Books and Movies from July

I am getting closer and closer to my goal of 50 books for the year - I think I have my local library's challenge in the bag (my library bag, that is!). You can usually find me reading in between my children's events at their swim meets. With two competitive swimmers in my family, I get a lot of reading done! Here are the books that I read in July:

• Relentless by Dean R. Koontz ****
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling (audio CD) *****
• Dark Side of the Moon by Sherrilyn Kenyon ***
• The Husband by Dean R. Koontz ****
• The Swimsuit by James Patterson *
• Organize Your Corpses by Mary Jane Maffini ***
• The Stranger in Her Bed by Janet Chapman ****

We went to see two movies this month - the new Harry Potter movie and the cute movie about the guinea pigs who are spies. We enjoyed both of them. Here are the movies (and TV series) that I watched this month:

• Alexander (Oliver Stone film) **
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ****
• Prison Break Season 4 ****
• Knowing **
• G-Force ***
• Push ***

Crock Pot Organization Tip

I absolutely love cooking in my crock pot. With just a bit of planning and work in the morning, we can reap the benefits of yummy smells all day long and a home-cooked dinner in the evening. Given the long cooking times of crock pot recipes, I sometimes forget when the meal is supposed to be finished cooking. To solve this problem of my failing memory, I simply add a post-it note to the front of the crock pot with the "ending time" when I get the recipe together in the morning. This little tip has been quite helpful to me as I try to use my crock pot more and more.

Organizing My Kitchen Part 5

I have finally finished my very long-running kitchen organization project. While I did not take a lot of pictures of the last cabinets that I cleaned, culled, and organized - the last part of this project was not too bad as I had already covered the more difficult areas of the kitchen already. Probably the two hardest areas were the junk drawer and the "extra handy gadgets" drawer.

The "extra handy gadgets" drawer was so stuffed full of "extra handy gadgets" that it was extremely difficult to find any of those handy little things. I took a picture as I started cleaning out the drawer. Basically, I simply put a lot of "handy gadgets" into the Goodwill box, moved the batteries and chargers of all kinds to another location, and moved a few big spoons to a more convenient location in the kitchen. The remaining "extra handy gadgets" were returned to the drawer. Since these are items that I use, but not every day, I didn't feel the need to purchase a drawer divider. With less to sort through, the items that I need will not be too hard to find.

In my organizational glee, I did not take a picture of my junk drawer before I cleaned it out. It was horrible, though - I could barely shut it. I threw away lots of "junk" and moved items to where they belong. Amid all the chaos in the drawer were lots of office supplies - which I actually wanted to be in the drawer...but could never find. Using two small drawer dividers, I made a mini office supplies station for myself in the kitchen. I am thrilled with my "mini office" drawer now and it is SO handy to have all of those bits and pieces in the kitchen.

Organizing my kitchen was a huge job. Now that I am finished, I enjoy being in my kitchen a lot more. I have a feeling of control now in the kitchen - I KNOW what I have and I KNOW where to find it. Hopefully, all of the work and organization will translate into more "from scratch" meals and treats from my kitchen for my family!

Seventh Grade Curriculum

My daughter starts junior high this year...at home. I often wonder how the time goes by so very fast when individual days sometimes seem quite long. When we started homeschooling years ago when Amber was in first grade, one of the questions we were asked was, "What about high school?" I laughed then because high school seemed ages away for my little first grader but now it's right around the corner.

Amber's independent workload does increase this year. I am adding Spanish, a structured writing program, and more independent work in literature, science, and history. Hopefully, she will be able to get all of her work done during the day since she has swim team every night. One thing for sure - we will be getting an early start each day here at home!

I have also added a structured art program - Atelier Art. I am very excited to get started with this program! I am also committed to doing at least one day of nature study a month and I have already put all of the dates on our master school calendar.

