{LJ's bang trim, courtesy of IB}

While I was preparing to make breakfast this morning...

LJ: "I yike French toast! Where's the French?"

As I was preparing to make cornbread last week, I laid out the ingredients on the counter, including two eggs. They began to roll...

LJ, as he caught them: "Oh no. We don't want that to happen. That'll be bad."

Me: "Yes, it would make a big mess, wouldn't it? You would have to clean it up."

LJ: "Ewww! No! I can't do that. I'm not a Mom!"

We were driving recently and LJ was very chatty, talking about everything he saw.
LJ: "Oh! Oh! Did you see that truck?! I yike it! It's fritty!" {translation: pretty}

Restructuring Family Nights

When the older two boys were little, we used to have family nights every week. Every Friday. Pizza and movies. Sometimes bowling or miniature golf. As our family has grown and life has become busier, family nights have changed a little. Now, it happens on one of Papa Bear's rotating days off. We still rent movies but it's difficult to find movies that appeal to the wide age range. We also order pizza or eat out on occasion, but feeding seven mouths gets expensive fast. The problem is that is all we do together on a regular basis. We have gotten into a rut and need to change things. I am thinking that we need to break out the board games that have been collecting dust in the closet. I'll have to work on Papa Bear for that one. He seems to have an aversion to games. But we have got to get out from in front of the TV.

The other reason for revamping our family nights is to institute family meetings. While my blog may give the appearance that all is calm, we have been sailing through rough waters lately. We have become so busy that we haven't been enjoying any quality time with each other. Everyone has been feeling neglected. And it is definitely affecting the family dynamics. My hope is that we will be able to clear the air of frustrations and problem-solve during our family meetings. I have been re-reading The Five Love Languages and The Five Love Languages of Children to help myself and Papa Bear make changes and plan on sharing the principles with the boys also.

Over the years, I have collected several books on family relationships and traditions. One of my favorite ideas that I've gotten from them is to create a family mission statement. Stephen Covey gives step-by-step instructions to create your own mission statement and examples of others' in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families. Another book that talks about making a mission statement is Hands-On Faith: Family Nights. It also gives ideas for family night themes and activities, like a blessing jar, family prayer journal, and awarding patches for accomplishments. This last suggestion includes adding the patches to family vests, which I know my boys would not go for, but they may like to have a personalized banner to hang on their door or wall.

"A family mission statement is a thought-out, decisive, united expression of one's family, declaring the beliefs, values, purposes, and principles that they, as a family, have committed to and chosen to live by."

-excerpt from Hands-On Faith: Family Nights

So, tomorrow, I'm spending much of my day getting prepared for our family night. I'm making beef stew and, probably, oatmeal cookies. Papa Bear and M1 have been dropping heavy hints that they've been craving them. After dinner, we'll kick things off with a devotion {appropriately} titled "Who's in Charge?" from The One Year of Dinner Table Devotions. Then, I want everyone to take turns saying something positive about our family before they share the heavy stuff. And I know it's coming. The most difficult part is going to be keeping emotions in check. I'll try to keep my expectations low and my attitude positive. 

Do you have family nights? What do you do? Do you have family meetings to discuss issues? Do you have a family mission statement? 

Post Christmas Toy Review - Pacific Play Tents See-Me Tunnel

Since I have five boys and more toys than they really need, I have to put more effort into coming up with great gift ideas for them. I prefer classic, durable toys with open-ended play value. It should be able to hold up well to typical boy handling and make it through more than one child. I could definitely do without batteries, characters, and cheap plastic. Oh, and I don't want it to make much noise...my boys can do that all by themselves. Now that we are a few weeks past Christmas, I thought I would review some of the gifts I chose for our boys and let you know how they were received and how they have held up so far.

I remember a crawling tunnel from my childhood, but it was made of cheap, thin plastic and wire that tore easily. This is NOT that tunnel. Pacific Play Tents makes the See-Me 6 foot tunnel with flame retardant 70 denier nylon and sturdy, collapsible, padded steel spring construction. It has two nylon mesh windows for seeing in or out and has velcro tabs at the ends to connect to a play tent or another tunnel.

     

I purchased the tunnel primarily for my 10 month old and 3 1/2 year old sons but knew that my 7 year old would enjoy it also. When I received it, I hid the box under my bed until I was ready to wrap it for Christmas and then forgot about it. I found it the next week and it was like Christmas morning again for the hobbits. They loved it! M2 wasn't hesitant at all and had a blast hiding and crawling through it. Of course, I had to give the older two warnings about misusing it, like jumping on or over it or being too rowdy. 

They have played hide-and-seek with the baby, pretended that it was a shower by standing it up, and that it was a rolling, hollow log too. They play with it daily and it is still in great condition, which is saying a lot because my boys don't play gently. I love that it is collapsible with velcro straps and it fits under our ottoman for out-of-sight storage. I would recommend the See-Me Tunnel for active, indoor play for any child who is crawling up to age 8.

Homeschool Organizing Ideas I'm Stealing This Week

This post will probably end up being rather random so bear with me. They will, however, all be related to making my life easier. 


When I'm trying to work with one of my boys or talking on the phone, one of my children IS going to want my attention for something else. It's just the way it is. My three year old is especially demanding and doesn't seem to understand like the idea of waiting. He and my seven year old can get rather loud when they need me. Tomorrow, I am going to try to find some cute little people clips like the ones at Confessions of a Homeschooler. Or if I can't find those, I may just decorate some clothes pins. And then we will promptly start learning how to be quiet and wait until Mom is available. They will each have their own colored clip that they will simply attach to my shirt if I am busy to let me know they need me. When I'm available, I'll go to them. Sounds good, anyway.

We began using workboxes last school year with NG and IB. NG really liked knowing what to expect, being able to work independently {read: not having to wait on Mom}, and seeing how close he was to being done. So far this school year, I haven't stuck to the workboxes very well but I did change over to the file version for NG and the drawers for IB. Now I am getting my act together and committing to using them again. But I needed some inspiration for tweaking them. I really like the schedule grids for each day of the week at Ginger-Snap-Shots, so you don't have to redo them every night. She has even uploaded the blank grids and activity cards for us to print off. And I plan on adding a chore chart to the ring with the schedule grids just like Homeschool Creations does. They both keep the small activity cards on the grid by just flipping them over, thanks to a small velcro dot on both sides. 

We have an office/school room but it's too small for a table, so we do most of our work at the kitchen table. We have been remodeling our kitchen a little at a time and we're just about ready to paint. My mom got me and Papa Bear Lowe's gift cards, so we're going tomorrow to get paint, curtains, and shelving for the walls. I would love to have a whiteboard mounted on the wall at one end of the dining area but Papa Bear doesn't really want the kitchen to look like we homeschool there. So, in order to satisfy both of us, I would like to do something like this. I'm still trying to figure out where to put the rain gutter bookshelves. I have also been doing some serious reorganizing in our house, mostly in our schoolroom/office today. I'll post pics once it's all done.

Do you have any homeschool organization tips to make my life easier? Have you tweaked the workbox method in a special way?

Wordless Wednesday #8 - "Tunnel of Love"

Linked to 5 Minutes for Mom, Mama to 4 Blessings, and And Miles To Go Before We Sleep.