This mom plans all her meals out for the month, and spends $350 each month to feed her family of 6.
I need to do something similar. I can't find time to run to the store every week AND I need to get my grocery spending back under control. The Jedi won't eat half the recipes she provides, but I can adapt and substitute.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Weekly Wrap-Up: Nerf Guns and Apple Mummies
Last week was our first week of school.
(This week was spent battling a stomach bug. I'm not writing about it. Sue me.)
Monday and Tuesday was spent almost exclusively with Sweetling. Toa of Boy joined us for Bible in the morning, and then was free. He spent two days almost exclusively on Lego Designer....which is a fun, free, Lego CAD program.
Sweetling has a very ambitious first year of high school. Her courses this year include--
On Wednesday, I brought Toa of Boy into the mix.
My goal in choosing curriculum for Toa of Boy this year was to find resources and programs which let him learn in the mode God created him to operate....hands-on, creative, and active!
On Wednesday alone,
we made modeling clay tablets to simulate the wax writing tablets of ancient Rome;
we began are review of multiplication and introduced factors by creating rectangular arrays with glass craft pebbles on a wipe-off mat;
we shot a nerf gun at phonogram cards (no action shot of this--I stood safely around a corner and held up the card to be shot);
and we created a mummification mixture for an innocent apple. (The yummy apple on the left is the control apple after 10 days. The mummified apple is in its baking soda/salt dessication mixture.)
Yes, there was still reading and writing and workbook pages to complete...but they were the side dish that rounded out our plate of learning, not the entree!
Check out what others did this week on Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
(This week was spent battling a stomach bug. I'm not writing about it. Sue me.)
Monday and Tuesday was spent almost exclusively with Sweetling. Toa of Boy joined us for Bible in the morning, and then was free. He spent two days almost exclusively on Lego Designer....which is a fun, free, Lego CAD program.
Sweetling has a very ambitious first year of high school. Her courses this year include--
- Matthew-Acts
- The Rise and Fall of Rome
- Foundations in Romans
- Algebra 2 and Trigonometry
- The One Year Adventure Novel
- American History to 1865
- American Literature
- German 1
- Spanish 3
- ASL 1
- Basic Japanese
- Formal Logic
- Vocabulary from Classical Roots
- General Science
- Drawing 1
- Shakespeare
On Wednesday, I brought Toa of Boy into the mix.
My goal in choosing curriculum for Toa of Boy this year was to find resources and programs which let him learn in the mode God created him to operate....hands-on, creative, and active!
On Wednesday alone,
we made modeling clay tablets to simulate the wax writing tablets of ancient Rome;
we began are review of multiplication and introduced factors by creating rectangular arrays with glass craft pebbles on a wipe-off mat;
we shot a nerf gun at phonogram cards (no action shot of this--I stood safely around a corner and held up the card to be shot);
and we created a mummification mixture for an innocent apple. (The yummy apple on the left is the control apple after 10 days. The mummified apple is in its baking soda/salt dessication mixture.)
Yes, there was still reading and writing and workbook pages to complete...but they were the side dish that rounded out our plate of learning, not the entree!
Check out what others did this week on Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
More Links I Like: Blog for $
No, I'm not going commercial with this blog. This is my blog. Mine.
But, I'm considering starting a foodie blog. We are such a foodie family. That is, in fact, the title I'm considering for it.
"Foodie Family: This ain't no health food blog"
Terrible, isn't it? And yet, devilishly appealing.
My goal would be to make a tiny bit of side money, just enough to help finance our foodie habits. You could look at the blog like an electronic enabler.
I've been trolling though some articles on making money blogging. That's way more important than laundry, right?
And, one of my personal first rules of operating is never ever go ahead with a new idea until its been given at least a week of thought and consideration. I'm trying to hold myself to that rule. The temptation, of course, is to go grab the url for foodie family. Before its gone. Especially since now I've shared it with the world.
ANYWAY, the point of this post is to put up a few links I might find helpful.
And what about content?
I'm not putting up a post on Monday. Mondays are co-op days. A timely post wont happen on Monday. Even though Menu Monday has a nice ring to it. (Though I could write it over the weekend and schedule it to go up on Monday....)
