Canning Tomatoes

For our very first Home Ec class of our new school year, Olivia, Julie, and I canned tomatoes.  This was my first time to can anything!  I asked several people and also researched online how to do it, and everyone told me a little bit differently.  So, I combined everyone's advice, and we got it done!

 The box of tomatoes my neighbor dropped off on my front porch.

 Tomatoes spread out in the laundry room to ripen a little bit.

 Beautiful tomatoes!

 Olivia, working hard at the stove.  I think this was taken during the "boil the chopped tomatoes for 5 minutes" phase.  I am not sure.  We were up to our ears in tomatoes!

 Tomatoes, cooking away!

 Doesn't that look yummy?

 Julie, taking her turn with the stirring.

The finished product!

I proudly put these canned tomatoes on display in my kitchen.  They are resting on a high shelf--above my cookbooks--so we can all admire them whenever we are in the kitchen. 

Our Homeschool Home Economics Class

Really, my girls are instructed in "Home Ec" every day.  They know more about housekeeping and cleaning than most of the girls I attended college with!  But, I still wanted an organized course for them.  I wanted to make sure that I covered everything I thought they would need to know when they have a home of their own.  I also knew that if I didn't schedule those goals as well as some creative fun type activities too as part of their school day, it probably wouldn't happen.  Plus, they will be earning a high school credit as well.

Olivia actually completed a Home Ec course when she was in the ninth grade.  She used Alpha Omega LifePacs, which is a set of workbooks with some creative assignments mixed in as well.   She read and completed all of the 10 workbooks, but I did not have her do many of the projects, because they really weren't all that practical in my opinion.

I knew that I wanted her to take Home Ec again, and this time I wanted Julie to complete the course too.  So, I just created my own course.

I planned 150 lessons.  Most of the lessons will take about an hour to complete, but on some days the only assignment is to read from selected books, so those days won't take as long.  I began my plans by listing goals I had for my girls in the following areas:

• Kitchen
• General Sewing
• Housecleaning
• General Household Care
• Specific Sewing Projects
• Quilting

Next, I selected the books that I would use as my textbooks for my course.

• Large Family Logistics 
• Stitch by Stitch
• First Time Quiltmaking
• Sue Gregg Cookbooks
• A cute recipe binder/scrapbook

As I made my daily assignments, I alternated reading days (from Large Family Logistics), kitchen days, sewing days, shopping days, household project days, etc.  

Some of my goals for this course are:

• Complete a recipe binder of tried and true recipes.
• Prepare supper alone several times throughout the year.
• Learn to make a weekly menu plan and shopping list.
• Actually buy a week's worth of groceries alone.
• Learn the basics of creating a household budget.
• Sew skirts and t shirt dresses for the girls.
• Create a weekly and monthly cleaning schedule.

Those are just a few of my goals, I think I listed around twenty.  Large Family Logistics has suggestions of activities at the end of some of some of the chapters, so they will be completing those. The girls will be creating a binder including various homemaking handouts and charts as we go along.  I also plan to include photos of their various sewing projects, and they will also have their completed pretty recipe binder.

We are already enjoying our Home Ec course, and I hope we that create fond memories as well as learn practical skills the year progresses.

Some Pictures From My Schoolroom

 I got these cute jars at Hobby Lobby.

 My new filing system for "work completed".

The folders are labeled:

• Olivia Writing (completed papers)
• Olivia Tests (completed and graded tests)
• Julie Writing
• Julie Tests
• Clay Writing
• Clay Tests
• Leah Writing
• Sam Writing
• Algebra I Tests (tests to be taken)
• Algebra II Tests
• General Science Tests
• Biology Tests
• Biology II Tests

 One of the bookshelves in the schoolroom.

Top to bottom:

Sonlight Core Binders

encyclopedias

reference books, children's Lang. Arts binders and study guides

miscellaneous books that don't fit into any Sonlight Core

easy readers

 an up-close of the binders

 the Kindergarten alphabet box

 the alphabet files inside the box

the Sonlight Core binders

Kossuth 5K

No pictures!!

Jimmy took Olivia, Julie, and Clay to this 5K while I took Leah and Sam to my friend Lynn's son's birthday party.

The race was last Friday night at 7PM, and thankfully, it had rained all afternoon so the temperature was no longer 100!  Unfortunately, that same rainstorm caused Lynn's power to be out, so she entertained a house full of children without power!  It was supposed to be a swimming party, but....

