Category Archives: 170 School Days. 2011

Week 33. Coloring Parties, Books, and Makeovers.

I love to color. I don’t care if I am 40. Newly sharpened crayons rock. Ever since the kids were little we have had coloring parties.

Stacks of coloring books with big spaces for coloring, those little detailed pictures annoy me. This year on my sweet 12 year old daughter’s birthday, she requested a long overdue coloring party. Our neighbors, who also homeschool, joined us. There were seven kids in the house (ages 2 months through 16). I am not sure why people make such a fuss over homeschool kids being the unsocialized ones.

All of our curriculum for next year has arrived. I love that it is all here and I have four months-ish to look through it, get it ready, and figure out ways to make my kiddies fall in love with 2nd, 7th, and 8th grade.

I have a philosophy that is driven not just by my own personal love for change, but rather actual common sense. If my kids attended school outside of our home, each year would be different. It’s own somewhat stand alone chapter. A different routine, different classroom look and feel, different expectations, and different schedule. I whole heartedly buy into this concept.

…and so the great yearly makeover has begun.

First, if you are new around here, let me catch you up to speed on my psychoticness hard work.

Year one of homeschool brought no clue of what I was doing and a traditional style classroom in our 5th bedroom downstairs. It was a fun place complete with class fish. However, half way through the year, I was irritated beyond belief by my romper room status and a makeover ensued.

Then I got pregnant and we made the decision not to send the kids back to school. I quickly realized that a separate classroom in the back of the house that was just 12×15 would not work for a teacher, three children, a newborn, and an onslaught of baby apparatuses. SO we (meaning I, my poor husband was probably at work and never really knows for certain what the house might look like when he returns) made the decision to move the classroom up into the front of the house that was intended to be a formal dining room and sitting room.

Year two of school commenced with a classroom in the front of the house, that for the life of me I can’t totally remember what it looked like. A combination of continual obsessive rearranging, insane allergies, and the fact that I am forty are my current excuses. I do know that this was one of the walls.

Year three of school, brought us to yet another classroom with the addition of the chicken wire wall and new lockers.  That chicken wire wall has made my heart sing all year long. But as all good things do, it too must come to an end. This past year we also added a first grade closet and I had a fun little office. It has worked well.

The fact of the matter is that we do change up a lot of stuff each year and I love a new start and what it does for all of us. This year we are getting rid of the workboxes for my older two. They are both in middle school now and are going to move to these planners instead. WHICH I would like to point out that the white colored one that my daughter will be using has a glow in the dark spiral binding. I think that is important. We also decided to bring the computer into the classroom. It used to be at the built in desk upstairs, but as the kids get older and do more on the computer, we decided that the computer needs to be right out in the open. :) . I also have found as the kids have gotten physically bigger the layout needs to work just a bit different. I need to separate the areas where they are up and around (like the lockers) from the areas where study is going on.  Finally, I do have a thirteen year old son now and while I wish to permanently reside in Neverland, I am trying to grow up our learning rooms a bit.

First stop has been the paint. It literally broke my heart to paint over my Ralph Lauren Shale Blue. However it has been six years and it needed a paint job. I went with a cream color. I can honestly say that I have never chosen a white or off white paint in my life. I’m trying something new.

I have a thing for maps. I love them. I really want one of those vintage pull down types like I imagine Laura Ingalls used. That would be glorious. However, my split decorating personality has also fallen in love with the four foot by six foot canvas map at Ikea. It is fabulous and will find the perfect home on that big giant wall. I have been eyein’ that thing for three years now, at least.

We have a lot of commotion and happy chaos in our house and I really need the learning rooms to be more mellow. Calm, cool, and collected, so that when you throw our crazy into it, it is the perfect blend of fabulous.

I’ve got plans…in progress….as usual and I am considering bringing back the class fish.

Thank goodness for Craig’s List. I would be quite lost without it.

Just three more weeks until summer.

Can I get an AMEN? !!!!!

and since I have overloaded you with links tonight, I thought I would add a couple more.

There is nothing like a good holiday to send blog land into a sea of fantastically sentimental posts adorned with gratitude, delicious eats, and some of biggest tug at your heartstring kid pictures around.

