What's Working Wednesday: HabitRPG (Guest Post)

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

Today I have a special guest writer, my son, to tell you about a website that my kids have been having fun with and has been a motivating factor in helping them get things done called HabitRPG. It is a website but there are also apps on Android and IOS which aren't as user friendly as the website yet (they're working on it). I haven't used it as much as the kids have so I'm grateful he accepted my request to write this post. With no further ado, my guest writer.

So today I am going to blog about a new website that my Mom found for me called HabitRPG.

HabitRPG is a habit tracking website that as they say it “Your Life The Role Playing Game.” There are   three different  types of tasks. The first type of tasks are Habits which you can do as much as you want and get lots of gold from them. The second type of tasks are dailies. As the name suggests these are things you do everyday as part of your routine. They can also be only on certain days (e.g. you only have school on Monday to Friday so you just highlight those days and not the weekends) Finally the third and last type of tasks are to-dos. To-dos are a one time basis thing for stuff like go grocery shopping not something you would do every day.

As you do tasks you level up and different things happen. At level 2 you can get armor with that gold that you saved up. Level 4 enables drops which “drop” eggs, hatching potions, and food. With eggs you can hatch them into pets with hatching potions. You can feed pets and they will grow up into mounts that you can ride. At level 10 you unlock classes from which you can pick either Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Healer which each give you special “powers”. Also if you are homeschooled then you can just put your children’s assignments in their HabitRPG if they need a little bit more motivation.  Well that has been a pretty long rundown of HabitRPG.

Now I am going to talk about some of the negative aspects of HabitRPG. As in most RPGs [Role Playing Games] HabitRPG has weapons and “magical” potions. There are also gems that cost money but are not needed. They cost $5 and they give you 20 gems and remove ads. On that subject, ads are only little white things with words and sometimes they don’t even show up depending on your internet so no inappropriate pictures. Also there are different types of pets you can get there are nine eggs and ten different hatching potions two of which are zombie and skeleton which some families don’t like. HabitRPG also has a social party that your child could join so I would just go over the rules and tell him/her to not go on that and set up a party for just your family (maybe your friends as well). It also requires an email to sign up for it like most websites. Finally always know your child’s password so you can see what they are up to.

  That is pretty much it. So if you are looking for a fun gamified way to keep up your resolutions or just your daily life and you don’t mind the problems then I would sincerely recommend this website.

 

Thanks, my boy, for writing a guest post for me. The kids have added various school assignments as well as chores and hygiene habits to their lists. It has been a good motivation for them this past week. There is a wiki if you want more info. I am trying to use it with them but I have found the Good Habits app much more simple and user friendly for non-gamer me.

What do you use to help you stay on track with your habits?

The Jesus Storybook Bible: $1.99 on Kindle now (What's Working Wednesday)

 I want to make a plug for The Jesus Storybook Bible. It's only $1.99 right now on Kindle (probably temporarily, Amazon changes prices all the time so check the price before you by it though it is worth paying full price). NOTE: THIS DEAL HAS EXPIRED. We were originally given a copy of this book when we first started going to Missio Church and they were using it as a tool to use with the kids as they were preaching an overview of the Bible in a year.

This year we are reading though The Jesus Storybook Bible as our advent readings with an ebook guide I downloaded here. In the ebook there are little ornaments to color and decorate that go along with each of the stories. (I was planning on hanging them with little clothes pins on twine on our mirror but since none of them have been colored yet maybe I'll just stick them in our Christmas box so we can do it next year.)

We have read it most nights though this month and many times I have had tears run down my cheeks in amazement at God's plan and His "Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love." I love this book. It's not perfect. There are some things that are said in ways that I wouldn't have said but I really do like it. I especially love how every Bible story that is shared points to the main character of the Bible: Jesus. As it says in the introductory first story: "There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them."

We read Jonah tonight with our Advent devotional and even Jonah points us to Jesus:

     "Many years later, God was going to send another Messenger with the same wonderful message. Like Jonah, he would spend three days in utter darkness.
     "But this Messenger would be God's own Son. He would be called "The Word" because he himself would be God's Message. God's Message translated into our own language. Everything God wanted to say to the whole world - in a Person."

We have the hardcover version of the book but we bought the Kindle version today and tonight we were able to all see it without passing it around and all read along because it had been downloaded to our Nooks and a laptop. The pictures are great. The kids loved it! These stories really bring out the  expression in their voices as they read (and exclaim in wonder at what we've read). They really get into these stories.

If you don't already own a copy of The Jesus Storybook Bible I would highly recommend you buy this Kindle edition now while it is only $1.99. It will not work on a phone but it will work on most larger devices with the Kindle App. Even if you don't have a tablet you can get Kindle for your computer and read it on your computer screen. If you haven't done that yet (which you should - Kindle offers great free books often) I would do it just to have this book.

OK, commercial over - and I'm not even getting anything for this free advertisement ;)

NOTE: I just saw on the Jesus Storybook Bible facebook page that this book is free through 1/5/14 but I would still spend the $2 today to buy it and not wait and forget (I hate when I do that!). It will also give you a chance to read though the before Jesus is born on earth stories before Christmas.

