There's Always Two Sides To Every Story

July 31st, 2009

Today I talked about a fun place to go in Little Rock.  And it looked ideallic, right?  You have one kid and wonder how I do it with 4 under 8 and me 7 months pregnant to boot.  That’s because I pick and choose out of the 100 or so pictures that were taken what I want you to see.  And because I can’t help but be real, the serene pictures I posted have bothered me just a bit.   I know the rest of the story.

As much fun as the day was, and it was fun:

There was another side:

The side that was 90 something degrees hot.  On a day that I didn’t pack enough water cups, that I’d already had my blood drawn at the doctor’s and was feeling less than stellar.  Where the kids had been cooped up in the doctor’s office for 2 hours and then in the van with my hubby waiting on my lab work for another 20 minutes.  Where we threatened to not go down to the river at all to a bunch of loud fighting kids.  The day where I balanced 5 sandwiches on my lap with peanut butter spread everywhere (because for some reason I decided to make the sandwiches in the van instead of at home ahead of time) while everybody whined about how hungry they were.  Where after approximately 5 minutes at the park ThePrincess needed to go potty.  In the well-used porta-potty.  Where when we returned to the park I went and stood by my husband who was taking all the pictures.  Where ThePrincess couldn’t find me – in plain sight.  Where she walked back up the hill alone to the porta-potty to find me.  And skinned her knee.  Where I discovered she was missing as she was walking, crying, back down the hill.  Where I accusatorily asked her where she’d been and why she wandered off.  Salt to the wounded knee.  This is the day where she started crying and screaming and throwing a fit for 15 minutes.  Where nothing I did consoled her.  Where my 2 year old took my leather shoe that I thought I was guarding and “washed” it for me.  Where I got too hot, too tired, too cranky and rushed them through the Quapaw exhibit.  Where I rushed them through the “leafy tunnel” and waddled with my hands on my hips (never a good sign).  Where I told the kids to steer clear of the homeless man on the bench – like the good samaritan I am.  Where, while my husband took sweet pictures of the 3 older kids, I stood bent over at the van cussing in my head about a 2 year old that wouldn’t hold still for me to change him into dry clothes.  Where I realized I was a complete party pooper when this whole water park had been my idea from the beginning.

But I know the whole story.  The one where there are ups and downs.  Where you take the good with the bad.  Where you know good days aren’t ever worry-free and completely careless.  Where you make up your mind that you’re going to have fun.  If it kills you.  Where you dwell on the good and make fun of the bad.  Where when you look at those pictures you know that someday you’ll cherish all of them.  They’ll all hold such special memories and create a complete picture.  A picture that, as a whole, is so much sweeter than it’s individual parts.

Chicken Pot Pie

July 29th, 2009

Once again, original recipe from Hillbilly Housewife here.

And here are the changes I made.

It called for 2 crusts.  I bought 2 small frozen crusts.  I let them thaw, then attempted to follow the recipe.  Obviously not what they were talking about.  They were tiny.  And they were supposed to be rolled out and placed in a casserole dish.  That didn’t happen.  So I used what I had.  I kept one in the aluminum pan it came in, attempted to roll out the second one and cut hearts in it.  I did this in on wax paper so that I could just flop the top crust over on the top of my filled pie (no picking up required).  Then I placed the hearts I had cut out on the top of the crust. And because we had the small crusts I trashed some of the filling I had made – just too much for such a small pan.

I used canned carrots and canned peas (forgot to buy the frozen kind – this worked just fine for us).  I will add canned diced new potatoes as well next time.

I used my frozen broth I had prepared from another time of boiling a whole chicken.  Recipe for that coming soon!

It needed a tad more salt for my taste.

The filling:  I loved it.  I loved knowing just what was in it.  And that they were all simple ingredients – broth, milk, flour, and butter.  You make the creamy part just like you would make gravy.  Keep stirring it the whole time.  And when you add the liquid, add just a little at a time, making sure to mix it thoroughly before you add more liquid (this keeps it from lumping).

