Homeschooling A Houseful

Well in case you didn't notice, that title is said in a very loud, very frustrating scream!!!! No the A's are all behaving {as well as A's behave, that is!!} Yeah it's snowing here, and I am so done with the snow, but no that's not it either! Let me back up a bit, and start my story at the beginning. Last Monday, I was doing some wash, and we heard a large clank in the washer. Hmmm that didn't sound good, it could be anything~ REALLY! Talk about some odd items going through our washer. Tuesday morning we got up, and hit the road for a field trip. We needed to be there early... no time to do any laundry before. When we got home, I threw in a load. The machine beeped, it's ever so annoying BEEP~BEEP~BEEP! That is one thing I hate about this machine it BEEPS FOREVER!!! I instantly walked over to take out the load, and it was socking wet. There was no way it spun. So I put it on the spin only cycle, and left the room. Again, it BEEPED!!! I went in and again foun...

I got my creative groove today, and made these Number songs . Now I am no where as creative as a lot of the bloggers out there!!! I am not set up to do such cute things, I don't have a nice program. Anyways, I made these very simple, but cute number songs... and thought I'd share!

These came through a yahoo homeschool email list I am on.... very cool!!! I thought they were cool enough to share! ENJOY!

Jump on over to Barnes and Noble , they are having a Melissa and Doug SALE !!!! YIPEE!!!! 45% off and free shipping if you order $25 or more!!! It appears that this sale ends March 29th, so don't delay! Do watch that it's from Barnes and Noble, or you can't get the free shipping. I watch for these sales all year long, and purchase things for the A's for Birthdays and Holidays. I put them away, and keep a running list of what I have purchased in my planner!!! Works for me!!! I think that's a trick I learned from my Mom, she does that often!!!

{Photo from Amazon, link below} I am sure you have all heard of workboxes, they are everywhere... in the homeschool world. I started implementing the workbox idea with A5 and A6. I am still working out all the details. We currently have their regular work in the drawers, and they work through them. I am finally {sad to say, FINALLY} ready to start getting myself into gear here!!! I found a few wonderful workbox finds, and thought I'd share! ~I came across these drawers , {pictured above} and love the look of them, the simplicity in design.. and size. I purchased two of them. {no I didn't pay that price!!} ~I also found this wonderful planning sheet at Robin's Blog, Heart of Wisdom. I love these, I printed off two. I copied them to my computer and made one for A5 in "boy" colors and one for A6 in "girl" colors. This way I can glance quickly at them to "see" who's who and what they are suppose to be doing. These are pretty simple forms, and ...

I just wanted to take a second and mention this wonderful letter of the week program. You can download all her fun things, free online. Though a much more simpler way, and way to support her for all her hard work, you can purchase it for $10 to download, or I believe $15 for a CD. There are so many wonderful resources, she has made. It's all so very cute, my little girly A's love it. I am sure come time for A7 to learn his letters, I will need to change a few of them, I will need to add a bit more for a boy.... but $10 for a complete years worth of letters, is wonderful... so much less than paying for a preschool!!!!! Oh and if you haven't seen this blog, you so need to go there... LOVE IT!!!! Confessions of a Homeschooler . The link to her letter of the week download is on the side bar. She also is so willing to help, I had a problem with the download, and she was right on fixing it for me.

What's for dinner tonight?? Don't you LOVE that questions!??! My best response, so far to that all but loved question.... food {said in a melancholy way!} Then the next question I always hear... What kind of food?? {this is the best part!! Said in a "Mom kind of way"} The EDIBLE kind!!!! The A's HATE it!!! Now what does all that have to do with Chicken Bone Stock??? Well nothing really, I just thought I'd start with it, it makes for a good introduction... I just ran across this post , about making Chicken Broth Stock in your crockpot. {I love my crockpots} and this site it's called Naturally Knocked Up. Not that I need help in the being knocked up area!! However she still has tons of great natural insights! I am making this tonight, letting it simmer tomorrow, and then well see how it is!! The only reason I thought I'd try this, is we had Chicken for dinner {yes the EDIBLE kind!!} I currently purchase store bought, organic, range free chicken broth, ...

SIMPLIFY!!! I LOVE that word!!! because raising a houseful is chaotic, crazy, noisy, extreme... {I could go on and on} I try to make everything I do, as simple as I possibly can, because quite frankly if it takes too much from Mama Bears time, she's not going to continue it!!! Yeah I'm a simple kind of gal!!! So our Family Store, and Points System.... we love it, but not how it was running!!! The family store, was there to simplify the idea of standing in the checkout line with 4+ children waiting for each of them to pay the cashier!!! Well, remembering or trying to stock our family store... wasn't so simple. I also didn't like the fact that most of their hard earned point money was being spent on candy and junk!!! Junk in junk food, and junk in junk toys!!! Which was another aspect I was trying to avoid. The above picture is how I have simplified our points. With the point system we would cash in our points for family money. Then they could use that family money {pl...

Just sending out a heads up to everyone... Brite Music is have a 40% off their "systems" and 25% off some of their bundles!! We don't have many of these, but love the ones we do. They are pricey, but so worth it! Here's a link to the Brite Music Website and Sale .

What does that mean!??! What ship are you jumping from? Where are you jumping to? How are you planning on jumping?? Well let me tell you.... I am jumping into the great deep, dark and "unknown" world, I am planning on jumping Titanic style, Spread Eagle that is!!! No seriously folks, I have decided that for our upcoming curriculum, we are going to jump into the area of {dare I even say it??} Traditional Christian TEXTBOOKS!!!! {I can hear you all moan, and groan and say OH NO!!!!} Yes TEXTBOOK, tends to be a "bad" word in the homeschool world. It's one of those 3-letter words, okay so it's actually an Eight-letter word. I am not sure why TEXTBOOKS have such a bad name to homeschoolers. Actually I do, it has to do with the dumbing down of America. It has to do with short tidbits of information crammed into a lesson, bits and pieces of history... never knowing the whole thing. HOWEVER, you must also admit, that there are NOW so many choices in TEXTBO...

Last Friday, we decided to try to make some Whole Wheat Snicker doodles. I have always loved Snicker doodles, what's not to love??? Papa Bear and a few of the A's have always hated them, so I received mixed reviews when I suggested we make them! Papa Bear came home from work that night, and I showed him the cookies, and said do you like Snicker doodles? Papa Bear's response, No not really, but I like Peanut Butter Cookies!! {I believe there was a HINT HINT added there!!} Well he broke down, and started craving something sweet and yummy!!! He ate one and said, WOW those are pretty good. He ate another and said, Yeah those are good!!! {Okay maybe not his exact words, but it was close!!} So here's the recipe I used, I found it on All Recipes. It's called Whole Wheat Snicker doodles II Here's the original recipe. I will add the changes I made to them after the recipe. Original Recipe Yield 5 dozen Ingredients 1 1/2 cups white sugar 1 cup butter, softened 1 egg ...