Two for Tuesday is already a hit. As in, it has a handful of readers.
Weekend Road Trip would be nice to post up every other week or so. Even though my road trips at first might be limited to the Greater Cincinnati Area.
But, I'm considering starting a foodie blog. We are such a foodie family. That is, in fact, the title I'm considering for it.
"Foodie Family: This ain't no health food blog"
Terrible, isn't it? And yet, devilishly appealing.
My goal would be to make a tiny bit of side money, just enough to help finance our foodie habits. You could look at the blog like an electronic enabler.
I've been trolling though some articles on making money blogging. That's way more important than laundry, right?
And, one of my personal first rules of operating is never ever go ahead with a new idea until its been given at least a week of thought and consideration. I'm trying to hold myself to that rule. The temptation, of course, is to go grab the url for foodie family. Before its gone. Especially since now I've shared it with the world.
ANYWAY, the point of this post is to put up a few links I might find helpful.
- ChristianPF--pretty inclusive article with a few embedded links that look promising.
- ProBlogger --nice set of articles linked to the bottom of the post. For further reading when I'm dodging laundry again. You didn't know I had ninja laundry, did you?
- Delete all the old writing blogs I don't actually write for anymore.
- Change my blogger name to Hot Fudge Oracle. It fits the theme more than Mrs Random.
- Maybe change my personal blog name. Right now this blog has the url of hot-fudge-oracle and the blog name of "R.A.M--Random Access Me-ness." Totally doesn't match because I had no idea how the url and the blog name connected.
- Fiddle with the customization settings on the new blog before I put up content. I'm afraid to change much here, other than the basic template....because I dread things accidentally going bye-bye.
- Read the owner's manual on my new camera.
And what about content?
I'm not putting up a post on Monday. Mondays are co-op days. A timely post wont happen on Monday. Even though Menu Monday has a nice ring to it. (Though I could write it over the weekend and schedule it to go up on Monday....)
Two for Tuesday is already a hit. As in, it has a handful of readers.
Weekend Road Trip would be nice to post up every other week or so. Even though my road trips at first might be limited to the Greater Cincinnati Area.
Links I Like: Breakfast Muffins
I'm sick of seeing a good idea....then never being able to remember which blog or site I saw it on.
And no, I'm NOT joining Pinterest.
Instead, I'm going to start tossing a few links on my blog. Even if it's just one link.
It's my blog. I make my own rules.
Breakfast Muffins.
See how easy that was?
And no, I'm NOT joining Pinterest.
Instead, I'm going to start tossing a few links on my blog. Even if it's just one link.
It's my blog. I make my own rules.
Breakfast Muffins.
See how easy that was?
Sunday, July 22, 2012
The Second Ammendment
Toa of Boy and I were in the kitchen. This is last week, so some details might be debated by the other eyewitnesses who were also present.
Toa was asking me questions. Many questions. Questions I did not have the answers for.
I told Toa I was going to eat him. ALIVE.
Cannibalism is often my go-to answer.
Toa of Boy ran out of the room.
Toa of the Boy returned, standing in the doorway with his hands behind his back.
"Mommy?" he asked. "Are you still going to eat me?"
I smiled and opened my mouth to answer in the affirmative.....but just then I heard the plastic click-click of a Nerf hand gun being cocked.
I wisely answered that I had changed my mind about eating him.
Toa was asking me questions. Many questions. Questions I did not have the answers for.
I told Toa I was going to eat him. ALIVE.
Cannibalism is often my go-to answer.
Toa of Boy ran out of the room.
Toa of the Boy returned, standing in the doorway with his hands behind his back.
"Mommy?" he asked. "Are you still going to eat me?"
I smiled and opened my mouth to answer in the affirmative.....but just then I heard the plastic click-click of a Nerf hand gun being cocked.
I wisely answered that I had changed my mind about eating him.
(photo credit facepunch.com)
Friday, July 20, 2012
Facebook Friday
June 22
I'm serving hot fudge banana splits at Sweetling's sleepover because i thought these would be a yummy summer treat. The girls, however, only see these as a means to get, and i do quote, "ALL SUGARED UP".
June 23
a nap is happening today. Thus it has been written; thus it shall be done.
