Our Assignment and Record Keeping Notebooks~Using TOS Planner and My Custom Planner Pages

August 3, 2011 by 1 Comment

Over the years, I have worked hard to put together a record keeping book that would work for assignment too.  However, they have always been a little too much for my older children. 

This year, however, seems to be the year I figured it out. I have used forms from my The 2011-12 Schoolhouse Planners, my homeschool forms and a couple from Donna Young.

We have three books this year, one for each of my oldest two children, and one for myself. 

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The oldest children’s books contain:

Each of the sections above are divided by a colored piece of card stock.  I am considering adding sticky index dividers to help locate each section quickly.  My children are expected to fill in the forms each day with a  little help from me.  Keeping records is a life lesson you must learn, so what better way then to start them by keeping their own homeschool records?

My Notebook contains:

Again, each of these sections are divided by different colors of card stock. 

To make my notebooks, I use my laminator and laminate the front and back covers.  I then use my comb binder to bind the books.  We use these two gadgets nearly weekly in our homeschool.

As the school year gets in full swing, I am sure I will add forms.  How do handle the lessons, records, and lists you need to keep organized?

The TOS Planner links are affiliate links.  If you purchase anything through those links, I will be paid a small portion of your purchase price as an affiliate.  Thank you for supporting Peace Creek on the Prairie.

Filed Under: Christian Mothering, homemaking, homeschool, homeschool organization, Homeschool planning forms, Homeschool Preschool, homeschool schedules, household organization, large family homeschool, Large family homeschool planning forms, Lifestyle of learning, Workbox system Tagged With: , , , , ,

Organizational Week~Getting the Homeschool Ready

July 20, 2011 by 3 Comments

We all have them, days when we walk through the house and want to turn tail and run because there are messes everywhere. 

As we move through the house, we notice there is very little that can be done with these messes…

What?

Where did it all come from?

Typically around here, it means we haven’t been home much or have been busy on the farm.

This week, I have been working in our office, as I got new shelves and that has made a huge difference.  I also have been pulling out the tubs I used when we did Workboxes.  We are again going to do this for our homeschool, though a little differently.  I am putting together student assignment/record keeping notebooks for my oldest children this year.  I have also made a daily schedule for our family.  It will be included in the student assignment/record books.  

I have also been printing off all our eBooks, Lapbooks, and making copies for the first few weeks of school.  I still need to rewrite our lesson plans, but I am feeling oh so much better about them right now.  Many have been asking how are organize our eBooks.  To begin with, I have folders in my documents on my computer set up.  Then when I print them, I laminate the covers, bind them with my comb binder, and write on the spines what the title is, then they go on a shelf, or in a workbox, or family box.  If they will be used later and don’t fit in one of the above areas, they go in a file cabinet drawer.

My lapbooks, are printed and placed in file folders, then in a file cabinet or the appropriate workbox.

I have also organized my computer desk and work area.  I have a new shelf (found at a garage sale) that all new books go into until I have time to enter them into our Home Library Database, and upcoming review items, curriculum catalogs and such all go there.

On top of that shelf I have a file organization center (another garage sale find) that eBooks that need bound go, our speech, and other therapy manuals are here, and our sketch books are here.  All my blog things are here too…notebook, ledger, review schedule and such.  My most used CD roms are stored on the side with a  book end.  On the top is a basket that holds all our family school materials.

I organized our baker’s rack in the kitchen and straightened my baking area on my kitchen counter.

I am working on our writing center tub right now…I need some ideas for it though.  What do you keep in your creative writing area? 

I need to figure out an accessible, but out of reach from little fingers for our games.  My oldest two are playing games quite a bit, but then there are those little fingers that are causing a few problems with lost pieces, scattered cards and such.

How are you organizing for the up coming school year?  Are you overwhelmed?

Filed Under: homeschool, homeschool organization, Homeschool planning forms, homeschool schedules, household organization, large family homeschool, Large family homeschool planning forms, special needs homeschooling, vision therapy, Workbox system Tagged With: , , ,

From Workboxes to Study Binders—Streamlining the Large Family Homeschool

May 12, 2010 by 9 Comments


As a mom of six children, streamlining our home has become a habit. I constantly look around and try to find ways to make everything flow smoother. Our house is laid out in a way that is choppy, as in lots of walls, cutting up the “flow” of the floorspace. I like wide open spaces, so this has been a bit of an issue. However, I can’t fix it, but I can do things around the home to make it better. Streamlining our home, whether in the kitchen, through chores, or in our homeschool has become a hobby. Today I will show you how I have streamlined my large family workboxes to save me time during the week, take up even less space, and be easier to grade and record.