So without further adieu, My favorite Mother’s Day Posts…

Enjoying the Small Things   Kelle Hamptons writing leaves me LoL’ing all the time.

Living the Yeh Life   My friend Cara rocks the camera like no other and being a camera phob, I love her for it.

Life According to the Christians   Perspective.

Blissful Blooms    I am now craving donuts, thanks Amy ;) xo.

11:04 p.m.

In April, just 24 months ago, I was just pregnant with my little man. I didn’t even know he was a little man yet. I was finishing up my first year of homeschooling and realizing that I would not be putting my kids back into the private school we had recently pulled them out of. I went to my first and not my last, homeschool convention with a great friend. We had a great time.

This year, we decided to go again. We also hijacked another friend, originally from the bay area to come along. She doesn’t homeschool, but does have four kids and needed a girls trip!

We found a marvelous, funky, and CHEAP little hotel down the street from our convention. It is adorned with strange and wacky things. It is fantastic. Oddly, we stayed next door to the room we had stayed in two years prior.

The weekend was full of lots of curriculum shopping, workshops, and learning. It is always settling to be around hundreds of other families who have chosen to homeschool. It is great to meet others that are in the same boat you are in. It is especially encouraging to see their kids, who have grown up and have thrived. We are not doing this alone. There are tons of other people doing this too. If you homeschool and haven’t been to a convention, consider it. It has helped me so very much. I would highly recommend bringing a friend and making a girl’s weekend out of it. Thinking becomes much easier with no little people around.

Conveniently, this whole thing takes place just minutes from where two of us on the trip, grew up. We were able to visit a bunch of our old favorite places, reminisce a bit, and pretend we were going to stay forever and send for our families to join us.

There is no place like home.

Our first stop was to acquire a birthday cake for our recently turned forty side kick, Gina.

This bakery has been here since the dawn of time, or 65 years, in reality. It is oh so amazing. They make a burnt almond cake like no other. After a not so secret purchase and some proper embelishments, we “surprised” our sweet friend with an overdue mini birthday party at a local one of a kind restaurant. It was complete with Zebra decor and public singing.

 In order to properly celebrate this momentous occasion, we had a second birthday song on day two of our trip. I mean can a girl be sung to too many times? Especially on her 40th? I think not.

 We slept in, we laughed until there were tears, we shopped, we planned, we bought planners, we bought school books, we discussed over and over what would be best for our families and individual children, we had midnight parking lot of donut shop parties, we ran, we ate fabulous food, and we didn’t make our beds, and ate cake for breakfast. We battled some car issues, checked radiator fluid, oil levels, and put air in tires. We got lost, we got found, and we visited childhood homes.

While away, my more than capable husband showered my kids with fun and held down the fort. He took all four to the dentist for check ups, handled youth events, choir practice, attended a church sponsored community work day, took walks, and went to the park. All while handling all the cooking to keep us all eating REAL FOODS. Yeah, he wins hubby of the year for sure.

 We squeezed every last bit out of our get away possible.

I pulled in at 11:04pm Sunday night.

Curriculum plans for 2012-2013 coming soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fighting The Stereotype

I was horrified at the stereotype of homeschooling. I was. I wasn’t someone who was born and knew that I wanted to grow up, have more than an average amount of children, and homeschool them. I wasn’t.

The fact of the matter is, that is exactly who I became and I couldn’t be happier. I spent the first year of homeschooling embarrassed of it. I hated the looks I got. I hated the questions. I hated being viewed with pity, with judgement, or with disapproval. It sucked, quite frankly, but then I got over it. Sometimes, I think the tendency when put on the defensive, is to get all girl powered up over it and defend. I don’t want to take that route either. Education is not a right or wrong situation. Most parents have the same goals for their children. How we get there is often different…

…which makes sense because people are different. Families are different. Education can be different as well. There are faults in each system, there are bad apples in each bunch. The more we grow and understand each other, the better. I never really understood homeschooling prior to doing it. Yet, I made judgements about it. Looking back now, I’m not really sure why. It’s hard and quite shameful to judge something that you don’t even know. I’m guilty.

