Large Family Homeschool Life – Week 11 of 2024

A change in curriculum (again), Creation activities, studying the Bible, and canning projects.

Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life posts!

MONDAY

The time change had me getting up later than usual. It is nice outside and we didn’t run the heater overnight. Any little bit helps to keep the bills down. I actually sleep with the window cracked as long as we are above freezing. I find I sleep better with fresh air in the room.

Last night, I got out all the girls’ Spring and Summer clothes, so Aspen and I worked at putting them all away. She’s become quite a helper since she turned 9!

For breakfast, I had some leftover meatballs in marinara and the kids had a variety of low-sugar cereals.

Yesterday, during church, our pastor mentioned something about head covering, and I was pretty sure I disagreed with him on the point. However, if you were to look at my Bible, you would notice that 1 Corinthians 11 is sorely lacking in markings and notes. You can tell the passages I have studied in depth because they are greatly marked up, but despite having studied 1 Corinthians 11 at various times in my adult life, I obviously didn’t feel like permanently commenting on the pages of my Bible.

So…I decided to do more studying on it. I have a deep respect for Mike Winger and his in-depth handling of topics, so I decided to dive into his nearly 7 hour discussion on the topic of head covering to see if I could come to an understanding that would indeed be worthy of marking up my Bible!

Here is that study, if you care to take the time…

After watching about an hour of the video, I took a break and started Morning Time with the kids. This is a story in and of itself as well…

If you follow these Large Family Homeschool Life posts, you are aware that a few weeks ago, we started a new curriculum – A Year in the Hundred Acre Wood. It is based on Winnie-the-Pooh, and I was super excited about it, but it quickly became apparent it would not be enough for my boys and I needed to make some decisions.

Over the past several years, I feel as if I have done a really good job of doing fun, organic curricula with the younger children. We have done almost everything from The Playful Pioneers, several things from Gentle + Classical, and it all began when we did A Year of Playing Skillfully in 2018.

READ >> Review of a Year of Playing Skillfully

So, in light of that fact, I chose to stop using Hundred Acre Wood and start our next Tapestry of Grace 4 year cycle. It’s the best decision for my 13 and 15 year olds, and the nature of the curriculum is such that there are still age-appropriate activities for the little girls without being entirely focused on them. It integrates all ages really well, and I’m ready to get back to it, so here we go!

See my Tapestry of Grace page for more information!

So, all that to say that Morning Time today was different and it is going to take me a bit to hit my groove with it all. Because we are starting at the beginning of time, I read from the Genesis stories in The Child’s Story Bible.

Then, we did a lesson from Stories of the Resurrection and a PictureSmart lesson for Genesis.

I also started a Creation Book with Mercy (7).

She’s the last of my children to do this Creation Book made from torn construction paper. Every single one of my kids have done this craft over the years, and have also learned the fingerplay to remind them of the order of the days of Creation. Bittersweet.

Next, we talked about Earth’s composition and the kids colored pages that showed the layers of the earth. Then, we read in a magnet book and the kids played with magnets.

To end Morning Time, we read from Winnie-the-Pooh (because I do plan to finish the book even if I’m not doing the curriculum) and The Long Winter.

For lunch, I made myself a salad and the kids finished off the leftovers. Then I helped the little girls with their math, phonics, and handwriting. For handwriting, we are using dry erase boards and markers to learn the proper formation of the letters because this is something they have both struggled with.

My 15 year old is still working on the Unity Game Programming class from CompuScholar, and my 13 year old just started the Web Design class from them. I have really been impressed with these classes, and happy they are taking them as electives.

I started working on planning for several weeks of Tapestry of Grace. I am trying to remember just how I used to set up my notebooks for lessons. Probably ought to watch my own video on the topic!

I also ordered several books I will need from Thriftbooks. This is such a great place to find books you need for school!

Then, a friend stopped by to take me shopping for tile and grout for our basement bathroom. Her husband is doing the tiling work for us, and she has a good eye for design. We chose some blue glass for an accent wall, and a bone color for the grout.

Then, my 19 year old and I loaded up a King size mattress and box springs and a small chest of drawers from our oldest son’s childhood for me to take to him and his wife tomorrow when I go to visit. We have been storing the King mattress in our garage since Ty’s dad passed away and we brought things from his house home with us. Our son and his wife wanted the King mattress, so I’ve been hanging onto it. My 12 passenger Transit can fit the mattress with a few seats taken out, so I decided now was a good time to go for a visit and take the mattress to them!

His 26th birthday was a few weeks ago, so I wanted to go visit him as a birthday present too! I try to get around to visiting all of my adult children, even when my husband can’t make it due to military exercises.

For dinner, I made blackened chicken tacos and corn. After dinner and Table Chores, the kids played across the creek in the “back-back” as they call it. When they came back in, they spent the rest of the evening crafting and making hot glue creations while I spent more time listening to Mike Winger.

TUESDAY

Before heading out of my road trip to my oldest son’s house, I stopped at the post office, the bank, and grabbed gas that cost entirely too much! While I drove, I listened to more of the incredibly long Mike Winger video on headcovering.

I got to Blake’s house around 1:30pm and we unloaded the mattress and chatted until his wife came home from teaching 6th grade English and Social Studies. We went to dinner at their favorite gastro-pub in a nearby city. When we got back to their house, we all stayed up late talking, and then Blake and I watched a glass blowing competition, until I zonked out on their couch.

