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life skills

Cooperative Board Games

Competition is important, but so is cooperation. From many points of view, in fact, cooperation is by far the more valuable but it is not an easy thing to teach in our very competitive world. What’s more, nothing spoils a family game faster than siblings bickering about losing or winning. For these reasons, I was […]

Review: How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff

Everywhere we go, we are presented with statistics about things to buy, things to do, the economy, politics, health issues, polls, wages, and more. But sometimes these statistics contradict each other, and what then? This famous little book by Darrell Huff is a humorous explanation of the ways truth is misrepresented with statistics….. … All […]

Review: Fundamentals II from Traditional Cooking School

For years we have been interested in traditional cooking.  It began, I think, with the repeated reading aloud of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, one of which we read aloud (and lost) on the plane as we moved to Europe two decades ago.  It went on to an interest in medieval cookery, and it is continuing […]

Review: The First Love by Beverly Lewis

Maggie Esh, sixteen, is ill and spends most of her days in pain and fatigue, wishing she could contribute more to the family and hoping that someday she will be well enough to become a wife and mother. Yet she is cheerful, diligently trying to understand how to be content and knowing that her sovereign […]

Reading Week

Every fall we take a week off from regular schoolwork and focus on books.  This is a rest and a reward for the fall’s hard work.  It is also a huge game changer educationally, as we take time to explore new ideas. This year we were sick during reading week but even so it was […]