Homemade Laundry Soap

I jumped on the bandwagon and made my own laundry soap.  It was super easy to make (though a little messy), and so far it seems to work just as well as Tide.  The first batch, which costs around $12 plus the cost of a 5-gallon bucket with lid, makes 5 gallons of concentrate... 10 gallons of laundry soap after it's all said and done.  I have enough of two out of three ingredients to make at least 4 or 5 more batches, so those will only cost around $4 (or less) each (the cost of the 3rd ingredient... a soap bar.) 

I found all the ingredients at Wal-mart, but they are also available at Ace Hardware or online. 

A 100 oz. jug of Tide costs around $12 each... the recipe I used makes 1,280 ounces. That's a huge savings!  (Plus, the homemade version has the added benefit of being mostly all-natural and easier on clothes and skin.)

I used the Duggar's Liquid Laundry Soap recipe.  You can use the Fels Naptha "laundry soap" bar like they recommend, or you can use any other type of soap bar... Ivory, Pure & Natural, etc.  Let me know if you decide to try it!

We love workboxes!

"Workboxes" is a system of homeschooling which allows children to be more independent in their daily studies.  The originator of this system is Sue Patrick, and her ideas have become increasingly popular with homeschoolers across the U.S.  Because the full system is very detailed and in-depth, and requires a great amount of prep work for the teaching parent, it's not a good fit for our family.  However, there is one part we absolutely love!

This.  This is the part we love.

Above is a picture of our workbox "towers."  From left to right, they belong to Seth, Caleb, and Sarah.  In the close up pictures below, you can see that there are numbers stuck to the front of the drawers with Velcro.  When a child finishes his first drawer, he takes the number off the front of the drawer and puts it on the card that sits on top of the tower.  

This is the card that sits on top of Seth's tower.

The next set of pictures shows examples of what things are in the drawers.  The kids are not allowed to take a sticker off of a drawer, marking it "finished," until all books and supplies are back in the drawer. 

 

Below is a tower in progress.  When all the boxes are done, school is done for the day.  No more questions and worries about when we'll be done.  Now everyone knows!

Three down, three to go!

In order to keep the kids motivated to use the workboxes, I also have activity cards that say, "15 minutes on computer," "20 minutes on Wii Fit or Outdoor Challenge," and "Game of your choice with Mom."  Next week I will add other games and surprises for the kids.  My goal is to have a good balance of school work, chores, and fun stuff in our boxes.  So far, so good.

Best upside?  Besides the organization and independent work, the best upside is having everything we need for projects or crafts right in the drawer waiting for us.  No more searching around at the last minute for glue or an extra pair of scissors.  SO time-saving! 

Oh, and this serene homeschool moment is all thanks to workboxes...

 

And so are these happy munchkin faces...

Here's the down side... more prep work for Mom.  In order for this to work properly and be successful, I have to reload the boxes every afternoon or evening.  I can see now that I need to prep everything on the weekends so I can reload them quickly.  Otherwise, it's too time-consuming. 

The parts of the workbox system that we are leaving out include making "centers" (think Science Fair tri-fold displays) to teach concepts or info to the kids.  That would take more time, work, energy, and money than I'm willing or able to give at this time in life... or ever.  Maybe if I could come up with smaller-scale ideas...

Anyway, that's our current gig.  Thanks for reading... and leaving a comment... *hint hint*

Back to Co-op!

Today was the boys' first day back to co-op, and we were all ever so glad to be back!!  They were very happy to see their friends and to get to learn and play with them.  In art class they learned about pointillism and made their own pointillist butterfly pictures with tempera paint and Q-tips...
 

They actually drew and painted half of the butterflies, then folded the paper and pressed on it to make the other half.  Brilliant idea!
 
In Zoology class, the kids learned about insects.  They learned that insects have 3 main body parts, six legs, compound eyes, and an exoskeleton.  For an experiment, the kids tried to drown a cricket, but found out that crickets can close up all their air holes and survive after at least 5 minutes under water!  As a bonus, my kids got to bring home the experiment subjects as PETS!! 

