Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Need a Little Winter Blues Learning Push? March Pre-K and Elementary Activity Packets – Free!

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This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

It’s that time of year. We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in many school subjects – which is exciting but also creating a fair amount of “I’m so sick of this already!” winter blues attitude.

What is it about February? I always find that we need to change things up a little bit at this point in the school year. Some subjects we just have to push through, but if there’s a way to add some variety to our day to help us with that push, let’s do it. Learning is learning, whether it’s a part of this regularly scheduled program or not. Our kids can often learn better if we provide them with something out of the norm once in a while.

That’s why I made this:

Free K-5 March Learning Activity Packet

There are 8 fun activity pages included and the lessons are simple and fun. Use them in whatever way works best for your children at their grade level. They are FREE. I’m printing this off over the weekend and handing it to Malachi on Monday. It’ll be a fun change of pace as we head into a new month!

I also created a packet at Pre-K level for the younger kids to enjoy. Talk about weather, practice counting, match spring animal babies to their mamas, and more. It’s also FREE.

Free Pre-K March Learning Activity Packet

We WILL get through winter blues. We will.

Bonus Idea: Make these fun Bird’s Nests with your family as a fun activity and yummy breakfast or snack.

birds_nests_3

Gain access to the free March Learning Activities below.

Download one or both. Click here to access these freebies.

I’m super excited to share that signing up for these freebies will connect you to our new Heavenly Homemaker’s Learning Zone. It’s free, of course. You can unsubscribe at any time, your info will never be shared or sold, and being on this list means that you’ll be the first to know of the other fun (yes, FUN!) educational tools we’re putting together!

P.S. If you are already subscribed to Heavenly Homemaker’s Learning Zone, you should have received an email yesterday giving you instant access to this freebie. Look in your inbox for the subject: FREE March Activity Packets for Kids!

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Fun With Grammar ~ Valentine’s Day Free Printable Packet (And My Grammar Confession)

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Valentine's Day Fun with Grammar
I write for a living. I homeschool my kids. I love and appreciate correct grammar usage and fantastically written sentences. (The frequent misuse of the words bring and take drives me batty. Take it there. Bring it here. This is not difficult.)

But for all my love of a good sentence, I cannot stand most typical Grammar Lessons (or sentences that begin with but).

I get a headache when reading information like this:

A Complex Sentence has one or more Dependent clauses (also called Subordinate clauses).

Does it? Does it really? How nice that I have not one, but two options for which to label the clauses that make up my (what was it again?)…my Complex Sentence. Now let’s talk about what modifies what, identify all the gerunds, and take the time to break it down into a diagram.

Woe is me. I just want to write sentences. Please do not make me pinpoint the predicate nominatives. I am 42. I have learned the definition of predicate nominative at least 24 times, and I still have to look it up every single time one of my kids asks me a question about it when he comes across it in his grammar lesson. This is because I DO NOT CARE. Oh, but a predicate nominative is a word that renames the subject of a sentence. Great. I just learned it for a 25th time. I will forget that information once again in five, four, three…

Well, now you know the truth.

I’m glad some people love all of the specifics of grammar because someone has to write the grammar lesson books and teach it in our schools. Some of you think grammar is fun and I still like you alot (<— even if I did just write that non-word on purpose out of spite).

While those are my feelings – I still teach my kids grammar because I have to. (This book series is the one I dislike the least and currently use with my older kids.) I don’t, however, make them re-write all 17 sentences if they have mastered the concept after 3 sentences; I don’t insist that they take time to memorize all the correct terminology (see predicate nominative predicament above); and if the lesson in their book is truly not relevant, I modify it to make it meaningful.

However, my kids are all still learning and able to write nice sentences. I know this doesn’t make sense without their mother’s solid knowledge of participles, but our oldest really has been getting A’s in his college English courses and has been successfully cranking out countless essays and term papers for professors.

Maybe it goes without saying that our family values creativity and practicality over fact-spitting. We try to keep education relevant if at all possible. Some parts of school a kid just has to get through because it’s required (so do not ask our current sophomore how he feels about Geometry theorems). But when it can be fun – for the love of the accurate use of then and than – let’s make it fun.

Fun with Grammar

Now that you’ve read my feelings on grammar you will know that when I labeled my newest creation Fun with Grammar, this means something. Our 5th grade son recently completed one of his (boring) Grammar textbooks for the year. (He’s still working through Wordly Wise 5.) As a way to fill in some gaps, I began creating some Valentine related grammar activities for him. One page turned into another, and before I knew it I had 12 pages prepared.

