All about our 'Unicorn Jar'

  I posted on Instagram the other day about our 'Magical Unicorn Rewards Jar' and I had some interest from other Mom's wanting to know what it was, how we use it and what was inside of it! 

  It all started last year as a way to encourage the kids in some things we were trying to teach them, and it became something fun that we have continued through the year.  Basically it's just a little jar, with small folded up pieces of paper inside that have different rewards written on them.  The kids get the opportunity throughout the week to work towards earning one of the rewards at the end of the week, here are a few pics of the jar...

  Our jar is super simple, because I am a simple girl, but you could do so many other 'souped up' versions of the Unicorn Jar!  The name came from the love my daughter has for Unicorns, and how we would always talk about a good day being 'a unicorn day', so we just ran with it and the name stuck, but you could call it anything you like, and decorate it however you like too!

  I don't know about your kids, but our kids LOVE rewards and treats,  so the idea of the unicorn jar came to teach and encourage them to work towards something that they really want, and also to enforce some basic things we are always trying to teach them like, having a good attitude, being kind and respectful, and helpful without being asked.  I'll be completely honest (as always) and say that some weeks this system just doesn't work, but some weeks it really does, and it's so fun to watch the kids excitement as they pick out a reward after doing their best all week to earn it!  We definitely don't expect perfection out of our children, but I always do encourage them to TRY their best, even if you don't feel like it, always keep trying and never give up!  This applies with their school work, chores, or even just playing with their siblings nicely.  They are young and still learning, so many mistakes and set backs will happen, but to see them try their best to be kind and respectful is all we want to see. 

  So what are the rewards IN the magical jar you ask??  We tried to pick a large variety of different types of rewards,  so that it wasn't just earning a bag of jelly beans, but lots of other non food items as well.  Like I mentioned though, my kids LOVE treats lol, it really is the way to their hearts, they have a sweet tooth like Daddy ;).  Here is a list of just some of the rewards...

- At home movie night with popcorn (you choose the movie!)

-Ice cream cone, flavour of your choice

-Time in the wood shop building something with Daddy

-Baking time with Mommy in the kitchen

-Trip to the Dollar store

-Trail ride on the 4 wheeler

-Canoe or Kayak with Mom or Dad (summer)

-A fruit smoothie with ingredients of your choice

-Sledding fun on a big hill with the family (winter)

-Boy time or Girl time (which is basically just one on one time with Mom or Dad) doing an activity they wish to do.

-Pack of gum (they LOVE this one lol)

-Campfire with s'mores

-extra long cuddly goodnight with Mommy or Daddy

-Time slot to play games on the iPad

(and the BIG time reward that we only have 1 of in the jar)

-$5 (woot woot, Joel is the only one who has gotten it once before)

  It's fun to have a 'big ticket' item in there too, we have multiples of the other 'smaller' rewards in the jar, so two kids can actually win the same thing.  To choose the rewards I actually just sat down with the kids and we thought them all up together.  I wanted them to have lot's of input so that they were excited about what they were working towards, so most all of the ideas came straight from them!  The rewards for each family will look different, but the basic idea of working towards something, and earning it is what counts, as well as encouraging your kids, and the excitement of picking out of the jar on Friday afternoon, it's a little something fun to do before the weekend :).

  Does your family do a reward system?  How does it work? Let me know in the comments!  Also if you have anymore questions about our Unicorn jar that I didn't answer in this post, I can answer it in the comments too :) Let me know if you start your own Unicorn Jar, and how it works for your fam!

Hope you all have a 'magical' weekend ;)

love,

Shelley

Homeschool Mom Q & A (The 10 most common questions I get asked!)

