Shelly

by Shelly on November 14, 2020 Leave a Comment

The Best Family Activities for November

The 8 Best Family Activities for November are cozy, restful and centered around family. In Novemeber there are two things I like to focus on: gratitude and learning more about Indigenous peoples. November is a great month to slow down a bit between Halloween festivities and the Holidays in December. November is a great time to catch up on reading and making home-made gifts for the holidays. We love to get cozy in November and get ready for the transition to winter.

Jump In a Leaf Pile

Bring out the kid in you by raking all the leaves and jumping in them as a family. It’s a chore that can be made into a fun game that everyone can play!

Make a Gratitude Jar

November 1st, we like to put a jar out with a pen and strips of paper on our island. Each day at lunch (since we’re all home at lunch together now) we write down what we’re grateful for. We talk about what we wrote and then put the strip in the jar. On Thanksgiving we read each paper from the jar and have such a wonderful conversation about gratitude over dinner.

Emplement Reading Time on the Weekend

November is often grey and cold and wet. We try our best to play outside but some weekends call for a bit of quiet time. Try out a family reading time on Sundays where you can either read as a family or individually. Some of our favorite subjects for picture books during November are gratitude, Indigenous peoples, fall, and family.

Create Thanksgiving Crafts

Crafting is awesome year round but there’s something about the weather turning cold that makes me want to craft. There are so many nature inspired crafts you can create with kids by collecting items on a fall hike. Consider making hand-made gifts for friends and family for Christmas. Maybe make some Thanksgiving crafts.

Have a Toy Purge

I always start to get into stress organizing before the holidays knowing lots of new things will be coming into our home. To avoid burnout at the holidays, I start preparing in November. We look at all the toys we’re no longer playing with and start putting them aside for donation. Some years we gift it to a crisis nursuery, others we adopt a family to gift to. Either way, toys are going out of our house to make room for the enevidable gifts that will pour in a the holidays.

Have a Pantry Purge

Along the same lines as the toy purge, have a pantry purge. Donate canned goods and pick up a few other staples before taking them to the food pantry as a family. Our kids are still too young to volunteer at the food pantry but we still like to take our donations as a family to help them see the need of others.

Start a new family tradition

Start a new family tradition by doing a family hike on Thanksgiving, watching the Thanksgiving Day parade or running a 5k together. Most towns have a 5k you can do in the morning before your festivities or you can enjoy nature together with a simple hike. We love doing a morning hike while the parade is on so we can watch it when we get back as we’re preparing our food.

Pass down a familiy recipe

Speaking of food, get your kids in the kitchen this fall and teach them a special family recipe. Maybe it’s your grandma’s green bean cassarole or your mom’s famous pecan pie. Make that special moment between you and your family to pass down a tradition in the form of comfort food.

Whatever you choose to do, let it be centered around family and gratitude. I promise it will bring so much joy and comfort to your heart. What are some of your favorite activities to do with your family in November?

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by Shelly on October 31, 2020 Leave a Comment

The Perfect Homeschool Routine That Works with My Schedule

The Perfect Homeschool Routine that Works with My Schedule. I want to preface this post by saying that whatever decision you are making for your family in regard to school during a pandemic is your choice. No one knows your kids like you and you’re the best one to make this decision. This post is my opinion on why we’re homeschooling with the BookShark curriculum for the 2020 school year.

The topic of school is always difficult, but especially this year. We chose to be as safe as possible and keep the girls home. That meant I would be teaching my daughter 1st grade while my 2-year-old is transitioning out of naps. Needless to say, our days are busy and there’s a lot of patience required to make it until dinner when my spouse gets home.

We’re on week 11 of our school year and I’ve found that a homeschool routine allows for more flexibility in our days (which is funny!) When we follow the basic schedule I made up, we’re able to stay focused better on those days when a structure is needed. On days when we need some space to recharge or rest we can easily choose which things are most important for the day.

Finding a Homeschool Routine that Works with My Schedule

Having a visual schedule my daughter can follow helps me in not having to repeat myself as often. She’s able to look at the schedule when she’s bored. Some days she likes to be ‘the mom’ and guide her sister and me through the day.

A Day in our homeschool life

*We do not follow this schedule down to the minute and we’re flexible to switch around activities. If it’s raining in the morning we may choose to do our movement outside in the afternoon.

