__ It's a good full_

Monday, August 31, 2015

How to Choose Curriculum!

Curriculum??? AHHH???
"So and so" has this and "so and so" has that and "so and so" is teaching Latin and "so and so" ect. Want the low down on curric? Here is is..... There is a crap ton and its all good, depending on who you are and who your kids are!!! So, how do you sort through all of it and make a decision? I have two suggestions for you:

START SLOW. Don't spend a lot of money, be very very simplistic. Get into a good rhythm. If you are starting with your oldest being kindy, even just a Costco work book is fine while you get into the swing of things. Read a lot, play a lot and don't do more than 40 minutes of school everyday. INFACT, 3 days a week is even better for "sit down stuff". If not, you will burn out and feel like a failure. If you are starting with older kids and multiple grades, combine as much as you can (read my post on block schedules and on 4 day school weeks.) Keep it pretty simple, your kids need to defrag from public school and all of you need to learn how to be homeschoolers.
Figure out who you are. Everyones main decision making falls into 1 of 4 categories (you actually are a primary and have a secondary and we will focus this into curriculum choices only). This means when you are face with a decision, lets say "homeschooling you think either: 1 is fun! Homeschooling sounds fun and bright and like sunny days and field trips, 2 I need a clue. I can not move in that direction unless I can research it to death, with lots of lists and make sure I have everything I need to even consider it. In fact this might sound so overwhelming that I don't do it at all and sit around instead. 3 let's get it done. You make a decision and you move on it, go go go anything can be accomplished and you can drive it through, including homeschooling. 4 is right or wrong. Is homeschooling right, is it wrong? You go through every aspect weighing out each thing and if its right you do it.

What does personality actually have to do with any of this. I will tell you.

1 is fun: You will think it is very, very fun to look at and shop for curric. You will think its fun to get all the crafts and sparkly things and games. You will think every field study and field trip and tid bit is fun! Sounds great huh?! Sounds fun?!
You will not think it's very fun when all of that takes up so much time that you can not accomplish much. You will not think it is fun when you have to write your own lesson plans. You will not think it is fun when no one is learning and the babies are crying and you feel like you are failing. If your secondary is a 2 you might even get so stuck in researching (slowly) that you can't even use

1 is fun Mom, you need to pick easy curric. Stuff that thinks for you. Little to no lesson planning. You need things you can combine grade levels on, working kids in groups and, well, like a party. You need flexibility to throw caution to the wind and march to your own beat but also on the days when you are not so inspired, that you know what to fall back on.

DO NOT pick curriculum that is too "involved", requires a lot of prep work, or has too many elements. You might be able to "grow into" that spot (especially if you are a secondary 3 or 4) but not starting off. Don't get fancy and add too much to your plate. Your kids know you are "One Fun Mom" and if you try to teach differently then who you are... they will not like you as their teacher.

2 gets a clue: Heres the deal 2's. You take your time, you research, you have lists and notes and paper (I hate paper). You love google. You like to beat a dead horse, you just can't stop making sure you have all the info. Sometimes you may even get paralyzed in it all. 2's move slowly for the most part. Once you have the info though your secondary number will kick in: 1 Now lets have fun, 3 let's get it done or 4 this is right/wrong! You really need to utilize your secondary thought to move forward.
If you are a secondary 1 then please for the love of everyone, pick things the 1 picks. You need too or you will never enjoy what you are doing. You can however pick things that have a little more "check off the list" then the 1 does. You like lists and you like to be able to check things off.

If your secondary is a 3 then you will probably be fine. Your 3 will "get it done". Just don't pick things that need additional research. Do your research first, pick the curric and have it not require you to continue looking for things like... like books. You need a built in list so you don't get caught up in more googling.

If your secondary is a 4 then you need to remember to be flexible.

3's Get it done!: The great thing with you is that you get things done. The problem will be that you might not think outside the box or to stop a while and smell the homeschool roses. When picking curric, you will really rely on your secondary to help you choose and then you will drive it through. Your kids might think your choices are not that great or that they are bland (unless your secondary is a 1), this is because you are very practical. Be sensitive to them and pick curric with your secondary number in mind in order to not get stuck in only serving what seems practical! BE CAREFUL IF you are a secondary 4 who thinks homeschool should look like public school you may just "get it done" all the way to the homeschool graveyard. Be very careful you don't push whats not working.

