Large Family Homeschool Life – Week 9 of 2022

A lovely homeschool week filled with music, pantry reorganization, and lots of time outside!

Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life posts HERE!

MONDAY

Ty and 4 of the kids got in late last night from a visit to family this weekend. It is so good to have everyone back under the same roof again! Well, everyone except Megan at college and Blake, who turned 24 yesterday and spent it with his fiancee and his best friend.

This morning the kids had some homemade peanut butter granola for breakfast. This has become a HUGE hit with everyone in the house, so I will be switching us over to this granola in various forms instead of boxed cereal.

Ty headed out to “sick call” for dental issues this morning. He had a crown fall off over the weekend, and needed to get it fixed as soon as possible.

As I was upstairs making the bed, I could hear the little girls singing, “I will enter His gates.” They sing all the time. It’s so cheerful!

The boys are lollygagging this morning. They probably don’t want to do school after such a fun weekend with Daddy!

For Morning Time, I played music from the Romantic period as I called everyone to school. I like the kids to be exposed to good music, even if they aren’t quite sure what they are hearing, it trains the ear to recognize certain periods of music. Of course, we LOVE Music in Our Homeschool for our music, and use it nearly every day in our homeschool!
CHECK IT OUT HERE!

We also used Music in Our Homeschool to learn about The Star-Spangled Banner from the Holidays class. And we read from A New Nation about the flag and song and also learned flag etiquette from a YouTube video. We also did our Quiet Time Bible Study.

After Morning Time was over, I found myself reconsidering the little girls’ math curriculum. However, after having them take placement tests for another curriculum, I realized they are both doing ok, so we’ll keep on keeping on.

I also had to work on a heart issue with a child who usually has everything come easy to him and yet, found himself stuck on a problem. He wants everything to be easy, and that just isn’t the way life is.

After lunch, I went for a fitting for the dress I’m going to wear for Blake’s wedding that needs altering. Then, I headed to my yearly dermatology appointment. Ty and I also stopped at Home Depot to snag some new deck chairs (the old ones are falling apart!) and pickets for our fence where the dog managed to get out.

For dinner I made antelope steak, marinated in our homemade kombucha, and Amish pea salad, plus some relishes and pickled veggies. After we emptied one of the jars of pickled veggies, Creed (9) asked if we could use the juice to make our own pickled cauliflower, so we cooked up a bag of frozen cauliflower and dropped it into the jar. He’s going to be responsible for turning the jar each day to make sure the juice covers the veggies well and we’ll try it early next week!

We also had homemade bread with chokecherry, apricot, and homemade grape and sandhill plum jellys.

I bottled the latest batch of kombucha, adding in a bit of black cherry juice. Then, I finished our laundry while Ty and the boys repaired the fence with the pickets we bought.

TUESDAY

I pulled my sourdough out of the refrigerator and fed it up. I am hoping to make some sourdough biscuits later today. For breakfast, the kids had blueberry bagels and whipped cream cheese.

For Morning Time, we did our Bible study, then I read The Star Spangled Banner by Peter Spier.

Very neat book!

Then, we listened to music by Schubert. This was a really fun experience because when I was taking voice lessons in high school, I sang a lot of Schubert’s songs, and even performed some for yearly “contest.” My favorite was Gretchen am Spinnrade.

Then, we read about James Monroe and made a president’s card for him from the bookmarks available through NotebookingPages.com.

We finished up Morning Time by reading aloud from Swiss Family Robinson, but I’m not sure how much longer I will continue with this book. It’s quite lengthy, and I am reading from a computer. Plus, the book is full of scientific “facts” that aren’t always accurate and can be rather cumbersome.

After the boys got their usual individual work done, including Garin (11) working on Graphic Design, the boys worked on Night Zookeeper – a creative writing program for kids that has a lot of fun ways to get kids interested in writing. [Full review coming soon!]

Ty and I went to an afternoon meeting and ran a few errands. Such a beautiful day! Our weather has been one roller coaster after another – from single digits to 70’s over and over again! A friend called it “weather whiplash!”

For dinner, Ty requested his Granny’s pizza recipe, so Melia (17) made it and I got Aspen’s Special Night food ready – Caesar Salad and Root Beer Float. We watched a lot of My Froggy Stuff on YouTube together, but my back was hurting pretty bad, so I didn’t enjoy the her special evening as much as I would have liked.

WEDNESDAY

Ty leaves from Greenland to hunt muskox with a friend today, so no school – just time spent with Daddy!

We made sourdough pancakes because I never got around to making biscuits yesterday. I helped Ty get ready for his trip and then took the big kids to work at the bee farm.

I took Ty to the airport and stopped at a favorite thrift store on the way home to see if they had a red dress for Megan’s college formal. They didn’t have anything, so I headed home and made Chicken Alfredo Zoodles for dinner.

This Trim Healthy Mama recipe (from Trim Healthy Table I believe) is one I make for myself quite often, but I’ve never made it for the kids. I was pleasantly surprised by how much they LOVED it! (Well, everyone but Mercy, who only eats a vegetable when I force it down her. ) I will definitely be making the recipe again!

That evening, the kids and I watched Hoarders, which always makes me want to clean my house!

THURSDAY

Mercy woke me up to make her breakfast. I also made more granola. I am loving this granola with my Greek yogurt!

For Morning Time, we did our Quiet Time study, then we launched into South American maps and read about Simon Bolivar. We will be studying South America next week too.

After taking the big kids to work, I worked on gardening stuff and reorganized the larder in the basement. I carried down a 50# sack of Prairie Gold Hard White Wheat Berries (my favorites!) and a 50# sack of unbleached flour from a local mill. I also hauled down an older bucket of wheat berries that is running low. The reorganization was a HUGE chore, but I’m happy with the results!

The kids played outside all afternoon in the lovely weather! Then, the boys came inside and did Night Zookeeper and their Teaching Textbooks math. I had let them wait to do these lessons since it was so nice outside today!

READ >> Teaching Textbooks Review

I took some time off during the afternoon hours to read in North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. I loved the movie, so I’m hoping the book is even better!

When I went to pick up the big kids from the bee farm, I also bought some beeswax hand lotion to use on my cracked heels. Nothing was working, and I wondered if beeswax would seal the cracks and help them heal. It worked great!

For dinner, we had burritos, salad and fruit. Then, I watched The Flintstones (the old tv show) with the little kids.

FRIDAY

Oatmeal for breakfast this morning, as per the 5 year old’s request. My kids like to add toppings to their oatmeal like maple syrup or chocolate chips, but today, the favorite were some white chocolate chips I randomly bought. I have no idea what I thought I was going to make with them, so into the oatmeal they went!

I straightened my hair, cleaned the house with the kids, and then headed out to pick up Megan from college for her Spring Break. It’s a long drive to do in one day, but I had too much going on to break it up over 2 days.

That evening, the 16 and 17 year olds went ballroom dancing with some homeschool friends. When we all got home, we spent the evening laughing and talking long after we should have been in bed!