School room on the Not back to school blog hop

Yay!  Another week of blog hopping in celebration of NOT going back to school.  This week we are sharing our classrooms.  The environments in which we learn.  I've been perusing a lot of the blogs that have already linked up this week over the past few days, gleaning ideas and just generally feeling somewhat green with a little bit of envy.  But a few posts I read yesterday really spoke to me about contentment.  About being content to learn wherever we are.  I needed to hear that.  We have an amazing home.  One that I still feel so blessed to be living in a year after we moved in.  It has it's quirks and we have no garage or outside storage at all but we have a roof over our heads and we have plenty of room to play and learn.  I am content.  I am content with learning in the playroom this year.

This is our playroom.  That is the main wall, with the world map and my teacher shelf - it's best that some things are kept out of reach.  The door on the left there is the closet, the shelves and bins of toys are in there.  That drawer unit houses our various games and activities by subject (not my LOTW stuff, other random things).  And there's a poster of the alphabet.  And above my teacher shelf is our alphabet train.

This is the opposite side of the room.  That little table is where Spider and Princess can sit and work/play.  The larger table against the wall is for Squirrel and Howler to do their work.  The shelf above Howler's head has some of our manipulatives (we have lots of these) and the bookshelf houses more manipulatives and our alphabet magnets, Spider's activity bins, the magna doodles, the play kitchen food and dishes, and the bottom shelf is for Princess with her baby/toddler toys.

And this is looking from the window to the door of the playroom.  Behind the door is the basket of stuffed animals and dolls.  The posters above are the alphabet and numbers.  Howler is sitting in our other reading corner.  With the basket of books and a random pillow.  Don't ask.  mostly cause I don't know.  Above him is the calendar, to the right of the calendar is our weather chart but you can't see it because it's taped on the jutted out wall.  I might add a few more components in this area - namely a hundreds chart, and a days of the week spot where we can discuss that today is Friday and tomorrow is Saturday and yesterday was Thursday.  This is our main classroom.

I am content with containing our art messes to the dining room table.

I am content with reading our stories on the loveseat in the living room.

I am going to be especially content once I have the laundry room clean and get our nature center set up (no more rocks from mars sitting on the computer desk!)

We learn just about everywhere in our home.  We learn just about everywhere outside our home.  It's what I love so much about homeschooling.  Homeschooling is not creating a sterile classroom environment in your house.  Homeschooling is creating a natural, loving environment where the natural curiosity of a child can be quenched.  Where google sees it's share of random questions on a regular basis and not only are the children learning in the playroom, the living room, the dining room, the laundry room, and everywhere we go but *I* am learning so much too!  I think that for the first time since I was really young I have a genuine excitement about school because of what I can learn!  And our tables and chairs are really just tools we can use to help move that along nicely.


PS: my office is upstairs on our landing.  It's where I keep what we're not currently using for school.  It's a total disaster right now so I did not get pictures of it.  I also did not snap pics of the boys' weekly file boxes.  but they look like the one below and will hold their weeks worth of activities and work.  I have not yet decided where I'm keeping our FIAR stuff organized.

If you've stopped by from the blog hop I'm so happy to have you!  If not please head over to the blog hop here and check out all of the other terrific school room posts this week!

My movie shelf makeover

Ok so we have a totally huge and fantastic built in tv space in our living room.  I like it.  A LOT.  But that shelf above the tv can be hard for me to reach.  I'm short.  It's tall.  See the problem?  So we tried to organize it in a way that I would be able to see and maybe easily get what we wanted to see down.  We have tons of VHS tapes and we actually use them on a pretty regular basis so I don't want to put them in the basement or upstairs even.  But they were a mess.  So now I have a question.  What does this

and this

have in common?

Well I'll tell you my friends.  In a minute.  First you have to read the whole story.

So I read a blog post the other day about creating cheap storage out of the cardboard boxes the kids' diapers come in.  Woot!  So, when I was reading this other blog I thought, gee that's nice, and they turned out cute, but those would NEVER stand up as toy bins in my home.  I closed the blog and moved on with my life.  Until last night.  I was lamenting the complete mess that was our movie shelf and thought "I wish I have some deep bins for that shelf" when WHAM it hit me!  Those bins, on that blog, made out of the boxes!  So I hunted around for some fabric I could use to cover my very own boxes.  Yes, we cloth diaper but they all wear sposies at night, so shoot me.  So we just got a shipment of diapers the other day and I went and found that I had a 2nd box in the laundry room.  I used hot glue to attach the fabric to the boxes, and voila, two deep bins for my movie shelf.  And isn't it amazing???

last night that mess of cords was neatly contained.  Children must have happened this morning. GAH.

So yeah, those bins would never last in the toy room but up there they work great and hold all of our movies and it looks so tidy.  I'm not completely thrilled with the fronts of the boxes, I feel like they need more life, something to make them pop.  I'm open to suggestions!

PS.  I searched for the blog I originally found this box idea on and I have NO idea where it is.  If I find it I will come back and link up to give them credit.  I promise!

