Multiple kids in one room?

We have four kids. Three boys and a little girl. If you are keeping track, that makes 6 people in a 3 bedroom home. No basement and no attic. I have to be creative with out space........very creative. This past few months I have really been working on organizing. I thought I had the boy's room organized, then it exploded. We cleaned it only for it to explode again. Obviously, my organization was NOT working. I had to figure something else out.


First, I got rid of their toy shelf. You know the shelf with that holds all the bins? Great in theory, but it just wasn't working for us. I kept the bins, they did come in quite handy. I organized all of the toys into categories. Like with like. By the time I was done, everything had a place. I labeled each bin and put them up on the shelf in their closet. Each time they wanted to play with something, they had to check it out from me. Like a library.

 Before you all get upset with me and tell me I'm depriving my children, by not allowing them to have ALL of their toys within reach at all times, take a deep breath and read on. I don't believe that children NEED toys to have a good childhood. I believe that a good childhood involves imagination and creativity. That stick can become a gun or a fairy's wand. I believe that children can quickly become overwhelmed if we overload them with toys and toys and more toys. Okay, I will step down off of my soap box for now.

Back to their room:
Just getting a majority of the toys out of their reach was not enough. Despite picking up at the end of the day being a DAILY chore, their room exploded again! Something has got to give here. What am I doing wrong? Is it just their age? They are 8, 6, and 4. They should be able to keep a tidy space, shouldn't they?

I spent 3 hours in their room yesterday! THREE HOURS!! Yes, I am yelling. This is ridiculous! I shouldn't have to spend that amount of time in any room cleaning and organizing, unless it is a deep clean type of situation. Even then, 3 hours is a stretch.

I have read many different articles and blogs on organizing. I simply do not have the space. Most rooms are made for one, maybe two children to share. I have three in this room. Moving one of them to the other bedroom is not an option. First of all, they like being together. (Safety in numbers I guess.) Secondly, they don't want to sleep in the pink girl's room. I am not against different genders sharing a room, I would rather not though. I don't know why, so don't ask.

The fact of the matter is, I have three boys, their toys, their clothes(in the closet and a dresser), a set of bunk beds and one twin sized bed in their room. I am limited on how I can re-arrange due to window and door issues. The beds are pretty much stuck where they are.

Anyone have any advice for me? Links? Been there, done that advice?

FIAR:Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

This is our third week of "rowing" with Five in a Row. We are absolutely loving it! It is so much fun!

This week, we are "rowing" Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. Yesterday, we watched a short video on steam shovels, after reading the book. Today, I made the kids each a sensory bin with various dried beans and some construction trucks we had in our car bin.

I had them play with that while I read the book. I find that if I keep their hands busy, they listen a little better to the story.

After we finished the book and played for a bit in the sensory bins, we did an art activity with squares. I had some sticky backed foam that I cut into various sizes of squares (Since Mike Mulligan had to dig a cellar for the Town Hall "nice and square.") They had so much fun doing this. They each made their own version of the "Town Hall."

When they were finished, we read through the book, All Sorts of Shapes. We spent some time talking about all the different shapes and finding them in the room around us.

As I said before, we are really enjoying this curriculum. I encourage you to look into it. I don't get anything from the company for telling you about it. I research things to death before I make a decision, especially when it comes to my children's education, so I like to share my opinion on products for others to read.

That's life & some good news!

I've not been blogging lately because, it seems, life has taken a hold of me and not let go. We started our homeschool year and it went great. Almost as planned up until Christmas. Then we took a break and are now back into the swing of things.

Amidst all of this,I have been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Yes, it's odd for an adult to be diagnosed with type 1, it is usually a childhood thing. I am learning how to navigate life with this diagnosis. It's really hard at times, but I know God is my strength.

Anyway, I also wanted to share some exciting news with all of you. A woman, in my community, recently opened up a "free store" in the walk out basement of her home. Yes, a FREE store. She takes donations of anything you don't want anymore and puts them right back out for others to take. Clothes, books, toys, home decor, etc. It's really a wonderful ministry. I realize I've veered off to the left here. (I do that frequently, walking a straight line is boring. ;) ) Back on track, my first visit out there, I found the first three volumes of Five in a Row, plus the Bible Supplement! All for free! Amazing!

