A busy 7 month old and Homeschooling

As my daughter, who is 7 months old learns to crawl.....


I forgot what it is like to have a baby who crawls. I am very quickly reminded that babies can find every little piece of dirt on the floor and put it in their mouth.

Because I have to vacuum several times a week now, I am ready to get rid of all the furniture I own. Because that is not realistic I will just have to persevere through this stage of life. My daughter is my 3rd child so I know how quickly this stage passes and another begins.

Home schooling with a baby has proved to be a little challenging. In the morning, I make my 3rd grader a list of the subjects I want him to do that day. He hits the ground running. For the most part he works independently. My 1st grader needs a little more help. I try and get him started on a workbook. Then, I try to get my daughter interested in something that will hopefully hold her attention for 10 minutes. In that time I can usually help my 1st grader with phonics. He can do math by himself. If and when she naps, we try and get subjects done that require more hands-on help.

I have discovered that homeschooling with a baby can be done. But you have to keep things very simple. These are the materials I use:

3rd grader (working above grade level)

Bible - Daily devotional For Boys

Language Arts

Grammar- Easy Grammar
Handwriting
Writing- Institute for Excellence in Writing
Reading- He reads huge amounts of books everyday we do not do a formal reading program.

Math

Aleks online math (http://www.aleks.com/)

Saxon 5/4

Science

Harcourt California science
Evan Moore Read and Understand Science

History/ Social Studies

Harcourt History Social Science

1st Grader

Bible - Daily devotional For Boys

Lang Arts

Grammar-
Handwriting- Handwriting Without Tears

Writing- Evan-Moore Write a Super Sentence
Reading- Hooked On Phonics and Horizons Phonics and Reading.

Math

Saxon Level 1

Science

Harcourt California science
Evan Moore Read and Understand Science

History/ Social Studies

Harcourt History Social Science

I often have my children play on websites the reinforce what they are learning.

What does your house look like

The stockings were hung above the chimney with care....yeah right.

The empty stockings, gift boxes, wrapping paper bows, trash were strewn all over my house. It looks like Christmas threw up all over my house. How does one holiday make such a mess?

My children are enjoying all their new toys. All at the same time. In every room of the house.

So of course since the house is all ready a mess I should reorganize the garage... right? It makes sense in my mind.

So here goes. Hopefully I will be able to dig myself out of this pile of trash before spring =)

Merry Christmas and Happy new Year

Making Baby Food/ Homeschooling

I decided to make baby food today. My stock in the freeze was getting low. I cooked some butter nut squash, pears and sweet potato. What was I thinking. I only have 2 ice cube trays. I for got how much of a mess using a food processor was. My baby is not feeling well. I am home schooling and trying to make lunch and breakfast. In the all of the food was put through the food processor. Some of it is frozen and the rest is in the fridge waiting for its turn in the ice cube trays.

Homeschooling went OK today, O did a great job reading and sounding out words today. We made ooblec. It was to show the kids what a liquid/solid looks like. It made a huge mess. Thankfully we were in the back yard. Unfortunately it did not turn out right. It is a quarter to 4 and we just finished home schooling. Actually there are a couple of small things to do still. In my head homeschooling would be done by noon. I guess God has other plans for our day. He is teaching me not to stress out and to take it one moment at at time.

S is still not feeling well. She is finely down for a nap. It has taken me all day to get her to go down but finely she is asleep. I hope see feels better soon.

Some radom Thoughts

Some Radom Thoughts

Life with 3 kids has been crazy. I know Gods strength and mercy are sufficient.

Matthew 6: ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I am drowning in my days. I have fallen behind on my house work and now my house is eating me alive. I wish I was the type of person that could organize easily. It does not come natural to me. It takes a lot of work for me. And once I fall behind it takes a lot of time to catch up. I hope to get caught up soon.

My baby girl is 5 months old tomorrow. She is growing up so fast. Life is so busy I feel like I am missing out on her little mile stones. O is 6 years old now and the C is 8. My kids are now big kids. It is hard to imagine my self with big kids. but they are getting there and I am praying the will grow in to men who love and fellow Christ.

This weekend we took the kids to Bale Grist Mill. Owen loved the two persons saws. He also loved crushing he apples to make apple juice.. Owen was so focused on getting the job done I think he would of cut a tree down if they would have let him. He had a very focused look on his face as he focused on getting his job done.

I hope to bake bread and have the kids make butter this week. If time allows.

Meal Planning

I have been working on meal planning. I have been planing every meal and snacks. I hang it menu on the fridge and the kids think it is the law. There is no arguing over what is for breakfast lunch dinner or snacks. Because it is on the menu it must be the law right?

Here are the weeks I have so far

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
Tim is Cooking UH-OH	Waffle Sausage Pattie OJ	Eggs Toast OJ	French Toast Bacon OJ	Oatmeal Apple sauce Milk
Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack
	Fishing Snack	Graham Crackers Milk	Saltines w/ Peanut Butter Milk	Soft Pretzel Juice Box
Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
	Hot Dogs Corn Cuties Milk		Bagelwich Chips Pear Carrot Sticks	Grilled Cheese Tomato Soup Peaches Milk	English Muffin Pizza Carrot Sticks Peaches
Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner
	Oven-Baked Parmesan Chicken Broccoli fresh apple slices whole wheat roll	Chicken Enchilada Spanish Rice Corn	Italian Pork Chops Steamed veggies	Crock Pot Chili Corn Bread	Egg Plant Subs

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
Pancakes Bacon OJ	Scrambled Egg Bagel w/ cream cheese OJ	Kids Pick	French Toast Bacon OJ	Oatmeal Toast		Tim is cooking UH-OH
Snack
	????	Cinnamon Rolls	Hot chocolate		Graham Crackers Applesauce Milk
Lunch
	English muffin pizza Carrot Sticks Pears	Bagelwitch Carrot Sticks Cuties	Chicken nuggets Corn Fruit Milk	C-Peanut butter and banana sand O- Salami and cheese sand
Dinner
	Pasta e Fagiol Texas Toast	Chicken Piccata Biscuits Broccoli	Beef Round Tip Rice Broccoli	Salmon Burgers Tater Tots	Salmon Cakes Crab Cakes Salad

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
Pancakes Fruit OJ	Eggs Toast Bacon OJ	Parfait Bagel Milk	Oatmeal Toast Milk	Cereal Banana OJ	Bagel with Peanut butter Apple Sauce OJ
Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack
		Graham Crackers Apple Slices Milk	Saltines w/ Peanut Butter Milk	Soft Pretzel Juice Box
Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
	Grilled Cheese Apple slices Cumber Milk	English Muffin Pizza Carrot Sticks Peaches	Bagelwich Chips Pear Carrot Sticks
Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner
	Egg Plant Subs	Orange Chicken Rice Broccoli	Salmon Burgers Tater tots	Pork Tenderloin Frozen Veggies Garlic loaf bread	White Chili with ground turkey