I haven't done one in a while but  I guess this is my What's Working Wednesday post for the week. It is working for us. I'm sure it would work for you too ;)

What's Working Wednesday: Learning Geography and Trying to Gain a Love for the Lost

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

I listened to Radical recently. I had borrowed it from the library on Overdrive. One of Platt's challenges at the end of the book was to pray through the nations of the world so we've started doing that in the mornings this fall.

We have a World map and a US map that hang on the walls in our dining room. On the maps there are flags for people that we know that live around the country and around the world. It gives my kids a personal connection to various places that they may never visit knowing the people that live there and having the opportunity to hear the stories that happen there. It's also handy having maps on the wall because whenever we hear news about some place in the world we can go to the map and look at it to see where that place is. (I really missed my maps when we were living out of our van.) My kids are being raised in the US (which was not my original plan, though it has been God's plan so far) but I want them to realize that the US is not the center of the universe.

There are three different apps or websites that we visit daily to help us learn geography and pray for people around the world:

1. VOM Pray Today App
This app (links to the app are on the bottom of the above linked website) gives one prayer request each day for persecuted followers of Jesus in restricted nations around the world. The prayer requests focus on one country for several days in a row. There is also a link to information about the country we are currently praying for and some news updates. Praying for these requests has made me very grateful for the freedom that we have in this country.

2. Joshua Project's Unreached People Groups
Caleb used this website often in doing research about various countries we studied a couple of years ago. They have an app that features one people group that is unreached with the gospel each day. You can also sign up to get the information emailed to you daily. There is information about the people groups giving a bit of their history, some of their struggles and a recommended prayer request. Praying for these requests has burdened me for people who don't have the gospel in their language and has made me so grateful for my Bible in my heart language.

3. Operation World Pray Today
If you go to this website daily and click on "Pray Today" you will learn about and pray for every nation in the world over the course of a year. This website has maps, flags, and statistics as well as challenges for prayer.

Every morning we read through the information, jot the countries' names down on a white board, find them on our map or globe and then pray over the requests. I know it has opened my eyes to the needs of the world and how blessed I am to have been born in the US and I'm praying it will impact our kids as well.

Bonus, non-religious, resources:
We are getting quicker at finding various countries on the map which is fun. A couple of other resources to help with learning geography that we enjoy are:

- World Geography Challenge - This is an app. You can look it up on your app store. I'm not sure how to link it. We have also used map puzzles on this website which has similar fun geography games. I am using these to try to help me know where countries are located. I really struggle with finding African and Eastern European countries and this app has helped.
- Geography Songs
We LOVE these songs. We got this book and CD the year we tried Sonlight. We haven't found the CD since our move so we haven't listened to them in a while but they are great for helping to memorize country names and, using the maps in the book, the locations of said countries. We still sing many of the songs when we are looking for countries on our world map to give us a clue as to what part of the world we should be looking in.

What resources do you use to help learn about the world?

What's Working Wednesday: Cool Wet Sheets

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

If you didn't already know: it's hot in Texas. Thankfully this has been a mild summer so far with only (I think) about 10 days over 100. We've been enjoying balmy mid-80s this week which has been such a nice break. God loves me so He's breaking me in to these Texas summers easy. (Not that He doesn't love those of you whose first summer here had over 100 days over 100 in a row. I'm just glad it hasn't been one of those summers this year... at least not yet).

Anyway... When it is hot it is hard to fall asleep. One thing we've done to try to beat the heat in order to sleep when it's been oppressively hot has been to wet our sheets and put them in the fridge or freezer in a plastic bag for a few hours. We don't have a great system on this yet. It's been trial and error. A few times we've gotten them too wet. A few times we haven't gotten them wet enough. One time we left them in the freezer too long and ended up with a frozen ball of sheet and it took a while to get it to melt enough to lay under it (we've decided the fridge is better because there is no risk of having another sheet ball but the freezer does cool the sheets in a hurry if you forgot to wet them earlier in the day). The water evaporating off the sheets helps to cool us off and that's been nice.

The girls are particularly fond of the wet sheet thing and ask that their sheets be "delivered" to them at bed time but the boy is not impressed. He thinks it's too cold and would prefer to just have his fan.

Cooled wet sheets are one thing we've done to help us beat the heat. What do you do to beat the heat?

What's Working Wednesday: Salvage Grocery Stores

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

It's been a long time since I've done a What's Working Wednesday and I want to get back in the habit. I started looking at my life and wondering: "Is anything working in my life right now??" It was a bit depressing coming to the realization that, um, not much is working well in all the transition of our lives right now. I did come up with one thing though: salvage grocery stores!

Salvage Grocery stores are stores that sell close date, damaged, and overstock food items, often at a discount. I've only recently become familiar with the term but I've shopped at them before and they've definitely helped our grocery budget. When I lived in NY I would often shop at Glenwood Foods in Seneca Falls and Buda's in Syracuse and I would consider both of them  salvage grocery stores to an extent. I even vaguely remember shopping at a bent and dent store in Chattanooga occasionally though I couldn't tell you where it was. Ollies and Big Lots have food sections that might qualify as well.

Since moving to the Metroplex I have found a winner. My friend who lived in Dallas did a lot of her grocery shopping at the Grocery Clearance Center. I went once or twice while we were staying out there and, hoping for one closer to home in Fort Worth, a quick google search took me to Town Talk and on first visit I was in love.

