldana says

    April 19, 2013 at 7:08 pm

    loving your recap of Lucky FABB! I will def be there next year =D

    Happy Friday Elle!

    Brandy

    p.s. i added you on bloglovin as one of my favorites 😉 hope you'll add me back before google reader goes away! ttyl

    Reply
  19. Patrícia M. says

    April 19, 2013 at 7:57 pm

    I've never liked the camouflage trend, but this really made me think about it.. I love the way you've mixed that with lovely and feminine pink!

    <3
    http://zazzish.blogspot.pt/

    Reply
  20. Jen says

    April 19, 2013 at 8:43 pm

    So cute! I love camo 🙂

    http://www.glitterarygirl.blogspot.com

    Reply
  21. Nikki says

    April 20, 2013 at 2:39 pm

    Amazing.. Amazing.. AMAZINGGGG! I adore every single thing about this. Total hitting that follow button! 🙂
    xoxo,
    Nikki at http://www.bedazzlesafterdark.com

    Reply
  22. Nerdy Asian says

    April 20, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    The camo print and the coloured skirt look great together!

    Reply
  23. Dressed with soul says

    April 20, 2013 at 6:33 pm

    A wonderful idea how you combined this man-shirt! You´re looking really elegant and feminine in it <3

    xx from Bavaria, Rena

    http://www.dressedwithsoul.blogspot.de

    Reply
  24. Sam (Savvy City Chic) says

    April 21, 2013 at 3:01 am

    Absolutely adorable outfit! I will have to visit Target and pick up that pink skirt for myself. And your sunglasses are so cute!!

    Reply
  25. Eleonora says

    April 21, 2013 at 2:26 pm

    I love the contrast between the dark coloured shirt and the bright colour of the bottom and the brooch :)And amazing sunglasses, too! I hope you'll visit mine and follow if you like it! (also remember to follow eaven via bloglovin 'cause GFC will be switched off on July 1st 🙁 )

    kisses
    http://follementefashion.blogspot.it

    Reply
  26. FitTravelerAJ says

    April 21, 2013 at 6:53 pm

    I love the mix of the military with the girly pink and the flower! Belting that jacket was such a good idea.

    -AJ
    FitTravelerAJ.com

    Reply
  27. Alba Reche says

    April 22, 2013 at 5:21 pm

    Que guapa, este conjunto te queda fabuloso! Y ademas la flor flúor le da un toque precioso!
    Te importaria pasarte a leer mis blogs?
    http://allstylesalba.blogspot.com.es
    http://nosotrosparasiempre10-11-12.blogspot.com.es
    ¿Nos seguimos en el blog? Un besito, también tengo twitter y nos podemos hacer followback para no perder el contacto de ninguna forma! jajaja un besazo!

    Reply
  28. Karen Curtis says

    April 22, 2013 at 6:18 pm

    Love the entire look! Camo done in a flirty and feminine way!

    -Karen
    http://www.yourstylistkaren.com

    Reply
  29. Lisa { Showered With Design } says

    April 22, 2013 at 9:25 pm

    Love love love the shoes girl! And the army print is fab-U-LOUS!

    xoxo

    http://www.showeredwithdesign.blogspot.com

    Reply
  30. Stephanie says

    April 23, 2013 at 3:00 am

    GORGEOUS pictures! I adore that skirt, too. Perfect for Spring! Have a fabulous week, pretty lady 🙂

    xo,
    Stephanie
    Diary of a Debutante
    http://www.stephanieziajka.blogspot.com

    Reply
  31. Mrs C says

    April 23, 2013 at 11:31 am

    I think the flower brooch is the clever way to soften that military top.. very interesting indeed. Plus I love the mix of camou and lace.. it is like the 2 sides of a woman.. soft but still can kick b*tts! 😉

    GREETINGS FROM DUBAI
    MRS JACK OF ALL TRADES
    http://mrsjackofalltradesdaily.blogspot.ae/

    Reply
  32. collected by Katja says

    April 23, 2013 at 1:21 pm

    Wonderful look, my dear! Love the combination of casual and chic <3 … And such a coincidence: I've planned a similar outfit for next week 🙂 … Kisses from Vienna,

    Katja

    http://www.collectedbykatja.com

    Reply
  33. TammyLeigh says

    April 24, 2013 at 10:01 pm

    love your blog!!
    I am following you 🙂 pls check out my blog and follow back 🙂

    lotsa loves
    x x x

    http://tammyleighsblog.blogspot.com/

    Reply
  34. Katies Bliss says

    April 26, 2013 at 1:09 am

    Great look! Love how you accessorized with that cute little floral pin 🙂

    katiesbliss.com

    Reply
  35. Kstylick says

    April 26, 2013 at 3:07 am

    I like your camou style outfit! It really look so nice on you! Maybe we could follow each other on Bloglovin and/or GFC?

