This is how WE do it

The emphasis is on "we" because the beauty of homeschooling is that you can do it however if works for your children and your family. From the Fall of 1983 when little Katey walked into Kindergarten at Franklin Elementary School in central Illinois until the Spring of 2006 when me and my pregnant belly walked out of the music classroom in Kewanee, Illinois that I had taught in for six years, I had been on a schedule...a tight one. Thankfully, I enjoyed most of my time in school. When I decided to homeschool and set up a classroom, I naturally went towards the traditional look to which I was so accustomed. Some homeschoolers like to just pull out some books on the kitchen table. I find some comfort and security in having a special place in which so teach my children. We'll often plop on the couch to read books, take lots of field trips out and about, but a lot of the "book learnin'" happens in this room. It was meant as the formal dining room for the house, but we are far from formal people! So, it has made the perfect playroom in the past and now a school room.

This is the school room in it's "before" state. Imagine every toy, and most of the books on the floor and the chairs huddled together with a blanket over them making a "cave" and that's what it looks like once the students arrive for the day. What makes this work for us is the Aaron's workbooks book are within his reach on the shelves. I write the day's school goals on the board (most days) and our job is to have them all erased  by the time daddy gets home from work.

 

If we were ever able to do those goals on the board straight through, it would take about an hour and a half. But, we have to deal with some slight disruptions (pictured above). We take breaks when we need to and I try to go with the flow of the day. Sometimes we don't make it to everything on the board and that's okay. I've learned to try and make realistic goals for our school day. Thankfully Aaron is a very motivated learner. Often, he'll take it upon himself to go further in the book than was planned, which gives me a littler more ease when he says "I don't feel like doing this now...". When I get that response, sometimes I push him to finish the page, but most times I say "Okay, we'll look at it again later." 

We've chosen Horizons for our Math and Reading/Phonics curriculum. I think it's thorough and fits well into our day. I keep these within his reach so he can go and grab them when we have some time for our schoolwork. To help round out school we participate in a science club that we have once a month and I teach a weekly music class with Aaron and other kids his age. We have bible verse memory goals and a journal to write in occasionally. And, we try to fit some art in there somewhere, not our strong area right now! 

But, my favorite thing to do by far is to read with him. I'm enjoying reading great literature as much as he is. Sometimes he'll snuggle up with me, which is great. But, more often these days he wants to keep moving (he's a boy!). He'll go do a puzzle, build another "cave" or even do his math workbook while I'm reading. At first, I was a little unsure of how he could listen to the story and be doing so many other things at the same time. But, I'll stop every now and then and ask him comprehension questions, and sure enough, he's (usually) listening right along with the story. 

Right now we're reading old, worn copies of "The Little House on the Praire" series. These books were read to me by my mom when I was little. It's a special thing to use the same books to read to my boys now! 

But, there's always room for new books. I got this rendition of "The Wizard of Oz" at Kohl's for $5 (part of their Kohl's Cares books). The  imaginative writing and captivating illustrations had us putting aside the goals for the day to sit and read this all in one day. Even the little brothers plopped down for a while to take a look at this one! 

This is how it's working for us now. A year from now I'm sure it will look completely different. Even with all it's many twists and turns, I'm loving homeschooling!

Real Food, Real Good, Spring Rolls

Real Food, Real Good, Spring Rolls

This post has nothing to do with homechooling, on the surface anyway. But, the more I get into homeschooling, the more I see how everything in the home weaves itself into schooling...dinner prep included!

A few months ago my husband and I changed our eating from what we thought was fairly healthy, to real food eating...garden to table kind of eating. First we watched Forks over Knives (on Netflix) and found quite a few other documentaries on the subject. Then, we found 100daysofrealfood.com, which challenged us to take a serious look at what we put on our table and into our bodies. Each week we would change a little more and more until now we have only have a few items (spaghetti noodles, rice cereal, tomato paste, olives, ketchup) that we buy and are in packages or cans. Some people think this kind of eating is crazy, you may think we're crazy, we probably would have called us crazy a year ago. But, crazy is as crazy does, I guess! I've lost 53 lbs. and counting and we both feel much better eating a plant-based, real food diet. Each week we make a batch of black bean tortillas from whole wheat organic flour and black bean puree using this tortilla press. We've replaced bread with these tortillas. The kids have peanut butter tortillas for lunch most...okay every single day. We use them for quesadillas, cut them into wedges and bake for tortillas chips and we recently came across these baking tins to make taco salad bowls. 

A few weeks ago I was in the mood for spring rolls. We eat rice, beans and sauteed veggies a lot around there. It's a quick and easy real food meal, but it needed some pazazz. In the past I would get a box of frozen spring rolls. I haven't yet gone to the store to see the ingredient list on those, but I can only assume it's long and hard to pronounce. So, I just took the tortillas we already made, rolled up a filling, and baked them. They came out great! The entire family (except my 5 year old who has a short list of foods he likes) loved them. They make great leftovers and freeze well. 

Make tortillas

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/3 cup canola oil 

1 cup cooked black beans

2 cups warm water

1/2 tsp sea salt

Mix together the flour, salt, and oil. Blend the beans and water in a blender and add to the flour and oil mixture. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Preheat tortilla press. The dough will be fairly wet and "goopy" in order to make thin and pliable wraps. Using a spoon, scoop the mixture and press. This amount of dough should make about 20 wraps. Or, just use store bought tortillas or roll wraps!

Filling

1/4 head cabbage

2 cups kale

1/2 cup mustard greens

1 cup of baby carrots

1 cup or celery

1/4 of red wine vinegar to taste

1/4 tsp ground mustard (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

You can use whatever vegetables you have on hand, but I think the cabbage is a good base. Mince vegetables in a food processor and place in a large mixing bowl. Add vinegar, salt, pepper and dried mustard and mix. Cover and place mixture in fridge for 30-60 minutes. 

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Place a spoonful of mixture onto each wrap, fold the sides in and roll over. Place the roll on a baking sheet. Bake 30-40 minutes or until rolls are crispy. Serve with whole grain brown rice, sauteed zucchini, and lentil sprouts (use lentils in a sprouter like this one.)