Grammarland worksheets

I've posted before about my favorite book for teaching grammar. I just love GrammarLand by Edith Nesbit.

It's a fun and interesting way to learn grammar. I wanted to share a link to the grammar worksheets you use with this book. Thanks to Jessica Cain for preparing all these awesome worksheets and posting them for all us to use for free.

GrammarLand Worksheets

My chore cards

I hope you have been able to finish your room inspections and plans. I finally finished my chore cards. Click the picture below and it will take you to my google docs link. I wrote in some of my considerations for each room to explain why I chose specific days of the week or months of the year. I kept November and December free for holiday focus rather than room focus.

If you would like a copy of this in open office, which is what I made mine in, let me know I will email the file to you.

Chore cards 2012

Week 3 - Organized Mommy

Goodmorning everyone! I do hope you all had a great and relaxing weekend. This is our third week of organizing in 2012. Let's don't give up if we aren't doing as well as we hoped. Our lives are busy but with some intentional changes we will be much farther ahead next year than we may feel this year.

This week's challenge is simple....let's work the plan. If you haven't finished preparing your chore cards, this week will allow you to get caught up. By the end of January, all the cards should be completed and implemented.

You will notice that in preparing the chores last week, that the annual chores were divided up throughout the year. I thought I'd explain this a little more in case it wasn't clear. Many chores don't need to be done weekly, but once a year is not enough. After doing our weekly clean in a room, I like to challenge myself to do one more chore. It never takes much time to do just one more thing. It's when I feel like I have to do everything that I get overwhelmed and exhausted. Well, finish all the weekly chores on your list, then do one annual chore like clean the ceiling fans, wipe the bathroom walls, wipe off the appliances, etc. The chores like changing the a/c filter will go under the bi-annual card since we really only need to change them twice a year.

I have not finished my cards yet but plan to this week. Once they are completed, I will post them here. Good luck and let's get cleaning!

WEEK 2 - Organized Mommy

I hope you were able to get through all the rooms in your home to list out what you hope to accomplish in them this year. Now, we will take each room and dedicate one day per week as well as 2 months per year for special projects in each room.

Each day, take one of the sheets of paper (one room per day). Underline any chores on the paper that your children are able to do. Even if there are too many chores, underline them all anyway. The ones left will definitely go on your chore list.

Next to the yearly section of each room, write a number 1-4. These numbers will represent the week of the month that the chore will be done. If you have more than 4 of these chores, you may either double up smaller chores or put an "S" for spring or an "F" for fall after the number. This allows you to only do that chore once a month or twice a year.

Decide which day of the week you'd like to focus on each room. I feel better when my kitchen is clean and organized at the beginning of the week since I spend more time in that room than any other. Write that day on the top of the paper.

Below is a word version of my chore list by rooms. Download it and put it in your word program. It will convert into whatever you use. You will see that each card has a date on the top, a room name, and a list of chores. Take the Monday chore card and replace my chores with your room and your list of chores.

Chore cards

Project cards

I hang my cards on a hook on my refrigerator, changing the card to the appropriate date. I keep the project cards on their own hook making it easy to keep these projects in the forefront of my mind. Any time I have extra that month, I try to do one or two projects. If I miss any, that room will come around again in 6 months. I like to dedicate 2 months to the yard and garden because I love to stay outside in the spring. I will admit that I won't spend 2 months in the fall. But this is a good time to work on cleaning the shed, setting up Christmas lights, etc.

I hope this makes sense. Good luck this week!

New Year - Let's Get Organized!

I will be blogging this year about getting organized in 2012. I decided to post my plan in order to make me stick to it. If I know that other's are reading and working this plan along with me, I will be more dedicated to keep it up. If you'd like to join me and my friends who have already signed up, just read this blog each Monday for your weekly assignment.

HOW THIS GOT STARTED:

Years ago, I read FlyLady's website non-stop. I put most of her ideas into practice and I LOVED it! It worked great and after lots of reading (and I mean addicted reading) I made my plan, worked it, and kept it up. I loved it. After several years, life took over, our business took off, and I wasn't home to work the plan anymore. I had learned a lot from her and I thank her with all my heart! But this time I decided to go even slower and easier. I spent WAY too much time reading that website and neglecting my family last time. I want to be that Proverbs 31 woman but it's very hard. I once saw a speaker at a church who talked on her book which was about the Proverbs 31 woman. She said we don't have to HATE the Proverbs 31 woman. The chapter on her is short but it covers all the stages in her life. What an eye opener that was for me!! Now, I don't HATE her, I just have to read it and see which stage I'm in right now. I can't always be everything but I can always work towards her as my goal. I don't remember this author's name or the name of her book. If I come across it during our book cleaning day, I'll post it then.

I will post short and easy assignments to do each week. We have 52 weeks. There is no need to get in a hurry. After the year is over, we should have a great game plan in action to keep us going in the years to come. We'll see where that leads but for now, it's ORGANIZING our home, family, and life for 2012.

LET'S GET STARTED!

ASSIGNMENT #1 - WEEK 1

Our first project for this new year, to get us organized by the end of the year, is to take a clean sheet of paper to a different room each day of the week. Divide that paper into 3 sections. Section 1 - weekly cleaning, Section 2 - Yearly cleaning, Section 3 - projects for that room, goals for that room, or long term ideas for it.

By the end of the week, we should have a good plan to work with for the year. We'll start putting it together next week. This month will be organizing our ideas and making a plan.

Good luck!

Calling all Families! Calling all Moms! Calling all Homeschoolers!

Join thousands of families nationwide to see the movie Dolphin Tale on September 23 together. It makes a statement to Hollywood to rally behind movies that “get it right” and tell great stories without all the junk, twaddle, and moral compromise! This movie has all the good stuff we want more of and is truly entertaining and inspiring from ages 5-95!!!
It’s time the conservative Christian Family and Homeschool community shows Hollywood we have a voice. But how? We need a story we can support and get behind, a story that affirms who we are and what we stand for.

Dear Friends, Dolphin Tale is such a story!

This is a family movie that will inspire, instruct, and bring you to tears because of the great story line. This movie even has two homeschool kids who play the main roles! (The casting agents went to a local support group in California and found them!)
The bottom line is that the Homeschool Movie Club wants to show Hollywood that the those of us with Christian and strong family values are a big enough market to support other great movies with traditional, conservative family values. I am hoping you will be a part of this great opportunity with me!

Free book on fractions & decimals

Thanks to Lisa at http://homeschoolliberalarts.com/ for posting this link for a free book on fractions & decimals. How did she know this will be my math focus this year?! Enjoy!

Gotta love those freebies! Scroll down almost halfway where it says "DOWNLOAD" http://www.schoodoodle.com/weblog/2010/08/10/free-ebook-of-the-month-fractured-fairy-tales-fractions-and-decimals/