Jimmy and the children raced really well, and they had a super time.  I put their times in the Race Results section of my left side bar.  They all won a trophy!

The Back to School Treasure Hunt

Our first day of school began with our annual Treasure Hunt.  I am not sure when we first began this tradition, but this was probably our 8th or 9th one.  I prefer to have this treasure hunt on the the day before we start school, but this year I just did not have an opportunity to do that.

In years past I have used many different things as the "treasure":  school supplies, lunch bags (one of the years we co-opped), fancy pencils, gift cards to the book store, and this year, a "coupon" for a smoothie from Smoothie King.

Some years I have made clues for each child separately, and some years they just all take turns reading the clues and working together to find the next one.  That is what we did this year.

 the clues

I gave them Clue #1 out on the front porch.

 Clue #2

 Clue #3

 Clue #4 was inside here

 Clue #4

 Clue #5

 Clue #6

 Clue #7

 Clue #8

 Clue #9

 Clue #10

 The Prize!!

 "Let's go to Smoothie King right now!" they all cried.

So we did!

And we did not begin our first day of school until 10:00!

 Here they all are, waiting for the first clue.

 Looking for a clue

 reading a clue

 showing me a snake skin!

 Sam with the last clue

 Sam, "reading" the last clue

 Here they are at Smoothie King.

 Sam while waiting for his smoothie

Yum!  Yum!

It was a great way to begin the new school year!

School Questions Answered

1.  Why are you using two history programs with Olivia (Sonlight Core 100-American History and Notgrass American History)?

The short answer is that I couldn't decide between the two, so I just chose both!

She is not working either course in its entirety.  I am choosing the components that I like best from each and combining them.  From Notgrass, she is reading the daily lessons from the textbooks and all of the literature books.  She will complete any assigned Bible reading from Notgrass, but she will not answer any of the daily lesson questions, take any of the quizzes or tests, or complete any of the writing assignments.

From Sonlight, she is not reading any of the Bible assignments, but she is reading almost all of the assigned books for history/geography and American Literature.  She is answering the study guide questions (just pondering them, not writing the answers down--plus I am reading all of the books so that we can discuss what she is reading), and she is completing the Sonlight writing assignments.  I have omitted a couple of the Sonlight books because of content, and I will occasionally substitute essay writing for some of the Sonlight writing assignments (like she will write a couple of essays instead of creating a newspaper).  She is also completing the timeline and map assignments.

This may sound like a lot, but Olivia is a voracious reader.  Also, she has read many of the assigned books already this summer or in years past.

2.  What about Sam's Kindergarten?  Can you share more details?

First of all, I have done something a little bit different for each of my children for Kindergarten.  Both Olivia and Julie attended a private half day kindergarten when they were five.  I use My Father's World and Horizons math for Clay, and I used Horizons phonics and math for Leah along with Sonlight Core Pre4/5.

For Sam, I am using the following:

• Sonlight Core Pre4/5
• Horizons K math
• Get Ready for the Code Books A, B, & C (phonics)
• Building Thinking Skills (the first book)
• various "Letter of the Week" activities

When my other four children were 4, I used the Get Ready for the Code Books along with Letter of the Week activities.  In these Code books, the child learns the sound of and how to write a letter each week.  Since I did not do this with Sam when he was 4, we are doing this as part of our Kindergarten.  The letter activities are just various art activities, snacks, songs, and poems that begin with each week's letter.

I am making an ABC scrapbook for Sam's Kindergarten, with each 2 page spread including the Bible verse he is learning for the week, pictures that he glues that begin with the letter, a sample or two of that week's art activity, and sometimes a photo of him doing school that week plus periodic handwriting samples.  I hope to make each letter's pages as soon as we finish the letter (every 4 days), so that all I have to do at the end of the year is to put the pages in the scrapbook in alphabetical order.

This is not a finished page (it's an opened file folder), but the colored D at the top right and the Bible verse printed on red paper will be included.  Also the blue page with the Dd pictures on it.  Those other Dd items are cards that I use to teach the letter.

I made a file for each letter of the alphabet.  Inside each file I put all of the items in the above photo, any songs or poems for the letter, plus any other items that the Sonlight IG requires.  I place books that are associated with each letter behind the letter's file.  I also included stickers that begin with each letter for Sam to use to decorate the scrapbook pages.

