Homeschooling A Houseful

I have seen this on the side of many different blogs, but never got around to looking at it.... UNTIL NOW!!!! WOW I should have looked Years Ago!!! If you have tot's you should definitely look. I am planning on doing tot school posts as part of our blog, each week. Even if you don't want to do tot school on your blog, there are tons of ideas, links, downloads....

Do you see this?? Yes it's my empty dishwasher...yes empty. You might even ask, why is there a picture of her empty dishwasher on her blog? Let me explain... my dishwasher has been empty for almost 2 weeks now. Yes COMPLETELY EMPTY!!! still some of you are saying...SO?? We haven't even used our dishwasher for almost 2 weeks. Not only that but my kitchen has never been cleaner. {Atleast in the dirty dishes area} Our newest system is really quite simple. Right after {or even during} every meal...I fill the sink up with water and dish soap. Then as everyone is finished eating, they scrape their plates, usually into the animal bucket {we raise animals, that also make good garbage disposals!!} then into the water it all goes, and everyone washes their own dishes. Dries them and then puts them away. The littlest A's {4,2 and 1} obviously don't do this alone. Their buddy of the day gets to help them. Then depending on the meal and the amount of pans or preparing dishes wer

Laundry, Laundry...Oh laundry. (by the way, this is not a happy little tune!!) doing laundry for 9, really keeps a gal busy. For the actual laundering part of laundry, sorry I am of little help there.The only bit of advice I could offer, and something I have had to remind myself often...JUST DO IT!! For us I have to do 2-3 loads of laundry a day. If I don't, it piles up, if it piles up it just simply grows. So we have two smaller baskets in the laundry room, simply lights and darks. They are constantly being filled and emptied, and yes filled more! I have started washing towels and washcloths, right in the regular loads. If I wait for a full load, we end up with no towels. Yes I do have an extra large washer and dryer. We change our sheets usually once a week, and that's when I say, oh look there's alittle break in the laundry, let's throw some sheets in. It's my desire, to make a certain day for a certain persons sheets. Just haven't gotten that into our "

When you are homeschooling a Houseful, you definitely need to extend the life of everything you possibly can! We do not write in any textbooks or workbooks. We use simple notebooks for some of our text...like our math textbooks. I do this to have a record of their math, for reference. For things I don't really want to use the paper for we simply use the see through page protectors. I use to give each of the children a page protector to use. However it easily gets bent when put away, not cleaned off good, lost...whatever. So I came up with a new plan... I am ripping apart all of our workbooks... YES you heard me right..the teacher is ripping the workbooks!!!! Then I am putting them in smaller binders, inside the page protectors. This also helps extend their life..making them hard covered, not so easy to bend. The kids can pull down the workbook they need in the binder {with a label on the side stating what's in it...Explode the Code 3 for example} They open the binder to t

It seems that is a question I hear often and or ponder a lot? The kids are always looking for something to eat...but this bit of organizational advice is for me! For me it's often let's see what should I make... or do I still have some of that in the fridge....or I am making a quick run to the grocery store, and need a quick look at the fridge. The other problem I have is, we own 1 deep freezer, and 2 refrigerator/freezers. When our old one was needing some repairs, we decided to keep it in the basement for extra storage. I love to buy in bulk. Are you kidding, feeding 9 you have to buy in bulk! So even though the ice maker doesn't work and the trim is falling off the basement fridge it's great! The biggest downside of this situation, is what is in the fridge? Hence my idea to keep it all organized: {sorry I didn't notice the glare on the photo...and am just recovering from the flu, so I didn't feel like retaking this!!} The top photo is of my upstairs/kitche

Workboxes , Workboxes they are everywhere! I am going to use this system for 3-4 of the kids. I am still pondering and gathering ideas and thoughts . So I will be posting all links and ideas I come across here, under WORKBOX LINKS. Hope there are some fun ideas and downloads others can use to. Check out Spell Out Loud On her side bar she has some cute labels and a cute system to for collecting labels each day. I have only looked at one post on her site, but there are tons of ideas and really cute games, flashcards. I love the fact that we are all so willing to share! Thanks for all the hard work!