June 24
Me: I'm so tired. I need to be able to tap into Toa's energy reserves. Where does he get all that energy?
Toa of Boy: Meat!
June 25
Today's shout out goes to my Friend in the Trenches who found us a great electric keyboard for school! Toa is so excited, he wants to start his homeschool music lessons *today* rather than wait for the 'official' start of school!
June 26
We went to Farbach-Werner Nature Preserve to see their owl display and go on a short walk. We came home with--- two ziplock bags, one with small rodent and bird bones, the other with the rest of the dissected owl pellet; one bent stick which shall be painted brown and strung to become a bow; a roll of paper sycamore bark; and a few scratches from tree climbing.
June 27
I like hanging out with other mothers with boys, just to know I'm not the only one who has to say things like, "No breaking and entering!" and "No, get down! You may not ride on your brother!"
June 27
Theology according to the VBS preschoolers:
Q: Who did God send to Earth to save us?
A: Reese! (The monkey puppet)
June 28
Goal for the day: have the kitchen floor swept and mopped, the bathroom clean, and the house vacuumed by 10am. It's not a very exciting goal I know, but I'll be happy when I've completed it!
June 28
Rewriting is hard work. why did I pick this as my reward for getting the house semi-clean?
June 30
Call me crazy, but...I can't find a zucchini pasta salad recipe that cooks the zucchini. Isn't raw zucchini a bit hard and tough for a salad?
June30
Oh NO!!! I forgot to do the baking/cooking for the church picnic tomorrow!
July 2
I love technology...I can stalk my daughter from across the country!
July 3
My Sweetling called me!!!
July 3
The group in Denver
July 3
I took a reality pill and realized that going bookless for math was going to be a *whole* lot of work. So, plan B. Anyone have experience with the series "Key to..." I'm looking at Key to Fractions and Key to Percents in particular.
July 5
Did you know that vampires see everything in shades of red? It's true; Toa of Boy told me so.
July 5
Sweetling on a service project in Denver. Her hat says "Daddy's Mini-Me"!
July 6
July 7
Yay! She's on her way home!
July 8
within minutes of waking up, Toa of Boy was telling me all about the things he rolled up last night in Katamari. Thank you Christopher Robin, you've made a young boy very happy this weekend!
July 8
Today's conversation--
Sweetlng: Hey, are those my shoes you are wearing???
Me: Yes. Think of it as rent for feeding your fish while you were gone.
July 8
portfolios written for both kids, now I just have to assemble the work samples to scan or photo graph
July 9
Last night I jotted down a to-do list for today. It reads, "tub, laundry, dishes, kitchen, sweep, ticket, plants, games, hair." This morning I have *no* idea what 'games' is doing on the list or what it's supposed to mean.
July 9
Second to-do list for the week. Yes, the Facebook world does need to know this.
--round up Sweetlings's work samples
--photo/scan work samples
--finish letter of intent
--clean out school shelves
--clean out file cabinet
--purge stuff from under the stairs
--box up last year's curriculum to be stored in garage
--make Logic of English game cards
--set up this year's school books and materials
--clean Toa's closet
--go clothes shopping with Christopher Robin
--go to game week at Farbach Werner
--find a gaming snack that can hold its own against Munchkin dip
July 9
My children have added "defeat the final boss in Zelda:Twilight Princess" to my to do list for this afternoon. Being the loving, selfless mother that I am, I shall have to honor that request.
July 9
What I should be doing...getting ready for school or defeating the final Zelda boss. (It's a toss up between those two.)
What I am doing: checking out potential homes for living in through a zombie apocalypse
July 11
I have been informed today that we have *not* had a summer unless we make homemade ice cream. Friday afternoon grocery run had better include ingredients for ice cream!
July 12
Drove down to get gyros from Sebastian's today....and they were closed for a two week vacation! We went to Golden City instead which had some of the best egg rolls ever :)
July 13
It's quarter till 2 a.m. I was asleep, but now I'm wide awake. any decent suggestions on what to do with myself?
July 14
judging BBQ in Kettering :)
July 15
conversations--
Toa of Boy: do do do do do do do
Sweetling: ---
Toa: do do do do do do do
Sweetling: --
Toa: Sweetling! It's the chasing music!
