Good Bye 2013!

This has definitely been a whirl wind month for my family and our town as we settle into our new "normal" and move forward to rebuild.

What you see driving around my town!

Today I will update on some of our school work that has been taking place and where we are headed for 2014!

In 3rd Grade Elijah is moving right along and I am so proud of him for finishing up his math book so he will be moving on to the next level.  When we began homeschooling last year about half way through the year I realized that he was not catching on as quickly in math as the program was moving.  So last January we switched to Math U See, after taking the placement test we put in him the Alpha level and he quickly moved through that and finished by May.  I could really tell it was clicking for him!  So this year we began using Beta, and again he moved really quickly and was able to finish it up!  For Gamma I am anticipating getting about half way through the book before we end our school year in May, which is fine with me.  I feel like he is finally getting caught up to where he should be in math at the 3rd grade level.

In October we visited a Dairy Farm!  This is Elijah right after he scared the little calf!

Noah and Zach watching the goats.

Spelling has been the same way for him, we are almost finished with Level 3 in All About Spelling and we will be moving on to Level 4 sometime in January.  Once again this is one subject I felt he was falling behind in and we made the choice last January to switch to All About Spelling.  That was a great decision for us, he has been making great strides and really catching on to the concepts quickly.

In My Fathers World Adventures in US History, we have begun to learn about the states, we just finished the first 13 colonies.  We are having so much fun learning all the cool facts about each state!  This week we talked about Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road.  When we come back from our Christmas break we will begin learning about the Westward Expansion.  Have I mentioned before that I love History and Geography!!  Elijah and I are so excited about the things we are learning.

My 3 Little Indians ready for Thanksgiving!

In Kindergarten we have had a rough road this past month.  Back in October we began adding in reading lessons, those were not going well!  Noah was struggling to remember how to put the sounds together and making them into words.  So with much thought and struggle on my part, we have decided to not pursue the reading lessons at this time.  I have heard, and been given the advice, to shelve it and come back to it.  He is just not ready!  On the other hand I found a computer learning program that he loves!  ABC Mouse.com!!  So he loves doing his "school" on the computer!  We are still using a majority of the My Fathers World Kindergarten, we use the Bible lessons, the sound cards and sound discrimination pages, and we are also using the handwriting pages.  I have hopes that he will come around before summer to want to learn to read, but I have heard account of young boys not being ready to read until the age of 7, so I am trying to prepare myself for that!  Its hard to think of because Elijah was an early reader, and loves to read.

Tot school for Zach has been reading, puzzles, playing with rice, and Daniel Tigers Neighborhood!  The poor kid is going through a lot right now, we are getting ready to remove his "babis" (i.e. pacifier) and he is not too happy about that!  On a good note though I am so impressed at how much that kid is picking up!  He can identify all of the letters in the alphabet and is working on learning their sounds.

Starting today we are on a two week break from school!  We will be starting back up on January 6th! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and  a Happy New Year!  See you all in 2014!

My Pinterest Success!  A felt Nativity play set.  This is what it looked like at night.

This is what it looked like by 9 am the next day!  He loves it though.

My Boys getting ready to go play in the snow.

Merry Christmas!

The Scariest Day of My Life

The following is a story about how my little town in central Illinois was changed forever!

On Saturday evening November 16, 2013 I was deciding whether or not to go to church in the morning.  I had heard we were supposed to be getting some storms and since my husband wasn't feeling well I didn't know if I wanted to take all three boys to church in the rain by myself.  So when I woke up Sunday morning I saw that the weather was fine, no rain, almost cloudless sky.  So I packed up the kids headed to church while my husband stayed home.

Church let out at about 10:30 I went and picked up all three kiddos and headed out to the parking lot to go home.  I left my church at about 10:45 am, and was planning on going to take back some movies to the video store. (Later I found out that the tornado struck my church parking lot at about 10:50 am).  About the time I get to an intersection, which is where I could either go straight and head home or turn to take some back roads to the video store, was when I got a message on my phone.  The message stated that there was a weather emergency and to take cover.  I had never seen this type of message before and just thought it was my weather app on the phone, a few seconds after that alert the radio weather alert kicked in and began stating there was a tornado warning for a few counties over.  It also said that the expected arrival of the storm in my town was 11:05 am, it was now 10:55 am.

