Large Family Homeschool Life – Week 13 of 2022

An in-depth look inside our large family home and homeschool with lots of resources and links!

Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life posts HERE!

MONDAY

This morning, I made coffee, bottled kombucha and brewed another gallon to put up on top of our pantry for another 2 weeks or so.

Last night, I found some parsley in our refrigerator that Megan (21) had purchased accidentally rather than cilantro, and decided to try out the dehydrate setting on my Ninja Foodi Grill.

I purchased these dehydrating racks:

And this is the Ninja I have:

And I know I’ve said this a million times, but I LOVE this appliance! And the dehydrate feature worked perfectly! Can’t wait to try other things!

For Morning Time, we did our usual Quiet Time Bible Study. If you are curious about various ways to do Morning Time (particularly with a large family), check out these resources:

We then read about Sequoyah and the Trail of Tears. We also listened to more Chopin compositions from Music in Our Homeschool, and added a couple of kings to our Wall of Kings and Queens of England and read about them in Our Island Story.

We finished up by reading in Farmer Boy, and then everyone headed off to their individual subjects.

If you need help creating a homeschool schedule that works well and runs by itself, check out my ecourse – Creating a Homeschool Schedule You Love!

I helped Micah with his piano pieces, while Aspen worked on Reading Eggs and Math Seeds (part of the same app). Then, Mercy read to me in her Phonics book. She is so excited to have her very own book to read!

After a lunch of meatloaf sandwiches from the leftover meatloaf we had yesterday when we had friends over for lunch after church, the kids went outside to play in the beautiful sunshine!

I made 3 loaves of bread in the afternoon, and then worked on putting together an emergency kit for our van. I’ve been meaning to do this for MONTHS, but finally got around to putting it all together. I found a low profile plastic bin with a lid and put in bottled water, baling twine (for those of you who don’t know what this is, it is the orange colored twine that goes around hay bales), bright pink duct tape, granola bars, a flashlight, chem sticks (military issue glow sticks), a tool that will cut your seatbelt, break glass, serve as a charging bank and flashlight, and much more that I found at Aldi for $9.99, a LifeStraw that would could literally drink water from a ditch with (you can find these for a good price on Amazon), jumper cables, BleedStop to quickly clot wounds, and a high quality first aid kit we got from Christian Healthcare Ministries.

Amazon arrived today with my clothespins and clothespin bag. A couple of weekends ago when we had friends over, they helped us install this retractable clothesline on our deck, but I needed some sturdy clothespins (DO NOT buy from Walmart!) and a bag to hold them in as I haven’t had a clothesline in nearly a decade!

(You know you’re a grown up when you are excited about a clothesline!)

I started another round of sprouts. I tried a different method a few weeks ago, but ended up not liking it much, so I’m going back to my mason jar and sprouting screen. These are the sprouting seeds and screens I use and like:

For dinner we had hamburger patties and onion rings done in, you guessed it…the Ninja Foodi Grill! (You so have to get one of these!)

That night, I watched Victoria with the big kids on Amazon Prime since that is the time period we are studying.

TUESDAY

Ty is home a little longer on Tuesday mornings, so I often delay school so we can spend time with him. I made coffee, fed my sourdough, rinsed my sprouts, and made cocoa and toast for the kids.

For Morning Time, we decided to do a little extra since Melia has a house cleaning job tomorrow morning and would be missing Morning Time. We did our Quiet Time study, read in Our Island Story about Victoria and added her figure to the Kings and Queens Wall. We also looked at photos of Victorian houses and studied Gothic Revival architecture. We finished up by listening to Chopin, but did not read in Farmer Boy because the big kids needed to head to work.

During the afternoon hours, I washed blankets and hung them on my clothesline. Then, I put away the little girls’ laundry. If you want to know more about how we handle laundry with our large family, read this:

You might also be interested in how we organize our large family closets:

I called all of the grandparents about hotels for Blake’s wedding in just over 2 months! (EEK!) I also got our dog added to our AirBNB for that weekend. Thankfully, we found an entire house that will fit us all and take the dog! Yay!

