Cookies & Koalas

 SEARCHING FOR GOOD READERS Over the course of the past year my daughters have been deep in the trenches of learning to read. It has been a learning experience for all of us, but  besides me having to grow in patience, the process has been much simpler in many ways than I imagined. Maybe I can write a post on our journey another day, but today I wanted to share what I have found to be the BEST sequential phonetic readers we have used.  ( Be sure to check out Free resources available during Covid-19 in point #5! ) In our search for readers, we have tried Abeka readers (K-1st grade, which we do like overall and are still using for practice), Fitzroy readers (these are ok, but not great), Bob books, Ladybug readers, Christian Liberty Press readers, a McGuffy reader and a few others that the library had single copies of. I have also looked into many other options and samples and had not found anything that I really liked. Many "phonetic" readers include too many random sight ...

SIMPLE HAPPY PARENTING Parenting is one of those things that challenges ; it challenges even the most successful, well educated, and patient among us. When an adult is required to contend with a seemingly irrational miniature human who constantly demands some type of attention, it can leave even the greatest of men overwhelmed and frustrated. Somehow those little bundles of cuteness have the capability of bringing out the very worst monsters inside of even the most cultured grown members of our society. Nevermind the grave responsibility and heavy burden that parents feel weighing on their shoulders. They feel they need to ensure they teach their child everything he or she needs to know, that they provide all the opportunities, all the stuff, all the entertainment, to ensure that these little humans grow into perfect people.  Enter Simple, happy parenting. Seriously? Is that even a thing? I mean I can think of a lot of words to describe parenting, but simple, yeah that probably ...