Overall, the whole family liked it, it’ll be a keeper.  My picky-est eater (TheMiddlest) was not wild about any part of it other than the chicken, but hey, you can’t please everybody.  And he eventually ate it knowing there was a treat at the end of the eating tunnel.

As always, happy eats, friends!

Banana Muffins

July 27th, 2009

We tried these homemade muffins the other day and they absolutely passed approval around here.

You can find the original recipe here at the Hillbilly Housewife’s site.  Here are the changes I would make to that.

We used yogurt because we had some plain, but didn’t have any buttermilk.  If you don’t have either the buttermilk or yogurt that it calls for remember:  in cooking you can always substitute milk and lemon juice or vinegar for buttermilk.  Here are several buttermilk substitutions for you.

I would add a little more sugar next time.  I might even try adding 1/4 to 1/2 cup brown sugar.  But I’m not sure yet just how that will turn out, I’ll try it and let you know here what works.  I know we like ours just a tad sweeter.

Nuts would be great, but they’re expensive and we don’t always have them on hand.  I used just a few rolled oats with sugar sprinkled on top before baking.  It added a nice texture.  And the kids that didn’t like it, just picked them off.

I definitely added the cinnamon and nutmeg, and I even added a little allspice.  I loved this addition.

Overall, they got a WAY thumbs up from all the kiddos (even my picky-est Middlest) and I ate more than my share.  And can I just tell you how my house smelled all morning?  Definitely the thing to bake before company shows up!

Happy Eats!

Frugal Menu - the First 2 Weeks

July 19th, 2009

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was trying out a frugal menu and that I would update with recipes when I saw just how it would all work out.

After this week’s big shopping trip we’ve now begun week 3 of frugality.  This is not easy on the kiddos or the hubby after eating all those yummy packaged foods for nearly 2 trimesters, but now that I’m feeling more up to cooking I figured it was time to get back to it.  After all, I was doing pretty well with cooking daysand money-saving menus, but with tax returns and throwing up – that all fell by the wayside.  I’m back, baby! The first thing I did was go to my cabinets and see what I had left in the way of meals.  Then I went toThe Hillbilly Housewife’s site and started making out a menu and printing out recipes for my binder – this way I wasn’t running back and forth to the computer through the week, I could plan ahead by looking at my binder when I needed to soak beans overnight or set meat in the fridge to thaw.  Then I went back to my cabinets to see what I already had that the recipes called for.  Lastly, I made a grocery list of what I needed.  We ate heartily for 2 weeks for under $175 worth of groceries.

When I get home from shopping I give everybody bananas or something as easy to munch on while I put away the cold stuff.  All meat goes into the fridge until my brain is working again the next day and I can figure out what I’ll need when and what I should freeze.  All non-perishables sit right there on the counters driving me crazy until the next day.  I have no energy, time, or will power to do anything about it on shopping day.  The day after shopping this time, I separated a 5 pound tube of ground beef into 2 pounds for meatloaf and 3 to brown.  I immediately mixed up the meatloaf and left it in the bread pan (for form) until the next day when I was ready to cook it for dinner.  I let the browned ground beef cool in a bowl in the fridge so that I could separate it into individual pounds and freeze for future meals.

The bacon I bought this time was the 3 pound pack of bits and pieces.  Not what we’re used to eating, but much cheaper.  I throw the whole pack into a big deep skillet and cook it all at once.  I pour off all the grease into a mason jar for seasoning other meals later.  We eat for breakfast the first meal and I save the second batch for BLT’s.

Almost all of our milk, eggs, cheese, cereal and juice comes from WIC.  If you’re not already partaking – I definitely suggest you look into it.  It’s a fairly uninvasive simple process and more people with higher incomes than you would expect qualify.  If one of your family members works – then you’re already paying for this service in your State withholdings.  And can I just add – you don’t even have to go to the health unit in your own home county.  This was important to me and not necessarily advertised.

