Category: Pollywogs Place Homeschool

Cinnamon Roll Muffins

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog7 Comments

I had all intentions of making some delicious cinnamon rolls on Sunday morning however Mr. Awesome had an awesome surprise planned and I just didn’t have the time. Well Jacob had his little heart set on those rolls and as we all know this child loves to eat. He also loves coming up with new recipes and he decided we should try to make some Cinnamon Roll Muffins.

I combined the filling from our Cinnamon Roll Pancakes and Basic Muffin Recipe with a simple glaze to come up to sweeten the deal. The kids loved helping to mix the muffins and make the swirls. They also really enjoyed eating them too!

Did I mention how wonderful the house smells when you bake these? I will definitely need to make a double batch the next time around. I may also try this out in a loaf pan or as a super easy coffee cake.

Short on time? You could mix up everything and set it in the fridge until the next morning and then surprise your family with the aroma of these delicious treats. They will think you slaved all morning long! Continue reading “Cinnamon Roll Muffins” →

Kirby’s Kids: Choosing, Buying, and Organizing Your Homeschool

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog2 Comments

OK, So this is the third part of this little series that I’ve been working on. If you missed the first two you can check out Part 1 here, and Part 2 here. If you’ve been following along I know you are ready for this part.

This part can be extremely overwhelming but very exciting at the same time. It also requires a bit of control if you are like me. I tend to see so many things I like I often go overboard and end up with an abundance of supplies and resources that we can’t use.

Researching and Buying Homeschool Supplies

This can be so overwhelming but if you’ve done your homework from the previous post then that will help out a lot.When you really know what your child likes and how they learn it can make the world of difference when choosing the curriculum. You also want to consider your teaching style before selecting the curriculum.

Think about your priorities. Does your child need more help with math or reading or maybe they have special needs and you should focus on motor skills? Keep these things in mind when making your decision. Also as you compare jot down what you like and dislike about particular options. This will help to narrow down the choices. Continue reading “Kirby’s Kids: Choosing, Buying, and Organizing Your Homeschool” →

Monday Madness, Motivation, and Multitasking Mishaps

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

Hey there!

How’s your day going? I slept in a bit late even though I had all intentions of getting up early. That didn’t quite happen as I did wake up several times but couldn’t manage to pull myself out of bed.

I am still very sore from our Father’s Day weekend, cleaning out the closet, and from yesterday. We did get up a bit early yesterday as Mr. Awesome had a surprise planned. I fixed some yummy pancakes for breakfast on our new griddle and after eating we loaded up in our van. (I am including a few links to previous posts as well as some affiliate/referral links that help to support our blog.)

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I can never get everyone in the pictures. And if they are they won’t look the same way.

Our first stop was the movie theater. We got to see the new Jurassic Movie, ‘Jurassic World’, and it was pretty good. The kids, especially the boys, love these movies and I think we own all of them.

After the movie we went to meet a friend of his who had a couple of younger kids. They had a pool as well so our kids got to practice swimming some more and are getting much better at it. They want to swim without life vests but I’m not comfortable with that yet. (Sorry/Not Sorry kiddos. I’m planning a water safety post soon. By the way have I shown you the cute, but modest, little swimsuits I found for the girls? If not, check them out here and here.)

We also had a small cookout and it was very nice to meet some new people and spend the day with them. The kids were exhausted when we left and so was I. I was actually exhausted before but did my best to hang in there as everyone was having so much fun.

So that’s my excuse(s) for not getting up early today but I will try my best tomorrow. It shouldn’t be too hard to get up earlier than I did today … lol.

After getting dressed I decided I should go throw some clothes in the wash. I wanted t get my clothes washed as well as the wet stuff from yesterday. Getting up late isn’t going to ruin my day and I am determined to get this house sorted this week.

So I headed to the kitchen to get a glass of water and my Vitality Vitamins. (Yesterday was my first day taking them so I can’t really say how they work for me yet.) Mid gulp something outside the window catches my eye. I knew what I thought I saw but I thought maybe my imagination was a bit overworked.

It was kinda one of those Tweety Bird moments when he says:

Only it wasn’t a puddy tat I tawt I taw. I turned my head away and then looked back again for another peek. Sure enough my eyes were correct, it was a snake. I tried to get a picture of him climbing the outhouse but it was too blurry.

Ewww…. not the best way to start my morning. Granted it was just a black snake and they are usually a good snake to have around. Unless you are deathly terrified of snakes and he almost gives you a heart attack like he has done with the neighbor. I admit I have been terrified of snakes before and am not very fond of them but I will try to tolerate ‘good snakes’.

