home making for girls

Check out the post below from Home Grown Mom......My daughters and I will be participating :) 

Homemaking. Such a simple word for such a complex job. How does one go about making a home?

There’s cooking and cleaning, of course. But there’s so much more to it, isn’t there? And as we begin to teach our daughters, it can be confusing and overwhelming.

Maybe, like so many of the moms I’ve heard from, no one ever taught you how to run a home. Maybe you’ve figured it all out via trial and error, and — thanks be to God — it’s going okay. Sure, there’s been bumps and bruises along the way, but you’re on the way.

But we want more for our daughters. We don’t want them to fumble their way through the first few years of marriage, and learn the hard way. We want to teach them as they grow under our care… to cook, to clean. To love God’s Word. To practice hospitality. To respect their husbands.

For 30 Days in May, we’ll be doing just that here at Homegrown Mom. An exciting line up of guests will be posting every day about Homemaking for Girls. Check out the list of contributors.You might recognize one or two  I do have a guest spot or two open, so if you’d like to submit a guest post, email me.

Along with the amazing writers pitching in, I have to give a shout out to our sponsor, Plan to Eat, Meal Planning Made Simple. Their site has made my life much simpler, which means I’ve got more time to spend with my girls! I’ve even been using it as a tool to teach homemaking, teaching my 14 year old to navigate the user-friendly site and plan our meals.

In addition to learning some new skills, we’re going to have some fun, too. Every Monday in May, I’ll be giving away some awesome homemaking resources! Be on the lookout, too, for printables, lots of how-to’s, and encouragement from moms who’ve been there!

If you want to keep up with the series, you can subscribe here by RSS or get posts to your inbox.

As always, this series is for you incredible readers! If you have any suggestions or specific posts you’d like to see, don’t hesitate to let me know.

puzzle pieces

There has been no family unity between our kids for a while now. They have been slowly growing apart. Lots of fighting, bickering, refusal to help each other, ect... This all came to a head Sunday evening while we had a serious family talk. Our kids have always been really close, but we have been running around too much lately and not having enough family time. So...we grounded them, and ourselves :) No TV, no video games, no going to friends houses, no playing by ourselves....Only family time! So to start things off yesterday, the kids worked together on their chores, instead of just doing their own. Then they put a puzzle together....together :) After a really great day of team work we had a family night. We went to tacobell (uck, but its cheap...) Went and saw RIO in 3D. Then we turned dessert into a team building game :) we took the kiddos to fro-yo, but they had to share...one for the girls and one for the boys. They had to pick out a favor together, each pick out one topping and then eat it without fighting, or pigging out. They did great :) 

Hopefully tonight it will be nice enough to go on a walk after dinner, and we plan on playing uno or maybe dominoes.....and I picked them up another puzzle :)  

There were a few bad attitudes when they first got up yesterday (because we are such evil parents....) but they got better by lunch time. For the rest of the week they have to find ways to be kind to each other, and go out of their way to do something nice for someone else at least once a day. Play time is group actives only....board games, basketball,  puzzles.

They really do love each other

The good

Just after I posted yesterday, I read a post from one of my face homeschool blogs...the post was about combatting end of the year blues ;)hmmmm..... Face palm! Okay so here goes. One of the suggestions was to focus on what you DID accomplish.

T finished 2 grades of science
T finished 2 grades of history
T is completely caught up on math
T aced all 4 of her oaks tests (state standards, reading, math, science & social studies)
T went from 4th grade language arts to finishing up 6th grade
T will be skipping 6th grade & starting jr high in the fall
T learned to play guitar & piano

L finished 1st & 2ng grade math, she is half way thourgh 3rd grade
L has learned a large # of site words mostly on her own
L has a huge drive to learn to reading & is practicing daily on short vowels
L has learned cursive
L has learned to use a computer & the Internet
L has learned to follow simple recipes and bake
L is taking a jr high- high school art class & doing very well

C has finished 2nd grade math & is half way through 3rd grade
C could not read @ the beginning of the year, he now read around a 6th or 7th grade level & is reading his first novel
C can spell like a madman, currently working @ 7th grade level
C is doing 5th grade vocabulary
C will be skipping 3rd grade & going to 4th in the fall
C is taking a jr high-high school drawing class & doing very well
C enjoys reading to his younger siblings

S has finished 1 grade math & is half way through 2nd grade
S is learning sight words
S has mastered short vowel sounds and some long vowel sounds
S has learned to use a computer and educational websites
S no longer cries at the thought of doing school ;)
S has taken responsibility for her chores & school work

B has finished 1st grade math & is half way through 2nd grade
B could not read in september, he is now reading chapter books. About 3rd grade level
B has started a spelling program & is doing well
B has learned to use a computer & educational websites
B is very motivated, quick and efficient with his daily school work
B will be skipping 2rd grade & starting 3rd in the fall

still here.....

