Organizing our MFW year 2015-2016

When you open that big My Fathers World box the first thing you think about is what to do with all those goodies? The first thing I like to do is to label all my book spines with the current year. This year we are doing Exploring Countries and Cultures so I labeled my books with "ECC" and we are also using the high school program Ancient History and Literuature so I labeled those books with "AHL". You can use a label maker or avery labels pre-printed or just some clear packing tape and paper. Whatever works for you.

The next thing I like to do is read my Teachers Guide. I will make a shopping list of needed items and underline anything I need to remember from the teachers tips.

                                                    

Then I start to plan how I will keep track of everyones work! This school year we are going to try workboxes again. We did use them last year but switched to bags sometimes for portability. I put a label on each box for the subjects we will study independently. Everything they need to do that subject is in the box. That is the extent of our use of workboxes, they are storage drawers for subjects. For my Kindergardener and 3yo I also mixed in some activities for them to do at the school table.

All the together subjects, teachers manuels, and extra manipulatives go on my shelf.

Next I like to go through all the student sheets and put them either into a file box by week along with any other printed materials or I will sort them and put them into our history binders ahead of time. Last year I filed them by week because there were a lot of extra printables. This year I chose the binder method and used my file box to store extra paper work and printables that we will more than likely use this year. As I was sorting the student sheets I used postit tabs to section off the different countries and continents studied in ECC. I also added the printables from Mama Jenn's blog so that all my student sheets and printables for each kid were in their binders ready to go for the year.

For my 9th and 7th graders I am giving more grades and tests and I needed a place for them to turn in work so I created this little station by my desk. In it are 3 files one for grading, one for pages I've graded but need to be filed in their portfolio's and one for copy's I need to make.

This year being so much different than others as we are using the My Fathers World Kindergarten, Exploring Countries and Cultures and Ancient History and Literature I needed to rethink my planner plan! So my friend gave me the great idea of creating and customizing my own plan book! My oldest will keep track of her own work but my 7th grader down to Kindergarteners assignments are in this book. I also created assignment notebooks for my 5th, 7th and 9th graders.

Another new addition is a Calendar notebook to practice Math, Telling time and money and some calendaring for my Kindergardener, 2nd grader and 3rd grader.

I also needed to think of the 3 year old who wants everything like big siblings so I also printed him a little binder of color pages that match his Kindergarten brothers worksheets.

Curriculum 2015/2016: Family School

Family Learning Cycle

Exploring Countries and Cultures

grades 1 thru 7

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• Mama Jenn's Printables
• Pintrest Ideas
• Homeschool Co-op Countries and Cultures Art, Music, and Cooking

My Fathers World Kindergarten

3 year old and almost 5 year old

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• Morning Board Ideas
• Calendar Notebook from Aussie Homeschool and Confessions of a homschooler for my Kindergardener
• Preschool alphabet book from Unlikely Homeschool and the printable coloring pages from The Good the Bad and the Truth for the 3 year old.
• More Pinterest ideas
• Co-op A to Z class

My FAthers World Ancient History and Literature

Freshman

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• Apologia Biology
• Saxon Algebra 1
• Easy Grammar Plus for Review
• The Fallacy Detective and Thinking Toolbox
• Vocabulary Cartoons
• Spanish with a Tutor
• Co-op Art Class and Speech and Debate

Prepping for the School Room for the new school year 2015/2016

This next school year we will have a 7th, 5th, 3rd, and 2nd  grader(s) doing My Fathers World Exploring Countries and Cultures, a Kindergartner doing My Fathers World A to Z, and a freshman using My Fathers World Ancient History and Literature. That's a lot of kids! And a lot of organizing! After I closed out 2014/2015 I began to organize for the new school year..

 I began with my school shelf! I took everything off from last year and labeled all our books and restocked the shelf for next school year. Here we have 4 magazine file organizers for separate Teachers Manuals for our school year, a shelf just for our "core" for the year, a shelf for manipulatives and that big white box is just the kids new school books for the following year!