Right/Wrong 4: Oh 4's. You really could go one way or the other. It depends on what your 4 thinks is right or wrong. If your 4 says that a loose, unschooling approach is best you will stand in that corner for life, unless your paradigm shifts and you think that a strict classical approach is the way to breed a child genius, then to that side you will run and stand firm! See the problem 4's?
When picking curriculum you base everything out of "right and wrong", "black and white", "good and bad". Most homeschool 4's tend to be more on the scholastic side and often a little too "public schooly at home" (Although all personalities usually hit this at some point in their journey).
You do very well with complicated curriculum with lots of checks and balances. You like having curriculum that includes many subjects and goes by the grade. You like doing things "by the book".
By nature, you will most likely want to stay away from things that are too whimsical, open ended and... imaginative. You won't think you are actually getting enough done if you do (unless your secondary is a 1, then have at it!). Your biggest issue will really be overload. Overloading your life with this very strict school while trying to keep your house clean and organic, homecooked meals on the table 3x a day! You need to keep in mind for yourself and your children that your children are children and not college students. Don't overwhelm them with too much AND..... don't think you are a failure either. Re look at what you picked, make changes, pare down and tell yourself it's RIGHT to be more relaxed and not do "as much" school work!

SO WHEN ACTUALLY BUYING:
It is okay to mix and match between sources. Just try and still pick things according to your curric personality. Google reviews on things and try and get a good feel for what you are going to buy. Homeschool conferences/fairs/and friends are a good source to see lots of curric and get to know it. Cathy Duffys homeschool reviews are a good place to start to get a feel for things.
I wish I had something more concrete to give you but the truth is still the same: There is a crap ton and its all good, depending on who you are and who your kids are.

My favorite all-around great curriculum:

Queens!

Mystery Of History

KHAN (free online math)

TEACHING TEXTBOOKS

DO IT YOURSELF HOMESCHOOL JOURNALS

BRIMWOOD PRESS

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Tooth Brushes to the tenth power!

Often I am asked about very practical large family things. Tooth brushes is one of them. The system I have has been in place now for 4 years and works AWESOME!!! It was time to replace tooth brushes so I thought I'd replace the cases too and blog it. Here we go!!

SUPPLIES:

Tooth brushes

plastic travel cases

baskety thing

*I got all my stuff from the $Tree so total cost was $11 dollars.

Write the names or initials on each end of each case.

I buy tooth brushes in enough assorted colors that each person has their own. Usually they do end up with a "preferred" color but sometimes they need to be flexible. No one ever has "issues" over this. After all, it's just toothbrushes.

After all the sorting, match them up!
*I have in the past also labeled the tooth brushes as well but I do not need to do that now.
**The travel cases have little "air holes" so they do not get moldy or nasty.

VOILA!! They are done! Slip this in the drawer, or cupboard that you store the tooth brushes in. It's nice, neat, organized and user friendly =)

Thursday, July 2, 2015

#10 FREAK OUT: in 10 TRICKS OF THE TRADE when Teaching School with a crap ton of kids everywhere- lol =)

This is the 10th in a series about teaching school with lots of kids, multiple ages and grades and little ones about. These 10 things would have revolutionized my life, had I done them all from the beginning. Enjoy and hopefully they help you a bit too!

#10 FREAK OUT!!!!

photo credit "robmcnealy.com

This is probably less of a blog post and more of a letter of encouragement. When I started off homeschooling, I had such visions of grandeur. Images flashed through my head of all these fun and exciting things we would do and learn! How my children would be ahead in everything, know Latin, music, and excel in all the arts! I didn't think it would be so hard to "do kindy" and take care of 2 littles at the same time. I never dreamed that I would feel like throwing in the towel and sending them to public school because I WAS A FAILURE as a teacher, as evidenced by the fact that I had 2 babies/toddlers and 3 school age kids and our entire week of "school was watching leap frog... again, and doing some costco workbooks. I questioned. I toiled. I struggled. I doubted.
The truth is I WAS NOT FAILING but I had placed higher expectations on my life, and my children, than were necessary. I kept soldiering on, tweaking our school days, tweaking our curriculum. Some days I was a HUGE SUCCESS and others MEH-NOT SO MUCH. Through it all though, I was in it! I was committed! I was willing to let God continue to change and mold me into the Mom HE wanted me to be and you know what, it totally got better!