When Ty got home from work, we took a walk. It was about 70° out, but there’s a storm coming. Afterward, I picked up the kids at work and got gas for $3.59. Then, I picked up a few groceries and Keian’s Special Night food – ice cream and chocolate milk.

For dinner, we had taco salad, air fried carrots and pickle chips. I realized after reading in my Anchored to Health information that I am not getting enough protein in a day, so I really need to be more aware of that!

As the sun was going down, the tornado sirens went off, so we took everyone downstairs, along with shoes, computers and phones, and Mercy’s blankie (can’t forget the “ning-ning”). We were down there for about 20 minutes making sure the threat was over.

For Keian’s Special Night, he watched the 1931 version of Frankenstein. He’s reading the book for school, so he wanted to see the Boris Karloff movie.

WEDNESDAY

Melia (17) had a new cleaning job this morning, so I drove her over to that and then came home and tidied up the kitchen and got breakfast for the littles and myself.

The kids jumped right in to their individual school work since we aren’t doing Morning Time today. It was really weird, and threw me off for the entire day!

I got out some new Apologia Elementary Science books for the little boys. You can see how we manage Science in our homeschool here:

Micah did a bit in Night Zookeeper – the online creative writing program I told you about HERE. He’s the one who needs the most help with his spelling, grammar, and sentence structure, so I am more than happy to let him write away!

For lunch, I had a salad and Greek yogurt with our homemade granola. I may have an addiction to this stuff!

When I took the big kids to work today, I let Melia drive the 12 passenger van since we currently only have a BIG van and a BIG truck and no other vehicle for the kids to drive. It’s proving rather difficult to find a decent 3rd vehicle for them, so I decided it would be better to teach her to handle the bigger vehicles so eventually she can just drive one of them to work.

When I got back home, I did a Anchored to Health workout for the upper body. Wow! I am so out of shape! Then, I made smoothies for the kids and a protein shake for myself for snack time while the kids tidied the living room to prepare for their TV time.

For dinner, we had spaghetti with a homemade sauce I whipped up from crushed tomatoes, garlic, crushed red pepper, and some other seasonings. I also made green beans, and crisped up some garlic bread from the heels and extra bits of bread I throw in the freezer.

After Table Chores, I cut the 3 youngest boys’ hair. So much better! I still need to cut Keian’s (16), but he was at Youth Group, so I couldn’t do it tonight.

That night, all of us snuggled upstairs in Mommy & Daddy’s room and watched movies.

THURSDAY

I made sourdough pancakes for breakfast this morning and put my sourdough back in the refrigerator. Then, I did my A2H workout.

For Morning Time, we did our Bible study, and read in Story of the World about New Zealand. Then, we worked on a map of New Zealand and Australia – something we haven’t done in our homeschool before – and listened to music from New Zealand. We also read in Farmer Boy.

The bigs kids headed off to work with another employee in her car, and I took the time to sit down and plan out our first couple of lessons in Biblioplan since we will be switching over from Tapestry of Grace very soon – more on that decision in a later post.

I passed out new literature books to the kids who were at home, and ordered Interlibrary Loan books – such a lifesaver!

The big kids were gone for dinner, so we had the little bit of venison backstrap we had left in the freezer done up in the Ninja Foodi Grill, along with air fried carrots, and the few boiled red potatoes that needed to be used up. We also had some homemade bread with jelly and the leftover broccoli salad.

That night, I had a live Zoom call with Jamerill’s Family Table Membership, so Ty took the kids upstairs to watch a movie in our bedroom again. When the big kids got home, we watched more Victoria on Amazon Prime.

FRIDAY

Melia left early for work, so she switched over my laundry to the dryer for me before she left since I have a busy morning packing for a weekend trip with Ty, getting groceries for the household (I’m really liking shopping on Fridays so far!), and cleaning the house.

That afternoon, Ty and I left for a weekend trip to brand cattle and move them to pasture and also load up a tractor he is having restored. Busy busy!