Dr. Mom

Last week Hershey had a very bad asthma attack that landed him in the hospital for a few days. It was very scary. They sent him home with 7 prescriptions. When the pharmacist handed me the bag of medicine, I asked her if I could bring a nurse home with me. One medicine has to be administered on a full stomach. One medicine has a decreasing dose. One has to be given every morning and another every night.

I was scared I would not be able to keep track. I have a dry erase board that I use to write down prayer requests. This week it has been my nursing chart. 

I made note of the decreasing dosage for the steroids so that I would not forget what the dose was each day.

We have not done much school work. Hershey and I have just been resting and recovering. Skittles and Hershey had co-op on Friday. Hershey stayed with Nana. Tomorrow we will get back to work. 

Workboxes... Well, Kind of Anyway...

When I first learned about Workboxes, I wanted to try it out right away but I did not have the space. I had to change them a bit to fit my needs. So I came up with what I call, "Workbinders." They have evolved every year to meet the needs of my children.

Here are the links to the workbinders I have created in past years.
first year
second year
third year
fourth year

and this year.....

drum roll please....

Do some of them look familiar? Yeah, I admit that last year we stopped using the binders after only a few weeks. So we basically had 2 brand new binders. I am bringing the binders back this year because last year we all had a hard time keeping track of what was completed and what needed to get done. We are mostly working out of workbooks so the binders are not going to be keeping all of their work in there so much as letting them know what needs to be done and in what order. 

I made a planner page on Microsoft Excell that lists each of the subjects to be completed weekly. Each day I will write in the boxes what needs to be done and when it is complete, I will check it off. That way, hopefully, we can't fall behind. I am not super thrilled with the way the planner page turned out. I will be tweaking it this week and hopefully, I will have something to share with you all next week. I wanted to buy a couple this year because Queen DOES make some that are PERFECT but I could not afford them this year.

Each subject gets a divider page. The dividers have pockets so if there is anything that they completed that is not in the workbook itself, they can put it in the pocket and I can move it into their portfolio at the end of the week. I also added blank notebook paper if they need it for any reason. 

This year Hershey has a binder too. Today he decorated it with pirate stickers. He loves pirates. He calls them, "Yo ho!" His binder only has 3 subject pages. One for math, one for "reading," and one for science/history pages. Basically they are all coloring pages but if he likes doing school this year as much as he did last year, I think this will make him feel very important. 

Packing

1. We did not do any school work today. I have decided to call it summer. We are still going to do math lessons a couple times a week. 
2. All 3 boys helped me clean out the van today. It was full of beach sand, crushed Goldfish crackers, crayons which thankfully were not melted, lollipop sticks, and pencils.... We are always trying to find a pencil in the house. Apparently they were all out in the car. Who knew?
3. I started packing for our upcoming vacation. I made the boys a checklist of things that needed to be packed. Then I told them to check off the things on the list as they pack them. This is the first time that they actually did a good job. I had to go through and check and yes there were a few things I needed to correct, like Skittles packed a few dirty shirts to meet his shirt quota. Twizzler packed only pajama bottoms. It was easily fixed and OH, it is sooooo awesome to not have to pack for them.
   
4. At church the boys had a movie and game night. They decorated boxes to look like rally cars and were supposed to race them down a hill. I was told they did not get chance to race the box they worked on but they still had a lot of fun. 
5. Each of the boys got a balloon as we walked out of church. Hershey was so careful with his until he got in the car and then he somehow popped it. When we opened the van door, Skittles balloon flew out and took off into the sunset. Twizzler's balloon was the only one to make it home.                                           

Organization

I have a closet full of school supplies; books, crafts, projects, etc. It also houses all of our previous years school work. I like to keep it all just in case I ever need to prove that we are doing school work here not just goofing off. I have had boxes and boxes full of stuff. I had 3 boxes of books, lesson plans, and classroom decorations. I also had 2 boxes of arts and crafts supplies. I have a box full of science kits. The problem with all of these things being in boxes is that I never have the time or energy to dig through the boxes to get what I need. I also don't have a very good inventory of what I have already on hand so I end up buying stuff twice or going to the library to get a book I already have on the shelf. Today I went through my school closet and got myself organized. 

First I went through all the books. I have a HUGE box of fantastic living books about history and science. About half of them are written from a girls perspective though. That is great if you have a girl reading the book but my boys don't want to read about "Sally's adventure across the wild west." That is just the way boys are. They want to read about, "John and his brave dog ride west." Those are not actual book titles, I made them up but you see what I am saying. I decided to box up all the books that I know my kids will never read. I am getting rid of them. If you know anyone interested, let me know. 

