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Welcome

Hi, I'm Meghann, the voice behind Rooted Childhood and mama to three littles.

I believe that every child deserves to know the deep roots of connection and that you can create opportunities to nourish your child’s head, heart, and hands without feeling rushed and overwhelmed. Read More…

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Habits. I got an icky feeling when I first heard

Habits.

I got an icky feeling when I first heard the phrase “habit training.” I was 100% a naysayer.

Then I read Charlotte Mason’s own words. “What you would have the man become, that you must train the child to be.”

Building habits isn’t about creating little robots who will do everything I say. It’s about respecting the child enough to realize that it takes work to become the person you want to be. As parents, it is our duty to shape a child’s future until they can take over that task for themselves.

And now, this naysayer has become an ardent supporter of habit training beginning as early as possible, even with my babies. As the saying goes, we are creatures of habit. If how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives, I want our lives filled with as much joy, beauty, and goodness as we can possibly squeeze into them. The key to joyful days?

Habits.

Habits make our home economy run smoothly. Habits allow more time for play. Habits allow more room for conversations and deep thinking. Habits allow more time for connecting with the people we love.

How do we build habits? The book Atomic Habits is a fascinating deep dive into how our brains work when it comes to building and breaking habits, and I use those techniques every single day for myself and my children.

We start with small, achievable habits. We stay consistent, day after day. We stack new habits upon old, solidified habits. One tiny change at a time that eventually leads to remarkable results, or in the case of parenting…remarkable humans. ❤️

Check out #howwecharlottemason to see how other awesome mamas approach habit training!

Homeschooling isn’t a cakewalk...but it sure is

Homeschooling isn’t a cakewalk...but it sure is fun when it actually is! 😉

Spanish & snacks was a winning combination. We practiced our Spanish numbers with a little cake walk...or actually a muffin walk since it was only 10:30am. 🎂

This activity was super simple to set up and so much fun. Set out numbers in a circle or take it outside and draw them with chalk on the ground. The kids walk around the circle with music playing and when it stops, draw a number from a bag/jar/box and call it out in Spanish. Winner gets a mini muffin! Repeat until everyone is too full to play anymore!

I remember doing real cake walks as a kid at school carnivals...I doubt these are a thing anymore though, sadly! Do you remember cake walks from your childhood?

Raindrops and birds splashing in puddles and the f

Raindrops and birds splashing in puddles and the flowing creek and Earthworms and snails. It was magical rainy day nature walk today. 🌧

We are committed to nature walks on Tuesday and Thursdays this term. Rain or shine. Hot or cold. Excited or not. So we got our boots and raincoats and backpacks and headed out. Perk of rainy day walks- we always have the whole place to ourselves!

We spotted our first-ever Eastern Bluebird today, a symbol of hope, light, and happiness. It was a special moment that we added to our nature journals when we got home. 🐦

Who else loves rainy day adventures? We need to uplevel our rain gear for future adventures- what do your kids wear for wet weather play?

“Anyone can fly. All you need is somewhere to go

“Anyone can fly. All you need is somewhere to go that you can’t get to any other way. The next thing you know, you’re flying among the stars.”

Continuing our studies on the Harlem Renaissance with this art inspired by the beautiful picture book “Tar Beach” by Faith Ringgold based on one of her incredible story quilts.

When we’re diving deep into other cultures, it’s important to me to find living books from a first person perspective. I am so thankful for the black poets, authors, musicians, and artists who create these resources for our children to have a small glimpse of what life was/is like for people who look and live differently than us but share so many of the same dreams.

How much time do you spend outdoors with your chil

How much time do you spend outdoors with your children?

My oldest daughter was 9 months old the first time she touched grass. I have a picture of it, and she was terrified. 😱

When she was two I read For the Children’s Sake and read that Charlotte Mason believed children needed 4-6 hours outside DAILY. I was truly shocked. I had no idea how or why anyone would spend that much time outside in a week, let alone a day.

Fast forward to now and here we are, hiking for fun 3-4 times a week. We have days where we are outside from morning til night. We sold everything so that we could move to the country and have land of our own for the kids to explore. We planted a garden that grew and grew and helped us get our hands dirty in a productive way. We love camping as a family. We’re planning our first overnight backpacking trip this spring.

How did we get here? One step at a time. It wasn’t an overnight transformation. A few books that impacted our love of the outdoors: Last Child in the Woods, Balanced and Barefoot, The Coyote’s Guide to Nature, What the Robin Knows. We also started using Exploring Nature With Children to start noticing the world around us that I had largely ignored for my almost three decades on Earth.