  When people find out we homeschool, there is a look of curiosity that comes across their face, and rightly so!  People who have never been homeschooled, or homeschooled their children should be curious about what happens in a homeschooling family.  I know I was very curious when I first started to think about it too, and it was so great to have friends (who had already started homeschooling their children) come along side and share their wealth of knowledge with me without holding anything back.  I had two specific friends that opened their homes to me and showed me the ropes and answered any of my questions and it was so helpful and encouraging (Thanks Lauren and Shawna! ;)) And so I thought it would be fun to put all the most frequently asked questions I get about homeschooling in one blog post, for all those curious and inquiring minds who want to know just what homeschooling is, and why we do it.

  First off I should state that I've mostly had quite nice comments and questions!  I've only had a small handful that left me a tad frustrated, for example when at the park with my kids one afternoon a neighbour asked me where my kids went to school, and when I told him we homeschooled He said 'So it's YOU that teaches them?' while pointing at me like I was a small child, it was a bit demeaning.  I will say I do look a lot younger then my age, and that gives people the impression that I am not qualified to teach my children as I look like I could be their babysitter (so I've been told multiple times)  But I am here to tell you that looks are deceiving and have nothing to do with a person's ability!  For the most part I don't ever feel the need to explain our homeschooling choice to others, and I will simply say 'Yes we homeschool our children, and it works great for our family and we really enjoy it!' clear and to the point! 

Here are the most common questions I get asked about homeschooling...

1) Will you homeschool your children all through high school?  

  From the start of our homeschooling journey we have always said that we would take it year by year, and child by child.  This means that if we find it's not working for a particular child and they need something different we are completely open to other schooling options.  As for high school, there are some great online academy options for doing high school at home that we've already looked into, and if one or all of our kids had the desire and drive to do their high school at home, I would totally support them and be there to help them along.  But would I force my child to do their high school years at home? Of course not!  So I can't say either way wether we will homeschool all through high school or not, every year we will re-evaluate and do what is best for each child at the time.  

2) Why did you start homeschooling?

  I could write a whole book on this question!  It started as a strong desire in my heart when our oldest was about 2 years old, and the time for him to go to school came closer and closer.  Initially my husband was not exactly on board with homeschooling, and he felt strongly that our boy should go to kindergarten, so after some research we put him in the small local Christian school, where he went to school 3 days a week.. It worked out quite well, he had a lovely teacher, some good friends, a nice small class, and they did lots of arts and music which I loved.  We were really thankful for the time he spent there (2.5 years) but we knew going forward that with multiple children, private school wasn't something we could afford long term.  We then moved to a new town and had to leave the private school as it was too far away, so he spent 6 months of his Grade 1 year in the local public school in our new town after our move.  It was a great school, but unfortunately it was not a good match for our very spirited and highly energetic boy.  Needing a lot of 1 on 1 help in school was not conducive to being in a class with over 30 kids and 1 teacher.  It was during those months where he struggled in that traditional school setting that I brought homeschooling back up to my husband.  This time he was more open to it, so I wrote out a plan for our first year of homeschooling and showed it to him and prayed a lot and he agreed that we would try it for 1 year!  I was thrilled and felt so thankful to have the opportunity.  Every year we homeschooled I started to enjoy it more and more, and to really see the benefits it had for our family, they were so numerous and that is why we have continued the past 5 years!

3) I could NEVER homeschool, how do you do it? I would go crazy!

  Short answer is that I definitely can't do it on my own, and it is only by the grace of God and His strength and wisdom that I have been able to do it.  And do you want to know a little secret, homeschool mom's DO go a little crazy sometimes haha.  But I always say that if you have the heart for homeschooling, and the Lord gives you that drive in your heart to do it, he will carry you through and give you the strength you need daily.  Also the support of your spouse and family is key!  That is why I waited until my husband was on board before I started homeschooling, I knew it was important to be on the same page.  The support from other homeschool mom friends and families is also important in knowing you aren't alone in the journey, and knowing that it is ok to take breaks and time for yourself.  (something I am still working on!)

4) What curriculum do you use?