    Please leave me a comment on my blog and I will follow you!

    http://kstylick.blogspot.com

    Reply
  36. Kathleen Harper says

    April 27, 2013 at 9:13 pm

    You make camo look so adorable! Love that bright pink lace skirt – super pretty! Great look 🙂
    <3
    katsfashionfix.blogspot.com

    Reply
  37. Chantal Meade says

    April 28, 2013 at 7:32 pm

    Cute, I like how you put this together!
    -Chantal

    http://Www.stilldeeper.blogspot.com

    Reply
  38. Yosilda K says

    April 28, 2013 at 10:02 pm

    Lovely look and well matched. Nice photos!
    http://futurereflectionsk.blogspot.com/

    Reply
  39. Agnes W says

    April 29, 2013 at 4:41 pm

    What a lovely way to wear camo! You look great!

    http://infinitehouseofillusions.blogspot.com/

    Reply

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Lucky FABB Series: Day 1 Recap

I'm Larissa. A mama to daughters and wife to my college sweetheart. I am passionate about sustainable fashion, whole foods recipes, and Charlotte Mason home education. I also love being outdoors with my family. You can usually find me sporting a wide-brimmed hat, with a baby on my back.

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This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark of the Charlotte Mason method: narration. Have you ever heard of it? What would you like to know? 

I’m focusing heavily on how we use narration in our homeschool, but if you have specific questions about it, I would love for you to 1. Take the poll in my stories, and 2. Ask any questions you may have about narration in the comments so that I can answer them in my video! ❤️
Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encoura Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encourage those who are intentionally making a better life for their children than what they may have experienced as kids. It is not easy to change the cycle, but it’s well worth the effort. 

In the words of Louisa May Alcott, “A woman's happiest kingdom is home, her highest honor is the art of ruling it not as a queen, but a wise wife and mother."
📚 We are moving right along with term three of 📚 We are moving right along with term three of our school year. Slow but steady, we will finish up mid June and I’ll begin prepping for next school year in July and August! 📚

Here’s some of my random old and new tips + what I’ve been doing to help keep organized with the CMEC. 

01. Keep a regular day for nature outings or field trips. We have two days a week where I intentionally plan a hike or museum visit, etc. One is usually at the middle of the week and the other is at the end. It offers great variety to our weeks.

02. Notebook! I have had the girls consistently notebook this year, and it’s been such a delight to go back and see my form 1b student’s progress! I have a video coming out about how we notebook and why you should try it very soon! 

03. To stay on track with our morning timetable I’ve been writing the time we end each lesson in my logbook. It’s really changed how productive I am in making sure we get everything on our timetable done for the day. (I have a video on my logbook if you’re interested in learning more about that!)

04. And 05. Popsicle sticks! Friends, if you’re already a CMEC family, use these to help you choose which activities you review! I have on these for old singing games, French songs, folk dances or Swedish drill routines. I’ll share more on what I have on ours, specifically, but it’s fun because the girls and I get to be surprised rather than me choosing what we review!

06. Art instruction. Originally I had us doing three art lessons per week in the afternoon, but it didn’t allow for enough free choice, so we’ve reduced it down to one formal lesson a week for six weeks, then we change the method. So right now we are in week two of our chalkdrawing lessons. After six weeks we will switch to brush drawing instruction for the remainder of the term! As Charlotte Mason recommends, we draw from memory, model, and from imagination. 🌞

I hope this was helpful to you! So many of you guys are using @the.cmec next year! I am SO excited to see all of you at the online form meetings this coming year! 👏🏻 #thecmec #thecmecform1 #charlottemason
Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf o Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf or in a drawer? This drawer is right next to my stove and it’s my favorite way to store my spices! I reuse these little jars and fill them every couple of weeks with my bulk @azurestandard spices. 🧂
Are you planting a garden this year? What are you Are you planting a garden this year? What are you growing? Containers and raised beds? Or in ground? What do you plan to grow? Veggies? Flowers? We are doing a little bit of everything. 😍

It’s my third year growing food. (And ironically, our third house 😅) We just got our @greenstalkgarden planter, several @smartpots, and six raised beds that are ready to be filled next weekend. Really looking forward to this gardening season! 🥕🥬🥦🌽🌶🫑🫐🍓🥔
“Let then once get in touch with nature and a ha “Let then once get in touch with nature and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life.” -Charlotte Mason 

My kiddo had a birthday this past weekend. We do one main gift and a couple of small gifts; typically they’re  things they can use outdoors. Bikes have been a popular birthday item around here! My eldest wanted an apple tree last year. ☺️ But this year we got N a mud kitchen! Some friends of ours had one they built, and it inspired us. My kiddos have been playing on the forest floor in the mud for years now, but it’s exciting for them to have a little space in our garden for mud play. 🌳 What are some fun outdoorsy gifts you’ve purchased for your kids?
📚 When should I teach my child to read? How sho 📚 When should I teach my child to read? How should I teach my child to read? What does Charlotte Mason say about reading lessons? How did she teach children how to read? What curriculum do you use to teach your child how to read? 📚
These are all questions I answered in my blog post and video, “teaching reading the Charlotte Mason way” 📚 you can also swipe over to see some of my favorite CM quotes on teaching reading! 📚

I also shared what I do with my 3-year-old (which is very minimal) if you have younger children. You can view the post at the link in my profile! Are you up children school-aged? What do you use to teach reading?
I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more unpacking and organizing to be done, pictures to be framed, meal planning to do, laundry that needed folding, bike rides to be had, meals to be prepared, sourdough to be prepped and lesson planning + pre-reading to do. Oh and dishes. So many dishes. 😅

I do essentially all of the inside housework aside from taking out the trash + recycle, but for a season my husband helped out while N was small by doing dinner dishes and sometimes even preparing dinner so I could nurse her after we ate. But as of late, I’m trying something new where I don’t ask my husband to clean up after dinner and instead I do it myself. I don’t mind it, and since my girls are old enough to get their own pj’s on now, I’ve been doing dinner clean-up (as well as lunch and breakfast clean-up and prep!) before I head upstairs to tuck them in, read them a story and sit with them while they fall asleep. Call me old fashioned, but I’m happy to do it, and I delight in my husband being able to enjoy some time with the girls after dinner instead of clean up a mess after a long day of working.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this post - I’ve felt pulled in so many directions today and it’s something I feel often, (and I’m sure so many of you can relate) but after five months without a home to care for and nurture I simply can’t feel frustrated or annoyed at my list of 10,000 things I need to do. Instead I pray my way through each task. I sip tea in between. I light a candle and wear my great-grandmother’s apron as I work. I read notes like the one my six-year-old left for me this morning and I weep tears of gratitude and joy. Happy Sunday, my friends. ❤️ 
.
(swipe to read her note 🥰 + a transcription in the comments!)
Remember that word we heard so often when we were Remember that word we heard so often when we were parenting infants? Attachment.  What comes to mind? Breastfeeding on demand. Co-sleeping. Babywearing. All of those things that come pretty natural to us when taking care of a baby. But did you know that attachment doesn’t just end when your child gets bigger? Attachment is actually necessary THROUGH adolescence. 😳

Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté is a brilliant book that stopped me in my tracks. The book addresses the severe lack of attachment to parents that is incidentally replaced by an attachment to peers. I wrote all about it on my blog, but if you swipe over you can see a few passages that I underlined, highlighted, and wrote down in my notebook. 

Peer culture is more prevalent than ever. Not only because our society now prefers it that way, but because of social media’s ability to unite our youth in an unprecedented way. What we need is a shift in how we pass down culture to our kids from a horizontal attachment (peer to peer) back to a vertical attachment (family to child). I’ve often felt this long before I read this book, but we prioritize our Children’s friendships and relationships with others before we prioritize their relationships with us. We don’t value the family unit the way we used to decades ago, and it’s to the detriment of our children. 

I will gift this book to every new parent I meet from now on because of the wisdom the authors share. I wish all parents would read it so we could be on the same page as a society and those of us who choose to hold on to our kids wouldn’t be going against the grain. So this is my plea to you. If anything I’ve said piqued your interest, or struck a chord, please read Hold On To Your Kids! ✨

(For those of you who have read it! Share your thoughts with us! Help me convince everyone to read it! 👏🏻)
I promised I would share how I teach foreign langu I promised I would share how I teach foreign language the Mason way✨

When my oldest (now 6) was younger we loved and used @theculturedkid but since beginning formal lessons we’ve switched to this wonderful book by @cherrydalepress. 

Mason recommends that students learn 5-6 new French words a day and that they use them frequently. She writes in Home Education, “…children should learn French orally, by listening to and repeating French words and phrases; that they should begin so early that the difference of the accent does not strike them, but they repeat the French word all the same as if it were English, and use it freely…” (p. 80) she then writes about how important it is to employ the use of French vocabulary words during time out-of-doors. My kids and I have taken this to heart, because it isn’t uncommon for us all to be walking along the hiking trail, singing our French folk songs together. It’s something I’ll remember that we do together for many years. 

The Cherrydale Press program allows the child to learn common phrases, orally, a bit at a time. Along the way, they learn common verbs and vocabulary. 

Each “series” lasts about 2 weeks.
So here is the process we go through in that time:

01. We practice and memorize the English phrases. 
Here’s an example: 
I take the book.
I open the book.
I close the book.
So we say the phrases as we ACT THEM OUT, which is crucial to this method of learning French and retaining it! It’s helped me tremendously as a non-native speaker.

02. We then learn the French verbs from those phrases in French: je prends, j’ouvre, and je ferme. We memorize how to say them and act them out!

03. We learn the whole thing in French as we act it out. 
Je prends le livre.
j’ouvre le livre.
je ferme le livre.

After my daughter can say/act them without error, on her own, we move on to the next series!

Thanks to The Living Page, I keep a French notebook where I record the phrases or words we learn! (That’s what I shared in my stories the other day!)

In addition to this program, we have two French folk songs, one French vocabulary song per term (we sing daily) and a story we listen to in French, thanks to @the.cmec and their support!

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