Homeschool Christmas Party Fun

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Whoa - I'm not sure how I let this much time pass between posts here!  Life is busy, isn't it?!?  Anyway, I wanted to share our homeschool Christmas party here from last year.  It was such fun!  My sister and I have 7 sons between the 2 of us, so Christmas parties need ACTION.  Last year, we had a blast together by having a bunch of 1 minute challenges!  The boys are begging for us to do them again this year, so I guess it was a hit.

Toss as many mini-marshmallows as you can in one minute through

 the Christmas wreath and into the bowl.

Jackpot!  Way to go,  Cole!

With your partner, cheek to cheek, hang as many ornaments as you can on the string tied between 2 chairs! 

 Good teamwork, guys!

 Pretty good for 2 little shavers!

Hey buddy, help me out here!

 Wow - these guys mean business!

 Count 'em - FIVE!  Pretty amazing!

 Brotherly teamwork!

Great job, Cole and Shaw!

 How many cups can you stack in 1 minute?  Wow, way to go Emmett and Beau!

 Pretty big tower, Riley!

 Who is that handsome fellow peeking through that big tower?  Greyson!

WOW, Wyatt - now THAT is a TOWER!

 Pretty creative, Shaw - 2 towers!

Lookin' good, Cole!!!

 Use a candy cane to try to stack as many bolts in a tower as possible in 1 minute!

 A big task ahead, Greyson!

 Quite studious, Wyatt!

 Looks like it paid off to be studious!

 Wow!  Now, there is a tower, Riley!

 This is a serious job that needs some serious concentration!

Way to go, Shaw!

 Can you get the oreo cookie from your forehead to your mouth with no hands?  

Good idea to go for the eye first, Greyson!

 Mom's getting you off to a great start, Beau!

Here goes nothing, Wyatt!

Success never tasted this good!

 Toss the Christmas candy!  Sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," 

and toss the candy every time you sing "Christmas!"  

 How high can you go!

Whew - that's high!  Now have fun eating the candy!

 Can you help Rudolph get his red nose on right?  Tie some yarn to a red pom pom, put some vaseline on your nose, put the yarn in your mouth, and give it a swing, can you do it?  You did it, Shaw!

 Way to go, Riley!

 A sticky mess success, Cole!

 Jackpot, Wyatt!

 Now, there's a smiling Rudolph!

It's a shocker when it connects sometimes, eh, Greyson?

 Let's make some good old fashioned snowflakes, and while you do, Mom and Aunt Carrie will be hiding a special Christmas snack and drink for each of you upstairs!!!

 Now, each of you needs to find a can of pop and a Little Debbi Christmas tree!  Leave the easy ones for the littles because the hard to find ones are H-A-R-D to find!  Hope you are up for a challenge!

The one that stumped everyone - the old pop can in the reading light trick!  Aren't we clever?!?

 Now, each of you gets a part of this paper nativity scene to color as you eat your snacks 

and drink your pop!

Always remember, the real meaning of Christmas has CHRIST at its center!  

Praise the Lord for the birth of our Savior, our Messiah, our King!

I hope this gave a few fun ideas for all of you to have your own fun homeschooling Christmas party!

Love in Christ,

Julie

Getting dc excited to do odd jobs around the house

Chore charts help with routine jobs around the house, but odd jobs are not routine and cannot really be planned for in a routine way.

I found a fun way to encourage my dc to take on odd jobs.  I take an envelope and write on the outside of it an odd job I'd like them to do.  I put a sticky note with some type of reward inside the envelope and seal it. I then hang it on the fridge in a magnetic clip.  I told the boys I will do this from time to time, and that I will not point it out to them, but rather let them take the initiative to watch for it and do the job as time allows.  They also must let everyone know it is hung and give them a chance to help, but if one person is ready to do it, and the other(s) don't want to, the person can do it without waiting for the others.  The others will not receive the reward then.  Also, a new envelope will not be hung until the one already hung is done.

I've done this about 1 month now, and it has worked incredibly well!  Everyone loves it.  The boys are always watching for a new envelope, and I am getting odd jobs done around the house promptly with great joy.

