08/08/2015

New School Year Resolutions

In a few days, I will embark on my 6th year of homeschooling. It’s hard to believe it has been that long. As I look back and reflect on when I first started, I remember how young my now 10 year old was. I remember my belly growing with baby #4. I remember my smart and silly 8 year old wasn’t quite 3 and begging to sit next to us at the big table. I had no idea what awaited us. That little tiny baby is soon to be 5 years old, full of energy and learning more and more everyday. My 10 year old would later be diagnosed with dyslexia which would shape how we homeschooled for years to come. Two more children have been added to our family and we are officially beginning our 6th year on Monday!

Over the years, I’ve done different school schedules (4 days a week, year round, Summers off, December off … to name a few) and I’ve tried different routines (school in the morning, school in the afternoon). We’ve used various curriculum and tried different teaching styles. We’ve made plans and changed plans. This year will be different from any year up until now because we have 6 kids. Two of these kids are preschoolers and three are older. At times, it can be overwhelming and much of the time fun and exciting but I want to take a moment to take a deep breath and write down my new school year resolutions to share with you all. (Contains Affiliate Links)

New School Year Resolutions

Teach Character Building –We will read through this book again
Work on Kindness – My children are still doing a Bible Study found here
Be in the Word. Everyday. I’m thinking of trying this app.
Make new habits (and stick with them) – We will be doing habit training from SCM
Remember homeschooling is a marathon not a sprint.
Be realistic about how much you can accomplish in one day.
Make time for fun – Be silly, play games, take walks, live life
Throw away the plans sometimes and just enjoy your children – Read together for fun not just for school
Focus on your children’s strengths not weaknesses
Pray for your children. Everyday.

08/06/2015

How to Eat Healthier Right Now

Eat Healthy ~ Meal Planning

For a while now, I’ve been trying to make a choice for myself and my kids to eat healthier. I need to simplify our grocery list and our kitchen routine. Unfortunately, this begins with meal planning. I’m terrible at meal planning. So, what better way to get motivated than to write about it? I came up with some ideas that I used to do consistently and that over the years slowly unraveled. Maybe we can hold each other accountable (be sure to look for my cooking skills listed under “Transparency Tuesday”) Moving on…

Here are my 10 ideas to make healthy choices in the kitchen:

1. Make a pot of chicken stock once a week (I used to do this on Mondays — I plan to always have a chicken cooking that day and then eat the chicken and a little soup for dinner … the rest I will store in the freezer in individual serving containers)

2. Have a baking morning (or whatever time works for you) once a week — bake more for the freezer then for eating at this time — prepare enough that you will have some goodies to snack on during the week that are whole grain/low in sugar. Make your own bread! It is healthier and cheaper than the store brands.

3. Plan your meals in advance. I provide a free downloadable meal planner here.

4. Buy enough produce to last you: stock up fresh organic produce like pears, apples, celery, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, blueberries and whatever else you and your family like to snack on or eat at meals — this way you won’t be quickly grabbing “snack foods” … these will be your snack food alternatives

5. Have a few healthy snacks that are easy to fix and quick to eat other than the produce mentioned above. I like: mozzarella sticks, sun butter and pretzels, cream cheese and whole grain crackers, natural popcorn — read labels and use your own judgement

6. I used to make my own yogurt — I’m thinking of just picking a day of the week and going for it again.

7. Buy baking goods in bulk. (At one point, I bought enough grain, yeast and baking powder/soda/cream of tartar to last me over a year…whenever I needed to bake something I would have the ingredients on hand).

8. Always make sure to have your kitchen staples available — for us it means having enough butter, oil, milk and eggs in the refrigerator at all times. This combined with the bulk baking items mentioned above, allows me to be efficient with my time.

9. If you stay at home continue to eat 3 balanced meals at home and plan for them, I was just snacking throughout the day because I was busy with the kids and didn’t let myself have a “lunch break”… If you work away from home, remember to pack nutritious snacks and lunches.

10. Prep foods and freeze it. For me probably the biggest hurdle was not using canned soup in my cooking because a lot of meals call for it — especially quick casseroles and crock pot meals. Once I learned I could make my own stock and cream-of soups, preparing meals became much easier. I make my own cream of soups and freeze it!

I’ve found that cooking healthy food that is nutrient dense is so much easier with a good mind-set, careful planning and an open mind! Who wants to join me?

Don’t forget to download your menu planner!

08/04/2015

Our Homeschool Room {Ikea Inspired Home}

Our Ikea Inspired Homeschool Room

It’s that time of year again. You know, the time when we scurry around trying to get organized before the next school year – that school year which is waiting to start right around the corner. Wow, this Summer went by fast.

Well, I had been thinking for a while that I needed to organize our school supplies. What better way to organize than to move everything to a new space? Our last school space had been taken over by babies, toddlers and preschoolers.

Nothing was safe anymore, least of all the writing utensils. They had been swiftly captured by the 3 year old. This is a very bad thing, as the countless boxes of Magic Eraser, microfiber cloths, dishsoap and water I’ve poured on our walls can attest.

We decided to move our stuff to a (mostly) unused bonus room in the finished attic. I wanted to share how it turned out with you all.

Almost all of the room is inspired by or directly from Ikea. I have to admit, I’m a bit obsessed with Ikea and the way they create complete organization in such small spaces. I am very enthusiastic about organization – even if I rarely pull it off in real life.

Now, I present to you our new Ikea Inspired Homeschool Room!

Chairs (above) are from Ikea, PÖANG in Natural.

Dokument, Letter Tray in Pink on the Kalax Workstation

ALRIK Swivel Chairs also from Ikea (above)

ClosetMaid Cubicals in White and ClosetMaid Fabric Cubes (above)

Linnmon/Adils Desks are from Ikea (above)

Bygel containers (close up below) are wonderful for holding pencils, colored pencils, glue sticks, tape, scissors and other small school supplies.

This 10 drawer unit is filled with “extras”. The drawer unit on the left is filled with preschool games and the one on the right is for the kids in grades 2-5.

Over the door organizer from Simply Stashed holds all my extra pencils, glue, pens, markers, flash cards, magnifying glass and more goodies.

If you can see in the above picture, we have a big roll of art paper on our MÅLA Tabletop Paper Holder on top of the cubbies. We also stack plain white paper, lined white paper, and paper that is half “drawing” paper and half lined – each in their own cubbies.

Outside the homeschool room is a small & cozy alcove that I thought would make a perfect little reading nook. So we hung Ikea spice racks (BEKVÄM) on the wall.

I found this idea on Pinterest and I really liked the idea of kids being able to see the covers of their books. It is much easier to choose and more visually appealing to see the covers instead of the spines! We completed the little area with another Ikea POÄNG Children’s Armchair.

I hope that this helps you as you are designing or reorganizing your homeschooling space! Do you use a homeschool room?

08/01/2015

Homeschooling with Preschoolers

My 8 Best Busy Box Ideas

Ahhhh…. Homeschooling with preschoolers. Want some hard work? Try it. Everyone who has a child between ages 2 and 4 and is homeschooling big kids knows how difficult this task is. It is quite intimidating, really. So, while we make extra sure to include the little ones in read-alouds, fun coloring pages, and play-doh activities, what we need to find is a quiet activity for the littles while we are working with the bigs. Sometimes it seems like once we sit down to teach, the little ones want to use this opportunity to get into some BIG mischief. Like drawing on the walls with crayon. Maybe sneaking into the pantry for an extra snack. Not good. Not at all. Trust me when I say I get it. Just this week my sweet and darling little 3 year old was drawing pretty pictures on her wall during “nap”. I’m very thankful for my magic eraser. I’ve had to buy a case. If you can relate then just keep reading.

The key to homeschooling with preschoolers is to keep them close. That may seem counter-productive because preschoolers are generally loud and messy. I’m on my 2nd set of years homeschooling with little guys and girls. When we first started out my now 8 year old was only 3. That was when I discovered that we would need a way to keep her near me, while I could safely oversee what she was doing while also giving most of my attention to my older sons.

(In the spirit of full disclosure, this post does contain amazon affiliate links, which means that I may get a commissions if you decide to purchase anything from the following links. I only recommend products that I use and love myself!)

Enter busy boxes. I bought a cart of colorful drawers like this one here and filled them with games, crafts and work that they can do with their hands. This is something that they can do at the big table while we do our math and language arts workbooks. These are also something that will help them learn shapes, matching, sorting, colors, and patterns. These items I only get out during school hours so they will be that much more special for the little ones. If they had constant access these toys would lose their pizzazz (and most of their parts).

So here is my list of the best toys to fill the busy boxes:

1. Super Sorter Pie

This awesome toy from Learning Resources is a keeper! It is a pie that is filled with 7 types of fruit in 5 different colors. My little guys love this pie. It is listed as appropriate for ages 3-7 and that seems to be right. My 3 & 4 year old go crazy over this thing. It is very entertaining and great for sorting on shape and color. Also great for counting and patterns.

2. Counting Bears with Cups

This toy has been a favorite of my son since the time he was turning 3. It is great for counting, sorting, learning math skills and creating patterns. It comes with 50 bears and 5 cups. The cups are also color coordinated – the same as the bears. This is a wonderful toy and very compact.

3. Pattern Blocks and Boards

These wooden shapes and boards, made by Melissa & Doug, are really worth buying. They allow kids to use their tangram shapes that are brightly colored on these heavy-duty wooden boards which are printed both front and back with unique pictures. They include flowers, butterflies and a variety of animals as some of the puzzle designs. This is very entertaining to both my 3 & 4 year old and to my 8 & 10 year olds! We’ve owned our set for over 5 years and it is still going strong and loved by all.

4. Sorting Clock

This toy is fun! It includes a variety of shapes in different colors and is both a shape sorter and a pretend clock. It teaches kids colors, shapes, numbers and how to use a clock.

5. Sequence Sorter

This is fun for both of my preschoolers, as well. It is a sequence sorter which allows them to group “like” items. These are divided into shapes, colors, and size.

6. String Beads

We currently have the one in the link above, from ALEX Toys. It is a String a Farm – with bigger pieces for toddlers and young preschoolers. I’m thinking of adding a more tradtional one to our set, now that mine are getting a little older, like this one: here.

7. Flannel Board

I found both of my flannel boards at the local teacher supply store. One was the blue one available through the above link and another actually had a print already on it. These are fun for the kids for imaginary play. They love playing with the little pieces and creating scenes.

8. Creative Color Cubes

This is a great item from Learning Resources. It includes 100 cubes in 6 colors and also comes with 18 pattern cards. Your child can look at the card and try to create the shape that is on the card. These are great for pre-k up through 1st grade.

So there you have it! My 8 best busy box items to give your preschooler some fun activities during school time!

07/29/2015

Transparency Tuesday: My dirty laundry room

Transparency Tuesday:

My Dirty Laundry Room

In the spirit of keeping everything real and transparent (like I stated I would in So Long, Supermom) I would like to disclose that my laundry room looked like this just last week. I could tell you that travelling and potty training, trying to fit in a little extra school time, and setting up a new homeschool space has all taken a toll on my typical housework. Yes, the laundry room truly turned into a horrible pile of mess. Unfolded clean clothes on the “folding table” and an assortment of dirty on the floor. Let me just tell you, it is clearly not enjoyable to do laundry with the room in this condition.

Enough is Enough

(In the spirit of full disclosure, this post does contain affiliate links, which means that I may get a commissions if you decide to purchase anything from the following links. I only recommend products that I use and love myself!)

We had taken a one week trip out of town and then the very next weekend, I went out of town for one day in a very unplanned, last minute excursion. These two back-to-back trips ~~allowed~~ forced me to get behind on my laundry routine. Not only did I have my normal level of kids laundry to do, but I also had a suitcase and extra bag to unpack from our longer trip. It is really easy, with as many kids as we have, to let laundry get out of control. Kids might start randomly throwing laundry on the floor or missing the hamper and then we get to the crazy mess.

So last week, I had decided I had had enough. I kept making small dents but never enough to get get through it. It’s not easy when you do 1-2 loads in a day and then the preschooler comes by and throws more clothes on the floor. Trying to catch up with the pile of laundry while more laundry grows on the floor and in baskets. It is like a big monster. A laundry monster. And then it happened. My 3 year old left a tutu dress on the floor and my foot hit it just right and I slipped. I fell straight down on the floor. I haven’t taken a fall that hard since the last time I wore a pair of ice-skates. And that was that.
I can’t believe it took that low point (quite literally) to kick me into gear. But I freely admit, that yes, it took that to see how ridiculous it was to not carve out an hour and completely get this laundry room under control! I cleaned up the floor and loaded up the washer with the clothes that were piling up. I took all the clean laundry out of the room and put it all away. I vacuumed, mopped and dusted the room. (Pictured above is a Simply Stashed Hanging Organizer, which houses all of cleaning supplies: Simply Stashed)

The hamper shown above is from Amazon. It is found here: 3 bag laundry sorter.

Ahhh … it feels so nice to have a clean space to work. For some reason it seemed easier to ignore my mess because it seemed too great. Lesson learned. It’s not easier to ignore it and work around it. It is better to clean it up BEFORE it looks like mine did. Anyway, I hope that encourages some of you, who, like me, might be letting the mess control your life. It is so easy to let the monster of “not enough time” rule the house … but in reality the actual cleaning takes less time than me thinking of reasons I shouldn’t clean it today!

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