Last Day of "Summer"

This summer was so strange, weather-wise.  I can only remember a handful of days that were really "beach-worthy" but we did spend quite a few days on boats.  This past week, we had a couple of days in the low 90's - probably our last for the year.  On Tuesday we finished school early, had lunch and went out on my friend, Marcia's boat.  She lives on a beautiful little lake about 10 minutes from our home and we had it practically all to ourselves.

 

 The boys love tubing!

 

Lots of snacks on the boat are key to keeping the ones who aren't tubing happy.

 

Everyone says it, but truly one of the greatest things about homeschooling is the flexibility it provides.  All of their friends were in school while we were basking in the sun and enjoying God's creation.  I reminded them of this several times, and so far this year they haven't once

 asked to be sent back to public school. 

Maps

It's only Wednesday and we're almost done with this week's schoolwork, which is WONDERFUL!  Chris has Thursdays and Fridays off so if we can finish all our work in just four days a week, that means we can have a family day every Friday.  WOO HOO!  A regular family day is something we've NEVER had before, so I'm really hoping to work that in just about every week.

 

The first two weeks of our curriculum are an introduction and we're learning a lot about maps.  Today Owen and Sammy got to draw maps of our neighborhood, which is easily defined because there is just one road into it.  They used different symbols to mark houses, barns, cornfields and trails.  They really enjoyed this assignment and did a great job.  It's so nice to see them put effort into their schoolwork.

 

My biggest challenge so far is keeping Luke and William occupied, especially William.  They do a little bit of schoolwork in the morning, but lose steam within an hour and then chaos erupts. 
I have a really hard time because the two of them fight and make HUGE messes
and it's hard for me to stay focused on what the other boys are doing.
I really, REALLY wish kindergarten was 1/2 day in our district because
I would have definitely sent William to it.  I continue to pray for patience to deal with him.

Math for Littles

I bought a bag of M&M's to do math with William and Luke the other day.  Funny how chocolate can motivate just about anyone!

 

First, I asked them to sort their M&M's into groups of the same color.

Then, they had to count how many they had of each color, working with one color at a time.

I would ask them who had more of that color and who had less.

Then whoever had more, had to figure out how many he had to eat to make it the same number.

 

Once they had all the same number M&M's in each color, I let them start eating them at will.  But we also had fun making patterns with them: GREEN - YELLOW-BROWN, GREEN-YELLOW-BROWN.  It was really fun and they now look forward to doing math every day (even if we don't always have M&M's laying around.

 

 

Erin Condren Life Planner 2013 Review

I guess I never really learned the lesson, "You get what you pay for," because like a fool, I went and ordered a cheapo planner back in June.  By the time it shipped (late!) in August, I was already in a complete tizzy because I'd been without a planner for about two weeks.

 

If you recall, last year I purchased an Erin Condren Life Planner and decided to, for the first time, give a paper planner a whirl.  I honestly don't know how I got by without using any sort of planner up until that point in my life - and if you'd asked me last year, I would have also told you I had no clue.  But with my business picking up, taking on my 2nd part-time job and homeschooling the boys, I knew I HAD to get it together.

 

I really liked - and really USED - my Erin Condren last year but was looking for a cheaper alternative for this year.  BIG MISTAKE!  I was immediately unhappy with the one I ordered and went on-line to get a new Erin Condren the very next day.  I vow to never stray again.

 

At long last, here is my 2013-2014 Life Planner, which arrived (early!) a few days ago...

 

 Last year I went with a pre-set design but this year I picked my own color wheel to coincide with my "Something Blue" business. 

 I added a couple of extras:  the pen holder I had used so much last year and customized stickers, which are a new option this year.  I would have ordered a couple of sheets of these, but couldn't figure out how to do that on the website.

I didn't really use the "notes" sections last year, partly because they were inconsistent on whether they were there each week or not.  This year they are on the left side of every page and I've already been using the heck out of them.

The planners I have ordered have been 12 month ones, starting in August (last year) and September (this year) but I've since realized that's not working for me because my business is seasonal, running mostly May-October.  It doesn't make any sense for me to have to switch planners right in the middle of the chaos.  So to avoid that in the future, I am going to order the 18 month planner starting in July of 2014.  I can hardly wait!

In short, I love, love, LOVE the Erin Condren Life Planner and feel it's worth every penny - accept no substitutes! 

