I do most of my shopping and deal hunting on Sundays so I thought I would share what I scored today.
Fred Meyer:
Tazo Chai Tea Concentrate: 2 for $7.00
That's not a very big score but it is the cheapest I have ever found it regular price and if I have it in the house, I will resist the urge to spend all of our money at Starbucks.
Safeway:
Trans #1
5 gallons of Milk = $12.55
5 boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats $2.00 x 5 = $10.00
Use 5 Buy One Gallon of Milk get $2.00 off Honey bunches of Oats Coupons
Total Out of Pocket = $12.55
Get Back $4.00 catilina from Post Cereal Promo
Trans #2
Skippy Peanut butter $1.49 x 2
(with in-ad coupon, Limit 4)
Use 2 $0.60/1
Mac N Cheese 4@.50 each, 1 @1.09
(2/1.00 limit 4)
Use 1 $1/5
Sta Flo Starch $1.99
Total = $6.03
Use $4.00 Catalina from trans #1
Total = $2.03
So I got 5 gallons of milk, 5 boxes of cereal, 2 jars of PB, 5 boxes of Mac n Cheese and 1 bottle of starch (for my husband's work shirts) for $14.58. Not too shabby.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Notebook: Week of 2/22/10
Week 20
Teach Your Child to Read: Lessons 25-28
Shannon really struggled these last two lessons. We'll see how it goes this week but I may slow the lessons down to half a lesson a day. He can sound out all the sounds in a word but then can't process what he said. I think his sensory integration issues are getting in the way. With some time and practice I'm sure he'll be just fine.
Chloe is getting the concepts pretty easily. She opens the lessons book up and reads from it on her own all the time. Here's a video of her being awesome.
Poetry
We're working on Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson. Shannon and Chloe have both memorized The first Stanza and half of the second
Handwriting
Letters I, T, J, and D
Shannon works pretty quickly through these without complaint. We've come such a long way.
Chloe traces the letter the best she can ans then scribbles all over the paper. I still can't figure out if she's right or left handed.
Math
MCP Worksheets: Chapter 6, Numbers 1-20
Shannon speeds through these without any help. He's picked up on counting mixed coins pretty quickly too. Chloe was doing awesome until we got to number 14 or 15. She gets some of the numbers confused. But she just does what she can and then scribbles on the paper.
Religion
Read a couple pages out of God's Love Story
Who Am I? Lesson 11: Jesus is God the Son
Did a few craft projects, made a little bible so the kids cold draw their favorite bible story. Shannon drew a picture of baby Jesus. He pretty much loves anything having to do with Christmas. He asked me to draw the angels singing so I did my best.
Chloe drew a heart because she loves Jesus. Awwwwwww. She wanted me to help her color it but wouldn't let me color red. She wanted it black. Who am I to tell the artist what color the heart should be?
Other stuff
Occupational Therapy
Went to the park
Gymnastics (finally back after missing two weeks due to sick kids)
Stacey has started reading seed catalogs with the kid at night so they can pick out what they want to attempt to grow in the garden this year. Stacey is in charge of this project. I'm staying out of it.
Teach Your Child to Read: Lessons 25-28
Shannon really struggled these last two lessons. We'll see how it goes this week but I may slow the lessons down to half a lesson a day. He can sound out all the sounds in a word but then can't process what he said. I think his sensory integration issues are getting in the way. With some time and practice I'm sure he'll be just fine.
Chloe is getting the concepts pretty easily. She opens the lessons book up and reads from it on her own all the time. Here's a video of her being awesome.
Poetry
We're working on Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson. Shannon and Chloe have both memorized The first Stanza and half of the second
Handwriting
Letters I, T, J, and D
Shannon works pretty quickly through these without complaint. We've come such a long way.
Chloe traces the letter the best she can ans then scribbles all over the paper. I still can't figure out if she's right or left handed.
Math
MCP Worksheets: Chapter 6, Numbers 1-20
Shannon speeds through these without any help. He's picked up on counting mixed coins pretty quickly too. Chloe was doing awesome until we got to number 14 or 15. She gets some of the numbers confused. But she just does what she can and then scribbles on the paper.
Religion
Read a couple pages out of God's Love Story
Who Am I? Lesson 11: Jesus is God the Son
Did a few craft projects, made a little bible so the kids cold draw their favorite bible story. Shannon drew a picture of baby Jesus. He pretty much loves anything having to do with Christmas. He asked me to draw the angels singing so I did my best.
