Cotton Pickin' Dinner Plans

This week we have been studying Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin.  My parents had recently gotten the girls some cotton and I have saved it several months in anticipation.  The teachers manual suggested using cotton balls and gluing green bits of paper then rolling the cotton so that the green paper is inside.  Then have them pick those out but fortunately we had the real thing.  Well, the teachers manual also says that this is tiring and the children will probably not want to do this for very long.  Well, not my children.  They were begging after school to do the REST of the branch we had.  Far be it from me to keep them from it.  (Perler beads comes to mind here - they'll stay busy with those things for HOURS).

I never realized how many things cotton seeds are used for, either.  They were bigger than I expected too.  Now, Ms. Priss wants me to find something so that she can card the cotton.  She mentioned something about spinning it on a wheel.  I guess she's got big plans for her Daddy to make her one.  Hmmm...somehow I don't see that happening any time in the near future.

On an unrelated note, I have been trying hard to get myself organized.  I have fallen in love with Sandra Felton these days.  If you don't get Free Daily Coaching from the Organizer Lady you are missin' the boat!!!   I will try to post more about my schedules, etc. later but I wanted to share with you one of my organizational tools.  Laurie at Tip Junkie has asked us to post organizing ideas. 

So, I thought I would share with you my meal planning system.  When used it is a beautiful thing.  But apparently that is paramount with any organizing scheme...that is, the follow through.

I use a sheet protector that photographer's use for slides.  The nice thing about these page protectors is that they are configured in a 5 x 4 grid so that you can plan for 5 days a week and up to 4 weeks at a time.  I cut card stock in 2" squares.  On the front of the card I write the main dish or title.  On the back side I have listed ingredients, side dishes or "suggested servings".  So, when you flip it over it can be used as a handy little checklist/shopping list for the week and/or month.  Notice I also put notes on the fronts of my cards such as Kids eat Free on Tuesdays at Atlanta Bread and Footlongs are $4 on Fridays at Harris Teeter.

I don't plan for the weekends assuming that there will (a) be some slippage during the week and (#2) that we will eat leftovers and (III) that my dear husband will suggest that his darling wife has had such a laborious week that he should treat her to lovely meals out.

 
I usually hang it on the side of my refrigerator out of view just to reference.  But the nice thing about it is that you could put it in a 3 ring binder or just slip it in your pocket book if need be.  I haven't quite perfected storage of the extra cards but for now the little ziploc will have to do.   Now, I've gotta go figure out what's for dinner tonight!

Go ahead, play with your food

The other day we had Bacon, Egg and Cheese Croissants for lunch after church. Lil Bit asked for her sliced cheese to the side. The next thing I knew she was telling me she "made a dress!" What?!? I turned around and this is what she was holding up.



Moments later she had altered it and made it sleeveless.


The ironic thing about it all is that unbeknownst to her I had just read to help your children learn the states have them make the shapes of states by cutting them out of cheese. Maybe she's destined for a degree in fashion design.

Speaking of design...I promised some more organizational tips. Hmm...maybe I need some organizational tips on time management. Anyway, as I was flipping through a Montesorri catalog, I came across some pretty expensive colored pencil holders. Uh...the 11 piece set is a whopping $74. Yes, that's seventy-four DOLLARS!!!!!



I had done something similar years before and didn't even realize I was so "Montesorri". This is my version..


Tomato paste cans, painted with Americana Light Buttermilk paint then lightly dry brushed with any gold colored craft paint. That has become my "standard paint recipe" that an old co-worker (at a banking operations center of all places) shared with me. Then embellish each can with whatever you have....ribbons, bracelets, tatting, stickers, hair barrets, broaches, etc... If you see some pencils that look like they have ribbons tied to them, you saw correctly. Those are my watercolor pencils that I felt a need to differentiate somehow. I simply drilled a little hole through the top and then tied coordinating ribbons through them. That way we know which pencils are the watercolor ones. Here's another view

Here is some more organization by color for craft supplies. I find organization this way helps me more than organization by type of supplies.


Here are some of the drawers open


And the beloved "Pink" drawer. A favorite for us in our female dominated family. My poor husband...


Did I mention I had separate drawers for ribbon? I think I have a bit of a ribbon problem.


And see what I mean about the beloved pink? Can you tell we like it? 2 drawers. And the light pink one won't even shut.


Now, let's go make something!

What's so great about summer?

You get half a second to finally organize your homeschool classroom. Have I told you how MUCH I love organizing? It borders on obsession with me. Today my husband was sitting in the classroom while I was putting up some of my craft supplies (wasn't that sweet?!?) and he told me that he thought I liked the organizing of my supplies more than the actual crafting! How very dare him?!? I'm not sure that he doesn't have a point, though. I do LOVE crafting but I do really like to have it all organized too. An old neighbor friend and I joke that we don't really like crafting we just like shopping and collecting supplies so I guess I'll take it a step further and say that after acquiring I like organizing. Of course I guess I kind of come by it honest because my Mother has long said about my Father that he would spend more time and effort making a tool that he could then make something else with.

Anyway, I will share with you over the next few days some of my organizing strategies. I am convinced organization is about the journey and NOT the destination. I say that because just when I think, "Aha! I have all my organizational needs figurred out!!!" I need something else (that I have to store) or my process changes so it seems like a constant evolving process.

