Garden starts, closet cleanouts, pantry organization, and more made this quite a productive week in our homeschool!
Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life posts HERE!
MONDAY
Today is another birthday! This time it’s the 16 year old!
I made some small whole wheat biscuits for breakfast to use up some jellies and lemon curd from the refrigerator. Keian hadn’t chosen a breakfast for his birthday, but he loves biscuits, so it was a good fit!
I moved my sprouts from the jar to sprouting trays and sprayed them with my little spray bottle. It won’t be long before we’ll be able to eat them!
For Morning Time, Keian decided to sit in on the lessons so he’s not behind, but we do give the birthday child the day off if they like. We did our Obey Bible Study, then read From Colonies to Country. When we started reading in The Borrowers, Keian left because he’s not fond of the book. Perhaps it is too slow in action.
For lunch, I made Cuban sandwiches – a family favorite and Keian’s pick for lunch!
We also had Caesar Salad and Aspen finished off a jar of homemade applesauce we were needing to use up.
I bottled kombucha after lunch and started a new batch. I’ve brewed kombucha off and on for nearly 15 years now. We always slow down on drinking it in the winter, I should probably brew it in a smaller container during the winter months.
I noticed the box of Panettone bread we bought at Christmastime and decided to make Panettone Bread Pudding. It’s Ty’s recipe, and he usually makes it, but we didn’t get around to it this season, so I made it for snack time today.
After it came out of the oven, I took a walk and then came home and cleaned up the kitchen and worked on last week’s Large Family Homeschool Life post.
Keian had a friend over to airsoft with him and his brothers. They ran around in the open area across the creek for hours! Blake (23) was an avid airsofter and even had an entire airsoft website, so he let the boys use a lot of his old stuff!
When Ty got home from work, Keian, Ty and I ran out to return an Amazon package, pick up Keian’s ice cream cake, and the Chicago style pizza we ordered from a local shop. It’s not Giordano’s, but we still like it.
TUESDAY
This morning, I pulled out some breakfast foods and set them on the counter and made coffee and tea and washed my hair before the children came down. Then I watered the microgreens and my herb starts.
For Morning Time , we did our Obey Bible Study together. Then, we talked about scams because I had received a fraudulent trademark letter and Ty thought it would be good to teach the kids how to check if something is a scam. I showed them how the fake company had a URL very near the real URL for the trademark department of the US government, and how they wanted me to send money to “renew” my Raising Arrows® trademark.
Then, we read about the branches of government and the Constitution in From Colonies to Country.
After finishing up Morning Time with The Borrowers, I helped the girls with some skip counting. I also helped Melia (17) get started with her new Consumer Math from abeka. We realized Dave Ramsey’s Foundations course was not going to be enough to count as a math class. So far, I really like the abeka book!
I ate a leftover Cuban from yesterday and then Keian and Melia and I headed to a nearby town to a thrift store they like. This was a request from Keian for his birthday, but I didn’t have time to do it yesterday. We found some really great items!
On the way home, Blake called and told me about his quarterly review for his new job. It turned out really well! We are all very proud of him!
I also stopped at Walmart to get an assortment of candy for Garin’s Special Night.
When I got home, there was an Amazon package waiting for me. I had ordered shoes I hoped would work well for Blake’s wedding, but they definitely aren’t comfortable enough for me to be on my feet all day. Gone are the days of me wearing uncomfortable shoes just because they look cute!
That night, a friend picked me up for a Women’s Bible Study she had invited me to. We are studying 1 John. The lesson and fellowship were great! I am looking forward to going again!
WEDNESDAY
I got up and started a load of laundry for Ty and I. Tomorrow is actually our day, but because our oldest son and his fiancee were here this weeked, we are VERY off on our laundry rotation.
If you are trying to figure out your own Large Family Laundry Routine << READ THIS!
After doing our Bible Study for Morning Time, we read in Story of the World about our new nation and George Washington. We haven’t read in SOTW for a very long time!
We made a George Washington index card and colored a Delaware flag using resources from our Productive Homeschooling membership. This site has tons of notebooking resources and other things that fall in line with a Charlotte Mason homeschool experience. Definitely work looking at!
We started reading a new book from the Story of US series – A New Nation.
We also listened to Mozart symphonies from our Music Appreciation course. So glad I have this resource to help add a bit of Fine Arts to our Morning Time!
I started reading in the Getting Started Guide of our new Nature Study membership that uses the Handbook of Nature Study. You know…that HUGE book that everyone tells you you NEED for homeschooling, but then you never actually use it?!
It’s so awesome to have this resource available so we can ACTUALLY use this book! I’m really looking forward to the lessons this Spring!
CLICK HERE FOR A FREE COPY OF THE GETTING STARTED GUIDE!