Here are some odd jobs that I've put on the envelope, and you will see they vary greatly in difficulty and time expended:
*clean out the toothpaste drawer
*wipe down the inside and outside of both of the front doors
*spray down the closet doors and wipe them clean
*go through all of the toys; make a pile to sell and put in a tote, a pile to throw and put in a trash bag (all broken or parts missing toys), and put all toys to keep neatly back in cubes on shelves;  if labels on cubes are incorrect throw them
*go through all of Emmett's Lakeshore games in the homeschooling cupboard, put stray pieces back in the right places, change out the ones he is tired of for new options from the basement
*go through all of the homeschooling cabinet's art supplies, test the markers, throw out anything that doesn't work / that is broken / or that is missing needed parts
*reshelve all of the free reading books you have finished and choose new ones for your rooms
*go through the outdoor toybox; throw broken things, pile things to sell we no longer use, and group things to keep together neatly so they fit well and easily into the toybox
*write Papa and Nana a thank you for taking you to the Christian quartet concert

Here are some of the rewards received written on the sticky note, and you will see they vary as well...
*one pack of gum, you can each chew 1 piece a day until they're gone
*dinner and a movie tonight - with popcorn!
*root beer floats
*a trip to Dairy Queen for cones
*$2 for Wyatt, $2 for Riley, $1 for Emmett to spend as you desire
*let's go to the Cars 2 movie!
*let's go to the Winnie the Pooh movie!
*let's go to the bakery for donuts!
*2 little Debbie treats for everyone who helped
*Let's have the cousins over to play!  I'll pick them up!
*If you included Emmett in helping with the chore, 3 jolly ranchers a piece.  If Emmett was not included,  1 jolly rancher a piece.
*If you did the chore on Monday, 5 tootsie rolls a piece.  If you did it on Tuesday, 3 tootsie rolls a piece. If it's done on Wed. or later in the week, 1 tootsie roll a piece.
*$10 each to Wyatt and Riley, $5 to Emmet to spend as you desire

Anyway - I just thought I'd share this, as it's been such fun and a great way to get some odd jobs done around the house, while rewarding the dc with things I probably would have done with them or given them eventually anyway!

In Christ,
Julie

Chores: Using the Summer to Train, So the School Year Goes Smoothly

Summer is a great time to train dc their chore routines.  One thing I have learned when it comes to chores is that a new chore chart each year - even if it has almost exactly the same chores on it - is always a welcome change.  While change is good in the "look" of the chore chart, small changes are better when it comes to who is doing which chores.  Real time - as in years - is needed for dc to learn to do chores well in a routine way.

This year, Wyatt passed on several of his chores to his 8 yo brother Riley.  Riley passed on several of his chores to his 4 1/2 yo brother Emmett.  Everyone was excited and happy about the change.  The olders because they were done with some old chores and got to learn some new ones, and the youngers because they'd grown up enough to do some of the older dc's chores.

When beginning to teach chores, each of our dc began with just 1-3 chores.  The first one they did well with was putting away the silverware (whichever older child is responsible for the cleaning out of the rest of the dishwasher first removes all knives and sharp kitchen utensils before setting the silverware basket on the counter for the little one to put away the silverware).  Emmett has been doing the silverware quite proudly for about a year.  He has now begun taking out the trash bags, tying them (with my help), and putting in new bags.  He fills the sink with warm, soapy water (we put the breakfast pans and dishes in here for a quick soak after breakfast) too.  He sets the table (we all set out whatever needs to go on the table on the counter, and he takes it from there and sets the whole table), and last, he dustbusts all of the edges of the floor of the kitchen.  He does this all in about 30 minutes and feels incredibly proud of himself most days.  Emmett's has 1 chore chart that he checks off with a dry erase marker each day.

Riley gave up the last 4 chores listed above this year, and took on the chores of cleaning the bathroom counters and mirrors and cleaning the toilets.  He does this with gusto, to prove he can do it as well as Wyatt did.  He also took over taking out the bathroom garbages and cleaning the bathroom tub and the showers.  Wyatt and he share a room, so they "deep clean" it on Sat. mornings together now.  The dc wear gloves to use the spray bottles and wash hands directly after cleaning.  Riley has 4 chore charts he rotates through, one for each week of the month.  He marks his chores off each day, and at the end of the week, the chart is erased, and the next chore chart for the next week is hung.

Wyatt gave up the above chores Riley took on, and took on the chores of washing the toilet seat covers and bathroom rugs.  He also took on the chores of exercising the dogs, giving them an afternoon treat, and cleaning up their droppings, as well as cleaning out their kennels, dog dishes, and water dishes on Sat..  One other new chore he took on is vacuuming and mopping the hardwood floors.  Wyatt has 4 chore charts he rotates through, one for each week of the month.  He marks his chores off each day, and at the end of the week, the chart is erased, and the next chore chart for the next week is hung.

All of the chore charts are velcroed on the wall by the fridge, and rotating chore charts have velcro on the back as well to be switched out easily each week.  Each child has a dry erase marker hung next to his chore chart for easy use of marking off chores as they are completed.  Each child earns 25 cents each day if every single box next to each chore is checked off by the end of the day.  They may spend this money on anything they choose. They often all 3 save up for something together.  This is motivating as it is their only spending money.

