Menu Planning

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Honey

Grocery day is coming up at our house. We always shop for the month, but I have been pretty bored with the food we have been eating lately. I decided to have a family meeting and see if we could come up with some creative ideas of things to eat.

Let me just say here that we have some food issues in our house. We were gluten free, casein free for almost 2 years due to ADHD, Autism, and Aspergers in our family. The diet was amazing and helped immensely. Last summer we reintroduced gluten and casein to see how everyone would do. The boys did fine on the gluten, but reacted horribly to the casein. Out went the casein again!

Around the same time, we also discovered our daughter's allergies. Hosanna is allergic to all forms of dairy and goat's milk, eggs, and peanuts (we avoid ALL nuts). We have an EpiPen for emergencies, but have never had to use it.

Our eating has been quite an adventure over the last couple of years. It has been stressful at times reading labels. Grocery shopping takes forever when you have to read every label.

We cook mostly from scratch (it is cheaper, healthier, and way more fun). I love cooking and being creative. I especially love baking. I want all of my kids to learn how to cook meals and make baked goods.

Now that you have a little background about our food history, let me share with you about our family meeting this morning. First we discussed foods we each liked. Then we came up with a weekly rotation of foods to make for each meal.

It is my job now to make it work within our budget (that's the fun part). I plan on doing this by gathering all of my recipes ahead of time and writing out a detailed grocery list. Then I will be shopping the warehouse store and any good sales. We really only have three stores to shop at and fliers can be viewed on-line at two of the stores.

Just for reference: For most meals we are feeding 9 people - dad, mom, 5 children (9, 8, 6, 20 months, 20 months), and grandma and grandpa.

Here is our list for breakfast (with fruit):

Sunday - pancakes
Monday - muffins
Tuesday - breakfast skillet
Wednesday - oatmeal
Thursday - biscuits with pepperoni
Friday - sausage and hash browns
Saturday - pancakes

Lunch will be soup (mostly homemade) and sandwiches with veggies on the side. We will keep this fresh by making biscuits, cornbread, wraps, pitas, etc to change up the bread. I might make a weekly list for soups and sandwiches, but I think we are doing good for now.

Here is our list for dinners (with veggies):

Sunday - hamburgers
Monday - pot pie (chicken pot pie, shepherd's pie, etc)
Tuesday - pizza or calzones (with no cheese)
Wednesday - pasta
Thursday - perogies
Friday - roast dinner (with all the fixings)
Saturday - chicken or pork with rice

Snacks will include the following:

veggies
fruit
popcorn (from scratch)
cookies (from scratch)
ice tea (from scratch)
lemonade (from scratch)

I would love to hear what your family does for menu planning and cooking.

Please share links to your favorite recipes and resources.

NOTE: I have added a Large Family Recipes page to my website.

My Homeschool Binder

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Honey

I promised that I would share photos of my homeschool binder...

I discussed my homeschooling binder in a previous post - My Homeschool Binder - and I finally took some pictures. These pictures were taken a few weeks ago - before the big bedroom move around - and the photos were just on the camera waiting to be downloaded onto my computer.

You might also be interested in this post - When School Is Going Well - as I talk more about My Homeschool Binder and our new system.

The homeschool binder is working for us and making everything that much simpler. I need one binder for the whole family, every subject is in there.

Here is a picture tour of My Homeschool Binder:

Here is the binder. It is fun lime green colored one that I picked up for 50 cents at the Salvation Army in the summer of 2009. It has a matching blue binder buddy that has become my new idea notebook. I outgrew the other one because I have too many ideas. Does anyone want any ideas? I'd be happy to share.

When I started using the binder, I had the pencil case inside, but now the binder is very full and it doesn't fit anymore. I still keep it handy though and loaded with everything we need - pencils, pens, a mini ruler, a sharpener, scissors, etc.

I cut one of our Saxon Math hundred number charts up the sides so that it would slip into the front flap of the binder. We were pulling the chart out for activities quite often and it just made sense to have it handy.

I have the tabs all labeled according to the order of our day (the ideal day, of course). Bible, Language Arts, Math, History, Science, Art, and Read Alouds.

Each section has a chart for Term 2 (because that is the term we are in). I guess I will have to make another chart for Term 3 when we get closer.

This is the first page of our Term 2 chart for Bible. It has been great to be able to pull out the binder and see what we need to read. We finished Genesis early and then moved on to reading James and now we are reading Acts. It has been refreshing to read the New Testament with the kids after spending so much time in the Old Testament.

This is the first page (of two pages) of Malachi's Language Arts. We are taking Language Arts slow because he needs more time to practice. It's not clicking yet, but I expect it will very soon (no worries here).

This is the first page (of two pages) of Moses' Language Arts. Readers, workbooks, writing topics, etc. It's all listed here.