Because I love hands-on projects, lapbooks, art projects, and lots and lots and lots of books - our curriculum plans are always a bit messy! I try to do as much together as a family as we can as well which simplifies but also complicates curriculum planning. After much, much thought and hours and hours of choosing materials - the following is my curriculum list for Amber this year. I will post about what I am using with my third and fifth grade boys separately.

Language Arts

• Growing With Grammar 7
• Spelling Workout Level G
• English from the Roots Up Volume I
• Learning to Write the Novel Way (Creative Writing)
• Put That in Writing: Level One: Mastering the Paragraph
• Figuratively Speaking, Using Classic Literature to Teach 40 Literary Terms, The Learning Works
• Latin Everywhere, Everyday
• Happy Scribe Copybooks - Ancient Greece, Colonial Times, Stars and Planets
• Writing assignments related to unit studies in Science and History.

***While Amber will complete Growing With Grammar 7, Figuratively Speaking, and Spelling Workout Level G this school year, I am much more flexible with the other resources. I use English from the Roots Up Volume I with all three of my children together. I try to cover a few word roots each week and include lots of review. This year, I am adding Latin Everywhere, Everyday. I plan to work through this book with all three of my children together, covering just a few phrases each week.

Amber loves to write so she is writing a novel using Learning to Write the Novel Way. My primary role is to encourage her and offer feedback on completed chapters. She started writing her book over the summer so my goal is for her to finish the novel by the end of the school year (next June). I plan to spend two years covering Put That in Writing, Level One: Mastering the Paragraph with Amber.

Reading

Reading assignments will be related to the history and science unit studies that we complete throughout the school year. I have been working on planning our Ancient Greece Unit Study, Ancient Greek Myths Unit Study and our American Revolution Unit Study this summer so I know the books she will be reading to coordinate with those units.


American Revolution Unit Study

• Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
• Johnny Tremain Study Guide - Progeny Press
• The Fighting Ground by Avi
• Thematic Unit Revolutionary War - Teacher Created Materials

Ancient Greece Unit Study

• Black Ships Before Troy, The Story of The Iliad by Rosemary Sutcliff
• The Wanderings of Odysseus, The Story of the Odyssey by Rosemary Sutcliff
• D'Aulaires' Greek Myths
• D'Aulaires' Greek Myths Student Guide by Cheryl Lowe and Leigh Lowe
• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Math

• Finish Teaching Textbooks 7
• Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra
• Focus on Using Estimation Level G

Foreign Language

• Rosetta Stone Spanish Level 1

Geography

• Trail Guide to U.S. Geography
• Trail Guide to U.S. Geography Student Notebook

We used this resource throughout the year last school year. We finished the New England states (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island), the Mid-Atlantic states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland), and we started on the Southern States completing North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. My goal is to finish working our way through the states this school year.

Science

• Great Science Adventures: Discovering the Human Body and Senses
• Great Science Adventures: Discovering Atoms, Molecules, and Matter
• Stratton House: The Astronomy Adventure

Science is completed with all three of my children together in unit studies with as many hands-on projects as possible.

History

We will definitely be studying Ancient Greece, Greek Mythology, and the American Revolution this year. We may also study Early 19th Century American History if we have time this school year. I am almost done with planning the unit studies for Ancient Greece, Greek Mythology, and the American Revolution. I will post with my master plans for them when I am done.

Art

• Atelier Art Level 5

Nature Study

• Outdoor Hour Challenges: Nature Study Close to Home by Barbara McCoy
• Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

In my master school-year calendar, I have blocked off one day each month to devote to Nature Study. Ideally, I would love to do Nature Study every week. . . we will see. Regardless, I know I have plans for a hike and Nature Study at least once a month.

Physical Education

• USA Swimming Team - Practice 5 times per week for a total of 10 hours of practice per week. Swim meets are held on the week-ends.

Let's Go to Moe's!