  This is also a question I could do a whole post on :) We don't use one set curriculum across the board for all of our subjects and children.  We have one child that does well with one Math curriculum and another child that does well with another.  So I use what works best for each child individually.  We also like to do some child led learning when it comes to subjects like science and art,  creative writing and nature studies.  Kids tend to get really immersed in learning and enjoy it more when it's something they have the desire to learn about.  Of course there are things we all need to learn even though we don't love them, so it's nice to have a mix of both.  We tend to lean towards a Charlotte Mason approach I've realized looking back over the years.  Which combines a lot of nature study, literature and arts.

5) How long are your typical 'school' hours during the week.

  Everyone usually always wants to know how long we 'homeschool' for each day.  I love the approach that there is always some sort of learning going on, wether it be helping me in the kitchen, cleaning up a room, matching the laundry socks, character training opportunities, imaginative play, outdoor exploring and the list goes on!  All these things though not done at a 'desk' are great learning opportunities and I like to find those 'sneaky learning' times as often as I can, and watch the kids enjoy learning something without even realizing it :) But, our traditional sitting at a table concentrated school time usually adds up to be around 3 hours in the mornings.  If we buckle down we can usually finish our core subjects before lunch, which leaves the afternoon for many other activities. There are days it takes us MUCH longer and days it's even faster, it honestly just depends on everyone's moods and drive that day.  We definitely spend much less time at a desk then in a traditional school setting, which is in my opinion one of my favourite things about homeschooling!

6) How do your kids get time to socialize with other kids?

  Very commonly people think that homeschool children are hermits that don't get to be around other children.  In our family, this is not the case!  We are part of a homeschool co-op group that meets weekly, the kids enjoy learning and playing with their friends and going on field trips.  They also have friends around the street and community as well as cousins that live down the road to play with as often as they like.  They go to sunday school at church and are able to socialize with the children there.  Our oldest has started to attend youth group, and even joined a community basketball league.  Our daughter does a ballet class weekly where she has met lots of other girls, and we of course organize play dates or park meet ups with friends frequently.  We also do swimming lessons with other kids from the community every day in the summer, all of that socializing keeps us pretty busy!  

7) Can you teach whatever you want?  Or does the school board monitor your learning?

  In Ontario right now homeschooling is not regulated, so you are able to choose the curriculum and style that suits your family best.  Other provinces around us are more regulated, and you have 'check in's' with someone from the school board  throughout the year to see how you and the kids are doing.  I am sure one day Ontario may go this way, but for now we enjoy having the freedom to teach what we want and using a schedule that works best for our family!  

8) Do your kids like being homeschooled?

  They do!  If you asked them yourself (which many people have) they will tell you they like it.  They will also say that they maybe don't like math or spelling ect. because they each have subjects they like more then others. But I think they realize that they have a pretty sweet deal in homeschooling, and if they could choose they would choose to stay home with Mom (again, I know this because many people have asked them!) The funniest is at the beginning of the school year when someone at the grocery store or someone who doesn't know us well yet will ask the kids 'So do you like your teacher this year?' and they smirk and look over at me, and I think, you BETTER like your teacher haha!

9) Were you homeschooled as a child?

  No, I was public school from start to finish, no regrets ;)

10) How do you know your kids are keeping up with the public school system?

  When I asked my husband what people most asked him when they found out we homeschooled, he repeated many of the ones I had already been asked, and also this one, which is a popular one!  It's quite easy to find out if your children are on par with the public school system, as the government of Ontario school curriculum is online for anyone to see and go through in detail.  So it is there to reference at any time, and while homeschooled kids are not required to take the provincial EQAO tests, you can request for your child to go in and take it if you feel the need.  Many times with homeschooling, it is more about the individual child and how they are improving personally, then keeping them on someone else's learning schedule though, so each family will have their own journey with this, and some families may not even care if their child is 'keeping up' with a system their child is no longer involved in.  I personally do my best to make sure they are keeping on track with the core subjects, but we do have some learning and behaviour struggles between our children so I definitely don't stress.  If they are struggling with a subject, since I am with them all the time, I know immediately and we can start to tackle it together day by day.  One thing I love about homeschooling is I really know my kids, their in's and out's, their struggles and triumphs, and they know they are seen.  It's really a beautiful thing!