Here’s what we ate, the best I can remember!

The last two weeks’ menu:

Breakfasts

Bacon or Sausage, Biscuits, Gravy, Eggs, Jelly

Muffins – This time we used those little $1 packaged muffins (we had some packs left over from the last shopping trip)

Cereal (from WIC)

Pancakes (made with Bisquick from a previous shopping trip)

Fried lunchmeat sandwiches (complete with lettuce from the garden, tomatoes, and melty cheese – I made extra and sent in lunches for Matt)

Fried hot dog wienies

Bananas

Pumpkin Bread

Lunches

Mostly leftovers from previous dinners, macaroni & cheese boxes, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, and hot dogs

Dinners

I discovered a gem of a site called Hillbilly Housewife where I got a slew of frugal recipes.  I hit their crockpot section hard since it’s summer and that keeps my kitchen cooler.  Plus, it allows dinner prep to be cut by a huge margin allowing for as much swim time as we want when Daddy gets home each day.

I will link the original recipes straight to the site and add any changes here that I made.

Black-eyed peas, Cornbread, Fried Garden Veggies

Meatloaf

Spaghetti – I use 2 cans of the dollar sauce from the store.  We had extra sauce and not enough noodles this time, so I saved the sauce for a repeat spaghetti dinner this week.

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato Sandwiches – I used the bacon that was left over from breakfast.

Chicken Taco Soup

Minestrone Soup w/Bread – eh.  It was good, I liked it, the others could’ve left it.  In fact, it’s one of the few things

Crockpot Country Steak, Rice, Green Beans – beans were canned.  I always drain off the water from the beans, pour into a pot, cover with fresh water, add salt, bacon grease, pepper, and some frozen onions.  We really liked this one.  Will be added to the frequent rotation.

Chicken Alfredo with Garlic Steamed Veggies – Frozen boneless chicken breasts, slow cooked in the crockpot with 2 jars of pre-made Alfredo sauce over off-brand fettucine noodles served with frozen veggies in a bag – just followed directions.

Crockpot Swiss Steak over Egg Noodles with leftover green beans – Yum.  The kids eat this up.

Creamy Pork Chops over rice with Candied Carrots – the kiddos were not as wild about the candied carrots as I had hoped.  I really liked them, but that won’t push this over to the routine rotation.  Same with the pork chops.  Boneless probably would’ve made a difference, but I went cheap and we just weren’t crazy about them.

Hamburgers – I alternate between buying the pre-made cheesy bacon burgers (6 to a pack – feeds each of us one burger – I serve them in halves and the little ones can eat what they want – usually have leftovers we can munch on for snacks the next day.

Crockpot French Dip Roast – We LOVE this.  We altered the serving of it a bit – my mother-in-law makes these and I love the way she serves them.  We use sub rolls or philly rolls.  Toast the insides in a hot skillet, when toasted, flip, put mayo on the insides, with the sliced roast and slices of cheese (we love mozzarella best, but use whatever we have), put the sandwich together and squish it flat with a spatula.  The goal is to make it all melted together and flatter than a pancake.  We slice them in halves or thirds and serve with the au jus that is dipped off the roast.  If we have leftovers we stick them in the fridge and microwave them the next day for breakfast, lunch, or snacks.  We love just as much the next day.

Red Beans & Rice – surprisingly to me, everyone loved this.  Well, BigMan was not so interested, but everyone else ate it up.  I also used turkey smoked sausage instead of ground sausage.

Snacks

Frozen Yeast Rolls – same as the loaves of bread I’ve mentioned before.  Set them out in the morning, let them rise, bake just before you’re ready to eat.

Boiled Eggs – we all like ‘em sliced in halves with salt and pepper.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches

Yogurt – I buy the big off-brand container of strawberry and serve half at one snack time and half at another.  No waste, unlike the little cups and much cheaper.