I spent many hours last summer trying to figure out how to set up workboxes for our large family. We have loved them, and we are not completely getting rid of them, but I have found a better way to streamline it all for our family. I only have to get in our boxes on Saturday, I can set up the whole week on Saturday, and my children are still learning independently without a lot of direction from me. As in, I am not constantly telling them the next thing. I interact with them and am involved, but they are able to move from subject to subject without my direction.

I have taken my page protector binder (see here too) another step.

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I have started loading the binders with five days of work on Saturday. I insert my children’s workbox cards in page protectors, so they know when to do those items. The page protectors with workbox cards, do not have other assignments in them, but further instructions for the workbox activity if needed. All the actual workbox activities for the week are placed in a tub on Saturday. When the children come to a workbox card, they get what they need from the tub.

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All of their assignments for the entire week are in this binder in the page protectors. It has streamlined our school immensely. What used to take three to four hours now take two to maybe two an a half hours.

Each day’s work is behind it’s own divider. When my children finish a worksheet or writing assignment that is not in a page protector, they put it in the page protector that had that assignment instructions written on it.

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Finished work ready to be graded.

Then I can grade it and record it. I then put it in their portfolios saving them for our records.

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Our school is now ready to go by Sunday evening without me worrying over it. I have an assignment log ready for them in a page protector, that they mark off on the page protector, when I grade the assignment, I pull it out and mark their grade in the appropriate box. When the week is over, the grade/assignment record goes in the portfolio.

So, now you are wondering how I incorporate workbook assignment. No, I don’t tear out all the workbook pages. I put a sheet of paper in a page protector with the workbook assignment written on it, it also has any example or extra instructions on it. I write all this in pencil, so that I can make any changes easily for the next week, in hopes of not wasting or using a ton of paper. The student just marks on the assignment record/grade sheet that they completed that subject, so I know where to find it to grade it. These still go in our completed work bin, as do their binders at the end of each day. When I grade them, I place everything back on their desk for them. They are now easily ready for the next day. If I don’t get it graded, we just get the stuff out of the completed work bin and move on. I will get it graded by the time I am ready to refill their binders. I don’t like it to work that way, but you know how life goes.

Our homeschool, and house are running much smoother. In the evening rather then trying to fill workboxes, I am able to spend time with everyone. My husband is loving the extra forty-five minutes we have. On the weekends, it is only taking me about and hour to fill four binders, plan the week, set all workbox materials in a tub for use through the week, and fill out the assignment/record sheets. Workbox activity tub.

For us, this has worked out better then I could have imagined. I was somewhat panicked earlier this spring wondering how I was going to keep up the workboxes, garden, livestock, farm wife, meals, food preservation, and all that comes with my role as mom, wife, farm hand, livestock care taker and the many other responsibilities that would be for me to tend to. This appears to be the answer.

Filed Under: Christian Mothering, dysgraphia, homeschool, homeschool organization, Homeschool planning forms, homeschool schedules, large family homeschool, Large family homeschool planning forms, special needs homeschooling, Workbox system, year around homeschool Tagged With: , , , , ,

Weekend in Review

May 2, 2010 by 2 Comments

We really had a slow weekend.  Really we did.  Saturday, I thought, and thought, and then figured out what I wanted to do with our workboxes.  I love them, but I needed to change them.  I needed to be able to load all five days on the weekends.  Yes, I do.  See, I am now working from home a bit, and my time is getting a bit crunched.  I had to figure out how to keep the concept, but make it a bit less time consuming during the week.  So, in a week or so, I shall share what, and how I did it, assuming it works. 

I needed a quiet weekend.  Yep, I was feeling a bit emotionally and physically exhausted.  We straightened the house on Saturday and played outside.  Sunday, I made a big meal, we did family church, and then just hung out playing outside, messing in the garden and just enjoyed being together.  And, now it is time, to dive into the role of farm wife, and mom. 

We will start swathing hay Monday, yep, so much for seeing my hubby several times through out the day.  Another reason I needed to rework the workboxes.  When you are a mom to six, and a farm wife, you tend to find ways to streamline when the swather, tractors, combines and such start rolling.  You just have to.  Being a homeschooling farm wife during the busy season brings on a whole new meaning to multitasking.  I need portable school.  I never know when I will be needed with just twenty minutes notice.  Yep, no staying in my jammies til 11:55 now. 

On Saturday, I also got our hotel reservations for the area homeschool convention.  Yep, taken care of.  It is official, I and three of our children will be there with our steady teen babysitter.  She will watch our little handful, known as Hannah—she climbs walls now—as in playpen, and baby beds.  She goes up the stairs, and figured out how to open door knobs.  Did I mention she is only fifteen months old.  Good thing there are almost always six pair of eyes keeping an eye on her, or helping her get into something.  I have to say that the two year old and her are a pair.  A pair of home wreckers.  lol  Seriously, love them, but they can trash our home in ten seconds flat.  Come on, I know others of you have a pair like this right?  You love them to death, but wonder if it is abuse if you would flip the playpen over and stick them under it, while you spend an hour or so cleaning up the last three minutes of their work. Right?  Not alone am I?