 Then I cleaned out the kids binders and bags (2 shown) and restocked with summer workbooks! This year we have handwriting, math and a reader. Also some of the kids have a few more English lessons, and few lessons in Writing Strands to complete.

 I filed all the excess papers like the Geography Game, handwriting printables, hour logs, National Geographic and other things that stretch across the years.

Then I set up a file system for the older two children's tests. It says "Copy" for things that need to be copied, "Grade" for tests they complete that I need to grade and "File" for tests that have been graded but now need to be filed.

And we cant forget the smallest ones in our house! Here I've cleaned up dry erase workbooks, purchased a few new preschool books and games and loaded these Workboxes for them! To the right is our supply box which will be restocked during back to school sales this Fall

I'm currently working on organizing and scheduling my year this year and getting ready for HIGHSCHOOL!!

I've found some awesome printables that I'm printing ahead of time and adding to the kids binders, like this sheet which is perfect for those Singapore Math textbook reviews. And these copywork pages from Mama Jenn's blog. And I've also been looking through my pinterest Board for ideas. So now our binders are all prepped and ready to go.

I've even made some of my own printables for this coming year..

1. Assignment Sheet for 2nd-8th graders.
2. Tentative schedule for the year

And I haven't even begun prepping for Kindergarten!! 

A Lamp unto my Feet

Finding yourself in a sea of crazy that leaves you feeling lost and groping for light switch hoping you do stub your toe on  misplaced furniture and step on a forgotten toy. There is not a cup of coffee large enough to clear the fog from your head nor a chocolate bar large enough to calm your soul. From whence does your help come from? My help comes from the Maker of Heaven and Earth.

Speaking vividly through his word, through his creation, through fellowship and through prayer I find  the peace I've been looking for; but when I wake up in the middle of the night and my heart is palpitating and my mind is a storm I find it  hard to see the good in any situation I find it best to first remember where I am and how I got there. I need to retrace my steps to find that light switch in the dark. For He is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. He will teach me his ways and know my inmost thought if I will only set my feet upon that rock.

Remember where you are:
You are in the center of God's hand, in the middle of his presence in any given situation. He has never left the room even if you've chosen to silence him.

Remember how you got there:
A stroll through memory lane from your coming to the Lord till your present day situation puts much of life into perspective. Could it be that God brought you right into this storm for such a time as this? Or could you see a wrong turn that brought you to this place? Can there be  a lesson learned for next time or a word taken back to make things right again? Retrace your steps and evaluate the situation.

Remember WHOSE you are:
Are you in constant fellowship with God through bible study, prayer and corporate worship? Have you walked a path a bit far from his guidance?  Or have you, like peter, looked at the storm around you for just a moment and need to refix your gaze upon the  Lord of Creation? Spend time with the Lord in prayer, read the Word with an open heart, and ask for the wisdom from those who are strong in their faith. Take a moment and lay your heavy burden down at the foot of the cross and do not take it up again.

Switch on the light:
You see after reorienting yourself the light just seems to switch. Suddenly there is a peace that illuminates the darkness, the kind gentle hand of the father pulling you from the sea and a spring to your step when your able to rest in his Wisdom. He knows his plan and its well laid out we just have to trust him with the details.

MFW 1850 to Modern Times and First Grade week 11

Its been an amazing year so far! We have enjoyed learning about President Lincoln, Meiji Restoration and the Civil War! Im really proud of us for keeping up with our school work and staying on schedule! Lily learned the sounds for "oo" and started Math Mammoth level 1. Jadon memorized the poem "the Wise Old Owl" and presented it to our co-op. Logan scored well all week in Math. Benjamin aced his spelling test. Natalie completed all her work on time. We only had three days of school this week!

This week has been a bit out of the ordinary! We had Columbus Day off with Dad and did some major cleaning in the kids rooms. Then we had our Co-op Class which was fun! In our class a Dad came in and taught about clay. How the Master forms the clay and has to put pressure on it to make its shape, he squeeze both his had together to center the clay on the wheel. He lays his had on top of the clay to keep it flat and formed and giving it a good foundation for the work he will do to make it usable to him. Then he has to press inside the heart of the clay to hollow out any bad character traits to make the clay even more usable He pulls, and pushes, and cleans, and trims until he doesn't feel the clay can be shaped any more. If the clay is hardened or cracked it is no longer usable and needs to be moistened again to be refashioned again. Sometimes he has to destroy the clay into a fine dust and let it soak up the water again before its usable. It was a very powerful message.

