Back to School Cuteness

(Christopher's Pre-School pictures 2009)

I am a sucker for cute back to school crafts and cuteness even though I homeschool my kids.

I always take my kids back to school pictures and they usually turn out to be my favorites of the year. These are a couple from last year...

I like them so much better than the traditional school photo with the bad laser back drop.

I just went out with them last night for our annual tradition and haven't had a chance to dive into them yet...but bet your bottom dollar that I will be sharing some new pics of them getting ready for the upcoming school year soon!

Even though my kids don't have traditional school teachers per say, they still have other mentors besides myself that I love to give little appreciation gifts to, such as dance, piano, sports and other teachers and coaches.

My sweet friend Leelou (who just had a sweet new baby girl I am hoping I get to peek at this weekend in between all the craziness!) has this adorable free printable up on her blog today that would be such a fun little thing to send with your child on the first day of school with a little goodie inside letting your teacher know how much you appreciate them.

She also has some details on a way to win $500 of school supplies for your school...head over and thank her for making the world cuter...because she does...and funnier too. :)

Let's be friends!

Our 'Brand' of School

I am one of those 'crazy people.'

I admit it.

I like to let my freak flag fly.

I homeschool my children.

Yup, it's true.

There are many reasons why we decided that homeschooling works best for us...maybe I will get into that in another post.

But for now I will let you in on a little secret, I don't do it by myself.

I have help...lots of it!

When I first started out with my daughter in Kindergarten, I would spend hours researching curriculum materials, purchasing this, that and the other and just plain burned myself out taking hours to plan out what usually only took about a half hour to complete.

I lasted a few months and then I was seriously considering public school for all the wrong reasons.

Then I found out about online charter schools.

Specifically online 'public' charter schools.

More specifically Connections Academy.

This has been a God send.

They send you EVERYTHING you need.

Curriculum, art supplies, science supplies, work books, text books...and even a loaner computer if you need it.

You have a fully accredited school teacher that checks in on your student about every other week and is there for any questions.

They have online chats with the teacher, where the student can read to them or the teacher can go over math problems or whatever the case.

It is a fully accredited school, so you don't have to worry about state requirements for home schooling or anything else...they take care of it.

Plus the education is top notch. The curriculum is high quality and challenging.

They have elective courses and clubs such as languages, life skills and debate club-and plenty of field trips for kids in the area to meet up if you want to participate in those.

Oh and did I mention it's FREE?

We just got our school supplies via UPS-pretty much everything on the bookshelf below except for the pencil boxes are provided.

This is just some of the art supplies, science supplies, math helps, etc...that we got between my second grader and kindergartner.It's not all online either. Basically the curriculum is online if that's what you are more comfortable with, but they also send full on text books too so the kids actually have a book to reference. Most of these hard back books you just return at the end of the year...they send you the pre-paid UPS return label. So easy.

They also send all of the workbooks they need for English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Handwriting etc...

For kindergarten, they send a huge stack of fun little paperback books to go along with the themes and the kids get to keep these, so that is extra fun.Then there are the 'Learning Coach' books, those are for me.

This is the best part for me, although they have a 'teacher,' it is me who is with them day in day out helping them with their schoolwork.

At this point, my second grader can get all of her work completed without me if I need her to.

That was super helpful when I had just given birth to Oliver last year, but she gets a much better education when I am following along in these books.

They are like the homeschooling for dummies, no lie.For each subject they spell it all out for you! Basically telling you what to say if that's what you need. You don't have to ask yourself if your kids are actually learning anything as a home schooled child, you can see it happening.

I know that Connections is not only in Oregon, so if this sounds like something you would be interested in, check out their website and see if it's available where you live. If not, there is probably another that is.

For us, it's been fantastic! I love that I still get to be in charge of their education, and if we need to we can go slower or faster than the rest of the class.

Bekah was way ahead in language arts, science and social studies last year, but was still being challenged with math. Half way through the school year, her teacher and I decided to put her in 2nd grade, but keep her math in 1st grade. She started being challenged again, and finished up the year doing really well. She will finish up her 2nd grade year in December with those subjects, and from there her teacher and I can discuss if we want her to start on 3rd grade curriculum or go another route.