Moe's is far and away my favorite restaurant. The huge added bonus is that all of my children and my husband love Moe's as well! The extra, unexpected bonus is that, if we all get water, all five of us can enjoy a wonderful meal there for around $20.00. While that is not super cheap, it does make for a fairly inexpensive dining out option. So, usually at least once a week, we all make the short trek to Moe's for lunch.

Since we are frequent visitors, most of the employees know us. The manager even calls us the "Moe's family." On our most recent visit, I decided to bring my camera and take some pictures of this common, but delightful event.

Mmmmm, nachos! My husband and I shared these nachos and we each also had a soft vegetarian taco. Yummy!
Actually, Moe's sounds really good right about now! Let's go to Moe's!

Organizing My Kitchen Part 4

Yes, I am still organizing our kitchen. My big goal this week is to finish my organizational work in the kitchen by Sunday but we'll see if that happens. The past several days, I have been working on our pantry. We have been blessed with a very large pantry that I absolutely adore. Over time, though, the neat pantry tends to move towards disorder. I took some "before" pictures of our pantry which you can see below.

The pantry project took me several days to complete, working on it a few hours each day. To finish this project, I completed the following steps:

• I removed everything, section by section, and checked the dates. I threw away any items that were very out of date.
• I cleaned all of the shelves before putting food back on the shelves.
• The food was placed back on the shelves by category. This was pretty easy, as the food items were already organized by category.
• I moved many non-food items to the empty dining room closet.
• My husband put some nails up for me so that I could hang my aprons out of the way.

Now, our pantry is very neat and organized and it is quite easy for us to see what we have on hand.

Packing a Picnic Lunch

Our family enjoys taking educational day trips during our school year, fun day trips, and nature walks on hiking trails. We also have two children heavily involved in swim teams that involve quite a bit of travel to swim meets. What do all of these things have in common? They are all opportunities to pack a picnic lunch!

Bringing your own food when you are going to be away from home for the day has a great many advantages over purchasing food where you are going.

• There may not be any food to purchase where you are going. This is particularly true at remote nature hike locations.
• There may not be any food that you WANT to purchase where you are going. We had this experience at the state fair - all the stands featured fried foods which just didn't sound good in the heat.
• Bringing your own food will save you a significant amount of money over purchasing food at your location.
• You can eat when you want to eat without waiting in long lines to purchase overpriced food.
• You will actually have enough food for your children. I know that my two older ones are no longer filled up by a fast-food kids' meal.
• You will have snacks for the ride home.

If you have any doubts about whether you are allowed to bring food into your destination, call ahead and ask or check their website. I was pleasantly surprised years ago to learn that all of the Science Centers that we visit and the zoos that we visit allow you to bring coolers of food and drinks into the Science Center and zoos.

Many places do not allow food or drinks to be brought into the park but have picnic tables set up outside of the park. For example, we have season's passes to a nearby water park. While you are not allowed to bring coolers or food into the park, they have lovely, shaded picnic areas near the parking lot. We just get our hands stamped at the gate, go get our coolers, and have a lovely picnic in the shade! We have also done this at large amusement parks.

After years of packing picnic lunches for our family and guests here are my assortment of packing tips:

• Bring a vinyl tablecloth to cover the picnic table if you will be eating outside. So many times, picnic tables are not as clean as we might desire and an inexpensive vinyl tablecloth quickly fixes that problem.
• Pack more food than you think you will need if you are bringing older children, teens, or friends of your children. I am always amazed by how much food a group of hungry children can consume. If your crew doesn't eat all of the food - it doesn't go to waste. Simply bring it home! On the other hand, I often find that my children enjoy a snack on the way home from our day trip so they usually eat the rest of lunch on the way home.
• Pack more drinks that you think you will need. I always pack a medium-sized cooler of water bottles. Again, if they are not used, they don't go to waste - I just bring them home.
• Try to pack an assortment of foods. I usually pack peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, sub sandwiches with meat cut in half, snack foods like goldfish crackers, fruits and vegetables, soup in a thermos, and another source of meat/protein like cheese chunks, turkey bites, or chicken nuggets. I cook the chicken nuggets, let them cool, and then pack them in the cooler. They are yummy eaten cold.
• Don't forget to pack packets of condiments, napkins, paper plates, and a trash bag. Hand sanitizer and wet wipes are also a good addition as well.
• I prefer to pack three medium sized coolers rather than one huge cooler. Why? So my children can help carry the coolers of course!