So, I have started "rowing" with my two younger kids. They are 4(almost 5) and 2(almost 3). We have done Night of the Moon jellies and had a blast! At the end of the week, we took a bath with moon jellies. It was so much fun! The moon jellies are made out of clear plastic bags, a glow stick and some water. Tie them shut and you've got a moon jelly.






This week, we are "rowing" Katy and the Big Snow. We have done lots of fun things this week. On Tuesday, we painted with "snow paint," made out of shaving creme and glue.


I am so excited about this curriculum! I look forward to sharing more as we continue "rowing" throughout the year.

Great giveaway!

This is an awesome giveaway, check it out!

Daily Schedule Revised

I have been looking at the daily schedule that I posted. Something about it wasn't working for me. It didn't seem to flow in my head. So I decided to change it. This is life. This is homeschooling. I love this part of homeschooling. If something isn't working, for whatever reason, it CAN be changed.

I have divided our day in to three chunks. We will have morning basket time, where we will do our subjects that we do as a family. This will be done in the living room, where everyone can be comfortable with blankies, lovies, etc. After morning basket time, we will move to the dining room for table time. This is where we will do our workbook stuff. Our third chunk contains our afternoon work. Here is how I have it all planned out for the day;

Morning Basket Time

Bible Reading (from Penny Gardner's list)
Devotional (Keys 4 Kids)
Foreign Language (ASL)
Hymn Study
Poetry
Scripture Memory
Composer Study
Literature
Reading (I will still be working with Thunder(grade 1). Lightening(grade 3) is independent)


Table Time

Lightening(grade 3)                                      Thunder(grade 1)
Math                                                             Penmanship

                    History/Science(2 days each) together

Copywork                                                     Math

                    Artist study/Grammar(2 days each) together



Afternoons
Nature Study(The outdoor hour) 1 time a week
Handicrafts (The kids will just be working on one of the many options they have.)


There you have it. My new "schedule". I estimate that our morning basket time and our table time will each take us about an hour to finish, making it about 2 hours for school in the morning. Afternoon work will just take however long we need to finish.

Let me know what you think and share a link to your own schedules.

Our Daily Schedule

I told you all yesterday that I would share how I planned to accomplish everything in our plans. Before I get into that, I want to stress to everyone that I make many plans, but they are all changeable. If it's not working, doesn't feel right or if we are forcing ourselves to do something, we find another way. I don't want to force my kids through something if it's not right. There are so many resources out there that we can find something to fit for our family and I encourage you to do the same. One of the best pieces of advice I got my first year of homeschooling was not to be worried if something isn't working out. Homeschooling is a way of life, not just a part of our life. We don't need to follow a set curriculum in order for our children to learn. Oh, how freeing this was for me to hear.

On with my (tentative) plan:

Daily as a family:
Bible.
Scripture memory
Hymn Study
Literature
Poetry
Foreign Language

Daily as individuals with mom:
Reading
Math
Copywork/ Dictation
Typing

Monday                               Tuesday                           
History/Geography                History/Geogrophy            
Artist study*                         Grammar                                
Music study*                                                                

Wednesday                       Thursday
Science                               Science
Artist study*
 Music study*

* Artist and Music study alternates by month. In August we will do an artist study and in September we will switch to music study. We will alternate between the two for the rest of the year.

There you have it, our daily schedule. As you can see, not everything happens every day. The subjects we do daily are not all that involved and take just a short time to finish. So, even though it looks like a lot to accomplish, it's really very simple.
 

Plans for our next school year.

This year went great, but I was still left looking for more. We got all of the basics, but I wanted to really get into some other subjects, like music and art, with my kids. Not just the fun crafty type things(not that they are bad, we really enjoy them), but art appreciation. I had watched the "All Day Charlotte Mason Seminar" at a friends house and caught the Charlotte Mason bug.