This is the first page (of two pages) of Elisha's Language Arts. Readers, workbooks, writing topics, etc. but also Grammar Ace and English From The Roots Up.

I cut up a file folder to make two dividers (see one in the picture above). This worked great so everyone now has their own Language Arts section. I did the Language Arts sections and the Math sections by order of age (it was just easier that way).

I repeated the process for Math (only with a different color).

We usually do Math before Language Arts, but I have not changed the order in my binder yet. The boys all seem to be able to focus better on Language Arts if we have done Math first.

Here is our Sonlight History Core 1 with Story of the World 1 added in. We do History and Core readings at lunch time.

Here is our Sonlight Science 1. We do Science readings at lunch time too. We are considering alternating the weeks - History one week and then Science the next. I think it might be easier to focus. We'll see.

One thing that I really like about this system is that I can pull out some paper and work on anything that needs working on right there. Moses needed to review his 3+ one day because he had misplaced them in his memory.

For Malachi, I was able to whip out a sheet of paper and review his numbers. He put stickers over the numbers as he identified them. Here, he could not identify 12, 13, 14, 15. I am happy to say that he can now count to twenty, despite being unable to remember the number thirteen most of the time.

Malachi has been worked really hard to learn his alphabet, but still has a few letters that he can't remember consistently. On this sheet (above) he was to put a sticker on the letter that I called out. He only missed a few letters.

We printed out many of his lessons as we went through them. The visual aid really helps him (so do manipulatives).

A few things that I love about My Homeschool Binder:

I have more one on one time with the children.
The school work is in one Teacher's Manual.
School is always ready to go.
The completed work is all in one spot and ready for portfolio time.
I only plan once a term and photocopy once a week (although, I tweak as needed).
My oldest can look at his sections and know what he needs to do.
My husband can look at the Bible, History, Science, and Read Alouds, and know what to read.
We can school anywhere as long as I have my binder and any related books we need (listed in said binder).

One thing that I will change when I am typing out Term 3 (which is way too quickly approaching) is to type out the page numbers "1, 2, 3, 4, 5" rather than "1-5" because then we can circle or somehow mark each page as we complete it.

Whew! I didn't mean to make this post so long. I wanted to give everyone a really good visual of how I use my binder.

If anyone has any comments or questions, I would love to hear them.

Homeschool4free: Curriculum Planning and Organizing

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Honey

Today I created a Curriculum Planning and Organizing page and added it to the Homeschool4free section.

Here are my favorite websites on this topic:

Donna Young

This website has an amazing selection homeschool planning pages. I have been coming here for years. I love her website.

Highland Hitcho Forms

This website has an excellent collection of forms for use in homeschooling.

Homeschool Forms

This website has a very large collection of forms available for printing.

Homeschool Helper Online

This website has a small collection of forms for use when you are homeschooling.

Homeschool Tracker

This website offers a software download of Homeschool Tracker that enables you to plan and organize your homeschool. They have a free version (which is very good) and a pro version.

Do you have any websites or blogs that you use when you are planning your homeschooling?

Do you have any great resources for homeschool forms?

Organizing The Shoe Box and Books

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Honey

Do you remember recently when I mentioned our shoe box?

It could also be known as the office.

Well, we did a bit of rearranging. We moved all of the miscellaneous books from the hall into the office and moved all the kids books into the hall. The books in the hall were more appropriate for mommies and daddies. I don't think my boys really need to have access to The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding or my DK Pregnancy and Childbirth textbook. I also don't think they have much use for His Needs, Her Needs or How to Win Friends and Influence People. I am pretty sure the boys weren't reading those books, but I feel better know they are tucked away in the office (and there when I might need them).

The shoe box has a hodge podge of stuff from every corner of the house. It was the room where you opened the door, crammed stuff in, and ran. Okay, that is pretty big exaggeration. If you find the other post (the one about my notebook) you will be amazed to see how much stuff we actually fit in there. We are loading the bookshelves with books and tidying up.

This is where I keep all of that homeschool material that will one day be used (or not). You know all that amazing curricula that awaits you on the free table at the local homeschool meeting each fall (after you have already purchased everything for the entire year and you don't need anymore)? This room houses it all (there are a few boxes in the basement). Did I mention that there are a few boxes stored in boys' bedroom closets too?

Before you think I have too much stuff (which I already know I do) let me tell you... I acquire things for free and it multiplies. I honestly don't know where it all comes from. I am working my way through and giving stuff away. It is such a good feeling to give things away (especially things of value).

Sorting through all of the homeschool material has been fun, enlightening, interesting, challenging, and well, I can't think of anymore descriptive words. Its late... and I should be in bed (but I wanted to write about our day).