Every visit to Town Talk, or any salvage grocery, is like a treasure hunt. You never know what you are going to find. I've never personally shopped for my own groceries overseas but every visit to a salvage grocery reminds me of stories I've heard from friends who have lived overseas and their excitement over finding Hershey bars or brownie mix on the shelves in their local grocery stores. When found they quickly purchase all they can and set something special aside for an upcoming birthday, squirrel some away and share some with expat friends. For example, on one visit to Town Talk we saw CliffBars for $5 a case. There was a man there in a shirt and tie that cleared the shelf of them, filling his cart because they were a flavor that he really liked. I don't think that I've seen Cliffbars there since.

Salvage grocery stores are also a great places to shop if want to buy specialty foods cheap or if you are on a special diet. I have found lots of gluten free and organic groceries for WAY less than at traditional grocery stores. There are also often international foods and mixes available for cheaper than at your normal Asian market.

Here are a couple of pictures of items I picked up on a recent visit to Town Talk:

A case of 12 8oz mango Noosa yogurts for $2 and 1/2 gallons of 2% organic  cream on top milk for 50 cents each (both were delicious and splurges I could not afford at traditional grocery stores where 1 of those yogurts goes for over $2)

Terra Sweet Potato chips 3/$1, Garden of Eaten Blue Chips 99 cents, Popchips 2/$1

New to the concept of salvage grocery stores? Do a google search to see if there is one in your area or check out this site.

 Find one to check out? Here are a few tips for shopping at a salvage grocery store:

1. Check dates

Decide how comfortable you are with pasta a month past it's expiration date or a case of yogurt that will expire tomorrow. In my experience both of them will be used up before they go bad in my house but you may have a different opinion on that. I once found some Pace Salsa Verde for a great price, it expired the next month so I bought a couple of them, then bought a couple more on a later visit. I finally stopped buying them because they got discolored and they were so far out of date but the store still had them on their shelves 3.5 years later when we moved - yuck!

2. Know your prices

Most things are cheaper but I have found that some things are actually priced more expensively at salvage groceries than at traditional grocery stores.  

3. Don't be married to one brand.

Last time we went there we were hoping to get noosa yogurt but, sadly, there was none. What we did find was Stoneyfield Organic and Chobani yogurts for 99 cents each for 32oz. We're big fans of yogurt around here so we were thankful.

4. Try new things

Because of the cheap prices I am not afraid to try things that I would never pay full price for at a grocery store. I may never buy them again but at least we've tried them once.

5. Treat each visit like an adventure or a treasure hunt

Pretend you're grocery shopping in a foreign land. You never know what you are going to find. If you see something you like buy it because it might not be there next time. Don't get super disappointed if something that you were really hoping would be there isn't. It might be the next time. 

What's Working Wednesday: Praying ACTS with my Kids

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

Lately, for family devotions, we have continued to read through the book of Psalms backwards (only 23 days to The Match!!) and have been using Look Up to Lent (we have the paper version that we picked up at a church last year). 

I recently read an idea in a blog post that I thought would be good to implement in our home for prayer. I had heard of and tried praying ACTS before but had never tried it with my kids. The blog post recommended that the parent prompt the kids with words below in italics and let the kids finish the sentences in what I call "popcorn style"  with everyone saying words or phrases as they think of them (I've put some of my kids words in parenthesis).

Adoration: God you are so…
(powerful, merciful - you don't give us what we deserve, good, generous, loving, just, holy, true, wonderful, amazing)
Confession: God, I’m sorry…
(for not listening, not sharing, for annoying my sister, for my bad attitude)
Thanksgiving: Lord thank you for…
(my family, friends, for forgiving us, a chance to be here with Grandma and Grandpa, loving us, providing all we need, yummy food, my birthday is only 7 days away)
Supplication: Lord help me…
(be a blessing here, be a good friend, not to annoy my sisters, to get my school done quickly, please help my tooth to feel better, please help Uncle Doug, Aunt Kendra and Jack with his mom's passing)

We've used it over the last couple of weeks and it has humbled me and brought me to tears listening to my kids talk to God. They have such faith and I love listening to them talk to our great God and getting a glimpse into their hearts.

What tools have you used to help your children learn to pray?

What's Working Wednesday: Soft Pretzel Dough isn't Just for Pretzels

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

One recipe that has been a life saver lately has been my soft pretzel dough recipe. In the past I have often used this recipe when the kids have had friends over as a fun activity/ craft/ snack for them. It is a super quick, super easy recipe.

Lately I have been making "pretzel rolls" using the pretzel dough. I haven't taken the time to make bread lately and when we have needed bread quick for a meal, rather than making a run to the store which costs in both the arena of time and money, I have quickly made up a batch of the pretzel dough recipe and instead of forming the dough into pretzels I've formed them into rolls. (OK, as you can see from the picture below, I often make both rolls and pretzels. BONUS - fun snack!) I've used the recipe to make hot dog and hamburger style buns lately.

Soft Pretzel Dough

Mix together:
1 1/2C warm water
1T (or pkg) yeast
1t salt
1T sugar
Add:
4C flour (I usually use a mix of white and wheat. I've never tried it with a gluten free type of flour, let me know if you try it and it works with that.)

