Preparing for Home Invasion

About six weeks of summer remain before our Big Homeschool Adventure begins.  Riley and Savvy are officially enrolled in Minnesota Virtual Academy, an online K-12 school.  I will also be instructing Brooke in pre-K curriculum and chasing Isaac around at the same time.


As if that isn't daunting enough, the time has come to prepare the house for the school room.  I'm also thinking of schedule planning, lunch menus, physical activities and a myriad other concerns that a homeschool family needs to prepare for.


Got any ideas or pointers?  Tips or hints?  I'd be happy for some advice. 

Layaway!

Savvy has been begging us for a couple of weeks to buy her an Indian doll she found at an indoor flea market nearby.  We preached the "save up for it" message until we were blue in the face.  She just couldn't see how a quarter here and fifty cents there would add up to the $5 that the doll would cost.


Yesterday we decided to buy the doll and put it on "layaway" for her.  She had about $3 saved already.  The doll was put on a shelf high enough so that she could see it, but she was not allowed to play with it until it was paid off.


We put her money in a jar with a slip of paper tracking her payments.  Amazingly enough, she scrounged up change around the house and did a few extra chores to pay off the doll this morning.


I think tracking her payments allowed her to see money in action.  She's now smiling and holding her Indian doll and is a very happy Savvy.

Recipe: Grasshopper Mousse

This is a yummy dessert for summer, especially if you can let your little ones eat it outside.  Isaac was head to toe in chocolate at the last lick of the spoon!

Ingredients:


2 box instant chocolate pudding
1 8 oz Cool Whip (or make your own whipped cream)
4 cups cold milk
1 container Mint Oreos
Individual serving containers (I used small plastic drinking cups)




How to Make It:


If you need to make your whipped cream, do that first.  It's easier.  And if you want to learn how, there's a little tutorial at the end of this entry.

Let Freedom Ring

This weekend will be a busy one for us.  Our Savannah was chosen as an Aurora Princess for the 4th of July celebration here in our town.  Tomorrow is the coronation, and then she has three parade appearances.  Riley is also entering her decorated bicycle in the Children's Parade on Monday.  Add live music, carnival games and fireworks and you have a great weekend planned.

To get us in the mood for celebrating, I bought a lot of little flags at Target the other day and put them out in the front yard.  They were promptly uprooted five minutes later and waved in an impromptu children's parade on our front sidewalk as the high school band practiced their marching.