We can all use a few more hands
I have a new printable freebie for y’all this morning! It’s perfect for those first day of school photos! We haven’t started our homeschool year yet, but I got a quick picture of my son for an example.
To download this freebie, simply click on the picture below. Enjoy!
Here in Georgia, we just love our peaches. They are super sweet and there are so many possibly ways to use them! I compiled a list of great recipes for y’all that include peaches! Enjoy!
Peach Cobbler No-Machine Ice Cream
I’ve been homeschooling for about 6 years now since my oldest is going into 6th grade. It has flown by and I feel that we have learned so much in the challenging years that I can share with others. Of course, these are things that have applied to our family. Here are things that I wish someone would have told me when I first started homeschooling.
1. It’s okay to stay home. Many new homeschoolers want to sign up for every co-op, opportunity, class, playgroup, etc that comes up because of the lack of socialization stereotype. We have found that it’s okay to stay home! In fact, it’s needed more and more as the kids get bigger. It’s impossible to do your school work well when you’re always on the run somewhere.
2. It’s okay for your kids to be on different levels in different subjects. Think of it as another benefit to homeschooling! One of my children struggled to read but excelled in math. Put them on the level that they need to be in each subject and not what society says. Eventually they may catch up but it sure beats the stress of pushing them when they aren’t ready.
3. Hesitate before putting your child ahead a grade just because little Johnny can read at 4 years old. My firstborn was reading fluently at 4 so we figured why not go ahead and start kindergarten. Once she hit multiplication and some harder subjects, we hit a major roadblock. She cried, I cried, we thought about public school and then realized what had happened. Emotionally she just wasn’t ready for the weight of the harder subjects. We let her back off and repeat the previous grade with a different curriculum and she’s now on the grade she would be with her similar aged peers. In hind site, I definitely think that holding a child back is better in many situations than pushing them forward. The pressure can be overwhelming for all.
4. Check for homeschool curriculum events. I remember one year I had my heart completely set on one curriculum and went to the curriculum fair with the full intent of purchasing it. Once I got to the fair and had my hands on the items, as I flipped through I realized how much I hated it! Going to the fair saved me a ton of money and I was able to check out other curriculums and found one that I wanted for my family.
5. Make a list of reasons why you have chosen to homeschool your children. This may become your very lifeline. There will be days that are hard and days that are harder. You need to be completely confident in your reasons why you homeschool. For my family, we homeschool due to convenience, our family’s schedule, and one on one time with learning disabilities. There are others, but those are the main reasons.
6. Your homeschool does not need to look like school. You do not have to have desks, homework, strict schedules, or be inside all day. Beautiful day outside? Take the kids to the park to work on history. Someone has a birthday? Bake a cake for math and science. Life is happening! Don’t miss it for bookwork.
7. Having a bad day? Throw the books to the side and go out on an adventure. Now of course if you are daily having bad days, something needs to be reevaluated. An unplanned day off every once in a while is great for the whole family.
8. Refuse to compare your children to public school children. For some reason, some people feel the need to “quiz” your child because they are homeschooled. Be sure and cut this off fast. Your kids are not performing dolphins. In the same note, don’t brag to public school friends that your 7 year old homeschooler has finished 5th grade.
9. Homeschool year round. Whenever we submit our intent to homeschool to our state, we submit a 12 month period. Typically August 1-July 31 of the following year. This gives us a grace period in case life happens. Things may come up that you have to take weeks or even months off of school. You can read more about why we homeschool year round here.
10. Find homeschooling moms that are older than you and have been homeschooling longer. Ask them questions or even request to sit in their house for a day and watch. I have learned so much about homeschooling from moms who have been there. It has saved us a bunch of heartache by learning from others challenges.
Do you have anything to add? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!
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We love birthday parties. I always like to make sure my kids have a great special day without completely breaking our budget! Last weekend my middle daughter turned 5 and she requested a Frozen birthday party
For starters, I shopped high and low looking for Frozen party supplies. There are some on Amazon, but I found them the cheapest at my local Dollar General store and even balloons at Dollar Tree. Score! I decorated the table using a tablecloth I bought after Christmas this past year on clearance. Then I started planning out party food.
We set our party time as 2-4pm so it wouldnt be meal time and we could save on that aspect of not having to feed a whole meal to her friends. We went with a great layout of snacks.
Foods included:
Games:
For games, we kept it simple.
For the cake, we used a Castle Wilton Cake Pan and my husband decorated it to look like Elsa’s Ice Castle.
It was a wonderful party and we stayed under budget! I can’t find the receipts, but it was under $50 for all the food and cake and about $20 in decorations. After paying for our special guests, we came in under $110 for a party with 12 of my daughter’s friends. We didn’t give out goody bags, but instead let every child pick a Frozen coloring page that I printed to take home with them. The kids were happy with that.
We are part of the Busch Gardens Ambassador program for 2014 and we traveled down to Florida on Tuesday to check out Busch Gardens. You guys know that I’m a huge Disney girl. I haven’t been to Busch Gardens since I was a kid, so honestly cannot remember much of what they had to offer. I have to say that it blew me away and we are eagerly awaiting our next trip!