WEDNESDAY

For breakfast, I totally broke Lent and had a cup of coffee and a piece of my daughter-in-law’s amazing cake. She is a talented baker and made her own wedding cake as well as our other son’s wedding cake. I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to have some of her delicious cake! And my darling son really wanted to grind me some of his favorite coffee, so we could enjoy it together. I decided these were good reasons for breaking Lent because they were opportunities to relish in God’s creation and the company of my son and his wife. Lent is not a rule for us, but rather an opportunity to draw closer to the Lord. So, I shared this time with my son and his wife without guilt.

Blake and I spent the rest of the morning solving the world’s problems and looking at his techie toys – much like I would oooh and ahhh over his toys when he would show them to me as a little boy! Then, I headed back home, listening to the end of the Mike Winger headcovering discussion!

By the time I got home, the kids had had dinner already, so I made a quick dinner for myself and they played outside with friends. Then, they came inside and played a board game together while I published a podcast and YouTube video and did some menu planning. I also recorded a new podcast and sent it off to my oldest son to have him edit it.

As evening fell, it began to storm, so I let the kids watch a movie to take their minds off the rain and hail and wind. I also made them some Cheesecake Berry Crunch from Trim Healthy Mama. The recipe calls for stevia, but I just put frozen mixed berries, walnuts, and cream cheese in a food processor, and blend it all up. No need for stevia at all!

THURSDAY

The creek in the back yard was up this morning because of the rains last night. A repairman came to work on Ty’s LaZBoy recliner to take the squeak out of it. This is the second time we’ve had someone out to fix it. Hopefully, it works this time!

I am trying something new today with school – teaching the little girls BEFORE Morning Time. The boys started their independent school work and I worked with the little girls on their math, phonics, and handwriting. I also think I will add in reading from the Story Bible because the boys are reading Genesis on their own, but the girls are not quite adept at reading for that.

For Morning Time, we did PictureSmart and worked on the Days of Creation Fingerplay. Mercy also worked on her Creation Book.

We did some mapwork with a map of Mesopotamia. We labeled the rivers and talked about where the Garden in Eden might have been. Then I read to the kids in The Long Winter. The boys only had a little bit of school to finish up, and the girls were completely finished, so I think I like this arrangement! Now to make sure I REMEMBER to teach them first. It will take a bit to retrain my brain! It’s been years of me doing Morning Time first!

In other news, my husband bought a Humvee! He’s been wanting something to take over mountain passes and trails that require a 4×4. There are many of these trails the children and I have never been on because we haven’t had a vehicle that could handle it. Ty got on a government auction site and found one in really good condition for a good price, so we are now the proud owners of a military humvee! What a hoot!

After lunch, I had a hair appointment and just piddled around the rest of the afternoon. For dinner, I made O’Brien potatoes and Buffalo Chicken Meatballs. Then, my 19 year old daughter headed out to Young Adults at our church’s headquarters. I sent a coffee maker with her because we are trying to make the headquarters feel more homey with furniture and other things, and I had a coffee maker just taking up space in the garage.

Our church is a Calvary Chapel church plant and we don’t have an actual church building. We meet in a community center on Sunday mornings, but we did just recently start renting a space in a strip mall to use as a “headquarters.” We have our Wednesday night meetings there and our pastor offices out of there. It’s also where we house all of our equipment. I know everyone wishes we had a church building, but we are waiting on the Lord to provide, and so far, He hasn’t.

Meanwhile, back at home, I read in One Second After – a fictional account of what would happen if an EMP affected the United States. I heard about it on a YouTube video and thought it would be an interesting read.

I also worked on my grocery list and purchased a few things from Amazon while I listened to a homemaking podcast from Simply Convivial and watched a couple of old Twilight Zone episodes referenced in One Second After. (Now, you know just how much I rabbit trail!)

FRIDAY

Finished up my laundry this morning. I’ve been using Zum Frankincense and Myrrh laundry detergent for my clothes only. It is terribly expensive, but, boy do they smell lovely!

I made myself some eggs for breakfast and ate on the deck because the weather is beautiful! While out there, I jotted down some plans for preserving a few things from my freezer. I’ve had cherries and sandhill plums in the freezer since last August that need to be made into jelly.

Get my Sandhill Plum Jelly recipe!

Then, I took a call from Reading Horizons to walk me through their online phonics program. I am SUPER impressed by it! I wanted to take a look at it, so I could offer my readers an online option for phonics that would help those of you who don’t have the time or energy to teach your little ones, but still want to know they are learning to read and not just playing games and wasting time. I definitely think this could be a good fit! My girls are going through it right now, and I like what I’m seeing!

After I finished with the phone call, we started Home Blessing and I loaded up stuff to take to the thrift store. I haven’t been in a while, and had several bags worth of stuff!

After lunch, I did a podcast interview with Christian from the Family Discipleship Podcast. We talked about how we do our Monthly Family Meetings and how that has made me a better mom. The episode should come out the end of April.

After the interview, I made salsa from the tomatoes and peppers in my freezer. I had a couple of quarts of whole tomatoes a friend had canned, and some peppers from another friend’s garden, plus a few random tomatoes I didn’t have time to work with last season that I had popped into the freezer, skins and all. I chopped everything up and used the salsa recipe from my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

Then, I processed them in my water bath canner and set them out to cool. Tomorrow, I’ll use the same water to process my jelly.

That evening, my 19 year old and I went grocery shopping at Aldi and Walmart to restock our shelves. I’m always thankful when she can go along with me because it lightens my load and make the trip fun!