8-9 Breafast

My kids wake up anytime between 6:30-8. Some weeks I have set meal plans so I don’t have to think about what to make. Other weeks I have my oldest make her own breakfast. The schedule has examples of breakfasts she can choose from if she wants to make her own meal.

9-9:30 Move

Our ‘movement’ time is the easiest section to overlook but also one of the most important times during our day. When we are able to go outside for a walk or bike ride, it sets the mood for a great day ahead. On the days we don’t make movement a priority, we tend to have a tough day. For us, to move could look like yoga, Dance Central (a dancing video game), a YouTube workout, a nature scavenger hunt, a bike ride, giving the dog a walk, chalk, and hopscotch, or a hike at a park.

9:30-10:15 History

Next, we sneak in a bit of schooling. Because we have to do school all at once during my youngest’s nap time, it gets overwhelming to focus that long. If we do our history reading (a chapter book) during this timeslot after being active it gives both girls a chance to rest, get a drink, and be calm with a story.

10:15-11:30 Play

During playtime, the girls can choose whatever they want as a solo activity or I will play along. This could look like a board game, playing pretend, Barbies, dress up, dancing, or a puzzle. They’re welcome to do anything inside or outside as long as there is no screen involved.

11:30-12:30 Lunch

This is typically the most exciting part of the day because my husband is able to come upstairs from work. We’re excited to tell him all about our day and have some time to play with him. It’s a chance for me to have a breather and let them play together while I throw in a load of laundry or read my book.

12:45-3 School

After lunch, my youngest lays down for a nap (or quiet time). My oldest and I do our BookShark curriculum which typically takes 1.5-2 hours of focused time. We have found the most enjoyment out of doing the rest of History, followed by Science, then Math, and finally Language Arts and Writing. We do it this way for a couple of reasons.

My daughter is fully engaged at the beginning and can focus well to absorb information from History and Science. Since Math, Language Arts, and Writing are hands-on, she’s able to do those last.
I can assign the solo writing and copy work at the end of the lesson. When she is done with her solo work she can bring it to me to check. By this time I am working but can take time to check her work.

Keeping this homeschool routine also helps us know what to expect each day.

3pm is typically when my youngest wakes up from her nap so before that time period is up my daughter does her chores followed by screen time. Screen time is anything she wants to watch on her tablet or a ABC Mouse.

3-3:30 Specials

Specials are the hardest activity for our family. I am usually the cause of us not being able to do our specials but sometimes the girls are having fun playing together and don’t want to do specials. If I am not trying to finish up work or cleaning, we will do art, music, or PE. Each week I make sure we do at least one craft or learn about a new art medium. I’ll also typically share a new song or hand clap with my oldest that I’m counting as music class! PE is pretty non-existent for us. We do family hikes or bike rides each weekend but since we’re not going anywhere (pandemic), we’re not doing our usual swim lessons, ninja classes, or ballet classes that would normally be our PE.

3:30-5 Play

It’s the end of the day and the craziest time of the day for my girls. They’re excited about my husband getting off work and they tend to be starving and a bit chaotic. I’ve learned that if we have a snack after specials and play outside during this time, things go much smoother. If I try to clean, read a book, or make dinner without them having something to do, it is challenging. Some days I might let them watch a movie during this time or I might tell them that I need more quiet time and they can do Art Hub for Kids or read books. This time is really just a time to do whatever until dinner and it changes daily.

5-8 Dinner, Play, Bed

The end of the day is spent as a family, having dinner together, playing together (or doing a chore together like raking leaves), and then bedtime. Bedtime is another good time to get in chapter book reading. When the day gets chaotic, we’ll do our History chapter book reading before bed to give us some extra time during the day.

This is the routine that works for us and allows flexibility in our schedule. I am happy to completely throw it out the window if someone is sick or we need a mental health day. I am happy to move around the pieces of the puzzle to make them fit with our day when things pop up like tantrums or thunderstorms.

I would love to know how you’re scheduling your day, or if you think having an outline will help your family unit stay a little saner during the homeschooling day.

For more information on our BookShark curriculum and how it easily fits into our homeschool routine with very little prep (as I discussed in this post), check this link on the BookShark site.

