Large Family Homeschool Life – January 4-8, 2021

Getting back on track after the holidays with a jump back into the Roman Empire, plus a lot of nostalgic events in this week’s Large Family Homeschool Life!

Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life posts HERE.

Note: I’ve decided for the time being to only record what we are doing Monday – Friday. It makes it easier to read and easier for me to keep track of!

MONDAY

This morning, I woke everyone up at 9am. We are slowly adjusting our post-holiday schedule since bedtime has been late and wake up time has followed suit.

In fact, today is the first day we’ve done school since the week before Christmas. And the entire month before Christmas was “Christmas School,” so there are guaranteed to be a few “rude awakenings” this morning.

LISTEN >> How to Do Christmas School Podcast

I got my 14 year old son started with his new writing lessons from Compass Classroom’s Writing Through the Wardrobe. He is super excited about learning from the works for C.S. Lewis!

My 16 year old daughter also has some new classes. She is taking Economics from Compass Classroom and going through the lessons on DailyGrammar.com to shore up her understanding of grammar. I also have her taking these Home Ec lessons.

During Morning Time, we did lessons from The Homeschool Garden and jumped back into Tapestry of Grace and the Roman Empire. Because we are studying Rome, I decided it would be nice to work through Compass Classroom’s Visual Latin together. (Glad I have a membership to Compass because we use it so much!)

I realized this morning, we are nearing the end of Year 1 of Tapestry of Grace, which means it is time to download Year 2! It’s always exciting to start a new year of learning – even when you don’t follow a traditional school schedule.

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW WE DO TAPESTRY OF GRACE >>

Lunch has been interesting lately…
For about a month, I’ve been following Bright Line Eating as a way to get in healthy, balanced meals and lower my cholesterol. In less than month, I got my cholesterol under control, and I lost 6 pounds. Yay!

The program eliminates flour and sugar from your diet and teaches you to eat portioned amounts with no snacks. While I don’t 100% agree with everything about the program, there are things I really love about it – including NOT using fake sweeteners that avoid teaching our brains to crave sweet. The over-use of stevia was one of my biggest issues with Trim Healthy Mama.

READ >> Doing Trim Healthy Mama Without Stevia

So, for meals, I’ve been working my way through Natalie Aul’s cookbooks, as well as recipes from her Facebook group (submitted by her and others in the No Sugar, No Flour world). It’s exciting to me to learn to eat without all the added sugar, but the recipes are NOT family friendly because of the portioning.

So, I try to make sure the kids are eating a balance of veggies, fruit, grains, fat, and protein, while I follow the specific recipes for myself. It has made cooking a bit of a chore (which happens any time I am following a specific “diet”), so I need to keep thinking through how to do this because the results have been wonderful!

After lunch, my 7 year old was feeling rowdy (he used to be my “busy preschooler“), so I had to sit with him and keep him on track with his school work.

After that, I sent everyone outside into the snow! We started a 1000 Hours Outside chart, so I am really trying to make a concerted effort to get the kids outside and running around each day.

I will say though, as a large family mom, that can be EXHAUSTING. Just the amount of time it takes to get them dressed and undressed to play outside can wear a mama out! I have to psych myself up for the whole affair, but I’m always glad I did!

Dinner was hot dogs and chicken spinach and feta sausages from ALDI (I love these things!), plus a large salad.

That evening, I helped Megan (20) prep for college. She had some paperwork to fill out and books to order. Because she’s transferring in the middle of the year, she ended up getting a room to herself. I had the same thing happen when I transferred in the middle of the year. It’s kind of nice – especially when you are easing in to a new school (and you’re an introvert and like some down time at the end of a long day!).

TUESDAY

Woke up early to Miss Mercy (4) staring at me. Slightly disconcerting.

After I got her dressed and fed, I sat in the living room cuddled up in a blanket with a cup of coffee enjoying what is left of Christmas – the decorations and lights. We’ll be taking the decorations down tomorrow, so I’m soaking up the last little bit.

Christmas went by much too fast this year.

Today, school was all about the Roman Gladiators. We also talked about snow crystals since we still have a bit of snow on the ground. Like Christmas, snow never sticks around long enough for my taste.

I made cauliflower dippers for lunch from Natalie’s cookbook. They were very good!

After lunch, I did some Kindergarten activities with Mercy (4) from a curriculum I used when Blake (22) was little. I have such fond memories of those days with him, and Mercy (like Blake) is eager to learn. She was super excited to “do school!”

