I would have to say handwriting is a bit of an underrated subject when it comes to school. It almost seems like a side skill to learn. Obviously important, but also something that you just need to be able to do so you can get to all the fancy subjects. Well homeschooling my child over that last two years has taught me that handwriting is so much fun!

First it is amazing to watch your children put pen (or pencil) to paper for the first time. They way they write their name and letters in the beginning is priceless. I have loved watching my daughter slowly develop her handwriting skills. The backwards "s", writing with capitals and lowercase letters all randomly placed in one word, the crazy curls that sometimes fly off a lowercase y. It is all so magical. To be able to write without rules. It is almost like art.

And it is a practice every day. All it takes is to be able to just sit and trace and write letters again and again. To learn to use a pencil and handle it with grace. It is a slow subject. A subject of diligence, of just practicing the same movements again and again. And then all the sudden there are no more backwards "s's", the capitals start words (sometimes) and lowercase follows, and those "y's" get reined in a bit. And although it feels a little sad, it is also brilliant to see your child being able to put together their own words and sentences. With this new skill they can communicate in a whole new way. 

So I love handwriting. And I love using the workbooks from The Good and the Beautiful. So far we have used the Level K handwriting workbook and I had my daughter do it twice. I feel no rush to move through levels with handwriting. I let her work slowly and really just practice the skill. After she finished the two rounds of Level K we moved on to Level 1. She is more than half way through and I have a second Level 1 book ready and waiting for more practice when she finishes. 

Handwriting is great for me because I use it for our homeschool when I am putting my baby down for a nap. My daughter is able to work through one page and there is always something to color on the bottom of the page when she is finished. The time it takes for her to finish is just about right.

So there you go. My feelings about handwriting. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Mallory

Around the time my first baby was due, a new flood of baby books were created by a company called BabyLit. They were taking classic books like Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, The Jungle Book, and more and creating board books out of them. They looked so cute, I wanted to get them all. I started slowly collecting the books, which were cute, but also gave me the sense that I was being a good mom by exposing my child to great literature from the beginning. So yes their marketing got me.

As I collected more and more books I realized that I enjoyed some books much much more than others. So today I want to share with you my top 8 favorite BabyLit Books. 

Each Babylit book is a primer to something we typically teach children early on. I think this stack has a wide variety of primers.

Truth be told, I don't have every Babylit Book. Although they are great, I'm not sure if anyone needs the whole collection. But if you are looking to get some to add to your library, I would recommend the following.

1 | All Aboard - I have two of these books, All Aboard National Parks - A Wildlife Primer and All Aboard New York - A City Primer. I have also read through All Aboard Washington D.C. I really like these books. It is basically a train ride through whatever place the book is about. They are fun to read an have great illustrations. These are probably my favorite books from the BabyLit collection.

2 | The Secret Garden - A Flowers Primer - The Secret Garden is a beautiful flowers primer. The illustrations are fun and colorful. One thing I love about this book is how simple it is. Each page highlights a different flower and has a simple quote from the secret garden book. As a lover of all flowers, I love teaching my daughters about different flowers, and I guess this is the perfect way to start early.

3 | The Jungle Book - An Animals Primer - Like The Secret Garden, one of my favorite parts of this book is how absolutely simple it is. Each page highlights a different animal and has a simple quote from the book. I love the illustrations of this book, and I find I enjoy reading through this book.

4 | Emma - An Emotions Primer - This book makes me happy because it makes my girls happy. Each page is a picture of a different character and an emotion they are feeling. It is fun to read because you can read it with the expression of the emotion on the page. It is bright and colorful and my kids seems to especially enjoy this one.

5 | Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles - A Sounds Primer - This book basically just has a variety of sounds in it. I like this book because I like reading it, I like making the different sounds. I think it is an interesting book for children because of the emphasis on sounds instead of just words. It is kind of fun!

6 | Sense & Sensibility - An Opposites Primer - This book is a simple way to explore opposites. I love the illustrations and femininity of this book. I love that it makes sense to me. I love that it explores a few opposites that are unique to the book Sense and Sensibility (single & married). It is just a lovely one all around.

