Large Family Homeschool Life – Week 24 of 2021

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

Had an omelet on the deck while I read the news. Then I took Megan to work at the coffee shop since her vehicle has a taillight out. On the way home, I stopped by the library to pick up an inter-library loan hold.

For Morning Time, we did GrapeVine Bible, and introduced the kids to our new week in Tapestry of Grace – all about the Aztec and Incan civilizations of the 1500’s. In the process, I discovered someone had used my Encyclopedia of The Ancient Americas to press flowers and there were holes of mold all the way through the book! ACK! Guess I won’t be using that book.

Instead, I read from Story of the World and showed the kids pictures on the internet of what Tenoctitlan might have looked like. (This lesson was absolutely fascinating!)

We also labeled a Tapestry of Grace map of Central and South America and listened to music from Central and South America from Music in Our Homeschool’s World Music for Elementary.

By the way, this World Music class is PHENOMENAL! We use it every time we learn about a new culture so the kids get an idea of what the music is like in that geographical region. Such a great asset to our homeschool!

We read The Winter’s Tale from Tales from Shakespeare. I’m not yet sure how I like this book. It is fairly wordy and a bit difficult for the kids to follow. I’m not interested in giving them a full Shakespeare class (I use MIOH’s 10 Weeks of Shakespeare for that), so I’m looking more for an engaging storyline. We will be reading Shakespeare for several weeks, so I need to decide on a book that works well for us.

READ >> A Shakespeare Class Your Kids Will Actually Understand!

I had a salad for lunch and then worked with the little kids on Phonics and Math and Mercy’s ABC books.

Then, I made a cup of coffee and went to my bedroom to work on last week’s Weekly Homeschool Life post. I never seem to get these written up before the weekend is out.

The kids followed me up to my bedroom and we ended up talking and telling stories from when they were babies – favorite blankets and toys – plus, how some of their baby things were ruined in a flood in our garage a few years ago – which was very sad for all of us.

I picked Megan up from work. She had made me a Skinny Cinnamon Roll Latte that was delicious (almond milk, skinny vanilla syrup, and cinnamon)! I also noticed I had an email saying I had more holds at the library (that will teach me to go to the library early in the morning before they send emails out for the day!). So, I swung by the library again. The books on hold included Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed the World and The Kings and Queens of England and Scotland.

I also grabbed the mail when I got back home and found a Shakespeare coloring book from Thriftbooks in the mail! This will be so much fun to use alongside our Shakespeare readings!

Thriftbooks often has a better price than other sites. Check out their site HERE >>

I worked on my weekly homeschool post some more, along with podcast show notes and my emails! PHEW!

Then, I did a quick Aldi shop!

READ >> ALDI Shopping List and Grocery Budget for a Large Family

Supper was salisbury steak and peas courtesy of my 16 year old. After supper, I walked 2 miles around the neighborhood.

Meg had some friends from work over for the evening. One of them had a bad breakup with a boyfriend and the other one is moving to Japan with her family soon, so Megan made them their favorite treats – chocolate covered strawberries and angel food cake.

Ty FaceTimed me after he got done with his work day and walked Keian (15) and I through some household repairs – some of which will just have to wait until he returns on Wednesday.

That night, I literally fell into bed exhausted!

TUESDAY

Took Megan to work and then went to WW. I’m down 1.6#!

I came home and tidied a bit and realized the 15 year old wasn’t up yet! He would say he was doing the “teenage thing” – which is code for sleeping in the middle of the day or sleeping in. I got him up and called everyone to school.

Morning Time was GrapeVine Bible and more South American music. We also labeled the Amazon River, the Galapagos, and the Falkland Islands on our maps. The kids were so interested in the Galapagos, I quickly found a YouTube video on the turtles that live there for them to watch.

We read more in Tales from Shakespeare and colored a page from our new Shakespeare Coloring Book. We also read in The Fallacy Detective and The Way of the Wilderking. We are really wondering how the Wilderking trilogy is going to end!

I took my lunch in my bedroom because I needed a recharge after my busy morning. I do this often and it is just enough time to feel ready to get back at things.

After lunch, the kids did their independent school work, except the 16 year old who nearly always gets her work done before Morning Time. She is very motivated to finish school and do real world things.

My 10 year old came to me with complaints of the Simplex Spelling app being too difficult for him. I realized he was on the last version of the app – Simplex Advanced – and it truly was too hard for him. He’s a good speller, but I don’t expect him to be spelling high school and college words!

I also did Tapestry of Grace Primer with the 4, 6, and 8 year olds during the early afternoon hours.

READ >> Review of Tapestry of Grace Primer

Then I took the Creed (8) with me to pick up Megan from work. He wanted to buy his own caramel blended drink. Like a sweet brother, he ended up sharing his drink with his siblings when he got home.

I had noticed he seemed to be needing a little more one on one time with me. He’s always been a really busy kid and gets even busier when he needs some time with me or his dad.

READ >> Occupying a Busy Preschooler (includes Creed’s schedule from when he was about 4 years old)

We stopped by the library on our way home and dropped off some books we were finished with AND picked up another hold!

The kids tidied the house and I helped the 15 year old with an artisan olive bread for the dinner he is making tonight.

While he cooked, I worked on my Tapestry of Grace Primer Review and some emails.

Keian rang the bell for dinner (read about our dinner bell!) and we enjoyed a yummy meal of olive bread and fettuccini alfredo!

It was Megan’s Special Night, much to the dismay of the younger kids who don’t like the fact that she is back in the rotation and it will be a week longer before they get their Special Nights. Oh well, Megan is special too!