In my 12 years being a homeschool Mom, I have learned some very valuable things; some of those only recently! These are all things I used to
FREAK OUT about and now I am sailing that beautiful sea of
"NOW I KNOW BETTER". To end out this series, I would like to share some "gems" with you that I have learned. Beautiful tid-bits to help you realize all this "freaking out" is really not needed. Satan tells us lies people! Lies that we are failing, that we aren't smart enough, that we are ruining our children, that we can't do it, that we are not able to do it. (if your lips are move'n, if your lips are move'n, then you lie, lie, lie!) It's time for us all to STOP BELIEVING THE LIES! The truth, the truth, the truth is that we CAN DO IT, WE WILL DO IT, WE WILL SUCCEED!!! So what are these "FREAK OUT" things??? Here's 5, knock yourself out!!

FREAK OUT #1: I'm totally freaking out because we haven't done school at all this year!
Okay, so how old are your kids? Hmm not in highschool. You will be fine. The more I homeschool, the more I think that you really can cover just about everything you need to between grades 7th and up... and thats if you want to be done with highschool in the 10th grade so that grades 11th-12th are at a college. Now, I am not an "unschooler" but I am starting to see a method to some of the madness ;) (saying that with love). What I have realized though is that if all you did was teach them to read and work on math, you really arent going to miss anything else if you saved all the rest for the upper grades.
Filling your days with lots of learning through reading, games, videos, songs, going places, talking, talking, talking, have I mentioned talking? Your kids will learn so very much!!! Talk about anything and everything. Give them things to make their own books, and posters, and flip books, and lapbooks, and pop ups, and comics and, and and and and!!! they will learn. They will learn about maps and places and cities and countries and animals and insects and the commas I am not using because I don't feel like it right now ;) THEY WILL LEARN! Despite you and BECAUSE OF YOU!! If you never touched on formal history and science until the last 4 years of their school life... they will be just fine! SO DON"T FREAK OUT!!!

FREAK OUT #2: WE ARE SO TOTALLY BEHIND AND I DON'T THINK WE CAN CATCH UP!!!!
So here's the thing: If you do feel like you are "behind" the first thing you need to do is look at what you are "behind in". (Read "freak out #1 again) If its NOT math and reading... stop freaking out. History, science, ect can be taught more formally later or on a slower progressive curve. If, for instance, you are using a curric like Mystery of History, it's perfectly fine to stretch the volume you are in out to encompass more than one school year. It really is okay.
If you are really "behind" in stuff, take a look at why. Is it because you need to prioritize school better? Is it curric? Do you need to carve out some one-on-one time? Is the child not ready to be moved ahead?
My son A9 was in 4th grade this last year. He has a summer birthday so he is a "young grade level" kid. Technically he could actually be in the grade below him. These are good things to keep in mind. So, reading has not been his thing. He is still "behind" but he is progressing for him and it gets better and better every day. And we did implement some things this year to keep encouraging him in his reading. However, in MATH, he started the year off about 1/4 of the way through 4th grade math. He ended the year a little more than 1/4 of the way into his 6th grade math (teaching textbooks). Did you compute that? My "behind in reading" kid did over 2 years of math in one year! His brain was there, in math land, not in reading land! So I didn't freak out. He's progressing just fine with reading. My outlook needed to change.... he's not "behind", he is just on a different schedule =) If you really are behind in stuff though- chuck everything off your plate except what really counts. set some goals and work on those. Put back in the other things as the "behind stuff" get stable and are in an uphill progression.