About this same time I receive a phone call from my brother, who lives about 45 minutes away and he was telling me what was coming and to take shelter.  My response to him was I am driving as fast as I can to get home.  I was still headed towards the video store to return my movies.

Since I have lived in Central Illinois my whole life I am used to tornado watches and warnings being issued, and usually I can spot in the sky when its about to happen.  That day was not the case, this storm came so fast and so strong it was nothing I had ever seen before.  The sky was clear, there was no rain or anything!  Then all of a sudden black sky!

After hanging up with my brother I try to call my husband at home to let him know what I was doing.  By the time I got to a stop light about a half mile from the video store, it was dark and beginning to rain.  While driving down the road towards the video store I was watching the sky and began to see the rotation begin in the clouds.  I ran into the video store and threw the movies in, jumped back into the car and the power goes out and hail begins.   In hindsight I should have stayed at the video store and rode out the storm.  But I decided to try to get home.  I go speeding down the road towards town and all the while watching to my right now as the tornado is forming.  I get to another stop light and can see the huge mass of a tornado getting closer and closer to where my boys and I were in the van.  It was at this point that I begin praying and asking God for wisdom to know what to do, I was scared to death!

I suddenly stop the car and turn around because I was getting ready to drive right into the oncoming tornado.  I go flying through some parking lots and it starts pouring rain, almost to the point I couldn't see where I was driving.  In my rearview mirror I am watching the tornado, all of a sudden it looks as though its going to turn and come back, but it moves on.

We sit at the shopping center for a few minutes and then I decide its time to get home.  I head back to the road that I was on before, only to get stopped because of downed power lines.  On the side of the road are about 3 cars with window busted out.  Its at that moment I realize had I kept driving another 30 seconds I would have been right in the middle of the tornado!  And had I stayed put and not turned around we could have had debris flying into our car!  God totally answered my prayer for wisdom and told me to get out of there!

After several attempts to get ahold of my husband at home to let him know we were ok, I was finally able to get through.  It also took me several attempts to find a road that was passable.  Driving down the highway all I could see was places where houses once stood, and debris filled fields!  Siding, mattresses, couch cushions, books, and papers.  Driving through town to get back to my house, which was fine and my side of town was untouched, there were people standing out in front of their houses with unsure looks on their faces.  I finally reached my house and was so shaken up I had a hard time getting out of the car!

I am so thankful that I had the wisdom to turn my car around and that we were unharmed!  Later I found out that about 250-500 homes in my town were damaged or leveled.  Still later I found out that I know 5 of them.  Through it all there was only one person who died, and only a handful of injuries. Thankfully people heeded the warnings and sirens and took shelter.  Most in my town were either at church or getting ready to sit down and watch a football game.

Living Frugally

Lets talk frugal living.  My family has not always been a frugal family, in fact my husband and I went through a phase of not really monitoring what we were spending.  Over the past few years we have slowly been redirecting our view of money.  It started as a way to get out of debt, and now has become our way of life.  So today I am going to share what we have been doing to save money and be better stewards of what God has blessed us with.

First of all I already shared how we live on a tight budget.  How do we make that work?  We use what is referred to as the Envelope System.  We use cash for most things in our monthly spending.  Bills are paid online as much as possible and we still use the debit card for gas (mostly for convince sake).  Groceries, clothing, gifts, and eating out are all cash based.  That way if we run out of cash then we don't spend it.  Period. End of story!  This has helped us greatly in getting our budget under control.

I also try to buy used when ever possible.  I shop garage sales, second hand stores, and ask around before buying new.  I have found some great deals just by asking friends on Facebook.  I have gotten coats for my kids, a dresser for my bedroom, and even curriculum!  You just never know who might be holding onto something they really don't want and that you could use.  So never underestimate the power of asking!  I am also very fortunate that I have 3 boys, and I can hand clothes down.  I also have a very generous mother in law that loves to buy clothes for them.  So its not too often that I have to worry about clothing my children.

I don't drive needlessly around places.  I try to run errands on one day of the week, and plan play dates or field trips along with running errands.  With the price of gas I just can't afford to be wasteful.

