Organization

Spring Cleaning

April 13, 2020 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Covid-19 has us all shut indoors doesn’t it? So people are cleaning out areas that hitherto have been ignored, or at the very least put off. I have to admit, it’s no different in my household. I’ve been cleaning out nooks and crannies, and generally getting things into shape again. Spring cleaning is well underway!

What is Spring Cleaning?

Spring cleaning differs with every household. For some, it is giving every room of your house a deep clean. Moving the furniture away from the walls to clean baseboards, washing walls, windows, vacuuming everything, cleaning the linens, flipping the mattresses and more. Every room in the house gets done.

For others spring cleaning is tackling those areas that rarely get done, rooms like the cold storage area, the basement, the garage, and the like. This is called spring cleaning because they deep clean the main areas of the house regularly.

The History of Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning varies according to a person’s culture but generally happens after a long period of shut-in has occurred. Coal and wood-burning stoves would spray soot and ash all over your home, making a thorough scrub-down imperative once the weather warmed up. You simply can’t clean when it so cold out. Having the windows open so you can chase out the spiders, and beat out the carpets in the cold is uncomfortable! You pick a lovely spring day to do that. Get rid of the accumulated dust and mildew of the winter. Beat the carpets, clean out the cobwebs and make everything all fresh and clean again.

I remember my dad cleaning out the barn in the spring, and when it was all cleaned out, he’d get the whitewash man to come. WOW, the barn would be SO very clean it was surprising how wonderful it could look. Sometimes it was so bright it almost hurt the eyes as you looked around doing chores.

Around the same time of the year, mom would have us girls busy in the house, pulling out loose carpets/rugs, washing walls and windows, and getting into every nook and cranny. It’s not too hot yet since the summer heat has come up yet, and still not too cold with no snow on the ground. It’s that in-between time when crops are planted and the work that summer brings. You may find this list helpful for tackling each room.

My Methodology

I have to admit that I don’t spring clean like my mother did. I really rather don’t like cleaning. GASP eh! 🙂 BUT I do like organizing, and the process of organizing makes it much easier to clean as I go. Ergo, if I want to clean a room I reorganize, much to my husband’s chagrin. “What was wrong with how we had it?” is his oft-repeated query. All the main rooms/areas of the house have me tackle them at least twice a year, so my spring cleaning gets done too often I think! 🙂

This spring, since everything has been shut down, I’ve been working on areas that really needed to be addressed.

My husband has a goal of building a beer-making room in the basement and to that end, I HAVE to move things around to make that goal work. There are some things I can’t do on my own (like moving two rather large aquariums). But most of it I can do, with the occasional help of a 14-year-old lad.

A Job that Needed Doing

The above mess needed cleaning as it meant I could adjust shelving out of the chosen area. Old electronics, sermon notes, hubbies old school materials and more. Sorted and moved out. It took me a while to decide where to put it until I remembered the back corner of our basement, the dark kinda icky part… hadn’t been cleaned out for a couple (or three) years. I embraced the darkness (added lots of flashlights and worklights) and vacuumed up far too many spiders and cobwebs. The lad helped carry up boxes and materials that were just plain garbage. Since the dump is closed (for shame) we are slowly putting it out in the weekly pick up. I had a whole shelf on which to store boxes, how absolutely wonderful!

Progress Made

I ended up storing quite a few more boxes there and even found room to keep the lad’s snowboarding equipment on top of them. Those butcher’s boxes I get from the Foodbank are something I really like! So sturdy and waterproof, I take home every one of them I can.. They are marvellous for storage and I’ve given many away to people who are moving.

I discovered a bunch of old camping equipment that got moved into our camping area (yet to be sorted) and a whole whack of electronic components. My son got to use his muscles a lot! 🙂 He’s such a great help.

Can you imagine my joy when I actually ended up with an empty shelf! I was stunned! I’m still delighted everytime I go downstairs and see it. Empty shelves are excellent things! In the meantime though… I still had all that electronic stuff to sort through.

It seemed I’d Never be Done

It seemed as though I’d never be done, shifting shelves, sorting through boxes. I did have the joy of listening to more teaching on Deuteronomy, but the days were wearing on. The end result: 6 bins/boxes for my hubby to sort through when he’s of the mind and energy to do so. Getting rid of garbage is another reason to be delighted. We’ll get the garbage out one of these days (won’t that be grand?)

I’ve tackled cleaning the book room, the fridge, my bedroom, and the upstairs pantry as well. So it’s good to have things cleaned and organized. EVEN IF my hubby has no idea were the tomatoes are now! (Bottom shelf of the first bookcase in pantry).

Free Checklist for you

Want my Spring Cleaning Checklist? It’s here for you to pick up.

The Challenge

The crew has issued a challenge. Can we find a way to post on social media, or on our blogs about an idea? This week it’s on Spring Cleaning. I invite you to share your posts below.

