It’s Thanksgiving week in the U.S. If you did the Thanksgiving challenge, you’re all set to use the time to teach kids how to cook. Yes, you can count it as home ec! I remember cooking for Thanksgiving with my mom and I know my kids will remember it, too. It’s a time for making memories and delicious food, too! Here are the easy steps to take this week.
#1 Find books or videos that teach cooking
I’ll be sharing some great kid cooking pins on the Organized Homeschool board. Be sure to check them out!
There are many kids’ cookbooks out there, but this is the one I’m buying for my daughter for Christmas. It gets good reviews from most, so we’ll see!
There are plenty of kid cooking videos on YouTube, but you might enjoy teaching the kids how to bake a turkey. Although I don’t use this exact approach, it’s a pretty good basic video.
#2 Involve kids in table setting and cooking
I like to keep Thanksgiving as low stress as possible, so I do much of my cooking and table setting the day before. Teach the kids how to help and they will be even more excited about the meal. If you aren’t eating at home, you can still have your child help prepare a dish or two to take with you.
My favorite thing to have my children help with (the same thing I did as a child) is tear the bread for my mom’s stuffing recipe. But now that my kids are older, they like to help with just about everything. If your children are quite young, I promise you there will soon be a day when they can be a big help.
#3 Thanksgiving
Enjoy the holiday! I am so thankful for my readers. There are few bigger blessings for bloggers than to have people read what they write. Thank you so much for reading, commenting, and sharing.
#4 Put Thanksgiving items away
Put all the special dishes and decorations away (unless you’re celebrating late) and you’ll be ready to decorate for Christmas whenever you choose. The day after Thanksgiving is our decorating day. It’s such a blessing to have the children help decorate. If you’re decorating this week, ask the children where things should go. You’ll be testing their memories, their decorating skills, or both!
How do you get your children involved in Thanksgiving preparations?
#1 Get the lay-out lists for the grocery stores you shop in
Near the front entrance of most stores is an aisle list for the most common ingredients. You’ll want this so you can put your shopping list in the order the items appear in your store. If a store doesn’t have one, take time to go through the aisles noting the numbers (if any) and what can generally be found there. You can also do this with a grocery shopping app.
#2 Create a master shopping list
If you did your meal plan on paper, you’ll now combine totals for all ingredients needed to make the meals on your plan. In other words, you’ll know you need 8 pounds of chicken breast total for the month. You may wish to create a paper grocery list that is organized according to the aisle layout you obtained.
If you’re using a digital meal planner like Plan to Eat, the shopping list will be automatically generated for you. However, depending on how you entered the recipes, you may find that some of the ingredients aren’t listed for the correct aisle. This is where your aisle list can come in handy! Make sure all items are categorized properly so you don’t have them listed in different sections.
#3 Finish creating shopping list
To save the most time possible, you’ll want to have a master list of non-food items to purchase as well. If you don’t know how many items like paper towels and laundry detergent you purchase in a month, make note of the date you purchase them next and the date you run out for future planning. When you know how much of something you need each month, you are better able to take advantage of coupons and sales for bulk shopping.
If you don’t feel like being that organized, you can continue to organize the shopping list for your meals and just add these extra items to your weekly shopping list as needed. Your weekly shopping list will be much smaller with the advance shopping you’ll be doing.
#4 Shop and put items away
When I do monthly shopping, I go to two stores and have multiple carts. I need a clean vehicle and a helper or two. I definitely need space cleared for storage and lots of help to put items away. I recommend shopping when you have the most energy! If you’re using coupons or shopping sales, make sure you have everything you need organized. Oh, and don’t forget your purse! Yes, I have done this.
When you’re done, you will have saved lots of time in the upcoming month and probably money, too!
Last week we got our core, or primary curriculum, organized for the upcoming year. This week we will take on our elective studies. This could be subjects like art, home ec, or music.