The Alphabet Files

In the "notes" section of my Sonlight IG, I jotted down four art/craft activities for each week.  I also listed the books that I wanted to be sure to read (they are in the alphabet file box) and any snacks that begin with that letter.  

I will be happy to answer any other school questions you may have--it may take me a few days to answer them (we are doing school ALL DAY now), but I will be glad to do it!

First Day of School Report

We survived!

I have pictures to share, but I will have to do that later.  The day went well.  We started promptly at 8:00 with our treasure hunt.  That took a while, and then we had a "back to school field trip" to Smoothie King.  So, we actually began our school work at 10:00 AM.  I followed my schedule all day, just setting my timer on my phone for each segment.  It was crazy!  I even set the timer for 30 minutes for lunch!

Today will be a better test of how things will flow since we are going to start schoolwork at 8:00.  Yesterday, everyone was through by 3:50, except for the girls' home ec class....and we promptly began canning tomatoes for our first home ec lesson.  The canning took us until 6:45, so it was a long school day!  Today will be a regular 45 minute home ec lesson, so I am hoping, hoping that we will be done with all of our schoolwork by 3:30!

I plan to answer all of the questions that were left in the comments on yesterday's post....sometime soon!

I better get busy!  School begins in 30 minutes!

Our Curriculum and the First Day of School

Today is the first day of school!  I am anxious to see how it will all go.  Normally we have a pre-school day where I spend some time with each child reviewing his new schoolbooks, express my expectations for him, and explain how I want our day to flow.  Also on this pre-school day we have a treasure hunt.  I make up some fun clues which eventually lead the children to a treasure. The treasure is years past has been new school supplies, cool pencils, gift cards to the book store, etc.  This year's treasure is a "coupon" (I made them using online pictures) to Smoothie King.  We will all go on a little field trip soon and enjoy our back-to-school smoothie.  Only it won't be today, because I have to can tomatoes and put up peas this afternoon when we finish our school day.  Well, it will be part of our the school day for Olivia and Julie--they are going to help me for their Home Ec lesson today.

We did not have our pre-school day yesterday for a variety of reasons, so this morning will be the treasure hunt, the reviewing of new materials and the schedule, AND we will also do a full day of school work!  It's not the best way, but it will work!

Here is our curriculum for the 2011-2012 school year.  I hope to make time to further explain what I am doing for Sam's kindergarten, and I will also be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Olivia:  11th Grade
Teaching Textbooks Algebra II
Apologia Human Anatomy (Biology II)
Sonlight Core 100 (American History, literature, and writing)
Notgrass American History (more American History, Bible and writing)
Bible--4 assigned books, reading assignments from Notgrass, and our daily Bible lesson
Home Economics--course created by me for both girls.  It will include family management, sewing, and cooking.
Daily Grams
Wordly Wise
Logic
Spanish II--Rosetta Stone

Julie:  9th Grade
Teaching Textbooks Algebra I (revised)
Apologia Biology
Computer Literacy--Professor Teaches Microsoft Office, Excel, Power Point and one more that I can't remember the name of!
Home Economics
Daily Grams
Wordly Wise
Easy Grammar
English Composition--How to Write the Novel Way
Geography--Around the World in 180 Days
Mississippi History/Government
Logic
Bible

Clay:  7th Grade
Apologia General Science
Horizons 6th grade math/Pre-Algebra
Sonlight Core D/E (one year American history)  This includes language arts as well.
Wordly Wise
Easy Grammar
Daily Grams
Logic
Spanish (Rosetta Stone)
Mavis Beacon typing
Bible

Leah:  2nd Grade
Sonlight Core B (Intro to World History)
Sonlight 2nd Grade Reading and Language Arts
Explode the Code books 4,5, & 6
Horizons Math 2nd grade
Daily Grams
Building Thinking Skills
Science--she is choosing books from my vast science library.  We are starting with health and nutrition.
Bible

Sam:  Kindergarten
Sonlight Core Pre4/5 (World History and Science)
Sonlight Kindergarten Reading and Language Arts
Get Ready for the Code books A, B, & C
Horizons Math Kindergarten
Bible
Building Thinking Skills

I think that's it!  If I have omitted anything I will make the corrections later.  For now, I am off to cook breakfast, conduct the treasure hunt, and start our new school year!

Happy Schooling!