I put the remaining books on a book shelf in the closet. I have a shelf for science books, history books, and Literature. This makes it so much easier to grab what I need when I need it. 

 I also have all of my curriculum on the top shelf.

I also went through all my craft supplies. Remember earlier this week when we made thread from cotton? I had searched all over to find my cotton balls but ended up using my cotton pads instead. Well, today I found the cotton balls. sigh. I also found 3 full bags of craft sticks. OKAY, remind me that I don't have to buy craft sticks again, EVER. I downsized to just one art box. I separated all the art projects into paper bags and labeled then so that I can open the lid, find the bag I want and go. One bag has all of my Christmas stuff. One bag has all of my Valentine's stuff. You get the idea. I did purge an entire box full of stuff that I have not used in the last 3 years and will probably never use. WHY DO I KEEP THIS STUFF???

Now I am down to one box with all of the kids school work from years past, one box full of art supplies, one box full of Science kits. I also have a box of preschool games, printables, books, and projects. I feel pretty accomplished. 

Now I just have to figure out what to do with all of the stuff I am getting rid of.  

Oh and in case you are wondering what the tape on the middle box is all about. Those tell me what is inside the box. The idea is that when I get a craft out and use it, I pull the tape off. Then I can see at a glance what I have available without having to dig through it. 

My Method for Meal Planning

It seems like everyone has a method for meal planning these days. My two least favorite jobs are shopping and cooking. I find cooking stressful. I figured out what I hate about cooking; having to plan a meal, find the ingredients, and put it all together. Yes, the whole thing. I don't have the time or energy to make up a new menu every week. So, I came up with this...

First, I made a list of all the meals that I can cook. It was a short list. 

Then I bought a pack of  multicolored index cards. I color coded the meals; red for beef, yellow for chicken, green for vegetarian, and purple for pork or ham, and you can do blue for sea food. I don't eat sea food but we have blue cards that I use for easy meals like nuggets and fries.

I wrote out the name of each dish along with a list of the ingredients to the meals on the index cards. 

These are not recipe cards. They are little shopping lists.

I cut off the ends of a spaghetti box and covered them to make card holders. One holds my possible meals and another holds my shopping list.

Before I go to the store, I pull out my cards and check for all the ingredients on the list. Whatever I don't have, gets added to my shopping list. BTW, HERE is the shopping list I use. Then I stick it in the, "meals" box. 

When it is dinner time, I go to the, "meals" box.. I can pull out whatever meal I am in the mood for and then pull out all the ingredients from the list and I am ready to cook. 

When the meal is done, I stick my card in the, "shopping list" box. Then I know I have to check to be sure I have all the ingredients before I make it again. It has helped keep me a bit more organized. Right now, I need all the help I can get.

Victory Dance

1. In Skittles book, Snow Treasure, the children made their first trip across Nazi territory. It is getting interesting. 
2. In science they read more about Thomas Jefferson's study of the animals in North America. 
3. Twizzler was so excited about his new library books that he read them both today. 
4. In history we read about King Phillips War. 
5. Hershey loved hearing his brothers read to him as usual. He was trying to get Twizzler to turn the pages a bit faster though. 
6. Hershey seems to be adding a new word to his vocabulary daily. This week I heard him call out for his blanket at bedtime, "LOVEY!" Just as clear as day. He also said "Oh well" and told his brothers when they were acting silly, "STOP!"
7. I changed out the shower head in my bathroom all by myself and then I did a pretty wild victory dance. Hershey joined me but Twizzler just rolled his eyes and walked away.

Remember my Chore Chart? Well, this week I tried something new. I wrote down each subject we need to do each week on an index card. Then I placed them in the flip chart. When a subject is complete, I take the card out. This way the kids can see exactly what we have to do and what has been done. It keeps us motivated. 

Day 22 Chores

I thought I would share a bit about how I handle chores... for now anyway. Since I am always changing things because it seems every thing will work for a short time and then it loses its effectiveness. So right now I have a pocket chart and I pull out whatever chores need to be done that day. 

The chores that I chose from are; bringing me their dirty laundry and putting away their clean clothes, emptying the dishwasher. Occasionally Skittles offers to rinse off and load the dishes for some extra points. We take out the trash and recycling together and their job is to help me carry it down. They like to hold the bathroom sized trash cans that we use for recycling onto the front of their scooters and ride the cans and bottles to the recycling bins. The other chores are to pick up their bedroom, living room, or dining room and vacuum the floor. There is also the bathroom that needs to be picked up and the counter wiped down. Last is the guinea pigs cage which needs to checked daily to be sure she has water, food, hay, and her litter box is clean. I put between 2-4 of these chores up daily. 

