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Raising Sawyers

Raising Sawyers

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About

hello! i’m brooke

Wife, mother, & Home Educator

I’m from a small town on the inner banks of North Carolina, where I spend my days homeschooling and exploring nature with my children. With my B.S. in Psychology, I take a brain-based approach to educating and parenting. My intention is to cultivate a love for learning, preserve my children’s childhood and to raise good humans that will do good things in the world.

I began documenting our unexpected homeschool journey on our Raising Sawyers Instagram page in 2020. It is a curation of our real life experiences, gentle parenting nuggets, Charlotte Mason inspired learning and my experience with motherhood.

Thanks for stopping by!

Read about our journey

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These are a few of my favorite things…

  1. There’s nothing I love more than curling up on the couch with my little guys, while I read classic literature aloud with a warm cup of herbal tea.
  2. On any given day you can find us exploring state parks, nature trails and forests around our area. We believe time in nature heals the soul.
  3. We value mindful parenting, intentional homeschooling and slow childhood. Nothing is perfectly executed, but we keep these values as the focus.

 

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@raising_sawyers

I’m sharing the 4 resources that make homeschool p I’m sharing the 4 resources that make homeschool planning a breeze. 

✨ Comment “PLAN” and I’ll send you the links to my Homeschool Planner + Homeschool Clarity Workbook!

These are the 4 things I reach for every year when I sit down to plan our homeschool.

For years, I thought the key to a successful homeschool was finding the perfect curriculum.

Now I know that curriculum is only one piece of the puzzle.

Before I start ordering all the things, I get super clear on our goals, our priorities, and what I want this season of homeschooling to feel like. From there, I use a planning system that helps me turn those ideas into a year I can actually follow.

Here are the tools I use:

📖 The Homeschool Clarity Workbook – to define our vision and priorities before making any big decisions.

🗓️ My Homeschool Planner – to organize our goals, lesson plans, schedules, attendance, and everything else in one place.

📘 Home Learning Year by Year – one of my favorite reference books for checking grade-level skills and making sure we’re on track.

🖊️ FriXion Erasable Pens – because homeschool plans change… and that’s okay. 😅

🖊️ Pastel Highlighters — they don’t bleed through and are great for color coding

Planning doesn’t have to be complicated. A simple, intentional system can make all the difference.

👇 What is one planning tool you couldn’t homeschool without?
I used to build our homeschool around an idea inst I used to build our homeschool around an idea instead of around the children sitting at my table.

In my mind, a rich education looked like a rigorous schedule, classic literature, years of carefully planned curriculum, and full days of meaningful lessons. I wanted to give my children every opportunity, so I kept adding more because I thought that’s what a great homeschool was supposed to look like.

Over time, though, I realized something.

I realized my children *thrive* on blank space.

They need long afternoons outside. They need time to fish at our pond, build elaborate Lego creations, chase frogs, climb trees, take apart and put together their bikes, and follow their curiosity without me rushing them to the next lesson.

Could they do those things after school?  Maybe.

But if they’re mentally exhausted from trying to keep up with the homeschool I designed in my head, they rarely do.

The truth is this:  Trying to do everything was keeping us from doing anything well. We were rushing through books we weren’t enjoying, checking boxes instead of making memories, and constantly feeling behind… even when we were technically “on schedule.”

So I stopped trying to build the homeschool I admired and started building the homeschool my children *actually* needed.

I began paying attention to how they learned best, what sparked their curiosity, where they struggled, and what made them come alive. I stopped seeing blank space as wasted time and started seeing it as part of their education.

This shift has changed the way I plan our days, measure success, and most importantly, my relationship with my children.

No, I didn’t lower my expectations for their education.

I raised my expectations for the kind of homeschool I wanted to create.

I still believe in a literature-rich education, consistency and doing things outside our comfort zone. 

But I also believe children need time to wonder, build, fish, be bored, and notice the world around them.

I think that’s often where the deepest learning happens.
When I first started homeschooling, I thought what When I first started homeschooling, I thought what I needed most was the perfect curriculum.

I was wrong.

The books that changed our homeschool weren’t curriculum at all. They challenged the way I thought about childhood, education, motherhood, and what it actually means to teach.

They gave me permission to slow down, trust my children, pursue wonder, and build a homeschool that reflected our family’s values instead of trying to recreate school at home.

I still come back to these books again and again.

✨ Comment “BOOKS” and I’ll send you the complete list with links.

I’d also love to know…

What’s one book that changed the way you homeschool?
My firstborn baby turned 13 yesterday. As I watch My firstborn baby turned 13 yesterday.

As I watched him blow out his birthday candles, I was instantly transported back to his very first birthday. 

I remembered how young we both were…. There was me, learning how to be a mother, and him, discovering the world one tiny step at a time.

Looking back, I realized he hasn’t just grown over these last 13 years.

He has grown me.

These are five lessons motherhood has taught me through loving him.  Lessons I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life. ❤️

#motherhood
If I could only keep a handful of nature study boo If I could only keep a handful of nature study books on our homeschool shelves, these would be it.

Comment “NATURE” and I’ll send you links to all of our favorite homeschool nature study books. 

Whether we’re heading outside for a nature walk, adding a little wonder to morning time, or following a rabbit trail that started with a simple question, these are the books we reach for, time and time again. 

Save this post for your next library trip or homeschool planning day!
I have a lot of people, dreams, and to-do lists co I have a lot of people, dreams, and to-do lists competing for my attention during this season of motherhood. Taking time for myself has seemed almost obsolete, with my family, my children’s activities, and daily chores always coming first. (And I don’t say that with a badge of honor.)

As I reflect on where my time was spent this past week, I realize I accomplished quite a bit.

* I refinished a dresser for Noah’s room.
* I wrote a blog post that was near and dear to my heart.
* I cleaned my house at least 18 times.
* I deep-cleaned my bathrooms.
* I updated a product in my shop.
* I took my big kids to camp and maximized my alone time while they were gone.

I checked off a lot of items on my to-do list, but they aren’t the things I’m most proud of.

The ten minutes I spent on the floor with Noah yesterday, playing with his toy animals and giggling together - that was time well spent.

Answering my sister’s call and inviting her over during naptime so we could sit on the back porch and talk together - that was time well spent.

Putting my computer away to talk to Lucas about the projects he’s been working on and what has been bringing him joy lately - that was time well spent.

Going on a much-needed date with my husband, laughing together and simply enjoying each other’s company - that was time well spent.

As a mother, I’ve become quite an expert at working within timelines, maximizing naptimes, and getting three things done at once. But I’m humbly reminded today that the small moments are what truly fills my cup up. 

With a brain and world that values productivity, my desire is to spend more time prioritizing those priceless moments and remembering that not everything valuable looks productive.

#motherhood #homeschoolmom #parenting

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