Our Homeschool Room

 In the 2 years that we've lived here, we've been slowly adding elements to our homeschool room. Over time we've acquired first the table, then the cabinets, next the magnetic paint, and finally the blue wall paint. 

We (mainly Ricky) finished painting last week & I love it!

So I wanted to give you a room reveal/tour:

The Main View. 

I love the blue walls, they're so calming.

Yes, friends, I FINALLY picked a color (I had like 40 swatches on the wall for a few months ;) )

We found this table on Craigslist, but the owner only had 1 bench. I really needed 2 and had my heart set on this set. The owner had seen the same bench in a consignment store a few months earlier-we checked & it was still there! So fun how that worked out for us!

Side wall: Cute "Cowboy Doors" (one of the things I fell in love with about this house) & our Magnetic Wall!

The Magnetic Wall turned out perfect! 

We use this to display school work. (I love that we can easily remove everything when we want this room to have more of a formal "dining room" function.) This cute shelf was also left by the previous homeowners-I think it's adorable.

Back wall: Including the board for our Classical Conversations "co-op" & a great globe Ricky's dad got with reward points from work.

The front facing wall (my mom & I bought these cabinets off Craigslist & refinished them!)

Corner view: the kids' cute piggy banks are fun in here.

View into the living room. 

The room is so neat and peaceful. A great place for us to 

"have fun as we learn together"----my motto for our homeschooling. 

Thank you, Ricky, for your hard work on the walls-it was not an easy process. (And for letting me have everything I've had my heart set on for this room) I love you babe!

Works for Us: The Kitchen Timer

Our kitchen timer has never timed anything cooking, ever. My method of timing food is opening the oven to see when it's done. But we do use this timer frequently in our house:

Our kitchen timer's 3 main jobs:

1. Bath Time.
    When I was pregnant with Judah (#5), our oldest girls (Maria & Elissa) were 6 and 4 years old. I knew I'd have my hands full with the new baby when the time came and that juggling all 4 of the other kids would be a lot easier if M & E could do some things by themselves. My #1 goal for them was to train them to do their own baths. I knew they COULD take a bath by themselves. They'd been taught the routine thousands of times. But I just couldn't get them to stop getting distracted in the bath tub (it's so fun in there!) or to get finished in a timely manner, until I thought of using the kitchen timer (ok, so we didn't have one, so we added it to the grocery list :) ). It has been such a great tool! And some of the best $2 I've spent :) And our kids quickly became masters of the 10 minute bath.

2. Chore Time.
Your kids don't dawdle during chore time do they? Their imagination doesn't spring to life when it's time to clean up, right? And I'm guessing they also don't become either silly crazy buddies or worst enemies with their sibling at the exact moment they have a chore, huh? Well, if they happen to, from time to time,-the kitchen timer helps them focus during chores too :) Cleaning the kitchen after meals is the biggest one in our house.

3. When Are We Going To...
"In 5 more minutes" doesn't mean a lot to a little kid. "Here, when the timer dings."-now that's tangible. Our biggest use in this category right now is answering the question "When is quiet-time going to be over?"


The best part about using the kitchen timer is that it eliminates the necessity we feel to nag or remind our kids constantly. They become accountable to the timer, and therefore responsible for their actions in a concrete way.

When you use this:
A-Make sure your child is paying attention-tell them clearly what their task is & how many minutes they have.
B-Give them a clear consequence -make sure it's one you're willing to really give if they don't meet the time.
C-Set them free to be accountable to the timer (& thus their own actions). It's hard NOT to keep reminding them, but don't, they know clearly what to do. Let them fail, so they'll truly learn.

I'm so thankful I discovered this, it's been a huge help in our home!

Ahhh, Summer...

Before the summer, our days were busy. Having 5 little kids, the day is already full with meals, diaper changes, cleaning up, etc.  On top of that we also homeschool. You can imagine that it's pretty busy juggling our 4 kiddos for school time (while the baby thankfully naps). I'm pushing my kids through a schedule from the time they wake up until after nap time, when they finally have a break for a few hours before the schedule picks back up with dinner & bedtime routines.

At the end of the school year my kiddos were arguing a lot. Pretty much anytime they'd go upstairs (the kid section of our house-2 kid bedrooms & a playroom) within a few minutes there'd be a scuffle over something. And there was always a mess to clean up-the playroom could get completely destroyed in 5 minutes flat (after an hour of cleaning it up the day before). After a full year of school there was clutter in a lot of places. The combo of a tight schedule, arguing, messy spaces & clutter was wearing on all of us.

But then, thankfully, came summer.

Ahhh, Summer...
There has been something almost magical about our summer this year. It has been relaxing, refreshing, sweet, calm, peaceful--Freeing.  Ahhh...so needed.

