I think it’s been a little while since we’ve posted any life updates and quite a bit has happened over the past few months so I thought I’d give a quick summary of what we’ve been up to.
Life Updates – October 2023
Category: Parenting
Preparing for Daylight Savings Time
It is almost that time of year again and when you have so many kiddos with so many unique needs then this is something that can cause complete CHOAS in your household… along with weather changes, moon changes, and just about any kind of unexpected changes.
‘Losing’ that hour of sleep can wreak havoc on your body and upset your circadian rhythm which isn’t good. Here in our house, it’s really not good because we have kiddos who don’t understand the concept of time change and they just get unbearable to be around.
This year we’ve been trying a little experiment to hopefully prepare us for the upcoming time change and maybe keep things under control around here… fingers are crossed.
We’ve been setting our alarms 15 minutes earlier every Sunday night for the past 2 weeks and getting in bed a tad earlier at night… with the idea that when Daylight Savings Time actually rolls around they won’t have so much trouble with the adjustment… fingers and toes crossed now!
The kids have been a little grumpy the first couple of days of the week with the earlier wake times but it doesn’t last long. We usually head outside first thing in the morning to feed up and that seems to chase the grumpies away… yay! It has been shown that getting some daylight early in your day can help with your circadian rhythm and we already know that fresh air can work wonders.
On the night before the actual change, we always set the clocks ahead to prepare for the next day. Sometimes we do it directly after dinner so they go to bed a little early without realizing what going on… lol.
I will also try to have a ‘light’ school schedule for that first week after the time change so kids can get outside to work those grumpies out or take some naps if they need to. We already have some good routines in place so hopefully, they will help to keep us going on the right track without too many interruptions in the next few weeks.
What are your favorite tips for preparing for Daylight Savings Time?
You can read more about how Daylight Savings Time affects your body and ways to adjust HERE and HERE.
Quick and Easy Life Skills Summer Camp (At Home)
This time of year gets crazy around here, and sometimes I feel like I can’t sign up for one. more. thing! I did however just sign up for these workshops. I can fit them into our school schedule, as we are schooling year-round, to help keep things fun and interesting.
I’m all about the quick and easy. I also think that it might come in handy to have the kids be a little more independent around the house as I am scheduled to be out of commission for a bit toward the end of summer… more on that later.
That’s why I’m loving these 3 video workshops from #LifeSkillsNow summer camp.
- They’re available right NOW!
- I don’t have to wait for anything on my calendar
- They’re super short, about 10 minutes each
- I don’t have to go anywhere!
- Kids ages 5-18 are ALL covered! (When is the last time you saw something online that was a good fit for teens??)
Our 2023-2024 Homeschool Curriculum, Schedule Plans, Resource Links, and Daily Routine
It’s that time of year again for us… time to get the next school year planned out. We finished up our 2022-2023 school year back in April and I’ve been busy gathering supplies and making schedules as I coordinate with everyone for vacations, holidays, and special trips that we have planned.
Last year was a bit of a whirlwind as everyone got readjusted to life at home. We also had another little one join us mid-year and that made things very interesting and kept me on my toes… he will be with us again this year so we can’t wait to see what the year will hold for everyone.
It is SO TEMPTING to take a few months off to just focus on this house but I know from past experience that this doesn’t go well and that it takes FOREVER to get a couple of the kids back into the school routine. You can read more about last year’s curriculum and routines HERE.
We had switched to Living Education Books from Master Books for our Language Arts and Math and we absolutely loved them but I decided to go back to some of our oldies but goodies books that we already had on hand for this year. We still have the Living Books and I may decide to switch back but I really wanted to try to simplify things just a bit. I also found some great workbooks to go along with these older books so I’m curious to see how they work out. If you want to see how we liked our curriculum from last year then check out this post HERE.
One of the biggest changes will be that little Ma’am will be joining us at the table for some of the lessons that she can participate in… she loves school and we try to include her as much as we can. I also have another post with activities that we use for little miss last year.
I’m also super excited to be using more of a Charlotte Mason-style approach this year. It’ll be interesting to see how everything plays out and how the kids react to this new method of learning. You can look up Simply Charlotte Mason on YouTube for lots of helpful information or check out their site for TONS of FREE resources and helpful tips! I’ve recently some more wonderful FREE resources at DonPotter.net.
Note: I’ve had to recently update this post to include this wonderful FREE site of Charlotte Mason-style curriculum lesson plans for grades K-5… go check it out HERE!
We have a wonderful all-in-one printer that we use to make copies of the work so that we can use/reuse the books/materials multiple times which helps to cut down on the cost of books every year. Our old one lasted for several years so we just bought an updated one to replace it. We also try to stock up on school supplies when they go on sale and/or on school tax holidays to help save money. Check out this post for essential supplies.
Please note that it is not necessary to purchase any of these materials to give your child/children a good education. We happen to have a lot of them on hand already and many of these we have been able to find for FREE or discounted prices online or on our local FB groups. You can also find lots of used books on eBay, thrift books, and Amazon. Your local library often has many books on various subjects that you can use for lessons too!
Continue reading “Our 2023-2024 Homeschool Curriculum, Schedule Plans, Resource Links, and Daily Routine”
Bella’s Ultimate Tuna Salad
The girls have been practicing their Home EC skills and we are their Guinea pigs… thankfully most of their experiments turn out well and are pretty tasty.
This is a tuna salad recipe that they had in their lesson but we changed it up a bit to fit our tastes. Ms. Bella took the lead on getting this prepared by checking before school to make sure we had boiled eggs and she set the cream cheese out to soften.
Ms. Caitlyn served up some celery and carrot sticks with homemade ranch dip and some pickles. Some of the kiddos ate it with crackers and others made sandwiches.
Continue reading “Bella’s Ultimate Tuna Salad”
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