We don't buy paper products like napkins or paper towels.  Those are too expensive especially when we have towels that work just as well.  I buy generic about 98% of the time, there are a few things that I just really like the name brand, so we "splurge" and get that.

My husband and I also talk over purchases before spending.  If I want to get a pair of shoes for the boys, we talk about it first, that cuts down on the impulse buying.  There have been countless times I have called my hubby from the store to ask about something, and he has talked me out of it.  Thankfully too, because it would have put us over budget!

We have cut out our cable and shopped around for a cheaper internet.  We have a monthly subscription to Netflix and that keeps the kids happy.  Our cell phones are piggy backed onto my parents, so we spend less on those.  I am the only one who has a smart phone, my poor hubby is still carrying his trusty old flip phone.

My final bit of advice if you are trying to live a frugal life... If you can't afford it, don't have cash to pay for it, then don't buy it!!  That montra has saved us countless times!

How I Feed My Family of 5 on a Tight Budget

Today I am going to share a little about how we save money on our grocery bill every month.

Our budget it super tight, we spend around $350 a month for the five of us.  That includes toiletries and such.  First thing that I did over a year ago was to stop buying paper products.  I no long spend half my budget on paper towels or napkins!  We use kitchen towels to clean up spills and we use cloth napkins at the dinner table.

 I also make my own laundry detergent, I use this recipe here.  It says it will last a family of four a year, I made my first batch in June and I am going to need to make another one in December.  So even though it didn't last quite as long as I had hoped it really is still a cost savings for us to spend about $30 to last us 6 months.

Another way I spend less at the grocery store is making a monthly menu.  We get paid every two weeks, so that is when I do my grocery shopping.  I only buy enough to last the two weeks, so menu planning is a MUST for me.  Our menu also does not consist of fancy food.  We eat meatloaf, sloppy joes, tacos, spaghetti, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and right now LOTS of homemade soup!  Yes I know not the healthiest menu, but our budget is tight and I try to fix foods my kids will eat so we don't waste!

When making my soups I fill the crock pot full and make it stretch!  Meaning I might add a little extra water to it.  One crockpot full of soup will give us at least 3-4 meals.  So we eat it once then I freeze the rest into 2-3 containers.  So at no extra cost I have extra meals ready to go in my freezer!  I plan those into the menu for that month or the next as well.

My favorite "secret" weapon right now... ALDI!  That place is awesome for saving money.  I was a total skeptic for a long time, because I couldn't do everything in one place.  Until recently I would have had to drive an extra 20 minutes to another town to go to Aldi.  Last year though one opened up right next door to our Wal-Mart!  Do you think I went right away, nope!  It wasn't until this summer after begin convinced by friends to at least try it.  And you know what, its awesome!  I can get a full cart with about 2 weeks worth of food for $80!  Where at Wal-Mart I was spending at least $100 or more just on food!  If you have yet to try Aldi, I urge you to at least try a few things.  There has only been a handful of items that we have not cared for, but everything else there has been great.

I don't coupon, I don't look at add because quite frankly... Aint nobody got time for that!!!

What does your family do to save money?  I am always looking for new ways to improve my grocery savings, and I would love to hear from you.

Awesome Gifts to give 9 Year old Boys

Elijah had his 9th birthday a few weeks ago, and there is always the question of what do you get him.  Yes of course there are Legos, but we are getting a little crazy in that department, so I was trying to think outside the box!

Every year for my kids birthdays my mother in law takes them to the book store to pick out a couple of books.  So I wasn't surprised when she did this for Elijah.  Some of his favorite books right now are The Magic Tree House books, he also picked out The Lego Book (which gives the history of Legos).

 Magic Tree House Books

The Lego Book

He had also been asking for a bow and arrow set for a while, so my husband and I thought we would just get him a cheapo one from Wal-Mart, it was like $6.  Yeah, skip the cheapo ones and get a good quality one, because cheapo broke in less than 10 minutes!  So we will be ordering him a bow and arrow set from JM Cremps.

Bow and Arrow from JM Cremps

His favorite gift of all was the Snap Circuits Jr.!  He sat and played with that for about 2 hours!  I thought he would enjoy it, but didn't think he would love it, well he LOVES it!  We will definitely be getting another one for Christmas!

Snap Circuits Jr.

