Plot Points #55 💌
Gold medals, unschooling, trying your best, and being Southern
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Hi friends! Happy August to all of you.
While the local public schools have already started classes, Lucy and Theo are ten days out from their first day at a local homeschool hybrid academy. They’ll have a full day of classes on Mondays and Wednesdays and for the rest of the week they’ll be at home with me.
I taught Lucy at home for kindergarten, first, and part of second grade. She has also attended multiple public schools, and so for her fifth grade is our last experimental year. If she loves homeschooling this way, we’ll stick with it (or some form of it) until the end. If she hates it, back to public school she goes. We want both her and Theo to have a strong community, no matter how they are educated, and that can only happen if we remain consistent. Seeing as how both of Lucy’s best friends will be homeschooling this year, too (one at the same hybrid academy and one just out of public school for the very first time) I have a feeling it’s going to go well. (Which is fine by me, as homeschooling has always been my first choice.) I’m so excited to get started!
In other news, IT’S MY BIRTHDAY MONTH 💕. I will turn 39 on August 20th, so I plan on really living up for the last year of my thirties.
(LOL JK all I want to do is read and sleep and water my plants. Getting older is the best.)
Thanks for spending some of your time with me here today, friends. I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Point #1: “An unconformed education plays the long game.”
It’s not about recreating the public school environment at home, but creating an atmosphere of learning where each child thrives according to his or her own needs. There’s so much to glean from this (lengthy, but worth it) post from
and , especially if you’re brand new to home education. I’ll be referencing this one a lot over the next few months!Point #2: Simone Biles changed everything for women.
It was hard not to get a little emotional on Monday afternoon watching the USA women’s gymnastics team win another gold. I have so much respect for the sport and for Simone Biles, in particular, so I wrote a few words here about why this victory is so impactful for women, and girls, everywhere.
Point #3: “They can’t say I didn’t try.”
Oh,
, Patron Saint of Canadian Tenderness, this is a balm to all of us who come up against our human limitations and struggle to forgive ourselves for it. Read this today, friends, if you’re wondering whether any of this *gestures wildly* matters.Point #4: Let your butt jiggle!
Bonus Point: Southern is another language altogether.
And I understood every damn word 😆.
Word of the Week ✍🏻
Latibule: (n.) A hiding place; a place of comfort and safety.
Receipts from a No-Buy Year 🧾
As it’s my birthday month, I have a $50 allotment for myself to spend either all at once as a gift or broken up over the course of the next few weeks. I opted to break it up because it’s more fun that way and also because it gave me a chance to go thrifting with my baby sis and her little girl this week. I’m down about $18 right now, so I’ll probably hold off on the rest until later.
I bought coffee once these past two weeks that wasn’t within my personal guidelines (i.e. Mondays when I go grocery shopping, coffee with family before church, or with earned points only.) Otherwise, I’m pretty proud of how I’ve stuck with my goals here.
(Is this getting boring to you?)
Reading in The Nook 📚
Y’all, I have been a reading MACHINE. I started and finished an entire four-part fae fantasy/romance series (review: basically a forgettable ACOTAR), Kate Baer’s latest book of poetry And Yet (review: I didn’t connect with any of it, but I still adore her other work), Abby Jimenez’s bestseller Yours Truly (review: all the heart eyes!!!), and The Housemaid by Freida McFadden (review: highly readable, with a predictable twist).
My reading goal for this year is 100 books (for the first time ever) and I’m still four books behind schedule, even with seven I just finished. But I hold onto hope!
What are you reading right now?👇🏻
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“When you cut yourself off from people who disagree with you, you cut yourself off from your greatest teachers.”
—Jonathan Merritt—
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Thanks for sharing my post Wendy! I know it was terribly long, but sometimes it's nice to get a brid's eye view in a single piece (and the pdf helps:)