So, the next time you plan a day-trip for your family, consider packing a picnic lunch to take with you!

Reclaiming My Dining Room from Clutter

We rarely use our dining room. One reason is that we don't have "fancy" dinners......ever. The primary reason that we rarely use our dining room, though, is that it had become a dumping ground for boxes of school-related books and materials. We have a wonderful closet in the dining room that had been taken over by school-related books and papers. I really wanted to clear out that closet to make room for some overflow items from the kitchen. Every time I looked into our dining room, I felt overwhelmed and defeated.

Well, the dining room organizational project was a massive project. It took a full week working in there every day to finish the project. The hardest part was making decisions about what to do with so many books and papers. I put a LOT of old papers into paper recycling. For example, I decided that saving my daughter's third grade math tests was enough. I didn't also have to save two full binders of worksheet pages! I gave away all of the preschool/learning to read materials that I had to a friend who still has little non-readers. Everything else was organized by category in the curriculum closet in the school room.

I am so very happy about the way the dining room looks now! The closet is cleared and the room is so pretty and neat. I am planning to have one "fancy" dinner with candles in there once a month just so we can enjoy the room a bit!

I am hoping to finish the organizational projects in our kitchen this week. I have already worked in the kitchen quite a bit but I still have a lot more to go! If you would like to see how other bloggers are busting clutter, check out The Happy Housewife's Itch to Pitch Challenge at the link below:

http://thehappyhousewife.com/itch-to-pitch-ditch-the-old-clothes/

Our Week In Review

The summer is flying by way too fast! I can't believe June is already gone! Our summer continues to be enjoyable and productive, though.

This past week was busy as usual. Last week-end, Amber participated in an outdoor USA swim meet on both Saturday and Sunday. I attended on Saturday but not on Sunday. Amber did SO well on both days. She achieved a new best time in the 200 Free, earned first place in the 50 Free and 100 Free, and placed in all of her other events. Congratulations, Amber!

The swim meet was incredibly long, though. On the first day, many of the parents brought food to share and canopies for shade. Kev brought his portable gas grill and we grilled hot dogs for the parents and the swimmers. Kev is in back of the grill in the picture below.

One of Amber's really good friends was swimming at the meet for another team so it was a delight to see her mother - a friend of mine. I am on the right and my friend is on the left.

On Sunday, Kev took Amber to the meet and it rained on and off the whole day. I went up to our family business and took the grocery order in the morning and then spent much of the rest of the day doing the payroll.

Mason also had swim meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. He swam very well at both of the meets and received all first and second place ribbons! Congratulations, Mason! Mason was also quite happy to spend the night at his friend's house after the swim meet on Thursday.

The rest of the week was filled with swim team practice for Amber and Mason and organizational projects for me. One highlight of the week was going out to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays with Nana!

While I was diligently working on organizational projects in the school room closet and the dining room, the children found lots of fun things to do to occupy their time this week. Amber spent one day baking. She made a cake and almond cookies - yummy!


I am always amazed at how my boys play together for hours and hours and always find new things to do together. The boys spent hours playing with their little skateboard guy toys and set up a ramp in the middle of the hall for them.

They also spent hours this week setting up elaborate domino creations and then knocking them down.

They also spent much of one day putting together a Lego set that Mason had received for Christmas and had not been put together.Those two are certainly fortunate to have each other! They are not only brothers - they are best friends.