It seems that life has got in the way of blogging. School has taken on a steeper slope....lots more work and much less "fun stuff". I have been focusing on moving the kids forward, and lacking in History and Science. I feel so stuck in the reading area with my two daughters. I know that they have made huge improvements, and are working hard to overcome their disabilities....but I always feel like I am just not trying hard enough and am failing them. I don't want them to hate learning, through all of the struggles. As Lizzie gets older it just breaks my heart to see other kids tease her about her reading, even close friends that shouldn't be treating her in such a way. I know that God has a plan for this, and we will get through it! Its hard to see the improvements made when working closely with them on a daily basis, I am very glad that my mom was able to see improvement in both girls.  The other 3 kids are moving forward quickly, PTL. I am so proud of all my kids and the work that they have done so far this year.

Some of their accomplishments:

L has started 3 grade math, finishing both 1st and 2nd grade since September
B is finishing 1st grade math in just over half a year and is ready to start 2nd
S is finishing 1st grade math in just over half a year and is ready to start 2nd
C is finishing 2nd grade math in just over half a year and is ready to start 3rd
T has almost finished 5th grade math, and is testing in a 6th grade math level
L and S both learned 20 sight words in a week, and could spell almost all of them
B couldn't read in September, he is now testing at almost 2nd grade level, and improving daily
C couldn't read in September and is testing now at 5th grade level....um wow!
C is also show a great aptitude for spelling
T started the school year at a 5th grade reading level and is now testing at 9th grade level :)
T is on course to finish both 5th and 6th grade this year, starting 7th grade in the fall
T is showing responsibility by rising at 5:30am to do her school work while the house is quite
B is on course to finish both 1st and 2nd grade this year, starting 3rd grade in the fall
C is on course to finish both 2nd and 3rd grade this year, starting 4th grade in the fall

I know that my kids should never be measured by their academic strides, but as their teacher some times I need to remind myself that we are indeed moving forward and that all their hard work is paying off!

give away!!!

Check out Raising Olives......they are giving away 2 copies of Large family logistics.

The main points of this book:

Problem Solving How-Tos Include:

• Fit it All in a Day
• Take Control of Clutter
• Conquer the Laundry Monster
• Homeschool a Large Family
• Manage Your Family's Expenses
• Train Older Children to Help Younger Children
• Achieve Good Physical Health
• And Much More!

Monkeys in Disguise...

BOLO..... escape monkeys on the loose!

Volcano Madness

We studied Venus last week with Apologia, so we created a "volcano". The point of the volcano wasn't for it to blow up, but for us to study lava flow.  

getting ready:) 

the official Lava pour-er!

and one melty volcano!

the flour made a great stand in for the dusty surface of Venus, and melted butter cut through the "dust" just like hot lava. :) 

Where happy little Bluebirds Fly...♥ and so can I ♥

Remember this book from last weeks read alouds? Well we read it but didn't get a chance to do much with it, so I kept it for this week. We re-read the book and studied the amazing illustrations. While listening to the cd of music included with the book, the kids painted rainbows. They were told to mimic the painting style used in the book, I think they did a great job! 

The Art Gallery

by S

by B

by C

by T

by L

they all picked out their favorite aspects of the illustrations to use.  Bright bold rainbows on teal skys, glittery stars, smiling moons, soaring bluebirds and wispy clouds.

the Artists hard at work:

if we have time later today we will be painting with watercolors, for our book The Odious Ogre

for the ♥ of reading

real quick, just a few of the awesome books we found at the library to read together this week

remember to read to your kids this week, even the ones that can read to themselves :) 

Asteroid Madness

My poor blog has been neglected this week, but I promise the midgets and their homeschooling has not :)

Just finished studying Mercury, and of course we needed to do an experiment.....

We recreated the craters on Mercury with pans of flours (the surface of Mercury is covered in thick dust), using rocks and balls as asteroids. Not sure what the educational value of this was......we did compare the size and shape of craters made. But anywho....they enjoyed it and hopefully it helped cement some "Mercury Facts" into their brains :) 

the Crater throwers ready to fire....

 craters made of rocks

 golf ball crater

 juggling ball crater

and marble craters. 

Cuneiform

I am back from an amazing womens retreat and feeling great! (wish I could say the same about my hubby who has a cold and my kiddos who are not listening well today...)
Today we studied Mesopotamia, the Sumerians,  and Cuneiform. Some times I wonder if the kids are really listening to me when I read our history book??? They have a hard time sitting still and never seem to be paying attention, but they can always answer my questions at the end.

So AnyWho...being  wedFUNday we had to do something fun with our history, so cuneiform tablets it was :)
I couldn't find any real cuneiform letters that were translated from us to copy, so we made our own!

a real cuneiform tablet

Our tablets:

autumn fun

After enjoying one of our read alouds on fall leaves we went on a nature walk.

 Our book talked about different shaped leaves, above the kids found "spiky" leaves 

L found a leaf made up of 5 leaflets 

Picking out the best leaves to do some leaf rubbings :) 

And the art showcase.......

I remember doing rubbings like this in school when I was a kid, always a fun break from math or english :) 

the kiddos seemed to really enjoy the time to be artistic! 

an autumn walk through the book stacks

Yesterday was our weekly walk to the local library, not the worlds best library but we always find books to love 

some of this weeks read alouds