Progress...

Well in my quest to organize this room and the books that were displaced when we put up the gutter shelves, I chose to use this magazine rack for reference materials only. We desperately needed a spot for dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc to be available without my help!

The rack is from Big Lots and it was a bargain as it was the last one left and it was slightly broken. This is the one that may get moved up to R7's room someday.

All our favorites are here. Click the picture for a better look! We've got some great atlases. My favorite is the National Geographic Young Exploreres Atlas of the US. I still need the world version. Usborne Books has some wonderful books on any science or history you can think of. We've also got nature books on the bottom for quick reference.

This was an exciting accomplishment!

Kerplink! Kerplank! Kerplunk!

It's that time of the year when we go blueberry picking. Part of my domestic duties these days is to process lots of fruit for consumption by our family of six. Did you know that frozen blueberries are nearly $5 a bag? And did you know how lousy they really taste? I know about the latter since picking and freezing our own blueberries. We visit a local farm to pick our apples, strawberries, pumpkins, and of course blueberries. I did try my hand at blackberries one year, but I haven't kept up with that.

At our house, there are recreational pickers and serious pickers. This year one of our serious pickers opted out of joining us on our annual excursion. This little red hen was thinking twice about sharing the bounty, but we gave in. R7 went with me both times and she is one good picker now. Strawberries are satisfying because the buckets fill quickly, but you have to bend over and crouch down the whole time. Blueberries require somewhat less from your back and legs, but they are slooowww to fill a bucket! We use so much of this "super food" that we bought half of the 17 quarts I just bagged and froze. What could we possibly do with that many blueberries? Well, we eat plenty of the yummiest blueberry pancakes ever and blueberry muffins. Occasionally we'll have a cobbler or have some on cereal - though fresh is best for that sort of thing. We need enough in the freezer to last until next July so I may have to get a half a flat more. I'll think on that.

Last month was strawberry season and we picked 30lbs of strawberries most of which went into jam. Yummo! The others went into fresh shortcake and still others are frozen for fruit smoothies and a batch of blueberry/strawberry jam.

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey is one of our favorite books around here and I'll share some of that another time. For now here's a peek at strawberry jam making and our blueberry haul from yesterday.

My Secret Lair

AKA my cropping corner! Dan built this for me within the first 8 mos of moving here as a gift for completing my masters degree. I figured who needs jewelry and other keepsakes? I needed a place to do what I love to do! I finished up the degree a few months before we moved up here and I was waaayyy to pregnant to participate in the graduation ceremony. Boy was I sad about that! Driving six hours the same weekend I was due is not wise. So, there it was. And believe me...this does not convey with the house unless I'm well compensated for it!

The shelves were here already but they were in long pieces that he cut apart and painted and put on brackets that are adjustable. The wire shelving is all Elfa from The Container Store. The 8ft desk surface is from The Home Depot.

I have to dig under lots of project clutter to get to my cutting tools, but the separate surface is counter top height so I can stand and cut away. Love it!

Thanks Dan for being such a good sport and indulging my passion!

This is my cutting center and on the floor in front of both desks is CLUTTER! This is my project right after the school room is done. My motivation? Easier scrapbooking and stamping time!

It's Here!!

There is nothing more fun for homeschoolers looking forward to a new year of school than the day the box arrives from Rainbow Resource! This year I've split our school purchases into three different orders, but this one was the big one. Everyone gathers around for the much anticipated products that will bring our schooling to life.

I5 has been asking about his kindergarten math book all summer. When I made the order last week he wanted to be sure that his math books had been ordered. Today the very first thing he had to see and kept digging for were his math books! He laid on the floor flipping through them starting with book 1. He gets two workbooks for the year and he began at the first lesson. Page after page he asked for the direction on what he needed to do. I knew when I handed him his books it was only a matter of time before he asked me if he could get started! So, before bed tonight he did his first page of kindergarten math and he could not have been more delighted. Dan and I explained to him that he could begin if he remembered to treat the book like a school book and not a play time book where he picks and chooses pages and sometimes scribbles. He promised. I also told him he had to practice his name correctly in the space and that, that meant using lower case As in his name rather than his customary capital As. He made sure he knew what they looked like and set off. Well, I'll tell ya I've never seen him write his name so nicely in just the right way. Good for I5! Another joy of homeschooling is that I don't have to make him wait just because school has not officially begun. If he's ready to roll, then I say steam on ahead.

