My First Review Opportunity

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. Time4Learning can be used for homeschool, afterschool and summer skill sharpening. Be sure to come back and read about my experience.

2011-2012 Curriculum

****This was previously published by me on 31 Rubies****

Can I share a secret with you? I am like a child on Christmas morning when it comes to purchasing new curriculum. Even though, as my husband said a few weeks ago while I was frantically browsing vendor websites, curriculum was becoming a four letter word in our home. I knew exactly what I wanted in my mind, but just couldn't find it in a pretty little package on any website.

But then we attended the annual NC homeschool convention and all those curriculum vendors were set up just for my browsing pleasure. I was in paradise. Now, silly me went to the convention with plans of not buying anything while I was there. I was just planning to "get some ideas". I got some ideas all right..and came home with a backseat full of shiny new books!

I knew that we wanted to make some changes in curriculum for next year, mainly for Science and Social Studies, but didn't really have any plans to switch our Phonics and Math. That was before I learned to value of cost comparison. In my opinion being loyal to one vendor is silly if you can find the same material by a different company at a cheaper price. We ended up switching all of our curriculum. I'll let you know in a few months if I still think this was a good decision.

Here's what we decided on:

Math- Horizons 1st grade

Phonics & Reading- Horizons 1st grade

Science- Purposeful Design- Level One (We struggled with finding a science curriculum, but once we found this one, we were in love! I highly recommend checking it out!)

Spelling- Modern Curriculum Press-Spelling Workout Level A

History/Geography/Social Studies/World Religions- We are going to be doing a year long study of people/places of the world. We have pieced together our own lessons for this, but found some awesome books to use. A few of them are from My Father's World, a couple are from Usborne books, and some we found at a used book stand. My husband will be the primary teacher for this subject, but we are all looking forward to it.

Language Arts- Weekly Reader Publishing- Daily Language Practice Grade 1

Bible- Day By Day Devotions: 7-minute character growing devotions for kids by Karyn Henley

Read-A-Louds/Unit Studies: The Little House on the Prairie Series, Charlotte's Web, Shiloh, and Sarah Plain and Tall.

Art and Music will accompany most of these subjects, so I don't have a specific curriculum for those. Maybe next year.

And to keep it all together...or as my husband says "a planner for your planners". Yes, I have an addiction to buying planners. I LOVE this one. It has absolutely everything I could want in it. The Well Planned Day. If you haven't already bought yours...you should!

Have you used any of these books? Do you have any advice/recommendations? I would love to hear from you.

Do you have any questions for me? If so, comment below and ask away! I will get back to you!

Freezer Cooking Round One

If you've been following my blog, you know my family spends WAY too much money eating out. We have found that meal planning helps cut down on our eating out, but sometimes I just don't have the time, energy, or motivation to cook the meal we've planned. So, then what? We get take out. And we're back to square one.

One of the sessions I attended at the homeschool convention was "Living on More with Less". The speaker talked about meal planning and freezer meals. Basically bulk shopping for meat and key ingredients and then taking one day and cooking and freezing multiple meals. When dinner time comes, you choose a meal from the freezer, thaw it, reheat it, add any sides you would like and there's a complete meal in under 20 minutes. I was intrigued.

This morning, my husband and I sat down to make our meal list and grocery list and I was beyond frustrated. Meal planning is difficult at our house because my husband is vegetarian, and my kids are extremely picky. So, trying to plan and fix a meal that I will be the only one eating is no fun at all. Then I remembered the idea of freezer meals. I could make individual portions with meat for myself, portions without meat for my hubby,and portions without any "weird" ingredients for the girls.

We made our list and headed out to 4 grocery stores. Yes, 4 grocery stores in about 3 hours. My poor husband and kids are so great! They put up with all of my crazy ideas. But we did manage to find everything on our list!

Then it was back home for a quick nap and then to start cooking!

