Organizing the Snack Cupboard

This year I have worked really hard to get into a good routine when it comes to regular mealtimes and snacks, and fitting in all food groups.  The kids and I all love what we've come up with.  When I started, I had to set alarms on my phone to keep us consistent time-wise.  But now we're all so used to it that I could probably turn the alarms off most days.

We're not big breakfast eaters so usually all we have is milk and cereal, oatmeal or toast.  At 9:30, though, it's time for some fresh fruit while we transition from independent learning to group history or science time.

Lunch is at 12:15.  Lunch always includes half a glass of fruit juice and a serving of veggies along with our entree.  Two more servings of veggies are served with dinner.  I'm really pleased with how much and variety of vegetables my kids eat.

Then later in the afternoon 3 o'clock snack marks the end of the school day.  Usually we finish way before that, but the kids know that no later than 3 I basically "clock out."  Everyone grabs their own snack and gets to have some free, unstructured independent time (including mommy.)

To make 3 o'clock snack time go easier so the kids could be more independent, I keep these snack boxes well stocked.  The box on the right is full of fruit: dried fruit, applesauce, and fruit cups.  The box on the left is full of grains: crackers, granola bars.  They have to pick one thing from each box.

As you can see, these boxes fit perfectly in this space that used to hold my oven.  It's the perfect height for the kids to access by themselves.  Even Tertius and Quartus can make their selections easily if they push a chair over.

Another key to the way we do snack time is that all snacks have to be already in individual serving sizes.  We do like to buy packaged granola bars.  But what about Goldfish or raisins?

Pre-packaged single serving snacks are expensive and wasteful.  Portioning into plastic baggies is also expensive and wasteful.  Plus, the crackers get crumbled too easily.

So we use a variety of containers.  I've gotten creative. I have not bought a single container for this purpose.  Check it out.

Sprinkle bottles, small tupperware I was gifted, breast milk storage bottles, spice bottles, hand-me-down homemade baby food containers, and bullion cube containers.  Perfect.  Things like rice cakes and graham crackers obviously don't fit, but I'm fine with the occasional ziplock bag for that.  Or the big package will sit in the cupboard up above and can be gotten down if a majority ask for the same thing.

When these bottles get emptied, the lids get put back on and they're thrown in the space behind the snack boxes (ideally by the child who did the emptying) to await being refilled.  I don't even feel it's necessary to wash all the containers every time.  I definitely don't want to increase my dirty dish pile!  And if I do wash a container and the lid somehow gets lost (dishwashers eat small lids the way dryers eat socks) then I don't worry too much because most of these were free and easily replaced!

13 Tips for Nursery

At church, my current calling (unpaid assignment) is Nursery Leader.  Basically I'm the teacher (with a couple awesome assistants) for the 2 hour Sunday School class for 18 month to 3 year olds.

I don't claim to be the best Nursery leader.  I also don't claim to have come up with all these things myself.  However, I do love my calling and I think our nursery is pretty great.  Maybe some of these ideas will be helpful to others.


1. Think about your schedule and mix it around until you find a routine that works for your kids. 
Take into consideration the time of day, if the kids ate snack during Sacrament Meeting, and attention spans.

Last year we started the class with the lesson.  As soon as the kids came in from Sacrament Meeting, we had chairs set up for them to immediately come in and sit down on.  Surprisingly, they had great attention spans when we did it this way!  I thought the last thing they would want to do right after sitting with their parents in one meeting would be to sit still for another meeting.  But it totally worked.

This year we have been unable to continue that because I'm also the organist.  So I'm always a little late getting to the room.  Here's what we're trying currently:

Before church I set up the room with a few activities and toys.  Not very much.  Sometimes playdough on the table (that's a real winner!)
Once the kids get tired of those things, we put them away and sit them down for snack.
After snack we sometimes go for a walk outside.
Next is free play time.
The last 20 minutes is clean up and then music and lesson.


2. One popular item to have out as the kids gather is the book basket. 
 Recently we had two new additions to our nursery who have had a hard time transitioning.  (If kids cry for their moms, I don't take them there unless they are out of control to the point of disturbing other children or if mom instructs me otherwise.)  A real winner with each of these new children is reading!  If they're crying and pointing to the door, sometimes nothing else will calm them down as fast as a good book.  It's really surprising how well it has worked in these cases!


3. Another good strategy is to keep the sad child busy. 
 One boy got to the point where he wasn't screaming and crying the whole time, but if he sat down to play and got to thinking about mom, then the waterworks would start again.  So for a week or two I just made him my special helper.  I had him follow me around, giving him jobs the whole time.  He got toys out of the closet with me, cleaned up a spill, put the music activity on the table, stacked the chairs, etc.  He was so engaged in helping that he didn't have time to be sad!


4. Use sippy cups instead of little disposable cups. 
 It's sometimes a pain to remember to wash them each week, but it's cheaper than continually buying paper cups.  And we never have to worry about spills on the table!