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Finding a homeschool routine that fits my schedule took some time. Having this outlined schedule helps us be more flexible in our day.

by Shelly on October 11, 2020 4 Comments

4 Efficient Steps to Prepare for Homeschool Lessons

How to prepare for Homeschool Lessons This post is sponsored by BookShark. I am a BookShark partner and a portion of our curriculum was provided by them. As always, I only work with companies that I have previously used as a product. We used and loved BookShark when we homeschooled for Pre-K and are very happy with their 1st-grade curriculum.

The main reason we chose to homeschool this year was because of the pandemic. Our daughter did very well in her public school this past year for kindergarten and we had intended to send her there for first grade. We decided early on, whether or not our school would be doing virtual or in-person that we would homeschool. We loved homeschooling for pre-K with BookShark and we knew it would be the best option for this school year.

With a 2-year-old at home, I knew I needed to do BookShark again because there is virtually no prep work! I’m so happy we went with BookShark because I’m now working a few hours per day from home and would have been stressed out trying to plan her curriculum, blog, and do my job.

How to Prepare for Homeschool Lessons

There are 5 easy steps that I do to prepare for our homeschool lessons. You could probably get away with 3 steps but I like planning ahead.

1. Keep your school zone organized.

We do not have a full room with a table for our schoolroom. We do have an awesome 2 x 4 cube shelf that organizes all of our school materials. Each cubby is labeled to make it easy for my daughter to get her materials out and put them away after each school lesson. We don’t put any extra books or art supplies in this area to keep it simple to find exactly what we need when we go to do our lesson.

One tip I’ve learned is to have an abundance of pencils, an electric pencil sharpener, and lots of paper (lined and blank). Those seem to be the pain points with most homeschool moms!

2. Make your binder more manageable

BookShark comes with a massive binder to hold the year’s worth of curriculum. There are tabs that separate each week making it easy to keep them straight. I got a smaller binder that held 3 weeks perfectly. At the end of the three weeks, I put the past three weeks into the massive binder and pull out the next three.

This makes flipping through the lessons each day much easier. Our small binder also has pockets at the front that hold our attendance sheet and small cutouts for the week (like sight word cards or animal cards). This is my favorite tip for how I prepare for homeschool lessons.

3. Look over the lessons for the week on Sunday

Who else has a much better week when they do some basic prep/planning on the weekend? It is noticeable in our family when we’re out of town for the weekend and I don’t get to plan. We order out more. We eat unhealthy meals. I feel like I’m taking the whole week just to get caught up on cleaning.

If I’m able to have a few hours to clean, plan our week, meal plan, and look over the curriculum, it makes everything go more smoothly the next 5 days.

With BookShark, they make it really easy to see the overview of what will be taught for the week. They also have a special section in the notes that tells you if there are any materials you need to get for the following week (science projects often require household materials that I’ll pull that Sunday for the week.)

There isn’t any prep other than the 5-10 minutes it takes to look over what you’ll be teaching and grabbing a few items. I do use this time to review math if we’re learning a new lesson. That’s only because I do not have confidence in the subject of math and I want to be well prepared to teach our daughter.

4. Plan a Unit Study (But only if you want)

We love having a 4 day school cirriculum. BookShark has it planned that way so you can save one day for a co-op, field trips, or extra cirriculars. Since we are not participating in any of these right now, (pandemic) we save that day for unit studies. These are rather loose and are meant to be a time when we can explore a subject my daughter is interested in.

Keep in mind, this unit study could be one day or stretch over a few months, depending on the interest of your child. Mine wanted to continue learning about oceans for multiple months. Thankfully there are tons of free resources on Pinterest and at the library. If you’re unsure of how to set one up, search ‘unit study ____’ and fill in the blank with whatever your child is interested in.

Homeschooling can be done anywhere

One thing homeschooling parents tend to get caught up on is the actual physical portion of homeschooling. The materials, curriculum, schoolroom area, etc. I’m here to tell you that YOU are what matters most in your child’s learning experience. You, showing up every day, with a smile, ready to learn along with your child. Wherever that may be. For us, it’s usually on the floor, in calm quiet voices as to not wake our youngest. It can be outside on a blanket, in a hammock, at Grandma’s while you visit, on a camping trip, or anywhere else. THAT’s the beauty of homeschooling. It can be anywhere, anytime.