What have you tackled lately? What are your future goals? Do you spring clean and if so how?

Evening Basket Time

March 2, 2020 By Annette1 6 Comments

Every once in a while I read a post (or three) of the importance of having a moring basket time. A time where a family can gather together to learn specific things together. You pick materials that can work for all members of your family. Might be devotionals, history, biblical principals, favourite books or literally whatever you want to make it. I read those posts and I think, oh, wouldn’t that be lovely? Then reality hits…the idea of doing a MORNING basket time in my household…not so much. As I got to thinking about it I realized that for years I had an evening basket time. A time when my lad and I could gather for family time in a relaxed, easy-going manner that a “morning basket time” time allows for. Let’s talk.

What is Basket Time Meant for?

I have to say, basket time differs from family to family and even season to season. Depends a lot on the needs of the educating parent and the needs of the family. Are there character issues that need to be addresed, or bible verses that would be good memorize? Perhaps a favourite book from your youth to share, or reading books together that cross curricula. Some families use this time to learn music, memorize hymns, go through living history books, and to practice phrases in a new to them language.

What you make of your basket time is completely up to you.

There is one lady I’m starting to follow who puts together topical studies for her teens. It’s their basket time. You’ll find those on my homeschooling highschool pinterest board. They look very intriguing.

In Our House, a journey of books

When my son was young we had an extensive bedtime routine. We’d play for a bit, then I’d grab up my books. I had a stack, that some nights felt a mile-high, but in reality was only maybe 10 books.

Devotional or Faith based book. My son loved the light-keepers series and later on History lives. Good books about people of faith from our history.

2. Favourite reading books.

Oh boy, did we read novels and picture books. Some were old favourites, others were new. Many came from the library, but most we bought. We wanted to savour them, not rush through so purchasing seemed the better option. Some of what we read are amazon affiliate linked below.

I learned quickly The Hardy Boys didn’t cut it for my lad, he went through periods of toilet humour, and times of intense focus (the warrior cats). Some books delighted (A Nest for Celeste) and caused bunny trails the following school day. Reading The Long Winter in the summer brought shivers! 🙂 And interestingly enough, no desire to read in the series.

3. A book on Canada. Sometimes these were picture books, other times chapter books, and once a history encyclopedia just on Canada. I wanted my lad to know Canada. The Jasper series was a huge hit, and reading a about the Halifax harbour explosion is one my son remembers clearly. We read about some of Canada’s historical figures, scientists, and athletes. I made sure we didn’t forget about the animals within our borders as well. For a while on my blog I did a series on Books on Canada.

More Specific Learning

4. History. I always had at least one book on history. Learning from our past intrigues me greatly, and saves time if we learn well.

We purchased a fair number of encyclopedias at thrift stores and we’d read one page spread per day. IT WAS FASCINATING. As my son got older we’d go back and we’d compare the viewpoint of the editor/author. Same event or historical period, and different points of view brought out different aspects of the history. We learned how the environment influenced trade, weaponry, work practices and more. We saw amazing artwork and unique historical finds. The affiliate links below are not the exact books we used, but similar to the variety.

5. Extended Learning: Occasionally our books would draw us into wanting to know more. One time in the warrior cat books there was an eclipse. This led us into exploring outer space for a couple of weeks. Or when reading about Terry Fox, cancer and robotics was a curiousity.

Now?

Now my lad is in high school, he rises later, goes to bed later so we’ve needed to revamp our lives a bit. (go figure that eh?) We don’t have our extended reading time at night anymore, but we do still read together.

We are currently working through Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade. It’s a walk through the Heidleberg Catechism. Reading bible verses together, sharing information that is new to us (even with mom and dad), and delving deeper into matters of faith. It’s good.

The Unbreakable Faith Course has become a new part of our together time as well. This course makes for some interesting discussions which I enjoy.

At supper time we read through 1-2 chapters of a World War 2 based book. This gives the lad time to share information he has learned that connects with the book we are currently reading. Currently we are reading through
Seized by the Sun.

We do less educational and fun stuff in our time together, but the discussions we have are deeper and I hope helping to prepare our son for adulthood and making what he believes his own.

What about you?

Do you have a morning or evening basket time? Perhaps you do a mid-day break? What’s your routine for spending time with your family learning together?

Others in this Series

Introducing our Summer Schedule

June 23, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these so I thought I’d introduce you to our summer routine. We do tend to homeschool year round, but in the summer life changes. School still happens but often in ways that are not known at the beginning of the summer.

Our focus is on: Language arts, math and reading. When the lad and I were talking about our summer schedule I told him my non-negotiables and asked what he wanted to do over the summer (because the how doesn’t always matter). He surprised me by adding a number of other items. He wanted to continue with Drive thru History, weekly projects, and more.