Filed Under: Blessings, Christian Family, Christian Mothering, homeschool, homeschool organization, homeschool schedules, household organization, Large Families, large family homeschool, Stay at home mom, Workbox system, year around homeschool Tagged With: , ,

Homeschool Workboxes in the Garden

April 28, 2010 by Leave a Comment


Over the last couple of weeks, we have done a ton of gardening. Yesterday we planted some seeds. I placed the seed packets in their workboxes for their school. So, we had math, science, and all in one project. We planted flowers, gourds, eggplant, lavender, cilantro, dill, and more for seeds. In all there are 115 cups that should be sprouting in the next one to three weeks.

We have also planted 13 tomatoes, 180 red and yellow onions, 5 hot peppers, 9 green bell peppers, 12 potatoes, 6 asparagus, 2 horseradish, and 15 strawberry plants. Part of our workbox activities, has been working in our garden, from planning and picking out the different varieties, to actually digging in the dirt and planting. We will be continuing to use our workboxes to keep up with different gardening tasks. We still have green beans to plant every two weeks, so that the preserving is not a huge overwhelming task. We will also be making salsa, and other items from our produce.

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Here are some of our newly started seeds.

Have you used your workboxes in your garden? What about gardening as part of your homeschool? Here is another post that tells a bit of how we have been incorporating our garden into our school.

This post is part of the Wednesday Workbox Day at Homegrown Mom. It is also my WFMW post this week.

Filed Under: garden, homeschool, In the sewing room, large family homeschool, summer fun, Uncategorized, Workbox system, year around homeschool Tagged With: , ,

Schoolhouse Expo Giveaway

April 5, 2010 by 29 Comments

The Schoolhouse Expo has given me one registration to giveaway to one of my readers. I am so excited to be able to do this. I don’t want you to miss this. The Expo is May 12-14. Not only are there free gifts for EVERY registrant, but there are door prizes, and two early workshops with Malia Russell, from homemaking911.com, and Sally, Clay and Sarah Clarkson co founders of Whole Heart Ministries.

At the Expo, you will get encouragement, advice, support and new ideas for your homeschool. Check out the speaker list, door prizes, and free gifts.

The economy has affected so many, in many different ways and homeschoolers have not avoided these affects. Many can not make the typical state conventions work this year. The Schoolhouse Expo is a great economical alternative, plus, don’t forget the $300 worth of free gifts including lots of curriculum.

Now, here is the best thing about this post, ONE of my readers will get a free ticket to register and attend the Schoolhouse Expo, it will include all the goodies.

So, to enter this giveaway, visit the Schoolhouse Expo speaker list, and tell me which speaker you are most looking forward to hearing. This is a mandatory entry. For additional entries, follow this blog publically (1 entry), Follow me on twitter (@farmmom4him)—let me know by @ me, follow my Facebook fan page, Facebook this giveaway, tweet this giveaway, or blog about this giveaway. You MUST leave a separate comment for each entry. You can get as many as 7 entries by doing each of the above. This giveaway ends on April 9 at 11 pm central time.

I can’t wait to see you all at the Schoolhouse Expo.

Filed Under: Christian Mothering, encouragement, Giveaway, homeschool, large family homeschool, special needs homeschooling, Uncategorized, Workbox system Tagged With: , , , ,

Spring Homeschool Workbox Ideas

March 24, 2010 by 9 Comments

Well, it is officially spring. Easter is just around the corner, and summer will be here before you know it. I have been busy working on preparing our spring and summer homeschool plans. I am trying to include lots of outdoor and spring fun in our workboxes.

First off we will talk about garden workboxes. Here it seems to still be a little unstable weather wise to do much planting, but there is plenty of planning to be done.

  • I have my oldest read the back of seed packets to help us figure out which garden plot to plant which vegetables.
  • He is also making a plant care chart. Which plants need more water, disease control, and fertilizer.
  • He is researching organic and safe chemical applications if needed.
  • He is evaluating the nutrients of different vegetables.
  • He is helping me figure out how long each type of vegetable will take to preserve so we can hopefully plan to plant staggering them to not all be ready at the same time, unless they are used for things such as salsa.
  • We are also going to do some soil analysis.
  • Look at soil under a microscope.

Now let’s move onto Spring/Summer Nature Study workbox ideas.

  • Obviously the garden will be a big one here.
  • Animal tracks-make plaster of paris casts of the tracks
  • Take a digital camera out to take pictures of wildlife and other nature-
  • On a REALLY hot day, make a nature book of your pictures, use your field guides to journal in it. You can turn this into a computer lesson by having them use a digi scrapbooking program, learning to type and so forth.
  • Dye cotton or muslin fabric using different types of plants, blooms, roots, leaves and so forth.
  • Dye your Easter Eggs using natural plant dyes.
  • Hang bird houses, and bird feeders around the yard. Find out where they are most popular. Talk about why.

