Homeschooling A Houseful

Shelly posted a comment , about kids wanting to snack all day and not wanting to eat their meals. Here's her comment... Melinda, I'm curious. How often do your kids eat during the day? Mostly your younger A's, since they seem to line up with my kids. I'm struggling with the kids wanting to graze all day, then they don't eat their meals. Then when they don't eat their meals they get hungry soon and it's created a vicious cycle of my kids snacking, not always on the best foods, and not eating their more nutritious meals. Any suggestions for me? hmm...well one of the biggest problems I have with snacking and grazing all day, is that I, Mama Bear am a grazer!! So yes, naturally my children are too. All the things I will suggest, are not always true, nor do they happen each day. Please, please, PLEASE keep in mind, there are almost no perfect days around here! I guess the first suggestion I would give, and this is something I can honestly say about us, let them s...

Remember this system ??? What's for dinner??? or NOT!!! This did not work out for us! The theory of it, still seems good, and I like the idea. Here's why it did not work for us, not to say it will not work for you. Whenever I need something whether it's in the freezer, fridge downstairs or pantry... I usually send an A to get it, and it's usually a younger A. Well those A's can remember to mark off the list, or even read the word they need. I am sure I could train them to do it, but....well I just don't feel up to it. The second reason {and probably the one that bugs me the most} is that I don't have this list with me, at the grocery store. Making it difficult to know for sure what was on the list. I will go back to the way I use to do it... I have a list in my Mommy journal, {aka Brain} and I keep track myself. That or it's the old standby of my memory. However don't despair, I have a new plan for my wipe-off boards. This is the first one I made. I ...

I am working out all the details on our Thanksgiving Lessons for next week, yes I know procrastination!!!! I came across this, and actually I used this once, a few years back and forgot about it. If you ever need a free map, go here ! You can even print a wall size map, I just wonder how fun it would be to put it together??!!?? I printed a world map, in the 4 page size. We will be cutting out the continents, and gluing them to a poster board, to make a map of the world, to chart the Pilgrims Route. I found the inspiration for this fun activity here . We will also be making the mini boats.

For our November Field Trip with our local Field Trip Group, we toured a local Pizza Restaurant. They were so nice there, and so willing to teach the kids. They took the kids in the back, in the kitchen area, and had them all wash their hands, put on plastic gloves and aprons. We ordered two pizza's and an order of breadsticks. They made our order, right there, and even had the kids help! We also watched our pizza go through the oven. They offered not only an educational field trip, but also a fun and hands on one.

Remember when I was talking about our Christmas Advent Chains ? Here's a link to a very nice one, very similar to mine. Though ours also has a hymn each day...which would be very easy to add.

Last Sunday A3 was reading a Friend magazine, it's a kids religious magazine Grandpa and Grandma send the kids. They love reading through these. At the dinner table, A3 was telling us all about the story she read....Sunday Stations. This is the story, simplified for my blog friends :p The family in the stories church was not until Sunday afternoon, after lunch. The kids always had a hard time waiting for church to start. So the Mom came up with the idea of Sunday Stations. She had 4 stations in the story, one at the table, one on the couch, one on the computer, and one on the other couch. At each station she set up an activity, she gave some simple instructions for each station, set the timer for 10 minutes and the kids were off, moving around the stations. In the story the stations were table- color/work on personal goals and progress, couch1- call someone Grandpa in the story, couch2- read aloud with Mom, computer-email someone close to you. Well the A's all thought this was...

Go on over to Spell Out Loud, and see her Christmas Nativity Sets Post . I love little people, and this is too cute! She also listed tons of links of cute Nativities online. I also wanted to add a few fun things we have and do with nativities. I wrote another post with ideas, earlier. I wanted to add a few other things. We have two kid okay nativities, one is not available from the site I purchased it from, I bought it around 9 years ago! It was only $3-$5 and it's very small, and porcelain. I like it because they do have to handle it carefully! I also just purchased this one from oriental trading company. My good friend Andrea, at Dean's Academy does something I love. She has purchased each of her children their own nativity , she looks for cheap ones or nativities at thrift stores. Her children, pick the perfect place for their nativity, and can set it up as they choose, they can change the positions as they want! Last year, one of her children was sure someone was messing ...