The reviews that we do will vary depending on what we have on the dock to work on, and our interest in them. For instance we just finished reviewing a program called MaxScholar that he won’t be continuing for the rest of the summer. His current plan is to finish reading through the biography section in the fall.

Since it is summer though our view is also this. If we have something better to do, then schooling through books or videos drops to the wayside. This week he worked through his schedule on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday was plumb full of foodbank working, trips to Noah’s Ark to drop of yard sale leftovers, followed by a trip to London to shop and visit gramma.

Thursday the lad did his basics only, we’d planned to do a couple of review things but I wasn’t up to par yesterday so that fell to the wayside. On Friday we watched a lesson on geology and dinosaurs and then binged watched Drive Thru History. 🙂 That was fun. The lad also started working on STEM project a model DaVinci had drawn out. It’s maybe 1/3 the way done. Gave me a bit of time to write some blog posts too that has just not been happening. Booked an appointment for a job interview and confirmed a doc appointment for the lad and… moved some bricks around.

I dragged the lad outside to help me with a project I’ve had in my mind for the past couple of weeks, moving my cinderblocks to a better location and cutting off my tarp holders and putting them in storage.

Friday evening we went to a friends graduation ceremony. It was really good to go, gave us a good idea what to expect for next year when the lad graduates grade 8.

Saturday my lad got his advanced Green Belt. It’s good to watch all these students increase their skill set.

It wasn’t what I could call the most exciting week but when one’s health is being irritating, sometimes a lack of excitement is called for. 🙂

Things I Love – Checklists

April 26, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Don’t you just love when your children can work on their homeschooling fairly independently? I know I do! I love helping him when he needs it, but helping him to be responsible for his own scheduling.. I LOVE IT! We’ve been working on refining his schedule for the past couple of years and this year it was just a matter of making up a list for him, and then he decides how he’s going to full fill his workload over the course of the week.

Trying to figure out how to help him be accountable in other areas of his life took a little more figuring out. Earlier this year it occurred to us that making a list of everything he was responsible for over the course of a week might be beneficial to him as well. He’s taken to it like a duck to water… he loves having a list to work off of and to be know exactly what he is responsible for. We needed to add some consequences initially to help him take the list seriously as up until this point it was “get it done if you can, we’re disappointed if you don’t, but life happens”. That proved to be too “loosey-goosey” for him.

Once he realized we were trying to help him build a good routine and to develop skills that will help in establish a pattern of fitting in the important things in life FIRST before doing anything else, he got the picture and starting taking it all much more seriously.

NOW he loves it and mostly gets all his work done first thing in the morning instead of lolly gagging about all day and running out of time. He even explains if he needs to do something on a different day (like taking a shower) due to being busy, or working with dad, or _________. He has careful reasoning which I love to see.

What do you use to help your children learn how to be accountable to themselves, to help them figure out what should come first in their lives?

Others in this series

Kitchen Ease

Homeschooling meets life.

Things I Love – Kitchen Ease

April 24, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Welcome to day two of the Five Day Blog Hop from the Homeschool Review Crew. Yesterday we talked about how Homeschooling Meets Life. Today I’m talking about kitchen tips.

Like many families we have decisions we make about skills we’d like our children to have before they are old enough to leave home. One of these skills is knowing how to cook. I don’t want my lad to end up like my younger brother existing a lot of pizza, take out, hamburgers and the odd roast with taters. To that end, one day a week my lad is responsible for making supper. Admittedly he LOVES to do really easy meals like hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken burgers etc…. even if those things require he make the bread/buns. Occasionally, he’ll say “Mom, I want to make that chicken you made the other day” or “Dad, I want to make the spaghetti dish”.

To help the lad (and me) I’ve done a few things in the kitchen that I like and will miss if we do have to move. The lad happens to find them helpful in his endeavors to cook as well. “I don’t have to hunt for it Mom”.

I love my hanging fry pans

The lad likes our hanging strainers, pizza cutters, etc. We use strainers for a whole variety of things, not limited to pasta. Since the lad is responsible for putting the dishes away, having hanging utensils makes it ultra easy for him and means my drawers stay a whole lot neater!

We are a family of cereal lovers without a whole lot of space to store our cereal (or the depth to store big boxes). When I found these storage containers at Costco I knew our cereal storage issue would finally be answered. Don’t they look nice all stacked in a row? It’s lovely to have variety at breakfast (or lunch… or the occasional supper). 🙂 Makes it super easy if we are making cowpies and want to use cereal in them as well. 🙂

The one small bone of contention we have has to do with this cupboard. If people put things away properly then it remains organized and ergo everything is easy to find. More oft than not though, the lad is prone to just shoving things inside and not keeping it organized. This of course results in frustration on both our parts so… it’s a work in progress indeed.

