A Hymn
Written by my husband. It was not me upon the crossAlthough it should have beenAnd carried I on shredded backThat cursed bloody beamBut when the saviour cried alas“Lord take from me this cup”…
2 min read
Teresa Marles
Teresa Marles
Spending Time Outdoors
We are still in the middle of the British winter, and I am starting to feel it. The kids have been cooped up indoors for many weeks now so today, I decided to bundle them up despite the cold weathe…
4 min readHospitality: A Primary Focus for 2022
This is post 1 of the Hospitality 2022 series, watch out for more later. Key words for the year I noticed something while perusing the internet a few years back. I realised that as some people were…
4 min read
Getting Into the Swing of Things
Baby supervising a game of Sea battle Conveyor belt of doom Getting into the swing of things after a long winter break is always a bit of a challenge. Our week was jam-packed with the restart of th…
3 min read
His Mercies are New Every Morning
Special occasions and Ikea On the first day of January, we started the year off by going to Ikea! I wanted to buy a couple of things that would help us organise our life a little bit better. We lov…
4 min readCommit Your Way to the Lord this New Year 2022!
I love plans and list-making. Ever since I was a child, I would have journals where I would document various plans and lists. Lists of books to read, of things to do that day, of things to pack for…
5 min read
Merry Christmas 2021!
Merry Christmas to you from our family to yours! This year has been challenging and yet a blessing,Hard work, yet peaceful,Stressful at times, yet joyful.I have felt pushed to the limits, yet have …
1 min readAdvent 2021 at our Home
Advent and Christmas was always a special time growing up as a Christian kid in the Middle East. The anticipation and the expectation of the birth of Jesus, nostalgic Christmas carols, well wishes …
4 min read
We joined a Classical Conversations Community!
The kids are so excited on community day! It had to happen. We finally bit the bullet and joined a local Classical Conversations Community two months ago in October. In September 2020, we had joine…
5 min read
Arrive! – Homeschooling the Third Trimester and the Arrival of Baby
The arrival of Baby Theodore! This is part three of a 3-part series on Pregnancy and Home Education. Click here for part one and part two.The first half of the Third Trimester was pleasant and…
4 min readThrive! – Homeschooling the Second Trimester
Second Trimester. This is part two of a 3-part series on Pregnancy and Home Education. Click here for part one and part three. I waited eagerly for the yellow daffodils to bloom in our local rounda…
4 min readSurvive! – Homeschooling the First Trimester
Surviving the first trimester. This is part one of a 3-part series on Pregnancy and Home Education. Click here for part two and part three.Around this time last year (Dec 2020), we found out that w…
5 min readCommunity – the Missing Element
This last year of homeschooling and CC has been enjoyable and rewarding but it has also been hard work done in isolation. If there has been one thing lacking in our homeschool this past year… it is…
3 min readOne Year of Directing Classical Conversations – Without a Community!
Our Week One memory work in September of last year. Last year was an interesting year for us as a family. We deregistered our kids from school and then started homeschooling using the classical, Ch…
8 min readExtra-Curricular Activities – How to Decide?
Depending on how you organise your week, you will usually find some time in your children’s schedule to fill with extra-curricular activities. And these days, there are a plethora of excellent acti…
5 min readOne Year of Home Education in the UK – A review
Last year on the 1st of May 2020, we prayerfully decided to embark on the wild and wonderful adventure of home educating our 3 kids. Our decision was made relatively easier by the fact that we were…
10 min readQuiet Time
I tried my best to delay it, and that worked for a while. But then one day, they all dropped their naps, and I was just about ready to weep and give up on this thing called Motherhood! Naptime was …
3 min readWhat we have been up to
It has been a while since I blogged here, and I haven’t written since November of last year. We had decided to take a small break from homeschooling during the dark winter season. Winter was dreary…
3 min readLockdown Adventures: Gingerbread house
Gingerbread house The closest I’ve come to ‘making’ a gingerbread house was using the IKEA gingerbread house kit. It was not much of a success with us. Some of the parts were already broken in the …
4 min readLockdown Adventures: Alice Holt Park
Moss-covered logs One of the things I like to plan are things-to-do over the weekend. Experience has taught us that if we are not organised with a rough plan for the weekend, we most often than not…
3 min readAutumn is upon us.
