No, this blog isn't just about curtains anymore. But after the response to my previous post about $7 curtain panels, I couldn't help sharing one more variation.

At 10 feet, our living room ceiling is slightly higher than our bedroom ceiling. I wanted to find longer panels than the ones I used in the bedroom to add height and brightness to the north-facing living room. (I was also dying to hide the insane number of outlets and switches surrounding the fireplace.)

Here are the before photos of our living room:

The secret is these curtains aren't actually curtains; they're these XL queen sheets. I paired them with this rod and these clips. The full window treatment cost under $50 per window!

(Note the sheets were listed as 110 inches long, but once I washed and dried them on low, I measured them to find they were 107 inches.)

You can find my tips for hanging curtains for maximum impact here. I wanted to add height to this room by hanging the rods close to the ceiling but didn't want to hide the pretty, thick moulding. By hanging them a few inches below the moulding, both the interesting rods and the moulding are still visible.

These curtain panels and hardware are an affordable way to complete any room. Let me know if you try them out!

We just wrapped up one of our favorite activities of the homeschool year: a book-writing workshop. Can you imagine the joy and pride in the girls' eyes when their printed books arrived in the mailbox?

I've gotten a lot of questions about how we put the books together, so I thought I'd share our process. In this post, I'll describe the writing, editing, design, and printing methods we used for the books we wanted to print hard copies of but did not plan to actually publish. In the next post of this series, I detail how we went about independently publishing Cricket's book, which is now available on Amazon.

Pulling together a book is no small task for the child or the parent/educator/editor, whether you plan to publish it or not, but it's so worth the work. Why? Three reasons: 1) a book is a literal, physical, understandable representation that you can achieve an overwhelming goal by breaking it into manageable pieces and dedicating hard work to it; 2) a book shows kids their ideas and work have value; 3) telling kids they have to study grammar, spelling, mechanics, and literature in case they need them for their careers when they're 40 means nothing, but a finished book product shows them that with those elements, they're capable of producing meaningful work now.

Last year, Cricket wrote and illustrated a picture book. This year, Nora wrote and illustrated a short chapter book, and Cricket wrote and photographed a short chapter book. Our process happens in three phases: freewriting and re-writing, workshopping, and formatting.

Freewriting (and re-writing)

• During the school year, we take a page from the Brave Writer lifestyle and do what we call Freewrite Fridays. Sometimes we're at home, sometimes we're at a park or coffee shop. What matters is that the girls grab their notebooks and spend time—but not even a specific amount of time—writing. Some people give prompts, but my kids always have their own ideas to write about. This exercise is about getting thoughts onto paper, not about mechanics. At all. They can show me what they wrote it they want, but they don't have to in the moment. I don't make any corrections in their freewriting notebooks.
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• In the later winter or early spring, after they had a bunch of little vignettes, stories, and ideas written down from Freewrite Fridays and any other time the impulse hits to write, we sat down to choose a story or idea to turn into a book. I gently guided them into selecting something I thought could make for a full story and keep their attention throughout the process. 
  
  
• Once they selected their story ideas, they set out to write complete drafts. At this stage, we set aside most of our other academic activities (besides math) to focus all our energy on the book project for a few weeks or a month. (It takes some good chunks of focused work to pull it all together.) My older kids are in 1st and 2nd grade, so keep in mind the goal was not to produce adult-level work. The goal was to produce polished 1st- and 2nd-grade-level work that a 1st and 2nd grader could be proud of. At this level, I needed to nudge them to remember a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end; and something needs to happen in the story. I also encouraged them to move past feeling limited by actual people, places, and circumstances when they're writing fiction.

Workshopping

Once they completed a draft of the story (I put no time limit on them—a project like this is done when it's done), we began to work through the editing process together. I've done this part in two different ways.

• When Cricket wrote her picture book last year, the story was short enough that I didn't think it would be too overwhelming for her if we to sat down together and I marked up spelling and mechanical errors in pen, explaining the mistakes as we went. I've learned to be careful here, because as a professional writer/editor, I can be ruthless with a red pen. Cricket was a good sport about the the mark-ups, even though there were a lot of them. She understood we had some work to do to polish up the mechanics.
  
  
• This year, the girls wanted the text to be typed rather than hand-written to look more like a "real" book. Since the stories were substantially longer and would be covered with substantially (overwhelmingly) more mark-ups for spelling and mechanical errors than last year's short picture book, I decided to workshop them differently. Since the girls aren't efficient typists yet (Cricket is just starting typing lessons and Nora hasn't take any), instead of red marks and handwriting new drafts that would later need to be typed anyway, we sat down together at the computer and talked our way through the final draft while I typed.
  
  This process worked well. It's similar to how editing occurred at some of the newspapers I've written for (writer finishes draft, editor takes the keyboard, writer and editor sit together and talk through edits). It still took a long time, but the girls got really into it. I explained the mechanical corrections we needed to make and helped them think through some major plot holes, but reigned in my inner editor to continuously remind myself we were just trying to polish up 1st- and 2nd-grade work, not produce adult-level masterpieces. The girls saw the corrections happening but weren't overwhelmed by a paper covered in red ink with comments all over the margins. For very young writers, I highly recommend workshopping in this way for longer pieces. While this process would never happen in a traditional school setting due to resource limitations, it's how the real world of writing and editing often works and is a wonderful learning tool. 
  ​
• After the drafts were complete and we proofread them, we proceeded in two ways:
  
  
  • For the picture book, we went through the story and split up which text would go on which pages and which illustrations would accompany the text. We put pictures on the left-hand pages and text on the right-hand pages. (You could combine text and pictures if you wanted.) Then Cricket hand-wrote the final draft divided onto the separate pages and drew the illustrations on separate pieces of paper. She also drew a cover. Then I scanned all the pages to make separate JPEG digital files for each.
    ​
  • For the chapter books, we had already typed the text by the end of our workshopping session. Nora then drew illustrations on separate pages for me to scan for the interior and the cover of her book. Cricket took photos at the barn where she rides to illustrates her story.

Formatting

For the books we wanted to print to have copies for ourselves but not to actually publish, I used an online photo printer, Snapfish, and put them together as hardcover photo albums. There are plenty of inexpensive photo printer companies, but I liked that Snapfish allowed us to choose from several different sizes and gave us control over the page design.

• I got input from the girls on how they wanted their books to look, but I did the online assembly myself. It's just too laborious to have "help" with from young kids as far as my mental health is concerned. For the handwritten picture book, I uploaded the individual JPEG scans of the text and illustrations and put one scan per page, with the text on the right and the illustration on the left. Uploading scanned JPEG pages is no different from uploading photos into a photo album. When it was all set, I asked Cricket to do a final proofread and approve it. Then I ordered a copy for her.
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• For Nora's chapter book with illustrations, I copied and pasted her illustrations from the scanned files right into the Word document of her story where she wanted them placed, then saved the Word document as a PDF. Then I uploaded each page of the PDF onto a page of photo album. (Alternatively, instead of combining the text and illustrations in Word, you could copy and paste the text directly into text boxes on each page of the album, then copy and paste the illustrations onto the album pages. Either way, it's laborious.) For the cover, I added text to Nora's illustration in Photoshop, but you could easily add text in Word or using the Snapfish album creator, if you preferred. I asked Nora to do a final proofread and approval before ordering a copy for her.

Odds and ends

The formatting for Cricket's published book happened a little differently, and I explain that process in my next post.

When the books arrive, we make a big deal out of them! A shiny, new, complete project is a big deal, whether it's technically published or not. (And legally, if I remember correctly from graduate school, if at least three people read something, it can be considered published regardless of any formalities.)

We also throw a "Book Release" tea party, which is a blast and I'll tell you about in another post.

I can't encourage you enough to build a book-writing workshop of some sort into your curriculum. Sure, I may be biased; I'm a writer after all. But regardless of their interests and skills, all kids need to learn to communicate effectively and break overwhelming projects into bite-size portions to succeed. Plus your heart will explode when you see how proud they are of their finished products.

Learn about my intro photography curriculum
Documenting Your World Through Photography: An Introductory Course for Elementary and Middle Schoolers

Book lists: Around the world
East Africa (Part I)
East Africa (Part II) and Central Africa
North Africa (Egypt)
Southern Africa
West Africa
The Arctic
​Antarctica

(No sweet models on the sofa this time.)

For the wide window, I paired them with this classic curtain rod.

Point-and-shoot cameras seem like a relic of the past now that most of us carry smart phones, don't they? I imagined my kids would learn photography using my phone, then move on to a basic DSLR in a few years if they really caught the photo bug. But they had other ideas.

After a few months of sharing my phone to take photos as they slowly started to work their way through my intro photography course for kids, they wanted more independence and asked for their own cameras.

I heard them. And I'll do just about anything to encourage them to live creatively and independently. The point-and-shoot camera still serves a purpose after all!

The girls had proven their genuine interest in photography, so we decided to get them each a basic point-and-shoot for Christmas. They're only 6 and 8, so we didn't want to buy something expensive they'd drop in a mud puddle or leave behind at the museum.

You can spend as little as $40 or more than $300 on a point-and-shoot camera. I bought two different cameras in the $40-50 range and promptly returned them. They were terrible. And by that, I mean it was impossible to take a photo in focus on these cameras. I thought maybe the blurry photos were a result of the girls' unsteady hands until I tried the cameras myself. Despite 30 years as a photographer, I couldn't take a focused photo on either of these cameras to save my life.

On my third purchase attempt, I finally found a decent camera for $80: the Nikon COOLPIX A10. (If you buy this basic camera package, you'll also need ​this type of memory card, AA batteries, and a cable to connect it to the computer. Or you can purchase it in a bundle like this, though you still may need to buy the cable separately.)

The shutter release of the A10 allows you to press halfway down to focus before continuing to press all the way down to take a shot, which is essential in taking a sharp photo.

Here are some pros and cons of the camera:

Pros: It's 16.1 megapixels and takes beautiful, sharply focused photos; it's inexpensive, small, and light.

Cons: The zoom is not great—avoid using it; the basic camera package did not come with batteries, cable cord, or memory card; it uses batteries quickly (bring extra AA batteries in your camera bag).

Despite the zoom, I've been really impressed with the overall quality of photos the girls have taking using the A10.

​Below is a photo (with light edits) by Cricket, age 8.

Below is a photo (with light edits) by Nora, age 6.

There are plenty of other mid-range point-and-shoot cameras to choose from, but here are three tips to help you find a functional one:

1) You need to be able to press the shutter release button halfway down to focus, then all the way down to take a photo. On the first two super cheap cameras I purchased, there was no halfway-to-focus situation. There was just no way to control the focus at all. If you buy a camera for your kids that doesn't allow them to control the focus, you're guaranteeing failure and disappointment. Read about the focus in the camera's description and/or the reviews before purchasing. Test out the shutter release when it arrives and return it if it doesn't allow you to focus by pressing halfway down.

2) Most cameras these days are 10-20+ megapixels. Anywhere in that range is just fine, especially for a beginner. My first DSLR was maybe 10 megapixels, and I was able to enlarge photos beautifully.

3) Make sure to purchase all the necessary pieces either individually or as a package: camera, memory card, batteries (and charger if needed), and cable to connect to the computer.

Once you've bought a point-and-shoot camera, here are two tips for using it:

1) Regardless of which camera you buy, TURN OFF THE FLASH. A built-in flash is the worst! Turn it off and leave it off. Forever.

2) On lower- and mid-level point-and-shoot cameras (and mobile phone cameras), DON'T USE THE ZOOM. The zooms are often poor quality. It's generally better to crop an image tightly on the computer afterward than zoom in with a cheap lens.

I may receive a small commission from the Amazon affiliated link on this page at no additional cost to you.

I'm kicking off the year in a big way: my photography course for kids has been published in paperback and is now available for purchase on Amazon!

The course can be incorporated into homeschools, co-ops, classrooms, and families looking to supplement traditional education. It can work with any school schedule, whether traditional, year-round, or piecemeal as you have time. You can learn more about the curriculum here.

I decided to offer a paperback version to make the course that much easier to implement. The 121-page paperback is 8x10 inches, making it easily portable for field trips and travel. The content is the same as the digital download, but you no longer have to take the time and money to print it. Plus shipping is free.

To celebrate the paperback publication, I'm discounting both versions of the curriculum right now. (More power to you if you've gone paperless.) You can head to my curriculum page to order the digital download, or straight to Amazon to purchase the paperback.

If you order the paperback and enjoy the course with your kids, I would love for you to consider writing a review on Amazon. More positive reviews will make the course more searchable and help get it into the hands of more students.

I'm going to try to post more of my girls' photography over on my Instagram feed throughout the spring and summer and talk about how we're working our way through the lessons. I hope you'll start sharing work over there from this course with the tag #documentyourworld . Happy snapping!

It's done! It's done! Earlier this year, my sister, Mari Melby, asked me to design a printable planner with her. It's been a labor of love...and of fancy pens drying out and printers gone awry, but The Intention-Based Planner officially launches today! You can find it here, just in time to treat yourself and your loved ones to a new year of more intentional living. Plus it's on sale through the end of December. Here are the details:

The idea for The Intention-Based Planner grew out of our desperate desire to simplify, focus, and live more intentionally.
 
We were finding ourselves playing constant defense against a barrage of tasks and commitments—never ahead of the game, never feeling in control of our time. We were furiously scribbling post-it notes and sticking them to every surface as reminders, to-dos, and brainstorms, only to lose track of them and the information they contained. We were juggling life and work ineffectively, and our commitments were draining our energy instead of replenishing it.
 
So we set out to design a planner that would help us stop needing to perform logistical miracles with our time and start living with more intention—start saying no, start reducing energy-draining elements, start making more room for the aspects of life that energize us.
 
What we call a planner is actually part planner; part journal; and part log of events, projects, and travel.  
 
Despite technological advances, we still remember things best when we physically write them out and can flip back and forth between paper pages instead of scrolling down a screen. So we knew we wanted a printable planner and modeled it after the popular bullet journal (but for people who aren’t looking to design and draw every page on their own). The planner incorporates both hand-drawn and digital elements, leaving plenty of bulleted blank space for you to write or sketch ideas.
 
We recommend printing the main planner double-sided. You may prefer to print the project planner, travel planner, and task list single-sided, as needed. Use a 3-ring binder with dividers to separate the sections.
 
The Intention-Based Planner
The intention-setting and reflection prompts occur annually and seasonally. You’ll find these pages interspersed with the monthly and weekly calendar pages. Take a few minutes at the beginning of each season to record your intentions, then try to organize the season around them. Be sure to take time at the end of each of season to reflect on what helped or hindered you from in living your intentions.
​

• Annual & Seasonal Intentions
• Annual Intentions by Month
• Monthly Calendar Pages
• By-the-Week Pages 
• Annual and Seasonal Reflections

 
Project Planner
Use this element to record ideas for any type of project: a room you want to renovate, an essay you plan to write, an event you’re throwing. Jot it down and keep all your ideas in one place. No more lost sticky notes!
 
Travel Planner
Keeping an organized record of travel goals, to-dos, itineraries, and packing lists not only makes trips run more smoothly but also simplifies future expeditions. Don’t throw out your packing lists! Just amend them for your next adventure. The travel planner includes:
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• Travel Bucket List
• Annual Travelogue
• Trip Planner
• Solo Packing List
• Family Packing List               

 
Task List
Instead of scribbling notes to yourself around the house, keep a running master task list in one place. 
 
We hope The Intention-Based Planner will help you live your best life—one with more intention, focus, and energy.
 
Best wishes,
Mari & Julia

P.S. You can snag your planner here.

Exchanging holiday cards is one of my favorite parts of December. As a lifestyle photographer, I always aim to take portraits that show the girls authentically in a place that has been a special part of our lives that year. We took these photos on the stone wall we had built in the front yard with rocks from our property. "Seek wonder" felt like the perfect wish for the year, since my underlying goal as a parent and home educator is not to extinguish the girls' natural sense of wonder with the drudgery of formal education, but to provide natural opportunities for it to continue to grow.

I hope you'll enjoy the card and outtakes. Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Front of card:

Back of card:

Now for the outtakes. The first one below is probably my favorite, though it's hard to say. It looks like Piper is placing a spell on her sisters, when actually she is throwing pine straw all over them in an effort to foil my attempts at capturing one civilized photo. (Portraits with 2-year-olds are always a trip, aren't they?)

When our dear friend, Alice, was moving out of the area years ago, she gifted us with her childhood desk. Her wood-working aunt had made it for her, and she was ready to pass it along for another child to love. Cricket became the recipient of the desk when we moved into this house three years ago.

The desk was due for a refinishing, and it seemed like a fun birthday present for Cricket to make the project happen this month. She chose this marigold spray paint to match a sunflower photo from a favorite hiking trail in Colorado that hangs on another wall in her room.

I surprised her with these Anthropologie knobs.

To prepare the desk and chair for spraying, I just did a quick sanding. I wanted to preserve some of the wood grain and dents to retain the history and vintage feel, so I didn't worry about smoothing the surfaces or spraying more than a few coats of paint. (I escaped without de-glossing, because the finish was so worn.)

Cricket couldn't be happier with how it turned out. I hope she'll be able to pass it down to her kids one day.

(Warning: The following not-family-friendly satirical letter does not fit the usual tenor of my blog, but desperate times call for desperate, late-night therapeutic writing measures.)

Dear Boys Who Behave Badly,
 
It is with great pride we write to you on this joyous, historic day to celebrate the reauthorization of the Boys-Who-Behave-Badly-Towards-Women-Shall-Face-No-Consequences Act (first established at the dawn of time).
 
In November 2016, you went loyally forth to the polls and voted with all your masculine vigor to remind our nation that even in this century, admitting to and bragging about sexually assaulting women WILL NOT disqualify a man from the highest office in the land.
 
We would like to express our gratitude to you (and, ironically and confusingly, to college-educated white women) for reaffirming this God-given truth, which bestowed upon us the confidence to do what we did today.
 
Always remember: WE ARE THE VICTIMS. As the esteemed Lindsey Graham so thoughtfully said, "I keep telling my colleagues, if this is the new normal, God help us all.” WE ARE THE VICTIMS. We refuse to let our bad behavior haunt us.
 
We are God’s gift to women (you may be more familiar with the terms “pussies” or “wombs” in reference to these insubordinate creatures), and we will continue to dominate them forevermore.
 
We will fight against honesty. We will shame and mock accusers. We will use Bill Clinton’s sexual missteps to justify our own for perpetuity.
 
We will denounce all the preschool and elementary school teachers out there telling kids such shameless lies as, “You can’t blame someone else for your own bad behavior,” and “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” And we will stand firmly against the most laughable, disrespectful lie of all, that “No means no.”
 
As one venerable professor wrote this week, “If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex.” Boys will be boys—FOREVER! You know these alternative truths to be self-evident.
 
We say unto you: be vigilant; be belligerent; remain staunchly condescending; cling to ignorance; do not give up on incompetence; hold fast to amorality. And, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, should you ever accept the liberal conspiracy messaging that you need to keep your dick in your pants when it is unwanted. Your dick shall goeth wherever it desireth, whenever it desireth, for eternity. Amen.
 
We leave you now with the eloquent words of our courageous leader—words to sear into our memories, words to live by, words that bear witness to the beauty of our God-sanctioned entitlement: “I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
 
Signed with sweet relief and a healthy dose of toxic masculinity (while glancing over our shoulders, hoping our own skeletons won’t emerge from the closet—but prepared to grab ‘em by the pussy if they do),
 
The Patriarchy