Sure we have to report online what we are doing, take quizzes and tests, and hand in portfolio assignments-but that helps us stay on task with that level of accountability. It's still home school though, and if we want to take a week off in the middle of October to go to Disneyland-we can either take it with us since it's all online, or we can just mark on our calendar that we will be gone then and go. Our vacation days are still on our time table, not someone else's.

If you have any questions about the school or anything else about home schooling I would love to hear them!

Do you homeschool your children? Is it something you've been thinking about?

Does anyone else out there use Connections Academy?

If so, have you been as impressed as we have?

Let's be friends!

I have no affiliation with Connections Academy other than my kids attending, I was not paid or asked to write this post. These opinions are 100% my own.

Cleaning the House is Fun to Do! Part 2: Age Appropriate Jobs

Hi again! Did you get a chance to read part 1 of my cleaning the house is fun to do series?

You may be wondering what this has to do with Making the World Cuter...but let me tell you; when your house is clean, and you don't have to hound your kids to help constantly....

They look cuter. Trust me.

Your house obviously looks cuter.

You smiling rather than screaming is definitely cuter.

And...a clean house and helpful kids gives you more time to focus on making the rest of your world cuter!

Here is my board if you remember with all of the jobs lined up.

I have three different kids doing jobs and I give them all the same jobs. I know that sounds crazy! Why would I give my 3 year old the same jobs as I give my 7 year old? Can't the very competent 7 year old do way more than the barely potty trained 3 year old?

Why yes, yes she can, but it sets the precedence for the younger children, and makes them feel more like they are contributing just as much.

It also helps that 7 year old to see that she is not getting picked on because she is the oldest, everyone contributes just the same.

I will go into more detail on each of their jobs and expectations.

Let me get in a little bit closer...The jobs that my kids get each day are;

• Get ready (the picture shows a shower, a toothbrush and a sun). This includes getting up and getting dressed for the day without being nagged, if they need a shower then that is part of it. The boys as a general rule take a tub at night, and my daughter showers in the morning. They also are responsible for eating breakfast-either on their own (they can all get their own cereal, or help the younger ones at least, and they can all make toast), or come down on time when my husband or I make breakfast. When they are done eating, they all rinse their dishes and put them in the dishwasher. Yup, even the 3 year old. He may not load it perfectly, and he may use way more water than needed to rinse a cup of milk out...but he is perfectly capable of standing on a stool, rinsing his dishes and putting them in the dishwasher. The final part of this job is brushing their teeth in the morning. At night, my husband and/or I help them brush their teeth, but in the morning it is their responsibility and it helps them learn how to do it themselves. (My sister-in-law is a dental hygienist and suggests going in after your kids brush at least once a day until they are 7, I know that may sound old, but I've watched my daughter brush...not pretty).
• Clean their room & make their beds. This is an obvious one. I am a control freak mom, I admit it openly. I can't handle a messy kids room. I know, I know kids rooms are supposed to be their spaces to do with what they will. I don't buy into that whole thing...at least not fully. I do think that kids should be able to have choices in their rooms; but they should be choices that you can live with. It is after all your house still, and we can't really leave our decorating up to our 5 year old, or we would have mosaics of Mario all over our walls. So I give my kids choices in decorating. "Should we put your bed here or here?" or "Do you like yellow or blue for your sheets?" One option they do not get is; "Do you like your room clean or messy?" At least not in this house. (I do make this as easy as possible on them with a toy rotation...I'll discuss this another time). Now while making the beds may be important, I also think it's important to let the kids do the best they can do and not go in after them...at least not every day. Here is my 7 year old daughter's bed this morning after making it...and here is my three year old son's bottom bunk bed this morning after making it. Is it driving me crazy? I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to go fix it right this second and forget about the rest of this post...but I do think it's important to let him do a job to the best of his ability and leave it at that. The bed making is one of those jobs I can let that happen on. He is very proud that he can make his own bed, and he is improving if you can believe it! :)
• Take Care of Laundry. This is another one of those that I have to close my eyes to on most days, but I have made that easier on myself. If you can see on the above picture under my sons bed, I have a couple of roller totes that I keep all out of season clothes and clothes that I don't want my boys wearing...such as church clothes. Then instead of a dresser we bought this storage unit at Target and some cubes to fill it. It looks cute in their room and the kids don't slam their fingers in drawers or get them jammed when they fill them with clothes. My husband washes laundry at night and then brings up the dried clothes in the morning before he goes to work almost every day. More on that another day. I separate the clothes into individual baskets for them and the kids put them away. What is supposed to happen is they are supposed to fold their clothes and put them in the right bins so they can see what they have....remember they pick out their own clothes so I be sure to just have play clothes in their bins that they can easily mix and match. What usually happens is they roll them their clothes into balls and put them in the bins. I don't get in the way. If I tried to keep their clothes perfect all the time, it would be a full time job. My daughter does an excellent job...now. But there was a time when her drawers and closet looked a lot like this. My mom used to give me grief about my daughter, saying, "What she has chores?" When she was about a year and a half old, she wouldn't leave her room until it was picked up. She didn't have chores at that age, but I had showed her how to clean up from the time she was old enough to make a mess. We never left her room after playing until it was clean. She learned early on that is how it's done. I wasn't as diligent with my boys, so they are not as organized as she is, but they still do a pretty good job for a 3 and 5 year old boys! Start them young, and then when they get to be about 6 or 7, you have them trained to do it just the way you want. (That sounded bad, but you do want to train your kids to do it the right way...which is obviously your way...right?) :)
• Practice/Read/School Work. This is something that looks different for each of my kids. During the summer it looks a little different than during the school year. Right now, the 7 year old practices piano, and does a math and a language worksheet. I don't worry about her reading because she reads probably an average of 2-3 hours a day. For my 5 year old, he reads me one of his early reader books, and sometimes I have him do reading flash cards and/or a math work sheet...but mostly I just have him read me a book. He starts kindergarten next month, so my most important focus is on reading with him. For my 3 year old, he just has to get a book read to him. I usually take on that fun job, but sometimes if the baby needs me or I am just running a little thin in the morning, my older kids can step up. Sometimes if he is feeling bored while they are working on worksheets I hand him a coloring book and crayons.
  