7 | Wuthering Heights - A Weather Primer - I don't have many weather books for my children but I think this is a good one. What I really love about this book is that the scene is exactly the same on each page, a large house and a tree, but the weather makes the scene look drastically different. It is neat to see just how much the weather changes our environment.

8 | Pride & Prejudice - A Counting Primer - There are a few counting primers, but I think this one is my favorite. I do love Pride and Prejudice though, so I may be biased. My favorite page is the 4 marriage proposals which includes two marriage proposals from Darcy to Elizabeth. I think it is a fun one to have in our collection.

As I was writing through some of these, I realized that a common theme was that I loved the books that made sense to me. I think some of the books I own are just a bit of a stretch for me, or I find it hard to make the connection between the concept (like colors or counting) being highlighted and the illustrations. But each of these books does a good job.

A few of the books that I don't have yet but would love to get include Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, A Little Princess, and A Midsummer's Night Dream. Have you read any of these? Would you recommend them? Let me know what your favorite Baby Lit Books are in the comments below!

Mallory

If you love this book list, I'm sure you would love my Ultimate Children's Book List filled with my favorite board books, picture books, first chapter books & holiday books!

*Some links in this post are part of the Amazon Associates Program. Thank you for supporting my family.

Last week I highlighted The Good & the Beautiful Math Curriculum. Today I want to showcase The Good & the Beautiful Language Arts Curriculum. So far my daughter and I have finished the Level K Primer book as well as the Level K book. This year we are working together on the Level 1 book.

Everything we have done so far has been wonderful. I feel like I am learning so much right along with my daughter, it's been a while since I was in school, and I'm not sure if I had a great foundational understanding of language. I feel like as I am teaching the concepts to my daughter through this curriculum we are both building a solid foundation about how language works. 

I love this curriculum because it combines learning about language with learning to appreciate art. One minute we will be reviewing spelling words and the next we will be discussing a painting. We learn phonics and recite poetry all in one lesson. I feel like we are learning important concepts and taking time to enjoy the beauty of the written word and other art forms. It is truly good and beautiful.

Something else I really love about this curriculum is that you practice a little bit of a variety of things each day, and thus over time you learn deeply what you need to learn. This way of learning means we don't spend a whole lot of time on any one thing, and for my daughters attention span it is nice to be able to have a variety of activities in one lesson. Still we practice things like phonics, spelling, and reading on a daily basis and I have been pleased and surprised how this consistent effort has been an effective way to learn.

Like most of The Good & the Beautiful Curriculum, you can just grab the book and go. There is not really any preparation needed, which is perfect for me. It is so nice to have everything put together for me so I can feel like I am providing my daughter with a very high quality education, without stressing out about it.

I would highly recommend this curriculum to anyone who is looking to homeschool. It is filled with stories of high moral character and teaches good values while still giving children a solid foundation of language arts basics.

Mallory

For six months straight I had a consistent meditation practice. It changed my life for the better. Even a year later, having not consistently done meditation, I feel like I can still feel the effects of those six months. 

I wish I would have continued on with my meditation, but having a newborn just threw off everything and for some reason or another I haven't been able to get back to where I was. I have tried some other meditation and stillness practices since, which have been great for me, and maybe someday I will get back into a more consistent practice, whatever that looks like. But today I want to share with you what I did for those six months. I want to share my 8 minutes Evening Meditation Routine.

The first thing I did was sit down the last day of the month and think about what I wanted to work through the next month. I would begin by picking a theme of some sort. For example in February 2019 my theme was Give and Receive Love.

After choosing my theme I would find affirmations that went along with it. For the theme give and receive love one of my affirmations was I now live in limitless love, light and joy. I chose a few affirmations each month that really resonated with me, and wrote them on a 3x5 card.

Next I thought about how I could visualize this idea coming into my life. I would write one or two sentences on a card that could guide my visualization. For the give and receive love months I wrote Generously give love. Freely receive love. The healing power of love. Open. Flow. Receive. 

Since I  find power in scriptures the third thing I did was find two examples in scripture that would bring the truth I was wanting to more fully understand into my life with power. One scripture I chose as part of this example was 1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear." I would write these scriptures on a 3x5 card.