Fried Garden Veggies

Lunchmeat

Blueberry Yogurt Smoothies – Bought the big off-brand container of plain yogurt, added frozen blueberries, a little milk and blended.

Leftover biscuits toasted with jelly

Popcorn – we buy the bag of kernels for about $1, we use about a cup at a time (makes a HUGE pot), pop on the stove with a little oil and we add the yellow popcorn salt that we bought in the huge container at Sam’s for about $4.

I’m sure I’ve left out a few things since it’s been a couple of weeks, but this just about covers it.  We ate out twice using coupons we had saved – that totaled about $10 a meal for our family of 6.  We had friends over for the 4th of July and they brought hot dogs, chips, and cookies – we supplied unlimited lemonade (Country Time in the big container) and cheese dip.  I had saved half the block of Velveeta and bought an extra bag of chips from the Chicken Taco Soup Recipe in anticipation of making cheese dip.

I had also planned for more meals than we ended up needing.  So, when payday came around we still had several meals on hand and no pressure to get to the store immediately.  We didn’t make any in-between trips this time other than for WIC (which is amazing for us).  I had bought fresh apples, bananas, and grapes, some frozen blueberries, had juice from WIC, and had bought a can of pineapples, a can of peaches, and a jar of applesauce for back-up fruit as the 2 weeks wore on.  I bought 2 loaves of bread, some hot dog buns, and a pack of hamburger buns, a frozen bag of biscuits, and those frozen rolls.  I discovered this was not enough bread.  I adjusted this last time.  I keep all the fresh bread in the bottom drawer of the fridge to keep it fresh for the full pay period.

Food bill this 2 weeks – $166.00.

I hope this helps your family and confidence.

And that you are just as blessed by this verse as I was:

And having food and clothing, we will be content with that.

- 1 Timothy 6:8

Today I Felt Like A Failure

July 16th, 2009

Today was one of those days.  One where I yelled more than I smiled.  Cried more than I hugged.  Got more accomplished at more of a price.  One of those days that I truly doubted why I would have so many kids.  And how I think I’m capable of raising children.  One of those days that I wonder what havoc having another child will wreak upon my other children, not to mention the new one.  One of those days when I feel like everything I do is just wrong.

I got up and began cleaning the house.  Innocent enough.  And got my children involved. Responsible enough.  It is their mess, after all.  But it never is as calm as you would think.  And the dragging of their little feet when supposed to be cleaning begins to wear on me.  When I don’t clean, none of it matters much until it’s so cluttered that I get edgy.  When I do clean I notice every little infraction and every filthy food smudge on the walls, the chairs, the floor, the couches, the everywhere.  I get more upset by the dumping of yet another glass of water (or pitcher of juice as the case may be) than when the house is already a wreck.

In addition to the need to clean today, I decided today was the day for haircuts.  Why?  Why do I make such stellar decisions?  I marched the children out into the 97 degree heat and the near 100 percent humidity to cut their hair.  On the porch.  Remember how it sounded so romantic that I trim my sweet children’s hair on that porch? How our words can deceive.  Today was the pudding proof.  They began crying before I ever got near their little sweaty heads.  They all wanted someone else to be first.  They all wanted it over.  Now.  Before we’d begun.  They began crying that the hair made them itchy before one snip was made.  I began yelling about as quickly as the hair was falling.  I was angry.  I was hot.  I was tired.  I was itchy.