I often knead it for a minute or so by hand or let my Kitchen Aid mix it for a while then let it sit for about 5 minutes. Break the dough into the number of pretzels or rolls that you want to make then roll them into whatever shape you like.

 Bake them at 425 for 12-15 minutes.

Yummy pretzels and pretzel rolls, ready for a quick meal.

 It's fun shaping the pretzels. I don't think I am quite ready for a job at Auntie Anne's but my pretzel shaping skills have improved and my family likes these rolls better than the ones we would buy at the store.

What's Working Wednesday: ABC Trip Memory Lists (with NH Trip example)

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

We like to take road trips. Usually we take them to visit friends and family far away. One thing that we often do on our way home to help us remember all the things we experienced and to help pass the time is make an "ABC list." We go through the alphabet and shout out anything that we can think of that starts with each letter. It is fun to see what kind of things everyone comes up with. Some of the letters are more difficult than others to come up with words for so we try to bring quesadillas with us on every trip ;)

Between sharing stories rehearsing things that happened and coming up with words for all the letters and the random conversations that ensue this activity often takes us over an hour. It also leaves us with a fun list to help us remember a lot of the little details we would otherwise forget.

We have posted several of our ABC lists here on our blog and they are fun to go back and look over.

Here's an example that I haven't posted on our blog yet of our recent trip to New Hampshire:

A- Abigail, alphabet memory game, Atlantic Ocean, autumn beautiful-ness
B- beaches, bunk beds
C- Caleb, Chris, crabs, chowder, chats
D- Dover, NH,
E- Elias, enchiladas, earring (crab variety hanging from Chris's ear)
F- friends, falling, flashlight
G- Glenn, giant rocks
H- Hannah, house (saw Chris & Jaynie's new one)
I- ice cream
J- Jaynie,
K- Kittery Trading Post, kelp
L- Lydia, lunch, leaves
M- Maine, Massachusetts
N- Nafzigers, New Hampshire, new states!!, Nalgenes, no rain (when we were out on our walk), New England Clam Chowder (Glenn's first - he waited until he went to New England to be able to eat "the real thing")
O- old friends, ocean
P- peanut butter and jelly, pictures, Phillips 66 - gas for $3.60 in Durham
Q- Quichee Gorge
R- road trip!, rocks, Rutland, VT - cheap gas
S- Sophia, Speculator, star fish (we got to hold one!), sleeping bags, shells, scrambling, study-free weekend, seaweed, little shrimps, sunshine, states (4 new ones for 5 of us!)
T- tide pools, time off, trees, Timber Harvester (I saw one in a yard when we were driving down a road in Maine!!)
U-
V- Vermont
W- Wallace Sands Beach, water-water-water-water-water
X-
Y- York, ME
Z- zero responsibilities

What's Working Wednesday: Psalm Countdown

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

It is often helpful, when you are waiting for something that you have to wait a long time for, to have something purposeful to do every day. When we were counting down the days before our wedding someone had suggested that, once we got to 150 days before our wedding, we start counting down by reading through the book of Psalms backwards. It was a fun, meaningful thing to do together. Sometimes we would read it together over the phone, sometimes we would just read it alone and then email each other about it, when we could we would read it together in person (but since he spent most of that summer in misery Missouri and I spent most of it in New York we weren't able to read it together often).

Right now we are awaiting March 15, Match Day, the day we finally find out where we are going for residency. It is 141 days away. I have a countdown on the right sidebar of my blog to help me keep track.  Starting a little over a week ago Glenn and I started reading backwards through the book of Psalms together. The daily reminder to praise God and keep our eyes on Him when stress levels are high has been very helpful. (Side note: I am SO grateful for a date, not a unknown waiting time this time!)

I don't remember who first suggested doing a Psalm Countdown to us but I am very thankful for the idea and have suggested it to many others over the years.

What are you waiting for? What helps you while you are waiting?

What's Working Wednesday: Taco Seasoning Mix

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

Tuesday night is usually Taco Night around here. We love tacos! Years ago my mother-in-love gave me a recipe for taco seasoning mix and I always keep a batch of it on hand. I'm not sure where she got it from and I know this recipe isn't original with me but we use it all the time!


Taco Seasoning Mix
(makes about 2T, equivalent of 1 packet of store bought seasoning)
2t minced onion
1t salt
1t chili powder
1/2t cornstarch
1/2t crushed red pepper
1/2t minced garlic
1/4t oregano
1/2t ground cumin

This seasoning mix tastes great and I use it in tacos, fajitas, and other Mexican inspired foods that we eat. This recipe is enough for a single batch, which I never make. I always make extra and store it in a container in with my spices. My batches usually look more like: 4T minced onion, 2T salt... I usually put in a generous 2T of seasoning mix when making tacos. Use more or less depending on your taste.


Have a Taco Fiesta seasoned just right (with no scary ingredients you can't pronounce)!

What's Working Wednesday: Seasonal Swap Day

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

Do you ever see your kids running around in shorts or sandals when it is way too cold outside for such attire? Do you have a battle in the spring over when to pull out the summer stuff?