Another week of the summer is gone - I hope the rest are as peaceful and productive as this past week has been. If you would like to see how some other families are spending these lazy, hazy days of summer, check out the post and links at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers -

http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/2009/07/weekly-wrap-up-sick-baby-edition.html

Organizing My Kitchen Part 3

I haven't worked on my total kitchen organization project in a while as I have been working on other projects but today I tackled my cookbook area. For quite a while, I have had a desire to have my cookbooks organized and available in a way that would make meal planning a bit easier. Before my organizational efforts, my cookbooks were crammed into two cabinets with no specific organizational scheme. The cookbooks were difficult to find, and difficult to get out and put back in the cabinet due to the overcrowded nature of the cabinets.

To complete this project I completed all of the following tasks:

• I moved the phone books to a different location so that only cookbooks were included in the three cabinets.
• I cleaned out the middle cabinet so that it could be used for cookbook storage as well. I tossed some things, put a few things in the Goodwill box for donation, and I moved a few things to a better location. I also moved the shelf up quite a bit so any size cookbook would fit on the bottom shelf and the top shelf could be used for rarely used cookbooks. Cleaning out the middle cabinet gave me three cabinets for cookbook storage.
• I culled 12 cookbooks that I never use and posted them on PaperBackSwap.
• I cleaned out all of the paper clutter in the cubbies below the middle cabinet and put it in the paper recycling bin.
• I organized the remaining cookbooks into the following categories: Gooseberry Patch cookbooks; multi-purpose cookbooks; baking cookbooks, food storage/bulk cooking cookbooks; Sue Gregg cookbooks; slow cooker cookbooks; cooking magazines; and low-fat/weight loss cookbooks. I put all of the cookbooks that fell into the same categories next to each other on the shelves.
• I gathered all of the cooking magazines and put them in a magazine holder. I do need to purchase one more magazine holder to hold my collection.
  

The entire project did take me about 3 hours to complete (with some interruptions from my boys) but I am thrilled with the result! My cookbooks are now organized, they are easy to access, and I'm no longer wading through cookbooks that I don't really use.

Support in an Unexpected Place

I just finished the new book by Dean R. Koontz, "Relentless," and absolutely loved it! Dean R. Koontz has always been one of my favorite authors, although I haven't read one of his books in quite a while. I highly recommend his new book - the character development is wonderful and the plot is fast-paced and highly suspenseful.

One of the main characters in the book is Milo, a 6 year old genius. Due to his unique and singular intelligence (think Einstein), he is homeschooled. Interestingly, his mother, Penny - another main character, was also homeschooled, although for different reasons. Penny's parents are ardent survivalists and demolition experts. For whatever combination of reasons, they chose to homeschool their only daughter.

In one part of the book, Cubby - Milo's father and another main character - expresses his concern over the very different life that his son leads. In short, he expresses concern about socialization and asks Penny about her own homeschooling experience, "What were the negatives of a childhood like that?"

Penny answers:

• "None," she said without hesitation. "Growing up in a loving family, with parents who have a sense of humor and common sense and a sense of wonder - that's not isolation, that's a wonderful haven."......"More than a haven," she said. "It's a sanctuary, where you can decide who you are, what you think about the world, before the world tells you who you are and what you ought to think of it."

While my own children's homeschool experience is not nearly as isolated as Milo and Penny's homeschool experience, it can certainly be argued that they are having a different childhood experience than the experience of a child who goes to a brick and mortar school. In many ways, my children's lives are more sheltered and they do interact less with age-group peers than children who go to a brick and mortar school. But, as I steadfastly believe, I don't think those things are necessarily bad things.

Since I started homeschooling over 6 years ago, I have always felt that the greatest gift of homeschooling was time. Time to be with my children. Time for them to figure out who they are and what they want to do with their lives. Time for them to get to know one another. Time for them to get to know me - not only as a mother but as a person. Time for them to work on those things that truly ignite their passion. Time for them to be children. Time for them to grow up at their own pace. Time for them to live without so much pressure. Time to be, just be.