And as I stewed in my anger, the madness turned guilt-ridden and sad.  And the doubts took hold like the watermelon vines in my garden.  I’ve often thought of the quiver-full movement and of my Catholic friends.  How they know they are going to have as many children as the Lord blesses them with.  Though there would seem to be a burden of just how I would make it, were that my path, there seems to me that there would also be a lightening of the load.  Just knowing what is laid out before you.  No decision to make.  No guilt to bear.  As it is, we love children.  We’ve made the decision to have every one of them.  Consciously, and with effort (except of course, our first wonderful surprise).  We knew we wanted more than one.  We knew we wanted them close.  We felt drawn to have them.  Each time.  But we doubt.  Should we have another?  With so many comments at the store, so many people in our personal lives that cast doubt, raise questions, and generally wonder aloud, “Why?” we turn inward and wonder, as well.  We don’t talk about it openly with others most of the time.  The doubt, that is.  We must present a unified presence.  Put on a good face.  Sleep in the bed we’ve made.  As a blogger, I have to consider that there are people out there who hate people like me for having so many children.  Especially when it’s at least as much of a decision as it is a belief.  And I’m not so sure my skin is as thick as I need it to be to stand up to the criticisms.

And today I was my harshest critic.  I cried along with my children by the time I was cutting the hair of the fourth one in line.  I worried that they would be warped by a mom that cut their hair as opposed to being “normal” and taking them to a salon.  I worried that I pushed them too hard.  Fussed too much.  Didn’t really hear them enough.  See them enough.  I simply wasn’t enough.  And never am.

The turmoil died down with the showers.  They became clean, comfortable resting little people on the couch.  They liked their new cuts.  They smiled much.  They waited eagerly for Granna and Grandaddy to show up.  They showed off their new do’s.  They talked about how it wouldn’t be in their eyes now as they swam.  How God made his highlights in front so cool.  How the shortest haircut she’s ever had shows off her earrings that match her new purse Aunt Meredith sent to her.  And I breathed a little easier.

But not much.  Because once you feel the accusations in a day, it’s just hard to let them go.  To go forward in confidence with the decisions you’ve made, defend, and somewhere deep inside really believe.  That siblings are great.  That they are all blessings that have been granted us – not really chosen, no matter what our outward actions would have you believe.  That large families have large blessings.  That, though there are trade-offs in having lots of small children, they are good and noble trade-offs.  That my intentions will be recognized.  That I really do love them with all my heart.  Even though my heart is sinful, broken, and so far from perfect.  That my children are looking forward to a new one.  That tonight TheMiddlest put his lips close to my baby-moving belly and said, “Good night, Kenaniah.”  That I am, maybe, possibly, not harming my children as much as my hormone-driven brain would have me to believe.  That maybe this is a season that I will look back on as too short.  And, with that thought, ask for the pure and lovely images to drive out the sadness and guilt that thought brings.

When uploading the pictures from the day with my parents, I looked hard at this picture of all four of them with their new haircuts and sweet smiles.

And I thought maybe, He knows more about what I’m doing, and why, than I do.  And that tonight as I fight the urge to cry myself to sleep, that He will show me His mercies anew with the rain-washed night fading into sunlight.  And maybe, I won’t feel as though I’ve blown it so badly tomorrow.

Black-eyed Peas, Fried Garden Veggies, and Cornbread

July 15th, 2009

When I mentioned on Facebook the other day that I forced my children to eat peas and cornbread for dinner it brought on an unexpected discussion of cornbread.  Mandy said she ate hers with mayo.  Really?  Here’s how we eat ours (it’s how I grew up eating it).  So, how do you eat yours?

Black-eyed peas, cornbread, sliced tomato, fried squash and okra from our garden. I used dried black-eyed peas and soaked them over night.  The next morning I got up, drained off the water, added more, threw some of those frozen pre-chopped onions in with some pepper, a bunch of salt and about a tablespoon of bacon grease (that I keep in a mason jar in the fridge – yes, I do) into the crockpot and cooked them til dinner time.  I said I was cooking frugal, people, not healthy.  When I got in from shopping I whipped up the cornbread before picking Matt up from work.  I use Aunt Jemima Cornmeal Mix and follow the instructions.  I heat the iron skillet in the oven with about 3 tablespoons bacon grease (yes, again with the drippin’s), while it’s melting I mix together the cornbread ingredients.  When the grease is melted I whirl it around in the skillet to coat the sides and bottom and then pour the remaining into the mix.  Stir quickly and pour back into the skillet, put it straight into the oven for the specified time.  When it’s done I flip it out of the skillet onto a plate.  I fried up the garden veggies (only squash and okra this time, though I did break down and fry the green tomatoes the other day – they were heavenly).