I also printed off the next pages needed for the little girls’ handwriting. They are doing a program I purchased online that uses several different kinesthetic methods to teach handwriting skills. The reason I am using this is because Mercy in particular tends to make her letters using rather “unconventional” ways. I want her to learn how to write her letters properly before it gets too solidified in her mind the wrong way!
And oh goodie! The microgreens are ready to eat! We’ve been munching on them all day right off the tray! The kids love them!
After lunch, I took the big kids to work at the bee farm, then came home and switched over my laundry to the dryer and started the next load.
After that, I decided to work on a project I’ve had on the backburner for a while…rearranging the pantries. The 7 and 9 year old helped me because they are looking to make some money for some things they want to buy.
I wanted to bring the garage pantry items into the house and put them in the laundry room pantry so mice will be less likely to get into it. We’ve never had an issue with this, but I had a friend who was telling me she did have problems at her house, so I got a little twitchy about it.
The laundry room pantry contained mostly pasta and we rarely eat pasta, so I wanted to move those to the downstairs pantry and put the items we use more often near our main pantry in the kitchen. My helpers helped me get all of this moved and then we organized the larder downstairs and put away this week’s groceries which had been sitting there since Sunday!
After we got those put away, they helped me sort some other food items we have stored down there. It’s been a mess for quite a while, so it was really nice to have the help getting it sorted!
I put away the first load of laundry in my bedroom, then I filmed a couple of YouTube videos. I haven’t been able to film a full video in a couple of weeks due to a busy schedule, so it was nice to find some time to do that.
For dinner, I made sausage and potatoes sheet pan with banana peppers. I also roasted some spaghetti squash I bought several weeks back.
That night, I started my mung beans in a jar and then watched this video on 15 Medicinal Herbs you should grow and got some more ideas for my deck garden.
THURSDAY
This morning, I rocked my great big 9 year old boy while I drank some coffee. He was needing some mama-time, and even though he’s HUGE now, I still try to rock my babies until they are taller than me.
For Morning Time, we did our Bible Study, read about George Washington’s presidency, colored the Pennsylvania flag, listened to some of Mozart’s concertos, and finished The Borrowers!
Aspen also finished a Phonics book today! She is reading so well! She did struggle a bit through her handwriting today, but I think it was because she was tired from reading her phonics book.
The kids made ramen noodles for lunch, and the big kids and I went up to my room to watch the first part of Sense and Sensibility on Britbox. It was a school assignment from Tapestry of Grace.
During the afternoon hours, I worked on planning the first few weeks of Tapestry of Grace Year 3 since we are getting close to finishing Year 2!
The little kids (ages 5, 7, & 9) called me down to go through their “walk through zoo.” They had set up several of their stuffed animals around the living room in a makeshift zoo, and as the 9 and 5 year olds walked me through the “zoo,” the 7 year old stood just outside the door making all the animal noises! It was adorable!
After that, I started cleaning out my closet as per the Outfit Formulas instructions. I made a pile of clothes for my 17 year old daughter to look through since we wear the same size. And if there are things she doesn’t want, I’ll put them on the 21 year old’s bed so she can look through them when she’s back home over Spring Break because we are also the same size. It’s nice to be able to share clothes with my girls!
For dinner, Melia made chili using some elk burger I thawed earlier in the week. She also made cake cornbread. And we fried up some pickle chips in our Ninja air fryer/grill. I think I’ve told you before how much I love this thing!
Once the Table Chores were done, Ty watched Father Brown with the kids while the older kids and I finished up Sense and Sensibility. While we watched, I taught Melia (17) how to crochet so she could make a small blanket for her miniatures project.
FRIDAY
I rinsed the mung beans and set them in the sun. They are nice and plump and starting to sprout!
We started our Friday chores a bit early with a whole house tidy followed by everyone doing their assigned chores, except for washing windows and doors since it is still too cold for that.
Afterward, I took the big kids to work and talked to their boss about doing a makeshift CSA with her since she already grows quite a bit for Farmer’s Market and my kids work there and my other kids are more than happy to help out too. We just don’t have a place for a garden other than the deck, so it would be nice to have a bit more produce.
She said this must be a God thing since she was already considering this, so we’ll see where it goes! I’m excited!
Once home, I decided to make some bread. It turned out so yummy! I’ll bag up one of the loaves to take with us on our trip this weekend as an easy breakfast.
We are going on an overnight trip this weekend, so I packed up all the little kids’ stuff with their help and then washed my hair and changed out my Dashing Diva gloss nail stickers.
We ate leftovers for dinner and then I ran everyone through showers and baths so they could be squeaky clean for our trip tomorrow!
I am really looking forward to getting away for the weekend!
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