Higher Ideals

If you enjoy discovering new homeschool resources, you may also want to check out Wholesome Nationalist Homeschool, another channel that shares about their homeschooling journey. I love seeing fellow homeschoolers sharing their recitations, such as “If” by Rudyard Kipling (one that’s definitely on my list to do with my boys when they get older) and this Shakespeare speech.

"If we understand the difference between memorizing and remembrance, then it will help us choose what to memorize. Remembrance is culture. It is all that has come before that makes us the kind of people we are. To not remember is to commit cultural suicide, which is what we see when we look at our culture today." – Cindy Rollins, Mere Motherhood When one of my kids turns six, we start formally requiring them to participate in our homeschool. The first piece of memory work all my kids have learned has been “Now We Are Six” by A. A. Milne (yes, the author of Winnie-the-Pooh 🥰). As they get older, the pieces get longer and more complicated. It’s fun watching the growth.

My boys carry trucks and cars around the way my girls carried around baby dolls, even asking if they can sleep with them. The other day I heard my 2-year-old son fake crying. I glanced over and realized he was pretending his toy jeep was crying. Then his 4-year-old brother had his toy jeep offer to sing Row Row in order to make him feel better. Their toy vehicles really do function as the boy version of dolls, helping them to process their world by playing out hypothetical scenarios.

"A relationship with nature fulfills, precisely, our yearning to belong to something bigger than ourselves." – Steven Rinella, Outdoor Kids in an Inside World

And because I have girls, there was also hair-braiding 😂

A rainy day meant a cozy afternoon of baking and crafting 🌧🍞🪡

I read a lot of nonfiction. I do so as continuing education in my chosen profession as a homemaker. I do so in order to model lifelong learning for my children. But mostly, I do so because I genuinely love exploring ideas and learning new things. I finished some great nonfiction books last year, and I thought I would share some that were especially interesting, informative or influential: 📚 Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough 📚 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price 📚 The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry 📚 The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements by Kevin MacDonald 📚 Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children by Angela J. Hanscom

From a young age, my girls instinctively put a hand on their hip when posing for photos. I recently went to take a pic of James and our boys, and our four-year-old, completely unprompted, threw out an arm flex. 💪🏼🤣

✨ My daughter: "Isn't it kind of magical that we can mix together a few powders and liquids, stick them in a metal box, and Bam! We have cookies!" I love that my daughter views joining me in the kitchen with a sense of wonder. Some of my kids were participating in a local service project so we made several dozen cookies to share with the other volunteers. ✨

With the holidays quickly approaching, I wanted to throw out some suggestions of our Folk who craft lovely pieces that would make wonderful gifts. Here are some items I've personally bought over the last year and loved: Jewelry: ⭐️ The Witch Mother – My custom earth-toned beadwork, sterling silver edelweiss earrings are just stunning. ⭐️ Hulda – I’ve been loving the elegant simplicity of my beautiful lavender and white beaded hoop earrings. I really appreciate the rich Nordic heritage that shines through in her work. ⭐️ Ianthine – I picked up one of her copper wire-wrapped, blue labradorite necklaces, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Personal care: 🌱 Traditional Apothecary – I use a variety of her products (my current favs are the Kammi’s beauty balm and leave-in conditioner), but when in doubt, she has fantastic holiday gift boxes. 🌱 The Esoteric Muse – Her perfumes are 🤌🏻. I'm particularly loving Nordia and Moonflower scents right now, although her sampler is a great way to really see what matches your own (or loved one's) preferences. Home décor: 🎨 Solace Creations – What she is able to do with a wood-burning stylus is just 🤯. I loved my wall art so much I also commissioned an ornament. 🎨 Aron Art – We commissioned him to make a painting commemorating one of our favorite trips as a couple. It graces the entrance of our home. In addition, if you haven't checked out the art auction to benefit recently widowed J of Arcane Accents, you should definitely head over. Fantastic pieces are being listed in 48-hour rounds. I've already picked up a gorgeous hand-made carpet bag from Metamorphosia Sewing, and have my eye out for more items in the future rounds. It's been a wonderful way to discover more folkish artists that I look forward to supporting in the future.

Little ones spend the first several years of their life learning that objects are objects regardless of the perspective by which we view them. A bike viewed from one side or the other, head-on or upside-down is still a bike. Then we try to teach them to read, and suddenly a ‘b’ viewed from the other side is a ‘d’ or viewed upside-down is a ‘p.’ It’s no wonder they get 6’s and 9’s mixed up. These distinctions defy the laws of physics that life experiences have been drilling into them for years. I'm currently teaching my fourth child to read. So for all the other parents out there who feel like they've told their child for the fourteen thousandth time, ‘No, that's a B, not a D’, you are not alone and your child is going to get it eventually. Learning arbitrary exceptions to real world rules takes time.

Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: But when the leaves hang trembling, The wind is passing through. Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I: But when the trees bow down their heads, The wind is passing by. – Christina Rosetti

I've been experimenting with making pumpkin-shaped sourdough loaves. So simple, yet it makes me so happy. 🥰

You might be homeschoolers if... your daughter names her dragon 'Hermia' after the character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, because "though she be but little, she is fierce."

In that same spirit, I thought I would mention that if your kids are a bit older, a Napoleon chapter book biography that we used in our homeschool earlier this year was Napoleon Bonaparte by R. M. Johnston, put out by Imperium Press. Their Great Men series is another useful resource. Honestly, I'm glad to own both. When we cover a figure from history, we often read a picture book as an introduction before diving into a more in depth chapter book.

🤍 I want to add that I thought it was really neat that Antelope Hill included in their packaging a list of other businesses run by our people that we can support. I am always on the lookout for more resources, and I love seeing community support and promotion. 🤍

Our people have a long, proud legacy full of rich, fascinating figures. It is so important that the historical narratives that our children are exposed to about our people are being told by our people. We are loving this picture book introduction to Napoleon recently put out by Antelope Hill. It's a translation of a French picture book dating back to 1893. The text is short and simple enough that it doesn't lose my little guys, while giving identifiable references which my older kids could recognize, and included some new-to-us anecdotes. I also personally liked that dates were included at the top as I appreciate being able to track a mental timeline, without it being intrusive to the story. It's been a wonderful addition to our home library, and one definitely worth checking out if you've got kiddos.

My oldest daughter has gotten into sewing this year. Her little sister always wants to do everything she does. Knowing this, my older girl found some sewing kits appropriate for a five-year-old and has been doing them with her. 🥺 Sisters are the sweetest! 🥰

"The person, be it gentlemen or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." – Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble." We cover a couple Shakespeare plays a year. We read a retelling (Bruce Coville's are some of my favorites), incorporate a passage into our memory work, and watch a performance or production. Spooky season felt like the perfect time to do Macbeth. We watched the 1978 Royal Shakespeare Production, and my kids had an OMG moment when they realized young Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) was married to young Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Dame Judi Dench) in the movie. 😄