Getting Organized

I really wish being organized was one of my stronger traits. I am definitely working on it. I am trying to come up with ways to get more done in my day. It seems I am spending all my time playing, doing activities and learning with my children. Now don't get me wrong, that's not necessarily a bad thing, however, when it is 5pm and you don't know what you're fixing for dinner and your house looks like a tornado touched down, it's time to make some changes. My biggest time waster is the computer. It monopolizes my time when the kids are asleep.....not good. I could say it was for all good purposes such as researching curriculum, field trip ideas, getting ready for next weeks theme, but regardless, once I get on......it is hard to get off.

I figure I have got to start getting my children to do more chores. I am not Super Woman. It is definitely not going to hurt them. I had to start leaving that "if I want it done right I will just do it myself" mentality behind. Let's just say my 4 year old was a lot more receptive to it than my 11 year old. Probably because she was already doing the dishes every night and wasn't sure what was going to be next. She was supposed to also be dumping all the trash cans in the house twice a week but she had begun to get "forgetful" about that one. I say that rather lightly.

Anyway, we started at the good 'ole Dollar Store. She picked out a colorful bucket and we filled it with all "her" cleaners for her bathroom. Scrub brushes, sprays, sponges, toilet bowl cleaners and rags. Now she can just pull her bucket out of our hall closet and away to work she goes making her bathroom spiffy clean. Of course, we did have to have a bathroom cleaning 101 class and then a couple refresher classes but it beats it not getting done! Her reward.....when we go to Barnes and Noble for story time she gets to go to the Cafe and get her favorite frozen coffee drink or sweet snack.

Next, we found a mini dust pan and brush, which was perfect for my son to get down under our bar after meals and scoop up all those crumbs that magically appear, even though they were eating over their plates.

I also bought 2 small laundry baskets and labeled them with their names. Now when I do laundry, I no longer take the time to fold my daughter's clothes. She just gets her basket with her clothes and she folds them herself and puts them away. Now with my son I do things a little different. In his basket I put his socks, underwear and folded PJ's. These are the items that I keep in bins on his shelving unit in his closet. He then puts those in the appropriate bins. Due to lack of space in his bedroom, I hang all his clothes so I now put his outfits together on a hanger with clothespins. His closet rod in low enough for him to reach. Each day he picks out his own outfit. When we first started this he was so proud of his choices. He also knows to attach the clothespins to the hanger and put it back on the rod after getting dressed. Of course, I only keep season appropriate clothes within his reach othewise who knows what he would be wearing.

I am also in the process of organizing for our homeschooling in the fall. I need to do some rearranging to make room for the bins, file totes, art boxes, etc.. If you have ever been to IKEA then you know how awesome of a store it is. Within the next month I plan to make a few purchases from there to help with my organization with all of this. Right now everything is piled up on my kitchen table. Here is a list of some of my supplies I have bought so far for organizing....

• dish pans in 2 different sizes
• 3 ring binders
• display folders
• art boxes
• plastic file totes w/ handles
• hanging file folders
• folders
• ziploc bags
• The Schoolhouse Planner http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HSBCompanyBlog/701286/

Wishlist

• Bookshelf
• write-on-wipe-off table
• lap top computer tables
• felt board
• an assistant, cook and someone to clean....just kidding!

Someone asked me if I was bored staying at home yet....are you kidding me? How could you ever get bored? Especially not in my house. I could find enough projects just in my home to keep me busy without kids for a year!

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs and More Dinosaurs!

Well, just like at my children's private school in the summer, I decided that each week we would have a theme. So far we have had Insect week, Dr. Seuss week and Astronomy week. This week has been Dinosaur week so I thought I would share with you what we have done.........


Every Monday and Thursday we visit the library....my children are signed up for every summer reading program in town. Our local library is always having lots of FREE events throughout the week. I also plan it so that I am picking up books and videos for the following week's theme when we visit. I put a lot of things on reserve! My son loves to get on the computer and play the learning games at the library. It is so funny you would think we didn't have a computer at home. Mondays are also my day to visit the grocery store.



