(Home)School Pictures and the First Day

We have a back-to-school tradition of taking pictures of each child on the first day of school. In addition to taking a picture, we fill out a little "About Me" booklet asking about favorites and listing information like height, weight, and shoe size. I'm hoping that it will be fun to look back at these little booklets years from now.

If you would like to see the booklet or print one here is a link to a pdf version I created. I will paste the photos I took (below) onto the "picture of me" page, but I also let each child do a self portrait on a "drawing of me" page. There are also pages for them to draw a picture of our family and to trace their handprint.

If you want to see how much the boys have changed, you can see last year's pictures here. Here are the pictures I took today:

Wesley--3rd grade

Eli--1st grade

Justus--1st grade

Hayden--age 4

J.D.--age 3

All the boys were happy, eager students today. Hayden actually cried when he had to go to nap instead of "doing math" and Eli requested more spelling. Wesley commented several times on our great new school setup. Even the new chore assignments were met with cheers of excitement. (Chore post coming soon!)

I'm not naive enough to think this will last, but will definitely enjoy it while it does. (And document it here to remind myself how wonderful the first day went when I need encouragement in February!)

Heritage Hill

We took advantage of Kids Free Week at Heritage Hill and went on an early field trip. The day we went was sunny and perfect weather. We didn't get to every single building, but we did quite well considering it was just me and five boisterous boys. The first stop was my favorite: the farm. The farmer's wife put us to work grinding coffee (those of us that went in anyway... Justus and Hayden were being shy and played in the yard instead).
The boys really enjoyed seeing the farm animals. The chickens ran right up to us (I think they were hungry and thought we were bringing breakfast) while the sheep ran away from us. The pigs were laying in the mud sunning themselves. Wesley got me laughing when he looked at the wallowing pigs and declared he couldn't "believe we eat those smelly things"!
We listened to interpreters in the farmhouse, military mess hall, library, printer's shop, and fur trader's cabin. We skipped the church and Tank cottage because we ran out of time. The boys were very well behaved. They could run between each building to get out some energy. The printer got after Justus once because he tried to touch one of the printing presses, but otherwise we didn't have any issues.We finished off our visit at the fur trader's cabin on the far end of the park. Instead of walking all the way back up the hill the boys wanted to ride the little tram. I think that was Hayden's favorite part! We made out way out the gate and had a picnic lunch on some tables in the grass before heading home for naps. If you have never been to Heritage Hill, I highly recommend it. If you have kids be sure and take advantage of their free kid's admission week (we all got in for the price of one adult), we'll definitely be going again next year!

Back to (Home)School

Charlotte Mason once said "Education is an atmosphere..." In an effort to improve our learning "atmosphere" we are shaking things up a bit this year. How? We're moving the majority of our sit down school time down to the family/rec room in our lower level.

Now, before I show you the pictures I want to mention something. Something important. Homeschooling is NOT just school at home. Homeschooling is a way of life. You can learn anywhere and anytime. There may be more intense learning times throughout the day, but we never really turn off our brains and stop learning because school is "done". You can learn through play, chores, cooking, or just about any other activity that is done throughout the course of a day.

Got it?? Good. Now I can show you the pictures...

While this might look like a mini-classroom, that was not my goal for this space at all. My reasons for setting up our learning space in the basement are:

• we are blessed enough to have some under-utilized space in the rec room.
  
• it will be easier to keep books open and out if we are in the middle of something when a meal time approaches.
• the colorful posters are fun to look at and encourage the kids to think about what we are learning even when we aren't "doing school". (The boys learned a good bit about US Geography after I hung a US map up in their room.)
  
• we can all stay together and it will be easier for me to keep an eye on JD and Hayden while working with the older boys.
• we wanted to give the big boys a more comfortable, ergonomic learning space. (It is hard enough to learn to print or write cursive without trying to do it while kneeling uncomfortably because you can't reach the table.)
• it gets me away from my biggest distraction... the computer!

We did this mini-makeover quickly and pretty inexpensively. We already had almost everything you see, just in different areas of the house. The bookshelves, world map, and toy boxes were already there. The tall cabinet was in the storage area (full of extra blankets and towels). I'll have to take a picture of the inside of it now for another post. It's full of all sorts of great learning fun. And, yes, it now has a padlock on it. :)

The little "desk" area is really just a jumbo coated utility shelf from the home improvement store ($18). I did buy the two chemistry posters and the big calendar ($2.49 each). The biggest investment was the desk chairs ($23 each) but they are built to last. I'm pretty sure our grandkids will be sitting on them at some future date!

