Funschooling: Wigwam Building is Hard

Today we were learning the basics of some North American Indians.  The project was, in theory, simple. Make one longer strip of paper into a ring, glue smaller frame pieces from one side to the other, and then glue torn pieces to create the "hides and mats" for the outside. 

Now, I consider myself to be...profoundly crafty. And this project was an exercise in patience.  Perhaps using liquid glue instead of glue sticks would have worked better.

This first picture is what Buds and I attempted. He wasn't super into the project to begin with and the fact that it kept springing apart was frustrating. 

Baby Girl proved to be far more diligent and came up with a quite solid little wigwam when she was done. Her mantra was "there is no such thing as too much glue". 

I was happy she had so much fun building her wigwam, because it was certainly much harder than I expected. Which begs the question: How much harder is it to build the real thing? I'm not sure I want to know the answer. (I am definitely a creature of the 21st century!)

Now, while this was a HARD project, it was still a FUN project so don't hesitate to give it a try. There was much laughter while we made these and I am really quite happy with how they came out. 

Stay Messy Friends!

So Worth It

Meet Buddy

He is 4 and a half months of chunky adorableness, and I am blessed to be called his mama.  He came with stress though.  The beginning and end of my pregnancy were fraught with worry, and anxiety, and financial troubles.  Honestly, that last part hasn't stopped (insurance companies are stressful to work with - can I get an amen?).  There was an unexpected hospital stay when he was just 5 days old.  And adjusting to life with 4 Messy Kids has been a bigger adjustment than we anticipated.  A little bit of pride got in the way there.  We've done this three times before, we've got this!  What could POSSIBLY go wrong?  Famous last words, right?

But you know what, that worry that I would lose him was worth having him in my womb. 

The special diet I had to be on at the end was worth it to keep him healthy. 

The pain and anxiety of labor in a new hospital with a new doctor was worth it to hold him in my arms. 

Spending long sleepless nights with him in the hospital (just days after bringing him home)  was worth it to keep him safe.

Fighting with the insurance companies is worth having him as part of our family.

Nursing him while he is fighting sleep and doesn't want me to let him go is worth it to see him sleeping peacefully.

Having to sit and supervise my bigger boys while they try to juggle him and his still-a-little-bit-floppy head is worth it to see him laugh at them. 

Being busier than I have ever been before in my life is worth having my four wonderful messy ones.  Buddy, Buds, Bubba, and Baby Girl each add their own unique brand of "worth it" to my life every day.  The way Bubba calls for me over the monitor in the morning.  The way that Buds wants 'nuggles and kisses" before we part.  The giggles that I get from Buddy when I nurse him and make faces at him.  The way that Baby Girl has to have her jewelry and hair "just so" before we leave the house.  These are my worth it moments.  They are worth the hard things.  They are worth the tired.  They are worth the work.

Motherhood can be rough.  It is almost entirely thankless.  It is a long slog of work that has to be done no matter what.  It isn't always fun.  But I want to encourage you!  While you are in the trenches, remember the small moments.  The worth it moments.  The things that your kids do to make you smile.  Be like Mary, and treasure them in your heart.  Choose to fill yourself with those things.  They will sustain you.

But be sure to dance the chicken dance, or draw silly pictures too, because that isn't work!  Its FUN! And trust me, that will fill up your children too!

Stay Messy Friends!

Funschooling: Edible Animal Cell Model

Here at the Messy Homeschool House live 2 science nuts.  Me and Baby Girl love science projects, and the messier the better!  She is particularly interested in Zoology and asked for a zoological curriculum for this year.  We used Apologia last year (which we liked, but wasn't quite what we were looking for) and so I went searching. I found Zoology for Kids by Josh and Bethanie Hestermann.  I will do an in depth review later, but for now, its awesome!

In chapter 1 it talks about cells and their parts and functions.  The very first project in the book is making an edible cell model - made of cake.  This is SO up my alley!  So today was the day! 

We started by making a basic boxed cake. I decided to split one box and not layer the cake, but you could definitely do it on a layered cake if you chose.  It was just easier for me to give each kid one layer and go from there.  The cakes are kinda low, but they have SO. MUCH. FROSTING.

The premise is simple, each layer or candy represents a part of the cell.  So, observe:

Applying the cytoplasm

The Plasma Membrane

The Nucleus

 Adding Organelles now:

Endoplasmic Reticulum

Hard to see, but she added sprinkle "ribosomes"

A Golgi body

And she finished it off with tootsie roll mitochonridion and M&M lysosomes

 And this is the finished project!  She did amazing on this.  I didn't touch this at all, it was entirely her project.  I just read the directions and she did the rest.  This is a great project for kids as young as 6 or 7. 