Sweetling: ?
Toa: Do do do do do do do
Sweetling: ?
Toa: You know the music where you are chasing baby ducks!
Sweetling: ????
Toa: do do do do do do do
Sweetling: I'm not even going to ask.
July 15
conversations as we wait for the homemade ice cream to set up--
Me: What about some ham and cheese quesadillas?
Toa: No, that's too much like a meal.
Sweetling: Well, we still need to eat something for dinner.
The Jedi: Really? I thought that was what the ice cream was for.
July 16
Compliment of the day (from Sweetling) :
"I really like the direction you picked for history this year."
July 16
First day of school--all subjects and assignments complete, laundry down to the last load, kitchen-living room-dishes-bath all clean. BOOYAH! Who's the woman!
July 17
Just found a pair of black bionicle bat wings in the dryer with the socks and underwear.
July 17
The Jedi's compliment of the day:
Toa of Boy: Daddy, what's the elven word for mountain?
The Jedi: I'd have to look that up.
Toa: Ok, I thought I'd ask cause I thought you might know.
Jedi: I love that our family needs an elven dictionary.
July 18
at 9:30 on the third day of school, I have three things to share:
a) I hate modeling clay
b) Tears have been shed
c) If two trains enter a tunnel, I don't care what their speed is, there is going to be a big explosion in the tunnel.
July 18
Toa of Boy named his skeleton lego "Vecna."
July 19
New measure of pathetic: waiting till your daughter leaves the room to sharpen her pencil so that you can cheat off of her algebra work
July 19
What i learned tonight at tae kwon do--- Iron Butterflies are every bit as evil as they sound
I'm serving hot fudge banana splits at Sweetling's sleepover because i thought these would be a yummy summer treat. The girls, however, only see these as a means to get, and i do quote, "ALL SUGARED UP".
June 23
a nap is happening today. Thus it has been written; thus it shall be done.
June 24
Me: I'm so tired. I need to be able to tap into Toa's energy reserves. Where does he get all that energy?
Toa of Boy: Meat!
June 25
Today's shout out goes to my Friend in the Trenches who found us a great electric keyboard for school! Toa is so excited, he wants to start his homeschool music lessons *today* rather than wait for the 'official' start of school!
June 26
We went to Farbach-Werner Nature Preserve to see their owl display and go on a short walk. We came home with--- two ziplock bags, one with small rodent and bird bones, the other with the rest of the dissected owl pellet; one bent stick which shall be painted brown and strung to become a bow; a roll of paper sycamore bark; and a few scratches from tree climbing.
June 27
I like hanging out with other mothers with boys, just to know I'm not the only one who has to say things like, "No breaking and entering!" and "No, get down! You may not ride on your brother!"
June 27
Theology according to the VBS preschoolers:
Q: Who did God send to Earth to save us?
A: Reese! (The monkey puppet)
June 28
Goal for the day: have the kitchen floor swept and mopped, the bathroom clean, and the house vacuumed by 10am. It's not a very exciting goal I know, but I'll be happy when I've completed it!
June 28
Rewriting is hard work. why did I pick this as my reward for getting the house semi-clean?
June 30
Call me crazy, but...I can't find a zucchini pasta salad recipe that cooks the zucchini. Isn't raw zucchini a bit hard and tough for a salad?
June30
Oh NO!!! I forgot to do the baking/cooking for the church picnic tomorrow!
July 2
July 3
My Sweetling called me!!!
July 3
The group in Denver
I took a reality pill and realized that going bookless for math was going to be a *whole* lot of work. So, plan B. Anyone have experience with the series "Key to..." I'm looking at Key to Fractions and Key to Percents in particular.
July 5
Did you know that vampires see everything in shades of red? It's true; Toa of Boy told me so.
July 5
Sweetling on a service project in Denver. Her hat says "Daddy's Mini-Me"!
July 7
Yay! She's on her way home!
July 8
within minutes of waking up, Toa of Boy was telling me all about the things he rolled up last night in Katamari. Thank you Christopher Robin, you've made a young boy very happy this weekend!
July 8
Today's conversation--
Sweetlng: Hey, are those my shoes you are wearing???
Me: Yes. Think of it as rent for feeding your fish while you were gone.
