Come find out what went on in our large family home and homeschool this week in June!
Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life posts HERE >>
MONDAY
Breakfast on the deck was an omelet & a banana. I got Mercy (4) dressed while Micah (12) made pancakes for all the little kids. His older sister recently taught him how to make pancakes, so when she has leftover batter, he likes to make some for himself and often gets roped into making some for the younger kids.
Morning Time was in the living room. I’ve mentioned before how some of the kids have been complaining about sitting around the dining room table for so long, and while we often move from the dining room to the living room for read aloud time, I decided to see what doing ALL of Morning Time in the living room would be like.
Before moving to this house, we usually did Morning Time in the living room, but back then, Morning Time was MUCH simpler and more pared down.
READ >> Making Morning Time Easy
Now that we do maps and other projects, the dining room became the easier place for me to set up camp. So, today, I gathered all of my supplies and books and my computer and laid things out on the end table next to my chair to see if I could do this.
For GrapeVine Bible time, I was able to share my screen to the Apple TV and draw on the pdf, but it wasn’t super easy and the kids thought my stick figures were even more hilarious than usual. ?
We read in Sound Words Theology, Columbus and Sons, and The Way of the Wilderking, but frankly, I doubt I do Morning Time in the living room again – I’m just too set in my ways at this point.
The kids had soup from Aldi for lunch, and then I took our 15 year old to the dentist to have a cavity filled. When I got home I took some time to help the little kids with school since I had to head to the dentist appointment before I could work with them.
We have been going back and forth between Tapestry of Grace’s Primer and The Peaceful Press’s Guides, so today, we did some fun things from the Mountain Guide, including sewing a Mountain Pillow!
Before dinner, I worked on writing an email for my email subscribers and tidied up my desk.
By the way, you can sign up for my newsletter below:
Dinner was corn on the cob and cucumber salad. It was my 16 year old’s turn to cook and she actually wanted to ONLY have corn on the cob! I talked her into making a pasta salad to go with it.
Mercy didn’t like any of it, so she had cheese. She has to try a bite of everything we have, but for the most part, she rarely eats vegetables or fruit, and it took her a year following her palate surgery to eat meat of any kind. We keep trying to get her to try new things, but it’s not always easy.
READ >> Pierre Robin Sequence and Stickler Syndrome (Mercy’s diagnosis)
That night, I walked 2 miles with my 15 year old son. We discussed the latest book he is writing. His writing is reminiscent of Beatrix Potter – quite whimsical and lovely.
I got the kids ready for bed and then watched TV with the big kids.
TUESDAY
This morning, I went to WW and came home and prepped for the school day.
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We are studying the Age of Exploration, so after GrapeVine and Sound Words, we read in Story of the World (volume 2), learned about how a compass works, and then made constellations on black construction paper using the details from the book The Stars by H.A. Rey.
The kids had so much fun with this simple project!
Afterwards, we read from The Fallacy Detective (the kids are getting really good at pointing out fallacies in every day conversations!) and The Way of the Wilderking.
I did Primer with the little girls. We read stories about Jacob and they colored in their Activity Books. (Review of Primer coming soon!)
My new Epson printer came, so I went right to setting it up! I told my husband who is away on military exercises about the new printer and how he could send files to the printer to be printed remotely by emailing them to the printer’s email address.
Here’s what he sent me…
He’s so silly!
That afternoon my oldest son called and I talked to him for quite a while I sat on the deck. The 15 year old started a fire in the fire pit to burn limbs we cut down last week. It was his night to cook and he had planned hot dogs, so he decided to roast them over the fire pit after he got done with the limbs.
After supper, the 16 year old and I ran out to get her Special Night treats – Bubble Tea and a Cherry Limeade shake. We came home and spent a fun evening in my bedroom watching tv and talking!
WEDNESDAY
It was another omelet-and-banana-on-the-deck morning while I read the latest news on my phone app – none of which was really news. When I came inside my 10 year old asked if I would teach him how to fry an egg in the small cast iron skillet, so he doesn’t have to rely on his 12 year old brother to make it for him.
After that, I looked over the lessons for today for Morning Time, and decided to pare down a few books since I feel like I’ve been trying to fit too much into Morning Time and some of it is redundant. There are so many good books to choose from in Tapestry of Grace that I want to do them ALL and TOG does NOT recommend that (with good reason!).
Now that I think about it…perhaps THIS is why my 10 year complains about how long he has to sit at the dining room table during Morning Time!