FREAK OUT #3: THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE TEACHING WAYYYYYY MORE STUFF THAN I AM!!!
No, no they are not. How do I know this? Why because up until this past February (2015) I had 3 kids still in the public school system. Let me share a few things with you: 1)I actually had to teach them the story about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving,; I still can't believe that. 2)The public schools aren't teaching everything either!!! (go on, get out your shock face!) They do math and language arts every day. That is the only thing they are doing every day. They have units they do here and there, throughout the year, on science and history/social studies and if they do not get the math and LA done, they ditch the other stuff. (No wonder they had no clue about the pilgrims!). PE and ARTS are hit and miss as well. This is kinda the way their world turns until about 7th grade. So, if the public school isn't even doing all 9 billion subjects, why are you stressing out about it?!?!?! Teach your child to read and to love reading and keep on a progressive level with math. Anything else that you missed along the way- assign it to them from junior high on up!

FREAK OUT #4: But this other homeschool family in our circle, well their kids know Latin and there's all this stuff about the different phases of learning and they all play the violin! We don't measure up =(
Measure up to who? The Jones's? Stop comparing yourself to other people! They don't have the same life/kids/family/worries/joys as you do. I admit, my kids would prolly be a lot more "highly educated" had some of the other families I know have been theirs. But you know what? They aren't theirs, they are mine! Being the "smartest homeschool family ever" should not be your aim in life and I am sure it's not all it's cracked up to be. It really will be okay. Do they love and follow Jesus? Are you teaching them to live a life for Gods glory and not their gain? Then KEEP GOING!!! You are doing just fine!! It really is okay if we don't all school the same way and with the same scholastic goals. It really is alright. IT REALLY IS!

FREAK OUT #5: I WON'T BE ABLE TO TEACH MATH... OR MIDDLE SCHOOL... OR HIGHSCHOOL!
Yes you can and yes you will! First of all, there are so many amazing programs and curriculum's out there. Anyone can do it and that includes you. Secondly, just because your child is getting older, that does not make you dumber. Besides, even if it did (but it doesn't- not even "placenta brain"), by the time they get to highschool, they should be pretty independent. They hopefully got the hang of using the math computer program, learned how to research and even if you only required ONE essay a year, if it was a good one then they know how to do that too. They can read, they can write, they can move through curriculum. It really will be okay and you really can do it! And you really are smart enough too =)

My friends, keep fighting the good fight. Keep pouring into your kids. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don't give up!! Don't freak out!! Take it one day at a time and be encouraged, YOU'VE GOT THIS!

That concludes this blog post (and this series!). I hope you have enjoyed this overview on "FREAK OUT!" Other topics to come in this series, in no particular order, are:

Sunday, June 14, 2015

#9 Making an "un-schedule": In 10 TRICKS OF THE TRADE when Teaching School with a crap ton of kids everywhere- lol =)

This is the 9th in a series about teaching school with lots of kids, multiple ages and grades and little ones about. These 10 things would have revolutionized my life, had I done them all from the beginning. Enjoy and hopefully they help you a bit too!

#9: Making an "Un-Schedule"

So I have talked A LOT about chore charts and ORSH/block scheduling and having a routine and plan your food and those things are all well and good, but what happens when.... well, when the poo-poo hits the fan?
"Mama said there'd be days like this" and Mama was RIGHT! Bad days, busy days, and all consuming days, will find you more often than not. Making an 'Un-schedule" is 80% attitude, 10% scheduling and 10% fall back.

The fall back!

The "fall back" is the normative estate. What is NORMAL IN YOUR HOME. My fall back is really my chore system. Because that system is worked around meals, it acts as a natural "reset". If the day "gets weird" we can fall right back into gear by hitting the next meal and going with it. Another great thing, is in anticipation of a disruption like.... leaving the house for a field trip; I can gather the crew, tell them to "check their jurisdictions", my house gets a once over before we leave and we come back to bliss instead of mess. If you do not have a PLEASANT NORMATIVE ESTATE, then you will have nothing to FALLBACK ON! Or (even worse!) if your fallback is a disorganized one, it will be a source of contention and will breed chaos in your home.

Attitude!