Also, the kids are learning responsibility by helping to dump out their cups in the sink and put them in the wash bucket.  They love to help by doing this job!


5. We do keep little dixie cups in the closet, though.
They're good for if I forget the sippies or if kids have extra snack they want to take home instead of throw away.


6. The kids love to go on walks for a change of scenery. 
It also gives one leader a chance to stay behind and clean up/set up the room without little ones underfoot and grabbing things from the closet.

We don't use the classic rope-with-handles that a lot of nurseries and preschools use to go on walks. It seems so boring to me and not worth the hassle of teaching them to stay holding onto the rope.

Instead, we're working on teaching them to walk reverently down the hall. Once we're outside, they're free to run to the nearest lamppost.  Then they have to wait at the poll until everyone arrives and they're given the OK to go to the next pole.  So we make our way around the building like this, going from pole to pole with lots of praise for listening and waiting. 


7. Our nursery owns several doll strollers, almost one for each child.  
The kids love to take these on our walks (with or without a doll inside.)


8. As an alternative to a walk outside, we used to take the kids into an extra section of the cultural hall.  
This let them work on gross motor skills (throw balls, hula hoop, run) and get lots of energy out in a short time.  It also takes less adult supervision if you're short handed for the day.  And finally, it's a safer option if you have kids who are "runners."  Don't want to risk one of them bolting ahead and going into the parking lot!


9. I play a little game to get everyone's attention and to get them calmed down and ready to reverently walk down the hall.  
I stand at the door and say, "If you're ready to go, put your finger on your..." and then I'll name a body part.  After doing this 3 or 4 times I've usually got everyone playing along.  The last one before I open the door is, "If you're ready to go, zip your lips." Some of the kids have learned what to expect so when they hear us say it's time to walk, they'll stand near the door, look up at me, and put their finger on their nose in anticipation.


10.  The same type of technique is useful in getting everyone reverent for prayer, too. 
 I usually lead them in a verse of Roll Your Hands or My Hands before we pray at snack and at the start of the lesson.  Both of these songs end with the children folding their arms.


11. I'm liking the prayer wheel I made a few weeks ago. 
 Some of the older kids have gotten eager to say prayer which is great!  But the fights over whose turn it is were taking away from the Spirit.  So now it is totally fair.


12. Have a fun way to select songs for music time. 
We have a fish board.  It's a big blue poster board that has laminated fish shapes attached to it with velcro.  Each fish has a song title written on the back.

Usually I'll start music time with letting each kid choose a fish from the board.  Then one at a time I choose a child who's sitting reverently to bring me their fish so we can sing it.


13. Make pick-up time smoother and less chaotic with a name chart.
Our nursery room consists of two sections, each with it's own door out to the hallway. At the end of church, while we're doing music time, we pull the room divider part way to encourage the children to stay in only one section.

Hanging on the outside of the door where we are, there is a big poster that has every child's name attached to it. When a parent is ready to pick up their child they take off the name and slide it under the door.  Then we know to gather that kid, their shoes/hair bows/ties, left over snack, and coloring page.  Then one leader escorts the child to the empty section of the room and out the door to their parent, out of sight of the other jealous children.


What's your best tip for a successful Nursery?

Snack Cupboard Update

A long time ago I shared what our snack organization looked like.  I recently reorganized.

Before, we had cardboard boxes in this cubby space to hold snacks. Boxes rip and so a more durable solution was needed. It's a weird size hole and I couldn't find anything that would fit and work the way I wanted.

But then I realized that these drawers that were being used for storage in the school room would work really well! Sadly, it appears the company does not make this precise size anymore so I had to shuffle things around so I could use them here.

I still use a hodge podge of random little containers to hold individual portions of snacks. When the kids empty a container, they just throw it back in the drawer.

When the drawers are getting full of empty containers, then I take them out and restock. It's hard to see because the picture is so dark below, but there is plenty of storage space behind the drawers.

This is where I can store pre-filled containers and boxes of granola bars that aren't needed yet. This is my favorite part because if the kids run out of snacks in the drawers and I don't have time to refill them, then it's no big deal because I have a bunch already ready and waiting.

How do you do snack time?

Finger Painting with Yogurt

This is an activity I used to do all the time when Primus was 3 and Secundus was a baby.  It's a fun activity and snack all in one!

This can be done with either vanilla yogurt or vanilla pudding.  We've always done yogurt, but pudding would be nice with its thicker consistency.

Divide your snack into 3 bowls and color them with red, blue, and yellow food coloring.

 Give each of the kids 3 tiny bowls so they can have a little bit of each color.

  A big white plate makes a great canvas for mixing colors and painting.

Our Favorite Lunches

We sometimes struggle with variety in our meal plans.  This is mostly a problem with dinners as the kids don't seem to mind too much if we eat the same lunches all the time.  But I do know they appreciate it when I make something other than sandwiches.  So I wanted to share our standard lunches.