• Age Appropriate Helping Job. This is a job that actually contributes to the household. Not just something in their own room. I think this is important in that they can take pride in the rest of the house and the job that they are doing. My 7 year old does one of my most hated jobs every day...unloading the dishwasher. She doesn't mind it at all, it actually helps me out, and she's learned to do it pretty much perfectly. My 5 year old takes out any full garbage each day. Huge help! He is old enough, and strong enough to do it right.
  My 3 year old cleans the living room clutter. It's usually his messes, but it helps us out from having to get frustrated with him. He also gets upset when others make a mess in there; "Hey! I just cleaned this room!"
  

I am constantly surprised at how young my kids can actually contribute to keeping a clean home when we make it their responsibility. My kids know that they don't get to go out and play, we don't go to the park, we don't get treats, we don't play video games, we don't watch movies, we don't do anything extra...unless jobs are done. At this point they usually don't even ask. If they do, it's just a simple reminder asking them if their jobs are done and it's usually, "Oh yeah!" and they run off to finish.

Tomorrow I will talk about the money aspect of my kids jobs...one of the big motivators that get them going...but I think just not being able to do anything until the jobs are done is the biggest motivator.

What age did you start having your kids do jobs? What age appropriate jobs do they do now? Is there any valuable lessons you've learned while having your kids help out? Have your kids surprised you at how much they are actually able to contribute?

Let's be friends!

Cleaning the House is Fun to Do! Part 1: Chore Chart Tutorial

Okay, so last week I showed you my kids cute wallets that I made them with a promise to show you how we handle jobs here at the Making the World Cuter house.

Now let me just start out by saying that we have tried a LOT of things in this house to get the job done.

Almost every summer I would make a new fun chore chart with incentives and 'punishments' to go along with them and nothing worked. They would last for anywhere from a week to a month with varied enthusiasm.

We took a break from this to try the online job chart for a bit...but it annoyed me that my kids always wanted to get on the computer to mark off a job...that may work better for older kids, or those who have their own computers. But for me...not so much.

This works.

At least for us.

I would love to hear what works for you in the comments, so that other parents looking for other options to get their kids to pitch in can find those ideas!

Today I am just going to show you how to make the initial job chart.

I took regular printer paper, markers, contact paper and some adhesive magnet strips oh and some construction paper in my kids favorite colors that I didn't take a picture of.