I love knowing that every single day before he leaves for work, my husband will turn on the light by his bed. I can count on it as sure as the sun will rise. As soon as he leaves, I turn it off. I like to sleep with a fan on. Husband doesn’t. I like to stay up until 1 am. Husband, not so much. My husband has chap stick at all times, I hate the stuff. The list goes on and on. We all have our quirks and routines, as well.  You can be sure that every night, after my things are done, I will cover my husband’s chair with my favorite blue blanket and sit and read, blog, and watch t.v. You can also be sure that if my baby can find a way to cross his legs when sitting or sleeping, he’s gonna. Differences make us unique. Life would be so boring without them. I recognize that these differences are of much less significance than education choices, but the point is still the same.

Differences should be accepted. Differences should be understood and celebrated all the way around. Homeschooling has reminded me  of another brilliant life lesson. We should be super understanding of differences in each other. In addition, when we find ourselves on that road less traveled, we should travel our road with our eyes straight up and not looking around for others approval. When we are looking around, I am convinced that we are missing the glorious view He gives us from above. With my eyes focused on what others think, I am probably going to find myself bitter and unsatisfied. Even more devastating, I will probably end up questioning what it is that I am doing in the first place.

I am going to do everything I can to fight the stereotype that is homeschooling and I am going to do it NOT because I want to fit in, but because it is what God has called me to do for my children. I want to do the best job I can. That is the testimony that I want to live. Lord willing, our children are going to grow up happy, well adjusted, socialized, and intelligent humans beings. They are going to learn to read and write and spell and do it W E L L. They will learn how to become awesome friends who love others with the heart of Jesus. These things are values to my husband and I and with God’s help, they will be accomplished. They are also going to learn that every individual has differences in abilities and choices. We will embrace and accept them for who they are. We will recognize that the differences we all have are expressions of the ultimate plan and creativity of our savior. They are not ours to defend, grow angry over, or resent.

Whew, parenting is a big job.

My kids play in thunderstorms at recess, they practice getting interaction with adults when their mom sends the older ones in for a couple grocery items, and sometimes, they even learn math by the fireplace. In. Their. Pj’s. It’s o.k. It’s more than o.k. I am going to embrace them and the plan that God has for all of our lives and live it to its fullest.

and…if they happen to choose to wanna make their own jam, wear denim jumpers, or carry canvas totes, then so be it. I will celebrate that too.

Week 27. Caterpillars, Castles, and Fridays.

This week we began Emma’s study of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We read through the book, played games, and began a color book project. I have a lot of fun stuff planned for her in the next couple of weeks. The whole point of this study is to have some F U N and maybe learn a little something too!

We picked up on our world tour again with our Expedition Earth Curriculum. This week we arrived in Germany. We have studied the popular animals of Germany, found where it is located, went on a long walk {which is the most popular mode of transportation there}, and built some castles. Next week we will finish up with some German recipes, crafts, and of course a viewing of the Sound of Music.

If you want two hours of quiet, PLEASE invest in these. My kids have loved these since the day they met them. We buy ours at Joann’s. Coupons plus teacher discounts make them very reasonable and they were just perfect for our castle building.

They are so easy to use for really any craft project. My daughter was able to create a fabulous castle including the royal garden and carrots. I mean really adorable.

They are fun for all ages. My 13 year old hijacked our castle craft and and made his own non castle fantastic design. I love these things. Love ‘em.

I also love Fridays. We take them off. Our whole family. My husband works a six day work week and we have made it a pretty big priority to keep Friday a family day. It allows for us all to just be together.

We play and work and play and W A V E. Let it be known that my sweet 16 month old boy has taken it upon himself to make sure that not one moving vehicle of any kind in the greater Sacramento area is left without a wave from his cute little chubby hand. Anywhere. Anytime. He’s on it.

These Fridays are always a breath of fresh air. A chance to chill and rejuvenate.

I am so grateful for the flexibility that homeschooling has allowed us.

My hubby stumbled upon this fantastic park. It is quite literally in the middle of nowhere.

When we first moved to this city six years ago, I was super freaked out about how country~ish it was.

I think I am slowly acclimating because sitting outside watching my kids just R U N and explore in the great outdoors is pretty much just plain fabulous.

and they love it.

