Home and Homeschool Organization

Anyone who homeschools knows how hard it is to balance homeschooling with home - cooking, cleaning, tidying, managing all the things. Throw a baby or toddler in the mix and watch the scales tip even further.

I will have a 10th grader, 8th grader, 6th grader, Kindergartner, and an 11 month old when we begin schooling again in August. I'm trying to make some plans now so that our school days and home life will run smoothly this fall. Here are a few habits I'm trying to get started this summer to ensure we will be ready!

I used to be really good at having a set cleaning schedule. I had each day of the week scheduled for certain rooms, and we cleaned each room once a week. It worked really well and I'm not sure why or when I dropped the habit. 

I'm typing a master chart for each week that I'm going to laminate and hang up to keep us on track. Here is my schedule so far:

Mondays: bathrooms

Tuesdays: living room

Wednesdays: kitchen

Thursdays: dining room and homeschool room

Fridays: bedrooms

Saturdays: laundry room, porches, and yard work

I have each room broken down into the tasks I need to complete each week in each room. Hopefully this will help us to keep up with all of the cleaning each week...which brings me to the next item:

Cleaning and tidying up are two different things. Tidying up is what keeps the house from getting out of control. I plan to have a morning tidy, an after school tidy, and an evening tidy. We will tidy up in the morning after breakfast and before everyone heads off to do their various tasks for the day. Then we will tidy up when we are finished with school time. Finally, we will do a last tidy before we go to bed and after supper. There aren't hard and fast times for the tidy up times, but making sure we have three set times a day for tidying up will (hopefully) ensure that the house stays, well, tidy!

A few things that my idea of tidying up means are picking up toys as soon as you're finished playing, putting away school books, taking cups to the sink, throwing away trash, straightening up shelves or other surfaces, fluffing the pillows on the couch, and putting things back in their places. I'm imagining each tidy up time to take less than ten minutes. (And how many times can I say 'tidy up time?')

Morning habits are so important and helpful to get the day started peacefully. We have pretty good morning habits already, but I'd like to refine them and make sure they're second-nature instead of having to remind the kids every morning to do the things they've been doing for years.

Making up the bed is something I taught my kids to do since they were old enough to do it. The older they get, the more they want to 'forget' this task, but it only takes a few minutes and makes a big difference in how clean their rooms look. I want this to be something they do instinctively.

Getting dressed and ready for the day by brushing your teeth, fixing your hair, and putting on deodorant is also something I don't want to have to nag about. I get tired of asking a few of them, "Did you brush your teeth? Put on deodorant?" I'd like them to do all of this before leaving their room and bathroom area in the morning.

Making sure their dirty clothes are taken to the laundry room is also something I want them to do without me asking them to. The laundry room is like twenty feet from their bedrooms, so I don't have hampers in their rooms or bathrooms. That would be an extra step for me when they could just as quickly and easily drop their dirty laundry into the baskets in the laundry room. 

I try to make breakfast a few times a week and the other mornings they're on their own! I want them to get in the habit of washing their own breakfast dishes and wiping down the table. 

I'd also like them to get in the habit of reading a little in their Bible and having prayer first thing.

These few morning habits should help get our day started on the right track.

Meal planning is also something I have done off and on for years. I have been terrible about meals lately! It's been lots of fast food, ballpark food, or processed food interspersed with real food. I want to get back into the habit of cooking real food for the majority of our meals.

The biggest hurdle I have with cooking is meal planning. I'd like to have our three meals a day planned each week, and I'd really like to utilize my crockpot for at least half of those. When I can get dinner in the crockpot in the morning, that takes a huge load and lots of time off of my shoulders.

I'm going to make a master list of meals we like to eat and then break them down into groups: crockpot meals, casseroles, and meat-and-potato type meals. I'll try to do two crock-pot meals, two casseroles, one meat-and-potato meal, and two days for leftovers each week. 

Lunches will be sandwiches, frozen pizzas, or something else simple.

Breakfast will be cooked by me on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday mornings and a fend-for-yourself on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings. I'll cook pancakes, waffles, eggs, sausage and biscuits, egg burritos, or cinnamon rolls on my mornings. Cereal, toast, or frozen waffles will be on the kid's mornings.

Hopefully I can get my grocery shopping down to once a week without any in-between trips. Those quick little stops quickly add up! I run in for a few things and spend over $100! If I do that twice a week plus my regular shopping trip, I can easily spend $500 a week at the grocery store. I'd like to stay at $250-300 a week. 

I'm going to try to get all (or most) of our curriculum picked out, ordered, and ready to go in August. I'm planning to write my own lesson plans for science for the boys this year and for history for all the kids. I'm getting a jump start this summer with planning for the first half of the year. I want to have books, worksheets, notebooking pages, activities, and experiments all written down on paper so I don't have to think too much about it. 

I want to have Zeke's kindergarten curriculum planned out and ready to go as well. It's easy to spend several hours on the weekend trying to plan out the next week, but I'd like all of the work done this summer so I don't have to try to fit it in on the weekends.

Hopefully these areas of planning and organizing will help our homeschool days run much smoother this year, especially since Zoey will be walking soon and into everything...

