We went to the Congo on a Missions Trip

We went on a "mock" missions trip to the Congo. You can see more here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=75529&id=633833892&l=76d227f3e6

Chores!

Sorry I haven't posted sooner. I've been sick off and on this year and spend a lot of time resting or in bed - so when I'm not, the last thing I remember to do is update my blogs... Anyway, I wanted to show you how we do chores. I found this idea for a chore chart on the family fun website.
I'd tried different things and different parts of the different things worked, but not all of them all the time. This sort of combined the best of both worlds...

First I got a magnetic dry erase board and set it up like this:



Each night before I go to bed, I assign the kids their tasks under their names (which I painted over in the picture). The one on the line in the middle means they both need to do it. Once it's done they move it down to the done section. Generally they have all of these things done before I get out of bed. Also when they move them down under their names, I know who did the task last, so the next time it needs to be done, I move it over to the other child's column.

We've even made new magnets as needed, and sometimes the kids ask me to make a new magnet for something they need to do but keep forgetting. So, it's a reminder for them, and a useful tool for me.

That very bottom section is where we put the magnets that we aren't using at the time.

Allowance, Tithes and Savings

I thought I'd share how we handle allowance. First I have to tell you how we started out to get where we are now. When the boys were very young, starting at age 2, I started them on an allowance. They didn't realize at the time that's what it was, but I was laying the groundwork for a future allowance. First I got poker chips from the dollar store. The ones from the dollar store only come in three colors, and there are more white than any other color, so I painted five or six of the white ones yellow. Each color was assigned a value. White was 25 cents Blue was $1 Red was $5 Yellow was $10 Each time the kids were caught being good, they got a white token. They also got two white tokens every week for helping around the house. Little things like putting the silver ware on the table, putting their dishes in the sink when they were done eating, etc. When they got 4 whites they traded them for 1 blue, when they got 5 blue they traded for a red and so on. At some point, the kids were taken to the toy store or department and were allowed to pick out a toy they wanted. When we got home with it, it was placed on top of the refrigerator. We'd decide how many tokens it would be worth, like 1 yellow, or 4 blue, etc. Depending on the price of the toy. Once they earned what it was worth, they would "buy" the toy with their tokens off the top of the fridge. Once we switched over to actual money, they already had a hold on the concept of 10 dimes were 1 dollar or whatever. Now they get money each week for doing their chores, not only doing them, but doing them without being told. (I'll show our chore chart later...) Right now they get $2 every two weeks. I keep at least 10 dollars in dimes at the house to pay the kids their allowance. I used dimes because it's easy to set aside a % for different things. 10% goes to the church 40% goes in savings The rest 50% they get to spend any way they want. Here's how we keep up with that. They each have two boxes and one piggy bank. They put their 10% in their tithe box and take it to church on Sundays. They have a Fun Money box, which is what they get to spend any way they want and a piggy bank. The 40% they save goes in the piggy bank because it's ceramic and harder to get into. Once the ceramic piggy banks get full, we take the money and deposit in their accounts at the bank. Sometimes they get annoyed that they can't just "have" their money, but don't we all! No one ever taught me as a child how to handle money. All I was ever told was to save it, no one ever explained "how". I'm hoping this will stick with them at least until they marry and start a family, they may have to adjust how much goes in savings or whatever, but I think it will stay with them that something needs to go in savings! I tried many many different chore charts, schedules, lists, all sorts and I've finally found one that works and works well. There are some days when I get up out of bed and their chores are already done! I'll put that in my next post. In the meantime, hope this gives you some direction on teaching your kids about money! God Bless.

More organization

Here is a little bit closer look to our actual schedules. The one for the boys is listed every half hour what they are supposed to do. We don't stick to this by the letter, but it is a guide so we do the best we can.








My schedule is a little more vague when it comes to day to day. Of course my schedule during the day is determined by what the kids are supposed to be working on, but there are other things each day I need to get done, I list them on a weekly schedule.

















After the kids finish a worksheet or test or anything, and I've checked it over, they go and file it in their folders. It's broken up by subject. At the end of the year I box these up, along with our attendance records and a year end assessment, plus a printout from the homeschool tracker program and keep them for three years.

Our Schedule and Classroom

I thought I'd post some pictures of our classroom and other things from around the house.

I'm sure you've heard about the "Household Planner" phenomenon. It's not really a phenomenon, that's just what I call it. Anyway, I used one for a couple months and it was great, but I was constantly moving it from place to place to get it out of my way. If I needed counter space, I'd move it to my computer desk, when I needed to get work done there, I'd move it to the kitchen table, etc. You get the idea. It was very helpful, but it was driving me nuts. So, I came up with an alternative.

This is my Household Planner Wall. As you can see, it has a calendar, a note pad for To Do lists, my weekly, monthly and daily schedule and the large whiteboard is the schedule for the kids.

I put one of those small student desks under it for items I might need. The student desk works perfect because it isn't very wide, so it doesn't take up a lot of room in such a small space.





This is the door to the classroom.
Right now we're studying Ancient Egypt with the Tapestry of Grace curriculum so I put the kids names up in heiroglyphics. Underneath is our weather chart. The kids seem to have a fascination with weather. Almost every day they ask to look and see if we're "getting weather" as they say. So I got this to track our weather. We only do it Monday thru Friday, not the weekends. Plus there is a check off chart that goes with it. You check off the different kinds of weather you get each day and see what you have at the end of the month. Then wipe it off and start over....

Here are some shots of our actual classroom:








































I'll post more pictures of the other areas we spend our days doing school later.

Mummies

We are studying Ancient Egypt, via Tapestry of Grace. The week we studied mummies, we mummified some Ken Dolls.First I made organs out of craft foam and placed them on the dolls, with a heart drawn in since the heart stayed in. The kids took the foam organs and placed them in Canopic jars we'd made from prescription bottles.

Then in the interest of saving on money we packed the bodies in cotton to represent the salt and we left them while we had lunch. Real mummies stayed in the salt for 40 days, we left ours for 40 minutes.
Then we mixed oil and seasonings together and rubbed them down.
Then we began to wrap them. The kids had a great time!

Home School

Well, here is my official home school blog. I'll be posting my thoughts, ideas, web sites, all sorts of stuff having to do with what we do as we home school each day, week, or month.

Hope you enjoy, and if you have any ideas - let me have them!