When public school ended for the year, we ended our school year too. And we've taken it really easy.

We've been home more days than not.
We haven't had a calendar full of running to & fro.
We've had free time to enjoy one another and just be refreshed.
And yes, we've had just the right amount of fun summer activities peppered in...

But our kiddos have spent most of their time just enjoying one another and the freedom of being able to go upstairs and creatively play. It has been so nice and so refreshing. And magically (my favorite part), our kids arguing has dissipated.

On a normal day the kids wake up and play down stairs, then we all eat breakfast, clean up the kitchen & then the kiddos go upstairs for freetime.  Our 7 year old and almost 6 year old (Maria & Elissa) have been buddying up and playing in Maria's room, & our 4 year old and 2 year old (Jessa and Noah), buddy up and play in the playroom and Jessa's room. They've been pretending, imagining, and having so much sweet fun together. Or they might sit at the school table and color or create together.

(sweet buddies-sibling friends)

And while the kiddos enjoy their peaceful hours I've been able to take a breath and peacefully organize many areas of our home. All those "projects" that were in my brain during the school year that I constantly passed by for lack of time. So many spaces in our home are now peaceful and manageable too. I don't think one ever "finishes" organizing their home, but we've made some really big steps this summer.

We/I've organized:
The Playroom
Our School Cabinets
Our Fun Art Play Cabinet
The Bathroom Closet
Maria's Room
Elissa & Jessa's Room-new curtain :)
The Pantry
(blogs to follow on some of these areas)

My mom has always said that when your home (or room) is clean, you feel better. And I can tell you- 
                       it is SO TRUE.








So, thank you, God, for this sweet summer. You so knew exactly what we needed.

Blessings,
Amy

Works for Us: Calendar-Year at a Glance

I was having a hard time keeping up with, or planning things with only being able to see a month at a time on our wall calendar.  One night the idea popped in my head that it'd be great to be able to see the whole year, all the time. So I started looking online for calendars to order. I found one that was the size I was hoping for, but it was ugly and like $16. Bummer, I kept looking and happily found this one:

1. It was free. 
    The creator encouraged people to print it free of charge :)
2. I could print it just the right size.
     I really wanted it to fit on the side of my fridge :)
3. It was CUTE!
     I love the fun bright colors and polka-dots :)

This calendar is great for us. I LOVE being able to see our whole year. It is also nice to be reminded of the fun things we did earlier in the year. And lastly, if you're a sentimental person, it's easy to store away these 6 pages of card stock to look back on in the years to come.

I'm having a hard time finding the link to the one I have, if anyone finds it online please let me know!
Until then, here are some links to some similar ones:

http://www.thetomkatstudio.com/2012-printable-calendar-by-the-tomkat-studio/
http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com/2012/01/free-2012-printable-calendar.html
http://creativemamma.com/free-printable-doodle-2012-write-in-calendar/
http://printcolorfun.com/876/blank-calendar-pages-happy-dots/

Works For Us

When our first child, Maria, was born, I remember standing in the hospital room thinking "shouldn't they give us a manual for this?" I was amazed that they were going to send us home with this wee little one, to just figure out how to take care of her on our own. It was so much responsibility with no real training, a very lofty burden for a new mom & dad.

The same is true when you graduate college, get married, or in a million other seasons/parts of life. It'd be great to just have a book to open and "bam" find all the answers. But instead we go through life, finding some things that work for us, and tons others that don't.

For part of this blog I'd like to encourage others by simply sharing things we've found that work for us.

Many of them are going to be simple objects that just make things easier around the house, with the kiddos, etc. Others might be routines, how we've handled situations, or just some things that are fun!

Having 5 kids in 6 years, we've kind of had a whirlwind of things to figure out. We totally don't have it all figured out (no where close), but I know I definitely love it when someone shares a super idea with me. Who doesn't like to be encouraged?

I Thessalonians 5:11

"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are."

Intro

Hi I'm Amy. 

Almost every day I have a "I'd like to write about that on my ((non-existant)) blog" moment, so I decided I'd better finally get one started. 

My husband Ricky and I have been married for 8 years and we have 5 children ages 7 & under. Ricky works as an EMT for a private ambulance company. I am thankful to be at home with our children full time. 

We are Christians, and are so grateful that we have the blessing & honor to walk through this life knowing the God who created us:

John 10:10b is my life verse for our family. Abundant Life-that's the kind of life I want to have!

I welcome you to join our family as we journey in life--more fully understanding what living Life Abundantly is all about. 

Here you'll get a glimpse into my brain, our home, our family, and our hearts. 

Blessings,
Amy