For starters, they have a tram that will take you from your parking area to the front gate. That was a huge help at the end of the day when we wanted to get back to our car and we were tired.
When we arrived at the park, we scanned our tickets, got in the gate, and then the bottom fell out of the sky. I’m talking torrential downpour and lots of thunder and lightning. We ducked into the nearest shop and waited the storm out. As soon as we felt it was clear, we hopped to the next store and the next one.
Busch Gardens automatically shuts down all rides if there is lighting within 8 miles of the park. It took a while for the rides to re-open, but there are a ton of things to do in the meantime. We went to all the animal exhibits and watched Madagascar Live. The Animal Care Center was also fun to check out and had an interactive game for the kids. The employees were super kind and pulled out a coloring table to help pass the time as well.
There were up close and personal animal encounters and even feeding opportunities. It was awesome feeding kangaroos! We even got to see a little baby joey and his mama!
Once they reopened the rides, we enjoyed those. It was such a stormy day so many people didn’t go to the park. We were able to walk right on pretty much everything that we wanted to ride. They did continue having to shut down the rides throughout the day, but it was never for long once the initial storm went through.
There was plenty for everyone to ride, even my littlest girls, age 3 and 5. They had an entire section of rides for the toddler age in their Sesame Street area. I was very impressed with their variety. Even if you don’t like rides, there is plenty to do and see! Not a roller coaster fan, plenty for you as well.
I had forgotten how incredible Busch Gardens is for the family. It’s like having a zoo, amusement park, and water park all in one! We are definitely going to be visiting this more often! Can’t wait to go back!
Is your toddler a picky eater and you’re tired of feeding them the same thing over and over again? Consider checking out these 20 toddler meal and snack ideas.
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Chicken Salad – Anything you can put on cracker or a slice of whole wheat bread is an awesome idea. Just make sure your chicken salad is really chopped up.
Grilled Ham & Cheese – Take some leftover ham and your toddler’s favorite cheese and make grilled ham and cheese. It’s so good and your toddler will love it. If they don’t like ham, then you can make it with turkey or whatever other meat your child likes. If they don’t like meat at all, you can leave it plain.
Spaghetti with Hotdogs – You may have seen this idea on Pinterest and it’s pure genius. Take your spaghetti noodles (uncooked) and put cut up hotdogs on the end. The spaghetti cooks with the hotdogs and everything expands and cooks together. It ends up looking really cool!
Homemade Chicken Tenders – Instead of making the chicken tenders really big, you’ll want to make them almost bite sizes. You can give your toddler a side of their favorite dipping sauce.
Chopped Salad – Toddlers can eat salad too! In fact, the more you introduce this sort of stuff to your toddler the more likely they are to like it later in life. Let them choose what veggies they put on their salad. You might have to do a little “chopping” to help the salad get into bite sized pieces.
Snack Ideas
All of these meal ideas are perfect for the toddler of your household. You’ll never have to worry about what to feed them again because you have this list on hand. What meal ideas would you add?
Growing up, my mom made English Muffin Pizzas quite often for us. As we got older, we were able to make our own since they are so simple to make. I remember many times of coming home from school and making English Muffin Pizza for myself.
All you need is 3 ingredients! The English Muffin makes the perfect little pizza crust and can be made in the big oven or in a toaster oven. One one of our Disney trips, we took our toaster oven and made these right in our hotel room! The kids love them!
Simply gather your ingredients and cut open an english muffin.
Spread with sauce and cheese and place on a foil lined pan that has been sprayed. You can top with your favorite toppings if you prefer or just keep it simple.
Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes or until cheese is melted. Allow to cool for a moment before enjoying! Each English Muffin makes 2 little pizzas.
Today was the day we decided to go tubing. Actually, we were supposed to go this past Saturday, but, well, life happened. Here we are about 6 hours post-tubing and I still feel like I’m floating down the river and bumping along rocks.
This was quite the adventure and really went much more smoothly than I had anticipated. We got there just before 11 and headed right out. We decided to take Cool River since that is where we always tubed growing up.
The hardest part was maneuvering through some areas that were really narrow with 2 tubes connected together. I especially didn’t want to dump my 3 year old out in the water, although both little girls were wearing their Puddle Jumpers and the big kids had on life vests. The water level was perfect and we never had to get out and walk.
I am a little sad I wasn’t able to take pictures during this adventure, but my husband brought his cell phone in a ziplock bag and took some. His is a rinky dink old phone, whereas I have an iPhone, so I didn’t want that to be lost forever in the Chattahoochee. It’s also worth noting that they take photos of you on your tubing adventure at Cool River. I really loved the photos they took, but my husband said to pass on purchasing them. We will still have those memories.