Anytime that they do a chore, I initial a spot on their chore card. 10 chores equals $1. 

I have been told I am cheap to only pay $1 for 10 chores. I guess that is all a matter of perspective. I don't have a lot to give so they don't have a lot to earn. Ultimately these chores are something that need to be done whether I pay them for the job or not. I never earned an allowance for doing chores when I was growing up. I think $1 is being generous especially since they are not being paid weekly but for the work that they do.

I did not invent the chore card idea. I found it on Pinterest. 

1. Math went well today.
2. We read about the history of New Mexico. 
3. We got all caught up in Science. I don't know how but we were one day behind all week last week. We did an experiment about how the air bladders in some fish and seaweed work. Skittles thought is was fantastic. He is my little scientist. 
4. Twizzler did really well with his new spelling words. They are pretty tricky too, a lot of diagraphs and blends. 
5. Hershey had his 18 month appointment today. He is growing fast. His speech is "advanced." The doctor was amazed at some of the things he is saying. When we walked into the room. He pointed to the doctors instruments on the wall and said, "Light." I couldn't believe he remembered that there is a light in them. 

Now I am off to do my own chores, moving and folding laundry, washing the dishes wiping down the counters, and sweeping up the floor. 

My Method

We have been staying with my parents in Rhode Island for the past 6 weeks. We leave tomorrow. I am making the drive all the way down the east coast of the United States to Florida. It will be quite an endeavor.  Me with 2 little boys, a baby, and a dog. 

I put together an activity bag for the boys. It has coloring books, crayons, sticker books, etc. I also printed off 2 copies of a map of the east coast. I am going to have the kids color in each of the states that we get through. I am hoping it will give them a visual perspective of how far we have come and how far we have to go. Maybe they won't ask, "Are we there yet?"  Not likely though... At least I will have a reference for them. 

For more great road trip ideas, check out Mom's Minivan. 

If all else fails, Thank goodness for Nintendo DSes!!! 

My Method

One of the hard things about being a military family is that you almost certainly do not live near your extended family. We have family in 5 different states all across the country. It is hard to keep in contact with them all. I started a personal family blog that I use to keep our family updated on the kids. I can upload pictures and tell a little bit about our adventures. It makes the distance between us seem not so far. Also, when we finally can get together the grandparents, aunts, and cousins that have been reading the blog don't feel like strangers. They know what sports the kids play and they know what family trips we have been on. They know what my kids favorite animal was at the zoo.

I used to scrapbook before I started homeschooling. I loved it because it was a record of our life. Our family history, if you will. Now I can use the blog as our history book. At the end of each year I go to Blog2Print. I can upload the whole year into a book. 

My 6yo and I flip through the books all the time. It is nice to see where we have been, things we have done. It is also nice that we are able to share it with our family who is far away. 

Weekly Wrap-Up

My 8yo is learning how to multiply!!!!! This is amazing to me because I am 31 years old and I am still not proficient at multiplication! Luckily, Daddy is teaching him, not me. He tells me he is doing really well with it. It helps that on Fridays, he has a whole class at co-op that teaches times tables rhymes and stories to help the kids remember them. Multiplication is the main reason I was terrified to teach math this year. I never had a good understanding of it. There is no way I would be comfortable teaching it too! Our math program is really hands on and fun. It breaks things down easily. In fact, maybe I will start the second grade curriculum with him.... Nah. 

This week my 5yo also made a huge math leap. He is learning to add and subtract! All this time we have just been counting. This week he added butterflies and subtracted earthworms. When I saw the worksheet I though, "Oh no!" but he tackled it like it was nothing. He continues to amaze me at how quickly he is picking things up and learning! Last spring and even this summer I was worried that he would not be able to keep up with the Kindergarten work load but he is doing great!

He has begun to read more than just CVC words. This week he read, "big eggs, little eggs, pretty eggs." He is also beginning to read some of the words in the Sound Box books that we read every week. Almost every word in those books is on the Dolch sight word list for Kindergarten. 

My 8yo has been reading James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. I am not sure if Charlotte would call it twaddle. It might be to her.. but we tried reading The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood... It was like reading the King James Bible. We also tried reading The Five Little Peppers. We read it for a few weeks and he was so bored with it. I had to explain what everything was because it is not his world. He did not understand the technology. Also it was really written for girls I think. When I was 7, I would have LOVED that book but a 7 year old boy doesn't want to read about how to bake a cake. 