What else was in the box? Let's see...

Funtastic frogs- another set of 180 mixed frogs and the last three card sets for our preschoolers (these are Dan's nemesis and he can hardly believe I ordered more frogs. He doesn't appreciate frog clutter)

Lots o' Math- Horizons math 5 for E8, math 2 workbooks for R7, and of course the math K workbooks for I5.

Puzzles- two global puzzles with 600 pieces featuring the countries in their own shape and one has animals native to that country on it.

Maps- two write on wipe off maps US and World for our budding geographers to mark up

Pattern Blocks- wonderful, wood shape pieces nice and thick and two workbooks to work with the shapes one for older kids and one for younger kids.

Beyond FIAR volume 3- E8 will be rowing several books from this volume this year.

Big Book of Social Studies- fun book showing folds for content area notebooking and studying. E8 requested this one.

I had ordered some books in the spring covering some really fun geography and puppet making.

Now it's time to put it all together for this year's individual plans for the kids. T minus 3 weeks until the plans are due.

I'll be sure to share the final product with everyone soon.

Stream Safari!

Last Friday we went to a picnic at a nearby state park and decided to try out a naturalist's program called stream safari. We gathered around a picnic table and the kids got to see what they might look for while on safari in the stream.

Boy did this take me back! Back to my days as a classroom teacher in Maryland. Every year our sixth graders spent a week at outdoor school (something I remember fondly from my own sixth grade year) and we'd help the teachers there teach about stream ecology among many other topics. What a good time it was to see our students having a good time at a week long residential camp and it was double fun because we got to leave our classroom a few days that week to enjoy it with them.

I also took a team of students out to a reservoir every year to monitor the water quality. This was part of a grant we had to report our findings and teach kids about watershed issues. That seems like a world ago now!

The kids got to take nets and hunt for critters. There was ample sampling of crayfish for sure as well as insect nymphs and larvae. We spotted stonefly, caddisfly, and mayfly nymphs all of which are indicators of excellent water quality. There were damselfly and dragonfly larvae- all things I bet most of you have never had the pleasure of discovering. The kids had fun wading and trying to net the animals. Even a few minnows came our way. We turned over lots of stones and had a grand time watching the crayfish hang out in the bucket.

Below are some pictures of our finds. R7 almost had a damselfly creep onto her finger, but she chickened out at the last minute! J2 got wildly soaked in the seat because a toddler bending over doesn't clear even the shallowest of water. Thankfully, we had brought his bathing suit so he could change into it. Don't ask about the logic there...let's just say it wasn't a super warm day to purposefully put a bathing suit on, but rest assured we've learned our lesson.

AAH! My Desk and Other Mammoth Organization Nightmares

No wonder I can't work at my desk! Where is it anyway? This is my project for the week along with the bookshelves pictured below. I wonder what I will find there...I know there's completed school projects from this year. There's items taken away from J2 at school time. There's pens and pencils and stamps. I see a map of the US. I might have thought my long lost cell phone was in there, but I found that - finally in the bottom of a pool bag. I had it with me the whole time it was lost. Fear not, the cell phone industry is really in the business of making sure I'm never in need of a phone. I replaced it with a nice phone that all the kids are carrying these days! I suppose I could look cooler IF I was willing to actually PAY for a phone!