Yes he did get a few Lego sets this year as well, those are always great stand by gifts.  This year he really wanted the Lone Ranger sets, so he got the Teepee and the Silver Mine.

The Silver Mine

The Teepee

Disclaimer: I am NOT an affiliate with any of the links provided. I do not receive any compensation through these links.   I just chose to add them to help you find the products quickly.  

MFW Kindergarten

With Noah we have been going through My Fathers World Kindergarten curriculum.  Its a 6 day program, but I have actually condensed it down to 4.  I know that might not sit well with some, but its what I needed to do.  For one thing, Noah struggles with wanting to do his school work, so 4 days is about his maximum.  I also have a problem carrying over the topic from one week into the next, for some reason I just don't like that concept.  Its hard for my Type A brain to grasp.  So right now we are doing 4 days a week with him.

Over the past few weeks we have covered S-Sun, M-Moon, L-Leaf, A-Apple and N-Nest.  These have all been super fun units, with lots of activities built in.

Beginning with the L-Leaf unit, that was one that I really enjoyed.  Noah got to do lots of hands on learning with it.  We went and collected leaves outside and then examined them, and did leaf rubbings with them.   I have found that he loves doing the salt tray for writing his letters, and that he hates to actually write them on paper!  So there has been lots of salt tray writing going on.

The following unit was the A-Apple unit.  Another one filled with awesome fun!  A few weeks prior we had gone to an apple orchard for a field trip.  In college I was a Early Childhood Education major, so for my final project I had to do a theme unit, which just happens to have been Apples.  So I dug out all of my stuff from that, and the kids had so much fun!  We also made yummy mini apple pies!

Finally last week we were on the N-Nest unit.  I think his favorite part this week was making a bird sequencing book.  He put the pictures in the order they happened and then we put them in a book and wrote a short story to go along with it.  He has also really enjoyed the books that go along with this unit, one of them being The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman.  Sorry no pictures from this week, like I have said before I really need to work on my picture taking skills!

If you are wondering what our homeschooling day looks like, you can check that out here.

Week In Review- MFW Weeks 5 and 6

I am trying to play catch up so once again I am going to be bundling a few weeks together.  We have been having tons of fun with MFW so far.  I am so excited about what the year holds for us.

To begin, in Week 5 we talked about Jesus the Light of the World, Mayflower and Pilgrims, and Stars.  I am doing a light version of their Bible lessons, because we do the AWANA program, I really want to focus on those verses for memorization.  We did discuss Jesus being the light of the world and what that means to us.

For History, we are learning about the Pilgrims and what it must have been like for them to be on the Mayflower for so long.  We also did a cool project, which was making an oiled window.  That was pretty interesting to see how that must have looked in their houses instead of the glass windows we have today.

In Science we learned about Proxima Centauri and Betelgeuse.  I had never heard of these before but they are stars.  Proxima Centauri is our second closest star (the sun being our closest star) and Betelgeuse is 600 times larger than the sun.  Very cool stuff for a 9 year old boy!  We had a lot of fun measuring it all out in our backyard!   We also talked about the Big Dipper, unfortunately we have yet been able to see it.  They tend to be in bed when its dark and the few times we have been out its been too cloudy to see!  Someday they will see it though!

I am standing where the sun is, and Elijah is way down there by the big red ball which is Betelgeuse.  

We finished reading Squanto this week as well. My boys loved that story!  It was a great pick, Elijah is actually reading it again on his own.

Now for week 6 we talked about Jesus the Bread of Life, New Netherlands (New York), and Bread.  Once again doing a light version of Bible.  We talked about how God took care of his people in the wilderness by giving them manna from heaven.

In History we learned about the Pioneers from Holland and how they settled in New York, which they called New Amsterdam.   We made butter, so much fun!!  Except my kiddos ran out of steam and I ended up shaking both jars of cream. Which is really hard work!  We looked up what butter churns are and talked about how that is probably what they used in stead of shaking them with their hands.   Elijah really enjoyed his butter, once we added salt of course.  Noah tried one taste of it unsalted and didn't like it and then wouldn't try it after I salted it.

Once I told him he had to shake if for like 15 minutes, this is the look he gave me.  

These kids crack me up!  I didn't realize how funny this picture was until I posted it here!

