A Quiet Simple Life with Sallie Borrink
Cozy and Simple Living, Homeschooling, Faith, Homemaking, & Books
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One of the things I’m passionate about as an educator and curriculum developer is that learning materials for young children should be visually engaging, colorful, well-designed and simple. Reaching this balance is a challenge, but it can be done. I’m really picky about the aesthetics of any materials I use with Caroline whether it is […]
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I realized we were relaxed homeschoolers somewhere along the beginning of Caroline’s second grade year (this year). I had kind of wandered in the wilderness of trying to figure out how to answer the question when people would ask what kind of a homeschooler I was. This was mostly due to trying to figure out […]
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Caroline (who is seven) has been fascinated by stop animation movies, especially since she found the Basilmentos channel on YouTube. So today she used the camera she received from Grandpa and Grandma S. for Christmas to make her first stop animation movie (with some help from Daddy!). She spent several hours working on this and […]
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I purchased Sticker Dolly Dressing Around the World probably almost a year ago. It sat on the shelf until it seemed like the “right” time to get it out and use it with Caroline. This fall was the right time and so we’ve been enjoying it! Using Sticker Books for Learning One of the things […]
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My husband and I are blessed with a creative little girl. She has more imagination in her pinky than I have in my entire body. She lives in a world of possibilities where her stuffed animals are her real friends and she’s never met a plot she didn’t want to recreate! So how do you […]
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I’ve been thinking off and on all summer about our right brain homeschool curriculum choices for my spirited child for this coming school year. I’m one of those people who has to investigate, read, and then let it all ruminate in my subconscious before I can make a decision. Now we’re getting to the time […]
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Long before I ever had Caroline, I read a book called Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days: Share a Day With 30 Homeschooling Families. (This was also pre-homeschool blogs for the most part!) The book gave a day-in-the-life story of thirty different homeschool families. The families varied widely in curriculum, size, location, etc. But one thing […]
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I wanted to bring together two topics near and dear to my heart in this one post: spirited children and homeschooling. More specifically, teaching a spirited child to read. (If you aren’t familiar with the concept of a spirited child or wonder if you have one, you might want to check out my spirited child […]
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Since we homeschool and have a creative child, keeping a well-stocked selection of arts and crafts supplies is imperative in our home. I also believe that the supplies need to be readily accessible to the child and well-organized so they can easily be enjoyed. Today I’m going to share what we have on hand and […]
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A few weeks ago I ended up on A girl and a glue gun and her DIY Barbie House post. I knew Caroline would be enthralled, but I had no idea how much it would impact her! She has watched pretty much all of the crafting videos by My Froggy Stuff and has been inspired. […]
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As we head into the home stretch, I’ve been reflecting on our first year of homeschooling experience. To say it has been interesting would be an understatement. I’ve reminded myself of three things over and over again. One, Caroline is young and would be one of the youngest children in her class in a regular […]
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Remember the post How a homeschooled dreamer does preschool math? A year later, here is a rough breakdown of how my kindergarten homeschool schedule with Caroline might go on any given day. Calendar time: 10-15 minutes Five minutes of actual learning and five to ten minutes of adding color and embellishment to everything we do. […]
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Last summer, Caroline became absolutely enthralled with a student desk set at Office Max. It was a white desk, hot pink chair, and flowered mat. She was only three (!) and it was way too big for her. But every time we have been in Office Max over the past year, she has literally ran […]
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Like many little ones, Caroline is fascinated by stickers. I found My Big Book Of Stickers and it was a fabulous teaching tool! We garnered hours and hours of learning time from this one book. I actually should say David did because this was an activity that primarily David did with Caroline after supper while […]