October came and brought with it a drastic change of weather. It seemed like it was only yesterday that we were fanning ourselves because of the heat and splashing in our plastic pool in the backya…
3 min readWelcome to our new homeschool community in South-West London
Are you looking for a homeschool community in South-West London? If so, read on 🙂 Next week I launch a new Classical Conversations community in my home in Chessington. When I say “community” I us…
3 min readEternal Rewards
I love rewards. Especially after a job well done, there’s nothing sweeter than a reward: a commendation, a pat on the back, a gift maybe – if I’m being honest 😊When I became a Christian and s…
4 min readThe Humble Stir-fried Rice
Sausage Fried Rice I’m passionate about cooking, but since having three children and starting to home-educate them, I realised that I don’t have the time to make elaborate meals at home. While we w…
4 min readTeach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Review – We finished it!
One of the first decisions we had to make when we removed our kids from school and started home educating was choosing a phonics program. My 6-year-old is a proficient reader (for his age), but my …
4 min readGiving my Children a Refuge
In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge. Proverbs 14:26 (ESV) My text today in my Bible reading plan included the above verse from Proverbs 14:26.…
3 min readClassical Conversations Community Day “Taster” session
Last week, I was delighted to host a Classical Conversations “Taster” session at my home in South-West London. I also had the pleasure of meeting Meina (in real life as opposed to FB!) who kindly o…
3 min readHomeschool Routine, Part 2
Our current devotional In a previous post, I wrote about how elements of our family worship formed our first homeschool routine. Later on, we added poetry, a bit of nature study, a devotional and t…
4 min readWe de-registered our kids!
We finally decided to bite the bullet and de-register our kids from school two weeks ago. Fortunately for us, it was a rather seamless and uneventful process … not that we are complaining and I’m n…
2 min readClassical Conversations UK
To know God and to make Him known. Classical Conversations Motto CC seemed intriguing. I went over to their website, which is based in the US and dived straight in. There were so many new terms to …
3 min readHomeschool Philosophy, Approach and Curricula
Once we had decided to homeschool, my husband and I delved into the world of homeschool philosophies, approaches and curricula. Again, like everything these days, there are so many options to choos…
3 min readEd Emberley drawing books
I first heard about Ed Emberley when I did a random search for “drawing books for kids” on Amazon.com. His books have a lot of good reviews. Then I saw that The Artful Parent had also used one of h…
2 min readGingerbread men cookies
I have three kids aged 4, 5 and 6, and so I’m always on the lookout for healthy, nourishing snacks for them. One kind of cookie my kids can’t get enough of is Gingerbread men. I donR…
2 min readBig 5 and Life Skills
I did not know that “Life Skills” was an actual subject area until I started researching homeschooling! Since learning about it by browsing Facebook groups and blogs on Homeschooling, I have come t…
3 min readAdding more elements to our Routine
In my last post, I wrote about how our family worship time eventually became our first homeschool routine and Morning Time. Later on, as I did more thinking and research, I added additional element…
4 min readFamily Worship as our first Homeschool Routine
One thing I am big on is routine. From the time my kids were little and especially when I had three kids under three, I used the establishment of routines as a coping mechanism 🙂 When the kids sta…
3 min readSupreme Objective
In my last post, I mentioned some of the books that helped me gain a better understanding of the Classical and Charlotte Mason philosophy of education. I also read Lou Priolo’s book “Teach them Dil…
2 min readMaking the Decision to Homeschool
In my last post, I wrote about what we felt were the pros and cons of homeschooling in our point of view and specifically for our family. We looked at the list and were enthusiastic and delighted w…
2 min readHomeschooling Pros and Cons
Making a painting with materials from our scavenger hunt As the days went by, my husband and I were starting to enjoy family time more. Usually, the prospect of having the kids at home all the time…
4 min readThe Pandemic (Covid-19) and Spring in London
Lockdown measures were implemented in London on the 23rd of March. It was a strange time. Schools closed, churches closed, playdates ceased, and public transportation was reduced among other things…
3 min readSchool Restarts
I love this picture of the kids. I went to pick them up after school and surprised them with freshly baked blueberry muffins and warm chocolate milk in a flask. We went to a nearby park to sit on a…
2 min readFirst Six Months in London
The first six months in London were a mixture of good and challenging times. We moved into our new (rental) home in August and a few weeks later, the kids started to go to a Church of England schoo…
3 min readMove to London, UK
View of Dubai from “The Frame” After more than 30 years in the Middle East (10 years for my husband), my husband and I decided to relocate permanently to London, UK. There is so much to…
2 min readFirst glimpse of the Homeschool
I was not homeschooled as a child, and neither was my husband, but we first came across this “mode” of education when we were living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The church we went to in Dubai h…
2 min read