Now, really pay attention... attitude. It makes a word of difference. IT REALLY DOES! Now I am not talking about attitude in the sense of "good day/bad day" but more in an "out look" sort of way. Do you have an attitude that allows your home to be flexible without putting guilt on yourself? (WHOA!) Too often we Moms put unwarranted guilt on ourselves for not having everything done:

We didn't get to that pile of laundry, we didn't do all 4 application that went with one lessons. We didn't think about dinner until 4 p.m., we didn't get to all the parts of language arts we should have today...

We get so caught up in this train of thinking though that we will sometimes disregard what we DID DO:

We helped the oldest get passes a hard concept in math while the laundry waited patiently. We were caught up in fantastical discussion on the slave trade and the kids were so into it that we schooled past 3! In language arts, the one little bit on poetry stanzas turned into a hilarious sort of "whose line is it anyway" with the kids making up their own couplets, triplets and quatrains!

It's all perspective friends and when you count all the little things you see that they all add up to very big things! Sometimes days just "get off track" and that is PERFECTLY FINE!!!! Just have those safe guards in place, those fall backs, so that when it does, you know how to get back on track!

THE UN-SCHEDULE

With that said, we have to look at the schedule now and ask some very important things.

Are the expectations reasonable?
Are you willing to "chuck what doesn't work" or "pause on it until a later time?
Is it flexible enough to bend and shift with your family?
Are you willing to "call it" at any given moment when the day is just not working?

PSSST::::: The last one is the hardest- just say'n. Go ahead, re-read the 4 questions one more time. Okay maybe 2 more times ;) There is no way to schedule an un-schedule. You just have to be able to stay fluid enough that you can shift, but strong enough that you can carry the vessel on.

At the beach on a school day in April with friends.

I spent a lot of years not being fluid enough and my vessel just sat in the water. We couldn't more forward because I was stuck in what we didn't do in the past! Once I worked on being fluid, things started moving, kids were learning even more and we were accomplishing so much.

Now I'm like "psht, let's just go to the beach because its sunny today!" because I know in a few days it will rain for a week and we can "catch up" without a problem, or maybe we will need a few "tweaks" to the scholastic line up, but we CAN DO THAT! I have also learned what I really needed (and could actually accomplish) within schooling. Geography is perfectly fine being taught as a highschool course, we don't need a full course in it at 4th grade. We can touch base on those things as part of history! It's okay if a child progresses more OR LESS in an area that is not atypical. It will all round out in the end. I have even learned that it was really okay that we hardly did school for my oldest daughter's 2nd grade year. There was a lot going on, let's leave it at that. And you know what!!! She is not scarred for life, shes super smart and has no scholastic set backs from playing most of the year when she was 8. Guilt-GONE. Be willing to take your best laid plans and chuck them for the sake of loving your family.

Besides, look at what you are teaching the kids! Be flexible, be willing to critically look at plans, be willing to admit you "bit off more than you can chew", be the person who is wise enough to "call it" when it's just not working, be the one to accomplish much with a good attitude. Be willing to HAVE FUN, be appreciative of what you do school wise, be willing. BE WILLING! BE the person who knows, when all is said and done, how to get back to the "normative estate" and be okay with it all. You are teaching them how to navigate the ups and downs of life. An un-schedule is really just flexibility in action!

That concludes this blog post. I hope you have enjoyed this overview on "Making an un-schedule"! Other topics to come in this series, in no particular order, are:

One Room School House Teaching

block scheduling/4 day school week

3 hour limit

schooling when they are ready- don't stress until then

sickness in the house and new babies

utilize your team (aka older kids)

schooling with toddlers and babies

FEED the people

Making an "unschedule" for your home

FREAK OUT!

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

My dining room

Let's talk about the dining room. I used to have a LARGE dining room table. It worked well when every behind was no bigger than 10 inches. Eventually I came to the point where either I would need to construct a bigger dining room for an even LARGER table OR I needed a different way to seat people.
Thus "Cafe Style"!

PICS!!!

PROS:
*It's fun!
*I can configure it a bunch of different ways.
*Easily can be re constructed to fit in even more people.
*Works well with homeschooling, since it is so versatile.
*Easy to clean.
*Cubbys under bench act as extra storage.
*I still have room to add one more small table
*I can even move them to outside or another room if I wanted.