I didn't take a picture of the other half of the rec room. It is the same as it was before (window, couches, and TV). If you would like to see it (or any other part of our house) you can take the "tour" by clicking on the "Tour Our House" tab at the top of this page.

Household Notebook (Re-Post)

As you are starting or getting ready to start the new school year? It's a crazy (and exciting) time of year whether your kids go to school or you homeschool. Wouldn't be nice to start things off organized and in order instead of in chaos?

Consider putting together a "Household Notebook"... it really will make your life much easier. Remember when I gave that organizing presentation at my Moms of Multiples club back in March? The mom (Hi, Holly... if you're reading this!) that won the door prize of a binder to make a Household Notebook gave me an update at our last meeting. She told me that she put it together and she loves it! I was so excited to hear that. It really is a great organizing tool!

Below is a re-post about my household notebook:

Two things get out of control fast at my house....laundry and paper. This really helps with the paper! My Household Notebook has been my most successful organizational tool ever! I honestly don't remember what I did before I had it. I've had it for several years now, since before Wesley was born I think...so that would be over 7 years.It is basically a binder that holds all the information you and your family want to keep handy. Address book, school notices, church directories, contact information, take-out menus...anything! It is completely customizable. You could actually file these items in folders in a filing cabinet but they change or are out of date often enough that it would be a pain to go through your files that often. Consider the household notebook a mini filing cabinet.

The best how-to for making your own household notebook can be found here at Organized Home. They even offer printables to help you get started or just to give you ideas.

I used a 3 inch ring binder and added tabbed dividers. Here are my notebook categories:

First page is RED and has our address, phone number, and emergency contact info. This is followed by a few phone numbers you might need fast like: doctors, poison control, police, sheriff, and/or utility company emergency shut off numbers. (It's especially helpful to leave the notebook open on this page when you have a babysitter.)

Tabbed dividers include:

• Phone numbers/addresses: basically an address book...written out on a printable page from Organized Home or typed in a document to make yearly editing and printing easier (this is my method).
• "Yellow" pages: our most used business phone numbers...again typed in a document to make yearly editing easier. I've also added clear business card pages.
• Church: directory, teaching schedules, AWANA calendar, youth group calendar/forms
• Clubs: recent newsletters, directories, etc.
• Utilities: phone numbers, garbage regulations/schedules, compost hours, etc.
• ROZ: papers to save for her (work, ortho, church, school, etc.)
• WESLEY: papers for his stuff (church, soccer, etc) The rest of the children are too little to need a section but I'll add them as needed.
• Restaurants/Fast Food: menus (hole punched)
• Menus: I keep the monthly menus I have been making so I can reuse them
• Holidays: Thanksgiving menu, Christmas card list, holiday coloring pages we love
• Gift ideas: for our family and those we give gifts to
• Masters: of forms I use frequently (menus, prayer journal, etc)
• Misc: all sorts of odd stuff that I might need in the future (how do deal with an injured bird, Radio/TV station list, brochures from parks/trails we like to go to)

The tabs are followed by large envelopes (hold punched) with:

• Fast food coupons: only for places that we actually go to!
• Non-food coupons: hardware store, car washes, etc.
• Medical: Appointment reminder cards (I put them on the calendar and then save them here for future reference) and prescriptions (meds, glasses)
• Campbell's labels and Box Tops: to save for church/homeschool group
• Gift cards/certificates: that have yet to be spent
• And last....one pocket page for odd items that can't be hole punched.

I am planning on adding a few new categories. I think I'm going to add:

• Cleaning: I want to make a more formal cleaning schedule for monthly/seasonal chores
• Budget: we check it often and it's in a file cabinet right now...maybe a copy to reference
• Sizes: everyone's clothing and shoe sizes...I just can't remember them all anymore!

Once you have it all assembled keep it handy...so it's easy for all family members to find and use. Go through it every so often to remove items you no longer need and update the information. I edit and reprint my address book sections once a year. (Usually after Christmas when I get address changes from people who moved.) I go through the coupon sections more often.

The beauty of the Household Notebook is that it's different for each family. It can be whatever you want it to be. Pretty or plain. Simple or complex. If you have one already or put one together I'd love to see it!

My other organizing posts:
Websites & Internet Passwords
Laundry & Kids Clothes
Menu Planning
Calendar
Budgeting
Stuff Management Part 1

Extreme Home Makover Neenah Edition!

We don't watch much TV at Casa de Shown but one show the whole family enjoys is Extreme Home Makeover. This week they are just south of us in the city of Neenah building a house. We couldn't let the opportunity to see one of our favorite shows in the making in person so we drove down this morning to take a peek!

