Shakespeare - To read or not to read?

Ever since starting this homeschool journey a few years ago, I discovered Charlotte Mason.  I began to read her books and she talked about doing Shakespeare with your children.  I was so intimidated because I don't ever remember doing shakespeare during my school years so I had no idea were to begin! Until Leah Boden did a  scope on how she does Shakespeare and she made it look so simple and beautiful. So I decided to dig in and go for it. (If you don't follow Leah on Periscope and go do so now! She has so much wisdom, specially in the Charlotte Mason method.)

A couple weeks ago we started reading a Midsummer Night's Dream from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children edited by E. Nesbitt.  You can get it used on Amazon! 

I didn't think my kids would be into it all! (I thought it was going to be a bunch of gibberish language that we wouldn't understand) I grabbed the chalkboard because I wanted to write all the main characters names on there for us to remember, and started reading reading the story.  While reading we would draw arrows of who was in love, and all these obstacles that kept coming up in the story.  Now they beg me to read shakespeare to them! 

So if you don't know where to start watch Leah's scopes , there is a part 1 &  part 2 so make sure you watch both.  Also find out if they have any live performances at a park or somewhere near you and go and watch it!  Even if you haven't read the stories/plays,  you can watch it and then read the story!  

Have you read Shakespeare? 

Do you BuJo ?

So Ive been hearing about Bullet Journaling for a while now, and Im starting to get very intrigued.  Usually went I get ideas, want to brain dump, come up with fun projects...I grab a sheet of paper and start writing them down and guess what Im left with? a bunch of papers everywhere and then I forget about them.

Heather from Wellermommablog.com did some awesome posts about the BuJo system (bullet journaling) and I think Im in love! 

She's did a few scopes recently and you can watch them on https://katch.me/wellermomma

Bullet Journaling helps her stay flexible, BuJu Basics: How to begin, and another called BuJo Basics: Index and Calendars.  

Im so excited to get start and keep all my thoughts in one space.  

Necessities to get you started:

• A bullet journal (I ordered a graph one here) you can also order one from bulletjournal.com

• Pretty pens - I love Staedtler Triples Finalizer Pens also I love Sharpie Pens

Also ZealousMom did an awesome post on the Do's and Don'ts of Bullet Journaling that I found very interesting and of course she came up with a group board on ideas on journaling here.  

How do you keep organized? Do you BuJo?

Poetry Tea Time

Since my children were little, specially since my first born was a girl, we have enjoyed Tea Time.  It was a special time we got to enjoy together (while practicing our manners) and talk about our day.  We owned a few poetry books and we would work on memorizing them but I never thought of incorporating it into our tea times, until I discovered this amazing company, Brave Writer.  Julie Bogart came up with this incredible idea of Poetry Tea times  and since then we have been doing it weekly.

Now we try to carve out some time once a week (we try for Tuesdays) to make some yummy treats and some tea (sometimes cocoa, or lemonade...depending on our mood), set the table and grab our poetry books, you can even light some candles!  The awesome thing is that it can be as simple as you want it or you can go all in.

Now don't go thinking that Poetry Tea Times are only for girls, I have 2 sons and as long as you have treats and a few silly poems (Ooey Gooey)  they will be there!  Today we made these tasty Almond Flour Donuts by Comfy Belly, so simple to make and the kids thought they were so special. 

Give it a try, I'm sure you and your family will love it!

Here are some of our favorite Poetry Books:

A Child's Anthology of Poetry 

by Elizabeth Hauge Sword 

Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems 

by Paul B. Janeczko 

A Child's Calendar 

by John Updike  

Library Bin: What we read this week

The Long, Long Journey By Sandra Markle 

This one is about the Godwit's Amazing Migration

This Is My Home, This Is My School

By Jonathan Bean 

Loved this story about a homeschool family

Also Sarah Makenzie from the Read-Aloud Revival did an awesome Author event with 

Jonathan Bean! 

Toy Boat by Randal de Seve

This is a sweet story of a boys friendship with his toy boat that he created. 

The Library by Sarah Stewart

My daughter loved this one because its about a girl who is just in love with reading, its her life. 

