To Montessori or not?

I thought I had my whole plan for the next few months worked out. Not on paper (I really need to sit down and do that) but it's all in my head.

I think I posted a little bit before about how I decided we would worth through my Montessori books before we moved on to a curriculum set. (Right now I'm looking at Sonlight, it's been my favorite for a while) I want time to do lots of hands on learning and really focus on finishing Kaydences reading lessons. (Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy lessons) Then when we're finished I'd like to move Kaydence on to Sonlight (or a different one possibly) and keep Nolan working on Montessori type things until he is older. I was really comfortable with my plan and excited to get started. We went to church this morning and my mind was wandering a bit to homeschooling and I felt so at peace. Then this evening I started questioning everything. My whole carefully thought out plan! I thought, "Oh my gosh, what am I doing?! This is all wrong, I need to buy a curriculum set NOW." Luckily some part of my rational brain was still functioning and telling me not to rush to anything.

Maybe it was the back to school buzz? I'm so excited for all the kids getting back to school. Public and homeschool, and I'm excited for all the teachers. Kaydence and I have been talking a lot about how we're so glad we can learn together at home. She is ready to go! I wanted to sit down and plan out at least this months lessons over the weekend. It ended up being kind of a busy one, so I didn't get there. I think I need to remember that I planned to give myself a week to get organized, re-arrange some things in the house. I want to set up a "school room" where our play room currently is and turn my sons room (which he doesn't sleep in anymore) into their play room. My mom suggested using Nolans room as our school room, but I like the play room better. It's more open and we can spread out a lot more. Maybe it's just the stress/anticipation building? I don't know. I don't feel stressed. I'm not even worried about not having our school room set up. I've got to find some more book shelves and a table for us to use, but that will take time. Eventually it will be set up the way I want, but in the meantime I'm not worried.

I'm just really second guessing myself. Not the decision to homeschool, I know without a doubt that right now it's the best thing for us. Will that change later? I don't know, I try not to think too far in advance when homeschool is concerned. (just the thought of high school makes me cringe) Just what if I'm approaching it the wrong way? I don't exactly have a ton of family support. It's kind of a weird feeling. On one hand they support me, but they are also quick to make comments about why I need to send them to school, but all in a positive we want the best for you sort of way. It's not anything negative. My husband is supporting me, but he's really not nuts about it. So sometimes I end up feeling like I'm doing this alone. That isn't the case because I've been trying to make some more homeschooling friends. The homeschooling community is really great, everyone is so quick and willing to help.

I just wanted to write this down, because homeschooling isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Some days are amazing, and somedays I know I'll be second guessing every thing. Next time I go into panic mode I'll have to remember this and remind myself that it will be ok. Also, since I originally started this with the hope that maybe other people getting started would read it and feel like they weren't the only ones having a hard time. Tomorrow I'm going to spend some time getting organized and hopefully the next post will be filled with our great "back to school" week. I'm going to ride out my insecurities tonight, and hopefully tomorrow with a fresh perspective I'll be ready to roll.

Sorry it's been so long! I hit a serious block this summer and switched into survival mode.

That makes it sound a lot worse than it was. Basically the kids and I were going stir crazy being stuck in the house all day. Except for the pool, and they were getting bored with the toys in the house. My mom came during that time so we got to get out of the house a bit. I had to get creative and change things up. Also my computer broke. So for a while I was just hoping it would magically work again. It's still broken, but we do have more than one laptop. We've been busy bees. I'm not going to do a long post right now. This is just basically to say we're still here and I'll be posting what our new "school" year will look like.

I spent a lot of time looking at different curriculums, but I decided for this year I'm going to work through the montessori book that I already have. I also got a montessori art book that we were going to do this summer, but it took forever for the book to come. We're going to focus on reading and getting used to being on a more formal schedule. (with lots of wiggle room of course) I decided it would be a good transition year. We're going to go check out a co-op next week too!

Look for another (better) post soon :)

Weather Week- clouds

I decided we would learn about the weather this week. I found this great website HERE all about weather for kids. I thought clouds would be a good place to start. It even has some lesson plans and activity ideas.

I had them start out by coloring a picture of the sky for me. They both decided that they wanted stormy skies. This is kind of silly, but I was so surprised by how awesome Ashley's clouds were! Since she is older than Kaydence you can usually have an easier time telling what Ashley has drawn. Sometimes Kaydence has to tell you what hers are ;) Ashley made fluffy storm clouds with lightning and rain.