One of the most important things that I have learned since I began homeschooling is that kids NEED unstructured time to just be. To play and run and twirl. To pick up sticks and throw them in lakes. To create and to breathe.

Then after I learned how much kids need that, I realized how very much I need it too.

Have a happy weekend.

On A Monday And A Blissful Winner

So, I found the cutest jaw dropping, stop your heart kind of thing at Target the other day. Shocking, right? We all know that mini everything is cute. Fun size, if you will. However these jars just prove that giant things are cause for elation as well. I picked it up and petted it as I often do with cute items in Target. I glanced at the price, expecting to see like 21.99 or something. Um no….$3.84. Mason jar lovers everywhere~rejoice~ and run to Target to get some!

I still haven’t seemed to quite get my act together around here after our long sickly stretch. See anything wrong with this picture? It was taken at 11 am mind you.

A game that we apparently all enjoy adult, teenager, and toddler alike is the hide and seek in the pantry game. There is a whole lot of it goin’ on over here. Just sayin’.

He sits on the stool and waits. Helps himself to a snack and stays still until someone comes to boo him. I let him. He’s the fourth child, he can do that kinda thing. He can also run around with no pants and a crooked diaper put on by his sibling.

While I am on a role of exposing our less than finer moments and stellar wardrobe choices…. we have been doing lots of science experiments around here. It’s always safety first.

In another dedicated parent move, I played hooky from school with kids in tow. It’s only the first time this year, so don’t judge. There are just THOSE days. I have allowed myself two days per school year to bail and skip everything. No one minded a bit.

We all five loaded in the van. We were on day five of our real food challenge and I got the brilliant idea to check with Whole Foods. My hunch was right, their Margherita pizza played by our rules and I treated the kids and I to a lunch out. A M E N. So, we headed about thirty minutes away where there nearest Whole Foods is located, conveniently close to grandma.

We also stopped in our favorite new bakery.

Played with toys at Whole Foods.

Checked out some model homes and ended with a yummy lunch (this intensity can only be acquired after five days of withholding pizza from a teen)

We caught up on all our assignments by the end of the weekend.

A day much needed by all.

On to the exciting news of the hour, the W I N N E R of the fabulous bloom from BLISSFUL BLOOMS is

TERI

…you lucky lady!

You’ll have to send us a picture of you wearing it, so we can all see how cute you look!

Finally, today is the end of the ten days of real food challenge. In 2 hours and 54 minutes I can eat sugar, not that I am counting. I will be back tomorrow with our take on the whole process. No pun intended!

Good night!

 

School Paper Organization

If you have a child in school, YOU NEED THIS PROJECT. Everyone needs somewhere to store those mounds of adorable projects, papers, and awards.

I found various versions of this project on Pinterest. There is this one and this one.

The planets all aligned because one of my besties is opening an Etsy shop, mopedINK with some of the cutest printables around. SO YEAH, she hooked me up with the labels for my project. Her shop will be open MONDAY and you will get a chance to win something for FREE! Stay tuned…

I love this project and the options out there to make it unbelievable cute are plenty. Here’s the thing, the price tag can get up there quickly. I have four children and needed a super frugal option. I went with price tag and function over cute this time.

Did I JUST type that?

When I took the basics and added these cute labels, it suddenly turned frugal into a vintage chalkboard inspired theme.

The best of both worlds.

THE SUPPLIES

The plastic tubs are AWESOME. Boring perhaps? A little. However, they are just $13 for two at Costco and they are very, very, durable. This project needs to last for like at least eighty years, so I need me some durability. You need one box per child.

The green hanging folders were just $5 for a box of 25 at Staples. You need one for each year of school per child. There is hanging file folders of every color in the rainbow and they are C U T E. However, the price tag reflects that. I went with the cheapest ones I could get my hands on.

 The tab folders are a recycled folder from Staples as well. 100 of them for just about $10. You need one for each year of school per child.

I purchased the labels for the front of the files at Staples as well, for about $10. You need one for each file folder.

I purchased the tab file folder labels on clearance at Target for $5.

The black photo corners I purchased at Target for just $3.