  These are the most common questions I get asked about homeschooling, and I am always happy to answer and to share what we do, because I am grateful for the way we get to do school, I know that it may not be like this forever, so I cherish it while I can, and if I can encourage someone else I count that as a win!

  Was there anything else you were curious about that I didn't answer? Ask in the comments, and I'll answer you there. Thanks for reading, heading out now to take the dogs on a walk before I start dinner!

love,

Shelley

What's in my bag?? (Winter Edition)

  My goal this year is to write a new post about once a week if I can (at least twice a month if things get busy)  I know this is not necessary, or needed at all, blogging is not my job, I don't get paid to do it, and who knows how many people will actually read it, but it's fun!  Writing is something that is creative and interesting for me to do apart from the usual things I keep up with on a daily basis, like homeschooling my 3 kiddos, cleaning, and cooking, for just a few examples.  It's a hobby and it's fun for me and it's important to do fun things even when your a Mom ;)

  Today I thought I'd do a really simple post and share "What's in my bag?".  I always enjoy reading these posts myself! This winter I switched from carrying a traditional shoulder purse to carrying a small backpack, a 'purse backpack' if you will.  Here is a pic of the one I have...

  My family made a bit of fun of me at first, but I gotta tell you, I don't know if I can ever go back!  Not only is it cute, it's super comfortable and light, and holds a TON if you need it to.  You know when you have to bend over and help tie a shoe, or pick up a child and your shoulder bag goes BANG to the front of you and possibly takes out your child, and pulls hard on your shoulder?  This doesn't happen with a back pack, you've got all range of movement and it's pretty wonderful ;)  The backpack I have is real leather, and so it should hopefully last a good long while, and hold up to the wear and tear of me throwing it in my car, or dropping it on the floor ect ect :)  I got it online (I get pretty much everything online as the only store in my town is wal-mart) and I waited until it went on sale and used a coupon code (woot woot).  OK so what is IN it you ask?  I am going to open it right now (I haven't pre organized it or anything) and take pics on my phone of the various things I find in it...here we go!

  In the first outer pocket of the bag I have some trusty hand sanitizer, and some lotion.  These are two things I always have in my bag wether it's winter or summer.  I only use hand sanitizer on the kids or I if we are out and about and have no other way to wash our hands, but it comes in handy for those sticky or icky situations!  And the lotion is because I live in Canada and if you don't have lotion your hands shrivel up and may never be the same again!

  I also have my wallet, which has my debit card, drivers licence all the kids health cards, letter stamps and a bit of money, I never carry much actual cash with me.  And my keys!  I always leave my keys in my bag because if I take them out and don't put them right back, they are bound to get lost.  This way I always know where they are when I need to lock the front door or start the car.  My only key chain is a little pink turtle from our favourite island in Anna Maria Florida :)

  Next I pulled out a book that my hubby Chris gave me for Christmas (it's called 'Refresh' by Shona & David Murray) I keep this in here for when I am waiting for Mia at ballet class, or for Ben at basketball, and I have a few quiet minutes to read.  I don't get much quiet reading time at home, so this is just a good way to get in a little extra book time.  The little book of word search puzzles serves the same purpose, I am not ashamed to admit that I literally love a good word search, and so do my kids, so it's always a good little activity to pull out if we are waiting somewhere.

