joy – Page 2 – Homeschool With Joy

Cultivate a Joyful Home Environment

May 16, 2024December 17, 2025 Jessica Lovett

In a way, your home environment is just as important as your homeschool curriculum. You’re not going to feel like doing your curriculum to the fullest if your homeschool environment lacks joy.

However, doing that takes a lot of work. It doesn’t just happen!

🖼️Not to sound materialistic at all but merely artistic, making sure to have objects around you that lift your spirits is something worthwhile.

If you spend tons at Hobby Lobby but none of it speaks to you personally, it is in vain… The stuff becomes like a clanging cymbal yelling at you to clean them as they sit and collect dust – if you don’t actually have love for them. (Extremely loose paraphrase of 1 Cor. 13:1)

🐿️I have lots of irons in the fire at any given moment and can also tend to be kind of… SQUIRREL! So, having practical helps to keep me on task are extremely useful.

⏲️The kids use Time Timers for their schoolwork and I have been known to steal one and use to it time myself for tasks around the house, too! Generally, takes longer to worry about washing all the dishes (also do avoid washing the dishes and make more dishes pile up while not actually washing them) than it does to march over and just do it.

🧼The Clean With Me podcast sounds like an extremely silly idea, but it is actually really useful, too. It is basically a Comforting Mom Voice telling you, “Ok, do the next thing! Good job! Now, on to folding those towels…” and my brain actually needs this or I’ll get distracted and go off and forget what I was doing because I’ve decided to paint a scratch I see on the wall or teach my dog to do a new trick or something that popped into my mind. Just bein’ real, here!

📖Beyond keeping chaos reasonably banished so it isn’t a distraction while doing schoolwork – or a hindrance to actually finding the schoolwork – try to incorporate things in your home that make your kids see the uniqueness of your family – maybe photos of things you’ve done together, books that you’ve read together, and things that even have an inside joke kind of nature.

In honor of my it’s-none-of-your-business-th birthday being yesterday, and my reflecting on our home a bit, here are some things that spark joy for me around our house!

Treehouses! And, art from music, movies, and books that we love. Epic tales add an epic vibe to your home.

Adding your passions to your home adds joy. Love Jane Austen books? Decide to make your home more romantic and add some Regency-era touches. Love books about Scotland? Add some plaid here and there, some tin whistles on the bookcase! You get the picture!

I love energizing quotes from people who give me inspiration. This is merely a World Market greeting card that jumped out at me, with a sneaky fortune cookie fortune peeking out from the bottom. It reads, “A house without books is like a room without windows.”

This is the same as above – a World Marketing greeting card… They fit perfectly in standard 5×7″ frames.

Flowers from my family for my birthday! I love the exotic vibes of this vase, too. I love to get flowers from our garden to add some life to our home.

Having a signature scent is also useful. The kids said it didn’t smell like home when we moved until I lit these Sherlock’s Study candles from my beloved Frostbeard Studio Candles!

The Forest Feast, Gatherings is an amazingly beautiful and artful cookbook that my parents gave me for my birthday! Erin Gleeson is a photography and cullinary genius.

You can never have too many candles… Well, maybe you can. But, I haven’t found that place, yet!

Books from family and from random used bookstores, plus an Aladdin’s Lamp from a friend who traveled overseas add a bit of whimsey. No one has come out of this lamp in a cloud of purple smoke as of yet.

As a wise person once said, “It’s not hoarding if it’s books!” Especially C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien ones.

Don’t be afraid of a little silliness or books that may not fit everyone’s standard of Books that Smart People Read. You can learn a lot in Star Wars and Star Trek books. Hey! Wait a second… Who put Pride and Prejudice in there?!

Lastly, artistic creations by your own kids – like this Lego rendition of our family – are always welcome editions.

Scatter Joy,

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homeschooling, joy, parenting

“M-O-R-N-I-N-G spells morning!”