The first pic is from my living room and the second is standing in my Kitchen and looking into my dining room. I do have chairs for that table but my kids were using them for a fort =)

Where did I get these items?

Why from IKEA of course!
I looked online and it looks like IKEA now has a slightly different style but found this same one HERE.

The RECTANGLE TABLE came WITH FOUR CHAIRS for $100. I bought 2 of them.

The SQUARE TABLES are MELLTORP TABLES . No chairs included. for $40 each.

For the BENCH in the back, I bought 1 Kallax Shelf for $60 (used to be called expedit) and ONE 2 SQUARE ONLY shelf thing but I can not find it on their catalog or anywhere online. They have them though and I want to say it cost be around $40 for it.

SET UP: I laid the shelves down to make one LONG BENCH, then set the tables up, then dispersed the chairs. EASY PEASY!

And here are some happy pictures of my kids at said tables =)

Re-configured to put the Tree in there
(living room was too small)

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Food Post's

Blog Post's relating to food =)

#8 FEED the People: in 10 TRICKS OF THE TRADE when Teaching School with a crap ton of kids everywhere- lol:

This is the 8th in a series about teaching school with lots of kids, multiple ages and grades and little ones about. These 10 things would have revolutionized my life, had I done them all from the beginning. Enjoy and hopefully they help you a bit too!

#8 FEED the people

One of the things I get asked about a lot is food. It's a valid question for sure! With a family of 12, we go through a lot of food. For some reason, all these children want to eat! 3 meals a day at that! This becomes very time consuming when thrown into the daily grind of house and school.

We spend about $750 a month on just food. I keep cost down by making as much as I can by hand. This means our food budget can stay lower but we have to put more time into these things.

sour dough bread

We make pretty much all bread items from scratch (no bread machine and many of the items are sourdough), yogurt, many broths, some meals to put in the freezer... sometimes (honestly I don't have time for a ton of that and most freezer meals don't reheat well when made in the quantities I need). We freeze berries we collect all summer and harvest tons from our garden and fruit trees in order to can and freeze. These things keep our cost way down, but it does mean that we do a lot of "home ec." September and October, and we have to have at least one day a week set aside for bread baking. I will talk more about these things in a future post. The point of THIS POST is in how we actually feed all these kids in an orderly fashion, without too much mess, 3 times a day.

cinnamon rolls

We begin: it helps to have as much as I can already made... like bread items. It also helps to use my crock pot as much as I can. For hot meals in the morning, I'd rather go the crock pot route the night before. We do eat a lot of eggs but only because we have chickens. We do not do boxed anything. Not cereals, not dinner items, no pre made rice or packaged mac and cheese. About the only thing we buy "pre-made" is handy items like spaghetti sauce, noodles, pancake batter (and that is only because my husband prefers in (currently) as he makes pancakes on the weekends), sometimes granola bars, you know... that kind of stuff.

finger veggie mix for the fridge

I will take some time to cut up finger veggies and put them in a large tupperware container so that we have cut veggies for lunches all week. My two older girls make a HUGE amount of muffins 1x a week or so that we freeze and pull out as needed (along with the other bread items). If we have a lot of eggs, hardboil and peel a bunch! You know, just think about what you go to the most and pre-make as much as you can to make things easier!

Another thing I do to save on monthly cost and to make things faster is I "flip" a lot of meals. I can make 2 roast chickens from costco give me 3-4 meals... for 12 people! (with stuff added to it of course)

I digress... back to the main point: I have learned that if I do not keep the meals simple for breakfast and lunch, then our homeschool day can quickly be swallowed up in food prep, cooking, and cleaning. We keep things pretty healthy, my kids eat all their "greens" (veggies) and they eat what they are served... period!

For this post, I have tried to include our more predominate meals and my hope is to come through and do some picture tutorials on some of them as well. Hope you all enjoy!

Lets start with breakfast. Now remember, all bread items are already made and just have to be pulled from the cupboard or freezer. All meals include fruit and are usually on napkins or paper plates, unless they need "real dishes":

Morning "kitchen helper's" on
the chore chart, making breakfast.

This Guy is happy to eat!

Here is a list of breakfast items we have often.