Ain't it purdy?

 Now, Buds has a food dye allergy, so a lot of the candy on Baby Girl's cake was a no go for him.  I gave him some turbinado sugar instead of sprinkles and some sesame sticks instead of gummy worms.  He wasn't quite ready to follow all of the directions, but he did a really good job with what I gave him.  I think you could use pretzel sticks and other things for kids with similar allergies, or just get alternatives from the health food store.

Bud's came out pretty awesome too.  He was loving the frosting!

So proud of his handiwork!

This was a SUPER fun project and I am excited to keep going into this book to see where it leads. 

Stay Messy my friends!

Note: We tend to go full contact in the kitchen.  We may be messier than most!

Christopher Columbus Sails...Our Bathtub?

This week in History and Geography we are studying Christopher Columbus and his voyage across the Atlantic.  Tin foil boats seem to be a specialty for Baby Girl (she won 2nd Place in the Exploration Place Boat Building Contest this summer).  And so we merrily set off to make the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.  This is what we came up with:

Nina, Santa Maria, and Pinta

All were sea worthy, though the Pinta was a tad leaky by the end!

We have also, in science, been beginning our study of air.  This week included two experiments. Number 1: Testing for Air, and Number 2: Air Can Move Things.  Yesterday we played a game where we used cardstock to fan pieces of paper and we raced them across the table.  Today, we were supposed to "supply the wind" to sail our boats from Spain (the right side of the bathtub) to the Americas (the left side of the bathtub).  This allowed for a great opportunity to fuse science and history. This was the result:

Overall this was a super fun project and I am looking forward to continuing on with the My Father's World curriculum.  For more info on My Father's World click here.

Stay Messy Friends!

Tin Foil Boats Project: 

 

This One is For the Birds

We here in the Messy Homeschool House have a love of animals.  If 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 4 aquariums didn't tell you that, then the zoology curriculum would.  But we also love the critters that aren't pets.  For these feathered and furry companions in the great outdoors we love to feed and water them. We even provide a frame for orb weaver spiders (so not my idea!).

The My Father's World curriculum has both my kindergartner and 3rd grader using a Soda Bottle Bird Feeder.  Hubs had actually picked this up at the homeschool convention back in 2015.  I'm looking forward to stocking it again this winter as part of our homeschooling adventures.  If you want to buy one check out Amazon or Rainbow Resource.

The premise is cool, and environmentally friendly.  You attach the handle to the bottom third of a 2 liter soda bottle, fill the bottle with seed, and screw on the feeder portion.  Then you invert the whole thing and hang it up.  Viola!  Hanging, recycled materials bird feeder.  Its a really cool concept.  I remember seeing the one we have and similar ones as far back as 1998 or so (my parents owned a hardware store back in the day and we had them!) but I am finding that they are more popular now.




We actually have ours strung up just outside our living room window, and the birds come right up to eat.  They were nervous about the cats in the window at first, but they soon realized that there is this mystical thing called glass separating them from harm.  The cats haven't seemed to learn it as well, since Ollie (and even occasionally grumpy old man Cleo) regularly pounce at the window and crash land.  I think all of that crashing has effected Ollie's memory.

I like the quality of the feeder we have.  Even though it is plastic it hasn't broken in cold weather or faded in the sun.  Its still quite solid after 18 months outside.  I have seen metal ones but they seem to only be able to accommodate 1-2 birds at a time, but this one has had 5-7 on it at a time without trouble.  Its nice to be able to have a bunch of birds eating at once.

Even if your curriculum doesn't call for one of these nifty little feeders, try one out.  For about $12 (the feeder itself, a bottle of soda, and a small bag of seed) you can be bird watching right outside your window!

School Ideas:

• Keep a Notebook - record all of the birds you see come to your feeder.  Draw a picture or write a description
• Compare Food Preferences- Get two kits, and fill them with different kinds of food.  Record which one gets emptied first
• Field Guide - Keep a field guide handy and look up the birds you see
• Responsibility- this is a great non-pet way to help your children learn to be responsible!

Organizing Chaos

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It may surprise you that someone who's blog is called "The Messy Homeschool Mom" actually spends a large amount of time cleaning and reorganizing at the beginning of every homeschool year. Yes, I love messy projects, and crafting, and play dough, and cooking, and doing messy kid stuff.  But, I am also a highly organized and routine oriented person.  My keys and sunglasses always get hung up by the front door as soon as I walk in. My diaper bag is always (ok, almost always) stocked and ready.  I try to pay attention to the rhythm of my children's day and I can usually detect when nap time is upon us before meltdowns happen.  We have a routine and I love it!

Balancing my need to be tidy with my desire to let my children get messy in their creativity takes some interesting footwork, but I have found some things that work for me.