He loves reading about James! He smiles ear to ear when he delivers his oral narrations. When he talks about the bugs, it is like he is talking about his friends. I love that he is loving reading a book. So, "twaddle" or not, we will read Roald Dahl in our house... I think there is plenty of time to read the classics when he gets a little older. 

Chores

Earlier this week, I read a post on one of my favorite blogs, Our Busy Homeschool, about chorepacks. I really like the idea. I had heard of it before when I read, The Duggars: 20 and Counting! Raising One of America's Largest Families--How they Do It By Jim Bob Duggar, Michelle Duggar. BTW, It is a GREAT book! If you want to know about chorepacks and how they work, I suggest you go read the above blog post. I am not using chorepacks though. Sorry. 

I spent a lot of the day trying to figure out how I would implement them. When I really sat down and thought about everything that needs to be done to get our house clean, I realized it would be overwhelming to split everything up between only 2 kids. I needed something a little different for my little family. 

So here is what I came up with. I went into each room in the house and I wrote down what needs to be done to keep it looking clean. (Tristan's advice) I already told you about my chores. Here is what I came up with for the kids. 

I made my list of what needs to be done in the living room, dining room, bathroom, and the boys bedroom. I  did a trial run with my kids so that they could see exactly how to do what I am asking. As luck would have it, my house was TRASHED. So it was a really good learning experience. When they finished cleaning, I took a picture. Then I downloaded the pictures onto the computer and typed up a checklist for each room. They look like this.

  I very purposefully made the lists short. Only 4 steps each. I wanted it to be broken down enough for them to know how to walk through it but not so many steps that the list seems to go on forever. 4 seemed to be the magic number. Now, they know what I want the room to look like.

I put each checklist in a page protector and I put them all in a binder. You all know how much I LOVE binders!

 There is a dry erase marker in each page protector too. They can use the marker to check off what they have completed on the list any way that they want. I drew a smiley face but they can color in the box, make an X, check it, maybe they can practice the letter they are learning to write that week. The possibilities are endless. Maybe "endless" is exaggerating. 

Ultimately, it breaks down to 2 rooms per child but I doubt we will need to tackle all 4 rooms everyday. I think if they do 1 room each per day, we should be okay. My plan is to pull out the binder everyday after lunch and hand them their room assignment. They each get a separate room so there is no fighting over who is cleaning more. I will probably set the timer too so that they don't dawdle too much. The cool part is, that when they are done they can bring me the checklist. After I see the clean room, I can erase the marker right off the front of the page protector. And it is ready for the next day. 

Of course, this was all just an idea the first day. The second day I gave them their room assignments and left to update my Facebook status er, uh, work on lesson plans. I expected to be back in there in 5 minutes because they were playing, fighting, or hiding. Basically anything but cleaning. 5 minutes later, I heard the strangest noise coming from the living room... THE VACUUM!!! Can you see where the vacuum is on the living room checklist? I thought, "This can't be." So I walked out to the living room. Where I had left my 7yo with two bowls of breakfast cereal on the coffee table (don't judge), alongside bottles of water and mugs of milk. There was a bag of chips open on the couch and crumbs crushed into my futon and carpet. The drawers where open with games and controllers strewn about the room. Hey I'm just trying to be real here. When I came back it was SPOTLESS! My living room looked just like the pictures!!!! My dining room which had been assigned to my 5yo, was almost clean too. 

I am planning on making checklists for laundry, dishes, and the balcony too. Again I will only assign them one of these lists per day, except when I expect house guests. Hey, speaking of laundry, check out this amazing Mom Tip!

I am having a funeral for my sock box tomorrow.  

Packing Up School

We are done with school! You already knew that though. This week I packed up school. We don't have a classroom because we live in a tiny 2 bedroom condo. Since we use our dining room as a classroom, I had the walls covered in learning posters. It didn't feel like a home, it felt like a classroom. I bought a second book shelf to hold art supplies and some of our manipulatives. I decided to move the posters into the boys bedroom and reclaim my dining room for the grown ups. We will still do our lessons at the dining table but I don't think it has to look like we do.

The biggest change is the buffet. Which was being used as an extension of my desk before. My hubby made a rope decoration to frame the boards. Now they look more beachy. Which is the theme of our living room/dining room area. 