Roz even woke up early to come along. After a quick review of Google Maps we headed out. We found it without any difficulty. In fact, as we drove down Elm Street we were starting to get a little worried since it wasn't even looking that busy. Sure enough, though, we came upon all the excitement.

We definitely went at a good time. It wasn't nearly as packed with spectators as I thought it would be and there was plenty of construction activity to be seen. It reminded me of an ant hill (only the ants were wearing blue shirts). We were waiting and hoping for a glimpse of our favorite Ty, but rumor had it he had flown off on an errand of some kind. We did get to see Paige in her pink hard hat and tool belt though!

Several local businesses walked by with treats for the crowd. The president of the builder (Lexington Homes) came over and promised hats and water bottles after he did an interview, but we left before he came back. We did sample some bagels, got free Culver's ice cream coupons, and just missed getting fried cheese curds from A&W.

We decided to use the Culver's coupons right away and did something totally our of the ordinary, for us anyway, and had ice cream for lunch. Everyone was on board except Justus, who is a stickler for rules and just couldn't wrap his mind around eating dessert for lunch!

I would have liked to stay longer but the boys were getting restless and Roz had to get to work. If you have some spare time you should go check it out! I would love to go back (Friday, I think) for the big reveal and shout "MOVE THAT BUS" but it will be CRAZY so we'll just have to settle for watching it when it airs on later this season.

If you are interested, you can "follow the build" here!

August Birthday Bash

August 7, 2010

We have a lot of July and August birthdays in the extended family so we just had one big birthday bash to celebrate them all! The birthday girls and boys included: my niece Morgan, JD, my nephew Cooper, my mom Linda, Roz, and my sister Abby. We did the same thing over Memorial Day weekend for the May and June birthdays, but apparently I didn't blog about it. Oops.

What's a party without food? Everyone loved the hot wing chicken dip my sister brought for an appetizer. Even JD had several helpings! We had BBQ pork & beef sandwiches along with all the birthday honorees favorites: fruit pizza and olive bread. We feasted and then moved on to dessert.

We had both an ice cream cake and cupcakes. JD wanted Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes. They turned out pretty cute. You could tell who they were supposed to be anyway! JD and Cooper liked them... which was the most important thing!

Apparently it was supposed to be Hawaiian shirt night but only Jerry, Roz, and Wesley got the memo!

We timed this shot just right with the sun going down in the background. If you squint it almost looks like they could be in Hawaii! We thought about putting this photo on Facebook but didn't want someone who doesn't know better to accidentally think this is Jerry's new (much) younger wife. :) It is a very nice picture though, at least for those of us who know who's who!

JD's Birthday

July 29, 2010

JD had a quiet birthday. We ate dinner and had cookie bars instead of cake (we saved his requested Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes for the party). The AZ Showns joined us via video chat when we sang "Happy Birthday".

After dessert we opened a couple gifts.

The rest of the night was pretty much spent refereeing who got to play with what and lots of reminders to remember whose birthday it was!

To read more about JD turning three and to see birth photos/story, read this post. You can also read about his second birthday and his first birthday.

Bay Beach

July 23, 2010

The company where Jerry works (LaForce) treats all employees and their families to a company picnic at Bay Beach each year. We eat and visit with Jerry's co-workers and then we ride until we run out of tickets!

Now that Eli, Justus, and Wesley can ride the bigger rides, we split up. I took the little two. Jer and Roz took the bigger three. I had the camera so there are lots more pictures of JD and Hayden in this post!

Hayden's favorite... the race cars! JD liked them too.

Sorry this is blurry... this is (from left to right) Wesley, the twins, Roz, and Jer swinging high above the crowd. These swings make me nervous. I'm afraid one of those little boys will just fling right off! This was the first time Eli and Justus got to ride and they were pretty excited!

On the little swings! This will be Wesley's last time on this swing ride.
Next year he'll be too tall!
(These are more my style. Although, what were they
thinking... installing them over a cement pad?)


It's a tradition to ride the train at least one time all together.

JD looks just like the bug!


Last ride of the night

JD thought he was pretty cool with his own little Gatorade to drink.

No photos please... I think I'm hot stuff... Ahhh, refreshing!

We're all looking forward to next year when we can ride the new roller coaster... The Zippin' Pippin. I'm sure it will be wonderful, but I'll let somebody else ride it the first few hundred times it runs. It's one of the oldest existing roller coasters in America, (Elvis loved it!) built in 1912 in Tennessee. I'm just not sure "antique" is a feature I'm looking for in a roller coaster.