Several years ago I was wondering, "When should I put up our summer stuff and get out our winter stuff?"A woman at church told me that when she was growing up her mother had a set date that she would do her family's seasonal clothing swap every year.

I don't remember what her dates were but I thought that was a good idea. After discussing it with Glenn we picked 2 dates: October 15th and April 15th.

In New York after October 15th there aren't too many days that you are going to really want shorts and sandals. There may be a few but you will survive in jeans and a t-shirt without sweating to death. The same is true for before April 15th. As for wearing shorts and sandals, you are pretty safe up until October 15th (though they really haven't been worn much around here lately) and after April 15th without too much concern for frostbite. ;)

October 15th is often a sad day around here. Saying good-bye to shorts, tank tops, flip flops, and our beloved Keens for 6 long months. October 15th has no official name in our house (I think I'll ask the kids to name it this year). I really need to come up with something to make it a celebration. I'm thinking we may have hot chocolate and freshly baked cookies this year.

April 15th, on the other hand, comes with much celebration! The kids have named it "Flip Flop Day!" It is a day they count down to every spring - it gives April 15th a better name than Tax Day.

Having these two dates on our calendar has been very helpful over the years to help us all be on the same page with what can and can't be worn at what time of the year. We may be keeping some summer stuff out this time since we don't know what our "mystery months" hold and our dates may change depending on where we end up next year but October 15th and April 15th seem to work pretty well for Upstate New York.

Do you have a set time or a strategy for doing an off season clothing exchange for your family? What works for you?

What's Working Wednesday: Homemade Kettle Korn

Do you love Kettle Korn? Yummy, sweet, salty goodness that you can only get once a year at a fair or festival after paying an arm and a leg. Or, maybe you can have it more often than that and without all that cost...

We love popcorn. Glenn and I both grew up in families in which popcorn was Sunday night's supper so that is a tradition that we've continued in our own family. In the early years of our marriage we had an air popper then a Stir Crazy popcorn popper until it broke and we went back to the air popper. When we were living with Brian and Kristina back in those crazy months in the summer of 2008 Kristina taught me the best way to make popcorn - in a regular pot. I remember Linda Zona making it that way for us when we would stop in for a visit but I really didn't know how she did it.

It's super easy but it does take some trial and error based on your pot of choice and your stove. All you do it throw some oil in a pot along with 3 popcorn kernels. Put the lid on the pot, put the pot on the burner and listen for the popping. When the three kernels have popped pour the rest of the unpopped popcorn in the pot (I'd start with about a 1/2 cup, you can adjust after you see how that does) and put it back on the heat shaking occasionally until the popping stops. Pour it into a bowl and put whatever toppings you want on it - yummy!

We usually eat a few bowls of regular popcorn and when everyone has almost had enough I go into the kitchen and make a batch of Kettle Korn "for dessert." I often bring Kettle Korn with me to parties or serve it when people come over and I am always asked for the recipe so... here it is:

Homemade Kettle Korn!

Kettle Korn
Ingredients:
oil
1/2C popcorn kernels (or more or less depending on your pot size)
1/4C sugar (or more or less depending on how sweet you like it - I usually don't fill my 1/4C all the way)
salt to taste

Method:
1. Put 3 un-popped kernels and some oil in your pot (I don't measure this. Maybe 2T ??)
2. Cover and heat it at med-high shaking a few times until the kernels pop
3. Put the rest of the popcorn kernels in the pot and pour the sugar over them and put the lid back on.
4. Shake regularly until it stops popping. (The shaking in making Kettle Korn is more critical than the shaking when making regular popcorn because you don't want the sugar to burn!)
5. Pour out into a bowl, sprinkle with salt then wait a little bit before digging in because that sugar on the popcorn is HOT!
6. Enjoy your Kettle Korn for WAY CHEAPER than at the fair.

1/2 C popcorn and the "secret ingredient" - 1/4C sugar!

I popped a pot of kettle korn shortly before posting so I could have a picture. My kids were super excited. (Insert cute picture of kids eating it that I totally forgot to take!) Kettle Korn doesn't happen everyday but popcorn does happen quite regularly around here. It is a semi-healthy, pretty cheap snack to feed the starving masses of kids that hang out around my house on a regular basis.

WARNING: Once you start making this you won't be able to stop. I've heard this from many people I've given this recipe too!

What's Working Wednesday: Color Coded Kids

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

It all started with a cup. This one in fact:

When we first started using these vintage Tupperware cups that we'd picked up at a yard sale, almost every night at supper Lydia would request the green cup. I would often tell her, "You can't always have the green cup. You need to share it and let others have a chance." One night my husband turned to me and asked, "Why can't she always have the green cup? I had my own colored cup when I was a kid."

That kind of stopped me in my tracks. I'd never thought of having each kid have their own particular color of cup. We asked the other kids if they wanted to use a particular cup. Caleb said his favorite color was red so he got the red cup. Hannah said that she liked blue so she got the blue cup. Abigail became yellow by default. There is a disadvantage to being the baby and having decisions made for you before you are really able to communicate ;)

It has been really handy having color coded cups. Two big things are: you can always tell who didn't clear their spot at the table and it's one less thing to fight about.