There is the classroom section in the boys room now. In the corner there is a piano bench that someone in our complex was getting rid of. It is a perfect little desk. The top flips up and there is storage underneath that is the perfect size for their dry erase boards. It is a nice little spot to do seat work in peace.

I also organized my art supplies. I have got quite a collection because I taught an art class for my co-op this year. I used to have supplies shoved anywhere they could fit; in the buffet, in drawers, and in my closet. 

We went to Walmart and got me these storage tubs and I filled them with all my art supplies. As I put something into a bucket, I wrote down what it was on a piece of  masking tape.  I  stuck the tape onto the tub. Then I went to my lesson plans and wrote down what the project was. 

Next year I am doing a Letter of the Week curriculum with my 5yo. So an example would be Noah's Ark craft. I put that down on my letter 'N' page. Next year when I get to letter 'N' I will see that I have a Noah's ark craft all ready to go in one of my art buckets. I will go to my closet, find the bucket that has "Noah's Ark" on it and dig out the craft. Then I will pull that tape off so that I don't go looking for it again for children's church or some other reason. 

It looks ridiculous, I'm sure, but it is very helpful. Besides, the buckets are stored in a closet anyway. No one will see them unless they need to or I am dumb enough to publish a picture of it on my blog. 

Thankful Thursday

I read this post today on The Joys of Home Educating and this post on Fur Lined Toilet Seats.

I like the idea of giving thanks and I have a lot to be thankful for this week.

1. All of my followers!
2. Getting the ball rolling on my Skittle's ADHD.
3. My fabulous homeschool group! 
4. Relaxing afternoons by the pool. 
5. Play dates.
6. Netflix
7. Going camping with my family.
8. Senator Claiborne Pell 
9. A clean house!!!! 

We are having a technology free family weekend. I hope you all have a great weekend. See you on Monday. 

Weekly Wrap-Up

This week for my Saturday Show and Tell, I thought I would just tell you what was in our binders this week.

Skittles
Bible: 2 Timothy 4:7 

Math: Money unit & Money Pathway 

Literature: Afternoon in the Amazon

Language Arts: Verbs

Science: Snakes and other Reptiles by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce & Reptiles Pathway

Writing: Story Starters

Social Studies: Secrets in Stone; All about Maya Hieroglyphs by Laurie Coulter & Maya Pathway

Computer: Head of the Class, Xtramath, IXL

For Twizzler I decided to try something different. So I printed off a whole unit study on the letter O, from Confessions of a homeschooler's Letter of the Week curriculum. We did just about every activity. It was bright and colorful. It was something new, which is always fun. I love how everything is easy to use and ready to go. I wish I had a better printer. I  think I used up almost all of my ink. I am going to have to get a better printer if I want to print so much stuff off of the computer. Until then we will have to go back to my boring old coloring pages. If you have a good printer and a preschooler, I definitely recommend this curriculum. It's great. When you go to her blog be sure to grab her button and follow along. She is bursting with fabulous ideas and resources.

Scheduling and Planning

I am kind of relaxed with my planning. I tried planning out everything to a "T" before and it seems impossible for me. I use the library a lot and I can't guarantee that the book I want will be there when I need it. Also, we are very active in our homeschool group and sometimes field trips and other activities interfere with my perfect plans. I needed something more flexible. 

 I start planning a year in advance. I keep everything in a composition notebook. Each subject gets a page or 2. We study Bible, the arts, literature, science, and social studies together (not by grade). For grammar, math, reading, and writing I have to separate the subjects and grade. So I will have a math grade 2 page and a math K page. On these pages I list the areas of study I want to hit for the coming year and jot down all the resources I can use to meet those goals. So one page might look like this. 

 Science

• Simple Machines

1. Schoolexpress.com
2. Core Knowledge
3. animated engines.com

• Astronomy

1. Core knowledge
2. head of the class
3. Nasa.gov
4. homeschoolshare.com
5. Schoolexpress.com
6. squidoo space lapbook

You get the idea. I do this for each subject. That was just my first 2 subjects. I have a much longer list. LOL. I spend about 2 weeks on each subject. I can always add to it and take away as needed. 

I go to my notebook every weekend and see what is next on the agenda. Then I gather my resources. I place all their upcoming work in their work binder. 

I have a blank planner sheet that I print off every Monday. Each child has their own. 

I fill in what they have done for each subject when it is completed. Then I staple this completed paper to the front of their completed work. That pack goes in an expandable file folder that I keep everything completed that year in. I keep the file for 2 years.

If you don't have the time to research a million different resources for each subject.. I totally understand. Check out Lesson Pathways. They have already done all the work.