For the fried veggies: I mix 2 eggs and about 1/2 – 3/4 cup milk in one and about 1/2 cup flour with 1/2 cup cornmeal and a bunch of Tony’s with some salt in a second bowl.  Wash and slice the veggies, dip them in the egg mixture, and then dredge them through the flour/cornmeal mixture.  Using the same iron skillet from earlier, I melt enough bacon grease to cover the bottom (about 3 tablespoons again).  When it’s hot I fry the veggies single layer on one side, when golden, flip over.  I then sliced up a tomato and served it with salt as desired.  I serve the peas over the warm cornbread, veggies on the side.  For dessert we had warm cornbread with butter and jelly.  All I needed to complete the meal from my childhood was some sweet tea (what was I thinkin’, not havin’ that on hand?) and buttermilk – to crumble the warm cornbread into.  Mmm..  I missed out on that one this time.

My poor kids thought I was torturing them with this meal.  “All we’re having is beans?” they whined.  Oh, well.  My southern tastes will eventually wear off on them.  Or they’ll just eat heartier at breakfast.  I have since discovered that they love the fried veggies with ranch dressing, particularly the green tomatoes.

We ate the beans as a side with one other meal later in the week and then I froze the rest for future soups.

Pumpkin Bread

July 15th, 2009

One can of pumpkin makes 2 loaves – We ate one warm for a snack one night and put the other in the fridge for breakfast the next day.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 15 oz canned pumpkin (plain, not the pumpkin pie mix)
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar (packed)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 2 bread pans with non-stick spray.  Whisk together flour and baking powder.  In a separate larger bowl whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, spices, brown and white sugars, baking soda, and salt.  Whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

Topping:  stir together 2 tsp cinnamon and 2 tbsp white sugar in a separate small bowl.

Divide batter between pans.  Sprinkle with topping mixture.

Bake for 25 minutes, check, continue to add 5 minutes until puffed and golden brown and a butter knife inserted into center comes out clean.

Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer bread from pan to cooling rack to continue to cool.

Extra Ideas and Tips

- We first tried this around the holidays and loved it.  So, it entered the year round rotation.  We eat it for breakfast, snacks, warm from the oven, cold from the fridge, and reheated.  You can make it in muffin pans as well, but we discovered we liked it better as bread (moister), though when the newest baby starts eating table foods I’ll probably switch back to mini muffins so that it makes a little less mess and goes further.  These also make great holiday gifts wrapped in pretties.  For smaller families you can use half a can of the pumpkin (for one loaf) and then freeze the other half for another day that you want to mix some up.

Meatloaf

July 14th, 2009

The dish, not the singer.

In preparation for my upcoming frugal menu I will begin adding recipes one at a time, so that they’re easier to access.

Here’s the first.

Our favorite meatloaf recipe has become Alton Brown’s Good Eats Meatloaf.  You can find his original recipehere.  Here’s our adapted one:

Ingredients

• 6 ounces bread crumbs (or crackers crumbled, croutons, whatever you have)
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 onion chopped (I grab a little of what I keep frozen, remember?  I chop and freeze an entire bag of onions when I buy them – makes cooking so much easier later)
• 1 carrot, peeled and broken
• 3 whole cloves garlic (I keep a big jar of minced garlic – 1 tsp = 1 clove)
• 1/2 bell pepper
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg

For the glaze:

• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• Dash Worcestershire sauce
• Dash hot pepper sauce
• 2 tbls  honey

Heat oven to 325.  In a food processor combine bread crumbs, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and thyme.  Pulse until the mixture is a fine texture.  Place this in a large bowl.  Combine the onion, carrot, bell pepper, and garlic in the food processor.  Pulse until the mixture is finely chopped, but not pureed.  Combine the vegetable mixture and ground beef with the bread crumb mixture.  Season the whole mix with the salt.  Add the egg and combine thoroughly, but avoid squeezing.