February 22, 2024December 17, 2025 Jessica Lovett

“M-O-R-N-I-N-G spells morning!”
“I love afternoon too,” said Grasshopper.
The beetles stopped singing and dancing.
“What did you say?” they asked.
“I said that I loved afternoon,” said Grasshopper.
All the beetles were quiet.
“And night is very nice,” said Grasshopper.
-excerpt from Grasshopper on the Road by Arnold Lobel

Have you ever read Grasshopper on the Road by Arnold Lobel? It is a charming little collection of stories. The first one, “The Club,” is about a group of beetles that Grasshopper encounters on his journey. They are all chanting about how much they love mornings and won’t tolerate anyone who believes that mornings are not best, or that all times are great, for that matter.

This seemingly simple tale is actually quite profound. It is about not only accepting others but about discovering one’s own personality quirks and preferences and being true to oneself – a gentle reminder even amidst the cacophony of differing opinions and perspectives.

“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
~Shakespeare, from Hamlet (act 1, scene 3)

Because my kids love this story so much, if they are sleeping super late, sometimes I’ll hop into their room, pretending to hold a sign and say cheerfully, “MORNING IS BEST! UP WITH MORNING! DOWN WITH EVENINGS!” This never fails to make them chuckle a little bit, even in underneath the cloud of heavy growth-spurt-sleepiness that sometimes befalls them.

Since they both love that book – and all of Lobel’s books! – that has become an inside joke with our family.

Books become part of your family’s personality – ironically even books about finding one’s personality.

Now, I say all this to the point that I am not a morning person at all. I’m a Night Owl and a card-carrying member of Down with Mornings Club, right there holding signs petitioning against the morning beetles on the road, if I’m honest with myself. Choosing to make mornings joyful is 100% a choice.

When the morning goes smoothly, you know what? The whole school day goes better! That’s just how it is. And, as the parent, I’m setting the vibe for the day. That’s my superpower!

You, as a parent, have that superpower, too! Try exercising it sometime!

Steps to Scatter Joy in the Mornings:

🧇Make an effort to prep breakfast for the kids the night before, especially if you’re a Night Owl like me and don’t cook as well upon first waking up… without lots of coffee.

🎵Make a special playlist of morning music to play that is soothing and peaceful.

🙂Smile at them when you see them rouse out of bed in the morning.

🤗Be sure to hug them and act glad to see them when they first wake up!

Even if your own warm blankets are calling you louder than the feelings of affection that you have right then are, you’ll start to feel better yourself.

Scatter Joy,

P.S. My kids have started calling any relaxing music that is New Age or borderline classical simply Morning Music! We’ve created a genre!

Need some ideas on starting your own warm, cozy Morning Music Playlist?

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homeschooling, joy, parenting

Scatter Joy in Your Homeschool

February 22, 2024November 6, 2025 Jessica Lovett

This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson has always been one of my favorites. It perfectly personifies what I want to do in our homeschool. Scattering joy as opposed to just placing joy or making joy infers something carefree and light, like the dusting of colorful sprinkles onto the frosting of a cupcake.

Scattering joy means that we give it freely, despite opposition and despite what might be going on around us. We give joy to those around us without thought of getting something in return.

There are many Biblical scriptures that speak of the beauty of giving without expecting anything in return. Luke 6:38 comes to mind: “Give, and you will receive. You will be given much. Pressed down, shaken together, and running over, it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.”

As homeschoolers, we want our children to not only receive joy from us and from learning, but to become Scatterers of Joy themselves.

Bringing light into the world is a primary goal of my homeschool.

For 80s or 90s kids, that may conjure up images of the famous Care Bear Stare. When faced with something cold and dark, the Care Bears don’t hesitate. They gather together, hold hands, and send light into the darkness! Selflessly sending light should be a characteristic of homeschooling.

Sorry if mixing Biblical metaphors with Care Bears is weird, but this is who I am, so here you go!

Over the next few blog articles, I’m going to explore more about what it means to homeschool with joy!

Thank you for reading,

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