Daily Schedule Chart 2016

I really like having a visual representation of our daily schedule so the kids know what's coming.  I come up with something new every year based on our needs.  

This year we all know the basic drill (snack of fresh fruit at same time every morning, science or history directly after snack, lunch at same time every day, literature after lunch, etc) pretty well.  So I didn't need to make up a detailed, rigid chart for the week, like in years past.  Most days will be the same, but we are comfortable with change and spontaneity.  Especially with the classes we have planned to attend, not every Wednesday, for example, will always be the same the whole year.  And I'm horrible at getting around to printing new schedules out when classes change.

This year I simply drew vertical lines on a 12X18 piece of thick art paper.  Then I got it laminated so I would have a good dry-erase surface.  To the right of every section there is a small piece of velcro.  

Every day I can use whiteboard pens to write up our schedule for the day.  Then for Tertius' and Quartus' benefit, I found little picture representations of the things we do frequently.  They have velcro on the back of them so I can attach them next to the correct words on the chart as needed.

Quartus Wants to Cook, Too

Since the big kids are learning to cook, Quartus doesn't want to be left out!  He has taken it upon himself to be the official chocolate-milk maker for dinner.  

Homeschooling Means...#23

...attending free kids' workshop events at the local hardware store on the weekend definitely gets counted on the learning record as "wood working class."

(This series is meant to be mostly lighthearted and fun.  Some may be serious, but most will be silly, braggy, or of the keepin'-it-real variety.  Not every homeschool is the same.  And some of these things could be said by public school parents.  This is just to highlight MY experience with MY homeschool and MY children.  Enjoy these little insights into our life and feel free to share your own "Homeschooling means..." in the comments!)

"Communism Fail" or "Teaching Personal Responsibility"

All of our school supplies (markers, colored pencils, crayons, pencils, erasers, scissors, glue, tape, pencil sharpeners, etc) used to be community property.  This seemed like an efficient way to organize and store these items.  Also, we like to encourage sharing and working together as a family.  

For several years I dealt with kids leaving art supplies laying around, not knowing who to call back to clean it up, and constantly throwing away markers because they dried out.  It became clear that sounding like a broken record ("Click the marker lids!  When you're done with something, put it away!  Why are there so many pencils just laying around where the baby can get to them?!") wasn't making for a peaceful home and wasn't encouraging the kids to take personal responsibility for their stuff.  

Things had to change.  Last year each of the kids got their own school supplies and we started to teach them the new mantra, "If you don't take care of your nice stuff, you won't have nice stuff."

I bought these rolls of washi tape so I could label everything.  Each kid is assigned their own color.  That way we all know what belongs to who.  No more arguing about who's drawer that random pencil should go in.

See the little labels?  I think when this tape runs out I'm going to buy some that's more opaque.  On some of their things it's pretty hard to see the color.  I even labeled each and every crayon!

This year I'm taking things a step further.  I was still wasting too much breath on constantly reminding them to put things away.  Now, if I find stuff laying around, then it gets confiscated (depending on circumstance, they may get one additional opportunity to clean it up without penalty).

So here's the kicker: if your scissors, for example, get confiscated then you have to buy new ones the next time you need them.  You have to buy them back from mom with real money.  If I didn't take care of my scissors and lost them, then I would have to go to the store and buy new ones.  The idea is to enforce real-life consequences.  If you don't take care of your stuff, you won't have your stuff.  If you need stuff, you'll have to buy new stuff.  

In the month after this new plan was introduced, Secundus and Tertius each had to buy new scissors.  Twice.  Money is a big deal to them so hopefully it will be a good motivator to shape up!  Mommy's serious.

Now, if the kid is broke or needs a color of marker that Mommy owns that didn't come in their set, then they have the option to simply borrow from me.  And then that allows for another lesson.  If you borrow someone else's stuff, you had better be respectful and take good care of it!  If you don't take care of someone else's stuff, they're not likely to let you borrow from them again!


How do you encourage personal responsibility in your kids?

Dish Towel Book Bags

We may homeschool, but that doesn't mean we always school at home.  

For example, for part of last year we did music class on Wednesday mornings and took basketball, soccer, or dodge-ball classes in the afternoons.  So in the morning we would pack up lunches and a few books so we could eat and do school work at the park in between classes instead of coming home.  That kind of situation happens at least twice every week.  

Every kid owns a nice backpack, but I found that regular backpacks are just too big and bulky for transporting what we need and things get lost and crumpled in the bottom.  Last year we ended up using these canvas bags.  Though it would have been nice for the handles to be a bit longer, they were the perfect size for a clipboard, a couple workbooks, and a pencil case.  A friend had added the Inside Out picture and given them as birthday party favors.  I'm not sure where she found the bags, but I'm pretty sure I had seen similar at the dollar store.  

Sadly, by the end of the school year, much of the stitching started to come undone.  So the search was on for replacements.  

Sadly, I was unable to find the perfect bags for the right price (I was only willing to spend a dollar or two on each.)  But then when I was at the Dollar Tree I saw all these cute dish towels and was inspired!

These are the perfect size and everyone got to choose their own favorite design!

And since I didn't have to do any measuring, cutting, or hemming for the bags, I was able to whip up 4 in only about half an hour!  The dish towels are just folded in half and sewn down the sides.

 The handles are what took the most time.  I just bought a fifth towel and cut it into four even strips.  Then each strip was sewn in half (right sides together), flipped right side out, and attached to the bags.

 I'm so pleased with how they turned out!  They're cute, perfect size, personal, really soft, and machine washable.  Now let's just hope that they end up being durable enough to last us the whole school year!

Settlers of Catan and Creative Art

This summer we taught the kids how to play Settlers of Catan.  Hubby's family used to play it (usually the Cities and Knights expansion) all the time.  Multiple times per week.  This board game was involved when he proposed to me.  So it was only a matter of time before we exposed the kids to this classic.

Primus has played with us once before, but this night we decided Secundus and Teritus were old enough, now, too.  It took us about 3 hours, but a great time was had by all.

A favorite past-time when playing board games with multiple pieces like this is to arrange our pieces artistically while we wait for our turn (and then of course trying to destroy each others' creations.)  Usually this consists of towers or snowflake-like patterns. And given the fact that Settlers of Catan is of German origins, it is alarmingly easy to make a perfect swastika out of 4 city pieces.  Inncocent Primus thought it was a Shuriken (throwing star.)

But tonight we got more creative.  Hubby came up with a striking likeness of himself, with full beard and mustache.  

That easily became Santa, if Santa had died his white facial hair to look young again.

 And don't forget that bad guys always have facial hair.  Red cities make great devil horns.  

Leprechaun!

Secundus was pretty proud of the person she made.

Her duck-man was pretty creative, too.

Curriculum 2016-17

In case you're interested, here's our plan for this school year.

This science book won't take us the whole school year to complete.  I haven't decided yet what to do once we finish.

This will be our third year working on Story of the World volume 2.  We've been distracted with learning about early US history and about Native Americans the past two years and so we've been making extremely slow progress through this book.  But I am determined to finish it now!

Primus is in 5th grade.  

She only has a few sections and activities left in her California History book from last year.

She's also almost done with the math level D book and will be starting level E soon.

I'm doing All About Spelling with both of the girls together.  Primus could definitely handle going faster, but I switched her to this method relatively recently and want to ensure that she has no gaps in her knowledge of spelling rules.

The Physics curriculum we'll be doing is written for "K-4th" because I originally bought it last year and never got to it.  It's not totally "beneath" Primus, but I definitely wanted her to have a rich science experience this year.  So she'll have opportunities to do some extra activities.  She specifically asked for chemistry sets because that's what we studied last year and it sparked her interest.

Secundus is in 3rd grade.  

She is about half way through with her math level C book so will be well into level D before the end of the year.

She will also get a chance to explore with a Snap Circuits set I have because she's pretty sure she wants to be an electrical engineer when she grows up.  Now she just needs to learn what that means!  :)

Tertius is in 1st grade.
 I can't remember where I found that My Vocabulary Journey packet, some random online source years ago.  That will be a fun way to practice spelling some commonly used words.  When he's done with that, then we'll move on to All About Spelling.
Quartus will be joining Tertius for his Literature curriculum.
I don't know if we'll actually get around to it this year, but I've got written down that he'll do some extra science learning from the Evan Moor science curriculum that I used with the girls at this age.  I really enjoyed that curriculum.


Finally Quartus is our 3.5 year old preschooler.  His plan for the year is to play with toys (educational and not), listen to his brother read, participate with the other kids' studies as he's interested, work in various workbooks, and do some preschool craft projects whenever he's in the mood.
He's a very bright little guy and has always been one to think, observe, and absorb everything.  As soon as I think he's ready, we'll pull out the Distar stuff and start working through that.  Until then, he'll have very casual interest-led days.

Healthy Breakfasts for Lazy Summer Mornings

*I found this sitting in my Draft folder since summer 2015.  I have no idea why it never got posted!*

This summer I have found it very hard to wake up before the kids.  I sure am enjoying these lazy mornings where I get to sleep in, if only for a few minutes!  I do not, however, enjoy rolling out of bed to see that the kids (who are perfectly capable of getting themselves cereal and milk) have eaten goldfish or pretzels from our snack box for breakfast.  They're also perfectly capable of waiting for me to get up.  They won't starve, but good luck getting them to believe that!

So here was my solution (because expecting me to drag myself out of bed any earlier is unrealistic):
I made 72 Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins!  I plan to do a huge batch of banana muffins, too.

Don't they look great all bagged up and ready to go in the freezer?  I try to remember to grab a bag (each bag has 5 muffins) out of the freezer (which is in the garage) and throw it in the fridge each night.  But if I forget to, Primus knows where to find them.  I like them warm and have taught the kids how to put them on a plate in the microwave, but they ate them frozen this morning and loved them.

The kids have also been instructed to get themselves glasses of milk.  Even Tertius is perfectly capable of (and usually the first to remember to) put the gallon of milk on the table, even if it's completely full.  All of the kids know where the clean cups are and can reach them.  Secundus is capable of pouring everyone's glass if the gallon isn't too full.  Primus can do it if her sister can't.

So if the three big kids work together, which they're pretty good at doing, then they can make sure that everyone, even Quartus, will have tummies full of healthy goodness early in the morning!

An important part of homeschooling, and parenting in general, to me is preparing our kids to be independent adults.  In these few minutes before I'm alert and ready to face the day, my kiddos get a chance to practice important life skills!

Can't Win 'em All ;)

Yay! I got our learning record for our first two weeks of school typed up and sent to our supervising teacher already (seeing her tomorrow). Usually I get this thing done very late at night the night before or early morning right before she comes.

Getting it done "early" feels like a great way to start the school year!

Of course, that means that it's almost 7 and I still haven't fed the kids dinner...Oh well, can't win 'em all!