Do you have things you’ve done in your kitchen that you really like that make your meal making go smoother?
Let me know eh? It’s always good to learn new ways of doing things eh?

Organize Your Lego

April 19, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

In this house, we like Lego. This weekend we decided to take apart and put our Lego away. We do this on a regular basis. We build things, play with them, store them and eventually dismantle them in order to play again. 🙂 Since we have a fairly massive Lego collection, this created a problem of how to store our Lego without it driving us crazy in the searching for pieces and how to display what we made well. We tried various options like Rubbermaid bins, in the closet, under the bed and it just wasn’t working for us. We needed a good way to organize our Lego and have a display shelf.

We’ve organized our lego a few times, each time fine tuning it. This was the original method we used.

Since our first rendition, we got rid of the tiny bins, and simply changed what went where in our bins.

I use four of those stackable bins that you can find at Walmart or on Amazon. The ones I use have five drawers rather than the ones you see here. *images are clickable*

I find I can rearrange them as needed too, Sometimes I place them in a square and put a large square of wood on top for when we want to build pyramids and representations of Egypt or medieval or pioneer life. I don’t leave the wheels on as I’ve learned THAT’s a recipe for disaster.

Below is a city/town that we are in process of taking down as we pack to move. Gives an idea of how we change our set up once in a while.

Anyways, divide up the Lego however you want.

Our division tends to be:

wheels/wheel part
lego build books
castle pieces
ones
twos
threes
fours
larger than fours
Large flats
Smooth flats
smaller flats
car parts
Axles and round holes
unusual pieces
figurines and all their paraphernalia
Tiny pieces (like flat ones)

Some types of Lego have so many pieces it takes two bins to hold them all.

Basically pieces that are mostly similar find their home spot in the same places. (like axles and the legos with holes in them go together), along with crane parts. Things shift as we gain (and sometimes lose) various pieces. All my StarGate Lego goes in one bin.

No one will organize their Lego exactly the same way, so find a method that works for you and how you think, and don’t be afraid to change it. Ours has been revised several times since we started this method, and then as we discovered the joy of moving the bins and making a temporary table and what not. We’ve done the “let’s divide by colour” (colossal failure) We’ve even transported them as needed to other homes for play dates with friends who don’t have Lego.

This is our normal set up

Organize your Lego, it makes playing with your Lego a lot more fun as you don’t have to spend all your time searching the corners of your bin for just the right piece. Having a display shelf right with your lego stash keeps it all neat and tidy and off the floor.

Join the crew this week in organizing your homeschool.

Give us ……

January 15, 2018 By Annette1 12 Comments

So this is actually a hard post to write…how do I talk about what homeschooling looks like when we haven’t schooled all week? It’s the subject of this week’s virtual Curriculum fair hosted by hosted by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds. Last we we talked about our reasons to homeschool.

What does homeschooling look like? I suppose it depends on the week.

Give us a household illness and homeschooling looks like three people supporting each other as we recover from the flu which has left us with no brains and little stamina.

Give us a field trip and you’ll find three people out of the house, taking pictures and making notes as we learn this history of our past, the how-to’s of how a business works, ask questions of how plants grow, experience the wonder of the world God created.

Give us a computer and we learn engineering, math, science, history, language arts, and so much more. Give us the power of youtube and ant farms are built, history is learned, science is experienced and geography broadened.

Give us a work book and we know we can move on page after page, writing, journaling, equating, documenting, filling in spaces, learning, growing, becoming someone more…

Give us books to read and our lives are filled with imagination, questions, wonder, knowledge and so much more.

Give us a co-op and you’ll find anger and laughter, learning and teaching, friendship and fun, stretching and growing and being more than we already are.

Give us a messy house and you will find us cleaning, working, renovating, tidying, rearranging, selling, boxing, and decluttering.

Give us bunnies and you will find us undertaking animal management, biology, compassion, building, carpentry, gardening, growing, blogging and all things rabbity.

Give us people and friendships will be made, toleration achieved, opinions challenges, games played, feelings hurt and felt well in abundance. Cooperating, challenging, growing, helping, healing, and fellowship deepening.

Give us a blog and research, and joy, and friendships will blossom.

Give us publication companies and reviews, reading, sharing of opinions and joy will abound. Frustration and learning how to be nice when something appeals not in the least. Commitments and timetables learned and mastered.

Give us the world…. and you will be totally surprised where it takes us.

Give it to us and we’ll fit it into our learning and our lives.

What will YOU give us?

Do you want some help on your homeschooling journey?

Right now SchoolhouseTeachers.com is on sale. I KNOW! AND it’s on for a great price. You need to use this code NEWYEAR18 for a $90/year subscription or MONTHNEWYEAR18 for the $9.95 /month subscription. More than 350 lessons for the entire family covering all your homeschooling needs.