Chloe drew a heart because she loves Jesus. Awwwwwww. She wanted me to help her color it but wouldn't let me color red. She wanted it black. Who am I to tell the artist what color the heart should be?
Other stuff
Occupational Therapy
Went to the park
Gymnastics (finally back after missing two weeks due to sick kids)
Stacey has started reading seed catalogs with the kid at night so they can pick out what they want to attempt to grow in the garden this year. Stacey is in charge of this project. I'm staying out of it.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Homeschool Conference
I have been "attending" a virtual homeschool conference this week and it is pretty awesome so far. It is called Heart of the Matter: Winter Home school Refresher Conference. A few weeks ago I signed up to receive a free issue of Home Educating Family Magazine and ever since, I have been getting various e-mails from them recommending this or that. I get a lot of ads everyday so I don't look at everything but this conference caught my eye. I think the ad started something like, "Are you suffering from February home school burnout?" AM I????!!! Man, they really knew how to peek my interest. So I log on with Go To Meeting everyday, whenever I can, and listen to different speakers. And if I miss anything, they will e-mail me a link to the MP3 of each session on March 5th. It's nice to hear them live, though, because some of the speakers have powerpoints as well. Can you believe the technology today? The only bummer is, it begins each day at 9:30am EST. 6:30am PST?! So, I miss the first speaker everyday for sure and then the next one begins at 8am so I've been catching most of that. When the conference is over on Thursday, I'll probably do a review of my favorite speakers. Stay tuned . . .
So, now that I am using my new awesome Focus Clipboard with fancy checklists and committing to my new discipline, not only have I been able to listen to most of the conference sessions live but I also took my kids to the park today and did not miss anything on my list. Two weeks ago, I couldn't get anything done and I didn't even have anything extra going on. It's so stinkin' exciting! Speaking of the park, 50 degrees with no sun and some wind is still too cold to go to the park. But the kids were being so awesome these past two days while I have been trying to catch these conference sessions and they wanted to go so bad, I just couldn't refuse. So here they are, living it up, while I froze:
On the plus side, this was Athena's first time on a park swing and she was laughing her cute little head off.
One more thing: it is so nifty that Stacey and I are reading the same Lenten reflections everyday. Just this evening he initiated a discussion about today's reflection. Unfortunately, I read mine at night and he does his in the morning so I didn't know what he was talking about but still, it's pretty cool.
So, now that I am using my new awesome Focus Clipboard with fancy checklists and committing to my new discipline, not only have I been able to listen to most of the conference sessions live but I also took my kids to the park today and did not miss anything on my list. Two weeks ago, I couldn't get anything done and I didn't even have anything extra going on. It's so stinkin' exciting! Speaking of the park, 50 degrees with no sun and some wind is still too cold to go to the park. But the kids were being so awesome these past two days while I have been trying to catch these conference sessions and they wanted to go so bad, I just couldn't refuse. So here they are, living it up, while I froze:
On the plus side, this was Athena's first time on a park swing and she was laughing her cute little head off.
One more thing: it is so nifty that Stacey and I are reading the same Lenten reflections everyday. Just this evening he initiated a discussion about today's reflection. Unfortunately, I read mine at night and he does his in the morning so I didn't know what he was talking about but still, it's pretty cool.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Fat Tuesday
My mask-wearing, pancaking eating kids on Fat Tuesday
Athena is a bit too young for pancakes but I couldn't leave her out . . . she's too cute.
Discipline . . . for me, not the kids
We took two weeks off from homeschooling for Christmas and I was really excited to get back to it in January. I had spent some time during the break reevaluating our materials, reading some other home schooling blogs, checking out a ton of books from the library on homeschooling, and just basically figuring it all out. So we hit the books the first week of January and by the third week, I was burnt out again. And what's more, I felt tired and lazy, out of touch with God, out of touch with my kids, and I wasn't getting anything done around the house. Stacey usually does some dishes and laundry a bit on the weekends but all of the sudden, I noticed he was doing A LOT of dishes and laundry and not just on the weekend. I felt like I was busy all the time and not getting anything done. And the fact that I was burnt out again after only three weeks of school was a bit scary. Now, a couple of things occurred that put a kink in things (Engaged Encounter Weekend that we hadn't finished one talk for, two weeks of sick kids, speech evaluation, other misc appointments, new coupon hobby - more on that later) but I could have easily kept myself on track if I would have had the discipline. *DING* Our word of the day.