I really enjoy how Story of the World tells the story of history, so I decided to keep it as our main history spine and only use the other books if absolutely necessary.
The moral of this homeschooling dilemma is to always be willing to admit to yourself when you are doing too much!
For Morning Time today, we did GrapeVine, Story of the World and This Country of Ours – which is free online.
We also filled out a world map with the voyages of Christopher Columbus, Dias, and de Gama.
We had sandwiches for lunch and the 10 year old made another fried egg for his sandwich. Yay!
I worked with Aspen and Mercy on their workbooks. Aspen had Math, Phonics, and Handwriting. She was so excited because it was her first time writing a Bible verse on the special border pages A Reason for Handwriting provides.
Mercy worked in her Rod & Staff workbook. She’s on Do It Carefully and is doing a fantastic job!
Then I ran down to the mechanic’s to pick up Ty’s truck. It’s been in the shop for a while, but they gave us one of those hybrid gasoline/electric trucks as a loner vehicle. I now know I absolutely do not want one of those! They transition from gas to electric quite often and the transition is anything but smooth.
When I got home, I had a discussion from Tapestry of Grace with my 15 and 16 year old on the Spanish Inquisition, The Faerie Queene, and Machiavelli’s The Prince. Here are the videos I used to supplement our discussion:
This guy has a whole series on The Faerie Queene and he does a really good job of explaining it!
After our discussion, I read in A Season of Love – an Amish novel by Amy Clipston – while Mercy played with her Paw Patrols in the bathroom sink.
Speaking of playing in the sink – ALL of my children have done this and I did it as a child as well. So fun, and a simple way to keep kids occupied!
While I was reading, I fell asleep and managed about a 20 minute nap! I RARELY nap, so I guess I needed it!
When I woke up and got my bearings, I sat down and recorded a podcast on Meal Planning Over the Last 100 Years. This is something that has been on my mind for quite some time, and I hope to write a corresponding post soon as well! It’s all about how meal plans were MUCH simpler for my great-grandmother and grandmother, and even my own mother, and how much we have complicated things in our generation.
I also had time to fit in recording a video for my much neglected YouTube channel. It’s all about how my routine has changed as my kids have gotten older – particularly in the cooking and meal planning area. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE >>
I popped a Spaghetti Casserole into the oven for dinner. It was made from leftover spaghetti we didn’t get used up and put into the freezer as a casserole. Then I took the 15 and 16 year olds to Youth Group where they have dinner and Bible Study during the summer months.
That evening, I planned several weeks of Tapestry of Grace and ordered all the Inter-library loan books I needed along with a few extras from Thriftbooks and Amazon.
Then, I watched YouTube with the big kids and went to bed.
THURSDAY
This morning’s breakfast on the deck was peanut butter and banana toast. Then, I helped Aspen (6) unload the dishwasher and tidy the kitchen. I started a load of laundry before calling the kids to school.
READ >> Large Family Daily Laundry Routine
For Morning Time, we started out with GrapeVine Bible and Charlotte Mason Fine Arts (Renaissance lessons).
READ >> Review of Charlotte Mason Inspired Fine Arts
We read from Story of the World and filled out a chart on explorers of when and where they went. We also filled out a map of their voyages. We finished off Morning Time with The Fallacy Detective and The Way of the Wilderking.
I gave the 10 and 12 year old boys a piano lesson – mom style (which is pretty chill and not professional at all!). Then, the big kids headed to the bee farm for work. I’m thankful Megan (20) is working there with them because she can drive her younger siblings.
That afternoon, I started a load of towels for Micah (12) and then went by the library to pick up inter-library loan holds (8 of them!).
When I came home, I put away laundry and cleaned out the garage refrigerator and freezer while the little kids (12 and under) cleaned up the house before TV time.
READ >> How to Set Screen Time Limits When You Homeschool
By the way, I had Clean Out Refrigerators and Clean Out Freezers on my To-Do List for DAYS and I was never getting around to it. I realized it was too big of a job and I was avoiding it, so I broke it down to just ONE refrigerator (the garage one) and guess what?! I ended up zooming through the refrigerator plus all the freezers in the garage! It really does help to break things down into smaller pieces when you are overwhelmed!
The reason I am cleaning things out is for the Simplified Pantry Module from Simply Convivial. You can join HERE >>
After that, I was feeling inspired to put together a breakfast, but I really should have thought that through because what started out as a simple Baked Oatmeal ended up Baked Oatmeal Surprise!