Spring/Summer super fun.

  • Of course there is swimming. But study how to maintain a pool.
  • What about a family water fight? Find out and study which type of propulsion is best. Such as different types of water guns.
  • Build rock sculptures.
  • Visit a river or stream, take some water home and look at it under a microscope.
  • Hunt for worms, go fishing, talk about different types of fish and fishing regulations.
  • Visit a farm during harvest and learn about the crops, how they grow, what they need and how they will be used.

My children will be helping me preserve produce from the garden also. Last year they learned how to core, peel, and seed tomatoes.

The sky is the limit on educational fun anytime of year. However, I find that summer can be a great time to get outside and learn all about the world around us that God created. Summertime is full of God’s creation in all shapes, colors and sizes.

Want to see more workbox ideas and how I built my workboxes for our large family?

Check out these links.

My workboxes

Our Christmas Workboxes

Since, we are still planning our workbox activities for this spring/summer, I do not have any pictures. I will be adding them as we go though, so be sure to check back often or better yet, subscribe or follow.

Homegrown Mom

Filed Under: homeschool, large family homeschool, summer fun, Workbox system, year around homeschool Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Many Boxes of Homeschooling-From Workboxes, to pencil boxes to fun boxes to family boxes.

March 2, 2010 by 1 Comment

Boxes for homeschool, come in every shape and size. 

Pencil boxes, crayon boxes, boxes of tape, boxes of erasers, boxes of projects and so many more, boxes for this and boxes for that.




In our home boxes are one way we streamline organization.  

I have a whole box dedicated to writing, it has ruled paper, blank paper, shaped paper, markers, scissors, pens, tape, glue, stickers, rulers, and so much more in it.  I set it up in hopes of stimulating creative thought to encourage my students to attempt a bit of writing.  It has helped. 

We have two “peace boxes” in the office, one dedicated to toddler toys and one to baby toys.  That keeps them busy for a few minutes while I write these articles, do lesson plans or keep the early wakers from naptime, quiet until others are waking up. 

I have a box for old newspapers, and a box for old magazines, and catalogs.  These are good for craft time, creative writing, craft clean up, and so forth.  Having them separated, helps to cut time when looking for something specific.

We have a math box.  It is full of math manipulatives.  Counters, balance, rulers, calculators, mathlink cubes, Base ten blocks, hundreds board, flash cards, and so forth.  When someone needs something to help with a math concept they know to go grab the math box.

Our craft box contains, glue, paint, pipe cleaners, wiggle eyes, pom poms, brushes and so forth.  I have a whole tub full of craft supplies and then there are areas throughout our home that have a few supplies too.   For the most part if we need a craft supply we can find it fairly easily.


So for our actual homeschooling boxes, we have workboxes for each child or level of children.  Our preschoolers share a box. Our workboxes are used for actual book work, math, phonics, spelling, handwriting etc.  They must get through their workboxes before they can go to the fun boxes.


We also have Workboxes of family school stuff.  This includes Bible, History, Science, and some language arts stuff.  All the books, papers, and things needed for those subjects go into that box or a stack of plastic boxes.    


Then for our afternoons, I have started putting together a fun box, full of educational games, puzzles, coloring pages, computer games, and craft ideas.  I have something for each age level and child.  They move through them and work together as needed.  I include books that are to be read to the littles, and simple flashcards such as shapes, colors, letters and numbers.  Our fun boxes help our children work together to build each other up.  My olders will help the littles memorize Bible verses.  They work on fun boxes after naptime, typically while I do our evening meal preparations. 

Are you wondering why boxes?  Boxes stack, they fit in a corner, under a bed or on the floor of a closet.  They come in many sizes and are able to be nested when needed to conserve space.  You can fit many boxes into bigger boxes.  Boxes when empty can be used to build forts. You can get card board boxes free at many grocery stores.  Tatordoodles has a great idea on how to use cereal boxes.

As you can see, I am a fan of boxes for homeschool.  I also like plastic drawers, but I have many more boxes, because for the most part boxes are FREE.  


Filed Under: homeschool, homeschool organization, homeschool schedules, large family homeschool, Workbox system

Homeschool Planning, Recordkeeping and All the Fun Inbetween, including a look at our Workbox plans, for the Homeschool Family with Mutliple Needs Part 8

February 19, 2010 by 1 Comment

First off, I will be the bad homeschool mom, and say that lesson planning and record keeping are the least liked homeschool responsibility that I have. There, I said it, and all of you are well, not left in shock, right?

I like to keep an open date planner. It is very loose, and a half page covers twos kids for a week. I would love to post a link to it, but I need to turn it into a PDF. I can now do it on this new computer, but actually have to make it in Excel first. lol So, one day, I will post all my forms, once I remake them into better forms on this computer.