For Science was talked about yeast and what its purpose is.  We did two different experiments, and had I known I would have done them side by side.  But for the first one we did yeast and water with sugar poured into a bottle with a balloon on top.  The second one was yeast and water with salt poured into a bottle with a balloon on top.  It was fun to hear what they thought would happen.  Elijah knew that the one with sugar would blow the balloon up but wasn't sure what would happen with the salt.

The progression of our yeast experiment, using sugar.

After about 5 minutes

After about 10 minutes

After about 40 minutes

After a total of about an hour.  

I did not take pictures of the salt one, but it pretty much stayed like the first picture.  I also realized that I am lacking in picture taking!  I really need to do a better job!

This week for our read aloud we began The Courage of Sarah Noble.  So far they are liking it.

I will be adding a Kindergarten Week in Review soon!

I'm still here!

Ok, so life has been CRAZY lately!!  To be honest, schooling has been a huge challenge the past few weeks.  I am still trying to process why everything seemed so crazy.  What I have come up with is that I have been feeling worn down, tired and just plain overwhelmed with life lately.

To make a long story short, we have been dealing with potty training set backs, a crabby two year old that cries almost all day, a bad attitude in a 9 year old, and other personal life issues.  I am really hoping to get myself back on track, I am feeling a bit better these days, and trying to take better care of myself.

I do have some great posts lined up for the near future, if I can get myself to write them!  Here are some topics that I will be covering over the next so many weeks (I am putting them here, in hopes to be some accountability for myself):

1.  Shopping Aldi
2.  Gifts for 9 year old boys
3.  Frugal living ideas
4.  Weekly Recaps of My Fathers World both Kindergarten and Adventures in US History
5.  What I'm reading and what I hope to read in the near future

Field Trips

Last week was a relaxed homeschooling week for us.  It wasn't intentional, it just happened that way. It was basically a field trip week.

Monday we took a trip to an orchard that is about an hour away, my hubby took the day off work to join us.

Then on Wednesday the kids took their first Zoo Class at our local zoo.  They learned all about the primates.  They had a super fun time and look forward to doing the next one in November.  Forgot to take pictures of this.  Maybe next time.

Then on Friday we took a family trip to the St. Louis zoo, which is a few hours from us.  It was a fantastic day to go, the weather was perfect, not super hot like it was earlier in the week.

Week in Review

Well, actually this is weeks 2,3, and 4 in review.  I've gotten a little behind in the blogging area lately.  This week especially, my hubby has had a few days off lately and we've taken some family time.  So this week has been a field trip on Monday, Zoo Class on Wednesday and then St. Louis Zoo on Friday.

So lets begin back a few weeks to Week 2 of Adventures in U.S. History.  We talked about Christopher Columbus that week, and did some fun activities.  We made boats out of foil, which obviously were the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.  Then we got to have some fun outside seeing if they would float.  Well let me just tell you, they did not!  Thankfully my boys went with it and had fun anyway.

We also talked about Jesus that week.  We learned that Jesus means the Lord saves.  We started our poster that we will add to for the rest of the year.

In Week 3 we began talking about Jamestown.  We learned about Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. We began reading Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims.

For our Bible we craft time we made a crayon melting with the name Jesus and then hung them up in our school room windows.

Finally this week we have been working on Week 4 in Adventures in U.S. History.  This week we have been talking about Native Americans.  We have been learning about the different tribes that we located here in the early days.  Our crafts this week have been a wigwam and a teepee.

Our new Bible concept this week has been that Jesus is the Light of the World.  We have been working on John 8:12 which is "I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Moving on the what we have been learning in Kindergarten these past few weeks.  We finished up our Creation Unit, we learned about what God created on each day.  Then we moved on to learning about the Sun and the letter S.  Our first experiment with the sun was making raisins.  That hasn't turned out well for us, they are still sitting in our kitchen, slowly wrinkling up.  The second project we did was making a sun dial.  That actually turned out well, once I got the placement correct.

This week we have been talking about the Moon, and learning the letter M.  Unfortunately with all of our field trips and such this week, we haven't gotten to do many experiments or projects.  We have read some great books about the phases of the moon though.

There you have it, our last few weeks.  I am hoping to do a weekly post on what we have been learning.  So keep an eye out for those!