A Typical Week in the Life...

If I had to pick the most important lesson that I've learned thus far in my homeschooling journey it would be this:

THERE ARE NO TYPICAL DAYS IN HOMESCHOOLING.  EVER.

And, that's okay!

I've also learned that even though there are no typical days, having a loosely knit schedule is just what our family has always needed.  Though I highly doubt I will ever have a week that looks exactly like what I have outlined below, our "schedule", if you can call it that, has been the key factor in keeping my sanity over the last few weeks. Another key factor:  remembering to be flexible, and remembering that if things don't go as planned, its perfectly okay!

Sunday is the first day of the week for us.  It's basically reserved for church and family.  At least we try to keep it that way.  It's typically the one day of the week Mr. B doesn't work and gets to sleep in, well, if you call 6:30 sleeping in anyways.  Sunday night starts our weeknight routine of baths, books, and early bedtime. The goal is to have both kids in their rooms with books read and snuggled up in their beds by 7:30.  Our reasoning for this isn't so much that we want them asleep that early, but rather that we believe that to have a strong family, you have to have a strong marriage, and to have a strong marriage, its imperative that you get quality time with your spouse.  The kids are free to read or quietly watch a movie, and typically have fallen asleep by the time Mr. B and I hit the sheets.

Weekdays start out early at our house.  Mr. B and I wake up at 4:30, and while he is getting ready for work I pack his lunch and prepare his breakfast.  He is typically out the door by 5:15, and I start my day after that.

I try to stay out of bed, and most mornings I succeed.  I won't lie and say I do every morning though.  Some nights just aren't long enough and I can't keep my eyes open.  But most mornings, I make a pot of coffee and settle in for my Bible study and prayer time.  By 6 I've finished my morning study, and move on to my "To-Do" folder, which includes things like bills, work I do for our church, lesson planning, meal planning, and the like.  I work on it until about 6:30 and then try to squeeze in a morning workout before getting showered, dressed and ready for the day.  At 7:30, it's time to wake up the kids and they make their beds.

While they are washing up and getting dressed for the day, I start breakfast and throw in a load of laundry. (I've recently became a Flybaby, read all about the Flylady here.)  By 8 we have started eating breakfast and doing our morning devotional.  After breakfast, we all clean up together and I wash dishes and shine my sink while they wash up and pull their workboxes into our dining room for the day.

At 8:30 we start school.  And that's when any sense of time goes out the window.  There are too many variables in learning styles, what's interesting and exciting for the day, and so forth, so instead, we do things in a specific order and take a break for lunch, cleanup and switching laundry over around noon.  Monday's schooling starts at 8:30 and lasts till 9, when we have to leave for my weekly meeting at church.  We are home by noon, eat lunch and resume with school after that.

Mornings start out with calendar and weather review, the pledge, the ABC song, the Days of the Week Song, the Months of the Year song, the Today Is song, and our weekly memorized Bible verse, which goes along with what they are learning at our church's KidZone program.  We then move on to our workboxes.  (I'll post more on our workboxes on a later date.)

After our workboxes are completed, or just whenever we are ready for a break, we do one of our "enrichment" studies.  These are PE, Nature Study, Home Ec, and Shop, for now.

With the exception of Shop, which is a study they do with daddy, we are always done with everything in time to get chores done and have some free play before preparing for dad to come home.  During the kid's free time I get my daily cleaning and Zone cleaning (again, check out the Flylady for details) done and prep for dinner.

With the exception of Wednesday nights, when we head to church for cooking and Kidzone/Adult Bible Study, at 4:30, we start at one end of the house and work our way to the basement, picking up and doing surface cleaning as we go.  (On Wednesdays our cleanup routine just starts earlier.) We fold and put away the laundry that was in the dryer and then I'm off to cook dinner while the kids go play some more, or, if they wish, help me cook.

On all days but Wednesday, Dad comes home to a (hopefully) clean house at 5, and unpacks and settles in.  Dinner is on the table by 5:30.  We do a family devotional over dinner and talk about the day's events.  After dinner we clean up the kitchen and dining room as a family, I shine my sink, and we spend the evening doing whatever projects we each choose. After being with me all day, the kids typically choose to hang out with dad.  A little before 7 (a little before 8 on Wednesdays) the kids start their bedtime routine, and Mr. B and I get our personal time together.  We're generally in bed by 9:30.

Friday nights and Saturdays are pretty much open for us to get whatever work we need done in the yard accomplished or to do fun things like family outings or get togethers with friends.  And then on Sunday, it starts all over again.

So there you have it!  Our typical week. If it sounds exhausting, it can be.  But it is filled with fun, excitement, and makes for an organized, less stressful week for our family.  Our house stays clean, we have healthy meals on the table, and we all get along - for the most part!

Check back later this week for my post on how we do workboxes.

Getting in the Homeschool Groove

The last two weeks have honestly been two of the most enjoyable weeks I've had in a long while.  I love to schedule, I love to plan, I love to spend quality time with our kids, and most of all, I love to have fun!

First off, I'd like to introduce you to the newest members of the Out of the Box Learning Academy.  Yep.  You read it!  I even got so creative that I named our homeschool.  Did you know that there are a TON of freebies and rewards out there available to schools and homeschoolers?  I sure didn't.  But I did quickly see that a lot of them require you to have a school "name".  Hence, our Academy was born!