Nice, deep breath before I head outside to see where he was headed. Of course by this time Mr. Black Snake was headed down the path towards me. (Hehe… this sounds like a line from one of the kids readers ‘The Adventures of Mr Toad’, maybe?)

My puddy tat came to my rescue and walked right beside me the whole way. When Mr. Black Snake saw me and puddy tat he turned and went the other way. He is now somewhere under the outhouse. Out of sight out of mind? Maybe. This kind of reminds me of a story I just told Mr. Awesome about the ‘pet’ black snake we had when I was young. He was much bigger and lived in the outhouse and he scared me more than once.

I did get the laundry carried out and started. So I came back to the house to get breakfast ready and have a cup of coffee. I also realized that in my distractedness I had forgotten to carry out the laundry supplies that I had set in the kitchen over the weekend.

My first mishap came when I tried to make my coffee while pouring cereal for the kids. I set the mug under the spout and waited for it to fill. Then while waiting I went about pouring cereal in bowls and milk into cups.

When I went back to grab my coffee all I found was a mug of hot water. I hadn’t loaded a coffee pod. I did get it right the second time around though.

When it was finished I added a couple squirts of this French Vanilla Syrup I found at Sam’s club. (If you use this Sam’s referral link we both get a little something.)

Ahhhh…. much better. So, cup of coffee I hand I decided to write this quick post which has turned out to not be as quick as I thought it would be. (Another mishap was thinking that I had posted this earlier and then realizing that I hadn’t.)

Some of the kiddos are super grouchy and I’ve had to set the phone down several times to deal with issues and help find a missing shirt. Plus the boys keep forgetting that their clothes are now in the closet. I’m thinking I will go back to hanging up their outfits so they can just pick out something to wear instead of digging through all of the clothes every morning.

Then Ms. Isabella had misplaced her hair tie and was wreaking havoc on everyone instead of just asking for a new one. (Everyone thinks she is so sweet and innocent but she can be a little terror when the mood hits.) We were able to find a suitable replacement pretty quickly as the bathroom is still fairly well organized.

Hair bows, shirts, and clothes found they were able to sit down for breakfast. I enjoyed tried to enjoy the few minutes of quiet and tried to think of what all I need to do today. This list includes:

  • Grocery shopping
  • Make the grocery list (preferably before the shopping)
  • Make tea (after the grocery shopping as we need more sugar)
  • Weekly Home blessing
  • Daily chores
  • Hang up the boys’ clothes
  • Get outfits ready for tonight
  • Club Newsletters, emails, and updates

As usual the sight of me sitting down means that chaos will start. (This also happens frequently when I enter the bathroom or make a phone call.) Someone got more cereal than someone else, someone has more milk than someone else, someone is wearing someone else’s shirt, or someone looked at someone wrong, etc, etc… you get the point. The joys of motherhood, right?

Needless to say I feel a headache coming on so we are going to need to find a way to change some attitudes, real quick.

Getting back to my plans. The FlyLady missions for the week are in the Living Room and include:

  • Sofa Diving
  • Decluttering/Dusting Knick Knacks
  • Dusting door jambs, pictures, moldings, corners, etc.
  • Cleaning baseboards
  • Cleaning under and behind the furniture
  • Hot Spot Fire Drill!

If you read my Kleaning Missions in the Living Room you know that we tackled a lot of these areas last month. This means it shouldn’t take us long at all to knock these out which will leave us more time to focus on other areas that need our attention.

I am determined to get these homeschool cabinets organized as I have a ton of empty boxes sitting in the living room. We also have more and more new items for next year coming in on a daily basis. I am keeping these in a small tote in my bedroom so they don’t get misplaced or accidentally given away. Be sure to keep following along as I will be revealing our new curriculum soon and I might have a sneak peek later this week!

I also plan to get back in the family closet and go through my dresses and maybe… please not that I’m saying maybe… go through my petticoats again. I would really like to make enough room so I can have all of my clothes, maybe even my shoes?, in the closet as there isn’t room in the bedroom for all of them.

Note: We didn’t put William’s clothes in the family closet because he doesn’t like other people messing with his stuff. I do have his dress clothes in there but I get them out for him when he needs them as he likes to mess with everything. He is getting better about learning to respect boundaries but this is a work in progress. So, if a family closet is on your list just remember to take into account everyone’s needs. This has really helped out a lot since the weekend though. No more running from room to room looking for clothes or looking under the bed for shoes. It is going to take us a little getting used to though.

We also really need to get to that top shelf in the closet and the bookcase that I took out of the closet as it is in the living room right now. The bookcase is holding the stuff that didn’t go back in the closet. The top shelf is just a cluttered mess but I am resisting the urge to tear everything out because I don’t know where to put it.