Kaydence is getting the hang of clouds too, hers are kind of spiky, but I was really proud of her. I am pretty sure that's the first time she tried to make a cloud. 

Afterwards I pulled up the lesson plan for clouds (See the link at the beginning of this post) We talked mostly about what clouds are made of. The lesson goes into types of clouds, but they weren't interested in that. It has you put some shaving cream down and you ask them if clouds are made of shaving cream. They thought this was very funny. They played with the shaving cream for a while and then wiped up their spaces. After that I got out some spoons. They felt that the spoon was cool. I had them breath into their hands to feel it was warm. Then they breathed onto the spoons and I told them they made a tiny cloud. That was all in the lesson plan, but they thought it was awesome. 

Next we made rain clouds in cups. I've seen it all over pinterest, but the links I tried didn't work. So I just guessed. Take a cup and fill it 1/2 way with water, top with a fluffy shaving cream cloud and with a dropper have them drop in water mixed with food coloring. They watched it rain in their cups.

About this time Nolan started getting really sick. He spiked a fever so I put him on the couch to rest. Unfortunately for our cloud day he got worse through the afternoon. After nap time I sat holding him while the girls played. I told them I couldn't do their reading lessons today because Nolan cried every time I put him down. Sam was home though and Kaydence said, "DADDY CAN DO MY READING LESSON! I love to to reading with Daddy!" And he said he would love to help them both with their reading lessons. Then he helped the girls make feel better cards for Nolan. They were both being very sweet to Nolan bringing him things to cuddle and kissing his forehead.

This doesn't have anything to do with clouds, I just wanted to share how amazing dinner was last night. 

I made spaghetti sauce with zucchini noodles. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical, I loves me some spaghetti. I tried making a spaghetti squash but it was crunchy and weird (any one want to teach me?) but I love zucchini noodles in stir frys. It was AMAZING. I seriously couldn't taste a difference between this and regular spaghetti. It looks different obviously, but oh goodness it was good. I want to buy one of those things that makes spiral noodles out of veggies, it will make the whole process a lot faster. I used a veggie peeler and then sliced them with a knife to make them thinner. YUMMY. I'm going to make it again for lunch today. We had leftover sauce but no extra noodles. 

Curriculum

For a while I've been stressing myself out thinking I needed to choose a curriculum right away. I've been thinking that what I'm doing isn't enough and negative thoughts along that line. I had a curriculum picked out and I've been looking around for a while to find a good used set. (I love to save a little money!) Then the other day I was exploring a website with a kindergarten readiness check list. I realized that while Kaydence doesn't have every thing on that list, she's got the majority of it already learned. We have been working through a learn to read program. (Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons) I started getting really frustrated because she is a hard time putting the sounds together. I wasn't frustrated with her, I was frustrated because I didn't know how to explain it to her. She can easily identify the sounds and tells me each one, it's just hard for her to put them together. So after asking for some advice I decided that since she is only 4 there is no need to rush it. I decided to take a break for a while and pick it up again when she is ready. The very day I decided not to do it anymore she started asking me for reading lessons. Every day she asks all day if it's time for her reading lesson yet. This weekend I wasn't going to do them, (hey, it's the weekend!) but she was begging for it. So we sat down and worked on it, and then she asked for ANOTHER reading lesson. This time Daddy did it. I've been making an effort not to get frustrated with myself and to give her serious praise when she sounds out a word right. I mean like over the top cheering and high fives and gut squeezing hugs. I think that's what made the difference, she loves the praise. 

Anyways, I started to see that I don't need to push a full curriculum on her right now. She is learning at such a fast pace and what we do is very easy and fun for her. I wish someone had told me to take a breath and calm down. But since I didn't actually tell anyone how much I was stressing that would have been pretty hard to do. 

So I just wanted to write this in case someone else out there is stressing over all the curriculum options. It's easy to do. Being responsible for your child's education is a big deal. I for one am constantly worried that I'm messing it up. Take a breath and remember that it will be okay! Especially at this young age. 

