Large Family Homeschool Life – 11/15/20

Welcome to our Large Family Homeschool Life! This week was our Thanksgiving Homeschool Week! So many great projects and learning opportunities. It was a good distraction since Daddy was TDY with the military this week.

Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life posts HERE.

SUNDAY

Daddy left for a week long military school yesterday, and I ended up with a splitting headache that evening, so rather than traveling to church with everyone, we decided to watch the livestream at home. Our pastor is preaching through the Gospel of Mark, and every single sermon has been powerful.

During the afternoon hours, I finished reading The Hobbit to the children and sent an email to my readers (you can sign up for this private email list HERE).

I made Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs and a broccoli and cauliflower salad for dinner – a nice, simple meal.

I also decided to bring back Family Worship Time at night. We’ve neglected this precious time of Scripture reading and singing for far too long, and I figured this was the perfect time to bring it back since Advent will soon be upon us and I like to do our Advent readings at night.

READ >> Free Advent Devotionals for Children

I decided to read a Scripture and sing a song from my Family Thanksgiving Worship Service each night rather than do the entire thing on Thanksgiving evening. The kids choose several more songs to sing, then we share a blessing from the day and any prayer requests. It makes for a very nice and simple Worship Time.

READ >> Family Worship Time – A Simple Approach

MONDAY

For Thanksgiving School, we did a 15 minute Thanksgiving Music Lesson, made our Family Blessing Tree Craft, and watched a video on how cranberries are grown.

My 19 year old daughter made Shakshuka for lunch. This is one of her favorite meals to make, but she’s never had quite the right spices. Our family was given an Artza Box subscription, and in it was a bottle of Shakshuka Spices! She was so excited!

Artza Box is a subscription this provides an interactive way to get the whole family involved in learning about Israel, the Bible, and its people. The box was full of products from local artisans and businesses, plus information on the theme of the box – Nazareth. Each box follows the path of Christ and shares about the Bible and Israel.

USE CODE: RAISING15 for 15% off your subscription!
ARTZABOX.COM

During the afternoon hours, I recorded the latest episode of the Raising Arrows Podcast -all about color coding your kids items so you can easily keep track of things like notebooks, toothbrushes, cups, and more.

Click the play button to listen!

I also read a bit in a book a friend recommended:

The Coddling of the American Mind

I’ve barely gotten into the book, and already it is resonating so much! This book is not written from a Christian worldview, but it is well worth the read.

Here’s a quote to give you an idea of just how applicable this book is to our current social climate:

“At some schools, a culture of defensive self-censorship seemed to be emerging, partly in response to students who were quick to “call out” or shame others for small things that they deemed to be insensitive – either to the student doing the calling out or to members of a group that the student was standing up for. We called this pattern vindictive protectiveness and argued that such behavior made it more difficult for all students to have open discussion in which they could practice the essential skills of critical thinking and civil disagreement.”

Lukianoff & Haidt. (2018). The Coddling of the American Mind. New York. Penguin Press

For dinner, we had nachos, and the big kids and I watched a couple of episodes of Pride & Prejudice on BritBox (the 1990’s version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle).

Our oldest son bought us a BritBox subscription for Christmas last year so we could watch the classic Doctor Who episodes, but we’ve found many other British shows to enjoy, so we will definitely be renewing our subscription.

TUESDAY

This morning’s Thanksgiving School was a Thanksgiving Tree painting from our You ARE an Artist Clubhouse membership. Aren’t they lovely?! I even got to join in!

The dishwasher repairman came later in the afternoon and magically the dishwasher was working just fine. For 2 weeks we operated without a dishwasher, and suddenly it starts working again. *sigh*

I took a 2 mile walk – it’s been a while since I’ve taken a walk, so it was nice to get out and breathe some fresh air and exert myself.

We finished Pride & Prejudice, had our Family Worship Time, and then settled in for our 7 year old’s Special Night. He wanted a Sonic chili cheese dog, so he and I jumped in the car and headed to the nearest Sonic. On the way, we saw a fox running through a neighbor’s yard! Foxes are such beautiful creatures!

READ >> Creating a “Special Night” for Each Child

WEDNESDAY

Today for Thanksgiving School, we read about the Pilgrims, finished our Thanksgiving Tree paintings, and started these cute toilet paper roll owls.