Overall total for this project for my four children is about $65. I bought it piece by piece over the last few months.

THE HOW TO

So, basically the goal of this project is that ALL school memorabilia gets saved in the box. ALL of it.

How do you decide what goes in the box?

1. ALL awards, certificates, and those types of things.

2. Report cards

3. A sample of work from the beginning of the year and from the end.

4. Anything that makes me smile.

Yes, that is my official process. I save up papers for the whole year. Then I sit down and look through them. If it is in category 1-3, it automatically gets saved. If it isn’t, it has to past the smile test. If it makes me smile, it gets saved. If it doesn’t, it goes.

The bottom line is this, YOU CAN’T SAVE EVERYTHING. Too much of anything is never a good thing. So, be ruthless and save the spectacular.

I have tried to do traditional scrapbooking of school projects. I had started a couple of albums for the older kids and let me tell you, it is a hot mess. It just wasn’t easy to look through. I love being able to pick up their crafts and handle them. When trying to shove them all into pocket style photo albums, it became a nightmare. Not too mention there are only so many hours in a day and I have plenty of other stuff I would rather scrapbook. So, I aborted and landed with these. They are MUCH quicker.

Amazing, right? Yay for brilliant ideas. Yay for SUPER EASY. Yay for ORGANIZED. I am dangerously close to breaking out the pom pons, so I will stop now.

One nice little box for each of my lovelies. Even my one year old. In the blink of an eye, he will be in school and well yes, the boxes all need to match, right?

Have a happy weekend and I will see you Monday for a giveaway from mopedINK.

Week 23. Jammies, Toast, and Boxes.

This is our third year of homeschool. I can honestly say, I think this is the first time we have had sickness in the house during school. I may be wrong. I perhaps blocked it from my conscious memory, but I don’t think so. My odd children (referring to their birth placement, not their personality) had touches of some throat and fever issues.

Cameron had it the worst. There was lots of jammies. Lots of school, break, school, break. Lots of alternate places to learn. Lots of reading. Lots of home. Lots of quiet.

Of course, this brought with it a fair amount of stir crazy for some. However, everyone rolled pretty well. I visited the gym late night for a little time in the hot tub and a little late night therapy session grocery shopping at Target. Means of survival come with a creative outlook sometimes.

Special toast is always on the menu when sickness is in town. Toast with butter and cinnamon sugar. The crust cut off and cut into squares. I think it just might have magical healing powers.

Adding nurse to my title this week, required other things to go by the wayside. Such as cleaning (sad, huh?), “fun” stuff for school, and Awana. Despite the sickness it was a strangely welcoming change of pace. We are still learning. We will be catching up through the weekend. Slow and steady. I hope to be back on schedule by Monday. Everyone is on the mend.

My neighbor who has taught 6th grade for 12 years commented to me the other day that she thinks when homeschool is done with excellence, it is a very natural holistic approach to child rearing. It is times like this week that I really see this to be true. It feels very natural to be the kids mama, nurse, and teacher.

I mentioned that I had a Pinterest Project coming up. I have collected all my supplies. It’ll be done soon. It is the answer to so many of life’s most important questions.

I have four of these.

Some of these.

and these.

It’s going to be magical.

Have a great weekend.

Week 22. Reading, Writing, and Sophia the Grecian Goddess.

We started a new unit {with the older two} on The Giver. This book is G O O D. I pre read it around Christmas time. I use these unit study guides and I love them. It has more stuff then you need. Plenty to give you options, but not overwhelm you. The kids are literally begging to read ahead in the book. I love that too. They would finish in a day if I let them. However, there is something about taking your time and studying the author, vocabulary, and going in depth along the way. You can wander off on whatever rabbit trails you want to. It makes for a very different experience with a book.

I will be starting Emma’s first one in a couple of weeks.

For now we are finishing up her health book. It is amazing how many safety rules we break around here. The book clearly teaches not to jump off a moving swing. Guilty. The book clearly teaches to wear shoes outdoors at all times. Guilty again.

It is unbelievable how anything in a school book becomes something that this girl sees as gospel truth. I am thinking I should write my own school book for her.

We studied safety on the roads and learned that children should use arm signals at all times when riding bikes. Guilty again.