Well I don't know about anyone eles, but I LOVE to organize! I honestly do. I love to try to find that "perfect home" for everything. Yes, my poor husband, bless him, thinks I'm a nut!! I am constantly moving things, and rearranging, and reorganizing. Enough said. I don't think I will ever convince anyone, that I am not a nut!! So today I decided to organize my videos,....Melinda style! Dilemma~ DVD cases are NOT child proof. I don't care if they have those little clasps, they are NOT child proof. My little mischief maker, LOVES to open DVD cases. She acts like they are books. Seriously, it's an interesting concept. Well when little hands are trying to pull out DVD's they tend to get bent and cracked in the middle part. The part that is held down in the DVD cases. I don't care if those little hands are 2 years old or 11 or even an adults. Sometimes they are hard to get out of those case clasps. Solution~ store all DVD's in a DVD/CD case!!! We p

Warning~ Extra LONG post, with lots of pictures!!! There are many names for these, Mom's Planner, Mom's Journal, Control Journal...I prefer Mom's Brain!!{Hee Hee} There are also tons of ways to put one of these together...so I will just add to it all my ideas. As I use this, I am sure I will modify it to work best for me. That is what I would highly recommend you do, make it your way...for what you need. The main reason I did this, was for all those papers and things that I have around...I place them in a perfect/special location, to be easily found later, or when needed. However that "perfect/special" location can never be found...when needed!! I also wanted an all in one Planner. {for some reason I can not get my pictures to move around like I have in the past, so I will refer to each picture by number, and you will have to scroll down to find it...sorry.} Photo 12 I started with a cute binder. I purchased a 1", though I wish I would have used a bit larger

Are you kidding me...could it really be that easy? according to Diane at Heart-to-Heart with Diane , it is! I am very excited to do this. and since I am such an organizer, I figured I'd share this great idea! It also uses one of my favorite things.....color coding! LOVE IT!!!

A friend of mine is starting her planning for next years curriculum. She is posting different curriculum she likes to use, and things she is considering. As we are year round schoolers here. I am not necessarily planning for next year. I am always planning and looking! I must admit, I have a bit of a curriculum/book problem. I am an addict to books! I love books. Yet I am not necessarily a big reader. I like to read, I just hate getting into something and then boom having to stop. When I study I want some real study time! Oh well....with our lives we must live in seasons. My season to study and really read will come! For now I will be content with the time I do manage to get. Though I must admit I have a few bookworms around my house! I love that. So what I am going to do for the next little while is post some of my favorite book suppliers or curriculum suppliers. I am going to label this series, home library. I hope that some of my finds, will help you with some of what you are lookin

Audio Memory This is a great company. A great resource. We love these. We use these for Drills. We have all the math facts ones. We also have the grammar and geography ones. I haven't used the grammar and geography ones as much. However now that I found them in a pile of teaching supplies!!! I will be adding them in. I noticed they have more now, then I have ever seen. These come highly recommended, from yours truly!!

books for boys and other children who would rather build forts all day ....need I say more?!!! {That's actually what they called it!}

We have really enjoyed the A REASON FOR HANDWRITING series. The things I really like about this, is that the Kindergarten/beginning level uses mostly animals for their themes for each letter. In the lesson book, they give a brief introduction to each animal. A bit on the climate or area it lives, what it eats, what type of animal it is, about their family groups and babies. It is something all the little ones have enjoyed. We have made animal notebooks/books with these after. I believe all the lowercase letters are animals, and then most of the uppercase animals are animals. A few of the uppercase animals are things like rainbows and I think quarts was another one. However they still have a fun introduction to each of these. I also love that they are scripture based. The introductions to the animals, usually have something in them about how wonderful God is to do such great things for the animals. If not, you can usually add it!! Also once they pass the beginning level, they are writin

I am so excited to start using the All American History Curriculum , by Celeste W. Rakes. It says it is for a 5th-8th grade range. I am planning on getting some pictures or maps for the younger kids to color while I am reading and talking. In the student workbook there are multiple choice and fill in the blank tests. I will probably do some of these together, some individually, some orally and some written! That way it mixes things up a bit for everyone. What I am really excited about are the Further Research Ideas in the Student Workbook. These are suggestions, or ideas to use for researching what we are talking about. This curriculum says it is for 32 weeks, however I am planning on using one lesson for 2 weeks, and either 2-3 days a week. Then on the other days we are not doing our family history, some kids can be working on some of their individual research projects. I am also planning on adding in some readings. We have been reading This Country of Ours by Marshall , which is a fr

Here is something we have implemented in our prek /k/1st grade time. One of my newest creations!! I took a poster board and made a simple grid. 7 across and 5 down. I then took velcro and placed a small piece in each square. I put the softer side on the board. Then I place the scratchy side on the back of the numbers. Each morning, weekends included, the kids find the next number. This is a fun activity. I am also going to print off calenders that the kids can trace the day each morning too. These are available free online. I have found them in a few different locations. We talk about upcoming holidays, which I place fun pictures on the calendar. We talk about today, yesterday, tomorrow , weeks, months, years. We can do some addition or subtraction. A good one right now, today is the (blank) day, and Christmas is the 25 th so that leaves how many days until Christmas?!! We can either count it out orally, or they point and count themselves. There have even been a few times they surpr

I just love how this lady is doing her art appreciation . It seems so simple, and easy, yet so effective. Just what I have been looking for!