I like open date and loose for several reasons.

  • I can easily change if needed
  • Creates a sense of flexibility
  • Allows me to follow God’s lead rather then a plan I made-His plans are ALWAYS better
  • I don’t feel stuck if we need to spend more time on a topic or concept
  • Actually there are so many, that it would start to bore you. ;o)

I do not keep actual grades. I keep track of what we cover each day, and my children are REQUIRED to write the date that each page is completed. My record keeper is still in the works. I am excited to try and build one in Excel as I am finding that I really like it. Rather then letter grades, I use, G-good, R-reviewed, NR-need to review, E-excellent, TP-Test passed, U-understood. This allows me to know at a glance what they need to work over again. It also keeps my children from feeling like they have failed. Who is to say that if they did not do good on something that it was them who failed? Maybe as a teacher explaining it to them, it was me that failed. If it was me, I need to be the one feeling the stress not them. ;o) Children who are struggling learners tend to know they are struggling. They don’t need a letter grade to tell them that.

To organize our school day, I use my Modified Large Family Workbox System. I like to sit down on Sunday afternoon during naptime, if I am not napping, and make a list of activities to include in our workboxes. I keep a master list of activities that can be used over and over, and a list that I would like to use or make to use. In each of their subject folders, they must complete the actual table work before moving to the workbox work. This has helped them get the table work completed in a timely manner. Again, here is another form I will be recreating in Excel. I place activity cards in each folder behind the actual table work. If the workbox activity will fit into the folder, it goes into the folder, if not, they bring me the card and I will get the activity out for them. With 4 toddlers in the house, activities have a way of disappearing, which can lead to a mad dash hunt for choking hazzards.

Want to learn more about our curriculum choices? Check out part one, handwriting, spelling, math, language arts, science, history and our record keeping ideas.

Filed Under: homeschool, homeschool organization, homeschool schedules, large family homeschool, special needs homeschooling, Workbox system

Workbox Plans for this Week.-SneaK peak at my next giveaway—

February 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment

I am going to admit it, I have a hard time keeping in the fun stuff for our workboxes. It seems that by the time we get through the main subjects, that the toddlers are restless and bored witht heir stuff, and it is time for lunch. I am sure about any home with older school agers, and 1, 2, 3, and 4, year olds have this issue. So, I am going to work hard this week, helping my older students get to their fun workbox stuff. In fact I think I will call it their “fun boxes”.

For Math:

Monday-board game-Count it Up
Tuesday-Flash card wars
Wednesday-measurement mania
Thursday-cooking
Friday-Set

Reading/Phonics/Spelling:
Monday-SpellQuizzer
Tuesday-Special Read Aloud
Wednesday-Phonics Bingo
Thursday-none
Friday-SpellQuizzer

Science:

All week Lapbook on bees and making stuff with honey

History:

Monday-Colonial movie
Tuesday-Work on Jamestown model-taking longer then planned
Wednesday-Make butter
Thursday-Oregon Trail
Friday-Finish other History project

So what are your workbox plans? Do you struggle with getting through to the fun stuff? Do you have a hard time letting go of the Super Homeschool Mom ideal? How do you work through it and enjoy the fun stuff, without letting the fact that you didn’t get to some of your daily table time stuff?

So, do you know what the next giveaway is? It is listed in this post. If you comment below with what you think it is, I will give you an extra entry if you are right.

Filed Under: homeschool, large family homeschool, Workbox system

Our First Week Back to School-Our First Injury of 2010

January 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Well, we got through that first week, and we thrived-except for an accident our 4 year old Heidi had at Grandma’s-more on that later in this post. I did a ton of planning during Christmas break, lots of copies, and lots of reading schedules. It was worth every minute. We are really digging into our Colonial Study, and our children are anxious to get to some fun activities that I will incorporate into it. Since some of our first activities are outside, we are having to wait a bit.

We got all of our assignments done, but didn’t quite get all our reading done, umm maybe that is because I found another book and we added an hour of reading one day and didn’t get to the planned reading? Ok, so with a home library it is bound to happen, and it is okay. God led me to that book, and He had a better plan, as always. We will read from the planned reading this week sometime.

So, you are wondering about Heidi’s accident. Monday evening Grandma called wanting the girls (Lora, and Heidi) to come help her take her Christmas tree down. So, Tuesday afternoon Brad took them over and they took all the decorations and such down. Then Brad went in to take the tree and boxes to the basement. Since the girls rarely get to go to the basement, they went with him, to see what treasures they could find. He went upstairs to grab another load of goods, the girls stayed down there exploring. Heidi located something that she just had to get her hands on. She climbed onto a little child’s wood table, and was standing on it, when it tipped. She landed on the back of her head on the concrete floor. We are not sure if she lost consciousness, or not, but she was very dazed, and when she let out the scream that makes your blood stop, Brad ran down there, tearing off the rail in his haste. When he got to her, she was screaming, and unable to stand up. He took her upstairs, and got ice on her head. Sometime in here he called me.