Over the years the kids' favorite colors have changed but their assigned colors have not. I try, when I can, to buy things for the kids in their colors so we can tell who's stuff is who's at a glance without investigating. They don't really get a choice. Red, blue, green and yellow are pretty common colors but not everything comes in them so we have had to make some adjustments. For example, some things just don't come in yellow (poor Abigail). Also, often, instead of red things often come in pink (Caleb is not a fan!!).  Last year, when buying binders, there were no yellow or red binders in the kind that I wanted to get for the kids' notebooks so Caleb got an orange one and Abigail got the pink and everyone was happy.

Having color coded kids helps make changing our chore chart easy too because you just move down the paper clip or binder clip on the chart every week and everyone know what their job is.

I am so thankful for these 25 cent vintage Tupperware cups that have helped to make organization in my life a little bit easier.

 Note: Another thing helps me keep track of my kids is the fact that they each have a different first initial. It is so much easier to label something with just a G, S, C, H, L, or A then to have to write out everyone's whole names. (That is part of the reason Abigail broke our alphabetical order in the naming of our children. We liked the name Sarah but S was my letter. I think Abigail fits her.)

What do you do to help keep your kids' stuff organized?

What's Working Wednesday: Helpful Math Websites

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

School started recently so I have school on my mind.  I wanted to share a couple of helpful websites that I use to supplement our normal math curriculum. My kids set a timer and work on these websites for 20 minutes everyday. I'm sure that I would have my kids use these sites even if I didn't homeschool.

1. Xtra Math
Xtra Math is a fun, free website to help your kids master their math facts. It's way better than flash cards! Signing your kids up is easy. There are even video tutorials if you need help. Some things I like about it:
* It's quick. After the quiz for the day and a couple of "race the teacher" sessions have been completed (less than 10 minutes) the page says, "You're Done!" and the only option is to click "Sign Out." I like the clear beginning and ending. We all know when they've completed all the practice they need for the day.
* The focus is mastery. Students aren't quizzed on their subtraction facts until they can answer all of their addition facts in less than 3 seconds. Once addition, then subtraction are mastered students move on to master multiplication, then division.
* Detailed Reports. It is easy, on the reports page, to see at a glance how your kids are doing and which math facts they are struggling with. Reports are emailed to the parent or teacher every Monday morning so you can see how they are doing even if you haven't been on the website that week to check it out. The reports may be a little confusing at first. Check the "Help" section to help you interpret them. You are also emailed a reminder email if your child has missed a few days - a helpful thing for me.

A sample report from the recesses of my email.

2. Khan Academy
If you haven't checked it out Khan Academy I highly recommend you do. It is an amazing website where you can "Learn almost anything for free"! We have been using it for over a year, mostly for math practice. Again the goal is mastery but you get to pick which areas you work on. I, personally, have really enjoyed this site because I have always loved math. I am working my way through the math practice sections myself and, in the process, am re-learning a lot of difficult math concepts I used to know and learning some things I never did learn. It is great because if there is a math concept that you don't understand there is a video to explain how to do it and step by step hints to help you along. The videos come in handy when I can't explain a math concept to my kids myself (I am sure it will be even more helpful in the future as their math gets tougher!)

I am a "Coach" for each of my kids on Khan Academy so I can see what math concepts they have been working on. The "Coach" section gives a good overview of how your students have been using their time and helps to see at a glance what concepts they need help with.There are many schools that are using Khan Academy in their classrooms. I haven't explored it too much but there are various Teacher Resources to help you implement it in your classroom.

We haven't watched many of them but there are a ton of videos on all kinds of subjects including: math, science, computer science, finance and economics, humanities, test prep, as well as various talks and interviews. If there is a subject that you want to learn more about this just might be the place start.

These two websites have been helpful to me. Do you have any other math websites you recommend for use with your kids?

What's Working Wednesday: Staples Easy Rebates

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

I got all this for $4.36 after rebates.

This post may not be relevant to everyone because you may not live near a Staples but I have gotten some really great deals through Staples over the years. (Other office supply stores offer similar deals but I have found that, for us, Staples offers the best ones.)

Back to school time is a great time to get some great deals from Staples. I especially love buying my printer paper from Staples this time of the year because almost every week there is a $1 or free after Easy Rebate deal on a ream and you can get two mail in rebates a week for them. We go through a lot of paper because we homeschool and we have a laser printer. I try to never spend more than $1 a ream so I love their paper deals!

Staples also often has great deals on paper, notebooks, pencils, crayons, etc during their back to school sales. I like to stock up during these sales to donate to local refugee kids or to set aside for Operation Christmas Child.

Today I went to Staples and picked up some stuff for us:

* 2 reams of Hammermill Copy Plus Paper - FREE after Easy Rebate and this coupon
* 4 packs of cap erasers for 1 penny each (can get up to 4 for a penny each with $5 purchase)
* 2 pencil cases for 1 penny each (can get up to 4 for a penny each with $5 purchase)
* 2 - 5 packs of Bic mechanical pencils .50 each
* 1 pack of Avery Note Tabs - FREE after Easy Rebate
* 1 - 3 pack PaperMate Infinite Lead pencils - $2 (my splurge for my use only - I like to have a pencil just for me during school that works well and I always know where it is)

After Easy Rebates I will have gotten these 12 items for $4.36 (normal retail would have been $35.10 before tax but I wouldn't have bought all of this for that price). Easy Rebates are just that - easy. All you have to do is submit the rebates online on their website and a check comes in the mail in 4-6 weeks. We have gotten a lot of free (just pay tax) stuff from Staples over the years. I am sure they probably lose money on customers like us but they offer the deals, so we don't mind benefiting from them :)

I am grateful for Staples Easy Rebates.

