The school year will soon be coming to a close. We’re finishing up subjects and planning summer fun!
Reflecting on the past year, it has been one of the most inspirational in terms of influence. I’ve always been lucky to have a wonderful network of local homeschooling mamas. But this year I’ve also had the benefit of learning from many other women in the homeschool journey through social media and networking. Blogs, podcasts, and Periscope broadcasts have been both inspirational AND practical. This year–more than any other–the wisdom and creativity of five women specifically has influenced our own day-to-day homeschool.
This post was inspired by Alicia Hutchinson’s post by a similar name. Check it out. She has some other women you may want to meet to inspire your homeschool too.
Sarah MacKenzie of The Read-Aloud Revival
I’ve gushed about Sarah Mackenzie’s podcast before, but seriously folks, it it a treasure of reading inspiration! I also loved her book, Teaching from Rest that introduced me to practical tools like loop scheduling (which made a positive difference in how we approach language arts).
I was first introduced to Julie Bogart when she was interviewed for The Read-Aloud Revival. As she discussed teaching children writing everything that she said resonated with me. As a writer myself, I want my kids to communicate clearly, whether they love writing or not. And so many programs I’ve looked at seem dry and dull–sucking the life out of writing–not infusing it inspiration and joy.
Although I’ve not purchased any of the Brave Writer curriculum yet, I have loved Julie’s Periscopes and Facebook Live videos. She often interacts lives with her following, which is what makes her such a treasure trove of inspirational wisdom. She was the one that convinced me to start doing something called “Morning Time” or “Morning Basket” which is essentially doing all our read-aloud reading first thing in the morning. This has become our favorite part of homeschooling, when we read poetry, history, science, art appreciation, our fictional book-of-the-moment, and practice any memory work (we’ve been memorizing a preposition song most recently). It can be as simple or elaborate as you like. A good overview of Morning Time would also be this post by Pam Barnhill.
Julie is an advocate for Poetry Teatime and Friday Free Writing, which we’ve also started to incorporate and will definitely be adding to our schedule in a more permanent way next school year.
The Wild+Free conference and digital bundles have helped put the beauty back in homeschooling for me. At a time when I’d gotten caught up in getting through our lessons in a way that seemed fast-paced and like drudgery, Wild+Free helped remind me of WHY I was doing it in the first place. It helped me envision how I could incorporate things like art and nature study into our daily life without sacrificing the daily need to do the essentials like reading, writing, and math.
Ainsley’s vision for a homeschool community has been hugely beneficial to me!
Bethany Douglass of Cloistered Away
I appreciate Bethany’s vision of simplicity in homeschooling and life. Her blog is a beautiful and restful haven of resources for everything from homeschooling to green cleaning to recipes. She approaches life from a posture of thoughtfulness and intentionality that really comes through in her writing. Whether you homeschool your children or not, her Instagram account is a feast for the eyes and soul.
Alicia Hutchinson of Investing Love
Is a newer blog I’ve been following and I also love her Periscopes. Alicia seems very relatable and her posts are always filled with practical inspiration, booklists, and unit studies.
Who inspired your homeschool this past year?
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