Homeschooling A Houseful

We started meeting with 2 other local homeschool families, to sing to the residents of the care center. Our first time was in December, we thought Christmas Caroling to the residents would be fun. The older children also memorized different scriptures. It was good. At first the kids were somewhat nervous and scared. However we decided to continue this every month since, and it has become a joy. Not only to the kids, at least I know my A's love and look forward to it, but also the residents. They are so cute there, and excited to see us. I am only saying this because it doesn't take much. You don't have to do a huge presentation. The simplicity of having us come, makes their day!!!! So how do we do it? The three mom's involved rotate turns of planning. Planning is simple, we choose 3-4 common children's songs, religious songs, or hymns. These are for our group to sing together. Then during the week before we go, we email the person in charge what each of our families

Something in the "planning stages" around here, is a family religious unit study. I am uncertain, how this will all be played out. I am sure I will have my way, and then quietly I will hear HIS voice sneaking it and telling me how to do it! I have had a very strong feeling that we need to work with the fruits of the spirit, here. I was thinking over the A's and my attitudes lately, and feel a little more fruit will do our attitudes good! Originally I was thinking of doing about one unit a month and working with the unit either daily or a few times a week. However after searching and finding so many great resources, I am thinking of doing a unit on the fruits of the spirit in general, and then spending a month on each individual fruit. Ponder and Pray, that's what I will be doing a lot of the rest of this week, into the weekend. I want it all finalized and ready to go by July, to jump start our July studies, but again it's all in HIS hands. I will let you know more

Papa Bear and I have been experimenting with the Peanut Butter cookie recipe we love! At the end of the recipe, you can see a few alterations we have made to them.

A lady on a HS yahoo group I joined, has actually seen this speech in person! And it IS ALL done by MEMORY!!!! very inspiring!

Carissa from 1+1+1=1 mentioned Multiplication.com , awhile ago. I looked at it, and well was overwhelmed by the site! I put it on the "to do later list" You know the one, the one you always forget about!!! Well she wrote a post about this site, and explained what her family loves about the site.... with that help, I now and very impressed too!!! We will definitely be adding this to our daily studies, for VIRTUE, CHARITY, VALIANT, and PEACEFUL. They are all still working on their math facts and this site, will aid in that a lot! I will be adding these timed self correction drills to their daily work. Not only is there multiplication, but also addition, subtraction, and division. You can print these, or do them online. To do them online, you push the start to begin. This begins your time and then finish when completed. It will then correct it for you. Tell you the time, amount wrong and right, and the date!!! Love it when technology, helps the teacher out a bit!!! Carissa als

I have mentioned here a time of two that we are year round schoolers. {I thought I already did a whole post on it, but well I don't think I did} I don't really have a schedule like others do, making year round manageable. I do have somewhat of a routine, and that works for us so far. Sept, Oct, Nov, and typically the first 2 weeks of Dec, we school. Usually somewhere in there we take off a few days, and I try to keep it to a minimum of a week. Then end of Dec, usually 1-1.5 weeks before Christmas we take off. Also during the entire month of Dec we have started doing Christmas School. Usually I just read a few different CHRISTmas stories, we do different advents together, and we have been the last few years making {most} all of our Christmas Ornaments. However this never goes as well as it's planned in my head, so I have never really spent the time to blog about it. Plus during the month of December, I don't typically have extra blogging time!! Usually around the 2-3 of

The homeschool village's discussion this week, is refreshment. What do you homeschool mom's do to refresh? Since we are back to a year around school schedule, I don't take an extended time off. However we take our breaks, breathers, and refreshers as needed. We take part in many different activities and outings throughout the year, school and summer, to keep us refreshed and recharged. For me personally whenever we take a break, it seems it's harder to keep the peace. We like our routine, and it works nicely to just keep it going. A few other things I've heard others do that I am considering, pondering, and praying about... Is to do school 4 days, and use the 5th day as a project, family day. I like this idea, but at the same time, we do many of these types of things everyday!! Another thought is to school 3 or 4 weeks on and take one week off again as a project week. Again not sure about it, will have to see what way the Lord directs our ways. For us, we use our br

Simply Charlotte Mason, Smooth and Easy Days ~ Free ebook. There are more on the site, I just haven't read them yet. The Original Charlotte Mason Series ~ I am loving these, and haven't gotten nearly as far as I wish. I could read them constantly! Dumbing us down by John Taylor Gatto~ this is the first book I started reading out of this bunch, and it was the one that got me in my reading groove. I am planing to read it again, once I am finished with Miss Mason. Homeschooling with a meek and quiet spirit ~ I read this title on another blog, as a recommended summer read, and well I thought the title sounded just like what I needed, right now.... and it was!!!

So how do you clean your cloth diapers??? That is usually one of the first questions I get when I mention cloth diapers. I use a wet bag. If the BOY decides to dirty himself, which he does frequently!!! I change his diaper, using my nice homemade wipes. Then I take the wipe {yes I only use 1~ EVER} and diaper into the bathroom. I almost never rinse the wipe, unless it was BAD. I just stick it into the wet bag. Then I dip, and dip and dip some more. I dip until most of the poopies come off. I don't worry too much about getting it all off. I end up washing diapers about every other day or so. I like it that way. I hate the thought of having a bag of poopies sitting around!!! That's it, truly that's it!!!! Washing~ I am currently using Rockin Green Diaper Detergent. It works okay I guess, I can't compare it to anything else, since it's the first kind I have actually used. I usually wash the diapers one time on either a quick wash {if there's not too many poopy ones

Let's just say Spelling has never been one of Virtue's favorite subjects, nor has it been something she has ever caught on to. Noble and Charity have been using Spelling Workout, which is a recommendation in The Well Trained Mind. I used TWTM in the beginning with Noble, and just stuck to what worked for him... as long as I could. Noble and Virtue learn very differently, it's black and white, complete opposites. The last few years I have been simply taking words from Virtues writings, that she spells incorrectly, and using that list to make her spelling lists. This works, but it never felt like I was "teaching" her anything about spelling. I want it to be a bit more organized, but more so importantly teaching her the rules. I have been looking at the program All about Spelling. I am hoping to be able to get a good look at the program at our homeschool convention and curriculum sale in June. It is pricey, and I don't want to purchase it if it doesn't work a

Which cloth diapers... the pros and cons to the diapers I have and use, my opinion only!!! Thirsties Duo Diapers ... are one of my top two diapers!! I haven't had any problems with these, or any complaints. I only have 4 of these, but they are one of the type I always grab for. I like the fit, I like the way the leg gussets wrap around BOYs chunky legs!! I really like the pocket diapers, far more than the AIO's (All in One's) I will explain this later. They are not hard to work with at all. After I wash, and {mostly} hang dry, I grab everything and assemble and stack them. Then they are ready to go. I plan on purchasing these in the size one for the new baby, but I still have time. I also received some thirsties wipes , with the thirsties diapers I purchased. I figured there was no difference in them vs a regular washcloth. As far as cleaning power, and the way they clean, there isn't a difference. There is a huge difference in the way the thirsties wipes line dry. My w

SHARE YOUR HOMESCHOOL PLANS FOR JUNE!!! Well let's see, for us we will be making some drastic changes. I had mentioned we were going to do more textbook learning... well the A's have cast their votes, and they all HATE their history textbooks. We we will be leaving those behind. I am actually quite happy. Next Friday is our local homeschool convention and curriculum fair... so I am making a list and checking it twice! {Wait is it Christmas?? Conventions get HS Mama's feeling that way!!} The other major change, will be our routine. We live in a hot climate, so we move to a summer routine. We get up, do our family bible readings, personal bible readings, prep for the day, morning chores, breakfast and breakfast duties, Math lessons for the day, and some family history reading, along with working with the K and Pre-K kids a bit. Then the A's are free to roam and play until lunch. After lunch, during the HEAT OF THE DAY, we come in and take care of our Independent Studies {

The other day, I decided to take care of one of my pet peeves about our school time.... "WHERE'S MY PENCIL??? YOU TOOK MY PENCIL!!! MOM A? TOOK MY PENCIL!!!!! I actually, sadly hear that often. I don't know who's pencil was the red one with white flowers Grandma gave them for Valentine's day. So I thought to myself, my color-coded oh so crazy organized self.... why not color code the pencils? BRILLIANT!!!! I went to the local dollar store, and bought 3 packs of mechanical pencils, with 5 multi colors in them. They also had a pack with 5 pens of the same, or close to same colors. As I was handing them out, Noble asked me... Mom why are you doing this at the end of the year? {Maybe I forgot to mention we were getting back to our year round schedule this year, maybe he simply forgot... or purposefully forgot!!! Not sure} I simply said, sometimes changes need to happen, and it doesn't matter when or how, but it needs to be done. So that is where the title is headed

I wanted, or was craving blueberry muffins today. They just sounded great! I looked up a recipe for blueberry muffins and started making them. Well then it occurred to me, that I don't have muffin tins anymore. They were aluminum, so I put them in the learning room to use with the younger A's....hmmm we we can make it a blueberry muffin cake, and we did. And it was GREAT!! 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour {I just used regular whole wheat flour, and it was yummy} 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 bananas, mashed or fresh blueberries {I missed the "or" in the original recipe and used both, it turned out wonderful} 3/4 cup organic cane sugar and golden syrup {or any natural sweeteners you prefer} 1 egg, lightly beaten 1/3 cup butter or coconut oil, melted – or replace with half applesauce, as desired {or you can do it like I did with coconut cream.} Topping, optional: 2 Tbsp whole wheat flour 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon b

Papa Bear and Mama Bear NOBLE 16 yr old boy {A1} VIRTUE 14 yr old girl {A2} CHARITY 13 yr old girl {A3} VALIANT 11 yr old boy {A4} BENEVOLENT 9 yr old girl {A5} PRECIOUS 6 yr old girl {A6} BRAVE 5 yr old boy {A7} GALLANT 2yr old boy {A8} SPROUT 1yr old boy {A9} BABY BOY {A10} Oh and yes they do all begin with the letter "A"