I was listening to The Catholic Guy with Lino Rulli (The Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite Radio 159) and he was talking about his discipline. He wakes up every morning at the same time (no alarm), followed by morning prayer, followed by showering, followed by going to the gym, followed by more prayer and showering (it sounded weird at first but my husband says you never want to be the stinky guy or be next to the stinky guy at the gym) and he had more but I didn't take notes or anything. He also made an awesome catholic connection having to do with discipline in the religious life and some other awesome stuff that, again, I don't completely recall. It got me thinking about my own routine, or incredible lack there of, and why I felt like I was chasing my tail.
With Lent quickly approaching, I felt this was the perfect time to make some changes in my life so I turned to my trusty friend: The List. Oh how I love a good to-do list. I keep several small notebooks and note pads next to my laptop on my desk so I can jot something down when it pops into my head. The only problem is, those notes get buried and will probably only be uncovered by an archaeologist thousands of years from now. I started browsing some blogs on home office organization and found one where she had set up this really clever system of hanging clipboards up on hooks attached to the back wall of her desk. She kept really important school papers and such on the clipboards and since they were attached to the wall, they never got buried. Genius!!! I have three clipboards but I'll focus on one, which I call my focus clipboard. The top sheet in my newly created "Weekday Schedule", right underneath is my newly created "Weekly lesson plan", under that are teaching materials for that particular day, underneath that is a piece of blue card stock, underneath that are Shannon's work sheet's for that day, under that a piece of pink card stock, under that are Chloe's worksheets for that day. Okay it sounds like a lot but it really isn't and the card stock makes it really easy to flip through and find what I need. I have a black blinder that I was using to keep all of the materials for the week but I felt it was really cumbersome to carry around with me and check things off. On Sunday, I gather everything for the week and put it in the black binder and then pull from it each night and put the daily materials on the clipboard.
Check out my new fancy lists:
When I have the time, I will figure out how to insert these as documents and then they can be stolen and used for good by other moms. But, I am new to this whole blogging thing so that might take a minute. So back to discipline. I used this system for the first time last week and it totally rocked. I kept the house clean, laundry done, and all home school lessons were completed. Yes! But (of course I have a but) I did not do very well in the prayer and quiet time departments. Why is it so hard to just be quiet! Let me just share with you what I found on a piece of scrap paper when I was deciding what to do for Lent:
Goals:
Prayer
Read huge stack of books piling up
Healthier diet/fitness routine
Work through anger book and journal (more on this later)
Morning - Daily Readings
Afternoon - journal, 3 min retreat (new iphone app I discovered)
Night - Daily Reflections for Lent
Family Service Project: Form Joggin' For The Noggin' Team and raise some dough
So I incorporated the prayer, quiet, and reading into my weekday schedule but somehow I keep skipping over it. But today starts a new week and I will try again. So I better end now while it is still relatively quiet around here and get my prayer on.
I was listening to The Catholic Guy with Lino Rulli (The Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite Radio 159) and he was talking about his discipline. He wakes up every morning at the same time (no alarm), followed by morning prayer, followed by showering, followed by going to the gym, followed by more prayer and showering (it sounded weird at first but my husband says you never want to be the stinky guy or be next to the stinky guy at the gym) and he had more but I didn't take notes or anything. He also made an awesome catholic connection having to do with discipline in the religious life and some other awesome stuff that, again, I don't completely recall. It got me thinking about my own routine, or incredible lack there of, and why I felt like I was chasing my tail.
With Lent quickly approaching, I felt this was the perfect time to make some changes in my life so I turned to my trusty friend: The List. Oh how I love a good to-do list. I keep several small notebooks and note pads next to my laptop on my desk so I can jot something down when it pops into my head. The only problem is, those notes get buried and will probably only be uncovered by an archaeologist thousands of years from now. I started browsing some blogs on home office organization and found one where she had set up this really clever system of hanging clipboards up on hooks attached to the back wall of her desk. She kept really important school papers and such on the clipboards and since they were attached to the wall, they never got buried. Genius!!! I have three clipboards but I'll focus on one, which I call my focus clipboard. The top sheet in my newly created "Weekday Schedule", right underneath is my newly created "Weekly lesson plan", under that are teaching materials for that particular day, underneath that is a piece of blue card stock, underneath that are Shannon's work sheet's for that day, under that a piece of pink card stock, under that are Chloe's worksheets for that day. Okay it sounds like a lot but it really isn't and the card stock makes it really easy to flip through and find what I need. I have a black blinder that I was using to keep all of the materials for the week but I felt it was really cumbersome to carry around with me and check things off. On Sunday, I gather everything for the week and put it in the black binder and then pull from it each night and put the daily materials on the clipboard.