Finally I chose a mantra to repeat while I was meditating. For the duration of the six months I kept it simple and repeated "I love and accept you, Mallory."

The next evening I gathered all my cards and brought my phone so I could use Insight timer for my meditation. I told my husband I would be meditating and he would respect my space as I did so.

First I would read my affirmations aloud, trying to feel really good about what I was saying, and saying them with confidence and power.

Next I would read through my visualization card and then spend 30 seconds to 1 minutes closing my eyes and really trying to see what my life would look like if I was experiencing what I had just written.

Then I would read through my two scriptures out loud. I tried to just enjoy and relax into what they said, to believe in them as truth.

Finally I would go to my insight timer app and set a timer for 5 minutes. For those five minutes I would focus on breathing slowly and deeply (but also comfortably) as well as repeating my mantra in my head (or occasionally aloud). 

After the timer went off, I took one last breath and felt gratitude for the time I was able to spend in meditation that day.

It wasn't a perfect practice, but it was really good for me, and it didn't take long for me to notice how good it was in my life.

I hope this example was helpful to you, maybe you got some good ideas about how to incorporate meditation into your life. The best thing about meditation is it is a very personal practice. You can create a meditation practice that works just perfectly for your life. You can switch things up when you need to.

Like I said this meditation practice worked really well for me for six month, but then I had a huge life change and I needed to rework what mediation looked like for me. Now I do it differently but I still love practicing stillness. 

I created my mediation course to have this flexibility. To help you learn enough about meditation and the practice of meditation and then give you tools and confidence you need to be able to create a meditation practice in your life that works perfectly for you. If it feels like something you would be interested in, I invite you to head over to youtube, I'd love to see you there!

Mallory

I want to share my experience with the curriculum I am using for our Kindergarten Homeschool this year. Almost everything comes from The Good & The Beautiful. It is so easy to use, just open the curriculum and go from there. Almost all of what you need comes with the curriculum (this is especially true of the math curriculum). And it is all so well done. I love using the curriculum, so here is a peek into our Kindergarten Math Box.

To be transparent we did the Math K last year and this year we are doing Math Level 1. I loved last years curriculum and I am loving this years as well.

First you get two books that you can work through during the year. It has all the activities and all the guidance you need to successfully teach math to a 4/5/6 year old.

I love the way each lesson is laid out. You begin the day with a daily dose, this keeps some things the same every day. It is just a couple easy activities like writing the date, creating patterns, learning how to count or learning about different shapes. The daily dose is quick and easy but really builds the child's foundational math skills.

Then comes the lesson. The lessons have all been wonderful. They often include a variety of activities and ways to learn. It never feels like we are working on any one thing in one way too long, which keeps the lessons engaging. I love that the same thing is often taught in a good variety of ways, I feel like it really helps my child have a greater depth of understanding of the various concepts.

Then we move on to the student worksheet. Sometimes my daughter can do these on her own, sometimes she needs my help. The worksheet is often a great way to be able to judge if your child is grasping the concepts you are teaching. 

Finally there is a bonus independent activity for the child to do. These are often a lot of fun all while building math skills. I think it is a great way to end the lesson.

The math box comes with almost everything you need to have for the lessons. It is filled with fun ways to bring math to life and make it relevant for such young children. It is really high quality as well, so you can use everything for the duration of the year and beyond. 

When we first started math the lessons took a little bit longer as we were just starting out. After a few days/ weeks we really got into the groove and now we can work through each lesson is what I feel like is a good amount of time. If you are struggling to finish each lesson you could easily split the lessons in two and work through the book more slowly.

Honestly math has been one of my favorite parts of homeschool. I look forward to each lesson and I learn quite a bit as well as we do math together.

Would I recommend the Math Curriculum from The Good & The Beautiful? 100% YES! I love it. I think it is high quality. I think it is good and beautiful curriculum that amazingly incorporates lovely principles throughout the pages.

Do you have any further questions about the Math Curriculum from The Good & The Beautiful? Leave them below and I'd love to answer them!