#1 Set up system of organization
You may have organized your materials during the planning challenge. If not, you will take the time to complete any preparation required to teach these subjects. For example, I have to print the Hoffman Piano lesson materials and add them to my children’s binders. These binders have my children’s names on them and are added to their individual crates on our bookcase.
#2 Research
This is the day to do research for ideas or materials you need to make your elective subjects excellent. For example, if you are using a home ec curriculum, you may be able to find an appropriate video teaching kids how to bake bread on YouTube. Be sure to keep your research organized. I recommend Pinterest and Evernote if you prefer digital or a binder/file system if you don’t.
#3 Plan
Create a simple plan for each subject, unless your curriculum has done the planning for you. In this case, you may wish to delete any activities you don’t like and add activities to replace them you discovered during your research. Remember, this is one of the blessings of homeschooling. You decide what to teach!
#4 Shop / List Materials
Purchase any needed equipment or supplies needed to teach elective subjects or add them to your list. Be sure to read the Special Study Prep challenge for more on this. You may wish to delay purchasing basic school supplies until they are on sale or have no sales tax (if your area has this weekend).
By core curriculum, I mean either a complete curriculum, like My Father’s World, or core subjects like math, language arts, science, and social studies. This could be a busy week or an easy one, depending on what curriculum you are using in the next year. We will go through the same process we went through with special studies, so we are organized early.
#1 Set up system of organization
You may or may not need an organizational system for each subject. If you didn’t do the planning challenge, you may need to make sure lessons are noted in your child’s planners and books are accessible to him.
#2 Research
This is the day to do research for ideas or materials you need to make your core subjects excellent. For example, I will be researching videos to add to my Mystery of History playlist on YouTube. I have to get busy on Volume II. As with special studies, you may want to see if someone has done the work for you, coming up with crafts, videos, songs, experiments, etc. to go with your chosen core curriculum. Organize your research digitally or using binders / file folders.
#3 Plan
Plan each subject, if necessary. I say “if necessary” because many subjects can be taught as written in the curriculum, with no extra planning necessary. If you need to plan in detail, consider creating an undated plan that you can add to a dated planner one week at a time. Nothing is more frustrating than creating all these dated lessons, only to get off schedule. Again, keep it simple. It’s much easier to add ideas than it is to delete them and still feel like you’re on top of your schooling. Extra time allows for some delight-directed learning, too. I love it when we do history and the kids ask to spend time learning more about a subject.
#4 Shop / List Materials
Purchase what you need for core curriculum now, if you haven’t already. Things lab kits and craft supplies are appropriate here. Be sure to read the Special Study Prep challenge for more on this. You may wish to delay purchasing basic school supplies until they are on sale or have no sales tax (if your area has this weekend).
If you are a homeschooler who participates in Classical Conversations, co-op classes you teach, or unit studies, this is the week you will use to prepare for these courses. I put this preparation ahead of other core curriculum planning (which will be next week), because other people often depend on us to be prepared in this area. Whenever I have left my co-op planning for the last minute, I have been sorry! We’re going to be organized homeschoolers and be ready well ahead of time.
#1 Set up system of organization
When outside classes or other people are involved in your studies, organization becomes even more important. Today, you will do any of the following, depending on what studies you are planning:
Set up a meeting with other teachers in the co-op to decide sharing of responsibilities
Set up a filing and/or material storage system
Set up a system of review, such as for memory work
Get a date on the calendar now to meet with your fellow teachers or the summer will get away from you (I’m speaking to myself right now!). If you are using Classical Conversations, you will want to go over the Ultimate Guide to Classical Conversations resources in which I share the best organizing ideas. For other types of studies, you may want to set up a binder and/or files to organize materials. Get them labeled now so planning goes more smoothly.
#2 Research
No matter what kind of special study you’re involved in, you’ll want to do some research. Rather than dive in and find a hundred different experiments or field trips, look for resources that have done the planning for you. If you’re using a particular curriculum, search for it plus plans, schedule, or weekly.