On Monday of this week, we did paper mache dinosaur eggs. I made my own paste of flour and water added a little bit of cinnamon and salt. I then tore up some old newspaper into strips. Last weekend I found some miniature plastic dinosaurs in Michaels. I had my husband put a dinosaur into each balloon and blow it up...not too big...and tie it closed. This is our egg form. Yes, this is a messy, messy project but they had fun....even I did one. One word of caution, don't leave them outside in the heat to dry. We did ours on the picnic table outside and I thought they would dry outside quicker. Well, when we came home from the grocery store they had already hatched......not good! Luckily, my son's was still in tact. Everywhere I read you're not to put on more than one layer at a time. Well, he did and his survived....Anyway, you are supposed to put another layer on for the next couple days. On day 4 you can let them paint it and then on the last day.....you get to cut them open and see the baby dinosaur hatch.

We also did some dinosaur pictures with stickers and displayed them on our door. Each week I display some of their artwork on our patio glass doors. Crayola makes window markers that are really cool. The kids love to write on the glass doors and I use them to write on the doors to let them know what we will be doing each week. We also have our monthly calendar, weather and day of the week. Who needs a bulletin board?

On Tuesdays our local Zoo has one of the better events for children. Each week they feature a different animal. The volunteers at the zoo tell a little about the animal, sing songs, read a story, play a game and then end with a craft. My oldest daughter likes to come and join us when we go. This week was about the otters which is my son's favorite animal at the zoo so we had to go! We sometimes pack a picnic lunch and eat at the picnic tables at the park at the end of the zoo. They also have an awesome playground that the kids love that was all dedicated with local donations in memory of Ben. It's called Ben's Red Swings.

The Dollar Store is a wonderful place to find things for my theme weeks. I was able to find a Dinosaur Bingo. My mom found a dinosaur activity book as well as a book about dinosaurs with 3-D glasses...this was a hit with my son! I buy a lot of workbooks from there. My son will sit down and go through one whole workbook in one sitting. A dollar well spent.

Planning for our next activity I painted some small edible dog bone treats the night before with white poster paint. Once they dried I broke a few of them up and then I hid them in various spots in my son's sand box. Both my son and daughter were given clipboards, pencil, piece of paper, a ruler, a sand sifter and a brush. I told them we were going on a dinosaur dig for bones but not only did they have to find the bones but they had to plot them out on their paper once they found them and measure them and list their size. Big sister helper her brother with the measurements. I even had a safari hat and binoculars. They really got into this ....I only let one go into the sandbox at a time and once I thought half the bones had been found I let the other one go in.

To explain to them more about fossils, I had made an example out of playdough. Three days before I had taken a handful and pressed it into a styrofoam plate to flatten it. I then took numerous little items and pressed them into the playdough. I used small leaves, macaroni, pebbles, rice, twigs and made markings with a small fork. By now it had hardened somewhat and when I removed the items they had left a nice marking in the dough. You could even do this as an activity.

After we were done, I read to them about Dinosaurs. When we visit the library I make sure I get lots of books on our weekly topic and a few movies as well. When we were done reading I gave my older daughter a special wooden skeleton dinosaur puzzle to put together while her brother and I looked at the 3-D glasses book. I had purchased the puzzle from Michaels for only a couple dollars. Our last activity was music and dancing. I had rented a Laurie Berkner video that had a Dinosaur song on it. Not my son's favorite but we all had a blast dancing and singing around the living room. Her videos are awesome! They really get the kids moving and dancing.

