Sunday, January 30, 2011

Homeschooling and Home Keeping


I got asked about my house cleaning schedule so thought I would share it with everyone!

Homeschooling takes up a good majority of our time. Not necessarily the sit down work book part of it, but the running to various field trips, the library, and so on. Then there is the boring stuff that has to be done, like grocery shopping and other errands. I am mostly a fly by the seat of my pants kind of gal, but I did find out that with out at least a basic outline of what I needed to get done and when, my house quickly suffered. Here is our basic schedule and a few tips I have for preventing burn out:

My House Work Schedule:

Monday: This is a preschool day so I keep this day light.

Throw in a load of laundry. I used to do all of it on Monday but it just overwhelmed me! I would end up with a mountain to fold and it was so depressing. Doing one load a day keeps it at bay and is much easier to manage.

Menu Plan. I stay one week ahead on this most of the time so this plan will be for next week. If you are just starting with menu planning then I suggest doing two weeks the first time. Trust me that this is one of the single most important things in my home management. Without a menu plan I am all over the place while I grocery shop and at meal times!

Bathrooms. Scrub 'em down.

Tuesday: This looks heavy but the family room and the formal dining are actually two of our cleanest rooms in the house.

One load of laundry

Kitchen/Breakfast room including moping floors

Downstairs family room

Formal Dining

Wednesday: Preschool and church day so another light day

One load of laundry

Master Bedroom

Vacuum all downstairs carpets

Thursday:

One load of laundry

Kitchen/Breakfast including floors

Dining room

Bathrooms

Friday:

One load of laundry

Upstairs floors and general cleaning

Weekend: I quick tidy, grocery store and relax!

I do maintain certain things such as the dishes daily and the kids are required to keep upstairs clean since that is their "domain". Of course they are also required to clean any messes they make downstairs.

That is my basic schedule. Now here are a few tips:

1. Don't try to do it all at once. I find I get more done and don't lose momentum if I clean in short 30 minute sessions with 15 minute breaks in between.

2. Engage the kids! Even my 2 year old helps with the cleaning. He loves to take a wet rag and wipe down base boards. Is it perfect? No, but it teaches him that we work together as a family to keep our house clean. The girls have gained more responsibility as they have gotten older. If they do all that they are asked without procrastinating they may spend a total of an hour each day helping to maintain the house.

3. Don't fret if it doesn't all get done. I have a priority list I work off of. I asked my husband what the most important things to him were and I focus on those first thing. If nothing else gets done those few things do. For us it is the dishes and the tile floors being swept. It may be different in your house.


My house isn't always perfect and sometimes it feels like a never ending battle that I am just not going to win. When that starts to happen, I stop, say a quick prayer and remember how blessed I am to have a home and a family to take care of. Sometimes, the flesh wins and I am lazy or I do it begrudgingly, but the Lord is always there to remind me how blessed I am and to re-energize me when I need it or sometimes just to give me a swift kick in the tail!

Monday, January 24, 2011

What MM Preschool has been doing in a Typical Day

I thought it might be fun to share what we do in a typical day! If you like what you see and are interested in Enrolling feel free to contact me at molder.anna@gmail.com.

Here is what a typical day looks like for us:

8:30-9:00 Drop off/Center Time (sometimes this goes a bit over depending on when everyone arrives)

9:00-9:30 Pledge, Bible Story, and Song time

9:30-10:00 Circle Time #1
During this time we work on our counting, colors, shapes, ABC's in English and ASL, right hand and left hand recognition and spacial awareness (up, down, over, under)

10:00-10:30 Center Time
May include organized play time or directed playtime. Could also include things like playdoh or other sensory activities.

10:30-11:00 Worksheet Time.
This is usually themed. This month our theme is Humpty Dumpty. We learn rhyming, letters, counting, sequencing, colors, shapes, reading comprehension, hand eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills, and much more through these themed activities. Theme changes about 1 time per month.


11:00-11:30 Calendar Time
During this time we go over the days of the week, months of the years and seasons. We will talk about today in relationship to yesterday and tomorrow and we also note the weather for the day.

11:30-12:00 Lunch

12:00-12:30 Centers or outside time depending on the weather

12:30-1:00 Story Time
For January through about March we will be reading all about community helpers. This changes just depending on how long a particular theme lasts us.

1:30-1:15 Free Play/Centers

1:15-1:30 Clean up and and look at books until we go home

So there is our day! Lots of learning mixed with lots of down time and free play. The short "learning" times mean that the kids stay focused and just about the time that they are starting to get squirmy it is time to get up and play!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Make your own Rock Candy


It's a classic candy we all grew up with, it's Rock Candy. A stick full of pure sugar, and oh so fun to eat. Well, if you are going to eat it, you might as well make it educational so here is a fun recipe for making your very own rock candy and some resources to help you find out the science behind this fun treat.