What do you do to help your days run smoother?

Baby-Safe Sensory Tray: Dino Play with Edible Dirt!

June 1 was National Dinosaur Day, and in celebration I made Zoey this super simple, fun, and totally baby-safe sensory tray. I wanted to give Zoey a different texture for her sensory tray this time, so I decided to make her edible dirt. I had a box of Cheerios that was almost halfway gone and had gotten stale, so I put them in the blender until they were a powder consistency. I did have to pick out a few hard clumps so be sure to run your hands through it at least once.

I put it in her plastic sensory tray with some large plastic dinosaur toys. She enjoyed the texture of the 'dirt!'.

She ran her hands through it.

She picked it up and dropped it.

She rubbed it into her legs.

She threw it.

Zeke got in on the action. He doesn't like being dirty, but he does enjoy watching Zoey get dirty!

It was actually pretty easy to clean-up, too! I just dusted her off and swept the porch!

Have you made edible dirt before? I'm thinking of lots of different cereals that would work well, like Cocoa Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Frosted Flakes. 

8th Grade Curriculum Choices for 2023-2024

It's hard to believe this will be Silas's last year before high school. I want him to have a fun year yet increase the difficulty a bit before he hits 9th grade. Here is what I chose for him to use this year.

Saxon Math Algebra 1/2 with Nicole the Math Lady subscription

This is a pre-algebra course. He took Saxon 7/6 last year, and I thought I would put him in 8/7 this year. He did really well with the Nicole the Math Lady videos, so I think he is ready for Algebra 1/2. I was afraid it would be too easy to use the 8/7 and too hard to jump into Algebra 1 next year without Algebra 1/2 first.

Writers in Residence

This is the formal writing program he will use this year. He has not had any formal writing instruction yet! I used this program with Mikaela and Eli and really enjoyed the independence and self-teaching aspect of it.

Language Fundamentals

This is a 6th grade book that he used this year and didn't finish, but it's a really great grammar review workbook! He is going to finish this book and then we will evaluate if he needs another workbook or not. If so, we will probably go with Easy Grammar 8.

The Story of Civilization Volume One

We will be doing history together as a family. I will read the daily portions and any other read aloud books, and we will do maps, crafts, and other activities. This will be done three days a week.

Great Science Adventures: The World of Plants

Silas and Titus will be using this together. We will read the lessons and add in some extra books to reinforce the topics. There are lots of foldable books and mini-books in this curriculum to create as well as experiments and demonstrations. This will be three days a week.

Readers in Residence

We have not used this program before, but it looks like a great literature program! It's on clearance for less than a dollar right now at Christianbook.com - normally $80! I figure we don't have much to lose in trying it out!

That's it for his 8th grade year! We are also attending a co-op once a week on Thursdays which is new for us!

10th Grade Curriculum Choices for 2023/2024

I'm so glad Mercie made the decision to homeschool again! Planning a sophomore year wasn't easy because there are so many different curriculum choices. I think I finally decided on what she is going to use!

Math (1 credit)

She will be using Saxon's Algebra 2 with Nicole the Math Lady videos. 

English 2 (1 credit)

She will be using Sharon Watson's The Power in Your Hands: Writing Nonfiction in High School. She will be writing over 22 different reports and essays! 

She will also use Easy Grammar to stay fresh on her grammar. This won't take long each day, around ten minutes or so.

Originally, I was going to have her work through two or three Progeny Press literature guides, but instead I'm going to assign her one literature guide and give her a booklist to work through for the year. I'd like her booklist to contain books that will reinforce our history focus. I'm still working on that list but here are a few of the book selections:

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

The Cat of Bubastes

Hittite Warrior

Gilgamesh the Hero

Black Ships Before Troy

Science (1 credit)

She needs a biology credit, so I decided to go with Biology 101 DVD course with the Accreditation guidebook. She will do science three days a week. I plan to add some fun hands-on projects for her at the end of each unit as well.

History (1 credit)

We will all be studying Ancient Civilizations together as a family subject. I'll read the daily portions to all three of them and we will do a few activities (maps, crafts, writing assignments). She will have extra readings and research and writing assignments. We will do this three days a week as a family, and she will have one day a week for her extra assignments.

Electives: Horse Care 101 (1 credit)

Mercie has horses that she trains and barrel races with. She knows a lot about horses because she cares for her horses totally on her own. I thought it would be a great elective to learn more about caring for horses especially since she is planning to be a large animal vet. I'm going to go through these books, write out lessons for her to do three or four days a week.

Electives: Spanish (1 credit)

Foreign language is a required credit for Louisiana TOPS program, so she will be learning Spanish this year! Luckily my parents speak Spanish since they are missionaries to Nicaragua, so they'll be very helpful tutors for her to practice with.

This seems like a pretty full and exciting year we have planned! We will be homeschooling four days a week with our Thursdays spent at co-op. This is new for us and I'm anxious to see how it all works out. She may even be able to rack up a few more credits with some classes (and maybe not). I'm ready to hit "order now" and get all of these books in! 