Nice kid though he is, Malachi was not excited or supportive of my new project. “You’re making me grammar pages? Why???” However, as soon as I printed them out and handed them over, he worked his way through the first four pages without a complaint. He might have even looked like he was enjoying himself. I believe his exact words tonight were, “Actually, that grammar thing is pretty fun.” Boom. Mission accomplished.

Bonus: I made said 5th grader proof-read this packet for me before I shared it with you. I’m a sly one.

Fun With Grammar - Valentine's Day Free Printable Packet

None of these activities are tedious. They simply ask your child to be creative and have fun with some basic English and Grammar skills.

Does it get any better than this? I typed out a Brownie Recipe, purposely made some mistakes, and asked your child to find the errors and misspelled words. It’ll take your child just a few fun minutes, then he/she can go bake brownies. Friends, there are no predicate nominatives in a pan of brownies!! (At least I don’t think there are. I obviously already forgot the definition.)

Fun with Grammar - Valentines 122

Even more fun is that this packet is free for everyone. Use it in your home. Use it in your school. Enjoy the activities. Be creative. Actually have fun with grammar. And if your kid still hates it, well at least it was free and you got some brownies out of the deal.

Enter your email address below to download your free Fun With Grammar ~ Valentine’s Day Edition Printable Packet.

I’m super excited to share that signing up for this freebie will connect you to our new Heavenly Homemaker’s Learning Zone. It’s free, of course. You can unsubscribe at any time, your info will never be shared or sold, and being on this list means that you’ll be the first to know of the other fun (yes, FUN!) educational tools we’re putting together! Emails will not be frequent. I’m too busy trying to relearn what a subordinating conjunction is.

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What We’re Studying This Year (Unless You’re More Interested in Chocolate)

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I realize that some of you won’t be interested in reading about our curriculum choices for this year, but since I continually receive emails from gals asking about what books we like to use in our home school, I’m going to go ahead and share our list. If looking at our book list isn’t exciting to you, perhaps you would like to take a look at our Death By Chocolate recipe? Or maybe many of you will be interested in both? Because chocolate and books – aren’t those just two of the finest creations on the planet?

Once I finally got all of our books organized, I decided to take a picture of our shelf. Enjoy it now – that shelf won’t look so organized after we start digging in. But we can pretend that it stays pretty like this. ;)

The top shelf is Asa’s (grade 9), the middle shelf belongs to Justus and Elias (grades 6 and 4) and the bottom shelf is Malachi’s (grade 1).

We’ve been schooling with Sonlight curriculum for all nine of our home schooling years – yes this begins our tenth! We love that Sonlight is literature based and that we are able to explore and learn without using textbooks. Instead, we read both fiction and non-fiction books as we work our way through History, Science, Geography and Bible. In addition, we choose what Sonlight recommends for Readers (kids reading on their own) as well as Read-Alouds (parents reading to the kids).

Here is a breakdown of our curriculum for this year:

Asa (grade 9)

Justus (grade 6) and Elias (grade 4)

Malachi (grade 1)

Next, I’ll share about our home school schedule for this year – stay tuned!

I’d love to know what your kids will be studying this year (whether you home school or not!). Also, I need to know which you like better:  Books or Chocolate?

I know, that is hardly a fair question. (And yes, your answer can be “chocolate with a side of books”).

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Gratituesday: Back to School Shopping

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gratituesday

If you’ve been hanging around here long, you might already know that the boys and I have a tradition each year a few days before we start school. Each boy gets his very own “school supply list” and off to Walmart we go so that they can pick out new notebooks and folders for the year.

I will admit that I tend to forget each year that while this is an incredibly wonderful experience and I love doing it…there is also a fair amount of chaos involved with four boys, four baskets, four lists and an aisle full of bright and attractive objects. My older guys can be calm and patient while basically picking their supplies without much help. My youngers require more help and also um…they don’t always like to follow their list so much. My youngest doesn’t know how to read the prices on the shelves, which means that I have to quickly redirect him to the 15¢ notebooks instead of the really cool $2.50 notebooks. The paper inside is the same, ya know. ;)

school_shopping_10

Oh yeah, and this year I had a fifth boy with me…because if you’re already taking four, you might as well take five. Five boys, five lists, five baskets. Five hundred questions. All at once. (“Is this the kind of folder I need Mom?” “I don’t know…why don’t you get it out of my face so that I can actually see it?”)

And yet, I do it because the boys love it. And mostly, so do I. It is SO much fun to watch them enjoy getting excited for school to start. It is so much fun to watch them walk out of the store with their very own bags of supplies. 