Now you will take your school calendar, your research, and your organizational system and you’ll make a plan. For classes that others are involved in, your ultimate goal is to have a schedule that can be shared. I like to email and print it for participants. Keep it simple. If you want to do something elaborate, make sure you keep other days low-key. Assume that you’ll have about half the time you think you’ll have. Keep in mind the weariness and distraction and illness that tends to set in at certain times of year.
Plan the things you really want to do first and if you need more activities, either fill them in with lesser options or leave them open for the unexpected. It’s a good idea to plan lessons and keep dates flexible.
#4 Shop / List Materials
Nothing makes me crazier than getting ready to do a craft or experiment and finding out that I don’t have what I need. The way to avoid this is to purchase everything you need for your studies ahead of time and to add perishable or library materials to a list. The problem with adding the perishable and library materials to your calendar is you’ll buy that red cabbage and then you take a field trip instead of doing experiments. Keep a list of time-sensitive materials needed by week and add the “check supply shopping list” to your task list each week before running errands. Yes, I am speaking to myself again!
When you have purchased or gathered supplies that aren’t time-sensitive, put them away neatly according to what you decided in Step #1.
Won’t it be great being organized for these classes ahead of time?
Are you on Google+? I would love to connect with you there. Be sure to check the Organized Homeschool board for great ways to get organized this week.
This week we prepare our Bible and character curriculum. For me and my children, it is the most important subject we cover. Sometimes it’s more for me than for them! It’s hard to be impatient and lazy when you’re teaching your children on these subjects. If you don’t have to plan this aspect of your school year, either take this week off or look at the bottom of the post for a challenge you didn’t do or didn’t spend the necessary time on.
#1 Prep primary curriculum
There are many options for Bible curriculum, depending on your family’s beliefs. I have appreciated Firm Foundations which helps my children see Jesus in the entirety of Scripture. I don’t need much prep time in using it, except that I decided to use our laptop connected to our TV to look up all the verses at once on BibleGateway.com. I then have the kids take turns reading them. Having the kids look all of them up takes too long. We have also rotated through a curriculum that is no longer available that helps my children understand the Bible from a cultural and historical standpoint. I highly recommend using a similar curriculum for a year that does this at some point in your homeschooling. Finally, I can’t say enough about taking a year to teach apologetics as part of your Bible study. I have lent my Answers for Kids curriculum to friends who also loved it. My review can be found here. Take some time today to get your Bible materials organized for the new school year.
#2 Prep memory curriculum
I want my children to not just understand the Bible, and be able to defend the Bible, but hide the Word in their hearts. I use an out-of-print book for teaching the theme of each Bible book and the names in order. I use Memlok for Bible memory, doing it as a family on our screen. Nothing has been more effective for helping me memorize Scripture, though there are many options including church classes that can help. Today, spend time getting organized so Bible memory is a part of your family’s life. I have some ideas pinned for you on Pinterest.
#3 Prep character curriculum
One would hope that studying the Bible and memorizing God’s Word would automatically translate into godly character. I have found my kids need a little more help with this! I have enjoyed Character Building for Families and Lessons in Responsibility for this purpose. Each required different preparation. We used Character Education at breakfast and I read Lessons in Responsibility or had the kids read it on their own as part of their individual work. Take some time today to prepare your character study.
#4 Prep personal reading
My deepest desire is for my children to have a personal relationship with Jesus. If I teach them that Bible time is something we only do for school as a family, that’s less likely to happen. I have Bible reading listed as one of my children’s daily tasks in their planners, choose an age-appropriate Bible for them, and make sure it’s kept in a place that’s most convenient for reading. I wrote more about devotional time here.
Blessings on your planning this week! I would love for you to like my Facebook page, so we can chat about the Bible curriculum you love.
Here is the July Organized Homeschool Calendar and a list of previous weeks’ challenges:
I’m a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. My life can be a little crazy, so I look for sanity-saving ideas to use and share. I hope you’ll read my About page to learn more.
