Ordering My Day

Back when I had a full family childcare home, we had a basic working schedule that added order to our day but allowed for flexibility. With my two grandchildren here on a regular basis, homeschooling to do with two high school girls, two foster children in the public school system, along with my own college classes and a small farm to handle as well, it was time to get a schedule back up on the wall to give us some guidelines for our days. I married a man who loves museum-clean, but with all that goes on in our household, he tends to walk into clutter and chaos instead. While some women would say that he is just being unreasonable, I have to recognize that this really is a need for my husband. I like it that clean, too. He doesn't mind there being toys on the floor when there is someone playing with them, or food on the counter while someone is cooking or eating. But then let's get it put away when we're done. Let's clean up as we go, you know? Finding that balance has been a marriage-long struggle for me.

With that being said, yesterday I sat down and put together another what I call working schedule. What I mean by that is that it is flexible. It's all written out with time slots, but it's the type of thing that if you have a crazy day and it all falls apart, just get back on track the next day and it all comes back together.

This is what I call Family-Childcare-Home-Meets-Flylady-Meets-Bethann's-Crazy-Household. I should also note that I have a poster-board-sized chore chart that I covered with contact paper. We all have a color assigned to our names, and we use a dry erase marker in "our" color to check off the chores as we do them. For the occasional chores, we put the date instead of a check mark so that we know how long its been since the chandelier got washed or the tea pot collection on top of the kitchen cabinets got de-greased.

Anyway--here's the schedule. I hope it's helpful for someone!

Basic Daily Plan

5:30AM Mama and Papa up
6:00 Papa to Work; Mama: daily devotions
6:30 Wake B and J; breakfast, bus by 6:55
7:00 Mama: plan day; schoolwork; housework
7:30 (start laundry, do one daily chore)
8:00 (continue)
8:30 (continue)
9:00 Girls up; breakfast
9:30 Bible; morning feeding/milking chores
10:00 2 daily chores each; start school Mama: change up laundry, help with school
10:30 (continue)
11:00 (continue)
11:30 Lunch
12:00PM Naptime for David and Aaralyn; clean up lunch
12:30 Girls: continue schoolwork Mama: one household task; finish laundry
1:00 (continue)
1:30 (continue)
2:00 Get snack around
2:30 Kids home W, F snack; homework; two daily chores
3:00 …Free time when homework and chores are done…
3:30
4:00
4:30
5:00 Supper T: Kids home
5:30 Th:Kids home from daycare-later supper;homework;two chores
6:00 M: leave to get kids from visit with Mom
6:30 M: Cub scouts
7:00 Evening feeding/milking chores; bath time
7:30 Story time; bed time for under-14
8:00 Evening Family Time for 14 and up


Housekeeping is so much more than keeping it clean, and yet, in this family, clean and tidy is very important to some of the family members. If this is not a priority in your marriage/family, that's great. I'm not preaching or suggesting that because I do it this way, you should too. However, I know that I am not the only busy mom who wants/needs the clean house, too. Part of being a Proverbs 31 woman is finding the things that bless our husbands and striving to meet those needs. In MY house, this is one of them. I hope that this is helpful to someone. I know that it is helping my household tremendously!

No time for writing! And, a gluten free recipe

I have had no time for blogging! I am finding that my life is so full right now that there is little time for "extras", including my writing.

I did find time on Thursday to put together some gluten free, all natural ginger snaps. They turned out surprisingly well, so I thought I'd share my recipe here. I took a regular gingersnap recipe that my sister-in-law, Terri, makes so expertly. I tweaked it and made it Bethann's-tummy-friendly.

Gluten-free Gingersnaps

1 cup demerrara (unrefined) sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
1 large egg
2 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tablespoon Clear Gel, or use 1 tsp guar or xanthan gum
extra demerrara sugar for rolling before baking

Heat oven to 375. Beat 1 cup demerrara sugar, butter, molasses, and egg in large bowl on medium speed. Stir in remaining ingredients except extra sugar. Shape dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into balls. Roll balls in extra sugar. Place balls on cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes. You want these a little more than "just set", but not quite browned. They will be quite dark, anyway.
Allow cookies to set up well on cookie sheet before removing--especially if you use baking stones. Gently lift cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling. These are more crumbly than traditional flour cookies, but not nearly so bad as many other recipes I've tried! The trick seems to be to get them a little more crispy than soft. They were wonderful!