Materials:

String or a wooden skewer
1 cup of water
1 clothes peg
1 tall narrow jar or cup
food coloring (optional)

Procedure:

1. Clip the clothes peg to your skewer, set it in the empty class jar/cup and make sure it sits about 1 inch above the bottom of the class, and set aside.

2. Pour your water into a pan and bring to a boil, pour in sugar about 1/4 cup at a time until it has dissolved. It may take a while so be patient! Pull of heat and let sit for about 2o minutes. Put in food coloring if you want colored rock candy. You will want it to be pretty dark so that it will show up in the candy.

3. Carefully pour into jar and place skewer inside. Be sure that it doesn't touch the sides or the bottom. Put jar where it will not be disturbed.

4. Wait. In about a week you will begin to see crystals forming!

Want to know the why behind the activity? Visit here to find out why the candy crystals grow.
For more information on sugar and crystals visit Science of Candy.


Thursday, January 20, 2011

Zaycon Foods Giveaway Winners!


I have randomly drawn the winners and they are:


Ecclesia W.

Stephanie R. (not Rector for those of you who know me!)


Congrats to those who won but don't worry! Even if you didnt win you can still order your farm fresh, hormone and additive free chicken for just $1.49 per pound until January 24th! Yes, I wrote that right; the date has been extended! They have also managed to secure two more locations for Arlington and Lewisville if you are in those areas!


Ending Zaycon Foods Giveaway a Day Early!


After realizing that I was drawing the same day as the order cut off I have decided to draw a winner today for the Zaycon Foods Giveaway. I want to be sure to give you all a chance to order if you don't win! So if you haven't entered head on over for a chance to win 40lbs of farm fresh hormone and additive free chicken or a $35 gift card to your local grocery store! I will draw the winner tonight at 8pm central!



Sunday, January 16, 2011

Disney World Here We Come!!

magicalkingdoms.com Ticker


A little off topic today, but figured I needed a bit of light conversation.

We have booked and put down the deposit on our September 2011 Disney World vacation!!

We don't get to do this often so we splurge when we do. This year we took part in the free dining plan option and upgraded it to the deluxe plan. Call me crazy, but tonight I started planning our dining experiences!

Actually, this does take a bit of coordination. Because the parks have extended hours on certain days, we like to be sure to be in the specific days they are extended. This means that we have to plan where we are going to eat so that we are in the correct park on the correct day. Did you get that? Me either. Anyways, they don't actually release the extended hours until 180 days in advance, but because reservations for certain experiences book up fast you have to know what you need to book so that you don't miss out.

We are staying 7 nights 8 days (including our arrival and departure day) I have planned for 6 full days and left a few extra credits for whatever we need to do on the arrival and departure days. So here is my tentative plan for this trip!

Magic Kingdom- I planned for 3 days here so that we can take the park at a more leisurely pace. I have three kids ya know!

Day 1:
Breakfast-Chef Mickey
Lunch-The Plaza
Dinner: Tony's

Day 2:
Breakfast-Ohana with Lilo and Stitch
Lunch-Liberty Tree
Dinner-Cinderella's Castle (requires 2 credits)

Day 3:
Breakfast: Snack
Lunch:Mid-morning meal at Crystal Palace with the Princesses
Dinner: California Grill (may try to sneak this one with just the hubs. Requires 2 credits)

Epcot-We actually went home early last time so I am assuming we will have more time to eat since most of the rides are geared towards teens and adults.

Breakfast-Akershus with the Princesses
Lunch- The Garden Grill with Chip and Dale
Dinner-Rose and Crown

Hollywood-The eating here was slim

Breakfast-Supercalifragalistic Breakfast
Lunch- Hollywood and Vine
Dinner-Hollywood and Vine with Fantasmic

Animal Kingdom-Im having two of our TS meals swapped for quick service here.

Breakfast-Tusker House
Lunch-Resturauntasaurus
Dinner-Flame Tree

That leaves everyone 2 snack credits per day plus 2 table services to use either on our arrival day or departure day.

I am so excited. Can you tell?!

Friday, January 14, 2011

What to do with all that Chicken?


40lbs of chicken is ALOT of chicken and I was surprised when I was asked to review and giveaway some from Zaycon Foods. Thankfully I had purchased a Food Saver around Christmas when they were running some sales, but I still had to decide what to do with it all!

After a bit of thought this is what I did with our chicken:

10lbs was frozen whole. We used some of it at our Campfire Cookout with grandpa and grandma and the rest we probably end up grilling it or using it for soup. I think next time I will do something more exciting with it though.

10lbs was made into homemade chicken nuggets, baked not fried. This is a wonderful alternative to that mechanically separated chicken that is in your store bought bags.

10lbs was marinated in fajita marinade.

10lbs was done as Rosemary Garlic Chicken.

That was it! So tell me what you would do with your 40lbs of chicken if you won and then head over to my Zaycon Foods Giveaway for a chance to win 40lbs of farm fresh hormone and additive free chicken or a $35 gift card to your local grocer!