My 2011 School Schedule

	Mama	Olivia	Julie	Clay	Leah	Sam
05:00:00 AM	Up, Bible reading, run, shower
06:45:00 AM	laundry	Bible, chores, breakfast	Bible, chores, breakfast	Bible, chores, breakfast
07:00:00 AM		Bible, chores, breakfast	Bible, chores, breakfast	Bible, chores, breakfast
07:30:00 AM	laundry	Piano practice	Bible, chores, breakfast	Bible, chores, breakfast		Chores, breakfast
08:00:00 AM	School with Sam-Sonlight reading, math	Algebra II Journal	Algebra I Journal	Bible Reading, Computer in kitchen, Journal, Daily Grams, Logic	Chores, breakfast,	School with Mama—Sonlight reading, math
09:00:00 AM	Bible with all	Bible	Bible	Bible	Bible	Bible
09:30:00 AM	School with Leah	Biology II	Biology I	Easy Grammar, Wordly Wise, cursive, begin math	School with Mama LA, math	Free play schoolroom or somewhere else
10:15:00 AM	Serve snack, laundry	Snack break	Snack break	Snack break	Snack break	Snack break
10:30:00 AM	School with Sam-phonics	Spanish II	Wordly Wise, Easy Grammar, Daily Grams, Logic	Science	Finish school alone	School with Mama phonics
11:00:00 AM	School with Clay math, LA, check work	Wordly Wise, Daily Grams, Logic	Geography	With Mama: spelling math writing review all work	Play with Sam	Play with Leah
11:45:00 AM	Sonlight reading with Leah	American History, Literature, Bible	Geography 12:00 Computer in schoolroom	Finish any school, read alone	Sonlight with Mama	free
12:30:00 PM	Lunch laundry	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
01:30:00 PM	Sonlight reading with Clay	Finish History, Writing	Writing	Sonlight reading with Mama narration	Play	Play
02:00:00 PM	continue	continue	Piano	continue	Play	Play
02:30:00 PM	Home Ec with Olivia and Julie	Home Ec with Mama and Julie	Home Ec with Mama and Olivia	Piano finish any school	Play	play
03:30:00 PM	Check all schoolwork	School is done!	School is done!
05:00:00 PM	Tidy	Tidy	Tidy	Tidy	Tidy	Tidy

This is just a rough draft!  I am not sure how it will all work out, but I needed to put it on paper to see if homeschooling five children was even possible!  I plan to take notes and watch the clock the first few days of school to see how it actually works.  We don't start piano lessons or xc practice until August 15, so I have a couple of weeks to work the kinks out.

BMC Mud Challenge 5K

Saturday morning our family, minus Leah and Sam (they were spectators), participated in the BMC Mud Challenge 5K.  This was an adventure race!  Not your typical 5K race that's run on pavement, but an obstacle course!  We joined about 150 other runners for several minutes of fun......and mud!

 The local fire department was on hand to create a mud pit at the finish line.  We had to crawl underneath those flagged ropes--through the mud--to get to the finish line.  Of course, the more runners went through, the muddier it got.

 Before the race--nice and clean!

 Here is the mud pit--ready for the race.  By the time I crawled through, it was solid brown mud.  No green in sight!

The race course was completely on cross country trails.  Some of it was grass, and some of it was dirt, complete with roots and uneven terrain.  All along the course were obstacles.  I would estimate that there was an obstacle every quarter mile or so.  These obstacles included hay bales, truck tires, huge tractor tires, various sized gates, a rope web, and a huge beam--all to be jumped or climbed over.  Towards the end of the race there was a long pipe to crawl through, and it had dirt in the bottom.  And of course, the stretch before the finish line was the mud pit.

 Clay, moving along on the race course

 Some finishers, crawling to the finish line

 Here comes Jimmy!

 Julie, followed by Clay--Clay actually edged past Julie by the end of the mud pit to finish the race a second before her!

 Here is Olivia!  Go, Olivia, Go!

 And here I am!  I tried not to get too dirty!

 After the race, the fire department gave out showers!

 Julie, before her firetruck spraying.  She didn't get too dirty!

The BMC XC team having fun in the mud after the race!

Of course, I had a lot of laundry to do when we got home.  Five pairs of brown shoes, five sets of very muddy clothes, plus loads of camp laundry!  This race was the culminating event of the BMC Running Camp which Olivia, Julie, and Clay had attended.

Fun times!

Homeschool Planning Part 3

I am still working!  But I needed a break, so I will share a few more ideas.