Overnight crock pot oatmeal (tons of different "kinds")
Overnight crock pot french toast
Overnight crock pot sweet bread
Muffins/fruit/nuts
Yogurt/fruit/nuts
Eggs: scrambled, in burritos, fried, on english muffins, hard boiled etc.
Cinnamon rolls/fruit/nuts
Banana bread
Raisin bread
Pumpkin bread
Pie. Yes pie! It is not below me to pull out a pie crust and fill it with canned fruit with a topping of crushed nuts. I might even layer it with some yogurt. Don't judge me, it's delish!
Smoothies with some type of bread/muffin
Every once in a blue moon, home made "cereal" and milk.
Rice cereal
Toast with something on it, with fruit/nuts
Yogurt parfaits
Pancakes
Waffles
Muffin Quiche
bagles
breakfast pizza
Breakfast salad. Usually chopped up cabbage and other greens mixed into a happy greek yogurt. Very yum!

b-fast salad

pumpkin muffins

Whew! Most of this stuff can be made ahead of time and frozen, can go in the crock pot over night, or be whipped together within 20 minutes or less in the morning. Clean up is pretty easy and with kids using the chore system, clean up goes fast. Even if I didn't have an older kid cleaning crew, all of this stuff would be easy for me to whip out right before I got littles out of bed and I could clean up pretty quickly, by myself.

Lunches ;) everything includes fruits and veggies even if they are not mentioned. And yes, my kids eat all their "greens" (this is all veggies). I still only use paper plates or napkins unless I need real dishes:

parfait cups for lunch

Pizza rolls

Tortillia roll ups: this might be like pb and J but rolled into a tortillia, peanut butter/banana/celery, or a sandwhich wrap.
"Lunch boats". This is like home made chicken salad scooped into romaine leaves.
Parfait lunch cups. Ummm...anything that goes in a cup
Open face sandwiches. Could be pb and j or meat and cheese stuff.
Popcorn lunch: popcorn, slice cheese, lunch meat, fruit, veggies, spoon with peanut butter on it, nuts ect, ect,... like a "lunchable"; it has a little bit of everything!
Soup. Man alive but I can feed these kids for days on different soups and bread!
Bean and cheesers.
Nachos
Home made pizza on pizza crust or sliced bread or "pizza casserole" and we make many different "kinds" of pizza.
Tuna melts
Pasta salad
pasta in general
Ummm... bread anything. Meat and cheese drop biscuits, bread with stuff spread on it, bread with stuff melted on it, bread baked with things in it (think calzone). Did I mention bread?
Corn dogs (ok, this one I buy and don't make from scratch)
Hotdog rolled up in a tortillia
Anything from the breakfast list =)
Dinner leftovers
Salads
Anything I can throw in a large cup and send them outside with.... kinda like #4
Stir fry stuff (this is usually a left over thing that gets flipped into a stir fry)
Rice and beans... beans and rice =)

Dinner time now!

I will list just a few since dinners are usually more involved and its after school hours. Plus, eventually I will write a more informative food post =) I use bread as a "filler" with most dinners and always have a side veggie or salad as well.

personal pizzas for dinner

Pasta of various kinds both as hot and cold dishes.
Tacos.
Salads with meat on them.
Soups
Stews
Pizza
Chicken that gets turned into 3 or more meals
Ham that then gets turned into another 3 or more meals
Baked potatoes with stuff
Every meal is a main "something something" with salad or side veggies and bread (usually sourdough sliced)

What about snacks???

Yah... we just don't. The only exception wold be if we are having a really active day like swimming or hiking or... a beach day. That constitutes NEEDING a snack. When we are at home though, we just do not snack. I can't afford it and they really do not need it! If I had kids 3 and under in my home I would give them a snack between getting up from naps and dinner. I have found if kids snack all day long they 1)eat you out of house and home BUT only on the "goodies" and 2) they don't eat their dinner. They do have access to their water bottles all day long =) When we do have snacks, its stuff like fruits, veggies, trail mix, muffins, bread (lol). Every now and then I might have pretzels. Like I have stated, we don't do boxed things.

Dishes?