Mallory

We don’t make sushi very often, but when we do I always wonder why we don’t make it more often. It is fairly simple to compile and tasty. We like to serve this sushi with vegan spring rolls for a more satisfying meal.

Dipping these sushi rolls in some soy sauce, tamari, or coconut aminos really brings it all together for me. We all love coconut aminos the most. They are pretty easy to find at health food stores or online. I even see them popping up more often in grocery stores. They can be a little pricey though, so when we go to Trader Joe’s we always stock up since they are reasonably priced there.

Have you ever made sushi at home? Give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Sushi

1 pkg. Sushi Nori (Roasted Seaweed)

2 Cups Short Grain Brown Rice

2 T. White or Rice Vinegar

2 T. Coconut Sugar

VEGGIES

Bell Pepper, thinly sliced

Cucumber, julienned

Carrots, julienned

Sprouts

Avocado

Soy Sauce, Coconut Aminos, or Tamari for Dipping

1. Cook the rice in a rice cooker or on a stove according to package instructions. Mix the vinegar and coconut sugar together until the sugar dissolves.

2. While the rice cooks, thinly slice or julienne the vegetables. 

3. When the rice is finished cooking, add the vinegar-sugar mixture to the rice and stir to combine.

4. Assemble the sushi. Take one sheet of nori and fill it with a thin layer of rice. Start from the bottom leaving about 1/3 of the nori uncovered.  Add vegetables and avocado at the bottom of the nori roll. Roll the sheet carefully from bottom to top. Wet the top with a bit of water to seal the roll.

5. Allow to sit for a few minutes to allow the roll to seal, then cut the sushi into 1” rounds. 

6. Enjoy these dipped in soy sauce, coconut aminos, or tamari.

If you are looking for more delicious plant-based meals to enjoy, I'm sure you will love my E-books Earth Fed Family and Whole Plant Foods. Each cookbook is filled with healthy whole-food, plant-based, oil-free and vegan recipes that our family loves. 

My 5 year old is an avid reader. I used the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons two years ago to help her learn to read. It was amazing to teach her to read and to witness her as she got better and better. After we (almost) finished the book, my daughters reading ability just took off. She now reads anything and everything she can. 

Since she can read so well, and I don't have to focus on learning to read so much with our Kindergarten homeschool, I thought it would be important to focus on reading comprehension. I know she can easily get through a book in an afternoon, but does she really understand what is going on in the story? That was my question, and now as her teacher I am excited to do a little experiment with her to see how well her reading comprehension is.

So I purchased about 20 new books from The Good and the Beautiful Library. I have not let her read any of them yet. Each week I will let her choose one book to read. She will read it on her own, and out loud to me. When we are finished reading it, it is her job to bring the book to life in some way. I have assigned her the task to take something from the book, and make a real life experience from it. I am interested to see what comes of it.

The first week she chose the book May's Cake. It is a delightful little story of a helpful girl who wants to make a birthday cake for her mom. Despite it not being the perfect cake, she learns that she can show love to her mom in many ways. I enjoyed this book. 

This book also provided for such a simple and straightforward project for us, make our own cake. Since we eat a plant based diet, I turned to one of my favorite plant based food bloggers for a recipe, and she came through with a simple Strawberry Cake recipe.

We had plans to have dinner with my parents on Saturday night, so I asked Kennedy if she would want to share her cake, and she said yes! 

Saturday morning found us baking the cake and whipping the coconut cream for the top. We headed over to my parents to eat dinner that evening. After dinner we brought out the cake and cut a slice for everyone. Kennedy asked each person if they wanted coconut cream and strawberries on the top and then artfully decorated each one. We then served a piece to everyone and enjoyed.

The cake was delicious, everyone went back for seconds. Even better though was watching my daughter create something. I loved watching her mix and stir and lick the spoon after. I love watching her decorate each piece of cake and then sharing it with others. It was such a simple and fun experience I will treasure.

I hope this project instilled in her the knowledge that she can be successful even when trying something new. I hope she experienced a sense of creativity. I hope she learned that sharing what we create makes our lives so much more rich. I hope it was enjoyable.

And that's really what I hope for all the future books we read and projects we do. I am excited to see what we do next!

Mallory