And…it is so much fun to only pay 20¢ for glue sticks.

school_shopping_2

The best part is watching them come home and pour the contents of their bags out to look at all over again. Then they put it all away to have it ready for the first day of school. (Or, they leave it sprawled out all over the floor so that it can get ruined already before it even has a chance to be written in yet.)

There really is something magical about new school supplies and new books that brings an excitement to the beginning of a new school year. So far we’ve had three days of school and every one of them has been just wonderful. Perfect? No. But wonderful nonetheless. 

Today, I’m grateful for the chance to be my boys’ teacher and thankful that we share traditions that will be lifetime memories. I’m even grateful for that crazy joy in the Walmart school supply section. Having a bunch of boys eager to start a new school year…now that’s something to be grateful for!

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

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Homeschool Hubbub: Our Eight, Ten and Thirteen Year Olds

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I shared what Malachi (5) will be doing this year…now I’ll share about our three older boys:

Asa (13) will be working through most of Sonlight 100 this year (History, Geography, Literature, Current Events, Creative Writing, Spelling) and will be doing much of it on his own. He’ll begin Apologia Science this year, Exploring Creating with General Science. For math, he will be going through Teaching Textbook Pre-Algebra. We LOVE Teaching Textbooks and HIGHLY recommend them!!!!!

Justus (10) and Elias (8) will be doing much of their work together this year.

We’ll be studying American History with them (from Civil War era to present) using Sonlight’s Level 4 Books. I remember studying these with Asa a few years ago, so I’m really excited to revisit them with Justus and Elias!

These two boys are about on the same reading level, so I’ve put together a big shelf of Sonlight readers for them to choose from throughout the year. Ooh, such good books!!

For science, we’ll be making a monthly trip to our local science museum, where they have a special  program just for home schoolers! They’ll also be going to a once-a-week science class here in town taught by a wonderful gal who really knows her science. Here and there at home, we’ll be reading through a few of these science books that I’ve purchased in years past and never got around to reading.

Elias will be finishing the last two Miquon Math books this year. Justus will be working through Teaching Textbooks 5. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Teaching Textbooks!!?!! For the older kids, it is a tremendous teaching tool!

I use Sequential Spelling with them and they work through MCP Phonics books.

sequential spelling

Whatwe do with ALL four boys together (well, Malachi is hit and miss with some of this!):

  •  Grammar Ace – These activities are simple and fun. (When asked to make a list of nouns, one of my boys wrote “boogers”. It was a proud moment.)  Grammar Ace goes along with the School House Rock DVD, which is so much fun and is bringing back so many memories for me! (“Conjuntion Junction, what’s your function” – remember?!)

grammar_ace

    • Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad – I’ve pretty much been TERRIBLE in the past about making time for art lessons with the boys. Sonlight recommened Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad…I got it, along with a nice sketch pad and some pencils for each boy and we are all learning to draw together. (By all, I mean all. Mom is learning too because up until now I have had NO artistic ability. Hand Mama Mark Kistler’s book and give her her very own sketch pad!)

draw squad

  • Bible – I don’t know why I’m mentioning the most important part last. ;)  We read the Bible together at breakfast time (currently reading through the book of Matthew). In addition, I read a section of Why Pray? each morning and we discuss it a little bit. It is AWESOME that the boys are old enough to have thoughtful Bible discussions now. (Which sometimes ends with, “Mom can I have more french toast?” But still.)

I’m sure I forgot something off of our list.  What are your kids studying this year?

I’ll try to take time this week to tell you more about our schedule and what our school days look like. Because yes, we sort of have a schedule. Sometimes.

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Cooking Ahead for August

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It’s coming…and I’m bracing myself. I’ve been doing everything I can to prepare and be organized so that I won’t be stressed and short tempered with my boys. Not that I would ever be short tempered with my boys. Ugh, I do try not to be short tempered with my precious angels who leave their stinky shoes in the middle of my kitchen floor so that I can stub my toe on them while I’m trying to cook and fill their constantly hungry bellies. I try.

So what’s coming, you ask? Just a very busy couple of months, that’s all. August and September are two months of very,very hard work while I do a lot of canning and preserving in the midst of beginning our school year and running to lots of soccer games. I absolutely love this time of year, but it can sometimes get hectic.

As soon as I finished writing and putting together Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve Curriculum Kit, I saw that I had about three weeks before we were going to start our school year. (We like to start in early August at our house.)  I decided that during the last part of July, I would prepare a bunch of freezer foods, stock up on items like canned salmon and tuna for easy meals and order meat from our local farm source so that I’d have a full freezer and plenty of meal options. I even pulled out Do the Funky Kitchen and read it again so that I could get my kitchen organized an in order! Anything that I could do ahead of time to prepare for this busy season, I did. I think. I’m pretty sure I forgot a few things.