That night, Ty and I took Megan out for her last Special Night before she leaves for college. We went to her favorite Tex-Mex restaurant and had a very nice evening together!

WEDNESDAY

This morning for breakfast, I made an absolutely delightful sugar-free, flour free peach cobbler from Natalie’s cookbook! Definitely making that again!

Before the kids gathered at the table for Morning Time, I scrambled to finish writing out the Roman god/Greek god counterpart cards I would be using during school today. That’s how I roll! It was a good lesson, but a bit over the heads of the under-12 crowd.

After a lunch of 4 cans of Chicken Noodle Soup from ALDI, we gathered in the living room to un-decorate Christmas. We played Christmas music and reminisced, but everyone was a little sad during the process. There’s no doubt, we are Christmas people, and are already looking forward to next Christmas season!

Before dinner, I ran out to pick up an Inter-library loan hold I had waiting for me at our library. It was the first book in the series written by the man who teaches Grammar for Writers and Writing Through the Wardrobe for Compass Classroom.

Everything at our library is done via curbside service because of COVID-19. The library hasn’t been fully open since March. I actually appreciate being able to simply drive through to pick up my ILL books.

That evening, we had smoked brisket, potatoes and salad. That was the last of the brisket we bought on such a good deal back in November and had Ty’s dad smoke for us. So yummy!

During the evening hours, I got my podcast on What Large Family Moms Can’t Do ready for release and gave all the little ones baths and washed hair. I also sat down and helped our almost 8 year old plan out his birthday. He wanted LOTS of boxed mac n cheese! He’s so cute!

READ >> How We Do Birthdays in a Large Family

THURSDAY

Continuing with Rome in school this morning, we started reading from Genevieve Foster’s Augustus Caesar’s World. I have enjoyed many of her other books, but NOT this one. I ended up stopping part way through because of how she handles Christianity. It wasn’t Biblically sound, and I didn’t feel like wading through it all with the kids.

After Morning Time, I helped the 7 year old learn to carry numbers and worked with the 6 year old on writing her numbers. She struggles with math concepts, so I had to take a lot of time with her. I had a similar situation with my now 12 year old when he was this age, and he’s doing just fine now, so I know a little patience and time goes a long way.

I worked with the 6 and 4 year old little girls to make an All About Me book just like their older siblings made when they were that age. The cover is a self-portrait and they write their name at the bottom. Next, is an interview page with all their favorite foods and activities, plus a family tree. Finally, is a page with a tracing of their handprint. It’s a fun and easy little keepsake!

It did make me a bit nostalgic, though. These were the last of my kiddos to make one of these books. Sometimes I am awestruck by where I am in life and how these little people all grew up.

That afternoon, I took Micah (12) to get a couple of cavities filled, and later in the evening, I worked through the Herbal Perfumery course I bought on a Black Friday deal.

Herbal Academy has lots of different herbal courses that look super interesting!
CHECK OUT HERBAL ACADEMY HERE >>

FRIDAY

Today is Home Blessing!

I am actually excited about this because it has been 3 weeks since we have FULLY cleaned the house. We’ve only done the bare minimum, and it shows!

I did all the main level floors because last week’s birthday boy took the day off today (read more about why we do this in my post on Large Family Birthdays).

The cleaning took quite a while today, but it looked AMAZING when it was finished!

After cleaning, Ty and our 14 year old son, along with our dog, Kip, headed out for a weekend hunting trip. (In case you are wondering, they didn’t fare so well – the quail and pheasant population are way down this year.)

I spent my afternoon at the grocery store – first, ALDI, where I spent around $275, and then Walmart for a few extras. I did get pork roast and pork chops on sale at ALDI, so that was a nice find.

READ >> My ALDI Grocery Budget & Shopping List (prices have gone up a bit since this post)

Today was Meg’s last day of work at the local coffee shop before heading to college. They did kindly tell her the job would be waiting for her when she came home on break.

So many nostalgic events this week. *sigh*

Melia (16) made pancakes for dinner (or br-inner as some like to call it) because she’s been craving them. So nice to have older kids with cravings!

That evening, I worked on updating some older posts on the blog and did a charcoal mask on my face with the sole intent of scaring the kids. (It worked, by the way!)

Until next week, I leave you with this verse from Ephesians because no matter what went on in the world this week (and there was a lot!), you are blessed if you are in Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

Ephesians 1:3

Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life posts HERE.