Many of these chores are on a rotating basis, and we have only 30 minutes for chores each morning, so they are kept to things that can be done within that time increment.  Keeping the chores routine and thinking carefully about the order they are in helps the dc to do them efficiently and quickly.  We turn on Christian praise music and all get busy together on our chores at the start of each day, so it's actually kind of a fun time together.  The chores after lunch and dinner are short, easy, and kept routine.  Everyone clears table, Wyatt wipes the table and all the counters, Riley sharks the whole kitchen, and I do the big dishes and load the dishwasher.  Emmett dustbusts, brings dishes to me, and puts away things in the fridge.  This helps cleanup go quickly, and everyone knows what they are to be doing, and they also know that they may not go off to do something else until the kitchen is completely cleaned.

My ultimate goal is by the time our dc leave our home and have to care for a home of their own, they will know how to take care of their home well.  Eventually, I'll add things such as taking care of the car, changing fire alarm batteries, cooking a meal each week, etc.  Anything that will prepare them to have life skills intact as they become an adult and take on adult responsibilities is game for the chore charts.

So, I'll link the charts here.  I decided it was helpful to make them colorful this year, to have columns of different colors so they can easily find each day's work, to provide white boxes for them to check off for each chore, and to laminate them.  As Emmett is too little to read, his chart has pictures.

I hope this can help another busy mom with how to train dc to do chores well!
In Christ,
Julie

A Flexible Summer Routine

Our dc are getting older, and with that maturity comes some ability to plan their days.  I could see somewhere between having things all planned out and having no plan it all would be the perfect summer routine for us.  First, I tried a schedule that was pretty well... scheduled.  It had open times within it, but when we tried it, I could see it was just not flexible enough.  Here is the schedule we tried first...

This kind of schedule worked great the previous years, but now that the boys are older, it's too regimented.

So, I took a different approach.  There were things I knew I wanted in their day, and then there were things I wanted them to be able to decide when and how long to do.  I got a folder, some velcro, and halved some index cards.

The things I wanted them to have in their day for sure I put on index cards first, and if I wanted them to be done a certain time, I wrote that on the card too.  Some things that fell into this category were a 45 minute playtime for each of the olders with our toddler (keeping this up in the summer sure helps the school year go well), life skills time (a time I'm working on training the boys in new chores and life skills for the next school year), a video for Emmett so the olders can have time just the 2 of them, an audio book time,  outdoor and indoor playtime, and a time to encourage others.  I also wanted the boys to rotate through some different things during their playtime with our toddler, like puzzles, lakeshore games, coloring, educational computer, playdough, books on tape, etc. So, I put these on smaller strips of paper too.  I put velcro on the back of each card and on the inside of the folder.  I stapled a ziplock back to the other side of the folder with "DONE" written above it.  

Each day, the boys get to choose an order for their day.  It has already been such a good learning experience!  They are learning to manage their time and work together.  We have figured out a few things.  First, Wyatt likes to tell everyone what to do - he's the oldest, and used to being in charge, so we had to have a talk about how everyone gets input in this.  Second, Emmett just wants to play with either Wyatt or Riley first.  Third, Riley just wants to play computer with Wyatt first.  So, everyone compromised except for Emmett, as he's the youngest.  They do a playtime with Emmett first.  Computer for Wyatt and Riley is second.  Wyatt pretty much picks the rest of the order of the day, and everyone is so happy!  

I just thought I'd share this in case it helps someone else with balancing summer and some sort of a routine!
In Christ,
Julie

Organization: Homeschool Materials

Books, art supplies, paper, guides - there can be a lot of things to organize when it comes to homeschooling.  I finally have found a great way to go about organizing all of this stuff.  First, having all the materials in one large cabinet gives a one stop place for dc to gather everything at once, which helps eliminate wasted time within the day.  Second, having it right near where dc are homeschooling helps them be able to quickly get their things, and helps eliminate the dawdling that goes along with gathering things from different parts of the house where distractions can get dc off track.  Third, having doors is a must, as all these supplies just really do tend to look pretty messy pretty easily.  Fourth, if you need a copier for homeschooling, having it within the big cabinet is another real plus.  Fifth, if you use a computer for homeschooling, having a cabinet with a slideout place for a computer really saves space and is easy to use, as dc can just open the cabinet, slide out the computer, and pull up some chairs to use it.  

Lower sections of the cabinet provide great space for things little ones can grab out on their own and play with.  Higher sections provide good places for less used materials.  It is nice if the art supplies can be fairly mobile (as I mentioned in another post).  It is also nice if each child can have his/her own tub for school with just the necessary books for the day to pull out and use, as this also is quite mobile.  

