WFMW - It Works For Me!!

This post is part of the "Works For Me Wednesday" carnival at We Are THAT Family!

As a homeschooling family with "growing boys" who have "hollow legs", we have to concentrate on putting out good snacks.  During growth spurts, they will wander into the kitchen 10 times a day! 

If I have good, irresistible snacks out, they will gravitate to them.  If I don't have anything out, they'll find whatever they can and that's not always good!

In order to avoid the latter, I put trays of goodness out on the counter!  Works For Me! (Little to no prep and healthy!)

These are the snacks that I put out yesterday.

Colorful Fruit

Veggies, Cheeses, Wheat Crackers & Blue Cheese Dip

Who could resist a spread this colorful?

Ok, so I let Espresso make brownies...  That is NOT an everyday thing!

...but don't they look good?

Works For Me Wednesday

Today's WFMW has a theme! We are supposed to share a cleaning tip.

I received this tip a long time ago and it really works great! When you are in the middle of a school day (or any day with children) and an unexpected person pulls up in your driveway, what do you do? Well, books and learning things are expected but things like snacks, drink cups and such are a bit of an embarrassment.

We yell, 10 second clean up and everyone begins to scramble. It's great! Everyone grabs something that was carelessly left out and puts it away. When the visitor enters, it's not as embarrassing! (It's good to take the family through a few 10 second clean ups to get the hang of it.)

Sometimes when our lives get busy on the weekends, our place gets to lookin like a pig sty. We will let the boys know that it's time for a 10 minute clean up and miracles begin to happen! If the 4 of us clean up messes for 10 minutes, mom can rest easy seeing that the place may look lived in but doesn't look like a tornado went through!

Works For Me Wednesday

HOMESCHOOL Schedule: Our "organized" Week

Kristen at We Are THAT Family has more WFMW tips on organizing just about everything!

I have organized our homeschool week. Now, for those moms who are superwoman and have always lived by a super organized schedule for your kids, good for you... but, I don't. I like a little more freedom. In that freedom, I have organized our day!

I printed the "Daily Schedule for Two Children 1" from the TOS 2009 Homeschool Planner. I put the boys names at the top and down the left side I put the days of the week. Under their names and next to the week and I put the subjects that they need to do that day.

I tried to make every day a little different. Also, I spread out all of the normal subjects like math, science, and LA and put them into Monday through Thursday. That leaves Fridays open for more creative learning and field trips. It also leaves an opening for shifting the schedule so that we can take a day off or a sick day in the middle of the week.

It works for ME and US!! Do you live by a schedule? Is it strict or a little looser? Are you a fly by the seat of your pants kind of mom/teacher?

Works For Me! Free Items For Teachers

I found these free items for teachers and thought that I would pass them on to you!

More homeschooling for free tips coming soon!

For more works for me - see We Are That Family