Here's a photo of the ingredients we used:

It took about 3 hours of me cooking and my husband grilling and washing dishes, but we managed to come up with 28 meals. I'm not going to list all 28, but here's an idea: spaghetti (we just need to cook the pasta on the day we plan to eat it), lasagna, baked ziti, vegetarian lasagna, chicken fajitas, chicken tacos, beef tacos, nachos, grilled chicken, grilled chicken salads, lemon pepper chicken breasts, bbq chicken breasts, buffalo chicken sandwiches, italian chicken breasts, italian pork chops.

There is so much more we could've done, but we simply ran out of time. Just with what we've done, we will have dinner ideas for almost a month for less than $90!

Here's a photo of all of our freezer bags full of yumminess! :)

Do you do OAMC (once a month cooking) or freezer meals? If so, what are you favorites? Any tips for me? I'm hooked now! :)

Homeschool Convention

May 26-28, 2011 my husband and I travelled to Winston-Salem, NC for the annual NCHE homeschool convention. Being the homeschooling mama that I am, I loved every minute of it. My husband (even though he may not like to admit it) also enjoyed parts of it.

We arrived on Thursday, checked into our awesome hotel and headed over to the convention center. The book fair opened 2 hours before the actual convention started and this was a perfect time to browse the vendors because it wasn't crowded at all. My original plan was to explore my options and have a general idea of the curriculum we would be using before leaving the convention. I had some ideas in mind, but nothing set in stone. It was so nice to be able to take our time, look through the curriculum, ask questions, and do price comparisons this year. Last year we didn't get to do much of that because it was so crowded and we had the girls with us. We were smart this year and left the girls with their Nana! They were happy and so were we! :)

The speaker sessions of the convention began Thursday at 3:00. The speakers were awesome! We especially enjoyed the session entitled "Homeschooling the strong-willed child", because we all know that I have a very strong-willed child. This session was eye-opening for my husband and I in many ways. Our favorite session on Thursday was the keynote address that evening. Todd Wilson was the speaker and he spoke regarding "Lies Homeschoolers Believe". If you ever have the chance to hear Todd speak, do it! He's a great speaker. He and his wife homeschool their 8 children while driving around the country in an RV. Oh, the stories he can tell!

Friday was full of sessions and book fair shopping! My plan to not buy any curriculum at the book fair was changed when I realized the price difference in shopping there vs. shopping online. I found much better deals at the convention. We've completely changed our curriculum for first grade. More on that in another post. We enjoyed Friday's sessions too. My favorite was titled "Living on More with Less". Jennifer Schmidt was the speaker. She blogs at www.beautyandbedlam.com. She has awesome tips on living frugally. You can be sure I will be writing another blog post on what I learned at that session. On Friday we also met up with our friends the Saufleys. We always have a great time with them and I'm so glad we were able to spend some time together.

Saturday was the last day of the convention. It involved making some last minute purchases at the book fair and attending the last sessions. I'll have to be honest... by this point, we were all a little burned out on the sessions. The speakers were still great but we were in information overload. I attended a session called "Stand By Your Man" about the importance of maintaining your marriage that really spoke deeply to me. Yep, you guessed it...another post will be coming about that one too! After the last session, we had lunch with the Saufleys and then made the 3 hour drive back home. The drive home was filled with conversation regarding what we learned. We discussed our weaknesses and our plans for the future. We had a really awesome weekend. The alone time with my husband was much needed and we arrived home feeling rejuvenated and stronger as a couple and parents.

If you've never been to your state homeschool convention, I encourage you to GO! Even if you're just contemplating homeschooling...GO. You won't regret it.

Not here..but there!

I haven't been posting here much because I've been posting at 31 Rubies. Come on over and see what we've been up to!

Over the river and through the woods...

Those of you who know me well know that I'm just not the outdoorsy type.

I enjoy the outdoors if it involves being in my yard (which is in the city limits), being on a beach or soaking up the sun by the pool on a cruise ship. But to go hiking or fishing...nope that's not my thing. Leave me at home..you will be happier and so will I.

But lately I've been trying to step outside the box that I've caged myself into. So last evening when my husband announced that he would like to take us all on a walk by the river today, I'll admit my heart started racing just a little. A little voice inside me reminded me of stepping out of the box..and I agreed to go.