  Two more bottles of hand sanitizer came out next (cold and flu season, can never have too much apparently haha) as well as some tic tacs (I usually always have a package of gum, but my daughter Mia has become a gum thief lately and she usually eats it all before I can get to it now!) and the brown coil that looks like one of those snap bracelets from the 90's is one of Mia's 'bun makers' that we use to make a bun in her hair before ballet class.  Have you ever used one of these? They make perfect buns in less then a minute that stay in without any bobby pins, we love them and got them on Amazon of course :)

  Hand wipes, because sticky messes arise, and an emergency granola bar can ALWAYS be found in my bag if not 3 or 4.  Snacks are one of the most important things I throw in my bag before we leave the house,  gotta fend off those low blood sugar moments!  The kids are inevitably always hungry at some point when we are out and about (and me too) also frequently found are apple sauce squeezies and boxes of raisins.

  In the zip pocket on the inside of the bag I found two different lip balms (one is peppermint and one is tinted pink) and some ear buds, because you never know when you will need ear buds!  The inner pocket also has some feminine emergency supplies just in case (essential) but I didn't think I needed to take a picture of those lol.

  Lastly I always have a pen or two in my bag, usually I use them for taking notes at church, for the kids to doodle during a service or for those moments when someone asks 'does anyone have a pen?' :) and my sunglasses in their pouch.  I used to never carry my sunglasses in a pouch, but then I scratched up the lenses on a few of my favourite pairs, so I learned my lesson and now try my best to keep them protected.  Sunglasses are as important in winter as they are in summer, because on a sunny day driving into the sun while it's glaring off the snow can be super hard to drive in without some glasses!

  That was it!  Many times there are old receipts stuffed in my bag, or hair elastics and bobby pins.  A hot wheels car can find it's way in there somehow as well as a barbie shoe or rocks that the kids find on a walk and just must keep but cannot hold themselves haha.  I try not to make my bag to heavy, but it always ends up becoming a catch all, and needing a good clean out at least once a month.  What are some of the essentials that you are keeping in your bag this winter?  What is your favourite style of bag to carry? Let me know in the comments below!

xoxo,

Shelley 

living through major house renovations with your family!

  I can't believe that we are only a month away from the 1 year anniversary of moving into our lake house fixer upper!  When we purchased this home we knew that it would need some improvements and updates, but we had no idea really HOW many until we actually got in and got started.  Since the day we moved in we have been doing reno's with a few breaks here and there, and all the hard work and the time and effort into making this house our home has been completely worth it.  Not easy, but SO worth it, and actually a lot of fun!  Living in Reno's can definitely be a challenge, and add in kids and dogs and regular life and it becomes even more challenging.  So I thought it might be fun to share my experience of living in reno's with our family for the past 11 months with you, just in case you ever find yourself with a fixer upper ;)

  Right now we are currently doing the last stage of 'big' reno's which include building a brand new bathroom down stairs, and then ripping out and re-doing the upstairs bathroom so it becomes two bathrooms.  A small powder room style bathroom and an ensuite off of our bedroom.  This will be the last large and more intrusive reno that we 'hopefully' have to do for a while.  After that all the other big improvements we want to do are downstairs like the laundry room, and turning the storage room into a second 'living room' and we'd also love to do improvements on the outside of the house as well down the line, but all of those will be more out of the way.  I feel like I am nearing the end of the reno's that really get in the way of our daily life, and that is exciting!  Once those bathroom's are in upstairs (hopefully within the next month), I feel like we can have a bit of a celebration that we made it to 1 year of living in renovations! (insert happy dance!)

  Many people have the option of living somewhere else while they do large renovations, or having the opportunity to 'fix up' a house before you have to actually move into it.  This was not in the budget for our family, so we knew going in we would just have to make it work.  We also knew that we would be doing the bulk of the work ourselves.  With my husband doing the largest amount of labour, and me chipping in whenever I could between homeschooling, and making meals for the fam and grocery shopping and taking care of the kiddos that is ;) we also had some family come the first few months here and there to chip in and help as well, which was great.  