What's Working Wednesday: Fairs/ New York State Fair on the Cheap

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

The Great New York State Fair starts tomorrow. We have gone to the fair for the last three years and have always had a really great time. With the fair in mind, I thought I would share a few tips that we practice when going to fairs in general and some specific recommendations for the New York State Fair.

 First, I want to give some recommendations for going to fairs in general:

1. Bring your own water
We each own  water backpacks and we love taking them with us to the fair! They keep your hands free, are pretty easy to refill, and the weight that they add is hardly noticeable. If you don't own water backpacks at least bring your own water bottles that you can re-fill. If you must have soft drinks bring some of your own. Drinks can be a big expense at the fair.

2. Bring your own food
As long as the venue allows it (which the NYS Fair does), it saves a lot of money to bring at least one meal of food along with you and several snacks. Food that you bring with you is, most likely, going to be healthier than any food you'd find at the fair and it will allow you to put your food money towards a couple of things that you always look forward to eating at the fair instead of having to spend money on every bit of sustenance that you need for the day. (Especially if you are going to open and close the fair like we usually do!)

Next, I'd like to mention some cheap and free things that you won't want to miss that are specific to the New York State Fair:

1. Pre-Buy Tickets
Pre-sale tickets for the fair can be purchased at various places including Wegmans and Tops (even the Tops in Lowville!) for $6 but must be purchased by the day before the fair (which for this year is today!). At the gate fair tickets are $10 for everyone over 12.


2. 25 cent milk

Be sure to head over to the Dairy Products Building for your cup of chocolate or plain milk for only a quarter. We always look forward to this! While you are in the Dairy Products Building be sure to check out this year's butter sculpture.

 3. $1 Baked Potatoes

When you get hungry one inexpensive way to fill your belly is to head over to the Horticulture Building for their $1 baked potatoes. They come with sour cream, butter, and/ or cheese. While you're in the Horticulture Building be sure to check out some other great New York State products and be sure to get a sample (and maybe buy a bag or two) of the maple cotton candy. It's good stuff!

4. Free Entertainment
Be sure to check the schedule for the day you go but some things that we always look forward to are (in no particular order):
* The Circus! Yes, it isn't Barnum and Bailey or The Shriners but the circus at the fair is pretty fun. We often eat our packed lunch while sitting and watching it under the big top.

 * Bandaloni - the strolling one man band

 * The Train Exhibit

* The Agricultural Museum - watch people make soap, brooms, baskets, dulcimers, etc. Last year we enjoyed "The Tool Chest" where we learned about old tools and heard some fun stories outside and we were able to try our hand at weaving on a loom inside!

 * Horse Shows and other Livestock events

* Animals - many animals to look at and pet both at the petting zoo and in the various livestock buildings.

 * 4H Building - we've never actually made it to this building early enough to really check out all the cool stuff in it. Hopefully this year we will though.
* Animal Shows. Every year there is something different offered. 

* The fair parade.

 * Sand Sculpture. A huge sand sculpture made with 180 tons of sand is created throughout the duration of the fair. Last year's theme was 9/11 and it was pretty amazing.

* Fire Safety Show and Exhibit. As a homeschooler and a parent I love walking through this exhibit (that I don't think has really changed since I was a kid) and chatting with the kids about fire hazards and safety.

5. Cheap(er) Food
Towards the end of the night when we start getting hungry we often head to the food stands on the outskirts near the basketball courts/ wrestling mats. There you can get 4 hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries or drinks for $5. It's not the best tasting food in the world but it's relatively inexpensive.
NOTE: If fair food is your thing this year the fair is selling Best Bets Bargain Books. The coupons look a lot like the ones that used to be in the programs that you got when you entered the fair. They can be purchased for $4 before the fair and $5 at the fair. The coupons don't look like they'd be worth it to our family because we don't really buy that much fair food but check out the list of coupons available. They may save you money on things that you were going to buy anyway.

One sight you probably won't see this year due to our embarrassingly tiny amount of snowfall.

We plan to go to the The Great New York State Fair this Saturday (possibly for the last time in a long time) and we are really looking forward to it!

What's Working Wednesdays: Mathematics Enhancement Programme (FREE math curriculum!)

 What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

Several years ago I was looking for free or cheap homeschool curriculum because we had no place in our budget to buy school materials. I came across oldfashionededucation.com and they recommended the Mathematics Enhancement Programme from Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching. I looked into it and discovered that they offered all the teachers manuals, practice books and other resources for free on their website in PDF form. I decided it was worth a shot and printed the first year out for my oldest.

I always tell people that we started using it because it is free and have continued using it because we love it. We really do enjoy MEP and I love how it approaches math (ex. basic algebra concepts are introduced in the first week of Y1 and they have really creative ways to introduce multiplication, negative numbers, etc).

