My new diaper bag!

You would think with 5 kids, that I would have found the perfect diaper bag years ago, but I didn't find what I wanted until just now. C'est la vie!

I went to If Only, a little gift shop in downtown Fairbanks - the day I had a babysitter. This is not a store that you would take a gaggle of kids into. It would be a disastrous - and very expensive trip! So, I went there in hopes of finding some Christmas presents (which I did), but I also ended up finding gifts for myself!!

Recently, everything turquoise and brown keeps jumping out at me. It's a bit bright, but I like it! The bag zips at the top, which is very important! It has pockets all along the inside, and it is big enough to fit loads of diapers, wipes, extra clothes, and the kitchen sink! I also got a matching wallet/purse that I can wear and a zippered make-up pouch. It is made by Vera Bradley - they have a wonderful website with some things on sale right now if you want to check it out. I now have everything I need wherever I go and I love that. I will be adding to my collection in the future with a matching sunglasses case and coin purse. I feel so hip :0)

Homeschool Memoirs - Chores

Chores. Unfortunately, they have to be done.

The kids have a list of things that they are supposed to get done before we start schoolwork in the morning. It includes both hygiene stuff and a few chores (ie. making their bed, putting their dirty laundry in the hamper, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning up the dining room table, wiping the counters, doing a check of the bathroom to make sure it is presentable etc.)

Then we usually take a short break during the day where we work on one thing - laundry, mopping floors, cleaning clutter, cleaning out the truck etc.

They have a list of things that need to be done before bed also.

Just last week, I found a great website called Handipoints. There is a free portion to the site, where you can set up chore lists for each child and print them out. There are preset chores/responsibilities, or you can enter in your own. The kids earn a certain amount of points for every thing listed.

There are two types of points - Handipoints are saved towards specific goals which you set up (ie. game time with mom, $5, a new book etc.). They can see what they are working towards. You can choose a number of items so that they can pick which one they would like. This is all free.

The second type of points earned are bonus points. For a monthly fee, your child can use these accumulated points in "Handiland", much like Webkinz world. They have a cat that they can dress, decorate their room etc.

We have only been doing this for a little over a week, but it has really motivated the kids to get their stuff done. They like having a list in front of them to check off. Then they know what is expected of them and I don't have to remind them as much :)

Handipoints Chore Charts

Thank you to my friend Michelle for passing on the link to the Handipoints website. What a great idea!!

My kids have been asking for an allowance and I have been trying to design some sort of chore chart for them. Now I have been relieved of this task :) Handipoints is a website where you can make your own custom charts for each kid. You decide how many points they earn for each task. You can also decide what their reward will be (savings, charity, a toy, spending money, a special outing etc.) and how many points they need to earn thing.

The kids actually earn 2 different types of points for their tasks. First, the "handipoints" are saved towards a reward of your choice. They also receive bonus points which they can use in Handiland (a virtual world similar to webkinz). The first part of the website is free, but there is a fee to use the handiland bonus points.

I have already printed out the kids lists for this week and they are so excited about checking off their tasks. I like that they know what is expected of them and they have a list that they can refer to - rather than me having to constantly remind them.

I will let you know how it is working a couple of weeks from now.....

Library Thing

Part of our Home Library

I have a lot of books. Ok, so that is probably an understatement.
We have our own library at home - covering probably about every subject you could think of.

I am not complaining about this. I love books! If I actually had to have a "real" job, I would probably want to be a genealogist or a librarian. Luckily, I have a wonderful husband who allows me to stay at home and be the librarian of my own personal library :)

I have my books in "order" separated by subject: science, history (in order from the beginning of time of course), foreign languages, literature, geography, art, math, language arts, poetry etc. The problem is that I still end up not finding the book I want (or not even realizing that I own it) until it is too late.

Here is a good example: We have been studying Jewish holidays all week and we were using this tiny picture book, supplementing with online material and Bible readings. Today, while I was busy cataloging my books into Library Thing, I found the PERFECT book for this past week's studies (which we are of course done with). It is called Celebrate: Stories of the Jewish Holidays by Gilda Berger and it is exactly what I should have used. For each holiday, it gives the story behind the holiday and then a number of wonderful activities and recipes to complement your studies. Why didn't I find this sometime last week? Why didn't I even know that I owned it? Because it was hidden on the geography shelf and I didn't know to look for it.