First, to make sure we eat enough of the right healthy stuff each day, we have a routine and aim for 5 servings of fruits and veggies (usually 2 or 3 fruit and 3 veggie).  We have a snack of fresh fruit between breakfast and lunch.  Apples and bananas are staples around here; or we might have another in-season fruit or pomegranate seeds from our freezer. 
We have fruit juice and a serving of veggie (usually whatever we have raw in the fridge- carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers) with lunch. 
Our snack before dinner consists of a serving of something like crackers and fruit (usually something easy to grab like dried fruit, apple sauce pouches, or fruit cups.)
Our final two veggie servings for the day are served with dinner.


Finally, on to our favorite lunch entrees:

1. Peanut Butter and Jelly.  Obviously.  Definitely the common fall-back.

2. Ham and Cheese Sandwiches.  I load mine with a bunch of lettuce and either put tomatoes or pickle inside or on the side. My kids hate mustard, but they love having sandwiches with mayo and barbeque sauce.

3. Pizza Crackers.  The kids love to make and eat these. Stick a plate full of them in the microwave for 15 seconds at a time until they're done. I can almost make them as fast as they get eaten!

Just layer a Ritz cracker, pizza sauce (our favorite is Contadina Pizza Squeeze because it's easier for the kids to help), pepperoni or cooked/crumbled Italian sausage, and cheese.  Cutting string cheese with kitchen shears is super easy and fast.  But I prefer to use chunks of Mini Babybels because they melt better.

4. Leftovers. One big perk of homeschooling is being able to just open the fridge and warm up whatever was left from dinner the night before. 

5. Corndogs.  One of these days I'm going to try and make my own mini corn dog muffins.  That would be really fun for the kids to help with.

(Picture and recipe found here.)

6. Little Smokie Quesadillas.  These were a free sample at Sam's Club once.  I was surprised at how much Secundus and Tertius loved them.  So they begged me to grab a recipe card and ask me to buy Little Smokies whenever they see them at the store.

(Picture taken from here.  No recipe available, but it's pretty self explanatory.)

7. Taco Bowls.  This is something my kids loved but for whatever reason, I haven't made in a really long time.  They're not huge fans of taco salad inside, but I'll fill them with things like raw veggies, string cheese, and cut up hot dogs.  It's just such a fun novelty to be able to eat your bowl when you're done.

(Picture taken from this Amazon listing.  I'm not sure if this is the same brand I own.)

What's your kids' favorite lunch during the school year?

School Organization Fall 2014

 School starts for us in less than a month!  I've been working on getting organized and ready for the new school year.  I'll have two official students (Primus grade 3, Secundus grade 1) plus Tertius doing some preschool stuff and Quartus who's 18 months.  Here's what our plans are.  Maybe it will give you some ideas.


Daily Schedule.  This is going to be posted on the wall in our kitchen.

As you can see, 7:30 is when I aim for everyone to be awake and getting started with the day.  "Devo" stands for devotional.  It's our time as a family to pray and work on our scripture memorization. 

 By 8:15 hopefully the kitchen table is clean and everyone is ready for Table Time.  Everyone (even the boys for most of the time) will be sitting at the table and working on things like math and writing.  Mostly independent work-book stuff.

9:30 is snack time.  We're usually not big breakfast eaters (just cereal or oatmeal) but by 9:30 we're ready for some fruit. Under that I have posted History.   I have several word strips that have velcro on the back so they can be changed daily.  I aim for doing history and science each twice a week.  We do science and history all together in either the school room or the living room.

After lunch is another velcro spot where I can change activities out.  I aim to do Literature 3 times per week.  This year Secundus and Tertius will be doing literature activities together while Primus will be studying chapter books like Charlotte's Web and Bunnicula.

The school day officially ends no later than 3pm with snack.


 Weekly Assignments Clip Board.  Each student has their own. 

 Last year we did daily assignment sheets.  This year I want to try weekly assignments to encourage independence, personal responsibility, and the idea that it's a good idea to get the "boring" stuff out of the way first so then the rest of the week will be more time for fun.

All page numbers completed, test scores, and anything else applicable will be written on these sheets to make record keeping easier for me at the end of each month when I see our supervising teacher.


Writing Activity Ideas.  This is taped to each of the girls' clipboards.

I want the girls to have lots of opportunities to write throughout the week.  But I also want this to be an area where they can choose to do what really interests them.  So they're each expected to do 3 writing activities per week in addition to their Daily 6 Trait Writing book and any writing associated with other subjects.  This list gives them ideas of things to do.


 Book Baskets.  Each kid has their own basket that holds all of their individual work and clipboard. 

I got these at a thrift store for only a couple bucks each and everyone has their own color.  They sit on a shelf in the school room when we're not using them for Table Time.  All science, history, German, art, and literature stuff is stored all together in a separate location.


Record Keeping.  I'm an over-achiever sometimes.  I'm also paranoid and want to make sure EVERYTHING the kids learn or do is thoroughly documented. 

About once a month our supervising teacher comes to document our attendance, relevant things that we've done, and collect work samples.  Before she comes, I type up everything we've done and send it to her so she can pick out what she needs to send on to the school.

Then after our meeting I staple all loose work samples that she didn't take together with that kid's weekly assignment sheets and store them in my filing cabinet until the end of the year.  If the teacher wants work samples from any of the workbooks (math, handwriting, spelling, language) then they can be ripped out and given to her.  Otherwise, I probably won't be tearing out those pages.  (A couple years ago I tore every page out of Primus' math book so then she could just have one sheet of paper in front of her at a time.)

(Edited to add:) I also have a simple notebook where I record all of our group learning and activities each week.  I tell the kids that it's my brain because it's also where I write school supply wish lists, grocery lists, keep track of school money left, all planning notes about future birthday parties, list of things borrowed or loaned out, etc.




Are you ready for the new school year?

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.

No Summer Is Complete Without a Trip to the Beach

Or when a beach trip isn't possible, a crafty snack is a good alternative.  :)

Remember how you can make "dirt cups" with chocolate pudding, Cool-whip, and crushed Oreos?  

Instead we used vanilla pudding, Cool-whip, and Golden Oreos.  That formed the basis of each kids' beach.  Then crushed vanilla wafers was the sand layered on top.

Blue Jello became the ocean, with Swedish Fish splashing in the waves.

What I did:
1. mix the pudding with milk (the kids often help me with this, but not this time)
2. stir the Cool-whip and crushed Oreos into the pudding
3. prepare the Jello (the kids often help me with this, but not this time)

What Primus did:
1. crush the Oreos (I doubled bagged them in a ziplock for her.)

What all the kids did:
1. scoop the "beach" onto their plates
2. scoop the Jello onto their plates
3. crush their own small bag of Nilla wafers and sprinkle on top of beach
4. add Swedish Fish to "water."  Some of them buried their fish under the Jello, and some made them look like the fish were jumping out of the water.

When Does Our Holiday Start? Oops!

Since we are enrolled with a charter school to do our homeschooling, they give us a calendar dictating when we should take holidays.  (And I have to report our attendance.)  But I figure that one perk to homeschooling is taking vacation whenever you want. 

For example, back in November we were supposed to take Veteran's Day off, which was a Friday.  But Tuesday of that same week, I was gone all morning at the Principle for a Day thing.  So I made that Tuesday our holiday and we did school on Friday to make up for it.

Well, it looks like I've done it again, accidentally.  I was so sure that our Christmas break began after Friday the 16th, same as Secundus' preschool.  But yesterday I finally looked at my planner and it turns out we are supposed to have school Monday thru Wednesday this week and then take 10 school days off.  Oops!

So minor inconvenience, now I just have to pay attention and make sure we get all the right number of school days in.  Primus is excited to be on break right now so I'm not going tell her that she has to wake up early today and come do her journal and math just because South Sutter says so and Mommy screwed up.  But at the same time, I don't want to get too far off the schedule.  (And sticking to their plan of not starting school again until January 5th as opposed to the 2nd sounds really nice!)

It's a good thing that Kindergarten is easy and fun.  Because I was able to squeeze in a school day yesterday without Primus even noticing.  I got her to read 4 phonics books to me, we read and discussed several Aesop's Fables together, she watched an Eyewitness DVD about Skeletons, we made "ants on a log" for snack, and we made reindeer donuts for a treat.  (Pics and blog post to follow.)

So since I snuck in a day yesterday, that means we can now take vacation until January 3rd!  Sweet!  Although, now I'm conflicted because there is a chance I might get to go out of state without the kids at the end of January to help my sister-in-law with her new baby.  Which means Primus will have to take some vacation days at that time.  (Hubby can't be expected to do too much in my absence because he'll have his own homework to complete.  Though I will at least leave her with some handwriting practice pages and other easy independent workpages.)  So maybe I have just banked one day toward that. 

Effie Yeaw Field Trip

Friday morning I took the kids on a field trip to Effie Yeaw Nature Center. I love that place.
The girls went armed with their maps and we followed the trail that Primus and I had decided on before and highlighted. We picked a more rustic trail that we have never taken before. I'm thankful that Hubby's parents had kept the backpack carrier that they used when he was a baby. So I had Tertius in that for the first half of our hike. Man, he is heavy!

The hike was pretty uneventful. We did see one deer. Occasionally the girls indicated that they were scared. I pretended that I wasn't. The trail was really narrow in some places, we were surrounded by tall grass/bushes, we kept hearing rustling, and there were a ton of gopher/snake holes all along the path. But we survived.

Our destination was a Nature Study Pond that I guess is being restored. We stopped there, ate a snack, and then headed back by way of another trail. On the way back, I let Tertius walk. He was in heaven. He thinks he is such a big kid! For much of the time, he was walking faster than the rest of us. At one point he had gotten quite far ahead. Then he turned around and started gesturing and yelling at his sisters. He was obviously telling them, "Come on, girls!"

Here's a picture taken outside the Nature Center when we arrived at the end of our hike.

Transportation-Themed Graham Cracker Treats

 On a whim I decided to have the kids make these fun treats for snack at Grandma Cindy's house.   This day Grandma was babysitting two other boys so it was nice to share this project with them, too.  They really enjoyed it, as predicted.  And it was good practice for the kids in spreading with a knife.  That's so hard to do!

The little brown one is a traffic light on one quarter graham cracker, with chocolate frosting and M&Ms.

The yellow one is a school bus.  Full size graham cracker, yellow frosting, Oreos for wheels, M&Ms for headlight and tail light, Cinnamon Toast Crunch for windows.

Finally, that pink monstrosity was originally going to be a fire truck.  (You can use pretzel sticks to make a ladder and M&Ms for sirens.)  But I forgot to grab my can of red frosting, and using red food coloring in white frosting only gives you pink.  I even tried to add some chocolate frosting to darken it but that only made it look fushia.  Oh well, it's a pink car I guess.  The kids didn't mind.

So proud of the finished product!  

Quartus was just given one of his sibling's left over frosting plate with a knife, a handful of M&Ms, and a few graham cracker pieces.  That kept him busy and happy for quite a while.

Leap Day Ideas

The Homeschool Classroom has some fun ideas of things to do to make Leap Day special.

Here are four that I really liked.  I think we'll work 2 or 3 of them into our day tomorrow.

20. Bake together. Even better – take some of your tasty creations to family, friends, or neighbors (especially elderly neighbors that probably don’t do much baking for themselves anymore).

21. Make a trail mix that is made up of 29 pieces of various items like Cheerios, raisins, and so on. (Unless you’re adding in lots and lots of different ingredients, these will likely be individual snack mixes. So, let everyone make their own special mixes.)

22. Take guesses on what item in your house is closest to 29 inches. The one who guesses correctly can be the Leap Day King or Queen.

23. Have your children write a letter (or dictate it for them) to themselves to be opened on Leap Day 2016. Who do they think they’ll be? What are their hopes and goals? (Consider writing one of these to yourself as well.) Consider adding in a photograph of the child from February 29, 2012.

2015 Goals

I have a few goals (I don't like calling them "resolutions") for this year.  Please pray for me that I can keep them!

1. Be better about RSVPs.  
I'm the worst at RSVPs.  If I'm supposed to RSVP by phone, it just doesn't happen.  If it's a Facebook invite, I'll usually click Maybe right away but then I probably won't go back and update it.  I've hosted enough events to know that it sucks to have an inaccurate head-count.  It's disrespectful and I don't want to be a hypocritical jerk anymore.


2. Recognize family birthdays. 
Until this year, if you didn't come forth from my womb, then you couldn't expect to receive any recognition on your birthday.  I just think birthdays are for kids.  But I've realized that just because I don't care about receiving birthday cards for myself doesn't mean others don't appreciate it.  I need to see birthdays as an excuse to remember to tell someone that I love them.

So this year I plan to send birthday cards (likely just drawings from the kids) to all parents, brothers and sisters, and nieces and nephews.  My brother has a birthday tomorrow.  Oops!  I'm already behind!


3. Eat like the kids.
At our house we eat more processed and pre-packaged stuff then I think we should.  But at least I work pretty hard to make sure the kids have a good balance of fruits and veggies during the day!   But when I sit the kids down for their 9:30 snack of fresh fruit, do I munch on the apple slices with them?  Usually not!  When I instruct them to put a big handful of veggies on their lunch plates, do I sit with them and do the same?  Nope!

I really need to eat healthier in general, and I think eating what I feed the kids will be a good first step!


4. Family Home Evening plan.
We were good about doing Family Home Evening every week for a while.  But then Hubby started a Monday night class.  And we just never settled on a regular day to do it.  But even after the semester ended, we didn't get back in the groove.  But now we're going to!

And to make lesson planning easier, our lessons are going to consist of grabbing a scripture story picture from our Gospel Art Picture Kit and talking about the story.  Then the picture will be taped to a wall.  If we have time to come up with a fun activity or craft to go along with it, then awesome.  But if not, then we will still at least be filling our heads and home with wonderful art and scripture stories.  When the wall is full and the Kit box is empty, then we'll have to figure out something else.


5. No Facebook during school hours.
I may be a little addicted to facebook.  If I turn on the computer for any reason, I can't help but log on to facebook and then it's too easy to waste too much time just clicking around.  Any communicating that I need to do with my friends on there can wait until after school hours.  Teaching these kids is my job and I think workplaces are perfectly justified in firing people for indulging in social media on company time.  So I think it's inappropriate for me to use fb to distract me from my important work.

Story of the World: Edible Oasis

This was a fun project we did way back in February.  We were learning about the Arabian desert in Story of the World volume 2.  Snack this day was our own edible oases.

Crushed graham crackers for sand.

Blue sugar for water (put a couple drops of food coloring in a bag with sugar and smoosh it around.)

