Homeschool Adventures

Homeschooling Plans for September

jolenegreen — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:37:54 +0000

So as you know, this is my first year homeschooling. I am really excited about it but a little nervous as well. I am homeschooling both my 3 yr old and my 5 yr old. I did some planning for September and I would like to share. I am going to teach my kids more about Life itself. I will then mix in the alphebet, numbers, colors etc. I dont have a specific plan or stucture, besides reading and playing etc. I did make my plans based on real life things and I hope you all enjoy!

September 2008 Home Schooling Plans

Nature- Apples are ready

Leaves are beginning to change

Animals are gathering food for the winter months

Food-Homemade Applesauce

Homemade Apple Butter

Homemade Blackberry Jam

Homemade Granola/granola Bars

Baked Apples

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Daddy’s Birthday Cake

Chutney

Home-Clean and organize kitchen thoroughly

Organize all craft materials

Set up pantry shelves on porch

Clean out freezer

new shoes, slippers and PJ’s for whole family

Twin Heating blanket

Finish getting produce from garden

Family Life-Daddy’s Birthday

Aunt Georgi’s birthday

Grandparents day

Labor Day Reunion

Fall Barbeque on a Sunday

Fall Festivals

Field Trips-Farmers Market

Orchard for apple picking

Hay Ride

Crafts Show @ Letchworth State Park

Camping

Fall Festivals

Crafts/Activities-Maple leaf crowns to be Autumn King

Drying Apples

Tell Apple Stories and find the star inside

Fresh Batch of homemade play dough in fall colors

Helping mom preserve/pick from the garden

Happy Autumn Sign

And as for other things we will be learning some letters, numbers, etc in between all this stuff!

Household Binder

jolenegreen — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:38:19 +0000

I am currantly working on organizing and putting together a household binder. I have read alot about them and with certain info in a certain place, it should help me out alot in organizing myself and my life. I am not sure what sections I will be putting in my binder but I did compile a list of what I want to include. And here it is……TADA! LOL

Calender Pages-Just ones that have bdays, important dates, appointments ect
Chore lists for kids
Cleaning lists-weekly, monthly, yearly, seasonally
Homeschooling Calander-basic jot of what I am planning that month
Schedules-daily routines for everyone
Food inventory sheets-pantry, freezer and fridge and any other storage
Recipes for homemade cleansers, wipes etc
Menu Planning-monthly menus broken down into breakfasts, lunches and dinners
Master Grocery list
Monthly grocery list by store
Coupon section-holds coupons etc
Monthly Budget
My Goals, Any online challenges I have joined and my progress
Homeschool Section- list of things hubby can do with kiddos to help out, curriculum planner,
Library books to get, course of study, plans etc…my want list, annual unit study,
books needed list
Home projects to tackle monthly
Seasonal Yard mantience charts
Ongoing wishlists for family members (great for xmas and bdays)

Recipe Section-new recipes to try, couple at a time…will move out of here when tried
A copy of a checkbook register to keep track better of spending
Weekly Errend list
Projects I am working on..checklist, crafts as well….put a few patterns in here, ideas,
instructions etc..When finished will be replaced with new
My 101 in 1001 Checklist
Family Fun list
List of things I would like to buy…save up for…smaller things
Extra money Earnings
Bulk Cooking Section-Past menus, furture menus, OAMC, food lists, bulk cooking plans,
Articles on particular methods, recipes for bulk quanities, canning, freezing and preserving
List of storage life, things that can be frozen
Tips- Things I dont remember that help me out, laundry tips, frugal tips, cooking tips,
kitchen tips and organization tips
Family Phone Number list
List of things to re-use and how to re-use them…another step in being frugal
Running List of Gift Ideas
Gardening Info Section-List of what I have and what to grow, indoor growing, info on certain
stuff, this shouldnt be to big of a list
Food Prep list-things to prep for the rest of the week
DIY section- articles on how to fix or build things, house mantience, etc
List of long term goals for fixing up our home

Here is my list. Leave a comment if you wish to share yours with me

Hard Times

jolenegreen — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:36:03 +0000

Im having such a hard time tackling life right now. I have sooo many decisions I am trying to make and it seems I have such very little time to do it all in. Right now we are deciding on what we really want to do with our lives. We are young but need to make a decision very soon. We know we want a big family, lots of children! Right now we live in the middle of our small little town with nothing around. Our homw we bought cheap and it needs LOTS of work!! The only problem is if we put the money into it living here, we would never get it back if we deide to sell it. Nobody in this area can afford over a 50,000 house, if that. Its ridiculous really. We would love to live in the country…and have a small homestead. I have been asking myself for 3 years now, do I want to put money into this house, do we want to buy land and build, do we want to buy a home and some land in the country that is already built or do we want to move out of NY? Ahhh…Im sooo confused and Im not really sure where to invest my money? Right now I want to stay home and do daycare. I am saving up for that. We live right in town and I have the possibility to stay home and make good money and stay home with my children. We will definatley be here for another 5-6 years no doubt about that. I would hate not to put money into it while we live here…just for the sake we live here and also what of we dont end up moving? I am trying to be as frugal as possible and cut in areas that I can definatley cut it. Just sooo I can use the extra money to save or possibly put towards something we neeed, even maby pay off our small debts we owe. With prices rocketing so high, do I want to stay in NY? Do I want to move to a small homestead so we can harvest our own foods, meat etc? There are sooo many options and I just dont know which one to choose. I would love to move out of NY…there is nothing here. Its terrible! If anyone has any advice, please do share.

I know…I just got done ranting about wanting to be a SAHM. Im soo lost! i really really want to stay home but I also want a home…I dont think Ill win either way!

Getting Ready for Christmas

jolenegreen — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:30:34 +0000

One of my goals was to start gettting ready for Christmas earlier this year. I took some time yesterday evening and did just that. I made a small section in my household binder as well for Christmas 2008. I did this so I could keep up with it and not let it fall behind.
The first thing I did last night was make a list of who I was dedicated to buy gifts for. Besides my husband and children I only narrowed it down to 14 people. YIKES! This still seems alot to me. Im trying to be as frugal as possible as well. I only narrowed it down to our siblings, our parents and of course our grandparents…oh and our two neices. I did what I could and I merged the grandparents girts together instead of getting each grandparent a seperate gift, this yr they will recive one gift together.
The next thing I did was make a list of people I was dedicated to giving Christmas cards too. Right now my list is 11 people but that might expand by the time Christmas gets here. Most of them I can hand deliver to, but would like to include pictures of the boys inside.
I also made a quick jot down of ideas of what to get people. I already had some ideas in mind so I quickly jotted them down before I forgot.
I put all of this in my household binder and will leave it there so I can work on it each month before Christmas. Keeping track of what I buy and how much I spend, Etc. Are u getting ready for Christmas yet and if so what have u or are u doing?

Wanting to Stay Home

jolenegreen — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:20:04 +0000

Ahhh…I wish I could stay home with my kids. All my friends stay home with their kids, all my online friends stay home with their kids, my neighbors, aquaintances etc. All but me. Im so Jelous! I have been really upset about it lately. Makes me cry…I think I have been crying for 2 days over it…what a baby I know, right!!

Ive recently done a budget. And with just my husband working we are NOT able to get by. Sucks! We will still be like $500 dollers short and thats now even including groceries! Horrible isnt it?

So from here on out, I will be saving money and living frugally!!!!! I will be saving money to pay off all debt. I know our biggest expense is FOOD! We eat out alot!!! We waste money there sooo much! Its ridiculous! SO I will definatley have to menu plan and grocery shop the right way! Maby once I get our debts paid off I can stay home!

But of course, my kids will be all grown up by then!

New to Homeschooling

jolenegreen — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:36:52 +0000

Well im new to homeschooling. This will be my first year. I have decided to teach my 2 boys together as they are only 15 months apart. I think it would make it easier on all of us, as a family. I am not doing a curriculum this year but more of a relaxed learning style. I will plan things such as what goals I would like to achieve, crafts I would like to do or books I would like to read…but there will be no set assignments or curriculum. I want my kids to enjoy their childhood and not have to grow up so fast.

Right now I am trying to put my blog together. Bear with me as I am not used to wordpress, only blogger.