Let me know what ways you prepare for homeschool lessons or where you like to do your lessons! We’re always interested in new ways of doing school.

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by Shelly on September 27, 2020 Leave a Comment

The 6 Best Family Activities for October

6 of The Best Family Activities for October. October is right around the corner and with it comes cool temperatures, colorful leaves, apple cider and lots of outdoor fun. For our family, October is as busy as December with lots of birthdays and fun fall activities. We’re big into Halloween too so we’re definitely ready to celebrate October.

I want to preface by saying that we will not be doing everything on this list this year because of the pandemic but are excited about being able to do them again in the future. Here are the best family activities for October.

1. Visit a Pumpkin Patch

I don’t remember a year where I didn’t visit a pumpkin patch. Even without kids, we’d visit the pumpkin patch a couple times each year. With the kids, I love finding the pumpkin patches that have one fee to enter and you’re able to stay and play on on the games as long as you’d like. A favorite around Indy is Piney Acres Farm where they have TONS of games, a corn maze, hayrides, and lots of beautiful pumpkins to bring home.

2. Watch Halloween Movies

Both my daughter and I watch Halloween and Christmas movies year-round. However, starting October 1st, we start the Halloween Movie Marathon where we watch at least one Halloween movie per week. I rounded up our favorites for kids 6 and under in this post. Lots of ‘kid-friendly’ lists seem to have scary movies or movies that may not be appropriate for younger kids, which is why I made this list.

3. Make Fall or Halloween Crafts

We have a couple tubs of Halloween decorations for when October rolls around but fall brings out the craftiness in me. I’m happy to light a fall candle, open the windows, throw on a sweatshirt, and get in some good crafting on the weekends. Some of my favorites have been this Halloween Street Sign, Fall Pumpkin Flower Arrangement, Fall Felt Leaf Garland, and this year’s Fall Mickey Pumpkin.

4. Bake some Fall or Halloween Treats

Nothing is better than sweats when the air gets cool. Which means treats are totally fine. All the pumpkin spice is super nice but I especially love baking with my kids. There’s just something about sharing our love of sweet themed treats that really brings us together. My all-time favorite Halloween treat is Candy Cookie Pizza. I used to ask for it as my birthday cake growing up because I love it so much. I also love this round up if you’re going to be Booing neighbors or going to a Halloween party.

5. Visit Local Fall Attractions

Where I live, you could easily fill each weekend with fall activities all over the city. Each year we try a new place but we love all the other traditions so much that we end up just adding more each year. Most of the places around Indy have their events free for members which is an awesome way to be able to have lots of fun without spending any extra before holiday shopping.

Some of our must-dos are Conner Prairie’s Headless Horseman, ZooBoo at the Indianapolis Zoo, The Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites (tons of different locations and events), and the Haunted House at The Children’s Museum. Not to mention all of the haunted houses, corn mazes, and amusement parks that celebrate Halloween.

6. Go Camping and Hiking

Fall has always been my favorite time to camp. The foliage is beautiful and the temperatures are perfect for all-day hiking and warming up with s’mores by the campfire at night. Growing up, we went to Spring Mill around Halloween and it was my favorite camping trip ever. Everyone decorated their sites with Halloween decorations and there was a hayride and a spooky ghost walk through the old mill. We’re so excited to incorporate these traditions into our own family and we’re starting this year with an October camping trip in our newly renovated popup camper The Popup Jungle. Brown County State Park is another awesome place to camp this time of year.

And if all else fails, visit Disney World. October is our favorite month to visit the Happiest Place on Earth and I am so bummed that we had to cancel our first family trip this year due to the pandemic. Thankfully, we still have lots of things to do (some from this list are still very safe). Let me know what your best family activities for October are for this year!

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by Shelly on September 1, 2020 1 Comment

7 Sneaky Ways to Get Your Kids to Eat Vegetables

Today we’re discussing 7 sneaky ways to get your kids to eat vegetables (and if you should even be sneaky about it!)

Both of my girls (6 and 2) are fairly picky. One week they’ll love a certain food and two weeks later they’ll turn their nose at it. The rule at our dinner table is they musn’t make faces or noises at new foods and the must take one bite. If they don’t like it they can make something else for themselves for dinner. Obviously, this doesn’t work the same for our 2 year old but we often will just give her a little more of something on her plate that she did like.

