Tami Fox

Weekly Wrap-Up on France

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Tami

We had a wonderful week studying France. The lessons were interesting, and we enjoyed cooking together each day.

On Monday, we had Coq Au Vin for our entree and Madeline’s for our dessert. I also served mashed red potatoes with cheese and bacon on top.

On Tuesday, we had a homeschool event, so I picked an easier menu. I bought frozen Chicken Cordon Bleu and served it with Bernaise sauce. I also made a French Onion Soup from scratch.

On Wednesday, we fixed Quiche Lorraine. We have eaten several different flavors of quiche, and this is a tasty recipe.

On Thursday, we had another homeschool event, so I picked something I could put together on Wednesday night and cook on Thursday. I picked Beef Bourguignon. This turned out to be very tasty. I served it with egg noodles.

On Friday, we had Ratatouille. My husband prepared and cooked this. I did not get a picture of it, but it was delicious!

Tomorrow, we start our study of the country of Germany. I am excited about our menu and look forward to sharing it with you.

Homeschool Recording Keeping Help – Getting Organized

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Is record keeping your least favorite part of homeschooling? How are you doing with lesson plans? I have found a great online resource for helping me keep track of lessons, grades, and attendance with Homeschool Manager. They can help you simplify your paperwork and keep everything organized for you. Your children can also look at the lesson plans you have set up. If you aren’t great at planning ahead, you can also use Homeschool Manager to keep track of your daily activities.

They are offering a 30-day free trial of their program. Check it out for the next 30 days and let me know what you think about it.

http://homeschoolmanager.com/?afmc=1m

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The boys and I enjoyed our field trip to the mountains today. We hiked and enjoyed a lot of time outside. It is wonderful when our classroom is outdoors.

ZONE Focus: Kitchen – Sort through your cookbooks and recipe collection. Organize and file loose recipe cards.

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

Time for FUN FRIDAY!

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water

Family Fun: Play a game with your children today.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at your launch pad
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Field Trip Thursday – Getting Organized

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Hello! Fall is upon us, and this is a wonderful time of year to take an outdoor field trip before winter sets in. If you have been reading my posts for a few months, you know that we started school in early August. Other than Labor Day, we have not taken a day off. So we are going to to go on a group field trip to the mountains with some of our friends. We will have a guided hike, and we will have time to explore on our own. They also have a nature habitat with several animals. We will also picnic while we are there. Today we have to get our hiking shoes and warmer clothes ready. We had to decide on what to pack in the picnic basket and what to take to drink. I include the boys in this type of preparation because I think it is important for them to learn the process of getting ready for a field trip. It also makes for a more rested teacher who didn’t do all the preparation by herself. Part of working as a team is sharing in a reward. Today is reward day.

If you have not been on a field trip yet this year, start looking at options near you. Invite some of your homeschool friends along.

Tomorrow, we will get back to our Zone focus. Today is a day for fun and learning.

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Zone Focus: Kitchen – sweep the floor and wipe the fronts of your cabinets.

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

Have you done some hands on learning with your children this week? Plan something for tomorrow!

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at your launch pad
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Top Shelf Tuesday – Getting Organized

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Today we are going to work on the top shelf of our kitchen cabinets. You know that place where you put things and rarely (if ever) use them. Open one of your cabinets and pull the items from the top shelf. Decide what you want to keep and what you want to purge. Wipe down the shelf and put the items back that you want to keep. If necessary, wash them before you put them back. Do this for all of your kitchen cabinets, but don’t spend hours doing this. Try to keep it to 15 to 30 minutes. If you don’t get to all of them within 30 minutes, put this on your calendar to do again tomorrow.

Today is anti-procrastination day. What are you putting off? Don’t put it off any more.

Grocery Shopping and Errand Day – Take your list, pack snacks, and water bottles.

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

Have you been reading to your children? If not, pick up a chapter book at the library and spend some time reading to them every day.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Errand day: Make your plan for grocery shopping and errands. Pack water bottles and snacks for everyone. Pack up your library books that need to be turned in.

Family Fun: Plan a fun activity while you are out. I am in the habit of checking for free activities that are going on while we are out doing errands.

When you get home from doing errands, have everyone work together to unload and put away everything.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Declutter Tuesday – Getting Organized

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Let’s declutter paper that has accumulated in the kitchen. If you have a shredder, keep it handy and sort through any paper piles you have. If you are saving receipts for tax purposes, file any pertinent receipts. If you have a coupon box or binder, cull out the expired coupons. If you are wanting to have some motivation while you are purging, turn on The FlyLady’s Radio Show at 1:30 pm eastern today.

You can also go to The FlyLady’s site to download the Homeschool Teacher and Homeschool Student Control Journals to help you with getting organized.