Enjoy!

SOC 312 paper: Multiple Intelligences

I love being back in school! The places our kids could go if we only knew more about how they learn, how they develop! I can't wait to take this to parents....

This was one of three assignments due tonight:

Multiple Intelligences Connection (find yours or your child's at http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html )

I find the multiple intelligences theory very intriguing! I had been taught the three basic learning styles: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic (Sadker & Zittleman, 2007, p. 37) and have always tried to identify these in my students and in my daughters, whom I homeschool. In learning about the multiple intelligences theory, I see that it has great merit and could be very useful for teachers.
My own results were different than I would have guessed, and yet upon reflection, they do make sense to me. My linguistic score was highest at 4.14; interpersonal was 4. Naturalist found me at 3.86. In the intrapersonal category, I scored 3.71, musical at 3.29, and spatial, 2.71. I was not surprised to find that I had scored lowest in kinesthetic and logical-mathematical, both at 1.57. According to Sadker and Zittleman (2007, p. 38), my strengths are associated with a "sensitivity to the meanings, sounds, and rhythms of words, as well as to the function of language as a whole," an "ability to analyze and respond to the motivations, moods, and desires of other people," and am able "to discriminate among living things, to classify plants, animals, and minerals; a sensitivity to the natural world."

I'm sure that I have been teaching according to my own intelligences. I absolutely love drama and literature and always read with inflection, sometimes even with accents, when reading aloud. While I am not athletic, and thus scored low on the kinesthetic scale, I am a hands-on learner. At first I wondered why these were lumped together, that you had to be athletic to be a hands-on learner. However, I see that learning through handling the natural world (naturalistic) would be quite "hands on", so to speak.

I remember a time when I was reading to my daughters while trying to oversee six little ones in our childcare home. We were outside. My daughters and I were on the porch while the children played in front of us in the yard. As I was reading, my daughters were bouncing a ball back and forth to each other, and it was starting to really get on my nerves. I couldn't concentrate on what I was reading, and I wanted them to "get" what I was reading to them. I snapped out a, "Girls! Would you please stop that!" They looked at me, surprised, and assured me that they were listening. I remember thinking to myself that there was no possible way they were getting anything out of my reading to them. We practice a Charlotte Mason approach to schooling, which includes frequent narrating back what has been read. So, I curtly demanded a rendition of what I had just been reading to them, absolutely certain that I was going to be vindicated. Shockingly to me, they were able to rattle off everything about what I had been reading, with a far better narration than I had ever gotten from them!

This was eye-opening to me. I knew that they learned "differently". It's partly why we were homeschooling. I never again questioned what they were doing while "doing school", as long as their results showed that they were meeting the learning expectations I had for them. It was a pivotal moment for us and for me as an educator, as well! I can see now how I was using my linguistic strong suit to teach, while they were learning through their deep kinesthetic intelligence.
I am excited to take this information and utilize it in my teaching of little ones and my daughters, but especially in my interaction with the parents that I teach. I can watch students for their intelligences and give them learning opportunities to maximize their strengths. I can also share this information with parents so that they can do the same with their children at home, and I can utilize it with the parents themselves to help them learn the concepts about early childhood development that we share with them!

Gardner's definition of intelligence involves problem-solving skills, or deductive reasoning, and ideas or inventions that are culturally relevant (Sadker & Zittleman, 2007, p. 37). It is clear that, as teachers, if we can identify our students' strong points in the multiple intelligences, we can help them reach their full potential as functioning, creative, thinking adults. Someone who has the capacity to reason through challenges and come up with ideas to share with others will by default be someone who continues through life with a love of learning. What a wonderful gift we have the opportunity to give!


References
Sadker, D., & Zittleman, K. (2007). Teachers, Schools, and Society: A Brief Introduction to Education [with CD and Reader]. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

God is so gracious!

I emailed my instructor letting her know why I was late with my last assignment and she told me not to even worry about it. It was 4 minutes late. She also noted that she only meant to drop my other late assignment to a 90 rather than an 80. So, all told, I got a 99% in the class. I'll take it!

I'm currently taking a couple of weeks off to prepare for this year's home school lessons and to check into testing out of some other college classes. We're going to be able to get away for a couple of days, as well. I'm ready for that.

I was awakened this morning gently and awesomely by the sounds of sandhill cranes in the back field. So lovely!

