Some of My Favorite Things – August & September 2025
This month saw the return of the other kids to school (FINALLY!) and our return to homeschooling after a short “break.” Let’s get to those Favorites!
Kids in School
Among the many things that light up a homeschooling mama’s heart are the sights AND sounds of a playground AFTER all the kids have returned to school.
A playground with a couple dozen kids is chaotic, noisy, too stimulating (for me, the introvert), and just plain not fun. Sure, there may be a kid or two that our kids get to meet and whose company they might enjoy, but I’d rather have them play with their usual few friends whom we know than have to brave the much bigger kids who chose the day we’re there to “play” with the wasp nest near the slide. -Shaking my head.- Dumb kids.
A new school year
We homeschool year-round using what’s called a “Sabbath” schedule, where we do school for six weeks and rest or do a “Break Week” on the seventh week. Each term lasts six weeks for a total of at least 36 weeks, plus a few more at the end where we supplement with more informal or casual programs and lessons.
Because we finished the curriculum we started in January just this past July, that gave us about two weeks (vs our usual one) to rest, close and document the previous year, and prepare for the new year. And prepare we did! We purchased a few curricula, incl. some in Spanish, and a LOT of educational resources, mainly Catholic ones and others focused on pre-reading skills.
I’ll abstain from including Homeschooling among my favorites this time around because after including in (almost) every Favorites post, I’m sure you get the idea :).
Hiking
I’m SO glad we’ve started hiking! It’s something that my husband and our oldest really enjoy doing, as it lets the former teach the latter some foundational survival skills, along with the wonders of God’s creation and the beauty of our state.
Carole Joy Seid (whom I’ve talked about before, incl. here where I recommend homeschooling resources and here where I list some of my favorite podcasts) states that if they’re not yet super involved in the formal day-to-day instruction, or when the kids are so little that Mom is doing the bulk of the home education, fathers are wonderful teachers of the outdoors. Which works for me because I’m not a fan of exploring trails with the kids by myself, but I’m definitely a fan of doing it as a family or of letting my more experienced husband handle that really important aspect of their education.
The Utah Fits All Scholarship
There are a couple reasons why we decided to apply for and take advantage of this scholarship, which is Utah’s version of school choice and grants families $4000 (for those homeschooling) – $8000 (for those whose kids attend private school):
- Government (ahem, public) school teachers hate the concept and we don’t like* government schools or their teachers. Heck, many legislators even oppose the program!
- We pay taxes despite not using government schools, their services, or their facilities, so why not get some of those funds back to educate our child the best way WE see fit?
*Back during the pandemic, teachers chose to put themselves first over their students’ interests. Then you have others pretend they’re activists teaching nonsense. And then for many years (if not decades?) they’ve been obeying arbitrary guidelines and curricula and giving kids (especially boys) who don’t comply every label under the sky at the expense of their health and sanity. No, you don’t have our support.
I know homeschool advocacy organizations like the HSLDA oppose programs like this one and I understand their reasons. (Mainly that they’re against the potential government overreach. However, I haven’t experienced …)
But as neat as it’s been to have our tax dollars pay for the resources we use in our homeschool, its new program manager hasn’t been a dream to work with. Which is to be expected of an organization that only inherited it a quarter ago, but the kinks are still highly inconvenient.
I think I’ll do an honest review on the program later on, but suffice it to say for now that it’s been kind of a mixed bag.
Our Anniversary
The end of Summer/start of Fall marks another favorite time of year around here, and that’s because it surrounds our anniversary. As the mornings get chillier and the leaves start to turn, I can’t help but feel a bit more warm fuzzies than usual due to all the memories surrounding meeting my husband, courting him, and marrying him, all which happened at around the same time in the season across a few years.
The cold is still not my favorite state but fortunately it brings with it some delightful memories and new traditions.
Favorite Podcasts
This time I’ll mention Homeschooling Saints and Dr. Taylor Marshall Podcast–both by homeschooling individuals, actually.
Homeschooling Saints is for Catholic parents (mainly moms) wishing to or currently homeschooling, and it’s where we learn of new services, technologies, and faith-filled tricks to nurture our homeschool and lives as homemakers. I’ve learned of some really neat curricula and authors through Homeschooling Saints, and I highly recommend it as a primer into the Catholic homeschooling sphere.
Dr. Taylor Marshall was an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism and is now using his platform to bring awareness to recent news and unique perspectives from a traditional Catholic lens. He’s very much for informing listeners (and viewers of his YouTube channel) of questionable happenings from the Vatican and all over; he’s also refreshingly pro-America but doesn’t wear blinders when it comes to the faults of the Right.
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What have you been enjoying these last couple of months as we transition to the colder seasons?
