Thursday Fun Stuff.

Today I decided to prepare the kids for the 4th of July. We'll be doing our regular math and phonics in the morning and following that with patriotic readings and crafts. Here is our list. I'll post pictures of all completed projects.

Our reading list include books such as How to Bake an American Pie, The 4th of July Story, and The Story of America's Birthday.

I don't think the kids have any real idea of what 4th of July is or why we celebrate it. Hopefully by the end of the day, they'll have a clue! I think it helps to dedicate the day to doing all things 4th of July. And for tomorrow, the actual holiday, we can spend the day making patriotic food.

As for crafts, we are making a Catholic, patriotic triptych with the images of the Virgin Mary, an angel holding a flag and book that says "God Bless America," and an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This project (along with the images) are from the Teacher's Helper by Nippert & Co ARTWORKS. I purchased the 17 CD subscription at the IHM Catholic Conference. It is full of great Catholic artwork and projects. Super cute stuff!!

Also in our line of 4th of July crafts are some stars to decorate the room and a windsock. Tomorrow we'll be making some cupcakes and re-reading some of the books mentioned above. I also have some activities from Evan-Moore that include cut and glue puzzles, coloring, and balloon rockets. I'm also thinking about taking them to a 4th of July parade or doing some other patriotic outing.

Overall, I hope they have fun and learn a bit about the great country we live in!

Back to Organizing.

I'm back into organizing the cleaning areas of my home. I have split the house into 5 zones and now I'm going to dedicate a week of every month to a particular part of the house. This means that each week, I'll be concentrating on deep cleaning the zone that is assigned for the week. This doesn't mean that I'll neglect the other parts of the house; I'll just be keeping things tidy and surface cleaning will be enough for those zones.

Since there are typically only 4 weeks per month, I decided to schedule zone 4 & 5 the same week. The kids will be mostly responsible for their rooms, but I'll help them along the way!

Week	Zone
Week 1	Zone 1: Entry, Hall & Bathroom
Week 2	Zone 2: Living Room & Laundry Room
Week 3	Zone 3: Kitchen & School Room
Week 4	Zone 4 & 5: Upstairs

Back Again.

We are back from our camping adventure! Although I would love to share pictures, we left the camera due to last minute planning. You'll have to wait until our friends send over their copies!

It was a great weekend and we visited Deep Gap, NC. We stayed in a beautiful cabin with a creek in the back. We enjoyed hiking with the kids and on Sunday we went to Blowing Rock for lunch before heading back home. It was a really relaxing weekend and I'm looking forward to going again.

Now that we are back, however, we are far from settled in. We jumped right into school on Monday, but I still feel a bit unorganized. Yesterday we finally had our granite counter tops installed and it took all day. The whole process left me feeling exhausted, even though I did none of the work. Now I feel like I have a whole kitchen to organize!

So for now, my posts will have to be a little less involved. I'll post our before and after pictures as soon as I load them into the computer.

Tot Books.

Yes, it seems like I am on a roll for planning things for Anthony. I recently found this website that does tot books. Check it out! It looks like something I'll incorporate into our preschool schedule. They are basically lapbooks for little kids.

Tot-Books

VBS and Schedules.

Well, this week the kids have been attending Vacation Bible School and they are having a blast!! It has really allowed me to have some quality time with Anthony and Christian, since they are too little to attend. My DH has this week off, so it's been great to spend time together!

It is our home improvement week, so DH will be power washing the house today and I'll be painting the mailbox. On Friday, we are leaving everything behind and taking off for a camping trip in the mountains. The kids are counting down the days!

With all this going on, I'm getting my materials together for next week's schooling. I have been doing math and phonics with the kids but nothing else. Next week I'm starting EVERYTHING!! I have been putting it off a little because I have felt so unprepared, but I'm using my time wisely this week while the kids are away.

Today I'm planning on setting up the bins for each child where the daily assignments will go. I already have them in place, but haven't used them since we stopped doing all our other subjects from kindergarten and preschool. I'll have to figure out a better way to get all the paperwork organized.

Weekly Menu.

Well, here is our menu for the week! I hope that I'm able to give someone some ideas, especially with lunch and snacks. This week I don't have to worry about the morning snack since the kids will be at VBS. Breakfast is never scheduled for me since the kids always want the same thing (cereal, pancakes/waffles, eggs) and I just rotate.

Also a note about having a 5 day menu...we usually have leftovers on the weekends and it's not unusual for us to go out to eat. Mainly, it's my time to take a break from the kitchen. I fix whatever is easiest and snacks usually are repeats from the week.

Monday
Lunch: Taquitos served with sour cream and salsa
Afternoon Snack: Mickey Mouse cheese & crackers
Dinner: Sloppy Joes, green beans, coleslaw

Tuesday
Lunch: Turkey sandwiches, fruit
Afternoon Snack: Tortilla chips & bean dip
Dinner: Chicken pepper pasta, sugar snap peas

Wednesday
Lunch: Baked potato with toppings
Afternoon Snack: Applesauce
Dinner: Savory swiss steak, collard greens, brown rice

Thursday
Lunch: Scrambled eggs & sausage
Afternoon Snack: Pretzels & marshmallows
Dinner: Baked ravioli, salad, italian bread

Friday
Lunch: Make your own mini-pizza
Afternoon Snack: Fruit smoothie, crackers
Dinner: Leftovers

Organizing My Home.

So who hasn't heard of Fly Lady? I think everyone and their mom has probably visited the website and I must admit that I was even a subscriber! But amidst the never ending email reminders, I decided to fly the coop and unsubscribe. In theory, Fly Lady's system is wonderful. But for me, it just doesn't work. Their system is great; however, I'm just not into the whole constant email reminders and such.

This week has been my trial run for my new schedule. The kids are not completely following it, as I'm waiting yet another week to fully start school with them, but I'm trying to adhere to the scheduled activities as much as possible (wake-up time, snacks, math, etc.). I must say that I'm loving the extra 2 hours I get in the morning to do chores or get on the Internet. I'm not one to wake up early, but this is definitely worth the effort!

Seeing that I'm sticking to my schedule, I'm finding that I have better control of my house. We're doing things at assigned times and that is helping me stay on top of household duties. So long to frenzied cleaning hours!!! Now I actually have time to clean throughout the day, which means that the work doesn't pile up on me; therefore, I get to skip out on trying to clean the whole house in an hour. It's just working out!

But getting back to Fly Lady...I really liked the thought of making zones in your home and dedicating a week to focus on a particular zone. So this week I will be organizing my home into work zones and assigning days and weeks to each zone. It will then all go into my household notebook. Here are the zones to my house.

Zone 1
Outside entry
Foyer
Hallway
Hallway bathroom

Zone 2
Living Room
Laundry Room

Zone 3
Kitchen
School Room

Zone 4
Master Bedroom
Master Bath

Zone 5
Kids Bedroom
Baby Bedroom
Hall Bathroom
Hall Area (Computer station)

Since the kids are responsible for their things, they are in charge of their own room. They are also in charge of cleaning up the playroom, taking down their dirty laundry, and doing small chores around the house. All the trash in the upstairs areas are also their responsibility to take downstairs or outside (this is usually done by Marco, although Isabella likes to help).

Lightening my workload is essential. I've come to realize that every member of the family has to have certain cleaning responsibilities. This is especially true as a homeschooling family. I don't have the same time as a mom who sends her kids off to school for the day, so its important that everyone does their share.