Before starting using the program you may want to know a few of things:
1. It is based out of the UK so all measurement lessons are in metric (standard units of measurement will have to be taught with other materials or just in normal life with your kids since that is probably what you are used to anyway.). I love that it teaches in metric since metric is base 10 which makes math problems so much more simple!
2. Also, since it is based out of the UK, all money math problems are in pounds and pence. I usually just have my kids write dollar signs instead of a pound signs. One thing that gets a little confusing is that we don't have 2 cent coins here in the US so you get to be creative with a few lessons in early years. It's also brought up interesting conversations about money in other countries.
3. It is designed for a classroom so not all activities are easily converted to homeschool use where there is often a much smaller class size. You can skip those activities or just get creative. One way that I have gotten around it in early grades was to have the kids use their stuffed animals as classmates. This past year Caleb had to graph his classmates' birth months and I put out of request on facebook and instead of having just 4 students in his class he had about 150 ;)
4. There is a great yahoo group with other homeschoolers using the program. I would recommend joining it as these other homeschooling parents are a great resource when you have questions since this is probably not how you were taught math.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mep-homeschoolers/
5. You will not need much space to store it. (I did Saxon K for kindergarten for my kids and I think that it took more space to store that material, which I had to pull out all the time, than it takes to store the 6 years of math curriculum for MEP, of which I only need 4 of those 11 folders for my 4 students out at a time!)

6 years of Math curriculum in less than 12cm space!

We really love MEP and think that others will to so I want to do a little tutorial thing about how I set up MEP for my classroom.

1. Get folders with brads in the middle. These are so cheap this time of the year (a couple of the folders that we use we already had as you can see for Y4b). I bought them all in blue so blue = math in my house which makes Math folders easy to keep track of. You will need 2 of these per student, one for each semester. Here is all we need for math for this fall. As you can see it is very easily transportable.

Our Math Curriculum for the first half of the year!

 2. Print Lesson Plans.  The first couple of years we used MEP I printed these in duplex, two to a page (as you can see in Y2a's folder) but now I print them in duplex 4 to a page (as you can see in Y4b's folder). I duplex and do multiple sheets to a page to save paper, toner, and space. I hole punch them and put them in the brad section of the folder. (NOTE: a laser printer is a GREAT investment for a homeschooler). You can just look at these lesson plans on your computer if you'd prefer not to print them out. I like having paper in my hand though and a place to scribble down notes for this year and future years in the lesson plans though. I store these after one child is done with it until it is the next child's turn.

Lesson Plans 2 to a page

Lesson plans 4 to a page

3. Print Practice Book.   I print these in duplex as well but just one sheet to a page. I put these in the left hand pocket of the folder. Below are a couple of pages from Y2a's Practice Book.

3. Print an Answer Key. This is not absolutely necessary but has been helpful to me so someone else can grade the work. To make my key I printed the practice pages in duplex, 4 sheets to a page and then did the work myself. I could have gotten most of the answers by looking through the lesson plans but #1 I am a math geek and #2 I also wanted to see what the kids would be doing. Since I have been using MEP from the beginning and store the old sets I only have to do one set of answer keys a semester and I am about half way through Y6a already and school hasn't even started yet. I've been bringing it with me to work on in the car or while watching the kids during swim lessons. The kids think that it's fun catching my mistakes in the key as well. I store the key in the right hand pocket of the folder.

Key for Y2a

 4. Have fun exploring Math with your kids.

MEP Y4b ready to go for the year.

Most of my links here are to the primary curriculum materials. They also have materials for secondary math on the CIMT MEP website as well but I haven't used them yet so I am not sure if they are set up differently. There is a helpful scheme of work to help you see at a glance what will be covered throughout the year. I don't have the website memorized. To find it I always google "CIMT MEP" and it is the first link.

We really enjoy MEP and I hope you do too. If you have questions feel free to ask me or get on the MEP Homeschoolers Yahoo Group and ask there.

What's Working Wednesday: C25K

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

I have been wanting to be healthier and more physically fit for some time but it takes more than desire. It also takes discipline.

I have been inspired by many friends who have started running (maybe some of them have always run, I don't know) that have things post to their facebooks to let everyone know that they are out on a run. One of my biggest inspirations is a lady I am super proud of, my friend Kari. She has made lots of healthy life changes and recently completed a 1/2 marathon. Completing a 1/2 marathon is something I never would have imagined her doing when I shared life with her on a regular basis 13 years ago while we were in college together. I still don't know that I will ever be able to do it but I am currently working towards a 5K.

I really like the Couch to 5k plan. It is a plan designed to get you from being a couch potato to running a 5K in 9 weeks. I have started it before but have never made it all the way though. (I think I quit in the past around week 4.)

This time I am walk/ running while listening to the C25K Christian Indie podcast. Some of the music is a little slow for running but I enjoy the chance to listen to some praise music while I run. I am currently on week 7 of the couch to 5K plan and did my first 25 minute run on Tuesday. It went pretty well and I even had a lady in the passenger seat of a car that drove by applaud me on the way up my last hill. I am excited that I was able to "run" for 25 minutes straight. I could barely run two telephone poles 2 months ago!

If you'd like to try to become more physically fit I challenge you to give C25K a try. There are lots of great resources at this website: www.c25k.com