July 8
portfolios written for both kids, now I just have to assemble the work samples to scan or photo graph
July 9
Last night I jotted down a to-do list for today. It reads, "tub, laundry, dishes, kitchen, sweep, ticket, plants, games, hair." This morning I have *no* idea what 'games' is doing on the list or what it's supposed to mean.
July 9
Second to-do list for the week. Yes, the Facebook world does need to know this.
--round up Sweetlings's work samples
--photo/scan work samples
--finish letter of intent
--clean out school shelves
--clean out file cabinet
--purge stuff from under the stairs
--box up last year's curriculum to be stored in garage
--make Logic of English game cards
--set up this year's school books and materials
--clean Toa's closet
--go clothes shopping with Christopher Robin
--go to game week at Farbach Werner
--find a gaming snack that can hold its own against Munchkin dip
July 9
My children have added "defeat the final boss in Zelda:Twilight Princess" to my to do list for this afternoon. Being the loving, selfless mother that I am, I shall have to honor that request.
July 9
What I should be doing...getting ready for school or defeating the final Zelda boss. (It's a toss up between those two.)
What I am doing: checking out potential homes for living in through a zombie apocalypse
July 11
I have been informed today that we have *not* had a summer unless we make homemade ice cream. Friday afternoon grocery run had better include ingredients for ice cream!
July 12
Drove down to get gyros from Sebastian's today....and they were closed for a two week vacation! We went to Golden City instead which had some of the best egg rolls ever :)
July 13
It's quarter till 2 a.m. I was asleep, but now I'm wide awake. any decent suggestions on what to do with myself?
July 14
judging BBQ in Kettering :)
July 15
conversations--
Toa of Boy: do do do do do do do
Sweetling: ---
Toa: do do do do do do do
Sweetling: --
Toa: Sweetling! It's the chasing music!
Sweetling: ?
Toa: Do do do do do do do
Sweetling: ?
Toa: You know the music where you are chasing baby ducks!
Sweetling: ????
Toa: do do do do do do do
Sweetling: I'm not even going to ask.
July 15
conversations as we wait for the homemade ice cream to set up--
Me: What about some ham and cheese quesadillas?
Toa: No, that's too much like a meal.
Sweetling: Well, we still need to eat something for dinner.
The Jedi: Really? I thought that was what the ice cream was for.
July 16
Compliment of the day (from Sweetling) :
"I really like the direction you picked for history this year."
July 16
First day of school--all subjects and assignments complete, laundry down to the last load, kitchen-living room-dishes-bath all clean. BOOYAH! Who's the woman!
July 17
Just found a pair of black bionicle bat wings in the dryer with the socks and underwear.
July 17
The Jedi's compliment of the day:
Toa of Boy: Daddy, what's the elven word for mountain?
The Jedi: I'd have to look that up.
Toa: Ok, I thought I'd ask cause I thought you might know.
Jedi: I love that our family needs an elven dictionary.
July 18
at 9:30 on the third day of school, I have three things to share:
a) I hate modeling clay
b) Tears have been shed
c) If two trains enter a tunnel, I don't care what their speed is, there is going to be a big explosion in the tunnel.
July 18
Toa of Boy named his skeleton lego "Vecna."
July 19
New measure of pathetic: waiting till your daughter leaves the room to sharpen her pencil so that you can cheat off of her algebra work
July 19
What i learned tonight at tae kwon do--- Iron Butterflies are every bit as evil as they sound
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Two for Tuesdays: Pizza-dillas! and Caramel Cashew Blondies
What, you might ask, is a pizzadilla?
Behold...
Recipe number two that I give to you! (That rhymed and everything. I'm so spiffy.)
Behold...
The Birth of the Pizza-dilla
Here is the riveting story of how the pizzadilla came about. First, the circumstances must be desperate. As in, I have 5 adolescent girls coming to my house for a summer sleepover. The plan was to make homemade pizzas BUT this requires the use of the oven, the temperature outside is in the triple digits, and our twenty year old AC is limping along and not quite able to keep up. (Disclaimer: our AC unit isn't really 20 years old. I pulled that number out of my butt. Literary license and all.)
What to do?