So, now I am feverishly entering my books into Library Thing. They have free memberships for up to 200 books, but I'm already at over a thousand and am not even close to being done. It was $25 for a lifetime membership and that is well worth it to me. You can enter your books in by title/author or ISBN. They also have a gadget you can buy to scan in the barcodes and it does the work for you. I am doing it manually :)

The cool thing is that once you have your books entered in, you can add tags to them. A single book can have a variety of different tags. This is going to help me out SO much, because I will be able to look ahead at what we are studying, and I can click on the tag I want and see a list of books that pertain that subject (ie. reptiles, constellations, Ancient Greece). I can also look by type of book (ie. chapter book, easy reader etc.). The possibilities are endless. I will be tagging away once I have finished adding them all.

You can also share your bookshelf on your blog through a Library Thing widget :) (Look on my left sidebar). There are further perks available on their site: reviews, recommendations, forums etc., but I haven't had the chance to explore them yet.

What are you waiting for?

Menu Planning

I have not been very good about planning what we're going to eat.

We have so many things scheduled though, that I need to be on top of this. There is a lot of preparation I need to do beforehand, so that we're not searching for something to eat at the last minute.

With the first of the month coming up (and my monthly trip to Sam's Club and the commissary), I have decided to write up a menu (by week) for the month of November so that I can shop accordingly - rather than shop for things that we don't need and letting things go bad that we end up not using. I am so sick of wasting money!

I think that this menu will help the kids also. They are always wondering what they can have for a snack. I will have snacks on the menu, so that they know what they are allowed to eat.

I will post it on the refrigerator for all to see!

I am going to try to take the first Saturday of every month and try to cook up everything that I can beforehand - soup, taco meat, chili, spaghetti sauce etc. and freeze it so that I can just pull it out of the freezer and we can eat. I am also going to try to use my bread machine more. The kids absolutely LOVE fresh bread - and so do I.

Here is a link to the excel document that I made. You can use it if you would like :)

UPDATE 11/3: Here is a link to an updated document with some more color to it, making it easier to read.

Take a Tour of Our Play Room!!

Here is the room to which Nick is banished for a portion of each day :)
We have comfy bean bags in the corner for reading time (or for Nick to jump from the table onto). Andy built the shelf along the ceiling to house all of the stuffed animals and the other shelf for the wooden dollhouse.



Here is the castle loft that Andy built. Isn't it so cool? I wish I had one of these growing up!! There used to be a slide coming off of it, but it was utter chaos in the room. I was just waiting to make an ER trip. So, off came the slide. It's still a lot of fun. :)
Notice the window down below - we made it so that they could use it for puppets.



Here the kids are, hanging out.
I had planned on painting a family crest/shield on the green banner hanging off the castle, but I never got around to it. I was burnt out after all of the bricks...



And here is the closet, full of rubbermaid bins of toys: dress up clothes, baby dolls, big legos, little legos, train sets, puppets, play food, musical instruments, etc.



And here is our shelf where we put the CD player, the keyboard (kept up high until they use it), play silks (all time favorite toy!), and misc. toys.



Doesn't it look like fun?
I have tried to keep it empty of large pieces of furniture. This gives the kids more space to run around or dump out all of the toys. They especially need the space in winter, when they aren't able to run around outside much.

Hope you enjoyed our tour...

Home School/Learning Room Organization, Part One

I just love our "art carts" as we call them. I picked these up at Costco a few years ago and they have come in so handy in organizing all of our art supplies and papers.

I have a drawer for crayons, markers, colored pencils, glue/tape/staplers, scissors/punches, stickers, glitter, tissue paper, foam craft shapes, etc.

This year I actually labeled each drawer so that the girls have no excuse for not putting things back in their proper places :)

The nice thing about these is that:

1. They are on wheels and can easily be pushed over to the table (we have wood floors).

2. The drawers easily pull out, so when they want to color, they can just pull the crayon drawer out and set it on the table.

I have another regular set of small plastic drawers from Wal-Mart next to these which is full of different papers (white, construction, tracing, etc.) along with drawers of old magazines and things to cut up for art projects.

More Learning Room Organization to come as I get everything cleaned and ready for Monday!!

Bookaholic

Hi, my name is Jennifer and I'm a bookaholic. These aren't even all of the bookshelves in our house - there is another in the hall, one in our bedroom, and 2 in the kids' bedrooms. Yes, the movers hate us. We of course are constantly adding to our collection, because you can never have too many books, can you?

They of course are categorized (history, science, art etc.) - and then categorized within the categories. The history books are put in chronological order. The science books are grouped by subject, etc. We would never find anything otherwise....