God is very good, and I am very grateful to Him!

Whew!

Another college class under my belt! I just hit the "submit" button for my final power point.

I've never done a power point presentation before. It was fun! I had the slides (minimum of 20, plus cover and references) finished by about 2:30 this afternoon. Grace and I packed up the kiddos and went to McDonald's for a free ice cream cone (coupons we got at the fair). Then we came home and went swimming. The kids had been so good all day while I worked on my final, and I had promised. When Chris got home, I came in and fixed supper (leftover smorgasbord). After supper, I started back in on adding graphics and motion.

I had NO idea how long that was going to take! I hit the submit button before midnight, but this wireless aircard took it's jolly ol' time uploading all of that. My assignment posted at 12:04. I am so bummed! This is 40% of my grade, and I may have to take an entire letter grade penalty for being late! I have emailed my professor, but technically, I am late and that is that. I can't go backwards, but I am so sad.

I really enjoyed this class--as in, a LOT, but I ran into some hard times making deadlines. There was another assignment that was due the weekend we did our chickens. With some really big problems with the foster children in respite the night my assignment was due, I literally had no choice but to let it go and turn it in the next day. I ended up with an 80%, but no corrections on the paper. Just late and you lose a letter grade for each day its late. I thought that would mean a 90, but I guess a 90 is still an A, so she gave me an 80. I'm still getting used to this college thing again. But it's hard for me to receive less than an A. Something the Lord is using all this for, I'll bet. Especially when it's because it's late. I could handle less than an A in Math, for example. I know I am not good at math. But in a class that is my absolute passion, involving lots of reading and lots of writing, which are also passions of mine...well...it's just hard to swallow an 80 on an assignment I'd probably have gotten a 100 on except for a family crisis. Very frustrating!

I'm taking two weeks off so that I can get the girls' lesson plans done. School will start back up for me on the 11th, and I'll probably start the girls at the same time. Wheeeee! Here we go!

Hope this finds all of you well and enjoying fruitful gardens. I've got more beans to pick tomorrow. We've got some in plastic bags in the basement fridge, waiting for me to finish picking the rest so we can get a canner load in. That, and getting goats to the auction. Have some phone calls to make tomorrow morning!

Happy last couple of days of July. Can't believe how fast 2009 is going! Blessings to all of you!

Gluten Free donuts!

A friend alerted me to this fantastic recipe. I know, I know, right after a post about childhood obesity! But these are super yummy, and if you don't eat too many, then it's all good! Enjoy!

http://www.recipezaar.com/Amazing-Gluten-Free-Buttermilk-Donuts-Doughnuts-201483

Bethann

Looks like this is becoming a monthly blog!

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. Life has just been flying past.

Today's homework assignment includes writing a post about childhood obesity. Did you know that 20% of America's four-year-olds are obese? Is that astounding or what? Or how about this: children in America and other of the richer countries are experiencing malnutrition, and it's from overeating and eating the wrong stuff! We're fat, but we're malnourished! How's that for an oxymoronic idea? We have GOT to love our children and our families enough to make good choices for them. Children are at our mercy. If we do not model good behavior, including what we choose to eat, how will they know? Our children WILL DO WHAT WE DO!

On another note, I need to hit the Community Foundation today. Time to get my scholarship application filed. Cross your fingers! They have scholarships for returning women and for "the non-traditional student". Here's hoping!

Other than that, I've got two posts due today, and then four responses due by Monday. Between today and Monday, I need to visit two early-childhood lunch programs, interview and observe, then compare them in a 1-2 page paper due by midnight Monday. I also have to put together the first 10 slides of my 20-or-more-slides Power Point presentation. The first ten are due Monday night, also. The rest, as a complete presentation, plus cover page, appendix, and APA reference page, are all due in two weeks.

I'm actually enjoying this, but my garden is knee-high in weeds, the house is barely presentable (don't open my bedroom door, please!), and meals have been sometimes complete, other times thrown together.

I need to get groceries, too, but will probably wait until tomorrow. Which is kinda cool, really, because that means I've pushed grocery shopping off for several days, invariable saving me at least some money!

Time to go write about childhood obesity and some other topic, the topic for which has escaped my mind at the moment!

Until next time, here's a website you might enjoy:

http://thenonconsumeradvocate.wordpress.com/

Happy Saving and Simplifying!

Bethann