The call went something like this:

“Betty, we seem to have had a casualty”

“How bad, and who”

“Heidi, fell off a table in the basement onto the floor”

“How are her eyes”

“Well, her pupils respond to light, but she is really dazed”

“I think you should take her in to the ER”

“Well, why don’t I bring her home and let you look at her”

“Ok, but still, if you called me, it is bad and you know it”

hands phone over to our 7 yr old Lora-not sure what we were saying, but I asked her to give the phone back to daddy.

Grandma gets ahold of the phone.

“Betty, we have it all under control, we are going to let her lay down, but not sleep”

“Please tell Brad to either take her to the ER, or bring her home now.”

“She will be fine, after she lays down for a bit”

“Please, just give the phone to Brad”

“Brad. please just bring her home now, I need to see her”

“OK, we will in just a minute”

“Ok, Love you”

so, it takes about 30 minutes for them to go 1.5 miles, and I am about to go nuts. They get home and the first thing I see is a HUGE knot on the back of her head. It is 2 inches in diameter, and protruding out from her skull about an inch to inch and a half. Heidi wants to lay down a bit, so we lay her on the couch, for just a few minutes. I asked her some questions and she kind of made sense. I then asked her to get up and try to check her motor function. This is when she left for the ER. She was unable to sit up from dizziness.

So, Brad takes her in as Hannah hadn’t eaten for quite awhile. He calls me to give the nurses all the needed info. They check her over really good and keep commenting about what a remarkable knot she has. She throws up and they do an x-ray to make sure that there is no skull fracture. They continue to watch her, and she vomits again, just after Brad tells me they are heading home after he signs the paperwork. So, they watch her for another 20 minutes. Brad finally gets home with her. She falls asleep on the couch and then vomits again. I called her pediatrician and he tells me she needs a head CT. We get ready to head off, when she starts acting much better, so we watch her for a bit and decide to put everyone to bed and just keep getting up with her to check on her. I don’t sleep hardly at all. I am up checking on her about every 45 min to hour and a half. She vomits several times through the night. She gets up in the morning on her own, and seems much better. Then she eats a bit and vomits. I find out that she can have the CT done here, so I call the doctor who saw her in the ER. He orders it and we go in. She is such a big girl and never moves during it. We go over to the Dr. office and there is no bleeding, no remarkable swelling, and no remarkable bruising. The contusion (knot) shows up very remarkably. We all breathe a sigh of relief and by that evening she is acting much better, and ate a little supper.

Today, she is doing great and just about back to normal as far has behavior, and so forth. She still has quite a knot and is tender to touch. Praising God that she is ok. Lots of prayers were said during those two days.

So, are you ready for some pictures? I didn’t get any pictures of Heidi’s bump. I was too focused on taking care of her. But, I do have pictures of our first day back to school.

Isaiah (2) is showing off his Bible coloring
Everyone is working hard.
Working hard.
The girls. Theses were taken before Heidi had her accident.

Filed Under: Christian Family, homeschool, Large Families, large family homeschool, winter fun, Workbox system

Workbox Ideas for the Christmas Season-Keep Christ at the Center

November 25, 2009 by 1 Comment

Have you been wondering what to put in your boxes? I know I struggle with it some weeks. During the Get Ready for Christmas Rush and so forth we will be doing some baking and crafting and such. My biggest goal this year is to keep Christ at the center of our days. We always try, but it seems that with all the goings on we sometimes fail. I plan to use our workboxes to do just that. Keep Christ at the center.

So, here are a few ideas to help you out for when you have to keep working on things without so many hands helping you. I mean you can only count so many cups of flour with -“Mommy, am I three yet?” “Is it today yet” “Are we eatting breakfast now”- asked every day after nap time-so I ask for one helper to help me, and everyone else will work in the workboxes. They will be utilized more during our “normal” free time, rather then our school time. They will work out of their workboxes, when I am sewing, baking and other preparations that I must attend to.

Our favorite games are:

  • Boggle
  • Guestures
  • Set
  • Scrabble
  • Uno
  • Skipbo
  • Flashcard wars
  • Snap it Up
  • 4-Way Countdown
  • Yahtzee
  • Bingo-many types addition, subtraction, multiplication, abc, etc
  • Cool Moves
  • Papa Bear
  • Sherlock
  • Right Turn Left Turn
  • Gopher It
  • Sorry

Favorite Computer Activities are:

Oregon Trail
Rainbow Rock
Quarter Mile Math
Vroot Vroom
Typing Instructor
Online Tanagram puzzle

My children love to play with pattern blocks and paper dolls too.

