This blog is my attempt to document our busy but BLESSED lives raising and educating our children for His glory. A child of God, wife to one, and mom to 6 fabulous kids. We are in our 17th year of homeschooling using a Classical ~ Literature based approach.

Come along for the good, the bad & the ugly.



Monday, April 10, 2017

Watch out!


Madison jumped out of the way to avoid getting hit by a pitch in todays double header.


©2008- 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.    

Saturday, April 8, 2017

See you in Michigan!


Mikayla qualified to compete at the 2017 Eastern Championships this year! She is also the Region 7 FLOOR CHAMPION with a score of 9.575 and she came in 2nd place on the Vault with a 9.750. She had a personal best AA score of 37.825. Way to go!


©2008- 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.    

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Homeschool 365 ~ 95/365

She beat me in our game of "Making 10"! {95/365} 




{95/365}  #astablebeginning #365homeschool #brownhomeschool365 #hiphomeschoolmoms #saxonmath #grade2math #handsonlearning #mathgenuis #mathisfun 



©2008- 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.  

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Memoria Press: The Story of The Thirteen Colonies & The Great Republic AND 200 Questions About American History Sets ~ a TOS review

History is an important subject in our house. After all, you learn not to repeat past mistakes from the history that is already complete. Well, in theory you do. We are studying the later half of American history this year in our homeschool but I wanted to give my 8th and 4th graders a refresher on early American History as well as we wrap up our school year. I was so pleased when I found out we were on the review for the The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set and  200 Questions About American History Set from Memoria Press! We are Classical homeschoolers who lean to the Charlotte Mason side and use quite a bit of Memoria Press curriculum in our yearly studies. If you are new to the homeschool area a let me tell you a little about Memoria Press.

Memoria Press

Memoria Press (MP) is a family-run publishing company founded by Cheryl Lowe in 1994. The company creates simple, easy-to-use classical Christian education curriculum for home and private schools all over the world. Memoria Press's produces many popular Latin, logic, literature, and classical studies courses for children in PreK-12th grade. There products are written and field-tested with the students who attend the highly acclaimed Highlands Latin School. We were blessed to receive both of these sets from MP, let me tell you more about them.

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set

The Story of The Thirteen Colonies & The Great Republic set comes with a reader, a student guide, and a teacher guide. With 32 weekly lessons you will find a comprehensive study on American history from Native Americans through The Spanish-American War. Each lesson in the student guide is set up with the same four part format that includes:

 I. Facts to know
 II. Vocabulary
III. Comprehension questions
IV. Enrichment

The reader is a historical reader that can serve as an elementary textbook or supplemental book added to any history program. The chapters are short and sweet but don't leave out what is truly important in the events. All of the chapters include a picture or two about the chapter topic also.

200 Questions About American History Set
Grades 5-8

The 200 Questions About American History Set includes of a set of flash cards, a Student Book and a Teacher Guide. This set works well with the The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & The Great Republic set I talked about above,  however, it is meant to be used along with The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer and Everything You Need to Know About American History Homework by Kate Kelly and Anne Zeman. The student book also includes memorization practice in the form of famous poems and speeches. The flashcard set is a thick deck of heavyweight cards and includes four different categories of questioning including:

~ 150 drill questions
~ timeline dates 
~ 44 U.S. Presidents
~ notable quotes

To help my children learn and remember the  American history questions, we played in a Jeopardy style game on Thursday and Sunday nights. My girls loved the fast pace of the game and trying to gain points. Most importantly they were learning and retaining the information, a big plus in my book! We loved everything about both of these sets. It is through and gets the job done! Definitely take a peek at this set from Memoria Press and the other sets offered for review, First Form Greek Complete Set, and the Iliad & the Odyssey Complete Set by clicking the banner below.

First Form Greek, Iliad/Odyssey and American History {Memoria Press Reviews}

Company ~ Memoria Press (MP)





Format ~ physical book sets

Price ~ $48 and $27.90 respectively

Ages ~ grades 4-8

Memoria Press

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©2008- 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.  

Wordless Wednesday


©2008- 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.  

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Shepherd, Potter, Spy--and the Star Namer by Peggy Consolver ~ a TOS review

Shepherd, Potter, Spy--and the Star Namer {Peggy Consolver}

I’ve always loved history. In fact while I was growing up I used to read encyclopedias for fun. Nerdy, maybe, but I loved reading about Ancient times. This year we are finishing up our study of American history and in the fall it means we are heading into Ancients again! I love being able to tie in literature to bring history to life. Over the last few weeks I have been doing just that as I read a new novel called Shepherd, Potter, Spy--and the Star Namer by Peggy Consolver - Author.

Peggy Consolver
The author, Peggy, did not start off being an accomplished author. She was born the third child of six and raised on a wheat farm in southwest Oklahoma. She met her husband, George, while enrolled in Southwestern Oklahoma State University. Before having her two children Peggy taught shorthand, typing, and business law in a north Dallas high school and also worked as an executive secretary for a construction company in Austin, TX. She loves teaching Sunday school and reading through the Bible annually.

Originally, I intended to have my 16 year old read this book. But life got busy for her and she just couldn’t fit it into her schedule. So, I jumped into the story and I have really been enjoying digging into this historical fiction, let me tell you more about it.

Shepherd, Potter, Spy--and the Star Namer is a paperback book with 375 pages with 46 chapters and tells the Biblical account of the Hebrews’ last 40 years in the wilderness as referenced in Numbers 20 - the book of Joshua. The novel tells the story through the eyes of a young 13-year-old Canaanite shepherd boy named, Keshub, who lives in Gibeon. As the fifth oldest son of Ishtaba, Keshub, lives adventure every day as he defends his flock from predators while he attempts to prove himself among his older brothers. However, Keshub longs for his father’s affection and approval yet has an intense longing for adventure beyond his daily horizons. As the biblical story of Joshua unfolds and the Hebrews threaten to invade his homeland, Keshub becomes a spy keeping watch of the Hebrew’s movements through the Jordan River Valley.

Shepherd, Potter, Spy--and the Star Namer Peggy Consolver

Doesn’t that sound fascinating!? Since taking over as being the primary reader of this novel, I am loving it! I do plan to have my 16 year old read this book over the summer because I am finding it to be a great read. I am going nice and slow because some of the names are a bit confusing, but the handy reference chart at the beginning helps keep the people straight. The author has also included a helpful study guide on her website to accompany the novel reading. It provides links, maps, and videos to help things stay clear.

Shepherd, Potter, Spy--and the Star Namer Peggy Consolver

Overall, I would recommend this novel for high schoolers and up. A middle schooler might be able to grasp the content. I plan on finishing up this novel in the next few weeks and to start reading it aloud to my younger children as we prepared for our journey back through Ancient history. Be sure to check out what my CrewMates thought of this book too by clicking the banner below and reading some of their reviews.

Shepherd, Potter, Spy--and the Star Namer {Peggy Consolver Reviews}

Format ~ paperback book, ISBN 978-1-942587-09-5
Price ~ $10.14
Ages ~ middle - high schoolers through adults

Shepherd, Potter, Spy--and the Star Namer Peggy Consolver
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©2008- 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.