Coupon binder how to

A friend of mine knows that I coupon.  She asked me about a binder that she found online.  I told her that while I liked it, I couldn't justify the price of it when it was really just a fancied up version of what I already do.  This post is for her with more details of my binder.  This post is also for anyone reading who wonders why I carry around a 3 ring binder at the grocery store. haha

So I started with a basic 97 cent 3 ring binder from walmart.  It lasted me probably 2yrs maybe 3 before I had to replace it from wear.

Then I added a zipper pouch meant for pencils.  I believe I got this on clearance at walmart for 1.00 and they often go on sale in the back to school sales so be watching!

Then I added these 9 slot page protectors meant for baseball cards.  I found these on amazon for just under 6.00 for a 25pack.  One 25 pack will be plenty (at least in my experience).  So that brings the total cost to just under 10.00.

Then I sorted my coupons into a few general categories to make it slightly easier to find the coupon I'm looking for.  I went with Frozen foods, aisle foods, and cold foods.  I separate non-food coupons into the pink pencil pouch at the front.  I don't use those coupons as often and just finger through them when I think I should have one for a specific something.  I use my food coupons MUCH more regularly and so they are worth the time that it takes to put them in the separate slots.


The front and back of the binder each have a little pocket in them and I keep things like my shopping list and coupons that are expiring on or just after my next shopping trip, or whole inserts I haven't bothered to clip yet.

I often tuck my spiral notebook in the front with my meal plan and lists on it (not in a pocket, just kinda laying in there).  I am considering adding another pencil pouch for my scissors and a small calculator.  I also like the idea of adding a couple of regular sheet protectors to keep my sale ads in.  So I will probably do that as well.  I hope this is helpful to someone out there.

Discipleship

I heard a great teaching last Sunday (this weeks was good too but last weeks is still on my mind) about discipleship.  His point was to explain to us how to disciple others but really it made me want to BE a better disciple myself.  After all how can I disciple others (namely the monkeys and princess) if I myself am not being a very good disciple of Jesus? 

Here's a hint:  I CAN'T!

So now it's been on my mind a lot this week.  I was able to do a few things this week that aren't necessarily my favorite things but remembering the definition of disciple I felt that I needed to do them.  There are lots of other areas though that I still need improvement.  Vast improvement.

Straight from my sermon notes (which were happily laying on the floor (where they do NOT belong of course) here next to the computer chair):

What is a disciple?
1 - Lives for Jesus instead of self  Luke 14:27
2 - Loves Jesus more than anyone  Luke 14:26
3 - Loves Jesus more than anything  Luke 14:33
4 - Love others how Jesus did!  John 13:24
5 - Loves to do what Jesus said  John 8:31-32 (of course this means you need to know what Jesus said and so reading and meditating on the word of God regularly is important for this step)
6 - Bears much fruit  John 15:8 - two types of fruit bearing here - A) the fruit of the spirit found in Galatians and B) making disciples - because this is something that Jesus said to do see #5

And a recap of the fruit of the spirit here:

 ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5: 22-23

I feel that I should highlight Galatians 5:19-21 too:
¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Oh how sad I am that so many in the latter part take place in our home so often and so few of the first part do.

This year as we start our new school year I'm feeling a need for change in how we do things around here.  I'm feeling a need for a closer and more real walk with God.  One that is real and exciting and talked about with great regularity.  I'm praying for such as we go into a new week and a new school year.  I don't want God to be something we learn about at church and mostly ignore the rest of the time.  I want the fruits to be more common in my home than the acts of the flesh.  I want to BE a disciple so that I can disciple my precious children.

The Homeschool Mother's journal

I'm always looking for new things to post about so I don't begin to sound like a broken record here on my blog and today I came across this link up that looked fun!

In my life this week…
  This week the kids and I have had just a relaxing week here at home for the most part.  Yesterday we went to the store for a few things and then I took the boys to the huge sled hill at one of our local parks where they ran up and down for a while.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

   Tomorrow I'm planning to take another family trip to the library in the morning, and in the evening we're meal hosting BIHN - it's a local homeless outreach network thing.  Our church sponsors the people once every three months and we (including the kids) meal host - have dinner with our guests one night that week.  It's a good reminder to us the adults and the kids that we should be thankful for what we have because some people are truly in a place where they don't have their own roof over their head. 

Questions/thoughts I have…

   This has nothing to do with homeschooling really but I've been pondering the idea that we're supposed to love God first and most.  That we have to trust our children to him.  I've seen so many fellow moms online esp that have lost children/babies and it makes it hard for me to trust God to love my children as much as I do even though I intellectually know that He loves them FAR more!

Things I’m working on…
    I'm working on getting our playroom cleaned back up and I'm working on finishing the organization of our school stuff.  I HAVE to find a way to organize all of our stuff and I'm still not quite there yet.  So that is my big project this coming week.