1.  Don't try to plan a year's worth of school for 5 children in 5 days.  Stressful!

2.  I use Apologia science courses for my children beginning with General Science in the 7th grade.  Well, actually, I sometimes use their elementary science books like Botany or Astronomy, but once they are in 7th grade we follow this schedule:

• 7th--General Science
• 8th--Physical Science
• 9th--Biology
• 10th--Biology II (The Human Body, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made).  Olivia is doing this course as an 11th grader, and she did Chemistry last year, but I am switching it around for the rest of the children.  Olivia is my guinea pig, you know!
• 11th--Chemistry
• 12th--Physics

3.  I go to www.donnayoung.org for all kinds of resources for these Apologia science courses.  The main thing I use are the PDF files for daily lesson plans.  Someone has taken the time to divide the books into daily reading assignments.  All you have to do is print them out and give them to your child to follow.  They are free!  The child just follows along and checks off each day's assignment as he completes it.  But, no one has made one for Biology II.  Not that I could find!  So, today I spent almost 2 hours making one.  

4.  I provide each of my science students with either a binder with 3 sections (for Clay) or a spiral notebook with 3 sections (Olivia and Julie) to use along with their science textbook.  Section 1 is for writing the vocabulary words and their definitions.  Section 2 is for answering the Own Your Own questions (usually one or two questions per day), and Section 3 is for answering the Study Guide questions (one at the end of each chapter).

5.  I allow 2 school days for the children to complete the study guides, meet with me and go over the answers, and then study for the test.  I also look over the test while we are meeting, and I make sure they write down any pertinent information that may not be on the study guide.  Also, I tell them which vocabulary words will be on the test--words that they have to write the full definition for.  But something new that I may to do this year is to also make an additional page for each test with ALL of the vocabulary words in a match-the-word-with-definition format.

6.  I printed out labeled black and white maps of the world for the children to mark the places we read about in our history/geography studies.  In the past we have just located the spots on our globe, and we did that every day, but I wanted something more permanent.  Sonlight provides maps for each book you read, and the locations are marked, but I felt like that was too many maps to copy for each child to use.  Sonlight also suggests that you mark the locations on a large markable wall map, but I don't want a markable wall map in my den, and that is where we read all of the books.  I did hang one of those maps in my schoolroom closet (the only place I had wall space last year), but we never went down there to mark the map.  So, I made each child their own little set of maps that I am keeping in either a binder (Leah and Clay) or a folder (Julie and Olivia).  I am guessing that I printed about 10-15 maps--the U.S., Canada, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, etc.  Each day, as we read about a certain location, they will use colored pencils, crayons, or markers (whichever they prefer) to mark their map.  I hope it works as well as I think it will!

6.  I have assigned Clay (7th grade) daily Bible readings.  Sonlight lists daily Bible readings at  the top of each day in the IGs.  These are intended to be read aloud by the parent, but since we read the Bible together anyway as part of our daily Bible lesson/study, I am going to use Sonlight's daily assignment for Clay's personal Bible reading.  He can simply check off the square after he completes the daily reading.  I also am providing him with a spiral notebook (in his color) to write down two things each day after he reads.  I am really not intending for this to be "school work".  He can read his Bible first thing in the morning, in bed at night, in the afternoon--whenever he wants.  He and I both just needed some sort of plan and accountability to get him in the habit of daily personal Bible reading.

That's all for now!  I need to get back to work.  The next thing on my list is Home Economics planning.  I am using a variety of resources to put together a custom-made course.  

Two Big Milestones!

1.  Sam lost his first tooth last night!  My baby!  I cannot believe he is old enough to lose teeth!

2.  Both Sam and Leah are riding their bikes without training wheels!

Several months ago they asked Jimmy to take off their training wheels. He did, and after a day or two of tears and frustration, they wanted the training wheels put back on.

For the last few months, neither of them have ridden bikes that much. They have just been busy with other things.

Yesterday, Sam decided to get a bigger bike (Clay's old one), one without training wheels, out of the shed and try to ride it.  Success!  Just like that --he could ride a two-wheeler.  Leah found out about it and she went to the shed to retrieve Julie's old bike.  It fit her, and guess what?  Without much effort or trauma, she can ride too!  Wow!

So now, my little children are growing up right before my eyes!  I still can't believe that I will actually be doing school with Sam in just one short week.  He is still a baby!

They are both so proud!