For crafts I have some wooden kits for them. We have completed two helicopters, a birdhouse and a dinosaur. There are some more that I would like to get for them.

Cutting out snowflakes.

Cotton for snowmen

A bunch of little sticks to build a nativity scene with-barn, manger, and some grass for the floor/ground. Use the animals that they have for their farm stuff for it, and let them make Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus.

My oldest two have been working on weaving potholders for Christmas gifts. My daughter and I are planning to try and make some scented coasters.

I plan to hope and try hard to bake one type of cookie or bread everyday. Filling the freezer. I will do one thing with each child, so my oldest five will get to do one baking day with me each week.

Other ideas, are to give them an old book of checks and register, or some magazines and paper. Let them try and create on their own. We are doing poetry one day a week right now, so that is incorporated into our workboxes.

Let them make some Christmas cards, or scrapbook a few pictures from the year to give as a gift. I am also hoping to get my oldest started on the knifty knitter before too long. Maybe he can make a hat or scarf.

I also plan to have our Jesse Tree Ornaments in our workboxes.

I have really enjoyed having our workboxes. They have really made it fun to watch our children eagerly look forward to their daily or so fun surprise activity. I pray these ideas will help you get through the Christmas rush and keep those workboxes in use, while keeping Christ at the center of your day.

Filed Under: Christian Family, homeschool, homeschool organization, homeschool schedules, large family homeschool, Workbox system

SpellQuizzer Giveaway at RaisingArrows…I a

November 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment

m one of those mom’s that has two different children when it comes to spelling. My oldest struggles with spelling and my second child is always wanting to learn to spell something. SO, I get a little frustrated. I saw this giveaway and figure it is a great tool. It would work nicely for both of them. Plus it would make a nice addition to our workbox system.

You can find out how to enter here.

Filed Under: Giveaway, homeschool, Just for Fun, Workbox system

File Folder Game as My First Giveaway-In Honor of Isaiah’s Second Birthday

October 30, 2009 by Leave a Comment

I am going to be giving away a file folder game. To enter I would like you to post about this giveaway on your blog, facebook page, or other page-The Homeschool Lounge, A Virtuous Woman, etc. Then post the link back here in the comments, so we can all get to know you.

The file folder game is already laminated. You will need to apply the type of adhesive you like on the pieces. I use removable double sided sticky tape. I will put all names in a bucket and then have Isaiah draw the lucky winner on his birthday. The drawing will be held on Isaiah’s second birthday, Nov. 15 so get this out and about to get yourself entered.

I am hoping that having a game will help others to get an idea as to what to put in your workboxes.

Filed Under: Giveaway, homeschool, Just for Fun, Workbox system

Large Family Homeschool-History Lessons-Family School Style

September 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Our family believes that History is-HIS STORY-as in God’s story of the past. So, though we have not studied any ancient history, we are currently studying American History from a Christian perspective, with the understanding that not all believe that God was involved in America’s heritage. Don’t get me wrong, we DO believe that God is and was involved in America’s His-Story. We do want our children to understand that there are other views and beliefs, so that they are not broadsided when it is a topic of discussion. If they are adequately prepared, they will be able to have an educated discussion and quite possibly be able to help someone learn the truth.

I am not a boxed curriculum kind of homeschooler. I don’t use a boxed set for anything. History is no different, and boy do we use a lot of very interesting and mind challenging resources. Here is a list with links of the many resources you can find on our shelves. We also use the library and check out many books at a time, to go with our current topics.

TruthQuest History-Our spine
Homeschool in the Woods:

Time Travelers New World Explorers

Time Travelers Colonial Life

Time Travelers The American Revolution

Time Travelers The Early 19th Century

There is one we don’t yet have, but it is in the plans- Time Travelers The Civil War

From this site we also have:

HISTORY Through the Ages Collection of Historical Timeline Figures on CD Scroll to the bottom of the page for the CD, which is what I have and I LOVE it.

The Olde World Style United States and World Maps CD Again scroll to the bottom of the page.

We have Story of the World Vol 1-4, and the Activity Guides.

For supplements to read, so that if we don’t go to the library, we can still do history we have this “spines” on our shelves:

This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall

A Child’s History of the World by Virgil M. Hillyer

All three volumes of The Light and The Glory for Children Series.

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies by H.A. Guerber

Now for how I use all this and don’t get anyone bogged down. We do not read any of these from cover to cover. I go through and find what pertains to what we are learning and if it is age appropriate for all, it becomes a read aloud, if it is above most, our oldest has it for assigned reading. A lot of the above are activity based to bring these lesson home and make them real. We also have a history notebook that has lots of our lessons in it. This is mainly for my fourth grader.

Our History notebook contains mapping activities, short narrations about istorical figures and events, coloring pages, poems, readings printed off from online resources or Homeschool in the Woods, brief descriptions of projects, and anything else that we come across.