Check out my new fancy lists:
When I have the time, I will figure out how to insert these as documents and then they can be stolen and used for good by other moms. But, I am new to this whole blogging thing so that might take a minute. So back to discipline. I used this system for the first time last week and it totally rocked. I kept the house clean, laundry done, and all home school lessons were completed. Yes! But (of course I have a but) I did not do very well in the prayer and quiet time departments. Why is it so hard to just be quiet! Let me just share with you what I found on a piece of scrap paper when I was deciding what to do for Lent:
Goals:
Prayer
Read huge stack of books piling up
Healthier diet/fitness routine
Work through anger book and journal (more on this later)
Morning - Daily Readings
Afternoon - journal, 3 min retreat (new iphone app I discovered)
Night - Daily Reflections for Lent
Family Service Project: Form Joggin' For The Noggin' Team and raise some dough
So I incorporated the prayer, quiet, and reading into my weekday schedule but somehow I keep skipping over it. But today starts a new week and I will try again. So I better end now while it is still relatively quiet around here and get my prayer on.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Where do I begin . . .
Well, I finally decided to start my own blog for a number of reasons. I have been reading a lot of other people's blogs to get ideas for homeschooling, faith formation, and basic organization and now I think I am ready to mash together what I have learned and make it my own. Also, I feel like I need a new way to keep my brain organized and I thought if I write stuff down it might help. And what better time to start getting it together than during this Lenten season.
I think I will begin with some homeschooling stuff:
Shannon's Kindergarten Curriculum
Language Arts
It took me FOREVER to actually pair it all down to that list. When we first made up our minds to home school, I think I spent exactly one boat load of money on books about home schooling and every piece of home schooling material that caught my eye. I have it all still stashed away to maybe use for summer. If I don't end up using it in the next year or so I might sell some of it. It takes a lot of trial and error to figure out how your kids learn best and how you teach best and what materials work.
I also finally sat down about a month ago and wrote down what my goals are for Shannon this year, which helped me in working out a better schedule. So, basically, I did a lot of stuff backwards but I learned a lot in the process.
Well, I think that's pretty good for a first entry. I have a feeling I will be blogging a lot in the next couple of weeks while I clear out the backed up contents of my brain.
I think I will begin with some homeschooling stuff:
Shannon's Kindergarten Curriculum
Language Arts
- Time4Learning (finished in December)
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (should be done by end of June)
- Stories read aloud to him at bedtime
- Handwriting Without Tears (finished in December)
- Mead Writing Fundamentals: Capital Letter Stories (should be finished in 7 weeks)
- Mead Writing Fundamentals: Lowercase Letter Stories (begin in 7 weeks, finish by end of June)
- Poetry Memorization from Harp and Laurel Wreath
- Modern Curriculum Press - K (we started with Book A (1st grade) but the pace and amount of writing was a bit overwhelming so after the chapter on addition, I went back to Book K. It moves pretty slow but then Chloe can follow along so that's handy)
- Image of God Series: Who Am I? Kindergarten
- God's Love Story
- Hand's On Projects from A Year With God and Big Book of Catholic Customs
- Prayer Memorization
- Soccer (fall and spring) and Gymnastics (winter)
- Nature walks
- Trips to the Library
- Field trips with our home school group
It took me FOREVER to actually pair it all down to that list. When we first made up our minds to home school, I think I spent exactly one boat load of money on books about home schooling and every piece of home schooling material that caught my eye. I have it all still stashed away to maybe use for summer. If I don't end up using it in the next year or so I might sell some of it. It takes a lot of trial and error to figure out how your kids learn best and how you teach best and what materials work.
I also finally sat down about a month ago and wrote down what my goals are for Shannon this year, which helped me in working out a better schedule. So, basically, I did a lot of stuff backwards but I learned a lot in the process.
Well, I think that's pretty good for a first entry. I have a feeling I will be blogging a lot in the next couple of weeks while I clear out the backed up contents of my brain.
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