The other activity that we do on a daily basis is reading from our "Junie B. Jones" book series. I tried to find a book that would keep the interest of both of my children....very hard. Either boring for one or the other. My oldest has read most of these books but doesn't mind listening to them again. The only thing I have to watch is to change some of the words when I am reading them...we don't say "hate or stupid" in our house and unfortunately Junie B. likes to use these words. I chose to read chapter books so that they would have something to look forward to day to day and something we could discuss. I always ask them questions about what happened when I read to them last.

Hard to believe it is only Wednesday.....more fun dinosaur stuff to come!

Creativity 101

So if I were to describe my positive qualities I would have to say that I am patient, thoughtful, generous and CREATIVE. I capitialized CREATIVE because without that quality is one that is definitely helping me make the summer fun for my children.



I also know how to find lots of resources. I would definitely be lost without my computer and the library.



Upon my journey to make this summer "one of enjoyment" I have "borrowed" lots of ideas from others. I cannot take all the credit. There are so many creative people and so many wonderful websites that I have been able to tap into. What did we ever do before the internet?



I spend my mornings before my children wake up and my evenings after they go to bed searching for ideas. I love field trips, freebies and hands on learning activities. Our local library is a mecca of information. We visit there two times a week. I am constantly reserving books and movies.



I sometimes feel guilty that I am having so much fun all day with my children while my husband is hard at work to provide for us. He has been so supportive to me through everything. I am truly blessed to have him in my life!



My next blog will begin to feature our weeks of the summer!

My very first post...how exciting!

So as I sit here next to my son watching "Super Why" I am thinking to myself... Where do I begin? First of all this PBS show is awesome..if your child is a learning to read it is highly recommended!

Okay, well it has been 2 1/2 months since I lost my job as a "Personal Banker II". As I look back on it now it seems like it happened a year ago. When it happened it was one of the worst things that had ever happened in my whole life. I am not going to get involved in the logistics and details of what caused me to lose my job...anyone who knows me knows what happened and knows that I was definitely not treated fairly. However, I am working on putting all of that behind me. I am not going to say that I am completely healed from the effects of the blow I have felt to my self esteem, but each day it is getting easier. I still have a hard time seeing my customers out in public. Forteen years and 6 months is a long time to have invested in a job. You do build close relationships with your customers and some coworkers.

With all that being said, that is why I chose the name "The Opened Door". I truly believe that when one door closes another door opens. Immediately after April 21st, 2009, I had no idea what we would do financially, how we would be able to keep our children in private school and basically how I would ever be able to push forward. Of course, the element I left out of this whole situation was GOD. I'm not saying he wanted this to happen to me but I know that without him and my supportive mother and husband, I would have never been able to have pulled myself off of the floor and gotten to where I am now.

Once my 2 youngest children got out of school for summer I realized I couldn't sit around the house every day feeling sorry for myself. It was an extreme adjustment for them too. They had been used to going to an excellent private school where they also attended summer camp. Unfortunately, they weren't going to be attending this summer. They started missing their friends, teachers, activities and the routine. I knew I needed to step up to the plate and show them that it wouldn't be so bad being home with mom all the time. It wasn't their fault I lost my job and I wasn't going to make them suffer for one minute! Then came what were we going to do once school starts back up again in the fall? There wasn't any money in our budget now for private school. However, I vowed when my two youngest children were born that I would sacrifice just about anything to not put them into public school. Within weeks HOMESCHOOL thoughts started popping up all around me. Glen Beck did a segment on Fox about it. Our local newspaper did a segment about it on the front page of the Sunday paper, the only day we purchase each week. Then one day my husband asked me if I had thought about it. Why, yes! So I began to do research, research and more research. I talked to friends who already homeschooled their children. Before long, we realized this is what GOD has led me to do. I can't imagine anyone else being able to receive the enjoyment I feel watching my children learn a new concept, learn how to spell a new word, see the results of an experiment or just seeing their reaction to hearing me read them a story. Why would I want to share that with a teacher that doesn't care about my child the way I care about them?

In my next blog I will tell you about how I began to make my children's summer one they would never forget!