Many of our notebooking pages are made using the Homeschool in the Woods Timeline figures. I also use them to make coloring pages. If I can’t find what I want on that, I google it. I have also found two fairly reasonable price notebooking sets that are nice to have:
Notebooking Pages

History Scribe

Below are a few pictures from our History Notebook-I want to add here, that my fourth grader has dysgraphia, so his handwriting is not up to par, but I am proud of his efforts, and am glad to see improvement, and he likes to have these in his notebook.







We also are enjoying timeline activites. We have three different timelines, a wall timeline, a notebook timeline, and then we have “topic” timelines.

The wall timeline is an overview of everything. It is not large enough to put everything on. The notebook timeline is more in depth and has much more in it, including any books that are read that pertain to history. I print the cover of the book off and we glue it in, in the “era” that it took place. The topic timeline is just that. It is just for a certain topic such as Explorers, Colonial, etc. By using these three timelines our children can grasp how much time there really has been.
Notebook timeline:

Wall Timeline



Fridays are Timeline days, so our timeline is missing about 7 figures. They are cutout and ready to place tomorrow.

We also include some other activities. We have cooked food from certain eras, made replicas of different things, (viking boats), and visit museums and other places of interest. Knot tying, labeling, and locating places on maps too. Right now as we study the explorers, there are not many “activities” that I have found. However, shortly we will be moving into the Colonial era and there will be an abundance of activities.

We do history in the afternoons. Our whole family is learning new things and our children have a desire to learn about our heritage. I hope this helps you see how you can get rid of that dull, dry, textbook, and bring history to life for your family.

Filed Under: Christian Family, homeschool, homeschool organization, Large Families, large family homeschool, Workbox system

Large Family Workbox System for Homeschool

August 7, 2009 by 11 Comments

Well, we have completed our first, full week of school. It went GREAT. As I posted earlier this week, our workbox system has given us more time for some fun things. Our children are really enjoying it too. This post will include pictures and a description of how our system works.

Due to space constraints and financial constraints we are using hanging file boxes for our boxes. Each child gets his own box, unless they are close enough in age to be combined in grade levels (Heidi and Noah share a box-both Pre-K). For each subject they have a hanging folder that their books for that subject go in.

Here is a picture of the boxes stacked:

Here is a picture of the inside of the boxes with hanging folders:

Each hanging folder has a subject card velcroed to it. When they complete the subject, they put the card on their “What I did Today” chart. They have a chore card for each “set” of chores we do, morning, lunch, afternoon, and evening. When they complete a set of chores, that card goes on the chart.

Here is a picture of the inside of our 1st grade box (Lora’s)with subject card

Here are pictures of the cards being taken off the hanging folder and applied to the “what I did today” chart:



A picture of the “what I did today” chart:

After they apply their cards to the chart, they turn their folder into the completed work box. It stays here, until I check their work during nap time.



For subjects (Bible, history and science), that our family does together-“family school”- we have only one large box for each subject. Their subject cards are on the outside of these boxes.

Under the completed work box is a set of drawers that hold our daily project and craft supplies, and our library books.

We have a set of “fun cards for each child. These go in whatever subject I decide and are just a fun alternative then their text books for that day. Here is a picture of those:

Here is a picture of our children completing their “table time” assignments. Even Isaiah gets to get in on the fun.

Each child has their own pencil box. Each box contains, 1 glue stick, 2 pencils, 1-24 box of crayons, and 1 pair of scissors. I chose to do it this way so they would all be held responsible for their own supplies. Now, if I find a pencil, I know who did not take care of it. If they need scissors, they are there and handy.

Here are a few of my final thoughts on this system for us. I did not make a “what I did chart” for our pre-K children. I figured their little vecro subject cards would get lost and or destroyed. So far, they haven’t asked about it. I figure if they do, we will do sticker charts. ;o)

You are probably wondering how much time it takes me to “reload” our boxes each day. It only takes me about 15 minutes or so. If I have to gather a bunch of supplies for our project, or craft, then a bit longer.

Do I feel the time I spent setting this up was worth it? YES!!!! We are not losing or misplacing anything. It is saving us a ton of time, and our children are motivated to complete their work.

How long did it take to set up this system? Because I had to plan over a long period as to how I wanted it all to work, I took advantage of our first year to take the summer off and used my extra time then, to work on this. Now, understand that my extra time, with a garden, baby, and farming husband is rather limited. I also in that time, planned how we were changing other areas of our school.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to implement your own system.

Here are some more links to posts, that I have written about implementing workboxes and workbox ideas.

Spring workbox ideas

Christmas Workbox ideas

The Many Boxes of Homeschooling

Using Workboxes in the Garden

Filed Under: homeschool, homeschool organization, Large Families, Workbox system Tagged With: , ,
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