The three containers above house three different crickets... Hopper, Hoppy, and Hoppy McHopperson.  The kids brought all three home in one jar, but decided they each needed to make their own habitats.  We looked up what crickets eat... which just happens to be everything (they're omnivorous)... and the kids put these together.  The only thing I did was punch the air holes and fill up little cricket-sized water bowls.  The dirt, grass, and paper clippings are providing nourishment for the little buggers.  The crickets seem to be doing well, but Caleb accidentally ripped one of the back legs off of his, so we're not sure how long it will survive.

I ended up filling in for another mom who was sick, so I stayed at co-op all day and taught two classes on conflict resolution for kids... based on The Young Peacemaker, by Corlette Sande.  I got to sit in a circle with two groups of around 12 kids and chat with them about different reasons and ways to make "a respectful appeal."  The kids are smart and funny... and silly (right up my alley)... and we had great discussions! 

Where was Sarah, you ask?  Well, little "Sarah May" spent the entire day alone with Grandma.  And there's no telling what kind of trouble those two got into!

"What happens at Grandma's STAYS at Grandma's!!" 

School Week 18

It's finally time to start back to school after our long winter's nap.  I'm not sure we're fully awake, but we took an extra week off, so there's no time to ease into things.  We've got to jump in with both feet so we don't get too far behind.  We have another good week coming up, so I'm sure we won't get too bored.  :)

This week in Circle Time we're reading about... 

Bible - Pharisees, Sadducees, and Parables.  We'll be reading from John, Matthew, and Luke... and a few pages from The Awesome Book of Bible Facts. 

History (Tuesday & Thursday) - The discovery of America; Muslim empires; War & Weapons; and Incas.  Our books this week are A Child's History of the World, and the Usborne Book of World History.

This week we'll get to learn a little about Christopher Columbus... and do a project or craft (or something) about him... when I find one.  I'll post later about what we end up doing. :) 

Science (Wednesday) - A little more about clouds and evaporation.  We'll read two pages from our Weather book, do a "Cloud Craft," and the do the "Water in the Air" activity from Science Activities: Volume 3.  We'll also watch the activity on our Discover & Do Science dvd.

Caleb's jumping up in Reading a bit this week with Green Eggs & Ham, and Seth is going to be SO excited to read Viking Adventure!!  Sarah's school program this week includes Stories from Africa: Jabo's Mystery Box, and some selections from Family Treasury of Little Golden Books and The 20th Century Storybook Treasury... and a few others.  

This week's Read-Aloud is The Apprentice, and we begin A Poke in the I.  I think we'll save those for bedtimes this week.

The kids also have their own Math, Language Arts, and Handwriting programs, but they are too detailed to add here. 

So, those are the facts.  Looking forward to sharing the fun stuff from next week soon!

Overdue Haircuts

Took the boys for haircuts today.  They REALLY needed it.  Here are my shaggy boys... 

 

Of course, they can't take just one normal picture...

And here they are AFTER the wonderful barber cut their bushy hair off... and then I could see their shiny faces.  I guess I could have styled their hair before I took these... 

They hate it (sort of), but I LOVE it!  Plus, it will be another 2 months before they really need another haircut, and that saves me money.  I love that, too.  ;) 

Then, Sarah HAD to get in on the action.  I'll just let these photos speak for themselves...

 

HAAAAAhahahahahahahaha!!!!

January... and oatmeal!

Not my picture, but this is sort of what it looked like.  ;)

Isn't it everyone's goal to blog more in the new year?  It's my goal, too.  Yippee! 

Today I want to share about my lunch.  What did I have for lunch, you ask?  Well, I had steel-cut oats with honey, crunchy apples, and pecans.  Sounds good, huh?  It was SUPERB and super satisfying! 

I used Quaker steel-cut oats, put the oats and the water in the pot at the same time (makes it creamier), and added a little salt.  I got it to boiling, then turned the fire to low, and let it simmer for 25 minutes.  When it was done, I put in a little butter and honey, half an apple, diced, and a couple tablespoons of chopped pecans.  I'm thinking about having this for dinner, too.  It was that good. 

I think next time I'll add cinnamon, and maybe some nutmeg.  Mmmm....   Oh, then maybe I'll try it with banana instead of apple!  So many possibilities!

Next, I'll blog about our new homeschool semester:  in full swing next week!