Tubbies:  I love tubbies.  I use them for everything. Outgrown clothes, laundry baskets, school portfolio storage, toy rotation, tool storage, craft storage, school supply storage.  You name it, I probably have a tubby for that.

I use shoe-box and sweater box size tubs like these for toy and game storage as well as some crafty things.  I house all of the pieces of my folder games in a tub like this.  They are stack-able, store easily on shelves and easily keep those "lots of pieces" toys organized.  I tend to buy clear ones so that I can easily see what is in each bin, rather than having labels.  When a couple get dumped that means I can just arbitrarily choose which bin gets which toys, instead of paying attention to the label.

Slightly larger tubs are useful for larger sets of toys.  I store Lincoln Logs, Little People, Blocks, and our large collection of cars in this size.  It makes cleanup super easy, and it is much nicer than having the toys in open containers.  (It occurs to me that toddlers should have open container laws! ;))  It is much easier to enforce a "clean up what you have out before you get more out" when everything is in separate containers on a shelf.

This next type of tub is our all purpose, no nolds barred, you can store anything in them style of tubbie.  They are my favorite!  Sterilite makes these flip top lid totes that are the bomb dot com!  I have these in my garage storing alllllllll the kids clothes my children no longer wear (mind you I am on round three of boys clothes, so the space has saved me a ton of money!).  My husband uses them for tools and car parts (Lola, his mustang is getting some much needed TLC). Those hard to store toys like stuffies and dress up clothes stack tidily away in these totes as well.   We also use them when grocery shopping if laundry baskets aren't available, and for packing for road trips! These are what I pack the kids school portfolios away in, since they hold binders and then still have some room for bulky projects.  We also have a rather large Lego collection that is stored in these tubbies.  Each kid has their own (and so do Hubs and I, but shhhhh, don't tell anyone we are just very large children), and there are a few of community Legos. They are great for storing put together projects and keeping extra pieces contained.  All around they are some of the best storage solutions I have found and they keep things super organized.

My latest set of tubbies actually are really old (but you can still buy them from US Plastics, so don't despair!).  My parents owned a hardware store back in the day, and they decided to purchase several HUNDRED small red storage bins to house various products around the store.  Well that store closed some 16 years ago, but in my parents recent move a large quantity of them surfaced.  I thought my mom was nuts when she asked if I wanted them (gimme a break, she was offering me everything but her kitchen sink during that move!) but she gently insisted.  I took a box full.  Yeah, well, those things are freaking awesome!  I have them neatly storing all of my pens, pencils, math manipulative, glue, stickers, and basically all of my art supplies.  I asked for more.  And yes, despite me all but laughing in her face when she first offered them, she graciously gave me more.  Sorry Mom, I love you!

TL;DR: Invest in tubbies.

Hanging File Folders:  This idea actually came from the My Father's World Curriculum, and it is so simple and amazing. 

For each of my school kids I have a milk crate that can hold hanging file folders.  I have one for each week/unit (depending on curriculum) and I split all of the student sheets out into the appropriate weeks. I then can add supply lists for each week (done all at once, then I can pull them and add to my shopping list when we grocery shop), thematic materials, theme specific books, craft supplies, etc to each folder.  Then all of my planning is essentially done for the year, all I have to do is grab things out of that week's file and keep going.  I can also put things like the 100 number chart,  daily workbooks, and other things that we use daily in these folders. 


Online Planner:  I am a child of the 21st century (sorta).  I loathe paper, and I love having everything digital.  This includes my homeschool planner.  I use MyHomeschoolGrades.com, but there are several out there.  MyHomeschoolGrades.com is great.  I can plug in my curriculum, co-op classes, field trips, even activities like sports and scouts, and then check them off as they come through.  There are a few features I might like with another system, but that requires learning a whole new program, and I am nothing if not a creature of habit.  MyHomeschoolGrades is run by a homeschool dad (I'm guessing he put it together in his spare time to help his wife) and so I don't ask for more from it (yet - Hubs is of the opinion I should send in a features list I want and see if it happens). 

I love how convenient this program is.  I can open it up, check of the days work and attendance, and then be done.  It took me a couple of days to get everything set up in the program, but now that it is there I can just check boxes and go. 

This planner allows you to do grades or not at your choosing, do credits for high school students, directly input supported curriculum, track attendance at a glance, and add things on a schedule or not.  You can choose which days each class takes place, weight classes as you choose, and move lessons from day to day with ease.  It also has a really pleasing to the eye aesthetic which appeals to "visual learner" me.  Personally, I don't use the daily planner, transcript, attendance, or activities reports, but they are beautiful if you do use them.