Where was I?

We were going through books today and loading up the hall closet with kids books.

The boys have a hard time putting the books on the shelf the proper way, so I came up with a system. Are you ready for this? It is so crazy and simple. We loaded the hall bookshelf up with kids books (I know, I said that already - a couple of times). They can take the books out one at a time to read. When they are done reading they are to put them into a bucket (its big) on the floor in front of the shelf. Then when we are tidying the hallway we will put the books back up on the shelf (or whenever we see the bucket getting full).

This way the boys will have free reign of those books. Books hopefully won't end up all over their bedroom floor and get trampled on again (although, I know that is bound to happen sooner or later). And the most important thing is that my homeschool books won't go disappearing never to be seen again (or colored in - you know those black line master books!).

The room is shaping up. Things are getting organized. We have a box of books to get rid of. We even recycled damaged beyond repair books. We found some new gems and some old treasures to read again. We even found some fun board books for the babies.

What are you cleaning up in your life these days? I would love to hear about it.

Planning Our Next Term

Posted on January 3, 2010 by Honey

After a long break (from our formal curriculum) for the holidays, I feel ready to take on the next ten weeks of school (sort of). To be honest I am actually pretty excited about starting up again. I feel much more prepared and organized. I have to say that I even feel more rested. I have taken the last week or so to work on my planning for this coming term. I have purchased a planner, typed out a schedule, and begun to photocopy materials needed. I will be doing the photocopying weekly because that seems way less stressful and not so overwhelming to me. To me it makes much more sense to set aside a couple of hours a week to print out and gather everything needed for the week to come rather than to photocopy like crazy to get ten weeks of stuff prepared. I also think that I might lose excitement and momentum that way (or burn out rather quickly!). Having to take a new look at our materials every weekend will keep me inspired and being creative in our homeschool planning (at least that is the goal).

We are going to step back from workboxes for a week or more and get reacquainted with Sonlight and the rest of our curriculum after our break. This is how we approached school in the summer and it worked for us. We took the month of August to get used to our curriculum and then we added in the workboxes. We will be weaving the workboxes back in shortly (after we establish some routines and structure again). Don't you just love holidays? You take all this time to relax and then you have to rebuild all the routines and structure again.

Can I take a brief moment to share how impressed I was with my kids today? They were helpful and did some wonderful housecleaning jobs. I always wonder if they are capable of more and they clearly showed me today that I need to stretch them a bit outside of their comfort zones. Elisha (9) cleaned the upstairs hall and helped to clean the living room. Malachi (6) and Zion (18 months) vacuumed the kitchen floor together. I was very impressed.

My homeschool planning for this term involved taking all the scattered (and annoying) teacher's manuals and merging them into one binder. I made a document in Open Office and filled in each subject for ten weeks. (Noreen, you can see this when you come on Friday). I put the subjects in the binder in the order we do them. Bible, Language Arts (Malachi, Moses, Elisha), Math (Malachi, Moses, Elisha), History, Science, Art, and Read Alouds . Behind each schedule I put everything we need for one week of work including any notes from the Teacher's Manuals, any worksheets, and anything else. I also created two baskets on our shelf. Basket one includes everything needed for group work - Bible, History, Science, Art, Read Alouds, and everything related. Basket two includes everything needed for individual work (this will take the place of the workboxes and be the work with mom box for now).

Last night I spent time photocopying and organizing and made great progress. I was quite proud of my productivity and then... the printer ran out of ink. I panicked. All of my plans... I calmed myself. If we can't get ink before I start school on Monday it will be okay, I will do what I can. Do you hear that encouraging self talk there? It's okay if the plans fall apart... you just do what you can. We were able to get our ink refilled today... long story short.... thanks mom for helping out... so tonight, I am back to printing and preparing.

Just a note here - the printer ink didn't work! It printed 4 pages and then stopped. So weird! So back to the self talk... it will be okay. We can still do school this week even if everything didn't get prepared the way that I wanted it to. A few deep breaths. Look and see what we are really missing. Change things up a little bit. Work on being flexible and adaptable (both good character traits - some character building going on here!).

I thought I would pop in here for a quick visit and let you all know where our homeschool is headed this term. I haven't talked about our school for a bit because with the server crash and then the great disappearance there have been many other things to write about and focus on. I can't wait to get back to sharing more about our everyday school bits and pieces and focusing on what I love - spending time with and homeschooling my children.

The goal is to run hard for the next ten weeks and then take a few weeks break to garden, study poetry, and spend some time on a unit study about Canada.

Do you have any homeschooling goals for this new year? Have you done any planning, tweaking, rearranging, organizing of your homeschool or workboxes? I would love to hear about it. Please share a link to your relevant blog posts or leave your thoughts in the comments.