My husband, Javier Cerdas, and I have been nurturing learning in our children since birth. Every parent is capable of nurturing learning, as that’s just what good parents do: talk to their children, read them books, and play with them.
I am French Canadian and Javier is Costa Rican and we are attempting (not as successfully as we hoped) to raise our 4 children to be trilingual. Before having children, I was an elementary school teacher. I taught 2nd through 4th grade in both public school and private school. Being a teacher did not prepare me for motherhood, although at the time, I thought it would. Besides cherishing time with my family, I love to go for long walks, listen to classical or praise music, write, read, do art with my kids, be out in nature, and go to the beach. If I could live anywhere in the world, it would be the beach.
Our journey with homeschooling started with Montessori for preschool.
After preschool we moved towards a largely Classical method of schooling, but when my oldest was in second grade, I read For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay and discovered Charlotte Mason. We now home educate using Charlotte Mason’s principles. Our favorite pastimes are reading good books, playing outside, doing lots of art, and just being with each other.
I have also written a couple of articles for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, written at the Totally Tots blog, and been part of the review crew at The Old Schoolhouse.
This blog started out as The Adventures of Bear, 12 years ago, as a journal of activities I was doing with my daughter, who was at that time 18 months. I wanted to give back to the community of bloggers that had given me ideas of how to entertain my toddler all day. Now it has grown up a bit and I pray that, when you visit Nurturing Learning, you can find encouragement and ideas, and see that I am just a mom struggling to get it all done with God’s grace .
Hi Julie,
We have so much in common. I also taught 2nd-4th grade and we have a multiracial family. My husband is Korean American, and I am Colombian. We homeschool (I prefer to call it home learning) and work hard to raise our kids at least bilingual. They are learning Mandarin-Chinese in formal classes, my husband speaks to them in English and I use Spanish. It is not easy, but it is sooo worth it!
I love how simple how blog is, yet how full it is too! We are on the fence about homeschooling and I am so happy every time I stumble upon another homeschooling blog. I love the encouragement and to see how different ones do it. I too am so incredibly appreciative of all the time and effort bloggers put into their blogs so that others can feel encouraged and inspired! Thank you!
Thank you, Jess. Sometimes I wonder why I bother blogging when there are so many blogs out there already saying most of what I have to say. Comments like yours help me keep going when I don’t feel inspired, so thank you for taking the time to write it.
What is your user name on CCC? I am trying to find your Latin Velcro boards. Thanks,
Melody
Hi Julie. I was a reader back during your “adventures of bear” days. Your children have grown up beautifully and congrats on your newest addition. Glad all are well and looking forward to reading about what you guys have been up to.
Thank you so much! I hope to start writing more again this year!
Julie, your “Why we left CC” post is an oldie, but I was SO glad to read it. This is our first your with Foundations (my daughter is 6), and I could have written your post word for word. Thank you. Thank you. We’re not even half-way complete with our first year, but your misgivings have been mine, and they have really troubled me. I’m glad that we gave it a go. I think that we’ll continue next year as well because a) my daughter LOVES it, and b) we are currently living on a US Army post in Germany. Hello, amazing field trips for ancient and medieval history (I would never figure out all of these on my own, and our community has a fluent German speaker to organize tours for us). Indispensable. But when we move in two years and we’re moving on to second grade, I think that we’ll move on from CC as well. Thank you for writing what you did. It has helped me feel less crazy, more confident in myself, and I am glad to know that I am not alone. Cheers!
You sound so beautiful and I feel like I would like to know you. I came across your page while looking for ideas for teaching with my Year 1 class. Wow we have so much more in common than just teaching!! Your heart is my heart! Keep posting! You are a blessing and encouragement to this little mama in Australia.
Blessings xx
Thank you for your encouragement!