I did manage to get one new shelf organized on the bookcase over the weekend and R7 and I had a grand time out yesterday (see other post) and we stopped in Walmart for a plastic set of drawers. Now you can see the beginnings of a creation station for the kids. The drawers, so far, have colored cardstock for notebooking, plain recycled paper for planes and random art, stencils and rubbing plates, a blank drawer (TBD), and almost my favorite is the top drawer. The top drawer contains my pink stapler, my new 3 hole punch, and tape of all kinds. The cherry on top is the caddy. Formerly located on the school table, it is a Pampered Chef tool caddy sitting on a lazy susan. It holds pencils, various colored pencils, single hole punch, rulers, and scissors. Hopefully it will be able to contain itself over there rather than spewing its contents constantly onto the table top causing small children everywhere to complain about who is responsible and blaming others for the fall out.

Stay tuned for updates as I lay this nightmare to rest!

Welcome back world map! (we had taken it down to put up the white board)

The Creation Station

A work in progress...

Accomplishments in our littlest room

Here are the results for R7 and J2's room. We only put two gutters up next to her bed because there isn't more room with the window AND because her brother may decide to climb if we put any in other places. So, for now we'll stick with this and one day we'll move up the magazine rack from the school room which is just made for this space. One day when J2 moves in with the other boys that is!

R7 just loves to read now and don't these gutters make the perfect nightstand? Also, check out the American Girl dolls. Kirsten was birthday present (thanks Grandma and Grandpa) and Felicity is the result of a little saver girl who astounded us all when she had saved enough to buy her own when she combined it with her birthday cash. Way to go! Look for unit studies based on those two at some point in the future!

We just LOVE the peace that comes with organization!

The Bee in My Bonnet...

And other tales of motivation at our house right now! On the FIAR forum there's been a group of us dedicated to "de-cluttering" our homes. How fun to post daily on any projects and progress we have made!

I've really been tearing up the thread with gobs of energy devoted to making some real change at our little house. It all started with getting rid of the piles of dusty junk on my husband's dresser. I went in there to hoe out and vacuum the dust off (yes, it was THAT bad and for a house full of people allergic to dust I should know better). I ended up moving his dresser to a new spot (and if you could see my bedroom you would know that this is really a bold move with little to work with!) and what a difference it made! We were all excited and even the man whose belongings had been moved was happy. His dresser is tall enough that it had become toy purgatory so he's glad to see his dresser top and have his things on it again.

Well! With such success I began to make BIG plans for more decluttering. I've been sweeping through the house like a whirlwind only my presence has brought calm and peace where there once was chaos. I got rid of 5 large trash bags from our basement along with tons of recycling (the trash guys must have loved us last week seeing as that was in addition to the normal trash six people produce in a week). I also consigned quite a few items to a local shop and dropped off the leftovers at "the army". Don't worry- I did save the keepsake type stuff, but it is limited to what our space can handle and no more.

I'm on hold in there until Dan puts up the project counter. This is a piece of industrial grade counter top from his old lab. When they tore it apart to make the new one, they gave away a lot of stuff. This surface will withstand anything so he thought it would make a great crafting table. I've cleared the spot, now the engineer must decide how to build a frame to hold it up. I'll update on that when it's time.

Not wanting the fire to go out I've been working in the school room too. I'll share more on that in another post.

The big project in the kids' rooms has been the gutter shelves. I rearranged in there and Dan finally agreed to help me out by putting the shelves up. Floor space is prime real estate at my house so getting the book boxes off the floor was necessary at this point. Four kids in about 1500 sq ft and three bedrooms means being creative with our space and I'm finally learning, that it's about discerning what really needs to be here and what doesn't. ~ "Yes! Finally!", says Dan!! We took one dresser out of the boys' room and moved the changing dresser into their room. This meant I5 sharing dresser space with J2 and closet space with E8, but it worked out! The extra dresser is in the basement awaiting its prominent spot next to the project counter. Taking the dresser out of the littlest bedroom meant we could return the dollhouse to its former glory in R7's room. That in turn left available wall space in the playroom and shelf space too as we moved up the barbies and only hearts club dolls and pollys to the room in which their residence is now located once again.

