As we head into the last week of 2021, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at this year and reflect on some of the articles that resonated most deeply with our readers over these last twelve months.
2021 was a year like no other, and our response to it was largely to hunker down and make it through in one piece.
We spent more time at home with our families, developed new interests, and took on projects that we’d been putting off for years. We got creative about how we use both our time and our space, and tried out many new ways to keep kids busy, happy, and learning.
Even with–or perhaps because of–all that extra effort, parenting was harder than ever, and we looked for new ways to take care of ourselves so we could take care of those around us. New habits such as journaling, exercising, and getting outside more helped us maintain some semblance of sanity as we rode each new wave of unpredictibility.
It wasn’t always pretty, but we’d like to think we grew and challenged ourselves in new ways that we wouldn’t have otherwise. And as we enter into the new year, we can take the lessons we’ve learned and use them to shape the kind of year we want to create, leaving behind (as much as possible) those things that hindered and burdened us.
So without further ado, here are our top nineteen articles of 2021. We hope they give you a boost of inspiration and energy for the new year and what you might be able to accomplish in 2022. So grab a cup of coffee, settle down in your favorite cozy reading place, and enjoy!
Oh, and have a happy new year! We’ll see you in January!
Writing Prompts
Writing prompts continued to be our most popular category on My Cup Runs Over in 2021, so much so, that we’re actually working on a new project that’s going to allow us to deliver even more writing prompts and help without having them completely take over this site. Look for that news in our email announcements in early 2022.
Although our creative writing prompts for middle school remains our most popular post of all time, these new prompts helped parents and teachers alike inspire kids to new levels of creativity.
Homeschooling
Homeschooling also remained a popular topic this year. With more families than ever discovering how enjoyable it can be to blend home and learning, we continue to get lost of questions about how to best structure and plan for homeschooling.
These posts helped homeschooling parents figure out how to organize their year, their days, their curricula, and their spaces.
Home and Personal Development
Most of us spent a lot more time at home in 2021 than we used to. Although it certainly wasn’t all fun and games–to say the least–many of us took the opportunity to tackle personal and home projects that hadn’t previously been able to. Some of us read more than ever, others took up new hobbies, and almost everyone had to rethink the way we use our homes.
Here are a few of our top posts in the home and personal development categories.
Parenting
For many people, 2021 may have been the toughest parenting year yet. With so much isolating, support systems collapsed, leaving most parents to bear even more responsibility than they did before. Even for those of us who have homeschooled for years, it seemed like 2021 was the year of the family and nothing but the family. For the first time ever, we struggled to find suitable socialization opportunities for our kids in our normally enriching community.
At My Cup Runs Over, we felt this pain deeply, and we strove to meet you where you were, with parenting tips to make the everyday a little bit more special (or at least manageable!) Here are a few of our favorites.
That concludes our look back at our favorite content of 2021. Which article was the most helpful for you? Let us know in the comments and meet us back here in 2022 for tons of new ideas for keeping your home, life, and homeschool simple, sustainable, and fulfilling.
Sophie Agbonkhese is a writer, homeschooling mother of four, and a recovering overachiever (who occasionally relapses). She is the founder of My Cup Runs Over, a site dedicated to helping busy women simplify and enrich their lives. When she’s not writing or debugging websites, Sophie spends her time reading, dancing, bullet journaling, reading, gardening, listening to audiobooks, and striving fruitlessly to have a clean house for at least five minutes.