Real fruit snacks

Our Paleo diet is still going strong. Sam has been left to his own devices. He has absolutely no desire to stick to it, and I don't want to force it. I pack him breakfast and lunch. He eats dinner at home, but otherwise he is on his own. The kids have been doing really well. I let them have hot dogs with buns on the 4th of July and they had a couple of cookies. I'm not making them do it 100% like I am. My main goal is to cut out as much junk as possible, with the occasional treat. We've been running through fruit and veg at a huge rate! I'm going to have to re-think my grocery system. I used to buy groceries for a two week span, but I think I'll have to start going once a week. Anyways one of the things my kids are crazy for is fruit snacks. I decided that I don't want them to have fruit snacks, even as a special treat. The other day I came home with some dried mango and kiwis and they were gone in a matter of hours.

I've tried several versions of home made fruit snacks, and they were good, but the kids didn't really like them. So then I decided just to get a bunch of dried fruit and cut it up into little pieces. That way it would last longer. I filled 6 little baggies with a mix of kiwi, mango, pineapple, and papaya. All of which are delicious. I got some of it from the bulk bins for a much better price. The mango I got today was on sale, but H-E-B brand is way way better. Lesson learned there.  Since they are in the little snack baggies I've been calling them fruit snacks. They are plenty sweet and the kids absolutely gobble them up.

Yay real food!! I only put a few bags down within their reach. Otherwise they would be gone in the blink of an eye. I also didn't pre-chop up all of the fruit. I decided it would be better to do it as needed. 

I'm pretty happy with how our healthy changes are going. It does surprise me how many people are trying to pressure me into eating breads though. I'm amused, not upset by it. I really didn't think people would have a such an issue with it, but hey, that's what happens when you go against the norm. 

Chore Box

I don't know about you, but I am almost always behind on my chores. I spend my days cleaning, cooking, and playing with the kids. Most days when it's bed time I look around and think, "what exactly did I do today?" I like the house to be clean, I get stressed out faster when the house is dirty. Which lately is pretty much every day. So I've decided to get my chore box out. My mom told me about how she used this system way back when. I've used it before and it works so well. I just got out of the habit of using it. Now that I've got 3 kiddos making a mess during the week it's been near impossible to keep up. It's simple, and I promise that your house will stay cleaner doing just a little bit every day. No need to try to clean the house from top to bottom every day (which is what I have been doing lately). For one thing that's a lot of work, especially with kids around. With this system everything will get cleaned. You won't need to stress about it because you know it's in the box. Here is how it works:

I got his box at office depot, it's for index cards. Then I bought some calendar tabs, I couldn't find any index card sized ones, so I bought ones for a binder and cut them to the size I need. Next you need a stack of multi colored index cards. You're going to use 3 colors. Pick one color for the things you do every day. Here is my every day list:

-dishes
- wipe down counters
- wipe down appliances
- wipe off table
- sweep floor

Next make a list of the things you generally do in a week. Bathroom mirrors, toilets, sweeping bathrooms, laundry days, and so on. I like to spread my bathroom cleaning over two days. One day I'll do the counters and the mirrors, and the next I do the toilets and the floors. I don't know why, but for me it's way less over whelming when I spread it over two days. I also have a different load of laundry to do every day. One day for whites, darks, towels, Kaydences clothes, Nolans clothes, and sheets. I am always always behind on laundry. I hate laundry with a passion. Actually washing it doesn't bother me, just folding them and putting them away. And we all know laundry is NEVER done. Ever. It's hard to remember, but back when I was using my box I actually managed to stay on top of it. No more late nights folding piles and piles of laundry!

Okay, so for the third color pick things that only need to be done once or twice a month. For this one I have things like

-blinds
- light fixtures
-cleaning out the fridge
-cleaning the oven

You get the point. Some of these I do twice a month. Now let's put it together. Arrange your box by month and date. I keep the current month in front of the box, all of the others go at the back. Put your every day chores behind the tab for the first day you want to start, and then spread out your chores for the rest of the week. This way instead of a never ending list of things you have to do you have maybe 5 things to do. I don't do my chores all at once either. Usually I do all of my daily chores at one time, and the rest of the tings I need to do I pick a card when I have a few minutes. The kids are busy painting a picture? Wipe down the back door. They're playing with toys, I clean the mirrors. Now for your once or twice a month chores. Space them out through the entire month. Give yourself one or two a week. The best part about the once a month chores is that if you're having a bad day. Kids screaming, throwing up, grumpy, or whatever pick up the once a month card and move it to the next day. Don't move it more than once or you'll never do it. The point of this box is to make things easier so if moving your once a month chore is better for you than do it!