WEDNESDAY

I went for a short walk this morning and saw an estate sale in our neighborhood, so I stopped by and found a really nice La-Z-Boy recliner exactly like I’ve been wanting! I prefer La-Z-Boys because you can lean back without putting the recliner mechanism up. It is most comfortable for me to sit cross-legged and lean back a bit, so I was super excited to find a chair like this at such a great price! I texted Ty while he was on the road back home from military training and he said, “Get it!” So, my 12 year old helped me haul it across the street to our house.

When the older kids found out there was an estate sale, they begged me to take them, so I took the 15 and 16 year old over and they found a couple of things as well.

When we got home, we had Morning Time. We did GrapeVine, more South American Music, read The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Fallacy Detective, and The Way of the Wilderking.

Then, I ran Megan to work – I will be so thankful when Ty gets back and fixes her taillight so she can go to work on her own!

When I got home, I helped the boys put together the Lego watches they bought off of ebay. They are a discontinued product, but the boys really wanted to have them. All of the watches need batteries, so I’ll have to pick those up on my next grocery shop.

Later, I helped Aspen on her workbooks because she forgot to do them during Morning Time, and then I put on new nail stickers from Dashing Diva. I am really liking these and they look great for a couple of weeks with all the large family mama activities I have going on! I even bought a 4th of July set!

Blake (23) called and wanted to talk about different household goods he might buy plus our plans for the State Fair. He wants to take his girlfriend to the Fair and wanted to know when we would be there.

While I talked to him, I curled my hair and did my makeup because Ty texted to say he was almost back and I would need to pick him up from the military training complex. I wanted to look super cute for him!

After picking Ty up, we decided to kill time until Megan got off work so we could just pick her up before going home. We ended up stopping by the Farmer’s Market and buying some tomatoes, new potatoes, zucchini, and soap.

After picking Megan up from work, we came home to a meal cooked by our 16 year old – crescent roll chicken bundles, cauliflower, salad, and we cut up the tomatoes we purchased at the farmer’s market.

The kids headed to youth group, and while they were away, I mowed the lawn so Ty wouldn’t have to. I also gave the little girls a bath after I got my shower taken and got cooled down.

THURSDAY

Ty has been in a different time zone for nearly 3 weeks, so he got up quite early. I decided to get up with him and make coffee and apple fritters for the kids. He balanced the checkbook and paid bills.

I also read in my Liturgical Devotional and Lineage of Grace. The devotional has been fantastic, and it’s been about 20 year since I read the Lineage of Grace series by Francine Rivers which goes through the lives of the 5 women mentioned in Jesus’ lineage.

It rained just a bit this morning, but it wasn’t much consolation because we are in for a scorcher today…and the next several days. A little rain won’t assuage the heatwave.

Morning Time was GrapeVine, Shakespeare, the Fallacy Detective, The Way of the Wilderking, and we also read from the Martin Luther book we got from the library and from Story of the World about Martin Luther.

I had nachos for lunch and then took Megan to work.

When I got home, the little kids begged me to take THEM to the estate sale, so I went back! They bought a few trinkets from a shadow box, and I ended up seeing a bookshelf in one of the bedrooms I had not seen before and bought it for our basement.

As I do any time I buy something rather large, I had to rearrange the ENTIRE house! So, our afternoon was taken up with lots of furniture moving and vacuuming spots where furniture used to be.

Melia (16) and I also ended up going through the collection of things Ty brought back from his deployment to the Middle East. She decided to find frames for all of the paintings so we could hang some of them up. They turned out amazing!

That evening, Ty and I went to a Jamaican restaurant in town that a friend had recommended. It was FANTASTIC! Ty’s jerk pork was out of this world! We’ve decided to take Blake and his girlfriend with us next weekend when they are here to visit.

When we got home, Ty fixed the taillight and the stair bannister that had fallen off while he was away. So glad to have those fixed!

In the evening, Megan made a German Chocolate cake and several of the kids ate some before bed.

Our 10 year old gave Ty and I foot rubs and put us to sleep!

FRIDAY

I got up early this morning and decided to do some filming for my YouTube channel. I filmed an encouragement video on my back deck and then decided with it being Friday, I would try to film our house cleaning chores!

I usually can’t manage any videos that require a ton of editing, but I had some ideas and thought I could make it work, so I filmed a Clean With Me video of our Friday House Cleaning Chores –

I made the rest of the apple fritter dough for the kids’ breakfast and then we started The Great Reset (or General Tidy as we called it for years!). This is where EVERYTHING goes back to its original and rightful place in our house and things get decluttered along the way.

Home Blessing is something I have been doing since I discovered FLYlady back in 2001. It worked really well when I only had a couple of kids, but for several years it didn’t work with all the little kids. However, once I had bigger kids who could help out more, I went back to a weekly Home Blessing and it’s been our method of getting the house clean ever since!

READ >> Weekly Home Blessing

While everyone was cleaning, I hung a few of the Middle Eastern paintings Melia framed yesterday and arranged some other Middle Eastern treasures on the top of the pie safe. They look so nice!

After lunch, I cut the suckers from the tree in our front yard and planned next week’s menu. We have a lot going on this weekend, so I need to get the shopping done soon!

The big kids went to work and ended up staying later to have pizza with the boss’ son.

Ty came home from work and played Legos with the little kids while I boiled new potatoes and made a salad for dinner. I also continued my work on my grocery list while the potatoes were boiling and finally got it done!

Later, we had popcorn and I took a 2 mile walk. It’s been quite hot, but tonight there was a nice breeze, so I wasn’t miserable.

I also uploaded the cleaning video and got it scheduled for next week. I watched TV with the big kids and fell asleep before the show ended. Thankfully, they steered me toward bed.

Tomorrow, Blake (23) is going to come home to surprise his dad for Father’s Day! It’s sure to be a lovely weekend!