So without further ado, meet our preschooler, Princess M and our 2nd grader, Mr. C!

 Aren't they the cutest? Well, I sure think so.  And they have personalities that are out of this world.  I was really worried about this at first, because, you know, sometimes our personalities don't quite fit into the box that the world deems appropriate for schooling.  But for our school, they fit just fine!  We laugh, we work hard, and we have fun.  We work together in a way that makes everyone happy, because with homeschooling, you can do that!  Now, by that I don't mean that I let them have their way.  What I mean is that they can learn in a way that leaves them with a smile on their face, rather than being forced to do it the same way as the child sitting next to them.

So we've been schooling for almost two weeks now. We've started paper mache globes, because we're just learning what Geography is all about.  It's pretty awesome that this doubles as an art lesson too! The best part?  We sat down one night as a family on the kitchen floor and did it together.  If I tried that last year, Mr. C would have been a complete mess because he had already spent all day at school and was tired of "learning".  Now, its just part of our everyday life!

We've done some science experiments already as well.  We learned what happens when you mummify and apple vs. just letting it sit out.  We've learned how water can magnify words.  And this week, we'll be making an edible cell model to enjoy after dinner one night!

In Mr. C's language arts curriculum, we are reading The Courage of Sarah Noble.  In the first few chapters, we learned about cloaks and talked about the noises of the night and sleeping outside.  The plan was to camp over the holiday weekend and wear our cloaks that we created, but unfortunately it was a tad warm.  So instead, we moved the tent inside!  Are you SEEING how much fun homeschooling is yet!?!  We're having a blast!

We've learned about instruments, and the kids both got to try their music abilities by attempting to play the flute, we've been on nature walks, been swimming for PE, baked cookies for home ec, worked on our hammering abilities for shop, and talked to each other using some of the sign language we are all learning together.  And these are just the super fun things!

You know, its been pretty awesome.  But awesome doesn't even begin to describe the feeling I get when we get up in the morning and before we even make our beds, the kids are asking what we are going to do today.  It doesn't begin to describe the feeling I get when I get to watch as the information they are learning actually clicks in their head.  It doesn't describe the smile that was on my face when I saw M finally trace that letter A for the first time.  And it certainly doesn't describe what its like to have your seven year old and three year old explain to dad over dinner exactly what they learned that day.  All I can say about it is I can't believe I waited this long to start on this journey.

I'm sure we'll have our bad days as well as the good.  I'm sure it won't always be this fun.  But for now, I'm going to eat up every moment of every day and make memories that are going to last a lifetime.

I'll try to continually update my blog for those of you who want to know how our schooling is going, so check back every once in a while.  Keep us in your prayers, too.

Until next time, have a great night everyone!

September Meal Plan

Just last month I started meal planning again.  It was time. For too long I've went to the store with an idea of what sounded good in mind, and just started grabbing things.  Inevitably I would forget things, I'd buy too much of one thing and not enough of another.  It felt like I was having my husband run to the store at least two to three times a week.  Things felt chaotic, and there were many nights where we'd end up at a restaurant just because I didn't have the things I needed to make a particular meal.

I've tried meal planning several times in the past but never been very successful at it.  This time, I saw an awesome editable/printable Menu created by Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler and thought I'd give it a try again.  And guess what?  It's working perfectly for our family!

I plan three meals a day and two snacks, and typically make one or two "desserts" a week or keep things like ice cream on hand.  As you can see, I cook a lot and rarely do we eat anything out of a box.  I try to vary things as much as possible because I get bored with the same things every day.  This keeps me wanting to cook!  My husband works 5-6 days a week so I keep lunches pared down to things that can either be kept cold in a lunchbox or hot in a thermos so that he doesn't have to worry about trying to get the microwave at work.  Since we've started meal planning again, he hasn't had to (or wanted to for that matter) eat out at all!

Last month we stuck pretty closely to our plan.  The nice thing about it being a word document is I can edit it if something comes up, so I can push meals further out in the month or reorganize if I have more leftovers than I had planned.  You will notice on the current September version I have attached that there are a few snacks on the 2nd that have a (NS i.e. not served) beside them.  I did this because we were out and about and did not eat them.  This allows me to look back and see what I had planned but haven't yet used.  This also helps with seeing what I had planned when I look back to plan menus for the coming months.

I go shopping every two weeks and use the ultimate grocery list found here.  I love this grocery list because I can edit what is on it and how many I need, and it also provides a great overall list of things, so I can go through it after I've entered everything from my meal plan and add other things that I might have forgotten.  One thing I've learned about creating my list is that it helps to be very detailed.  If I need carrots, I go through and find out exactly how many carrots I need.  If I need milk, I do the same thing.  This way, I don't get to the end of the two weeks and try to fix a meal only to find that I don't have on hand what I need.  It also prevents things from spoiling, and also helps our family not to over eat.

So, are you interested in checking out what are plan for the month looks like?  You can click on the picture above or click here.  If you would like to create an editable version for yourself, or check out some other ideas for meal planning, make sure to visit Erica's blog at confessionsofahomeschooler.com and search for Meal Plans.

If you have any questions or good advice about your meal planning, feel free to leave me a comment below.  I'd love to hear how you do it too!