I’ll go against the grain here and say hiding vegetables in food can make picking eating worse. Your kids may distrust what you’re putting in front of them. The key to that is to make sure you’re still having them try new foods WHILE sneaking in other veggies.

I’ve rounded up 7 of my favorite sneaky ways to get your kids to eat vegetables that have worked for us throughout the years.

1. Who doesn’t love muffins?

These Hulk Muffins are a huge hit with both of my girls (and even my husband who has a hard time eating breakfast). They’re also gluten free but they are GREEN. The fact that any food is green disgusts my daughter so once she tried these, and liked them, we were both shocked.

2. Swap the Fries

If you’re having a meal with fries on the side, swap them out for sweet potato fries or cauliflower tots. These are two of our favorites for sweet potato and cauliflower tots and sweet potato fries. It’s pretty amazing how my kids will eat almost anything if it LOOKS like something unhealthy and they have something to dip it in. Toddlers especially are notorious for eating anything in dip form!

3. Hidden Veggies in the Sauce

This is a great way to get rid of veggies that are about to go bad. You can put nearly anything in a red sauce and it’ll taste amazing. You can even use pureed veggies in meat sauce served over zoodles or Barilla Veggie noodles. We’ve been doing ‘Meatless Mondays’ and this is a great way to pack in tons of veggies. Veggie sauce over a veggie! It’s a great way to start the week.

4. Sneak it in Everywhere

There are some shocking ways that you can hide pureed veggies into food that even I was surprised tasted good. You can put butternut squash in mac n cheese, pumpkin in oatmeal, and sweet potato in pancakes! I’m seeing a trend with adding veggies into pasta and breakfast foods!

5. Spinach goes in everything

Ok, I have to admit. This one took me a while to get used to it. Start kids young on this one so they don’t notice the color change because it doesn’t really change the flavor. You can add it to eggs, quesadillas, smoothies, and pasta dishes without it changing the taste of the meal.

Hillshire and Tyson make for great salad toppings for kids to love

6. Cauliflower crust

Around here, we do Friday Family Pizza Night each Friday. Try making your own pizzas on pizza night. The more kids are involved in what they eat, the better they eat. We’ve tried a few different cauliflower crusts and although there is NO replacement for original pizza crust, this one is really tasty.

7. Add it to your meat

Mince veggies and add them to your meatloaf or turkey meatballs. Our girls really love meat. Pretty much any meat is going to be a success. When we saw that they always finished their meat, I decided to try adding veggies to their meatballs. They can tell the difference between veggie meatballs from IKEA and my meatballs with added veggies. They won’t eat the veggie meatballs but they love mine.

Kids will always be resistant to new foods. We gave both girls all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and fish when they were little and at a certain age they just became wary. So, I wised up and just tricked them. That’s a lie. We tell them what’s in it, after they try it and say they like it.

What are some of your favorite ways to get your kids to eat vegetables and encourage your children to eat healthier?

Jump In a Leaf Pile

Make a Gratitude Jar

Emplement Reading Time on the Weekend

Create Thanksgiving Crafts

Have a Toy Purge

Have a Pantry Purge

Start a new family tradition

Pass down a familiy recipe

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Finding a Homeschool Routine that Works with My Schedule

A Day in our homeschool life

8-9 Breafast

9-9:30 Move

9:30-10:15 History

10:15-11:30 Play

11:30-12:30 Lunch

12:45-3 School

3-3:30 Specials

3:30-5 Play

5-8 Dinner, Play, Bed

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How to Prepare for Homeschool Lessons

1. Keep your school zone organized.

2. Make your binder more manageable

3. Look over the lessons for the week on Sunday

4. Plan a Unit Study (But only if you want)

Homeschooling can be done anywhere

Posts related to How to Prepare for Homeschool Lessons:

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1. Visit a Pumpkin Patch

2. Watch Halloween Movies

3. Make Fall or Halloween Crafts

4. Bake some Fall or Halloween Treats

5. Visit Local Fall Attractions

6. Go Camping and Hiking

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Posts Related to The Best Family Activities for October:

1. Who doesn’t love muffins?

2. Swap the Fries

3. Hidden Veggies in the Sauce

4. Sneak it in Everywhere

5. Spinach goes in everything

6. Cauliflower crust

7. Add it to your meat

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