Charlotte Mason really appealed to me for a variety of reasons. Her idea that education is three pronged: Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life. By "education is an atmosphere", Charlotte meant that a child absorbs a lot of information from his/her environment. This means that it's up to the parents to provide an environment in which they are comfortable with what their child is learning. The second part of a Charlotte Mason education deals with discipline, specifically the discipline of good habits of character. This appealed to me because I believe that we start homeschooling our children at birth. Not, the workbooks and tests type of homeschooling, just general learning. We teach our children many good habits by the time they reach "school age." Hopefully, they have been good habits. The third part of Charlotte's idea is that education is a life. This idea applies to the academic part of life. We should give children living thoughts, and ideas, not just dry facts out of a textbook. This alone really spoke to my soul. My goal in homeschooling has nothing to do with my children being able to regurgitate facts and dates. I want to inspire them to have a love of learning that they can carry through their whole life. I believe that following the Charlotte Mason style will help me achieve this goal.

So, without further ado, here are my plans for next year. I will have a child in 3rd and 1st that will be together for most things, and I will have my two younger children together. They will be 4 years and 2 years old.

For my older two
Math: Singapore Math 3A&B for my 3rd grader and1A&B for my 1st grader

Science: We will finish Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding

Nature Study: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/ We will work through these challenges together.

Reading: 3rd grader will be reading through the Magic Tree House books. He likes a timer, so he will do 15-20 minutes of reading a day. More if he wants to continue. 1st grader will work through Hooked on Phonics Grade 1.

Copywork/Penmanship: 3rd grader will be doing guided dictation with his copywork until he is more confidant with his cursive. 1st grader will continue working through The Joy of Handwriting.

English/Grammar: I know Charlotte didn't start formal grammar until the children were in about 5th grade. I found a wonderful resource to go along with Grammarland. You can view this book online, download it, or purchase the book on amazon. I happened to stumble across this blog. She has made up worksheets to go along with each chapter of Grammarland. Since we are using more notebooking in our homeschool, I thought this would work perfectly. I will not have my 1st grader work through the worksheets, he will just listen to the story and do some oral narration for me. My 3rd grader will work through the worksheets though. I will help him with the writing until he gets better.

Spelling: This will just be for my 3rd grader. He is really wanting to work on his spelling, so we will add this in along with his copywork. (I will post about this specifically on it's own to explain how I plan to do this.

Typing: We will work through Dance Mat Typing and continue with keybr. 
             (I found these ideas at  FiveJ's)

Foreign Language: We will work through American Sign Language as a family.

Art: Each child has a sketch book that they can draw, paint, etc. whatever they would like. Occasionally, I will pull out Drawing With Children by Mona Brooks and teach a few things out of there.

Handicrafts/Life skills: I have this list printed and placed in my lesson plan book. I use it as a reference and just pick one for my kids to work on. Right now, my oldest, is working on loom knitting and "regular" knitting.

History/Geography: Road Trip USA from ConfessionsofaHomeschooler. At the end of each state lesson, we will go through the workbook from Highlights Which Way USA.

Bible: We will read through the Bible in the year and do a daily devotional from Keys 4 Kids

Scripture Memory: We do this as a family also, and use Simply Charlotte Mason's method.

Literature: Again I have a list printed and placed in my lesson plan book to reference. We just pick a book off the list and read it. Either I will read it during the day or my husband will read to them from the book at bedtime.

Poetry: I just read select poems as part of our daily reading time.

Artist/Picture study: The World's Greatest Artists Unit Study

Music Study: I plan on following this plan starting with the Orchestra. I found The Story of the Orchestra at our local library sale for $1!

Hymn Study: We will practice one hymn a month by listening and singing it each day.

Shakespeare: I will read A Midsummer Night's Dream from Tales from Shakespeare. If I feel they are ready for it, if not, we will just skip this.

For my younger two

I will work through Animal Play with both of them together, adjusting as necessary.

Wow! That looks like a lot all typed out like that. My next blog post will be my daily schedule for how I plan to accomplish all of this.