I used to have each of the kids have ten jobs each...but I found that one; I was giving them silly jobs just to make it to ten, and two; the kids got bored with it on some days.

I condensed it down to five more general jobs rather than specific jobs.

Let me explain.

Rather than giving them;

-Shower

-Get Dressed

-Eat Breakfast-

-Brush your teeth

I now just give them a basic "Get Ready" job that encompasses all of that.

For the jobs, I drew easy little pictures on the piece of paper in about an inch and 1/2 square.

I gave all 3 kids the same 4 jobs and then they each get one more that is fitting to their abilities.

I only drew them out once in pencil and then made a couple copies of them. I cut them out and glued them to squares of their favorite colors and colored them with markers.

I then made a simple envelope with a piece of heavier double sided card stock and stapled it together.

I covered the jobs in contact paper to laminate them and then cut the magnet strips into little pieces and attached them to the back. Easy.

I put them all on a magnetic dry erase board and hung it at their eye level in the hall by their bathroom. It's not in a place that most people will see, but it's in a spot that they will see throughout the day.

It would also work to put the whole thing on the fridge or any other magnetic surface.

As a job gets done they just take it off and stick it into the envelope.

We have been doing this pretty consistently for over a year and it is still working.

I have had to make some changes to the jobs like I said, but the concept has remained the same.

Tomorrow I will share a little bit more about what their jobs entail, I don't want to overwhelm you with a novel sized post! :)

What are your favorite job charts? Do you have an online source? Let us know what kind of job charts have worked for you...or what hasn't worked for you...

Let's be friends!

This post featured over at;

Three Things Thursday-Christmas, Cute Blogs & Cops

I know I'm a little late with my 3 things today...

My husband just finished his last final today, and the past few days have been nuts-o with all the studying and everything else!

But it is finally over for the semester, and I get my husband home for Christmas break! :)

My three things this week are brought to you by the letter C

First I want to draw your attention up to my navigation bars at the top of this blog...

See the link that says, "Cute Blogs"?

Well this is my list of blogs that I find inspiration from, so if you are looking for some cuteness, look no further! Do you want to add your blog to the list? Just contact me, and let me know your blog address, and I'll add your button or link, (as long as it's appropriate that is).

Second thing is Cops. For Homeschool group this week we went on a field trip to the Sheriff's station. The kids got to get in the car, and meet the Police Dog,

Shelby and see where they do interrogations etc... The detective who gave us our tour, was super nice and let all the kids pick out a Beanie Baby from their supply closet. It was a great field trip and the kids have not stopped talking about it.

Third we have Christmas prep...which seems to be all we have been doing lately!

We have cut down and decorated the tree, found fun surprises in our advent stockings, made gingerbread houses, played games, read stories, watched most of the classics, and of course been working hard on our hand made gifts!

Bekah is the closest to being done.
She is making farm animal blocks and a barn box for Porter.

Then she made this beanbag chair for Christopher!He is going to love it!

I will have a small tutorial up on how to make these, tomorrow on

"The Craft Rookie" for Friendly Friday.

See ya then!

I'm off to the movies with my kids...and my husband (yea!), we're going to go see Planet 51...and then to the Snowflake Parade, if it's not too freezing!

Pizza Pie Amore'

The kids got to go on a field trip yesterday to our local Italian Restaraunt, Antonio's to learn how to make pizza.

The staff was awesome and really helped the kids and had fun with them.

The kids each got a piece of dough to knead...

To toss... this picture is priceless, she was amazed that she could throw the dough, what was even more amazing is that she caught it!Then they sauced it up and added their toppings...When they had their pizzas just right, they put them on the pan and helped the pizza baker put it in the oven.Then they got to show them off and eat them up! And this kid was a little depressed that he wasn't able to join in the fun-I gave him a piece of the pizza that the staff made for us mommies, but he knew it wasn't as cool as the other kids.

Sorry pal!

I wanted to share something about our trip I had never heard of or thought of...

The owner brought out honey after the kids were done eating their pizza for them to dip their crust in, they thought it was so cool-I thought it was so clever!

They ate it all up!

I'm loving this pre-school co-op group, and the perks of having numbers to be able to do these kinds of things! We wouldn't be able to experience these kinds of things with just me and the kids doing homeschool.