I *thought* I had enough oatmeal (6 cups), but in reality the weight I was feeling in the container was a measuring cup someone left inside! So…I ended up using what little oatmeal was in there plus EVERY SINGLE packet of instant oatmeal I could find in the house – which turned out to be a lot of different flavors from a variety pack.
This should be interesting…?
After I finished putting together the oatmeal masterpiece, I hard boiled a dozen eggs for Megan’s dinner meal tonight since I knew she wouldn’t have time to do it today. Whenever I hard boil eggs, I put them back in the carton when they are finished and label both sides of the container with “HB” for “Hard Boiled” before putting them back in the refrigerator, so no one is surprised if they were to try to fry one of these eggs!
I took care of some online work and read a bit more in A Season of Love.
The kids came home from work and Megan made avocado and egg sandwiches for dinner. Some of the kids didn’t like it, but I thought it was delicious!
Right after dinner, Kip (our Tri-color French Brittany dog) was eating his dinner and choked and fell down on the floor. It was terrifying! I called Ty, and called the 24 hour vet, and then called Kip’s trainer because this happened one time while he had him. Meanwhile, we prepped the vehicle to take Kip the 25 minute drive to the Pet ER.
Kip’s trainer said after 10 minutes the dog fully recovered, and as we approached that mark, Kip began to perk up. Within a few minutes, he was back to his old self, and I broke down and cried.
Because Kip’s habit of eating too fast had caused this episode, Megan and I rushed out to the local Walmart and bought him what’s called a “slow down bowl.”
When I got home, I took a 1 mile walk with my 10 year old because I needed to expend some of the adrenaline from the evening’s events.
The kids made puppy chow and we spent the evening snacking and watching over Kip, petting him and gushing over what a good doggy he is.
FRIDAY
I talked to Blake (23) for over an hour on the phone this morning. The kids began Home Blessing without me. And then, in the middle of it all, my 20 year old decides to BAKE A CAKE!
Gotta love her and her messes.
For lunch, we had nachos and then I took the kids to work at the bee farm because Megan had to work at the coffee shop.
When I got home, the little kids asked if I would put up a tent in the living room for them. Well, that ended in the boys terrorizing the girls by hiding outside the tent and then jumping out and scaring them, which led to a lot of screaming and crying.
Delightful.
Even though it was the afternoon, I decided to bake the oatmeal from yesterday because I was afraid I would forget it again tomorrow morning if I didn’t do it now. While I waited for it to bake, I finished A Season of Love. It was pretty good!
Around 3pm, a storm came through and it was something else! It got VERY dark (the kids thought it was nighttime) and then the wind blew so hard and it rained so hard that it knocked down trees and signs and things were blowing sideways down the street! The lights kept flickering and the kids were pretty scared, but I just sat and watched it, amazed. I’ve always loved storms!
After the storm passed, I ran out to get the kids from work and them came home and watched some of Lynette Yoder’s YouTube videos. She was raised Amish and is now Mennonite, and her videos are very down to earth and enjoyable.
In the video below, she was making Amish Peanut Butter Spread. I was intrigued because we have some store-bought in our pantry right now from a recent trip to our favorite Amish Bulk Food Store. HOWEVER, I did not realize the Amish add meat, cheese, and sweet pickles to their peanut butter spread sandwiches! I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be able to convince my kids to try that!
BUT, I am going to use her recipe instead of buying it from now on because it is VERY hard to get out the jar. Besides, homemade is ALWAYS better! (The recipe is in the notes of her video.)
Dinner, courtesy of the 15 year old, was crock pot hamburgers and salad. He put them in this morning and they were ready for dinner, and he didn’t have to worry about coming home from work to make a big meal.
I opened some packages from Amazon tonight – NEW BOOKS!
Story of the World (volume 3) – which will be our upcoming history spine – and Tales from Shakespeare – which we’ll be reading from for several weeks during Morning Time.
I rounded out my night by taking a 2 mile walk with my 20 year old daughter. It was super hot and muggy, but we had a good talk. As my husband likes to say: The family that sweats together, sticks together!
Louisa Settlemire says
Wow what a week! My girls and I will occasionally change homeschooling location. During warm summer mornings we sit on the trampoline and do as much school as we can. We even utilize our neighbor’s American Flag for reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Curious to know how the baked oatmeal surprise turned out. Glad your dog turned out okay. I have never heard of that happening to dogs. Like I said, you had quite a week. Thanks for sharing!
Amy says
Now, a trampoline would give me plenty of room to spread out!! The kids ate all the oatmeal, but I don’t think any of them thought it was great.