Palm trees made of Tootsie Rolls and cut up gum drops, glued together with peanut butter.

Complete with animal cracker camels.

Grocery Store Lessons

Dear Raley's Grocery Stores,

I want to thank you so much for providing free fruit for kids near your check stand (and cookies in your bakery!) It's nice that when I have to take my 4 kids grocery shopping with me, they can get a treat. They love it! 

I love that I can use your generosity as a platform for life lessons for them: they practice polite words when they ask the bakery lady for cookies, they have to *earn* their treats by behaving correctly while we shop, I teach them about "taxes" when I require that they give me a little bite of what they got 😂, and we talk about healthy snack choices when they get their fruit. 

Also, I've taught them that the reason Raley's provides this service is because it's a successful marketing technique so they are learning about real-world business practices; case in point, we always stop at Raley's on the way home from grandma's house instead of the Walmart neighborhood market or Winco (I've also explained to them that this extra service is one reason that Raley's prices are generally higher. "No such thing as a free lunch" is an important concept for kids to learn!)

Unfortunately, apparently not all of your customers understand the point and value of your policy. Today as we were checking out, a cranky older woman accused me of teaching my children that it was ok to steal oranges without paying for them. I pointed to the sign and tried to explain it to her but she still rolled her eyes and shook her head at me. Oh well! There's another good lesson for my kids: you can't please everyone!

Sincerely, 
A Grateful Mom That Hopes That Grumpy Lady Doesn't Have Grandkids

Fun with Food

Here's a couple fun treats we made recently:

First, gingerbread (graham cracker) houses.  I discovered that apparently the key to a good (stable) gingerbread house is the frosting.  This is the first year I've ever done it with my kids.  But I remember as a child making these at various church or school activities and usually we would take the easy way out and just use canned frosting.  But those darn things would always fall over.

So I decided to make some royal icing for the first time.  That stuff is magic!  Dries like cement!  The girls helped me pipe a square of icing on the plate to be a foundation for our walls.  And then obviously we piped a line of frosting at the corners to keep the walls together.  The roof was a little tricky to get it stuck together just right so it wouldn't fall off before drying, but we got it to work. 

While we waited for our houses to dry so we could put candy on, we read the story of "Hansel and Gretel" together. 

My mother-in-law sent me a link to this cute idea.  It was probably in Family Fun magazine, but I'm not sure now.  To make Rudolf you just need: 
*mini chocolate donuts
*red peanut M'n'M's for noses
*tiny white sprinkles for eyes
*broken mini pretzel twists for antlers

The antlers and eyes are easy to just poke right into the donut.  For the nose, just stick the candy in the center far enough so it stays, but not so far that you end up breaking the donut.

A friend and I decided that you could probably make cute snowman heads, too.  Just use white powdered sugar donuts, an orange candy for the carrot nose (M'n'M or maybe a candy corn?), and then black sprinkles for the coal eyes.  You could probably make some kind of top hat using a Rolo.  I'll have to try that soon.

Finally, we made the classic Ants-on-a-Log.  Celery, peanut butter, and raisins.  It's the perfect fun, healthy, easy snack.  It was also great because it led to a discussion of why ants always walk in a line.

This is How We Survived the Flu

Our family (excepting Hubby) hardly ever get sick.  Thankfully the children appear to have inherited my healthy immune system (good genes combined with breastfeeding for the win!)  Unfortunately, the flu got us this year.  In order to get everyone healed as quickly as possible, I had to stay organized.  

All four kids had a comfy place in the living room so I could keep an eye on all of them at once.  We draped the couches with sheets to keep things clean and cozy and they watched movies all day.

Each kid was given their own gallon size ziplock bag with their name written on it.  Inside they had plenty of applesauce pouches and whole wheat fruit Newtons to snack on.  I figured these would be easy things to digest, they're reasonably healthy, and we don't buy them very often so they seem like a tasty treat.  On the outside of the bag is where I write when they were given medicine and their temperature.

To keep them all hydrated, I kept the fridge and their sippy cups filled with flavored water.  It's clear (so I don't have to worry about stains when it spills), reasonably healthy (not as much sugar as juice or soda), it's carbonated (we like something with bubbles when we're feeling upset tummies),  and it's a yummy treat that we rarely buy so they'll be interested in drinking lots of it.

Thankfully the flu wasn't too severe for us (headaches, fevers, fatigue, a little bit of puking on the first day, coughs) but it was enough to keep us holed up in the house for about a week.  These strategies made things a little easier.

Advice for Teaching 3 Students

A fellow homeschooling mommy asked me for some advice on homeschooling 3 children.  She's been homeschooling one daughter while another daughter and son went to public school.  She'll be teaching all three at home this year and is understandably nervous.

While her three kids don't match up perfectly in age or needs to my kids, I was happy to help in any way I can.  I know I love to read other homeschooling moms' blogs to get insight on how they do things.  I rarely replicate things exactly as I read them in my own homeschool.  But I think it's still good to gather many perspectives to get the creative juices flowing!

Following is exactly what I messaged to her:


Sure. I hope I can help.

This year I have a 3rd grader, a 1st grader, and a preschooler.  Honestly, until a couple months ago, the preschooler (kinder in the fall) didn't get a ton of individual school attention.
But even so, I've learned a couple things these last couple months.  First, we need a pretty strict schedule, or else stuff doesn't happen.

At the very beginning of the school day, the preschooler gets half an hour of undivided attention from me.   We work on our reading curriculum and workbooks or whatever.  The girls are not allowed to interrupt me during that time (but of course they still do :) )

After that, the 1st grader gets half an hour of attention.  I check any work that she accomplished while I was working with brother and then work together on whatever she needs.

Then we break for snack and do science or history all together.  After that everyone goes back to independent learning and I can jump between them as needed, do chores, or play with the toddler.
Then a half hour before lunch, the 3rd grader gets her individual attention from me.

After lunch is literature time.  The 3rd grader is mostly on her own (reading an assigned novel and doing associated activities) and the 1st/preschooler do literature together (usually consisting of me reading them a story and them doing a craft.)

As you can see, the keys to this working for us is doing as many group subjects as we can and especially everyone learning to work independently.

Learning to work independently is the hardest but most important thing, I feel, for my kids.  The girls each have a clipboard containing a list of things they need to accomplish during the week.  I don't care what order they do things in.  Primus is in 3rd grade and really quite good at working independently now. Secundus the 1st grader is not so good at it and needs a bit of help being redirected/refocused.  It also super helps that she learned to read kinda early.  I feel that if a kid can read, then the whole world is open to them and they can learn anything.  So the main focus for us in late preschool/kindergarten is learning to read.

So anyway, that's basically how we do.  Every kid and every family is so different, though!  I'm constantly reevaluating and tweaking our homeschool.

I Could Never Homeschool Because... Six Excuses

I'm going to start right off the bat and say that I don't care if you homeschool your kid or not.  It's a personal choice between your family and God.  Homeschooling has been a wonderful experience for my family.  Maybe it can be a wonderful experience for yours.  Or maybe public school, charter school, or private school is best.

My goal here is not to tell you that you should pull your kids out today and convert your playroom into a school room.  My goal is to give some points to ponder to all those who are thinking, "I think my children could really benefit from homeschooling.  Unfortunately, I could never do it because..."

1. They won't listen to me.
I'm going to start really blunt with this one.  You're the parent.  Your kids should listen to you.  Period.  Chores need to be done so you make them fun and/or non-negotiable to make sure your kids get them done.  Same with school work.  You've gotta do what you gotta do to make school work happen.

2. Homework time is the worst!  I can't imagine doing that all day.
Homework =/= Homeschooling.  Homework and homeschool are two completely different animals.  Homework is done after the kids have had a long, tiring 6 hours at school.  They would rather just chill in front of the TV or play.  If you work in an office, do you come home and want to do 2 more hours of paperwork?  No!

When I homeschool, I get my kids at the best part of the day when their attention spans are longer and their minds fresh, rested, and open.  And we are usually done soon after lunch time.  I firmly believe that 3 o'clock is a kind of witching hour.  Everyone (including me) just wants a snack and a mental break.

3. When I'm pregnant, I just can't function and schoolwork wouldn't happen.
I totally sympathize with this one.  When I'm pregnant, I usually get hyperemesis gravidarum which basically means that I puke all day.  Thankfully I did not get it with my last pregnancy.  Also, my first trimester (where I felt "normal" morning sickness and exhaustian) happened to fall during summer time. So I have not had to do school with those challenges.

But I have thought, "what if?"  And my answer is that it would suck pretty bad to have to get up early every morning and get the kids fed, dressed, lunches packed, school papers packed and drive them to school.  Sure, I could come home again and take a nap.  But then I would have to be conscious and functioning again at 2:30 to do pick-up.  Even not pregnant, I hated being a slave to daily drop-off and pick-up times! (Primus and Secundus each spent some time at a 5 day-per-week preschool and I also did a lot of driving for my friend's boy at one time.)  Then, after school I would still have to monitor homework time.  See #2 above. 

Hypothetically, if I were pregnant during the school year and all I wanted to do was sleep and puke, I can imagine our school days would look something like the following.  Not the ideal situation, but it would work and it would only be for a season.

Stumble out of bed at 9.  Get the oldest kid to get cereal for the littles.  I would then encourage the oldest kids to independently work on their assigned core subjects (teaching independence is a big key to making homeschooling successful in general) while I would attempt to read to the littles or pretend to listen to them practice reading to me. After an hour I would probably give up, tell everyone to  pull out pattern blocks and geo boards, and remind myself that "children learn through play."  At lunch time I would stumble into the kitchen and throw PB/J sandwiches and Go-Go-Squeezes at everyone. The rest of the afternoon would be filled with Bill Nye the Science Guy, Magic School Bus, School House Rock, and Liberty's Kids while I napped. 

4. I have to work.  
Honestly, I have not worked outside the home since my oldest was born, so I can't speak from personal experience.  And I cannot wrap my head around the idea, either.  It seems like there just aren't enough hours in the day!  But I have met working moms (online and in real life) who somehow make it work.  So it's possible.  Somehow.

5. Isn't it expensive?  I can't afford it.
Homeschool is only as expensive as you make it.  There's this great myth that our society and educational system believe that says, "More money equals a better education."  False.

I currently spend $4000 per year on curriculum, art supplies, and enrichment classes.  I'm fortunate to live in a state where I can be associated with a charter school that gets public funds to pay for all those things for me.  It's pretty awesome.  And the money is one reason that we homeschool, because I would not be able to afford to send my girls to gymnastics, ballet, or music lessons on my own.

But!  You don't have to spend $2000 per student per year to have a successful homeschool with happy, healthy children who learn a lot and grow to be functioning members of society.  I follow a cool blog where this mom said back in 2012 that with 7 children (including a baby) her homeschool budget for the year was only $500.

To homeschool cheaply you just have to be creative.  The web is full of free and cheap resources.  The library will become your best friend.  Alibris is an online bookstore where my friend with 5 kids gets tons of used books on the cheap.   I've been lucky to find some awesome stuff at thrift stores.

Also, sending your kid to public school can get pretty expensive, too! Every year you have to buy new back-to-school outfits, new backpacks, school supplies, supplies for the kids that can't afford them, and things like Kleenex for the class.  Then there's the field trip fees and fundraisers.  Plus, you may feel obligated to spend a bunch of money and time making a Pinterest-worthy teacher gift for the first day of class, Christmas, and the last day of class.

6. I really need my alone time.
Introverts homeschool too.  Here's one. Some families have a strict quiet time after lunch each day.  The littles nap, the biggers read, and mom does whatever she wants.

Like I mentioned above, one key to a successful homeschool is to teach your kids to be independent.  While they work independently, you could declare a "teacher prep hour" and go to a room where you won't be disturbed.  Of course, especially in the elementary years many subjects and assignments will still need hands-on support.  But a lot of things can be done on their own.  And it will take time for your kid to get to the point where they will pull out an assignment, do it, and then pull out another one without being harped on.  We're still working on it with Primus in third grade but she's almost there!

One last idea, if you can afford it, is to put your children in enrichment classes a couple times per week.  Drop them off at dance, violin, art, writing class, science lab, karate, etc (or two back-to-back classes!) And then if you still have littles with you, take them to a park where they can run while you watch from a quiet, shady bench.  Or if you're lucky enough to not have young ones tagging along, take the time to get your nails done, read a book while lounging at a Starbucks, or go grocery shopping without grubby hands trying to sneak candy into the cart.  Just because it's called "homeschool" doesn't mean that every subject every day has to be taught by YOU at HOME.


All of the above excuses for not homeschooling are very valid ones.  With any decision made, there will be pros and cons.  The cons have to be weighed and perhaps overcome.  Life, especially as a parent, is never smooth or easy so we have to prioritize and plan accordingly.  If you feel that homeschooling is what your family is supposed to do, Heavenly Father will guide and help you to make it possible. 

100 Day Party

We have been homeschooling for 100 days.  Can you believe it?  100 days!  We celebrated with some of our friends. 

The weather here is just ridiculous.  Apparently someone forgot to tell the weather that it's winter, because we haven't had any wet or really cold days.  But, of course, the day we plan to have our party at the park, it finally rains!  We were able to play at the church building instead and it worked out well. 

To prepare for the party, we selected some snacks to share.  Our menu was: Oreos, Veggie Straws, raisins, Goldfish, and cheese balls.  I had Primus count out 100 of each and make labels for the bowls they went in. 

She used a different method to count each snack:  counting by one's, two's, five's, and ten's.  When it was time to count the cheese balls by 5's, she grouped them into the cups of a muffin pan because those darn balls roll around too much to stay in nice piles. 

We also made brownies and piped "100" on them with white chocolate candy melts.

Here is what Primus had to say about her party:



We celebrated our 100 day party and we saw Grandpa and Uncle and Cherub friends and playgroup friends.  And I loved my brownies that I made with Mom.  And the snacks that we brought.  And not the snacks that Sophia brought.  Because her M&M's were too spicy for me.  I loved playing games with Michelle, Uncle, and Grandpa and riding on Grandpa's shoulders.  I liked ball with Michelle, Uncle, and Grandpa.  I liked helping Mom putting things in the correct bowls.  And I loved when Michelle, Grandpa and Uncle pulled me on Tyler's dump truck.  I loved taking pictures with my Mom's camera before everyone left.  And when my 100 day party was over, me, Mom, Tertius, and Secundus went to McDonald's with Grandpa and Uncle so we could all have lunch and play.  And then we went home.