So, you see, our house is a lot like one of those puzzles you get where you have to make the picture but only one square is loose so you have to be careful and methodical. I'm happy to say that I've probably opened up a few more squares making it easier to move things around!

Enjoy some of the results of a bee in one's bonnet- more to come as projects are completed!

E8 and I5 share a room and are delighted about their new gutter shelves!

A Visit to Our Favorite Place...The Sciencenter!

Worms! That's what I and J got to see today during our visit and preschooler story time. J loves the water table in the small children area and made a bee line for it upon entering the building.

I did tear him away long enough to see the worm pile. He was brave and did poke one gently, then quickly lost interest. I watched from a distance and didn't care to interact with worms.

We spent a lot of time there and a lot of time in the area with simple machines and the absolute favorite place is the Discovery Room which has little science labs and kits for the kids to enjoy. We played with spinning tops, fingerprinting, the moon balance game, water drops, and magnets. All in a good day's work!

We also spent some time with a new exhibit developed at our science center that's been away at Epcot for several months. It's here for the summer and the exciting thing is that my husband is featured in one of the videos. More on this later...if he lets me elaborate!!

The kids all worked on saving a populous from a broken dam as well. The engineers were feverishly working to correct the imperfections on the dam wall.

Katy No Pocket

I our 5yo just graduated from a little preschool program and will begin kindergarten at home in the fall. Over the summer I'm spending time with him and his 2yo brother doing Before Five in a Row books. This program is a learning readiness program for two to four year olds written by the same author as our favorite Five in a Row (FIAR). I figure it's worth it to spend some time in fun books with fun activities while the bigger kids are doing their summer adventures and I'm not working so intensely with them. And it will help I to get some more experience and skills before fall.

We did several titles this past school year, but this summer we started with Katy No Pocket by Emmy Payne. What a great story about a mama kangaroo who is missing a pocket. We tried out the FIAR fold n learn for the book and have had a super time making an apron to carry animals, cutting and pasting, and playing letter games. They like to sort the animals we meet in the story into different classes using our animal classification board.

One special thing for the kids was to note that the illustrator HA Ray is the same guy who wrote Curious George- another house favorite.

R-7 decided to join us for making the fold n learn

I is a master scissor user. He loves to cut and glue!

Our one and only leftie so far

Our three oldest enjoyed the aprons and added some friends who wanted to catch a ride!
This project came from the B4FIAR fold and learn

Settlers of Catan!

Have you played it? Once again we learned of this game through the Five in a Row forum. Lots of families are playing this game and let me tell you...it is worth it!

Since my original post on this game, we have acquired the two expansion sets. Knights and Cities of Catan (pictured here) is a wonderfully complicated addition to the game. You have to defend your cities with knights against barbarians from foreign shores. You also get to earn commodities such as cloth, coin, and paper made from the original resources ore, wool, and timber. E, our oldest, begs to play this game almost everyday. I love to play and I love to win!

The other expansion set is Seafarers of Catan and our 5yo loves this addition as he loves all things sea related including pirates. In this version you get to set out of Catan to visit other islands to settle there, but you have to watch out for pirates in addition to the land robber! Both extra sets require the use of the original Catan hexagons and pieces. Considering the boats, roads, cities, settlements, ships, dice, etc and extensive game board hexes that have to be stored we thought we'd share our system.

Part of setting up the game is sorting out the colored game pieces of which there are many especially if you play Settlers, Seafareres, AND knights and cities at the same time! So, we set out to simplify the task. I found the perfect storage boxes at Target in the adult craft section to hold the colored game pieces. Each color gets its own and we'll need one more for the dice and the bad guys and other misc wood pieces from Knights and Cities. I found a plastic storage box just the right size to store the separate boxes plus all the game board pieces, cards, misc board pieces and the directions. Our Catan kingdom is all in one now. Since so many of you play, here's an idea for you. It's working out great! Set up is so much quicker now.