If you check that one out and it isn't quite your style try homeschoolskedtrack.com, http://homeschoolingrecords.com/ or Homeschool Planet.  Depending on your needs, all are good options.  The Homeschool Mom blog did a whole post about planners.  Check that out here.

If paper is your thing, great!  Just take the time to set up your goals and lessons early.  I find it is so much easier to plan at the beginning and follow things through than to plan a week or a month ahead.  There are some amazing paper and printable planners available to homeschoolers as well.  Some homeschool moms even use basic teachers planners and make them work for their needs.  Find what works for you and go with it.

Lists: Honestly, I have yet to meet a homeschool mom that doesn't do lists, but in case I just haven't met you, LISTS! I have menu lists, and grocery lists (and my grocery lists have lists of sections included) and supply lists, and amazon lists, and to do lists, and chore lists, and packing lists.  Well, the list goes on!  Hubs used to tease me mercilessly about my lists.  He just couldn't understand why I keep running lists in the notes on my iPhone, and running grocery lists on the fridge.  And he definitely didn't understand my packing lists.  But, I have converted him!  A good list (or set of lists) is probably the single most useful tool in my organizational arsenal.  When you write things down you remember them.  Even if your don't remember what you wrote down you HAVE it! 

I keep several Amazon lists going.  One for my personal wishes (sent out promptly mid-October for my birthday and Christmas) as well as one for each child.  I attach the  current clothing size of my kids, as well as what their current interests are.  I also have a homeschool list with things we are running low on, the ink for our printer, and other things that I don't want to have to find again.  I almost always price check before I order these items, but knowing what I am looking for is half the battle!

At the beginning of the school year I go through my curriculum and write out supply lists for each lesson.  I put them in the correct week in the hanging file folders (above) and then I can just pull them out on the weekend before I shop.  This is so much easier than having to go through the curric, find the supplies I need, write it all down, and THEN shop.  That just adds 4 levels of complicated to a chore I already don't enjoy (grocery list making is the bane of my existance - you will not be getting a blog about that).  So its all done in one big lump and I can breeze through it later!

Post It Notes:  I use these suckers for everything! I have the little page tabby ones in the kids workbooks and in my teacher books.  I use full size ones labeled with unit and day for my science texts (which tend to skip around), I mark sections in the teacher book that I want to review, I use them to label things, I use them to leave "I love yous" to my kids.  I use them as price stickers for pretend store, notepads in the car on car trips, I use them for list making, and this list goes on too!  I think I probably started using post its out of thrifty-ness (a friend had given me a huge box of them) but I now realize just how valuable they are.  I use them almost daily.  They are just so handy!  Keep a pack or two on hand and you will be amazed at just how useful they are.


These are all what work for me.  Every homeschooling situation is different, and if you have any cool ideas feel free to leave those goodies in the comments!  I would love to know how you stay organized throughout the school year.  And for those of you who are feeling a bit disorganized, I hope this gives you some ideas!  Stay messy (and organized!) my friends!

When Life Gets in the Way, Begin Again!

So, last summer I was a blogging machine.  I had so much fun getting us rolling down the Messy Homeschool Mom road, and then..... life happened.

Our new homeschool area - and lots of bookshelves!

Hubs and I decided we were going to finally finish the basement and then I was pregnant with a new little guy, and construction took forever, and my pregnancy went high risk, and, and, and....

 

 

Introducing our newest Messy Kid!  Buddy arrived in April 2016!

Curriculum and Supplies for the year

SO!  I am hoping to come back to this. I want to share this journey with you.  Whoever you are.  Drop me a line to let me know who you are.  I want to know my audience.  I want to know what you want to see from me.  Help a Messy Mama out!









Anywho, today was our first day of school!  Its so exciting to actually be diving into the curriculum and activities that we have chosen.  I have high hopes for a fun and productive year.

Baby Girl on her first day of school 2016

This year, for Baby Girl, we are continuing with Saxon Math (Level 2), Explode the Code (starting with book 3 and working forward from there), My Father's World Adventures in US History and Geography, and Beyond the Code.  This gives us: Math, Phonics, Bible, History/Geography, Science, and Reading/Comprehension.  One day in and it isn't feeling too overwhelming.  I am praying it stays that way moving forward.

Buds on his first day of school 2016

Its Buds kindergarten year, and he is doing My Father's World's Creation A to Z Kindergarten curriculum.  I think he will have a ton of fun with it. 

I plan to do more in depth reviews of curriculum after we have used everything for a couple of months, so check back for those!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and is looking forward to a fun year of learning!  Be blessed all!


Note: Bubba was on a special date with Gramma during school time today.  I'll be including him again soon!

Working Hard on their patriotic snack (MFW Adventures, Week 1)