After seeing how we rearranged Mr. Awesome is also looking into getting some actual doors for the closet…. whoo hoo! Maybe I can talk him into a set of doors for the bedroom too? I think the folding doors will work better in our small space and I’ve got several ideas pinned. Here I go getting sidetracked as doors are not my main focus … my mind seems to be as cluttered and disorganized as my house right now.

The family closet and the homeschool cabinets are both big projects but I’d love to have them finished this week. We have a couple of more big projects on the schedule. There is on in particular that I’m hoping we can start on one of them within the next couple of weeks. This one will help out a lot as I’ve been having a really hard time dealing with the clutter here lately. Some of the clutter has come from areas that I’ve been working on but some of it has been brought in recently by guess who? I’ll let you guess on that one.

While I have been taking things we don’t want/need to donate we do have some stuff that just needs or is waiting for a new home. However Mr. Awesome keeps bringing in more projects like the corn hole boards and we don’t have a place to put the overflow, yet. As a result we now have a pile of stuff sitting in front of the computer cabinet and half a bag of corn sitting by the front door.

I could possibly put some of it in my storage area on the porch but after seeing Mr. Black Snake so close I don’t think I want to put anything else out there. I really don’t think Mr. Awesome realizes how much I dislike clutter! I know he doesn’t see it as clutter but if it’s piled up and doesn’t have a home then it’s clutter in my eyes. I don’t think I’m OCD but maybe I am because this is overwhelming at times.

I do know that once this is all said and done it will all be worth the frustration, craziness, and insanity that we are currently dealing with. This little house will function so much better for everyone living here. This is my motivation for getting this done.

Well, there goes my timer for the wash. I better run out and grab the clothes now. While I’m headed that way I’ll grab the laundry stuff that needs to go out too… now where did I put my shoes?

Kirby’s Kids: The Who, How, Where, and When of Your Homeschool

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog3 Comments

In the post Homeschool: Making the Decision to Homeschool we addressed the Why’s and the What’s of Homeschooling and if you are reading this post I’m guessing that you are still interested in this idea so we will get in a little bit deeper. But first I want to welcome you the ever growing Homeschool community!

You are probably chomping at the bit to find the right curriculum and resources but we have a little homework to do first.

Who will you Homeschool?

This question might seem a little silly because we know that you plan to homeschool your kids but have you given a lot of thought into this? What does he/she like to do? How do they learn best? What interests them? Do they have any special needs or concerns?

You really need to think about these questions and figure out what type of learner you have. If you have multiple children there may be a variety of different learning styles present.

There are some people who may be homeschooling grandchildren, step children, or other relatives so you probably need to check into the laws about this as well. Now would be a good time to research learning styles and teaching approaches so you can be prepared for any future challenges they may hold.

How will you Homeshool?

Another silly question, right? Not really as there are many different methods of homeschooling. The top methods include:

  • Charlotte Mason
  • Montessori
  • Ecletic/Relaxed
  • Classical
  • School At Home
  • Waldorf
  • Free Schooling
  • Unschooling

Confused yet? Don’t be just do your research and don’t be afraid to choose the wrong style because you can always change or use a mixture like we do. We use/have used a variety of all of these methods at some point in time. Do what works for you and your family. A boxed curriculum (School At Home)  may work best for one child while another may be better suited for a Montessori approach.

Each child’s needs will change as they grow and their learning style may adapt as well. Knowing a little about each of these methods could help with future planning and decisions.

Check out the internet and Pinterest for ideas and information.

Where will you Homeschool?

Yet another crazy question, I know. It is called Homeschool so you probably intend to school at home, right? Well, not everyone schools at home. Some people school on the road or on vacation. Sometimes kids travel back and forth between houses and school at both so this might not be as straightforward as it seems.

When I first started homeschooling I imagined it would look like school but at home. I tried to set up a little school area with a nice work area and a computer. Plus I had my desk where I could sit and watch the kids work. That didn’t last long.

I mean part of the reason I chose to homeschool was to make it a better environment for my kids. Making them sit still at a hard table wasn’t better. They weren’t happy and they complained, a lot. Just take a look around your house and decide where the best place might be. It probably needs to be as distraction free as possible but easily accessible too. Remember that you can always change your mind later.

As we became more comfortable with homeschooling my idea of how our homeschool should look relaxed, a lot. Most days we are found learning around the big dining table but sometimes we are piled on the bed, or the couch, or maybe sitting outside on the porch, and even the kitchen island has served as our homeschool area a time or two.

If you and your family need a structured learning space then by all means go for it, if you have the space to spare. If you are in a smaller space, like we currently are, then use the space you have. We use headphones to help drown out noises and sometimes we use cardboard dividers between the computers to provide a more personal space. It all depends on the day and what we are doing at the moment.

When will you Homeschool?

Whoa! What do I mean by when? Most people assume that homeschoolers get up early and start schoolwork. They also assume that they work for 5-6 hours or more a day on school work. This is not always the case.

When we first started I felt like we had to work several hours in order to accomplish what we should. The first program we used we would work 8-10 hours a day and still be behind. As time went on I realized that wasn’t the right program for us and we found another one to use.

Now on most days we are finished with our work in 3-4 hours a day. Some days may take longer while some may be even shorter. We also cut back our school week to 4 days a week. Gasp! I know… it felt like we were cheating at first but we found a schedule that worked for us and hopefully I’ll be able to share it with you soon.

You don’t have to homeschool like they do at school. If your kids learn better at night then homeschool in the evening. My older daughter did the majority of her work at night as she is a night owl and hated getting up early. (She now gets up early for work though.)

If your family’s schedule doesn’t work with a Monday-Friday schedule then find a schedule that works. Just keep in mind that some states have a requirements for how many days/hours that you must attend school.

Another thing to consider is that you don’t necessarily need to start school in August/September and end in May/June. You can start whenever you like and stop whenever you like. You can also plan breaks to coordinate with your schedules and vacations. Many families even school all year round to allow for longer breaks in between quarters. Do your research and try out a few ideas.

Note: Many first time homeschooling families will often do a test run during the summer to see if this is something they really want to do.

I do try to write down a tentative start/finish date so that I can keep myself accountable. I also try to pencil in important dates and events so we can plan around them.

That’s a lot of information for now and a lot to work on. If you have your notebook from the last post then use it to jot down some more notes and ideas that have come to you. Be sure to stayed tuned for the next post where I hope to cover the following:

  • Researching and Buying Homeschool Supplies
  • Setting Up a System for Organizing the Supplies
  • Finding a Planner or System for Your Homeschool

Here are a couple of books that cover these topics and more:

You can also check out my Kirby’s Kids page for some old posts and links that we have used in our homeschool.

Don’t Let Your Kids Take The Furniture When They Move Out!

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog6 Comments

**This post contains affiliate links.

Of course I don’t mean you should never let them take any furniture when they move out… just make sure you are prepared for it.

Let me tell you what happened today. Big Sister Olivia moved out a couple of months ago after graduating. She went to live with Big Brothers but has now decided to test those wings a little bit more and move again.

This time she needed a few things and a dresser was one of them. I told her she could have it a while back and I intended to be finished with it by today. Well even the best laid plans can awry.

We were supposed to have finished another couple of projects which would then have given me space to redo our main closet. The main closet was to be turned into a ‘family closet’. At least that was the plan a month or so ago.

It looked easy enough on paper.

As you all know I have been doing a massive declutter and deep cleaning of the house. This has been part of a mission to get more organized. I’ve been working on grouping all like things together so the family closet was just a great solution to keeping up with all of our clothes.

I had originally thought about turning the closet into a bedroom for the girls. I almost did that today when I realized what a mess is gotten myself into.

Back to today’s events… the little girls emptied the dresser. Mr. Awesome and I loaded it into a trailer so he could deliver it. That meant the girls had all of their clothes in two laundry baskets. I guess looking back on it that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing but at the time I thought it was.

This is a pic of after we moved the dresser out.

The other dresser had been stacked on top of the remaining one. It was crowded and unorganized in there or just a plain mess some might say.

So I decided to bite the bullet and tackle this closet. After all I’d ordered everything I thought I needed and the boxes had been cluttering up the house so why not?

We proceeded to clean out the closet.

I found a couple of my old suits that I really loved.

Then Isabella thought we should leave it like it was because it would be just perfect for hide and seek.

I found my old paper cutter in here. Plus that’s the serger I bought last year. I haven’t taken it out of the box because it got tipped over during delivery and all the spoils fell off. I’ve been procrastinating because I’m afraid it’ll be a bit confusing to sort out. It didn’t belong in the closet so out it came along with that bookshelf me and my sister worked so hard to squeeze in there last year. Sorry sis!

Wow! So much space or so it seems.

Of course we had to give the floor and walls a good cleaning with our favorite wood cleaner from Grove. It smells so good!

I did try out the grapefruit floor cleaner from Grove but the floor pads didn’t work well on this rough wood. They did smell really good though and Isabella was in love with them.

Then to put in the new double rod from Whitmor.

I forgot to show you what the rest of the house looked like after we emptied half of the closet. (We could only do half at a time because we didn’t have enough room. The closet may have more stuff in it than the whole house!)

I have too many square dance dresses, I know. I’ll be purging some soon and hopefully selling a few of them.

This was the first attempt at getting it all in there.

We then put together a couple of new organizers and cleaned out the other half of the closet.

Jacob supervised and instructed me as to how everything should go. He was also a very good helper once I told him the name of the pieces so he knew what I needed next.

Mr. Awesome returned about this time to find the house a disaster zone. It was really a mess!

After we got the organizers together and I rearranged a few more times I decided enough was enough. The little boys brought their clothes in from the dresser in the my bedroom.

They quickly filled the cubbies while tearing a couple apart in the process. They did a pretty good job but I think I’ll check out the Dollar Store or some baskets to fit in here so it is a little bit neater. I really don’t know how long these doors will last with these little guys either.

Then the girls tackled putting away their clothes.

Again we need to tidy it up a bit but they have a nice space for their clothes. There is another hanging area but they shoved all the jackets in there. I’m thinking of using the old closet in the living room as a coat closet… maybe… but first we need to find a place for their dress up that they shoved in there.

I had bought some shoe organizers with hopes I could use them to store my crinolines.

Unfortunately they weren’t quite big enough and most of my petticoats were too full to squeeze in there. I may try altering these to work but that’s gonna be on another day. I did get rid of two that I don’t use that much and I may try to let go of a couple more. I did say try… I really like all of the ones I have but they just take up so much space to store them.

I mean it’s really felt like a game of musical clutter today. The shed we were going to empty hasn’t been emptied so we have no place to store the furniture that isn’t needed. Then I ran out of trash bags so I couldn’t sort through as many clothes as I intended too. Oh well, progress is progress right?

I did have a mini meltdown at one point. I had somehow boxed myself into a corner and then a closet rod fell. It dumped all of my dresses that I had so carefully organized into the floor. I just had to sit down in the floor and have a little cry. I was tempted to just throw everything in a bag and get rid of it… I guess it’s a good thing we were out of bags.

We started cleaning up the leftover mess that had been pulled out I finally got to a point where it was somewhat acceptable. I fixed some Shepherd’s Pie and moved a few more things while it was in the oven.

The now empty dresser from the bedroom was relocated to the front porch temporarily. Another dresser was moved to where the old dresser had been and the gun cabinet took its place.

After dinner I opened the rest of the boxes that have been piling up including our new garment steamer.

I’ll post about this after I get to use it a bit. I’m excited to, hopefully, not be cooped up in the small bathroom while pressing clothes.

Then there was this neat little over the door shoe organizer compliments from Target Bullseye!

My dance shoes are happy to have a home.

They had been living in a tote under the bed.

Some had been in the back of the closet on that book shelf too.

Whew! That was a lot of work for one day. It all started because I let my daughter take a dresser… lol… I did have all intentions of doing this but this was not the way I had planned it to go.

It was much more work than I had anticipated. Especially since I’m still recovering from a fibro flare. The shelves didn’t get touched yet but I’ll have to wait until Mr. Awesome gets a place cleared to store some stuff. Ideally I’d like to get ever out of the closet that doesn’t need to be in there.

Mr. Awesome had a surprise planned for us tomorrow so I’d better try to get some rest. We still have a bit of clutter in the Main Room and a bunch of empty boxes.

These empty boxes will come in handy when I start to declutter the homeschool storage and toys. Gee… what am I saying? I don’t know how I’m gonna find the energy but maybe the vitamins I found in my box from that discount online shopping club will help out.

I didn’t even tell you about unpacking that box. That prompted me to go to the bathroom so I could put away some soaps, shampoos, lotion, chapsticks, toothpaste, and cleaners. I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and mix up some of the concentrates which in turn led to me cleaning the bathroom at 10:30 pm. They did smell good though.

I did retrain myself from taking the laundry supplies out to the wash shed. I had been attacked by mosquitoes earlier when I went out to get the mail. It was worth it though as we got some more of our new homeschool supplies.

So basically I just wanted to warn you to be prepared for your house to get turned upside down, inside out, when your kids move out. It will never be the same when they leave.

I’ve checked on her and she is happily settling in to her new room. She got some other furniture too and is working on unpacking. She thought it was funny when I told her what we’d been through since taking out the dresser but I must say it looks really nice in its new home.

I’ll add a picture soon 🙂

I’ll also post some better pics of the closet when we get it completed.

Have a good night!