Penelope

  • A Peek Inside My Sketchbooks

    In the past few months I’ve started sketching more frequently. A lot of my friends draw, and at a Christmas party, one of them taught me how to draw a little fairy as an addition to my writing pages in… Continue reading

    A Peek Inside My Sketchbooks
  • French III: A Mid-Year Update

    I started learning French when I was three years old, when my parents enrolled me in an immersion school.  I attended that school from preschool to 4th grade, including online classes during Covid.  In the first couple of weeks of… Continue reading

    French III: A Mid-Year Update
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Literary Playlist

    Last month I read Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. It was incredibly well-written, and I really enjoyed the dialect that Hurston used in her dialogue. The only other book I’ve read that uses dialect was… Continue reading

    Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Literary Playlist
  • Quarterly Book Review: Fall 2025

    These five favorites were chosen out of the forty-something books I read this fall, and there were some incredibly hard decisions to be made within that list! But if I had to choose five books to recommend, they would be…… Continue reading

    Quarterly Book Review: Fall 2025
  • On the Move

    Over the past couple of years, I’ve tried several different kinds of movement, but for exercise this year, I’m trying a ton of new options. My mom and I had a personal trainer last year at the Y, and we… Continue reading

    On the Move
  • Teen Arts & Crafts Hangout  

    This year my mom suggested that, once a month, we invite some other homeschooled teens for a Friday afternoon hangout.  Our crafts so far have included: exquisite corpse, painted mushrooms, tattoo mugs, and diamond art bookmarks. It’s been great to… Continue reading

    Teen Arts & Crafts Hangout  
  • Algebra I

    One of the benefits of homeschooling is being able to try different kinds of courses in different disciplines, and learning that while I might prefer an in-person class for science, an asynchronous course might be a better choice for math.… Continue reading

    Algebra I
  • Homeschool in the Wild: A Day in the Life of a CIT

    I started homeschooling in fifth grade, while I was still living in California. As part of homeschool, once a week I’d go to a nature school at several different state and local parks in the Bay Area. I really enjoyed… Continue reading

    Homeschool in the Wild: A Day in the Life of a CIT
  • History of Music

    Another class I’m taking this year is History of Music. This fall, it’s all classical, from the Baroque period to the Modern era.  We began our class with Baroque composers like Handel, Vivaldi, and Bach. Vivaldi was my favorite composer… Continue reading

    History of Music
  • Ellipsis Designs

    In the spring of 2023, I started my small business, Ellipsis Designs.  At first, my focus was on jewelry–but in the next two years, I expanded to bookmarks, ribbon wands, and shell trays.   I first began making jewelry after I… Continue reading

    Ellipsis Designs