The only negative we had was when we got back to our cars. Cool River has a stand with ice cream. Since we were having such a fun day, I decided to let the kids indulge in a sweet treat. I had a couple questions about ingredients (kid with an allergy) and was met with a really rude employee. She refused to be helpful and acted like I was crazy for even asking her a simple question about the product. I asked if she could look on the packaging and tell me what ingredients were in it and she flat out refused. She never even stepped away from the counter or even bothered to check. Just told me no. As I told the kids we would just go to Wendy’s and get frostys instead, her and another employee were mocking me and making a big joke out of it. I promise you I was not being rude, I was simply inquiring about an ingredient list for the ice cream, which they should have either had or been able to get. Or heck, they could have even offered to ask a manager or find someone else to help me. We gave Wendy’s our business instead since it wasn’t worth dealing with them.
Other than that, every encounter was great!
There is a couple things that I learned on this trip.
*When taking a bunch of small children, definitely take an extra adult! We took my husband’s brother with us and he helped out a ton! I was tethered to our 3 year old and my husband was tethered to the almost 5 year old and we had our other 2 older kids just floating along. They would periodically get stuck and he was able to help them and let us focus on our littles.
*Don’t underestimate the power of a good stick! This tubing company had sticks you could rent or purchase to help you along the way. Next time, we will bring a stick from home. They would have been of great use navigating our journey.
*Be helpful! There was an older couple that kept getting stuck. I found out by talking to them that tubing down the Chattahoochee was on their bucket list but it ended up being harder than they anticipated. Several times we were able to help free them from rocks. In turn, several other people helped us as well. You never know when a giant rock will stop your tube!
*Don’t wait so stinkin’ long before going tubing again! Seriously, my kids had never been and I hadn’t been in like 15 years! The kids had a blast and we did too!
Where is your favorite place to go tubing?
I know postings have been random this week. We had a very busy week of VBS at our church. I was teaching the 3 year olds, so I came home exhausted most days. We had a great group of kids and had a ton of fun with them. One of the days we even had a “confetti fight”. That was hilarious! We made a huge mess!! All in all, it was so worth the tiredness by being able to teach sweet little kids about Jesus.
Then yesterday, I got the phone call I had been expecting that my sister in law was in labor. We hurried to get my nephews and niece from her and found out that this labor was going much slower than her previous ones. Finally my new nephew was born at 1:16 this morning! It was a long night, but so worth it to see the birth of my precious new nephew. Isn’t he so sweet?
So while my brother and his wife are at the hospital snuggling their new baby, we have had our hands full with 2 extra kids around here. My other nephew went with his papa for the weekend. We went to Sam’s for lunch and it was a little like a three ring circus navigating a buggy and 6 kids plus Grandma through the store. We got so many looks and had people stop and watch us. Several would start counting kids. 1-2-3-4-5-6. Yep, 6 kids. My brother’s kids blend in perfectly with mine and fit right between my kids ages, so it looked like we had been VERY busy 🙂
We are enjoying this sweet time with my nephew and niece and of course enjoying visiting the new baby. Hope you all are having a great weekend!
Summer can wreak havoc on your food budget. The kids are home full time, there are BBQs and events and of course, vacations and food to eat on the road. With a little bit of extra work, you can save your food budget this summer with these easy tips!
How to Save Money on your Summer Food Budget
Barter with others. If you have a specific skill such as photography, offer your skills for trade for someone’s garden harvest. You would be amazed how many people are willing to barter, especially in this economy.
Grow some of your own food. If you live in an apartment or somewhere else that doesn’t really allow for gardening, check to see if your area has a community garden. A community garden allows you to buy a plot or volunteer for one and grow your own food on it. You plant it, care for it and harvest it just like if it was on your own property. Even if you have room for a garden, this can be a great way to expand your growing area.
Take advantage of great coupons and sales in the summer. The summer seems to be a great time when lots of coupons are released for food products. You can usually save big on meat, condiments and canned goods and when you do, make sure you stock up for the summer and into the autumn season.
Look for free lunches for community children. If you are on a really tight budget, you may be able to get your children free lunches at area schools through the Summer Lunch Program which is run by the USDA and local governments. Usually, the lunches are free for any school aged children and often held for a couple hours a day at several locations.
Eat a lot of cold lunches. Things like sandwich meat and bread are fairly low cost and you can do a lot with them from cold sandwiches to hot melts and even rollups and Panini’s.
Make use of leftovers. Dinners from previous nights can provide excellent leftovers for lunches and even breakfasts the next day. For instance, if you have steak one night and have leftovers, make an omelet the next day out of it.
Check out local farms in your area. Often times, before harvest, farmers allow the general public to pre-order a certain amount of pounds of their produce. If this expense is too much for you alone either in volume or in price, go in on it with a friend or two and plan to split it equally among everyone.
Ask around. You might be able to get free food this way. It may seem strange, but if you post an ad on Craigslist or join your local chapter of Freecycle and post a “looking for” ad, you can often get free food. This works best in the summer when people have harvests and may have more yield than they can reasonably use and are looking for people to give it away to.
Prepare. If you are going on a trip, avoid a huge food budget by bringing along things like snacks, cold sandwiches, and drinks in a cooler. This will keep you from having to spend as much along the way and avoid putting your budget in the hole.
Check into Co-ops. Our family participates with the Bountiful Baskets co-op. It’s $15 for a huge box of fruits and veggies! Totally worth it!
Do you have any other tips to add? Leave a comment and let us know!