Jello Dig Sensory Tray for Babies (Taste-Safe)

This is turning into a Sensory Summer for Zoey because she loves sensory trays so much! She had a blast with her first ever tray, a water sensory tray, and then loved her baby food sensory tray. This time it got even messier - and way more fun! 

Zoey is 8 months old and puts everything in her mouth, so my number one rule for her sensory trays is that it must be taste-safe and choke-free for a baby. All of the sensory tray ideas I give will be perfectly safe for a supervised baby under a year old. 

I love this plastic tray that I’ve been using for Zoey’s activities. I got it from the Target dollar spot for $3.00 about ten years ago, and it’s still in perfect condition! I have seen similar on Amazon. It’s about two inches deep and very sturdy, which is what I recommend for this activity.

Make three packages of Jello according to the package directions. I used lemon flavor because it seemed the least likely to stain her hands, mouth, and clothes! I set several of her silicone toys in the tray and then poured the jello mixture over the toys about halfway up the tray lip. It sat in the refrigerator for about four hours before I pulled it out for Zoey to use. 

When she first touched the Jello, she wasn’t sure what to think! But she dug right in, digging for her toys. 

When she finally got one out, she thoroughly enjoyed sucking the Jello off of it! This was her first taste of Jello. I've been trying to introduce more foods to her - baby food and solid food - and she hasn't shown much interest. I'm hoping by having taste-safe sensory trays she will be more open to trying some foods.

She started squishing and squeezing the Jello between her fingers and rubbing it on her legs. She was having the best time with this! 

Even Zeke got in on the action. He doesn’t like getting sticky, but he did dig one toy out. He immediately went inside to wash his hands but came back out to watch Zoey play! 

This was really an easy activity. And clean up wasn’t bad - I doused the porch with a pitcher of warm water and stuck Zoey in the bathtub! Porch sensory trays are my new favorite thing! 

Have you done a Jello dig before? Would you try it?

The Little Rabbit: BFIAR

I decided to make this summer a Before Five in a Row summer for Zeke. He does so much better with structured days and predictable routines, and I love BFIAR and FIAR! I decided to start with The Little Rabbit. Having an eight-month old who just started crawling has limited me a little bit. Instead of creating my own worksheets (which I love to do), I pulled together lots of free or inexpensive resources. I'm trying to link everything for you. 

Monday

The book and our go-along books! I just grabbed the first couple of rabbit books off our shelves.

We read the book for the first time today, and he really enjoyed it. I think he liked the photographs as it was a change from the illustrations in most of his picture books. I kept it simple today. We talked about the photos and about his cousin Laylah's pet rabbit, Bad Bunny. 

Zeke did a tracing worksheet with the letter R. He is getting pretty good at tracing, but we need to add handwriting in much more.

He also colored, cut, and labeled the parts of a rabbit. I read the label, and he glued it in the appropriate spot. 

We then talked a little about the life cycle of a rabbit and completed a life cycle worksheet.

Lastly, he used our lacing strings to lace up two beautiful watercolor rabbit lacing cards. I printed and laminated these and then punched holes around the edges. He really enjoyed this activity.

It was preschool in pajamas morning.

Tuesday

We started out today with a Pet Homes matching worksheet from Teacher File Box. We talked about where pets live, and which pet he would like to have from the worksheet. He said he would like to have the bird as a pet!

We then did a Mother and Baby Animal matching worksheet. He loves cut and glue activities, and cut and glued this entire activity on his own.

Then he put together our Animal Family matching puzzles. We have had these for a while now, and he enjoys doing them. I picked them up from TJ Maxx for less than $5.00!

Wednesday

We read a book called Hop, Bunny, Hop. He did a counting and clip card activity. I printed and laminated these and used some mini-clothespins I picked up on the clearance aisle at WalMart last week. He loved clipping! He asked to do this again, so he did it twice.

Then we did a foldable about pets. He colored the pets and then drew a green check mark under the pets he would like to have and a red x under the pets he would not like to have. He checked a dog, cat, and fish (all pets we have) and put an x on the snake, hamster, and bird. He loves to feed Silas's fish and Silas is kind enough to let him do it often.

He made a cut and glue bunny craft. 

I printed, cut out, and taped a bunny template to a sheet of cardstock. Then Zeke used dot markers to dot all around the template. When we pulled off the bunny template, we had a white bunny! This was very cute and easy.

Thursday

Today we just did a few simple activities. I wrote the names for the rabbit family (buck, doe, and kit) in highlighter and he traced them with a pencil.

He colored the foods a rabbit eats.

He made a book about a pretend pet rabbit. He named it Shep (we have a dog named Shep), it eats grass for fun, and is very multi-colored!

Saturday

We skipped school yesterday and instead did the rest of his activities today on the porch! First we did a counting activity. I printed a carrot template on orange cardstock and cut out 12 of them. He rolled the dice and fed the rabbit that many carrots.

We have been working on the days of the week this week, and he can sort of say them with me. That is one of the things on our list to learn this school year. I found this worksheet and he traced the days of the week, cut them out, and we glued them in order. 

I had several more activities planned this week, but I didn't get to them all. This was such a sweet book and theme to begin our BFIAR Summer!

Next week - Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?