Underwhelming my time

Im reading a book by Lisa Terkeurst titled "The Best Yes".  Im only on chapter 2 and Im seeing a theme which I've encountered many times before in my own life. An overwhelmed schedule leads to an underwhelmed soul is how she puts it in her book. I've never understood why people would choose to pack it in and feel in constant "go" mode. What sticks out most to me is this quote from chapter 3 "We become slaves to others demands and let our time become dictated by requests. We will live reactive lives instead of proactive". This is exactly where I am. I live a very reactive life. I react to other peoples drama. I react to debt. I allow other peoples schedules to dictate mine. I give up even having my own desires to run programs and the like for others. Perhaps its time to stop!

"How we spend our souls matters" Lisa says an underwhelmed soul knows there is more that God made her to do. I often feel that very thing. That i am just not doing that thing, whatever it is that I was created for! Sure Im a homeschooler, I was made for that. But I often go to bed feeling like Im missing something, usually shrugging it off to the missed load of laundry or the shoes by the front door instead of truly taking a moment to consider what I should be doing.

What is that "thing" that I will look back on and wonder why I didnt get it done? Is it merely reading the bible through in a year? Did I accomplish it by leading in worship the last year? Is it all the crafts and projects I skip in our homeschool each year? Im not very sure that those are my calling, the way I should spend my soul. Am I so overwhelmed with other demands that I dont even know what my soul is starving for? Its time to take a step back and spend the 150 extra hours I have each week searching for what my soul is starving for!

Frugal Accomplishments September 24- October 1

This week we had visitors from Burma at our house for 5 days! I was able to feed 15 people for mostly what I had on hand! I did purchase additional milk, cereal, eggs, orange juice, bread and taco shells. I used a large can of tomato sauce and made spaghetti sauce the night before they came. I had enough leftover to make  goulash another night. Broccoli beef stir fry over rice, Sausage Rice, and taco's we some of the other meals I prepared. I save a substantial amount making foods from scratch at home for 4 nights.

We also had a pot luck at church and used some hot dogs and cornmeal to make corndog muffins for the carry in dish. It costed us maybe $1.50 to make 24 corndog muffins. We also had some leftover to have for lunch another day in the week.

 The wife and I also made up homemade lunchables to take with us to the zoo along with our own water bottles. We also bought treats like granola bars and some cheese-its to make the snacks sold at the zoo less appetizing! Cost of extra "fun" foods was $15! for 15 people I think we did rather well!

I saved $28 cutting four of the boys hair at home.

I spent $100 at a consignment sale purchasing a jacket, a complete winter wardrobe in 4T, and pants, shirts, and sweaters for the older children. I purchased new looking clothes for 70% of the retail price. Our winter wardrobe is almost complete minus some winter jackets for big kids and I could use a few pieces eventually.

Our 12 Passenger van broke down this week so we have save a lot of money walking places or taking the smaller van to transport our family places. We also saved money on towing through our tow insurance. We have had our an towed a few times since owning it so its been well worth it. The Husband said he averaged it costed us $8 a tow so far! Not bad!

We borrowed a friends large van for driving to the zoo, which saved us renting.

We used zoo passes that were gifted us this summer making our trip free!

We have not had to run our air conditioner all week.

We also have had leftovers for lunch every single day this week.

I used a gift of $50 to purchase a 20 cup rice cooker.

I used a $30 gift to go out on a Mom's night with some friends for a birthday present.

We completed out allocated spending plan for October for our FPU class.

My Menu plan this week is completely covered by food we already have at home except sliced cheese for grilled cheese. So I will be using this weeks grocery money to stock my pantry with sale items. I also only have 1 vehicle so I will be staying closer to town to save on gas!

We have used the library to rent videos, check out books, and for entertainment this week.