This week I am studying France with the boys. I thought I would hare what we learned today.

We used a globe to locate France and looked at the other countries that it shares a border.
We colored a flag for France and put stickers in our passport books.
We talked about the language, economics, and religion of France.
We talked about the timeline of the history of France and the type of government they have now.
We watched a YouTube video on famous sites of France and listened to French music.
We talked about famous artists from France and looked at some of their masterpieces.
We learned that the national animal of France is the rooster.
We read the book, Madeline.
We cooked our French inspired meal, which included Coq Au Vin, red potatoes, French bread, Brie, and Madelines (French cookies).

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
Clean out your refrigerator. Toss the science experiments.

School:

Do you do any hands-on projects with your children? If not, pick a topic they want to learn more about and do a unit study about it. For instance, if you children love bugs, get some books about bugs and take a nature walk near your home to see what kinds of bugs you can find. This time of year, you can find lots of spiders outside. I have seen some very nice spider webs.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Write up a menu plan for the next 7 days. Check your pantry and freezer and make a grocery list. This habit will save you time and money. Try out some new recipes with the slow cooker. It will save you time once you start back to your school schedule.

Family Fun: Take your children for a walk.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Check my blog for new posts every day at www.TamiFox.net.

Kitchen Clutter Monday – Getting Organized

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

This week we are going to work in the kitchen during our Zone time each day. Since we spend one week each month in the same zone, we are able to do different things each month. This help us deep clean the whole house in small steps.

Monday – Hit the Hot Spots on your Kitchen Counters
Tuesday – Declutter extra papers you have in the kitchen (stacks of papers, coupons, etc.)
Wednesday – Work on decluttering and cleaning the top shelf of your cabinets
Thursday – Wipe the outside of your cabinet doors
Friday – Sort through receipts and trash or file them. Go through your cookbook collection. Purge any that you do not use.

You can switch any of these to a different day depending on your schedule. The point is to pick one small project that can be completed in 15 to 30 minutes.

We had a family event at church this week. Our youngest was baptized. I thought you might like to see a more recent picture of my family. Our daughter was unable to come due to weather conditions from the hurricane.

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

Weekly Home Blessing Hour:

Spread these out over the course of the week. Put a note on each day of the week with one or two of these per day.

7 Parts of the Weekly Home Blessing Hour from The FlyLady:

Quick Dust
Sweep/Mop
Purge Magazines or Paper Clutter
Change Bedding
Empty Trash
Clean Windows/Mirrors
Vacuum

School:

We have two field trips that ended up being scheduled this week. I don’t normally do that, but since we have been doing school since the beginning of August, it will be nice to have a few fun field trips.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water

Family Fun: Have some outdoor time with your children today. Play. Do some nature journaling. The point is to add some movement to your day.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Lay anything out that you will need first thing in the morning
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

I post a new post each morning during the week at www.TamiFox.net.

Get Your Homeschool Package

The FlyLady’s Homeschool Teacher Control Journal, The FlyLady’s Homeschool Student Control Journal, and a copy of Giving Your Children Wings

I have a special package that is only available on my site. The FlyLady’s Homeschool Teacher Control Journal goes very well with my book. You can purchase all three for only $30.00.

Homeschool Helps from the FlyLady

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

The FlyLady launched a new area on her website this week for Homeschoolers. She has also started a new email list that will have topics of interest for homeschoolers. You can sign up for her emails here: http://www.flylady.net/d/flylady-resource-library-for-homeschooler/ . What I think will also interest you is that you can also download a copy of the Homeschool Teacher’s Control Journal and Student Control Journal for free. If you have been wanting to use this resource and not able to purchase the print versions, you can download it and print it yourself. This is a wonderful resource for you. I hope you take advantage of this offer now.

Our school week has been great as well. We have learned about South Korea. We also studied the following topics:

Map (globe, map, Google Earth view)
Demographics
Language
Flag
Alphabet & Numbers (Thank you, YouTube!)
Talked about the economics of Korea (We recognized the names of a lot of manufacturers.)
Talked about North Korea and South Korea and the Korean War
Cooked and served three Korean-inspired meals

We have enjoyed our cultural studies this year. Next week, we will be studying countries in Europe and will start in France. I will be working up our menu plan tomorrow. I think it is going to be hard to decide.

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

Time for FUN FRIDAY!

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Zone Focus: Entryway – Freshen up the entry into your home and put out some fall decor

Family Fun: Play a game with your children today.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at your launch pad
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

New Month and New Routines – Getting Organized

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Happy October! Most of you have seen changes around your home as summer came to a close and fall arrived. I am enjoying the leaves changing colors. I am enjoying Pumpkin Spice anything. How about you? What is your favorite thing about fall?