I've got my box organized again and I'm ready to roll come Monday. One of the biggest things for me is having the toys picked up, which I did NOT put in my box. I've been getting the kids to be more responsible with their toys, I usually have them pick up before rest time and before Ashley goes home. I didn't do a great job enforcing that this week and as a result my house is a serious mess. It's my fault for being lazy though.

I hope this helps some of you! I promise it works if you stick to it. Do a little every day and you will be surprised by the chance in your house after just a week.

*****I've just realized as I was using my chore box that I forgot to add how to keep the system going. Every day when you've done your daily chores take those cards and move them to the next days slot. As you finish your weekly chores move those to the correct slot for the next week. I take Sundays off chores, so if you give yourself a day off as well make sure you leave that spot empty!

Dinosaur Eggs

An update on how our Paleo transformation is going so far this week:

It's been seriously incredible. Kaydence and Nolan are both eating WAY more than they ever have before (like bottom-less pits) but also the requests for junk food have all but stopped. Even better they're finally drinking plain old water. I have always watered down their juice so it was mostly water and a little juice, but the other day Nolan had a (TMI) really nasty poop that consisted mostly of the juice he was guzzling all day. So I said Ok, no juice tomorrow. He asked for juice a few times and then that was it. That was yesterday, today he asked for water. For dinner tonight we had sausages and chicken cut up and cooked in my skillet. I added some bell peppers and an onion and we ate them wrapped up in lettuce sort of like a fajita. We had cantaloupe to go with it. At first the kiddos mostly ate the meat, but then towards the end of dinner Nolan started taking huge bites out of his plain old lettuce. No dressing or anything. I showed Sam and Kaydence looked too and decided that she wanted a few bites of lettuce as well. I feel great, better than I have in a while and it's only been a few days. Sam isn't loving it so much haha. He is not convinced about the whole "paleo thing" in his words. But he's trying!

We also made banana ice cream, which I've made (And loved) before. Today seemed like a good day to re-introduce the kids to it. They are currently on a banana kick. If you haven't made banana ice cream before you should try it! Slice and freeze a few bananas. We used 3 1/2. One for each kiddo to slice by themselves and the 1/2 because it was left over from lunch. Freeze them and then pop them into the blender. It's easier if you have a food processor, but I don't have one. I had to fiddle around with the settings for a while. Turns out that stir is the best option. It was creamy and oh so yummy. You can add strawberry, mangos, nut butter, or chocolate chips to it. I like mine plain though.

The girlies cutting their bananas. Nolan was cutting too, but he managed to be blurry in every picture I took during the ice cream party today. They were both focusing on cutting.

Doesn't that look amazing? Creamy and delicious! And you don't have to feel guilty about eating it hah!

We also made dinosaur eggs today. I made a batch before that were kind of hard, but I found a new recipe here. Basically it's just baking soda, water, and food coloring. In our case glitter too. I don't know if you're aware, but glitter makes pretty much anything more awesome. Unfortunately I didn't measure out how much I used of either. Add the water very gradually, you don't want it to be liquid. Just mushy and damp. Like so

The recipe also calls for black food coloring, which I don't have. I thought about adding all of the colors I do have, but I decided just to let the girls pick one each. They chose green and blue. 

Make a little pancake in your hand, and pop the dinosaurs inside. I used little ones I got from walgreens, I think you can find them at the dollar store too. Then put some more on top and mold it into an egg-ish shape. Ours looked mostly like blobs. I popped them in the oven for a while on the lowest temperature setting just until they dried out a bit. While they were in the oven we read our cool new National Geographic Kids First Big Book of Dinosaurs. It was really fun, there is a question on each page like, "Would you rather be a meat eater or a plant eater?" Ashley said she wanted to be a meat eater because she likes meat. Kaydence gave me a "I would be a princess." So I said, "Well, what if you were a dinosaur?" and she said, "I would be a dinosaur princess. T-Rex, and I would eat the other princesses."

When they got bored with the book I filled up three spray bottles with vinegar and took them outside with the eggs. They were warm still so I picked them up and gave them each one. Playing with baking soda and vinegar is one of our favorite things to do. We also love spray bottles. It was a huge hit.

Our puppy Lady was very curious to see what was happening. She tried to eat the bubbles a few times, but she figured out they were nasty pretty quickly.

Nolan also tried several times to eat his. Apparently he doesn't mind the horrible taste of baking soda and vinegar.