I do however own a label machine and that little puppy is worth it's weight in gold. It took me the longest time after I got it to even put batteries in it so that I could use it but after I did I have not looked back. I try to label everything because it really does help.

Case in point, my bookcase was always a disorganized mess and I never really knew where to put things back after I got them out. Well, I guess librarians actually DO know a thing or 2 about returning books on shelves because I've never walked into a library and seen bookshelves without Dewey Decimal #s on them. So here it is all nice and labeled. (Notice I even labeled the bookshelf but that's for educational not organizational purposes!)


Here are some close-ups of the individual sections starting from the top left and working across and down...

Oh dear heavens, the first section I choose to show you isn't even labeled. Eeek... These are my binders of idea clippings (mostly from magazines). Each binder has a different seasonal/theme. I'll try to remember to show you more of these another day.



"Workbooks" Yes, I know "twaddle". Don't judge me!!!




"Bible"...where IS my Catherine Vos story Bible?!? Love, love that little gem.




"History"



"Art" (my girls' favorite section) Those Usborne Art books are some of THE best. I also have my Homeschooling Today magazines in a magazine holder here turned to the Artist Study page in each issue. That is one of my favorite magazines.




"Math"...one of Mommy's favorites.



"Science", "Animals", "Plants", "Weather", "Space", "Geography"
I can't wait to read the Man in the Map book next year. I also recently purchased Uncle Josh's maps. I'm following Sonya Shafer's advice on geography. That link vaguely explains her methodology. It is really quite simple. I purchased her All Day Seminar DVD (which I can't say enough good things about). She explains to simply copy the map outline masters from the Uncle Josh book, have the children look at a labeled map (folded to the section that corresponds with their outline) and have them label 2 or 3 locations of their choosing. Do that once a week. The next week, have them try to label trying at first without looking at the map, then add more 1 or 2 locations each week. Simple, consistent, effective.



"Health", "Feelings/Manners" Do you see those little Value Tales gems?




English (I really think I need to re-label this as "Literature" or "Language Arts")



And the bottom shelf and a basket beside the bookcase holds baskets of their leisure-type reading books. This allows them to easily return the books without having to neatly place them on a shelf. Some of these books I will pick through and put in their workboxes during the year but I have been pleasantly surprised that they have gone in the classroom this summer and pulled lots of them to simply read on their own. They have books in their own rooms but it is nice to have them accessible downstairs too.

Oh yes, I did get kind of fancy with this label. It is simply a credit card sized laminating pouch with 2 holes punched and attached to the basket's holes with ribbon. Like the font? You can download it here. It is one of my "go-to" fonts. Have I mentioned that I'm a font junkie too?

These are a few of my favorite things

Here are more images of our workboxes in action. This is Lil'Bit's third drawer of the day. She opened the box and found everything right there for her.


She worked the page. Yes, by golly, that sheet's laminated and yes I am a "professional" homeschooler! And thanks to Ruth Beechick I can now happily ignore that little red line under the word homeschooler. ;0) For more details scroll down to the Weekly Language Tip, here. This is a great newsletter if you don't already get it.


She cleaned up
She replaced the items (sometimes she'll even put them back where they came from instead of back in the drawer which makes Mommy really happy). Then she took the #3 tag off of the drawer and placed it on her "grid". One drawer down....


By the way, I love this wonderful stuff. I use it for lots of things. It is much better than the blue stuff in my opinion.
It comes off of the walls much better - not pulling the paint off - yet still holding well. Here it is holding up coins to represent the number date. That's some more of Marcy Cook's ideas. I use her Primary Today Is the Day for Numbers at this link. This book lists number facts for each day of the school year plus all the ways to show each date with United States coins (e.g., 5 is the number of Great Lakes for March 5th, 12 is the number of Reindeer for December 12th, etc..) Later in the month it seems like we simply use money more often to represent the number date. I don't always follow her list, if you can believe that. Sometimes I make up my own to fit our situation or use another item/representation that I think would be more meaningful to my girls. I can't tell you how much this visual has helped me, too. If I am writing a check I pretty much always know the date because of this little mnenomic device.


And one other thing I use Plasti-Tak for is to attach the The "Work With Mom" tag because that varies each day from drawer-to-drawer and it seems a little overkill to have 2 velcro buttons on EVERY drawer.


This is drawer #6 - some physical activity for the day.




And after 15 minutes of working on this she got it. She hasn't been able to do it until today (the first time in her workbox).

This is what she found in the next drawer. We love these little journals. This was one of the best birthday gifts we've ever received. I love those gifts that keep on giving. And the workbox system ensures that we regularly keep with it.

Finally - her last drawer - more Marcy Cook math Color it On the 30s chart slips. We love these!


Also, I couldn't live without a timer. We use them for practically everything. I even send them sometimes to play at the neighbor's house with this one around their neck. Anyway, I keep them all in one drawer so there's one always handy.


That's all for now. I always enjoy others' ideas so I just thought I'd share some of my favorite things today. Workboxes, plasti-tak, Marcy Cook, This Is Me Journals, and timers...good stuff.