Raise your hand if you cringe when you hear the wo

Raise your hand if you cringe when you hear the word “exams”. I sure do. I think back to late nights in college cramming for my psych 100 class. I remember virtually nothing aside from a few key names from my time in that class. My guess is many of you had the same experience in school!

When I shared with our friends and family that we were in the middle of our exam week, I got so many puzzled looks and odd comments! Exams for a 6 year old? Yes!

But here’s what exam week looked like for us:
-A joyful celebration.
-Short, 1-2 open ended questions per subject.
-The students share their knowledge orally, through art, painting, dancing, singing, and even acting out what they’ve learned.
-There’s no trick questions.
-There’s no comparing students to other students.
-We celebrate the things we KNOW, not the things we don’t know.

For my Form 1 (first grade) student, almost every question was answered orally. I recorded the audio and then later went back to transcribe. (More on this in stories.) I can’t imagine asking my 6 year old child to write a page of information as the answer to one History exam question… not likely! But if I ask her to tell me about what she knows… she is able to tell me a page worth of information. At this age I am not testing her ability to write and spell when I ask an American History question… so why would I expect her to demonstrate those skills? I simply want to know what she knows.

It’s remarkable how different exams feel to me now that I’ve experienced them the Charlotte Mason way. When I compare them to filling out of bubbles, and playing the “multiple choice” game it’s a completely different method.

Exams can be a delightful experience rather than anxiety-inducing! Here’s a few of the drawn and oral (recorded then transcribed by me) questions from my student and some other work from her first term of formal lessons. #lichomeschool #thecmec #thecmecexamweek

Only three more months of Airbnb life! 🏡 This i

Only three more months of Airbnb life! 🏡 This is the third time we’ve built a home in five years. Hoping to stay put for a while! 🙌🏼 Have you ever built or remodeled a home? I’d love to remodel one someday when our kids are older! 😆

“The true way to live is to enjoy every moment a

“The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes, and surely it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies.”
-Laura Ingalls Wilder

Which small, every day moments are you enjoying today? ✨ No filter necessary on this beautiful autumn day in Tennessee. 🍁

Did a Q&A in stories, and I was asked how our home

Did a Q&A in stories, and I was asked how our homeschool schedule has been affected by our cross country move. Surprisingly, the transitions from place to place have been almost seamless as far lessons go! 🙌🏼

Since we follow a Charlotte Mason philosophy, this is our daughter’s first year of formal lessons. (Mason suggests waiting until six to begin.)

We started term one in August, anticipating a cross-country move. We had a glorious first five weeks of the school year in OR and then adjusted to living with our friends in Illinois for four weeks and continued our lessons at their home. Now we are at the Airbnb while we wait for our home to be finished and we’ve continued on without any delay! I attribute this seamless experience to the many hours I put into preparing for our school year this past summer! This week we are wrapping week ten of term one and then we have exams next week! 👏🏻

I shared a few shots from our lessons:
01. Natural History narration and brush drawing.
02. American History and her history notebook.
03. Planning week 7 in my logbook.
04. Arithmetic with @rbaburina’s Simply Charlotte Mason program.
05. Geography. Working on landforms in the sand tray.
06. Out-of-doors for 2.5 hours on the farm after lessons.
07. Me finally learning how to juggle my three year old while I teach my 6 yo. 🙃
08. G’s drawn and written narration from her Bible lesson this past week.
09. Sunsets on the farm. 🧡
10. G narrating to me her drawing and writing during her natural history lesson.

I have thoroughly enjoyed laying this feast for my daughters each day over the past ten weeks. I try to share as much as I can in stories but I only come on here at night in order to be with my kids and give them my undivided attention during the day. Still, I’d love to try to do a day in the life this week, maybe! I’ll see what I can do. 🙂 #livingincolorhomeschool

Finally made it to our new state! 🧡🍁

Finally made it to our new state! 🧡🍁

This is the third year in a row that we haven’t

This is the third year in a row that we haven’t celebrated Halloween and truly, we don’t miss it. I am, however, a big fan of traditions and rhythms with the season, so this weekend we will be doing another pumpkin project similar to this one with a giant pumpkin and things we find on a walk outdoors!

We simply used hot glue to attach each nature element, and left it up to my (then) five-year-old to design it the way she wanted to. (I totally let her use the hot glue gun with supervision, and she did great with it!)

Don’t let culture tell you how to raise your family just because “people have always done it” or because you grew up with it. You’re their parents and you get to make those decisions for your kids. If you have good reason to stop celebrating a holiday, do it! Don’t be afraid. ✨ #seasonalrhythms #livingseasonally #pumpkinhouse

Hi. It’s been a few weeks! There’s been a lot

Hi. It’s been a few weeks! There’s been a lot of change for our little family and more on the horizon. Many of you are checking in on us. Thank you! We are okay! Last month, we completely packed up our lives into 2 storage Pods in Oregon, and left the part of the country that we both love dearly and consider to be Home. To be honest, we didn’t quite know what our final destination would be as we packed up, so we are living out of suitcases at the moment. For a few weeks I had to really hold fast to my faith and put my trust in the Lord. He carried us through this super uncertain time and now things are finally starting to align. I’m not great at the gypsy lifestyle, as I’m a complete homebody. 😬

The girls and I took a week off of lessons in the beginning to adjust to living with our best friends (we love you guys!) until we make our way to our final destination, and wait for my husband and our golden retriever to get here from OR. Now that we are all together again, we feel much less scattered + displaced. We are finishing up week seven of term one tomorrow… I really missed our homeschool routine, and I think the girls did too.

Overall, just feeling extremely thankful for friends with an open heart and an open home. Also super grateful to God for his direction and steadfastness through this uncertain time; but mostly just very glad that above all else, “home” for us is wherever we can be together, sit around the table for a meal, walk around outdoors, or open up a good book. ✨

I’ve completely stopped taking pictures with my

I’ve completely stopped taking pictures with my phone. I used to scroll social media in front of my girls when they were little but as they got older and realized that I was giving my phone attention and not them, I completely stopped... it isn’t worth it to me. So now if I need to use my phone for something, I go into another room for a few minutes and do what I need to do. I started this habit about 2 years ago, (my husband is also wonderful at staying off of his phone in front of the girls during non-work hours) but I still used my phone to take photos pretty regularly.

Recently I realized that I am just much more present with them when my phone is completely away. This means two things. 1. I carry around a super clunky dslr, and 2. The pictures I do take are 1,000x better 😂 but truly, it is nice to not have a ton of digital clutter on my phone and to actually use my nice camera to capture our special memories. Because 65,000 pictures on a phone is just obnoxious. 🤪 How do you practice mindfulness and stay present with your kids? I know this looks different for everyone. ❤️ #screenfreeparenting #screenfreefamily

This space on Friday evening vs. the same space on

This space on Friday evening vs. the same space on Sunday evening. #homeschoolmomlife

Do you have a baby lamp in your kitchen? Honestly, a lamp on in the evenings is the equivalent of a beeswax candle in the morning for me 😍 If you don’t have a little lamp on your kitchen counter, this is your nudge to go for it! ✨

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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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Raise your hand if you cringe when you hear the wo

Raise your hand if you cringe when you hear the word “exams”. I sure do. I think back to late nights in college cramming for my psych 100 class. I remember virtually nothing aside from a few key names from my time in that class. My guess is many of you had the same experience in school!

When I shared with our friends and family that we were in the middle of our exam week, I got so many puzzled looks and odd comments! Exams for a 6 year old? Yes!

But here’s what exam week looked like for us:
-A joyful celebration.
-Short, 1-2 open ended questions per subject.
-The students share their knowledge orally, through art, painting, dancing, singing, and even acting out what they’ve learned.
-There’s no trick questions.
-There’s no comparing students to other students.
-We celebrate the things we KNOW, not the things we don’t know.

For my Form 1 (first grade) student, almost every question was answered orally. I recorded the audio and then later went back to transcribe. (More on this in stories.) I can’t imagine asking my 6 year old child to write a page of information as the answer to one History exam question… not likely! But if I ask her to tell me about what she knows… she is able to tell me a page worth of information. At this age I am not testing her ability to write and spell when I ask an American History question… so why would I expect her to demonstrate those skills? I simply want to know what she knows.

It’s remarkable how different exams feel to me now that I’ve experienced them the Charlotte Mason way. When I compare them to filling out of bubbles, and playing the “multiple choice” game it’s a completely different method.

Exams can be a delightful experience rather than anxiety-inducing! Here’s a few of the drawn and oral (recorded then transcribed by me) questions from my student and some other work from her first term of formal lessons. #lichomeschool #thecmec #thecmecexamweek

Only three more months of Airbnb life! 🏡 This i

Only three more months of Airbnb life! 🏡 This is the third time we’ve built a home in five years. Hoping to stay put for a while! 🙌🏼 Have you ever built or remodeled a home? I’d love to remodel one someday when our kids are older! 😆

“The true way to live is to enjoy every moment a

“The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes, and surely it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies.”
-Laura Ingalls Wilder

Which small, every day moments are you enjoying today? ✨ No filter necessary on this beautiful autumn day in Tennessee. 🍁

Did a Q&A in stories, and I was asked how our home

Did a Q&A in stories, and I was asked how our homeschool schedule has been affected by our cross country move. Surprisingly, the transitions from place to place have been almost seamless as far lessons go! 🙌🏼

Since we follow a Charlotte Mason philosophy, this is our daughter’s first year of formal lessons. (Mason suggests waiting until six to begin.)

We started term one in August, anticipating a cross-country move. We had a glorious first five weeks of the school year in OR and then adjusted to living with our friends in Illinois for four weeks and continued our lessons at their home. Now we are at the Airbnb while we wait for our home to be finished and we’ve continued on without any delay! I attribute this seamless experience to the many hours I put into preparing for our school year this past summer! This week we are wrapping week ten of term one and then we have exams next week! 👏🏻

I shared a few shots from our lessons:
01. Natural History narration and brush drawing.
02. American History and her history notebook.
03. Planning week 7 in my logbook.
04. Arithmetic with @rbaburina’s Simply Charlotte Mason program.
05. Geography. Working on landforms in the sand tray.
06. Out-of-doors for 2.5 hours on the farm after lessons.
07. Me finally learning how to juggle my three year old while I teach my 6 yo. 🙃
08. G’s drawn and written narration from her Bible lesson this past week.
09. Sunsets on the farm. 🧡
10. G narrating to me her drawing and writing during her natural history lesson.

I have thoroughly enjoyed laying this feast for my daughters each day over the past ten weeks. I try to share as much as I can in stories but I only come on here at night in order to be with my kids and give them my undivided attention during the day. Still, I’d love to try to do a day in the life this week, maybe! I’ll see what I can do. 🙂 #livingincolorhomeschool

Finally made it to our new state! 🧡🍁

Finally made it to our new state! 🧡🍁

This is the third year in a row that we haven’t

This is the third year in a row that we haven’t celebrated Halloween and truly, we don’t miss it. I am, however, a big fan of traditions and rhythms with the season, so this weekend we will be doing another pumpkin project similar to this one with a giant pumpkin and things we find on a walk outdoors!

We simply used hot glue to attach each nature element, and left it up to my (then) five-year-old to design it the way she wanted to. (I totally let her use the hot glue gun with supervision, and she did great with it!)

Don’t let culture tell you how to raise your family just because “people have always done it” or because you grew up with it. You’re their parents and you get to make those decisions for your kids. If you have good reason to stop celebrating a holiday, do it! Don’t be afraid. ✨ #seasonalrhythms #livingseasonally #pumpkinhouse

Hi. It’s been a few weeks! There’s been a lot

Hi. It’s been a few weeks! There’s been a lot of change for our little family and more on the horizon. Many of you are checking in on us. Thank you! We are okay! Last month, we completely packed up our lives into 2 storage Pods in Oregon, and left the part of the country that we both love dearly and consider to be Home. To be honest, we didn’t quite know what our final destination would be as we packed up, so we are living out of suitcases at the moment. For a few weeks I had to really hold fast to my faith and put my trust in the Lord. He carried us through this super uncertain time and now things are finally starting to align. I’m not great at the gypsy lifestyle, as I’m a complete homebody. 😬

The girls and I took a week off of lessons in the beginning to adjust to living with our best friends (we love you guys!) until we make our way to our final destination, and wait for my husband and our golden retriever to get here from OR. Now that we are all together again, we feel much less scattered + displaced. We are finishing up week seven of term one tomorrow… I really missed our homeschool routine, and I think the girls did too.

Overall, just feeling extremely thankful for friends with an open heart and an open home. Also super grateful to God for his direction and steadfastness through this uncertain time; but mostly just very glad that above all else, “home” for us is wherever we can be together, sit around the table for a meal, walk around outdoors, or open up a good book. ✨

I’ve completely stopped taking pictures with my

I’ve completely stopped taking pictures with my phone. I used to scroll social media in front of my girls when they were little but as they got older and realized that I was giving my phone attention and not them, I completely stopped... it isn’t worth it to me. So now if I need to use my phone for something, I go into another room for a few minutes and do what I need to do. I started this habit about 2 years ago, (my husband is also wonderful at staying off of his phone in front of the girls during non-work hours) but I still used my phone to take photos pretty regularly.

Recently I realized that I am just much more present with them when my phone is completely away. This means two things. 1. I carry around a super clunky dslr, and 2. The pictures I do take are 1,000x better 😂 but truly, it is nice to not have a ton of digital clutter on my phone and to actually use my nice camera to capture our special memories. Because 65,000 pictures on a phone is just obnoxious. 🤪 How do you practice mindfulness and stay present with your kids? I know this looks different for everyone. ❤️ #screenfreeparenting #screenfreefamily

This space on Friday evening vs. the same space on

This space on Friday evening vs. the same space on Sunday evening. #homeschoolmomlife

Do you have a baby lamp in your kitchen? Honestly, a lamp on in the evenings is the equivalent of a beeswax candle in the morning for me 😍 If you don’t have a little lamp on your kitchen counter, this is your nudge to go for it! ✨

Five months of living with, loving on, and snuggli

Five months of living with, loving on, and snuggling up to this fuzzy bear. The Jackson Bear. Mr. Bear. Mr. Fuzzy. Our good old loyal pup, Jack. ✨ #jackvontrapp

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