Something we like to do is lunchtime read aloud. This is something that both myself and the kids enjoy. Usually I read while they eat, and then eat after them. Sometimes I eat and then read, they are usually slow eaters, and I can usually accomplish both in the time it takes them to eat!! Anyways, something I just started is to let the kids each pick a book for me to read aloud. These are usually longer books, and we try to stick to classics. So far we have read; Button Boy, Black Beauty, Felicity, Curious George (yes stretching the classics there!!) Lastly we read Eight Cousins. I just wanted to take a few minutes to tell everyone about this book, it is definitely worth reading. I could read this book over a few more times. The storyline and plot are great. Even though the main character is a girl, her eight cousins are boys, so it is lively enough to keep the boys entertained. It's about a girl, named Rose. Her Mother died, early in her life, and her Father just passed away. She

My friend Andrea, over at Dean's Academy , just posted a few fun ideas she does around her house for school and chores. Well I have been thinking I would like to post about our bean jar, but haven't gotten around to it yet, so here goes..... Our BEAN JAR (not sure why we call it a bean jar, it's actually leftover craft "stones and rocks" Originally we were going to use beans, but I didn't want spilt beans in my brown carpet!!) A fun thing we do, it's a reward system of sorts. Works alot like her token system, with my "tweaks" How the bean jar works, when Mom or Dad notices something nice being done, we can chose to tell that person to put a bean in the jar. They take a bean out of the holding jar, and put it into the bean jar. Simple really, oh and I can not take credit, read it somewhere! One thing I noticed, and one reason I decided to do this is I always feel I am so negative to the kids. I ALWAYS notice the wrong, and often forget to say than

Well lately, I've been trying to organize our upcoming school season. We are going to school year round, from now on. Though we are taking off the first few weeks for summer break. I do think though that everyone, is starting to want a little more structure in our days. Well one thing I am feeling I would really like to add to our studies is a Character Training time. I know I have good kids. I also know they are just that.... kids. It seems like most of the "problems" we have been having lately, are dealing with character. I think we could all use alittle boost, in this area. It also seems like some of their character issues, are things they have inherited from me. Well I wish it was that easy, just a simple inheritance! It's not, they are learning these things from me. I too am in need of a character training session! I read a thought somewhere, it goes something like this.... that if you are not always looking for ways to better yourself, than you are only hurting

This is so cute, I just had to share! Smarty Pants! Sometimes we get so consumed in home educating, that we forget about how easy it really is. Given the right environment, anyone can learn, and learn what is needed. It doesn't need some fancy curriculum. It doesn't need the correct amount of time. It doesn't need the proper days. It needs a happy, learning environment. It needs simplicity. Look how happy she is to do the smarty pants dance. She knows her dad (I assume) is pleased, and loving it. She doesn't know why, just that dad loves it, so she needs to love it.

have you seen Milestone Academy ? I have gotten so many great ideas, so many great reading choices from this site. She has free downloads, one is the English Language Lessons for the LDS child. I printed these off, and have started using them with A2 and A3. There are so many others. I haven't even had the time to really look over. There's also one called the pantry principle. It has wonderful, whole foods, no sugar recipes. It also discusses housekeeping and homemaking. She has wonderful resource lists. This follows a classical education. On her side bar are lists and schedules, alot like amblesideonline. I haven't used these purely as she states, however I use alot of her suggestions, or look at alot of her suggestions. The reason I don't is only because I have alot of different learning levels/ages, and I want everyone learning together. Which is something she suggests doing. I am using the H E Marshall books for our "spine" currently. Which was suggested h

These are Great! Oh and did I mention free!!! I have been looking for something like this for awhile. I love the fact that it's A-B-C's that you follow. I will be adding these to our preschool file! As soon as I finish printing our book of virtues notebook pages! {I might end up needing more ink, by the time the days over!!!}