  The renovation we did first was the flooring, since we had to take out and re-do all the flooring on the entire upstairs (it's a bungalow style house, so only a main level and walk out basement with windows) we thought it was best to get this big job done first.  My husband did it room by room, and we did the same vinyl wood plank flooring throughout the entire main level.  We then moved onto the bedrooms so that we could get the kids settled into their spaces, and then our bedroom, building new closets, adding walls where there wasn't a wall, and lot's and lot's of painting (so much white trim! lol) we did a pine ceiling in our living room, septic and landscape work outside, and then came the kitchen....(cue scary music!)

  I have to admit the kitchen was the reno I was dreading the most.  I had all these people saying 'ohhhh your ripping out your kitchen? good luck!' in a bit of a tone...but I tried not to let it get to me!  I knew it would be super messy, and dusty and loud and inconvenient but I also knew it would be worth it!  We lived to tell the tale, and yes it was super messy and dusty and loud and long and inconvenient BUT it also wasn't half as bad or difficult as I was expecting from all these stories I had heard.  The best thing we did was make a 'make shift' kitchen on the other side of our living room, we moved over the fridge, and stove and pantry stuff and table and microwave and coffee maker and we made it so we could still try to prepare meals in somewhat of what we were used to.  Since we were doing the reno ourselves, we also made sure to leave the sink in as long as we could so we weren't without water to wash and clean pretty much the whole time except for maybe a day or two altogether!  We made simple meals, and used the BBQ a lot (YAY it was spring/summer and warm out, so the kids were playing outside a lot during that month also) the thing I missed the most was baking, because I didn't really get a chance to do that while everything was being worked on.

  I think a lot of it is attitude, and patience!  Anytime I started to get a little bit frustrated with all the dust and cleaning and mess, I would just try to remember how thankful I was to be able to put a new kitchen in our house, how awesome is that?  When it seemed like things were taking a bit longer then I expected, I reminded myself that good things take time, and it wasn't going to happen in a day or even a week or month sometimes.  We also made sure to do a little thing called 'moral boosters' about once a week.  This could be anything from putting up a new picture, bringing in a piece of furniture you hadn't seen in a while, rearranging a room around or putting down a new rug.  It just had to be something that in the midst off the reno mess and disarray that gave us a boost and made our house feel like a home again :) it became a thing where I would say 'I think it's time for a morale boost' and my awesome hubby would make it happen.  We also took breaks to get outside in nature as a family very often, and go on a hike, a kayak or swim to break up the work days and to make sure we were still spending good quality family time amidst the crazy.

  As much as we could we tried to let the kids 'help' out too, I put help in quotations because you know it is inevitably a little harder to let kids help, but it's also such a great learning experience for them, and it also helped them to feel a part of everything that was happening and changing in the house.  I did my best to clean up as we went along, and never let a big mess pile up for long, keeping things as clean and organized as possible was my big way of contributing, and it also made me feel good inside (yes I am a bit of a clean freak I'll admit it!) dusting and sweeping is something you can count on doing a lot of during a home reno!

  We also did our best to stay within our budget, meaning if we didn't have the money for something we didn't do it, or if we needed to change up the way we did something to make it more cost effective we also did that too.  We did our best to choose quality products that would hopefully last, as well as doing the labour ourselves, and this helped us stay in a reasonable budget.  We also tried to look at things we already had and see what we could salvage and re-use or re-purpose within the house, and this was helpful in saving money many times along the way!

  Whatever kind of reno's you are doing with your family in tow, look at it as a time to learn and grow and work hard, and you won't be disappointed with your efforts!  Know that it will take time, and patience, and compromise, and maybe a few 'heated' convo's with your hubby (we had our share haha) and also know that when it is complete you will be so glad you stuck with it and made it happen!  You will also be closer as a family and ready to take on the next big thing :)

  What kind of big reno's have you done in your home recently?  What were some ways that you made it easier on your family or helped it to be a more positive experience? Comment down below, I always love to hear your thoughts!

Happy fixing!

-Shelley