This month brings a new routine, and it is an important one for a homeschool family. This month, we are going to get rid of our paper clutter. Homeschooling seems to attract paper clutter. We have books, lesson plans, art papers, magazines, print outs, lists, notebooks, bills to pay, and on and on. If you do not have a good paper shredder, you need to invest in one. With identity theft on the rise, it is important to shred papers with your name, address, and other important personal information. If you can burn paper outside in a burn barrel or in a fireplace, that is another great way to get rid of papers that you cannot recycle. Most communities have recycling projects, and you can recycle some of your paper clutter if it does not have identifying information on it.

For the month of October, your assignment is to declutter paperwork for 15 minutes each day. If you can’t commit to 15 minutes, spend 2 minutes tossing or shredding papers each day while your children are doing school work. It will amaze you how much paper you can declutter in that amount of time. I do a good job of decluttering paperwork, but I have to keep at it every day to keep it from piling up again.

There are two simple things you can do to get organized in your home. The first one is to declutter. The second one is to establish routines. The reason I share the three daily routines with you every day is to keep it in front of you. If you work on these routines daily and declutter, you will see progress in your home. You will find peace in your home.

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Zone Focus: Front porch – Sweep your front porch and add some fall decor. Put a fall wreath on your front door.

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

This week we have been learning about Israel. We have enjoyed some great food such as beef ribs and beef brisket. We also made couscous and a dish with carrots and sweet potatoes. It has been interesting to learn about their climate and economics.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at your launch pad
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Dive in Wednesday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Zone Focus: Today, ask one of your children to go sofa diving. Pull the cushions. Throw out the trash. Search for “stuff” down in the frame. Vacuum. Fluff your cushions. Put it back together and make it pretty. I have one child who loves to do this. He gets to keep any money he finds in it.

It has been raining in North Carolina for the past 5 days. This has given me opportunity to work on some projects and do some writing. How do you spend your time when the weather is not conducive to going outside? Children need to use their large muscles frequently, and when they are not able to get outside to play every day, they start to get on one another’s nerves. How do you ensure that your children get good physical activity in each day when the weather is bad? We have a few things we do inside when we need to move around. We have a Wii Fit, and we do competitions. We have had an indoor trampoline. We have some exercise DVD’s. I will lead some exercises that use large muscles, too. It is important to stay active for their minds and bodies (and sometimes for your sanity).

We are continuing our country study in South Korea this week, and we are enjoying learning about the different cultures. I do think the boys’ favorite part of the study are our meals. Since I have not shared our menu this week, I thought you might like to see what I planned.

Monday – Sanjuck (Beef), Rice

Tuesday – Korean BBQ (Beef), Kimchi, Fried Rice

Wednesday – Korean Chicken, Glass Noodles

Thursday – Toasti, Chicken, Rice

Friday – Chicken on a Stick, Rice

As you can see from my plans, we usually have a starch of the day. That is what it takes to fill growing boys. I also serve veggies and salads. The above menu is more specific to our country study, so I don’t always list the veggies that I serve.

Today is anti-procrastination day. What are you putting off? Don’t put it off any more.

Grocery Shopping and Errand Day – Take your list, pack snacks, and water bottles.

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

Have you been reading to your children? If not, pick up a chapter book at the library and spend some time reading to them every day.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Errand day: Make your plan for grocery shopping and errands. Pack water bottles and snacks for everyone. Pack up your library books that need to be turned in.

Family Fun: Plan a fun activity while you are out. I am in the habit of checking for free activities that are going on while we are out doing errands.

When you get home from doing errands, have everyone work together to unload and put away everything.

Detail Tuesday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Let’s do some detail cleaning in our living rooms today. Move the furniture (or have someone help you move the furniture), and detail vacuum where the furniture sat and clean the baseboards behind the furniture. I do these missions as well, and what I find after years of cleaning like this is that it is not overwhelming, and it is not completely yucky when I detail clean under the furniture. I work my way through the five Zones each month. This keeps me from having to do a big Fall cleaning or Spring cleaning. There is freedom in having daily routines and working through the various Zones in my home. Your children can apply the same philosophy to cleaning their rooms. Their rooms can be broken down into five zones. Each day of the week is a different zone. Download a copy of the Student Control Journal. Print it. Give it to your children.

Student Control Journal

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
Clean out your refrigerator. Toss the science experiments.

School:

Check your paperwork and update your schedule and lesson plans. Mark your attendance form, if your state requires it.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Write up a menu plan for the next 7 days. Check your pantry and freezer and make a grocery list. This habit will save you time and money. Try out some new recipes with the slow cooker. It will save you time once you start back to your school schedule.

Family Fun: Take your children for a walk.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour