Hi! My name is Lisa and I’m a homeschooling mom of 2 boys and I’m an incurable bibliophile. I love homeschooling not only because I get to watch my boys grow and learn to love the world around them, but also because my secret wish to be a student when I grew up has come true!
We live in the desert of Southern California and our boys, M and Em, are now in Year 6 and Year 3. One son lives with severe anxiety, selective mutism, ASD, and dyscalculia. I have a BA in religious studies from Westmont College and a Masters of Public Administration from Virginia Tech. I spent most of my career in social services and kids came along later in life. When M was about 4 and attending preschool, I read For The Children’s Sake and we decided to homeschool using Charlotte Mason’s principles. We have been using the Ambleside Online curriculum since he started first grade. We homeschooled through a charter school until the end of the 2023-24 school year and are now embarking on a new phase of doing it all on our own!
I have found encouragement, practical helps, and solidarity in the online community associated with Ambleside Online and the more general Charlotte Mason online community. My purpose in this website is to contribute to that community by sharing the types of things I have found most helpful to me. I know I can’t do this alone, so I hope you’ll come Ambling Together with me.
Some favorite commonplace quotes from the year
The man who can make himself do what he will has the world before him, and it rests with parents to give their children this self-compelling power as a mere matter of habit.
Charlotte Mason (School Education)
Practicing the church calendar is training in how to wait amid the pain of our lives and the tragedies of history with faith, hope, and love.
TIsh Harrison Warren (Advent: The Season of Hope)
Stories get better as they get more true.
Daniel Nayeri (Everything Sad is Untrue)
An archive of previously posted commonplace quotes
What I’m reading
The books here are the ones I’m reading for my own edification and enjoyment, not my pre-reading for school. In addition, I listen to two bookish podcasts, The Literary Life Podcast and Close Reads and follow along with many of their readings. I usually have something going on audiobook to listen to on walks or while doing laundry as well as an audiobook in the car for me and the boys. When the morning is going as planned, I do my reading while the boys eat breakfast and get ready for the day. And as Cindy Rollins has recommended on the Literary Life Podcast, I just plod along reading a little of each book every morning.
March 2025
- On Audio: O Pionees! by Willa Cather. I’m reading this along with the Close Reads podcast. I read it years ago, but have no memory of it, so it’s like a first read.
- On Audio in the car with the boys: The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. When we read A Place to Hang the Moon last year, the children were reading this, so the boys wanted to read it too.
- On Kindle: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. I’ve seen this one on many lists, so decided to pick it up. I am fascinated by a part of American history I’ve never learned about.
- Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Blades of Freedom – This is a pre-read as a possible free read for both boys. It is “a tale of Haiti, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase.” I struggle to read graphic novels, but the boys love them. M has read others in this series by Nathan Hale, but this is the first I’ve pre-read. I wasn’t sure if it would be appropriate for Em. I’m almost finished and I think that with all the violence, I’ll leave it for a pre-read in later years.
- The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni– This is a Close Reads Subscriber book. It is an Italian classic I had never heard of, but it sounded to good that I joined the Patreon to read along. I expected it to be dense, but it is an easy (if wordy) read and I’m getting through it quicker than I anticipated. I am also listening to an audio book for some of it as well.
- Medgar & Myrlie: Medgar Evars and the Love Story That Awakened America by Joy-Ann Reid. I try to read a biography every year, and this is the one I picked for this year.
- Devotions by Mary Oliver – My poet for the year. While waiting in Target for the boys to inspect every toy on every aisle, I was browsing the books and came across this anthology of Oliver’s previous works. I was so struck by some of the poems I read standing there in Target that I decided to make her read her this year instead of my planned Leaves of Grass attempt.
- Ourselves by Charlotte Mason (This is my fifth of her volumes, and a pre-read for when M starts reading this next year in AO7.)
- The Many Assassinations of Samir, The Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri – our current afternoon read-a-loud.
An archive of previously posted readings
Stay in Touch!
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lisa@amblingtogether.com
Ambling Together 