Anyway, my pantry and freezers are well stocked so that putting meals on the table during the next few weeks will be easy and quick. I am excited now to begin a new school year with the boys! (More details on our school year coming soon.)

Here are some pictures of the food I prepared and froze during the last part of July:

strawberry_bread

Strawberry Bread – Pictured above is the unbaked version. Isn’t it a pretty pink?!

mini_pizzas

Mini Pizzas, using this Pizza Pockets recipe…
I’ll be able to just pop a few of these into our toaster oven to bake up while we finish our morning school-work.

freezer_cooking_august

Whole Wheat Waffles – ready to be re-heated in our toaster oven for a quick breakfast or dinner.

freezer_cooking_august_3

Whole Wheat Sourdough Biscuits – I may use these for turkey/cheese melts…or I may grab some turkey sausage I have pre-made in the freezer to make some quick gravy to pour over them. NOBODY would complain if I made biscuits and gravy. :)

freezer_cooking_august_4

Sloppy Joes and Meat and Cheese Burritos

freezer_food_august

Whole Wheat and Honey Zucchini Bread

In addition, I’ve got these items stashed in my freezer:

I also started a new gallon sized batch of Homemade Vanilla, which as you can see, will be finished “extracting” in January! I didn’t get “carded” this time when I was buying my gallon of vodka. Sniff.  Do you think that means I look older than 21 now? ;)

freezer_cooking_august_2

Call me a nerd (go ahead – you know you want to), but I purchased a whole bunch of canning lids and put all of my canning supplies into a basket and put the basket on top of my fridge. That way, I know where everything is and I have it all ready to go each time I’m ready to can a new batch of something. I may be one of the only people who think that canning supplies in a basket is…cute.

canning_supplies

Okay, so food (lots and lots of food)? Check.  Schoolbooks? Check. Canning supplies? Check.

Oh good grief…where are the soccer cleats?

I knew I forgot something.

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Homeschool Hubbub: How Can I Do This (Along with Everything Else I’m Doing)?

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After reading this post entitled, Homeschool Hubbub:  Am I Qualified to Teach? Dani left this comment…

This post was so encouraging. However, I have an almost 5 year old, a three year old, and an almost one year old. Is it really possible for me to home school? I really want to, but I’ve gotta tell you I AM SCARED. There are just so many little kids around here. I feel like I can barely go to the bathroom. Scratch that. I can’t go to the bathroom. How can I do this?

I’m gonna venture to say that as the mom of little ones, you may actually find it easier to home school than finding time to go to the bathroom! Really…it’s true. 

When you already have umpteen things to do during the day and feel ragged and worn out, it’s hard to see how you could possibly add something like home schooling your children to your day. When in the world would you do it? What will you have to give up in order to home school? Will you have to sacrifice even more sleep to add something else in?

My kids were 5, 2 and 6-months when I first began to home school our oldest son. In two years, we added another baby to the mix. Our lives were busy, crazy and yes…it was hard to find time to go to the bathroom.

And yet, I don’t remember that adding home school to the schedule really threw me off very much. I was hanging out with the kids all day as it was. Now…I just turned some of that time into our school time. We were already reading books together…now we read our “school books”. We were already exploring new things together (because little ones can’t help but do that all day long!). Now I recognized it for what it was…education in it’s finest form.

“Formal” sit-down school time with a child in his/her first few years of school can really take up about thirty minutes to an hour each day…and that’s it. And…it doesn’t have to be consecutive time! School work time can take place in five minute snatches of time all day long.

In fact…the longer I do this home school thing, the more I realize that “formal education” is not always where all the education takes place anyway.

Life is learning…learning is life.

Our kids are learning during all of their waking hours. It is just up to us to help focus their time on learning things that they need to know in life (and about the One who gave us Life).

So, if you choose to home school…will every day be easy? No way. Will you accomplish everything you want to accomplish every day? Nope. Will you have days where you don’t even crack open a book all day long? Yep. Will you occasionally forget what day it is, lose the science book, break your favorite pencil, spill milk on the couch and want to run to your closet to hide and get away from it all? Sure.

But will you get to watch the light bulbs go on in your child’s head when he/she first learns to read? Will you get to watch them as they discover a brand new concept? Will you get to be the one who enjoys their silly little antics all day long? Oh yes.

And some days…sometimes…you will even make it to the bathroom.

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