We had stoplight snacks. {Graham crackers, Nutella, and M n M’s}

and some stoplight crafts.

I came across these 2 little fabulous books last summer and added them both to my curriculum order. Write About Me and Write About My World. I had intended to have them be extra fun books for free time. However, my girl has learned a TON with them and we do a page or two almost daily. It covers the beginnings of writing journals, stories, etc. It has a lot of good stuff for her.

Our weather has reached mid 70′s this week. My house is revolting over the lack of any sort of winter, even a California one. The kids have had a ton of time to play outside and it definitely helps get their energy out. However, I am just wishing for a big ‘ol rainstorm. JUST ONE.

We are hoping for a lot of rain before spring arrives, but I am definitely NOT holding my breath.

We arrived in Greece today. The Expedition Earth curriculum has daily lesson plans all written out for you. However, we have had to adapt some. I can’t seem to pull it together for all of this fabulousness on a daily basis. SO~ the last couple of weeks we have devoted Thursday afternoons to E.E. and it has worked fabulously.

I think I have fallen in love with Greece now too. Oh my gosh. It is just beautiful. We studied the Parthenon, listened to music, looked at pictures, read about the children of Greece, prayed for the country, studied the flag, and made cookies. Greece cookies, not to be confused with grease cookies. These were called Kourabiethes cookies and they were yummy.

Finally, we studied Greek sculptures. Of course, the kids got the ability to try out their sculpting skills.

Meet Grecian Cookie Monster…

and Sophia…the Grecian Goddess.

I am looking forward to the weekend. Sleeping in and playing!

Enjoy yours.

Homeschool Talent Show

Oh my sweet girl and her daddy. They have stolen my heart.

So proud of them both.

Hip Homeschool Hop Button

Week 21. Love, Goodbyes, and Mars.

Oh, this week was C R A Z Y. Three doctor appointments and Valentines Day, put us in a challenging place of getting everything completed. It is amazing how even one dr. appointment can wreak so much havoc on completing a school day. I talked last week about our system of breaking down our studies, one week at a time. This week is a perfect example of why. We have a little bit left to finish in the morning. However, it will get done. For me, if I didn’t have this system it could be dangerously easy to let life take priority over school. Just today, and then just today, and then just today….you get the idea.

On a side note…do you know about these magical little relatives of the Post It note family? Oh how they make Teacher’s Guides user friendly in no time flat.

I gotta admit that school wasn’t too overly exciting this week.

We did begin Emma’s health book. It will take us just three weeks to get through. She loves the A Beka readers. They have written some of their textbooks at first grade reading level and Emma LOVES being the one who can read these subjects. It goes a long way in the I’m a big girl now thing.

She read something super profound to me. Yes, yet again the teacher learned something during school. A HABIT IS SOMETHING I DO WITHOUT THINKING. It goes on to say…I CAN FORM GOOD HABITS BY DOING RIGHT THINGS OVER AND OVER. I love that. Put that in the perspective of my quest for health. Its reframing my goals. Grabbing veggies, grabbing water, exercising. Do them over and over until you do them without even thinking about it. You can change.

Taylor wrapped up her study on Mars this week with a project. She created a Mars Community. This may look simple, but she has quite the story (including a lot of  information about Mars) that determined her choices for these items. She is learning a TON.

I broke down and finally allowed us to leave Italy today during our Expedition Earth studies. Passports are stamped and we are gone. Kinda sad. The Expedition Earth curriculum is great and it comes with some additional recommended books to enhance your studies. These books have been some of our favorites during the year.

Next week we are off to Greece!

I have to admit another challenging part of school is getting regular household stuff done like grocery shopping. Last week as I was innocently scrolling through Facebook I find that my husband ratted me out about the condition of our fridge. He posted this on Facebook and said guess we need some food. BUSTED.

We live on the cash only system around here. I plan all of our meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, to help keep on a tight budget. I buy only what we need to make those meals. At the end of my week, my fridge typically looks like this. Its not a bad thing really, do not be alarmed.

Today we had lunch recess at Costco. The food court and some groceries and another week of school completed.

Looking forward to the weekend!

Enjoy yours!

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