After lunch, I ran errands with the 5 year old. She wanted to host a tea party for her siblings, so we stopped by the local tea shop and picked out some Organic Raspberry Lemonade Tea for her tea party. She also put together graham crackers with chocolate and sprinkles on top. She’s been making up a lot of recipes lately, and her latest creation was quite yummy!

On the way home, I noticed an estate sale sign on our street, so I grabbed my 16 year old and we headed to the end of the cul-de-sac to check it out. I ended up buying a daybed that looked as if it had never been used, along with an office chair for our computer desk downstairs. My 16 year old bought a filing cabinet to use as a bedside table. She needed more storage, especially with her little sisters sharing her room.

I had to tear the bed down to get it out of the house where the estate sale was held, and then reassemble it at home. I put it together the wrong way the first time, so I had to reassemble it a second time.

By that time, I was hungry and had forgotten to properly plan dinner. I looked through the cupboards and decided stroganoff sounded like a great idea. I haven’t made stroganoff in YEARS! Many of my younger kids had NEVER had it! *gasp*

It was 8:00 by the time we ate, and I totally forgot Family Worship Time until everyone was snuggly in bed. That’s life.

THURSDAY

For breakfast, I’ve been munching on a big pot of oatmeal I made at the beginning of the week. I usually add bananas or apples and some walnuts or pecans. This makes it so that I don’t need sugar or artificial sweetener. I feel like such a grown up!

Thanksgiving School consisted of finishing up our toilet paper roll owls, doing our annual Pilgrim Walk, and watching a bit of American Experience: Pilgrims (free on Amazon Prime Video).

The 14 and 16 year olds worked at the bee farm in the afternoon and my oldest daughter had a shift at a local coffee shop. It’s nice they all have jobs, but we don’t have enough vehicles and drivers to get everyone where they need to be, especially when Daddy isn’t in town to help out. So, I took all of the littles along to drop the middle kids off at the bee farm, and their boss (another homeschool mom) drove them back home that evening.

We did Family Worship Time and then did a quick “general tidy” (how we begin our weekly house cleaning) because we have friends coming on Friday! The kids wanted to knock out as much of the cleaning the night before so they wouldn’t be working when their friends got here.

FRIDAY

This morning, we finished Home Blessing rather quickly since we’d done so much ahead of time. Our friends arrived around 10:30 and they brought lunch – Chicken Alfredo – to share. I also cut up some summer sausage and smoked gouda, and we laid out cut apples.

My friend had brought along most of her kids plus her oldest daughter, who is now married with 2 kids of her own – the oldest of which is Mercy’s age. The kids played and played while we talked and talked. My 16 year old and her friend worked on spray painting the filing cabinet she’d purchased at the estate sale black and aqua. It turned out really cute!

I made Stir & Pour Whole Wheat Bread along with some apple butter for snack time. So easy and yummy. My boys and their friends have formed a literary club much like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein’s Inklings, so they made tea and ate the bread and apple butter while they discussed their latest writings.

After our friends went home, I worked on my grocery list – why, oh why do I keep shopping on Saturdays?! I’m hoping to buy enough this time to change that cycle. I detest shopping on Saturdays!

Thankfully, I had enough forethought to put chicken tenderloins in the crock pot with a fiesta ranch packet and cream cheese. I also cut up our last cucumber and served our last box of raspberries. Definitely time to go shopping when I start scrounging like this!

We had Family Worship Time, and then the kids spent the evening watching movies while I worked on this post and some Black Friday deals for the blog.

SATURDAY

It felt as if the entire day was taken up by grocery shopping. I took my 14 year old son along for the Aldi shop. It took 2 carts and we did not have enough bags. Thankfully, I brought the big van, so I could just lay out everything that didn’t go into bags.

See our BIG VAN TOUR!

The rest of the afternoon, I relaxed as much as possible while the kids played. It was a rainy, dreary day, so it felt like the perfect day to curl up with a book. The highlight of the afternoon were the 4 deer we spotted in our backyard!

That evening, I picked Daddy up from the airport – so thankful to have him home again!

Read more Large Family Homeschool Life posts HERE.