Here are some Poetry Books that we are all enjoying during our Poetry Tea Time:

Friday Favorites

Im starting a series called "Friday Favorites" where I will be posting some of my favorite things.  Today I am posting my 4 favorite blogs: 

MaggieWhitley:  Maggie writes about motherhood and life in such an uplifting way and she also started writing about her running journey.  She also has the two cutest kids ever and a bright and cheerful apartment that I adore.  Im so encouraged by her to get moving and looking at life on the bright side. 

Mamawatters:  Amanda writes on motherhood, natural living and just life.  Amanda motivates me to live simply...and c'mon just look at her beautiful home and cutest baby bump.   

BecomingJolie: Jolie has an amazing sense of humor and writes exactly how it is. I also love her sense of  fashion and home decor, and she is also AMAZING at thrift shopping. 

valmariepaper:  Valerie is such an inspiration to me, she writes on accomplishing goals, and staying focused in her life. I love how she lists her goals every month, it has really motivated me to write my goals down every month.  She also has some amazing journals that Im looking forward to purchasing. 

What are your favorite blogs to read? 

Photo credit: Maggie Whitley & Valmariepaper 

//FOCUS//

I've been feeling convicted about how I've been spending my time lately, so I've decided to do something about it.  I'm not the best planner/organizer, but when I saw that Crystal Paine from Money Saving Mom was doing a course called "Make Over Your Morning" I decided to take the plunge!

I'm on day 3 and its been amazing, I've been learning how to prioritize my mornings and listing what the important things are that I want to fill up my day with instead of the day taking over and feeling like I did a million things but can't think of what they were.  I'm super excited about taking this course and getting a better hold of my days and what they will look like.

So far:

+ I started to wake up at 5:00 a.m. so I can get some alone time in the mornings to pray, read my bible and exercise.  I know not every mom can do this, specially if you have little ones waking you up throughout the night.  

+ I've been preparing my day starting the night before, getting my kitchen clean so that when I wake up my kitchen is not a mess and I can cook without having to do tons of dishes before.

+ Laying out my clothes so I can change for the day, this has been hard for since becoming a mom...specially a stay at home mom.  I would feel like I had no one to dress for and I was bound to get your clothes messy from Peanut Butter and Jelly, or dirt and mud.  I decided that I should be dressing for the people I love and since I've started getting ready in the mornings I feel like I have more energy for the day, like I'm ready to tackle our day! and not just sit and binge watch on Netflix....Oops did I just say that aloud? 

So if you feel like your mornings look like a bunch of craziness, check out "Make Over Your Mornings" it has helped me so much!

What is the hardest part of your day?  

This is my personal opinion, I did not "review" this product. 

Weekly Goals vol 1

I've been following Alicia Hutchinson for quite some time now, she is a homeschool mom that I look up to for inspiration.  She just recently moved and started posting weekly goals to keep herself accountable and I thought....hm....I need something like that!  So here I go:



Health Goals

Take a walk 3 nights a week with my family.  The kids love walking around the neighborhood looking for nature finds.

Also, I need to drink more water and less coffee.  So I am limiting my coffee to 1 cup in the morning.  This is going to be so hard for me, I love my coffee!

Home Goals

Right now my living room is a big MESS, I cleared the "new" homeschool room that used to be my sewing/craft room so now all those things are in the living room needing to be organized.  Im taking pictures of items Im wanting to sell and posting them on Instagram @melsclosetandthings.

Homeschool Goals

Starting right in the morning, this is the hardest for me.  The kids start playing and I have a hard time breaking that up.  Then one thing after the other and by them time I look at the clock its 11:00 and the kids are wanting lunch and we have yet to begin school.  

So this week we started right after breakfast, we read the bible and do our devotionals and start our "school".

Parenting Goals 

Alicia's parenting Goal was to look at her children in the eyes when they are talking and I just fell in LOVE with that.  Its hard sometimes to get caught up in emails, text messaging, and checking Instagram.   I will be doing the same, EYE contact is so important, our children need to know that we are listening and I know it aggravates me so much when my children don't look at me when I am talking to them as well.

Personal Goals

This weeks personal goals for me is to change in the morning, that means no "YOGA" pants.  I need to dress up and it makes you feel so good.  You get a boost of energy when you are ready to tackle the things that need to be done.  Also, Im showing my kids that getting ready for the day is important.   So my children are also changing in the morning before coming downstairs for breakfast.

Make sure you check out Alicia's posts on weekly goals!