I’m reading…
  I have a few books out from the library right now.  I'm not dug into any of them yet though I started the first chapter of two of them.  They are all part of series' which is my favorite reading.  I like to watch the character's relationships grow and change and such.  One is the Hannah Swensen Series, one is the Savannah Reid series, and one is the Aunt Dimity series and they are all murder mystery books.  Shocked?  I love murder mysteries, it's what I watch on tv, it's what I read in books.  Don't know why, it's ingrained in me.
 

I’m cooking…
 Amazingly I'm not cooking anything.  I will cook chili for supper later tonight.  I haven't been in the mood to cook this week which is unusual for me.
 

I’m grateful for…
 My family, the opportunity to school my children at home and watch them learn, and for friends.
 

I’m praying for…
 These friends as they are journeying through the adoption process.  Check out their blogs and add your prayers if you feel so inclined:
Subtracting by Adding 
Rily Sily Family


Both families are or will be hosting various fundraisers to bring their new additions home so feel free to check the blogs out regularly and again I know that all of our prayers are super appreciated and as I've mentioned in a previous post I feel very strongly about adoption.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
  A video - I MUST share it again: 

A link - found this today and it's going to be a great resource for us as I had already planned to use the boys' awana verses for their bible study in school this year!

Homeschool Creations - awana printables

So I'm done for today.  Head over and check out some of the other fabulous journal blogs today.

So excited about school!

Why am I so excited about school?  Let me tell you.

I'm looking forward to getting into a routine with the children.  I've been working hard to get things in order and organized to hopefully help my organizational, procrastination inclined self be able to keep up through the year without stress!  I've been working on getting our chore charts ready and look forward to implementing them when we start school in two weeks.  I'm planning for them to be a part of our "school" day.

I'm looking forward to the fun themes and all the fun books and activities each new theme will open up for us.  We're going to have a GREAT year!

I'm looking forward to starting back up with our muffin tin Mondays.  I'll be starting our muffin tin Mondays back up with the start of school!  So excited to see what ideas I can find to put in our tins this year.

School with the kids is just exciting to me.  I love watching them learn.  I love watching them figure things out.  I love trying to answer their questions and I'm super appreciative that this day and age when we have internet I can answer just about any question with a few keystrokes on the computer. 

Some of my favorite homeschool resources (and ones that look awesome but I haven't tried yet):

Phonics:
Confessions of a homeschooler's Letter of the week
Moffattgirls Ready2Read - free printable phonics program for early readers
Starfall
reading eggs - this one costs a fee but we tried it out on a one month free trial and we really enjoyed it.  This is something I would consider doing for Howler depending on how well he picks up reading.

Math:
IXL math - this was one we tried a one month paid subscription on to give it a try.  It was ok.  I did not invest in a longer term subscription for a few reasons.  1 - it wasn't something I remembered to let the boys do on a daily basis.  2 - I wanted a set math curriculum that I knew was teaching things in some sort of methodical order and not hodge podge based on whatever the kids clicked on.  But the website allows you to do 20 practice questions each day for free so something to consider for fun or extra pracitice.

I'm low on math stuff as it's not something that I've come across often online. 

My kids also enjoy playing the games on pbskids.org and Disney junior.  Beware though I've often found one of them watching videos when they're supposed to be playing the educational games.  Just so you know. lol

Are you excited about school starting?

It's "NOT" back to school time

We are starting school in two weeks!  AHH!  I only have two more weeks.  Two more weeks to finish organizing and to do my planning and to do whatever it is I think I need to get done before we start school.

I shared my curriculum choices a few months ago when I was actually buying curriculum but lets have a refresher here.  I feel like I'm missing something (I generally do - feel this way) but lets see:

Squirrel will be doing 1st grade with the following "mommy" boxed curriculum:

All about Spelling
Math Mammoth
First language lessons
Handwriting practice with weekly awana verses
Reading practice - reading to Spider while I work with Howler

Howler will be doing k-4 with:
LOTW for phonics
Ordinary parents guide to teaching reading
Handwriting without tears
math games and general play with math manipulatives

Howler being that he's kinda tagged along with Squirrel for a while now has a VERY firm knowledge of the letters and their sounds already.  So we will see how he takes to learning to read.  I've never formally taught anyone to read before.  Squirrel picked it up on his own using leapfrog videos and starfall.com.  So I can only hope that Howler and I do well together on this journey.  There certainly isn't going to be an extreme amount of pressure from me.  I just feel like this is the next step for him and I don't want to hold him back if he CAN go forward.

Spider monkey my "little" guy who will be three in November will tag along with a lot of the activities that Howler will do but I'm also going to have a few bins for him with his own "activities" so that he can be busy and occupied and learning at his own level.

As for Princess we just hope and pray that she either plays quietly while we work or that she cooperates with naps.

For our group curriculum in the afternoons we'll be using Five in A Row.  This will encompass our geography, social studies, history, art, some math, science, and language arts also.  I'm very excited about this!  I can't wait to see where this will spark the boys' interests to go this year!

I'm linking up here at the Not back to school blog hop so check it out!