I have finally been able to get a cabinet that is made of real wood and matches our other cabinets, but we used inexpensive particle board cabinets before this, and those worked well too, provided they were anchored to the wall for safety reasons.

 

 

  

  

NOW, doesn't this look better again!

I hope this helps someone else with their homeschooling supplies to organize!

In Christ, 

Julie

Organization: Taming the Toy Mess

Three boys have a lot of toys.  I bet your dc do too!  We have one tiny room that we used to use as a babyroom but have now converted to a playroom.  We made one wall, from floor to ceiling, a toyshelf wall.  This kept the floor space open for them to play in, and it also kept all the toys in one place.  

I just have to say - canvas cubes are amazing!  Because they are flexible and open at the top, they can fit SO MANY MORE toys in them.  All of the toys in this picture that are housed on one wall of canvas cubes and cupboards used to be in SEVEN separate bookshelves filled with plastic totes in our basement.  That's right, SEVEN!  We had Amazing Space come out and do this wall for us, but I think my dh could have easily done it if he'd seen how they do it.  If you have a handyman in the family or as a friend, I think this would be pretty easy to do.

We put a stepstool for the highest shelves in the playroom, and we put the older boys' toys on the top.  Only my oldest ds may use the stepstool.  We also left the shelving system open on the bottom, as we had an outlet we wanted to keep exposed and available for use.  

I bought the canvas cubes at Target.  I actually chose just 2 colors (red and blue), and bought one of each size I could find.  I used the different sized canvas cubes to measure how many of each I'd need by dumping in the toys from the plastic totes.  Then, I knew how many of each canvas cube to buy, and I knew how many shelves to make and how wide to make them.  I made a pile of the big things that wouldn't fit in cubes, and made two sections of shelves with doors to house those.  

I cut plastic nametag badges (from Office Max) in half and printed off the names of the toys on white cardstock.  I stuck the cardstock rectangles in the plastic nametag badges, and velcroed them to the front of each canvas cube.  

 

 

I liked this so well, that I did this with another unused, wasted space - a walkway to our attic stairs.  Here are some pictures of that area:

 

You can see that things look much neater behind closed doors!  I hope this can help someone else tame their toy mess!  

In Christ,

Julie

Habits: Teaching Music Discernment to Our Children

I grew up with a love for music that I still have today.  Music can lift me up or help me through trying times.  It can fill me with joy, love, compassion, or empathy.  I sang in church with my family from a young age on up, and my dad was in a quartet singing Christian songs for many, many years.  My mother and sisters also enjoyed singing, and we all played instruments.  We were and are a family that loves music, and my family now enjoys music as well.

One thing I did not do for many years was think about the words of the songs I was listening to.  If I liked the sound of the music, the way it was sung, the beat of it, or the chorus, I might listen to that song over and over again, memorizing it but yet not really ever thinking about what the song meant.  I quickly realized when I had children that I needed to change this, as hearing children sing lyrics that are less than desirable immediately puts things into perspective.

I have liked a lot of different kinds of music in the past, but country music has always been my favorite.  In about the last 5 years, I began listening to Christian music almost solely, with some country music sprinkled in.  When my dh gave me an IPod for Christmas, I had so much fun choosing music to put on it.  This is when I first truly realized the magnitude of the words of the songs.  I ended up removing songs and deleting them.  Even just one line that is off seems wrong when sung again and again.  However, our family still likes country music along with Christian music, and my dh listens to country radio all the time with the boys.

I think I finally found a good way to teach music discernment to our children (and to us).  My IPod is for the family's use and sets on the IPod dock in the kitchen for all to use.  Anyone can suggest a song to be put on the IPod, but before I put the song on it, we Google the name of the song and "lyrics" for the song.  We read through the lyrics together line by line, and the minute I find something objectionable, we talk about it, and it may not go on the IPod.  It is becoming very clear to my sons that virtually every Christian song can go on the IPod, but many fewer country songs.  They are starting to realize that many country artists sing a mix of "good" songs and "not so good" songs.  They have stopped saying they really like so-and-so's music and instead say they really like a certain song.  They realize that they can't just assume because a country singer had one song that was okay, that any song by that artist will be okay.  They know they better check out the lyrics before they let a song become a favorite of theirs.  This has taken away the battle of what we listen to and what goes on the IPod.  It has also helped them listen to the words of songs very carefully before they deem it as worthy of learning well.  I just thought I'd share this as it has helped our family enjoy music but do so in a way that is more discerning.

In Christ,
Julie