Even today, it’s not easy to leave the dishes or the laundry behind and hit the trails, but I have never regretted get outside more with my kids. It’s good for the body, mind, and soul. It’s the ultimate kind of homeschool lesson, life lesson really. Our time outside inspires some of the deepest imaginative play, some of our biggest physical challenges, and some of our best moments of connection. It is a special time indeed. ❤️

**Low-tech nature study** This may be an unpopula

**Low-tech nature study**

This may be an unpopular opinion, but in our quest to keep nature study simple and all about nature, we avoid technology almost 100% for my young children.

Is there a place for technology in modern day nature study? Absolutely.

But the kind of nature study young children need happens with their own two eyes. It’s not important to me to know the name of every plant or bird we see on a trail. What is more important than the name of a nature specimen?

*Seeing* is way more important than naming. When I say seeing, I mean really seeing. Noticing all the little details about color, texture, structure and how those compare and contrast with other similar specimens we know. Seeing is knowing the intimate details of a plant and how it grows through all four seasons, knowing where it grows and how it adapts to drought and rain and frost and heat, knowing what kind of animals feast on it and whether it is safe for humans.

When we truly *see* nature, we don’t really need an app to give us a name for it, do we?

Of course, we do learn names eventually, but it happens in the course of our studies, slow and methodically. We reference field guides, flip through reference books, and encounter different species of flora and fauna in our lessons. We also enjoy meeting people on trails and picking their brains about what they know and delight in spending time with master naturalists and park rangers who are always more than happy to share a bit of what they know.

In the course of nature study, we may know a specimen for *years* before we know its name. I cannot tell you how exciting it is when we get to record a name in our nature journals after seeing and knowing a specimen so intimately for so long. It’s truly a special way of learning.

So maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but just like we don’t give our first graders calculators, I’d encourage you to keep that smartphone tucked away for a few years and let nature lead the way. You might be surprised at what it can teach you that no app could ever come close to.

We are studying dinosaurs this term and these fun

We are studying dinosaurs this term and these fun Allosaurus were the perfect handicraft to tie into our studies.

I am embarking on a low-buy year- partly because I want to get a handle on our budget and partly because I don’t want to bring any more *stuff* into our home…including books! So that means we’re going to be using the library a lot more!

Our library isn’t open yet, but we can reserve online and pick up books. I love finding gems like this that I wouldn’t necessarily buy, but are great extras to enhance our days. Origami never comes easy to me, but the instructions in this book were crystal clear and all of the creations are accessible to my 6yo and 9yo- highly recommend!

Our Three Kings’ Day celebration this week didn’t quite go as I planned with our country’s democracy under attack. Just as the wise men followed the star more than 2000 years ago, I have hope in brighter days ahead. 🌟 Search out the star, my friends. Look for the light. You won’t find it in conspiracy theories or in divisive rhetoric or in politics. We’ll find it when we can begin loving people like our neighbors and treating people with respect. When we can think before we speak and spread kindness and joy more than fear and hate. People in this country are hurting, lost, afraid, dying...collectively, we have to find that star. It’s the only way out. ❤️

How old were your kids when they learned to read?

How old were your kids when they learned to read?

I am 2/2 with 6.5 year olds so far! Teaching my boy to read has been such a huge challenge but simultaneously an immense joy.

We started the school year with him knowing the 7 letters in his name and that’s it. He truly had a full six years of a quiet growing time. And while some might say he is “behind,” I think he is exactly where he needs to be. We zoomed through learning the alphabet and letter sounds this fall. Funny how some spend yeeeeaaars working on the alphabet, and he literally learned it in a few days…because he was READY.

What’s my method for teaching a child to read? After teaching two kids, I’ll say this is highly dependent on the child. Nothing I did with my daughter would work with my son. And I expect my third kiddo to go her own way too.

With my son, we’re using:

- The Delightful Reading Kits from @SimplyCharlotteMason
- The Treadwell Reader Primer lessons from @MyLittleRobins
- The Dash Into Reading books and activity packs
- Activities/games and alphabet books from @letsplayschool

He is a kinesthetic learner so we are up and moving constantly, jumping from letter to letter, doing yoga alphabets, and lots more fun! He also really needs variety so we’re constantly rotating out wooden letters (like these unfinished letters from Michaels that I painted), letter cards, writing on a chalkboard, banangrams, and more to keep it fresh.

He’s not reading fluently yet, but we are well on our way, and I’m one proud mama. ☺️

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