Option A: order a pizza. Simple, but I lose an ice breaker activity which I feel is important since a few of the girls don't know each other.
Option B: The Jedi very graciously offered to go outside and grill the pizzas for us. This was a special sacrifice of love, because the Jedi hates summer heat just as much as I hate the winter cold. I, in some extra rare twinge of conscience, declined.
Option C: Invent something totally new with the pizza ingredients that allows each girl to construct her own dinner but doesn't use the oven.
TA DA!!!!!
Pizza-dillas
Ingredients
- flour or corn tortillas, one or two per person
- shredded mozzarella cheese
- pepperoni and/or ham
- diced peppers and onions
- spaghetti/pizza sauce, warmed and served on the side
Directions
- Layer cheese and other desired toppings on one half of a tortilla. Fold tortilla in half to sandwich pizza fillings inside the two halves of the tortilla.
- Place stuffed tortilla in a frying pan. Cover to help melt cheese and fry for a brief time (half a minute?) to lightly brown and crisp the tortilla. Flip and fry on other side. (Recover while crisping other side to continue to melt the cheese).
- Remove from pan. Serve with warm sauce for dipping.
Caramel Cashew Blondies
I did not serve these for Sweetling's sleepover. I set out a sundae bar for the girls with bananas and homemade hot fudge as featured ingredients. But, I made these the following weekend, using my toaster oven to bake them in instead of turning on the regular oven. They were delicious. I've been looking for a substitute snack in lieu of store-bought granola bars and I think these might be an option. Yes, I know topping them with nuts doesn't make them healthy....but it does make them delicious!Ingredients
- 18 whole caramels
- 1/3 cup butter or margarine
- 2 tbsp milk
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup chopped salted cashews
- 2 eggs
Directions
- In a saucepan, cook and stir caramels, butter and milk over low heat until the caramels are melted and mixture is smooth.
- Remove from the heat; stir in sugar.
- Combine eggs and vanilla; stir into caramel mixture.
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt; stir into caramel mixture until blended.
- Transfer to a greased 9 inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 for 24-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
- Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars.
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
School Supplies
If I were cool, which you know I'm not, I'd set up an instrumental sound track to play "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" as this post is being read.
Instead, you'll just have to hum it in your head as you read. Everyone humming? Good, let's begin...
It's time to make the back-to-school supply list!
At our house, we need ---
Instead, you'll just have to hum it in your head as you read. Everyone humming? Good, let's begin...
It's time to make the back-to-school supply list!
At our house, we need ---
- pencils. (And we need to give away all the purple pencils neither of my kids will use.)
- markers (And we need to throw away all the markers that are dried up).
- colored pencils for Toa (because most of his set from last year are MIA)
- ultra fine Sharpies for each of us (for labeling maps and other diagrams)
- regular Sharpies for each of us (for outlining maps and other things)
- double sided sticky tape for each of us (for mounting projects)
- glue sticks
- glue bottles
- green duct tape
- 2 rolls of blue duct tape (one for school and one to mend the trampoline, again)
- 2 nerf guns (they're for educational purposes, I swear)
- white card stock
- index card holders, one green and one blue
- divider tabs, at least two sets
- clay that can be fired in a regular oven, not a kiln (Toa wants to do a unit on ceramics)
- blank white index cards or blank 'game' cards from the school supply store
- maybe scissors (we need to do a scissor scavenger hunt and make sure each child can find 2 pair--one for home and one for co-op)
- maybe pencil sharpeners. (scavenger hunt time again)
- maybe erasers (yeah, another hunt)
- assorted folders and notebooks for co-op (I have to check their class lists)
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
The Beauty of a Schedule
Even though I am *not* an organized person...there are few things I love more at the start of a new school year than putting together a lovely color coded schedule.
Check this beauty out:
Now, for those of you who are wondering what alien being has suddenly taken over my body, let me explain what got me hooked on colored colored schedules (made in excel by the way).
In my second year of homeschooling, this was what I was trying to juggle--
The only way, the only way, I made sure it all squeezed in somehow was to block it all out in a schedule. And then WOE BE UNTO ANYONE WHO DISRUPTED THAT SCHEDULE. It was my life boat in a turbulent sea.