Okay, so don't judge me for using paper! My dishwasher can only run so many times a day and we can not be backed up in the kitchen; we would get nothing done! Dinner is pretty much always on real dinnerware and we run a load in the DW after dinner at night. Breakfast and lunches are normally paper plates or napkins. If I need to use real stuff, like for oatmeal, then I do. Between breakfast and lunch we usually run one more DW load. It all depends on what we had for Bfast and lunch =)

CUPS? I love the land of sippy cups so as my kids got older I got them water bottles! Everyone has their own and that is what they use everyday, all day, and that's it. If they knock it over, it doesn't spill. If we are going somewhere I can grab the basket of water bottles and take it with. I don't have to wash 2 million cups everyday. It's a beautiful system! Water bottle live in the basket. Not on the counter, in their room, outside, you get the point. In the summer I put the basket on the porch so they have easy access all day long =) We pretty much ONLY DRINK WATER. I don't give out juice or milk to drink unless it's a special treat. When I do though, they get it in a regular cup ;)

Did you just say your kids do not drink milk (GASP!)

Why yes, yes you did. All the great stuff in milk is also found in other dairy and in other foods. My kids eat plenty of yogurt and cheese. They eat dino kale and other nutrient rich greens and plenty of other fruits and veggies. Milk is not the end all to health and my kids are not lacking! Besides, we can not afford to have everyone drinking milk all the day long.

WHO DOES ALL THE WORK??

Well..... At this point in my life, it's a real joint effort between the kids and I. I do most of the dinners with help from various children. The kids do most of the other meals. We all pitch in on food prep stuff as needed. The older girls do most of the bread baking items.

Of course, before my oldest was 11, it was just me. I did it all and I did it as I had time and I prolly did even more because my family was small enough that things like freezer meals still worked.

F was about 13 here. Making muffins.

You JUST HAVE TO MAKE THE TIME TO DO IT! There is no trick to getting it done, you just have to get it done! Sometimes that meant not taking a nap, or staying up a little later, or taking a whole saturday to cook and food prep.
Don't underestimate your childrens abilities either! My oldest was 11 when she started doing breakfast on her own. She would get up at 7 and make muffins and/or other breakfast items for everyone while I nursed the baby. I really could have had her helping me in that way much younger. I know my current 8 year old boy could totally do it right now! I just didn't know that I could have her doing stuff then and I didn't know it was OKAY to have her doing stuff! Remember this is part of training them to be adults! Start young!!!!
As far as clean up goes, well the kids do that thanks to my CHORE SYSTEM, and if you do not have older kids yet- read it anyway! Training starts early!

QUESTIONS????? Please ask in the comments so I can answer! =)

TO CLOSE: OVERNIGHT OATS =)

So, this is pretty easy. I will forewarn you though, I do not measure =)

YOU WILL NEED:

crock pot
oats
applesauce or canned fruit (but you could skip this- it just makes it more yummy)
raisins or craisins or berries or nuts, if you want
spices like cinnamon, pie spices, ect
vanilla
sugar if needed (if using applesauce or canned fruit you may not need any)

ASSEMBLE:

Dump in your fruit, spices, and any other add ins, like nuts or raisins.
If you are doing something like peaches, you will want to take some food scissors and cut them up smaller.
pour in a dash of vanilla

NOW:

Dump in a bunch of oats. You really can't go wrong here. Just don't fill it all the way up!
(DO NOT add water before oats. Always oats first)

NEXT:

ADD Water until the Oats are covered and then stir!

You want the Oats "stew like" if its too "soupy" add some more oats. If too "chunky" add some more water =)

Taste the liquid and if its not sweet enough, add some sweetner =)

NOW COOK IT!

Before you go to bed, turn your crock pot on the lowest setting. On my Crock Pot, That is WARM.

LAST:

Put the lid on it and let it do its thing. You will be ready to eat this yumminess in the morning!

(I usually turn my CP on warm around 10 p.m. we eat it when we are ready in the morning. 7 am if we have to be out of the house but more like 9 on a regular day)

That concludes this blog post. I hope you have enjoyed this overview on "FEED the people"! Other topics to come in this series, in no particular order, are: