Money Management

Sir Lancelot and I have tried several things to try and teach our kids about money.  The hard part is that a lot of times, things just weren't working out.  One dandelion for one penny.  1 Hour or work for x amount of money.... yes, they worked hard, but did they get paid?  Well, that's our fault.  Execution is hard for me if there isn't a system or mutual agreement between hubby and I.

We decided to try another thing.  The kids are going to try to sell... rabbits.  So far, we've had one litter with success.  We sold about 4-5 rabbits. Wahoo!  Getting the word out is hard though.  We'll probably make some signs to prop up on the street and then we might stand on the side of the road for a while to see if we can get some attention there.  It'll be work for the kids and hopefully they'll learn that in order to get money, you have to work hard, and spend money to maintain your project.

Rabbits need to eat and drink, so every morning, I go out with the kids to feed them and make sure they have enough water.  The kids will then use their earnings to buy food.  We have 3 mama rabbits who are now pregnant and should have their next litters in a few weeks.  We ran into a few hiccups though.  Rabbits need a specific diet or else they can/will eat their own babies.... that was quite the disgusting experience that happened to us one morning.  Good thing it was Lance who discovered it and not Lilian.  We hopefully have that issue ironed out, I guess we'll find out with the next litter.  (Yuck!!!  I guess that's a good science lesson.)

So far, the kids are enjoying their project.  If you're interested in a rabbit, let us know!  Haha.

Stay tuned for our first week back to homeschooling!!!

Laundry Everywhere!!!!

Throughout the summer, I have been trying so hard to get a routine down for myself and the kids.  When Dad is home, sometimes things get interrupted.  He's been so busy making our house a home and hopefully we'll be able to finish the showers and trim on the main level.  Super excited about that, but we'll see how well it goes.  With that, though, there are things that he needs help with, so "MOOOM" is a common name being called.

One of the things that I've fallen behind in was laundry.  Laundry, laundry, laundry, I could scream!  I NEEDED to find a new system.  Previously, I had a day for each person, but that amounted to several loads of laundry a day that needed to be done.  I quickly found that with Little Elf now in the picture, I need something quicker and more efficient.  So, I changed my game plan.

Monday- whites
Tuesday- Light Colors
Wednesday- Dark Colors
Thursday- Work clothes and Denim
Friday- Sheets and Towels
Saturday- anything else that needs to be done.

Some of these days also consist of diaper laundry.  We cloth diaper every day except Sunday when we go to church and the routine is a little different than the other days.  It gives me a little break and allows me to focus more on keeping the Sabbath day holy instead of worrying if the diapers are sitting a day too long.

I bought a whole bunch of these sorting hampers and I will hopefully get these kids trained to put the appropriate type of clothing into the matching hamper.

So far, it has worked immensely well.  I don't feel so burdened throughout the day to get laundry done!  It's one or two loads a day, we take a break from school or TV and fold laundry together.  That's the trick- family work (Thank you Donna Goff!)  I get my children to work with me, even the 2 year old!  We sort the clothes, fold the clothes, put the clothes away TOGETHER.  I just hope that some day, Curly Girly and Ferdinand learn that laundry isn't as hard as they make it out to be.  Haha!  For me, the stress is gone, the mountain of laundry is gone and it's a lot easier to maintain.  Of course, there are things that are going to need to be washed immediately, but that's the great thing about this system.  If that does ever happen, I just grab something else, like baby clothes, and throw them in the washer with the shirt with blood from a bloody nose on it, or the pillow case with drool spots all over.  I feel like this will continue to be a good thing for us... at least until the kids are big enough to do their own.  Wink, wink!

Work and Play

Whenever Dad is home, we try to spend as much time with him as we can.  The past while, he's been putting up a fence around our yard.

 

 

These kids just love working with their dad.  They even make a few dollars.  I can't wait for the fence to be finished!  It's almost there!

Math-U-See may have lost some spark to it, but it's still working for us.  I just think Curly Girly doesn't like math as much as reading.  She loves using the manipulatives, but if the lessons go longer than 20 minutes, she starts getting really bored, distracted and it takes her a long time to do her worksheets.  So, we try to make the lessons a little shorter, then on to bigger better things like Charlotte's Web.

Little Elf just keeps getting bigger and bigger.  She's learned how to roll over, so most of the time, I find her like this, with a big wet spot on the ground from her drool.  I'm pretty good at remembering to put a blanket under her, but it escaped from my mind this time when I took the picture.  Tummy time is getting better, now that I think she's realized that there's so much to look at and "get to".  She's reaching for toys and loves her rattles.  I love this age!

Curly Girly's Birthday

Ever since Christmas, Curly Girly has been excitedly anticipating her birthday.  About a week ago, she asked Sir Lancelot, "How many more days til my birthday?" To which he responded, "5 more days."  Her eyes lit up and she says, "Oh, I'm going to start getting exciting!"  She's a hoot!

She had a good day.  We woke her up and sang happy birthday.  We had cereal for breakfast, pancakes for lunch, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner- with green beans.  What an amazing combo, let me tell ya!  Then we had cake and ice cream and opened her presents.  I can't believe my oldest is now 6 years old.

Happy Birthday Curly Girly!  We love you with all of our hearts!!!  XOXOXO!!!

What happened this week?

Every Monday evening, we gather together as a family to spend time with each other.  We call it Family Home Evening.  We sing songs, we pray, and we talk and teach our children about important things.  A while ago, I mentioned that we talked about emergency preparedness.  This week, we added a few more things to our 72-hour kits.  Pocket knives, fishing line, hooks, and bait, chapstick, sunscreen and other things.  Lance found some really cool whistles online.  They can open up to store matches.  Curly Girly was able to get 15 matches into her whistle.

I also did a little rearranging.  Costco had some large maps and I finally got around to putting them up.  Once we get a homeschool room, they'll be relocated, but for now, I think this is suitable.  CG loves asking where Grandma's and Grandpa's, aunts and uncles are.  We also learned a little bit about Egypt, so we looked that up on the map as well. (Don't mind the half eaten apple on my kitchen table... life happens)

Underneath the maps, we have a calendar.  The kids love putting the weather cards on each day.  At the end of each month, I plan on making a grid and learning about how to make a chart.

Little Elf is 4 months old today.  She's getting way too big, too fast.  It's been so fun seeing her little personality come out.

Tomorrow is Curly Girly's birthday.  I'll be sure to post pictures!

1st Grade Reading List

Spring time is the perfect time to come up with your next year's curriculum.  I've been doing a lot of digging and if you've been following my blog, you'll know that I've come up with a few things for language arts, math, and piano lessons.  Lately, I've been trying to come up with a list of books that I can read to the kids.  A lot of them are classics and I'm super excited about that.  I remember reading The Hobbit with my mom at a young age, and what I want my children to remember are the good times you can have as we read together.

It's a lengthy list, so bear with me.  Here we go:
Green Eggs and Ham
Chester
Goodnight Moon
Sammy the Seal
Nate the Great
The Cat in the Hat
Danny and the Dinosaur
Amanda Pig and Her Brother Oliver
Little Bear
Amelia Bedelia
The Bravest Dog Ever
Curious George
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Henry and Mudge, The First Book
Mr. Putter & Tabby Pour the Tea
Floss
Frog and Toad are Friends
Angus and the Ducks
George and Martha
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Swimmy
Little Red Hen
Poky Little Puppy
The Egg
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Madeline
Harry the Dirty Dog
Caps for Sale
Stone Soup
A Chair for My Mother
Bread and Jam for Frances
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
Horton Hatches the Egg
Where the Wild Things Are
Emperor's New Clothes
Corduroy
A New Coat for Anna
The Little Engine That Could
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain
Doctor De Soto
Billy & Blaze
Millions of Cats
Velveteen Rabbit (abridged)
Thunder Cake
Andy and the Lion
And to think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street
The Story of Ferdinand
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Polar Express, The
Miss Rumphius
Story of Babar, The
Strega Nona
Blueberries for Sal
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Little House, The
Story About Ping
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
The Ox-Cart Man
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
John Henry
Flat Stanley
Make Way for Ducklings
If I Ran the Zoo
Tikki Tikki Tembo
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale
Little Red Riding Hood
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
St. George and the Dragon
Librarian Who Measured the Eart
Charlotte's Web
The Trumpet of the Swan
Chronicles of Narnia
Any of the Ramona books
Pippi Longstocking
Dr. Seuss books
Eric Carl Books
(I hope I didn't repeat any)

I have a confession.  I love books.  I love old books, new books, picture books, and classic books.  But the problem is that I love OWNING the books I love.  I have issues with libraries.  They're good for when you want to read a book that you've never read before, but if you love the book- you can't keep it.  My point is: I probably spend way too much money on books.  Haha!

Some of these books that I listed, I haven't actually read myself, but the great thing about homeschool, is that you get to broaden your own horizons.  One of the great myths about homeschooling is that you HAVE to know things yourself in order to teach it.  How many times are we teachers of something and we actually learn more from the students?  I feel the exact same thing when I think about homeschooling.  If I don't know a thing about a certain subject, I simply say, "Hey let's learn about this subject together."  Heavenly Father never meant for us to stop learning.  He wants us to learn regardless of our age or profession.  Isn't that wonderful?!?

I'm so excited about this list!  I don't even know where to begin.  I'm always open to suggestions, too, so if you have a book that you just LOVE and would be appropriate for a 1st grader, let me know!!!

April Showers

It seems like when it rains, it pours.  I have been pulled every which way and have had way too many trials that I'd care to take on, but there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel.

After my first little sickness, I got sick again with a cold for several days.  When mom is sick, the house get's neglected and kids get super bored.  We got snowed on, and since I wasn't feeling well, the kids stayed inside because I had no energy to deal with snow clothes and messes.  Plus, it was an awful muddy mess at our house since we just built a house.  My van got stuck, 6 inches deep, in mud.  Fun stuff! NOT!

So what did we do?  We strung beads onto yarn.

Obviously, The Sprite had a blast.  Her favorite part was rolling them onto the floor and throwing them at her brother.

Ferdinand enjoyed putting several beads on at once.  He was pretty good at it.  I think his motor skills are improving.

Curly Girly loved doing patterns.  She mostly wanted to make sure she got ALL the beads of the same color.  Heaven forbid her siblings take them!

We also learned about emergency preparedness.  The kids had fun putting bandaids, gloves, gauze, alchohol swabs, etc into their own little baggies.  We also gave them their own backpack for their 72-hour kits.  It's important to tell the little ones about what to do if there ever were an emergency.

Homeschool isn't just learning academics.  It's teaching them about life.

Homeschooling With a Newborn

I get it... Newborns are hard!  But something that I didn't realize that might be a little more difficult is homeschooling with a newborn baby.  With all the stops and goes, feedings, naps, crying, diaper changes, and more feedings, pumping sessions, ALL THIS STUFF and on top of it trying to get Math, Language Arts, Music, Art, Science, History packed into one day... I have to be honest.... we haven't done ANY homeschool since baby was born.  There were a few days when my mom was here to help for a few weeks, that we did some formal school, but it didn't last very long.

One day, overwhelmed and feeling guilty, I asked a homeschool group online, "How in the world do you do this?!?"  One lady referred me to this.  http://www.lovetolearn.net/most-important-homeschool-lesson  And what exactly is this?  It's called "The Baby IS the Lesson."

Sure, formal education is important.  But it's also important to not run faster than you have strength.  The guilt lifted off my shoulders.  Right now, during these few months, I've been teaching my children a very valuable indispensable lesson through EXAMPLE.  Teaching how to care for another human being, being selfless with things like giving time to read a book, cleaning up spit up, changing clothes, wiping boogers and tears and countless other things.

So, let's talk realistically.  Curly Girly will be six years old in May.  Technically, she won't be in 1st grade until fall.  I COULD even hold her back another year if I really wanted to and do another year of Kindergarten.  This means, she'll be ready to learn how to read, add, subtract, learn how to spell and learn different reading rules throughout the 1st grade year.  Well, I think we're quite ahead of the game... She can do most if not all of those things listed.  Turn the lens toward Ferdinand, who is only four years old, turning five in December.  He'll be entering Pre-Kindergarten.  Learning the letters of the alphabet, sounds, shapes, colors, etc.  Again, I think we're on track.  There's plenty of work to be done with both of them, but I'm not worried.  We aren't behind in anything.

So what's the moral of our blog post today?  Each day is valuable.  Each day my little scientists with their white lab coats and safety goggles are observing what mom thinks is important.  What are my actions saying to them?  What are they learning through their observations?  I definitely hope and pray the lesson they learn is that MOM loves her family and that they know that THEY are LOVED.

The Best Thing About Homeschool Is...

Homeschooling has its perks.  I love being able to see my children's progress.  Curly Girly's eyes glow with anticipation as we learn new concepts.  She reads from the scriptures every night and she's at the point where we don't hardly need to help her anymore.  I owe the credit to All About Reading.  If you need a supplement or full out curriculum, check it out at https://www.allaboutlearningpress.com

Another thing I love is that you can get them started at any age.  The Sprite has recently showed interest in coloring, like her big sister.  I showed her how to hold a pencil while coloring and while she isn't doing it the best in the picture below, she's now holding it like an adult.  She's 2!  I see another artist in the making.

I'm not sure if we'll continue to do notebooking or not in this fashion.  I love the idea of the 3-ringed binder with tabs separating the different subjects we cover.  I think it will be fun for Curly Girly and Ferdinand to see their work that they've done throughout the year.

With a newborn baby, I've really tried to implement lessons on how important parenting is.  Babies take lots of time and I hope that as they grow older, they will know how important a calling it is to be fathers and mothers.  I'm not perfect, and I'm pretty sure my children know that, but the absolute best thing about homeschooling is that we get to learn and grow together.  I love learning from my kids.  The best lessons to be learned are from the mouths of babes.