Now, of course, we really don't need such a strict schedule. In fact, we rather spontaneous with our learning and our projects ....BUT.... I still like to put a schedule together. I like knowing how it's all going to fit together.
The beginning of a school year is like opening a jigsaw puzzle box, and making the schedule gives me the satisfaction of seeing all those random pieces come together in a coherent way.
Plus, having a schedule gives me more freedom. Yeah, I know that seems like an oxymoron, but it's true. When I have a framework for our day and our week, its easier to go ahead and take two hours to build a native village out of sticks in the backyard. I can shuffle the pieces of the schedule around in my mind, and go outside and enjoy myself without worrying about how math is going to get done. It gives me permission to go ahead and let Sweetling take an afternoon to design and sew some hats for Perry the Platypus. I never have to find myself telling my children, 'that sounds like a really great idea, but it doesn't fit in our day.' Because I have the ability to reconstruct our day and our week.
The schedule becomes my tool, not my master.
This year I'm adding another component to my schedule....lesson plans!
Now, I've never seen the sense in buying a lesson plan book for the year, because as much as I shuffle and rearrange things, I'd be constantly erasing and rewriting and switching days. But, at the same time, I do like having an idea of how things are going to fit into our school calendar.
I did some looking around over the summer, and I found what I hope is going to be an awesome resource for me. It's an online planner, meaning I can type instead of handwrite. I can copy and paste, and I can include links to other online resources (which I tend to use a lot).
Here was the selling point for me: I can BUMP a lesson, or a whole day of lessons to the next day, and everything else automatically adjusts. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!
My first week of lesson plans (minus a couple of subjects which I'm still working on)
And with the bottom cropped off, but you get the idea.
Check this beauty out:
In my second year of homeschooling, this was what I was trying to juggle--
- a precocious toddler who wanted her own school time and school activities and learning stuff
- my teenage sister, who mostly unschooled herself and just needed some set time with me so that we could both struggle through Algebra 2 together.
- private lessons for my sister in art and in literature/composition at two different locations
- my elementary aged brother and his curriculum
- our teenaged foster daughter, who was trying to get caught back up to grade level after missing a lot of school for medical reasons and therefore need lots of one-on-one instruction to cover the ground she had missed
- LOTS of medical appointments and appointments with social workers for our foster daughter (lots being mutliple appointments every week)
The only way, the only way, I made sure it all squeezed in somehow was to block it all out in a schedule. And then WOE BE UNTO ANYONE WHO DISRUPTED THAT SCHEDULE. It was my life boat in a turbulent sea.
Now, of course, we really don't need such a strict schedule. In fact, we rather spontaneous with our learning and our projects ....BUT.... I still like to put a schedule together. I like knowing how it's all going to fit together.
The beginning of a school year is like opening a jigsaw puzzle box, and making the schedule gives me the satisfaction of seeing all those random pieces come together in a coherent way.
Plus, having a schedule gives me more freedom. Yeah, I know that seems like an oxymoron, but it's true. When I have a framework for our day and our week, its easier to go ahead and take two hours to build a native village out of sticks in the backyard. I can shuffle the pieces of the schedule around in my mind, and go outside and enjoy myself without worrying about how math is going to get done. It gives me permission to go ahead and let Sweetling take an afternoon to design and sew some hats for Perry the Platypus. I never have to find myself telling my children, 'that sounds like a really great idea, but it doesn't fit in our day.' Because I have the ability to reconstruct our day and our week.
The schedule becomes my tool, not my master.
This year I'm adding another component to my schedule....lesson plans!
Now, I've never seen the sense in buying a lesson plan book for the year, because as much as I shuffle and rearrange things, I'd be constantly erasing and rewriting and switching days. But, at the same time, I do like having an idea of how things are going to fit into our school calendar.
I did some looking around over the summer, and I found what I hope is going to be an awesome resource for me. It's an online planner, meaning I can type instead of handwrite. I can copy and paste, and I can include links to other online resources (which I tend to use a lot).
Here was the selling point for me: I can BUMP a lesson, or a whole day of lessons to the next day, and everything else automatically adjusts. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!
My first week of lesson plans (minus a couple of subjects which I'm still working on)
And with the bottom cropped off, but you get the idea.
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