My mom will HATE this post

Growing up, it was always pounded into my head that there was nothing more beautiful than wood finish.  My mom spent literally YEARS on a project removing all the paint from our front bay window panes and all the mouldings in the living room, hallway and staircase.  She is a die-hard stripper, taking paint off just about any wood furniture she can get her hands on. 

 

So she would be APPALLED by this project...

 

Before...

 After...

I've had this piece of furniture forever and always liked the raw pine finish, but after re-doing our living room in a bold blue color I needed to pull that blue into the foyer to make it look cohesive.  It was pretty scary when I first started painting it, but now I really love it.  It stands out so much more than before and really brings the whole house together. 

 

Sorry, Mom!

Part of the beauty of homeschooling is...

 

Making up my own classes!

In addition to the boxed curriculum we're using, I have added a class at the end of the school day called:  Home Ec.  So far, this is their LEAST favorite class. But I've explained to them MANY times that of all their classes, this one will provide the knowledge most applicable to their daily lives

 

 So often I tell them to clean their room "the way I would clean it" and apparently they have no idea what that means.  They know what it looks like when I clean it, but they clearly haven't the slightest clue how to get it to look like that. 

 

Each day contains one lesson and before we go to the next one, they have to repeat the previous day's lesson.  Yesterday, our lesson was on how to make your bed.  Their beds have only a fitted sheet and a blanket, so it really wasn't that difficult.  Honestly, the toughest thing was to get rid of all the miscellaneous clothes, toys, etc. that were on their beds.  Both older boys made their own beds, and then one of the little boys' beds. 

 

Today's lesson was cleaning the floor of the room - no small feat!  I showed them how I do it:  by gathering EVERYTHING that's on the floor into a big pile and then picking away at the pile.  I showed them how to sort things and THEN put them away, rather than take 10 different trips to other parts of the house.  I can't say they were enthused, but I sure was!  Here's a fairly dark picture of the finished product:

 

 

Just a note on the bins for their toys...over the years I have spent probably $100 or more buying different storage containers for their toys and within DAYS they would break them.  I finally got wise and bought heavy-duty dishpans.  LOVE them!!!

Well it was another great school day for us over here.  I am packing a ton in this week and we are hoping to be done completely by tomorrow at noon.  A wonderful client of mine from this past summer has offered to let us stay at her lakehouse this weekend.  It's about 10 minutes from here and the boys will LOVE this little getaway.  They always get so excited just to sleep somewhere different.  And, hey, maybe this way their room will stay clean! 

First Day of School with MFW ECC

 

I must admit, I was more nervous than excited to start this school year.  I bought this curriculum last June and was reading the manual every night, getting really excited.  But then I put it all away, thinking that September was soooo far off.  It seemed that way back in June, anyway. 

 

My spring/summer project in the living room and kitchen wasn't originally done with homeschooling in mind, but I did find a way to adapt what I'd done to our need to bring the schoolroom out in the open.  The small bedroom we used last year wasn't working well for two kids and now I was looking at three (sometimes four!) so I had to move our HQ. 

 

I originally had knick-knacks and cookbooks on these shelves that sit on each side of our doorwall**, but those had to make way for bins with school supplies and notebooks.

 

(**I use this word "doorwall" all the time for our sliding glass door that goes out to the deck and my Wisconsin friends make fun of me.  Is that a Michigan term?)

 

I bought fabric bins at Target so that the kids' supplies were out of sight and yet easy for them to find.  Sammy and Owen have their binders tucked on the side and William and Luke just have theirs filled with workbooks and coloring books.  I will also sometimes print out coloring pages for them that pertain to whatever the older boys are studying. 

So here are pictures of each of the boys today - you can tell we homeschool because they aren't dressed to the nines and their hair is all messed up.  But that's part of the beauty of staying at home, isn't it? 

Before we did anything, we stopped to pray together for the grace to get through the day, and we did a devotional from this book I got the boys for New Year's last year.

Overall, it was a good day.  We started at about 8:30am after breakfast and finished a little after 2pm.  We had a 15 minute break around 10am and took about 45 minutes for lunch and "recess."  It's going to be a jam-packed week for us because we had Monday off (Labor Day) and I have appointments on Friday; most everything for this week will have to be packed into just three days.  We worked a little ahead this morning so I think we'll be able to do it.

I see all these pictures of kids going back to school today and I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to have mine home with me.