We started the afternoon with a picnic lunch at a beautiful park. We fed the geese and ducks. A little duck even came up and took a piece of bread right out of my hand. It was awesome! The girls had a blast. We played for about an hour and then headed to the river.

On the drive, my anxiety level was building. Let me clarify, it's not just that I don't like the outdoors. I have a crippling fear of snakes. I'm not sure where or when this fear originated but it's severe. Anyway, the drive to the river consisted of a constant, silent prayer. I really wanted to do this. I know many of you are reading this thinking that I was just being a silly girly girl..but truthfully I wanted to do this for myself, but also for my husband because he loves hiking, fishing, and exploring and I really want to be able to share in these experiences with him, but also for our children because yes they know how scared Mommy is of snakes and we knew the likelihood of seeing a snake at the river is great..but I wanted them to see me be able to overcome my reservations and spend time enjoying something that normally I would not have done.

So, we arrive at the river and I make the first move...I got out of the car. Yes! My husband instructs me to find a large stick to carry with me...what?! A stick, exactly what am I going to need that for?! I find a stick..and we begin the journey. The girls are loving it...climbing over logs and asking all kinds of questions. I'm so thankful they're not like me in every way. Scott led us and I brought up the rear...carefully watching each step. My mother had me paranoid that snakes would be hanging from trees, so I'm trying to look up and down at the same time and well let's just say it's a good thing I had that large stick otherwise I would've ended up in the river on several occasions. Every time I felt the anxiety building I reminded myself I was relying on God's strength and not my own and it got me through. The further into the woods we walked, the more comfortable I became. I honestly didn't think I would last more than 15-20 minutes, but we hiked for an entire hour. I was so proud of myself. I even found myself telling my husband that I would love to find a waterfall to hike to. I have to admit I enjoyed myself. The woods and river were so peaceful, the temperature was just right and I didn't see one single snake.

Ahh..the things we do for those we love!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal: Week ending 5/13

It's been a while since I've posted my weekly update...but finally, I've started again. I enjoy this quick weekly wrap up because it's a great way to keep up with the craziness in our lives.

So here's what we've been up to this week:

In my life this week:

Mother's Day is a great way to start your week. I wish we could start each week with Mother's Day! I love the thoughtfulness and creativity my husband and my daughters put into their gifts and the day in general. Tuesday I decided I was going to have a "Mommy's Day Out" and treated myself to a haircut, eyebrow waxing, massage, mani/pedi. It was wonderful. Though I did feel a bit guilty about being gone most of the afternoon and spending so much money on myself, I enjoyed it. We as mothers neglect ourselves way too often. Not to mention the fact that I had a little one at home who wasn't feel so well. She has strep throat again- the 5th time since August. But she was at home cuddled up on the couch being taken care of by Daddy, so I snuck away for awhile!

In our homeschool this week:

As I posted in my last post (which blogger has somehow deleted and should be restoring soon!), we are all getting Summer fever, even though we school year round. When my children aren't feeling well, their attention span is nonexistent. So, school with Shaylie wasn't easy this week. Basically, I saved it all up and she completed it today since she's feeling better. Nevaeh however moved right along. Really, I think she enjoyed the one on one time. We didn't do anything really exciting...truthfully, we're all just bored and are ready to move on to first grade!

Places we're going and people we're seeing:

We didn't go anywhere this week. The girls are attending a Kids Nite Out at our local Fitness Center tonight and they are super excited! I'm excited too because that means I get a date night with my hubby!

My favorite thing this week was:

I have two favorites: obviously my Mommy's Day Out and Tuesday evening when Shaylie was feeling so bad, she asked me to come lay in her bed with her, so I did. She was almost asleep and looked up at me with these big eyes and said "Mommy, you know there is no such thing as too much love in the world!"..she melted my heart.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have:

Are you guys sticking with the same curriculum next year or changing it up?

I know we will be changing, but I just haven't figured out which one will be switching to!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share:

Amanda from 31 Rubies has an awesome week long series of posts about marriage this week. I loved it. Check it out: here.