Pack this into a 10 inch loaf pan to shape the loaf.  Turn the meatloaf out of the pan into a casserole dish. Combine the glaze ingredients and pour over the meatloaf after it has been cooking for about 10 minutes.  Cook for approximately 30 minutes and check for doneness.  You’re supposed to use a meat thermometer, but we don’t have one.  So, I guess on the time.  I think it usually takes about an hour or an hour and a half, but I don’t really know.  Check it often for doneness.

The Milk-tastrophe

July 9th, 2009

Didn’t cry, but wanted to.

I actually was on the way to him before he started dumping it.  It really is like slow motion – how long could it possibly take me to get from the table to the fridge?  Obviously my pregnant speed can now be measured in gallons.

Lapbooking How To's

I’ve had several people (real life and this here life!) ask about our lapbooks.  What are they?  What do they look like?  Where do I come up with ideas?  Do the kids like them or are they just a Mama-thing?  How much do you they cost?  How do you fold them?  Are they just for little people or do older kids do them too?  What do you need to get started?  And these are just a few.  So I thought I would answer some of those questions.  And start showing off my kids’ work a little along the way.

What are they?

A method of homeschooling.  Or supplementing any other learning (public, private, or just free time fun stuff).  The are basically scrapbooks that kids make.  You can print off little “components” (see, I’m even gonna give you some lingo, so you feel “in the know”!), have the kids fill in the information, and glue them in file folders.  Yeah, just those plain boring manila kind that you can buy a whole bunch for very little money at your local get-it-all store.  Typically you refold the folders to where they open up like shutters in the front, but that depends on the lapbook and your preference.  It’s a great place to keep their work (I’ve suggested them to my public schooling friends who don’t want to trash all that paperwork their children bring home from school).

What do they look like?

They look like little booklets that unfold and hold lots of cutesy pictures and fun folded paperwork.

Where do I come up with my ideas?  And how much do they cost?

You can buy very cool preprinted packages from some very trustworthy and amazing places.  A Journey Through Learning and In The Hands of a Child are great examples.  I’m cheap and prefer free.  That means a little more work on my part, but not much.  My favorite site of all and great place to get started is HomeschoolShare.  Wow.  Free, constantly updated, exhaustive, and organized.  Really, for homeschooling what more could you ask for?!  You can go explore their site, but if you’re looking for the shortcut straight to the list of lapbooks they offer go here.  Their lapbooks are then either listed exhaustively or broken down by age.  They have lapbooks by topic (for instance lizards, the human body, and honey bees) and literature-based lapbooks (we’ve done Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees, The Mitten, and If You Give A Mouse A Cookie just to name a few).  I love both, but am probably partial to the literature-based just because I can cover so many subjects in one place.

How do the kids feel about them?

Mine love them.  And I have 2 boys and a girl ranging in ages from 7 down to 4 who currently participate in them.  They like picking them out or seeing what surprise one I’ve picked out for them.  They enjoy doing each component, and since mine are still so small I usually put them all together at the end for them, and they love that completed surprise when it’s all over.  And here’s the amazing part, after about a year of doing them, they’ve started asking to go back through them.  At bedtime it’s the number one asked for item over books or toys.  When they see a show about a book or topic we’ve covered before they run to get that lapbook to look through it again.

Are they just for little learners or for older kids too?

As I said my kids are all under the age of 8, but they have some pretty advanced and very cool chapter book lapbooks, as well.  And I look forward to turning over the entire putting-togetherness of it when they get just a bit older.  I think you’ll be surprised what all’s out there for both genders and all ages once you start looking into them.

How do you fold them or the oft-heard “That’s very cool, and you make great ones, but I would never be able to figure out all that folding” ?

There are such great resources out there that take you step by step in the process.  Remember, it’s one little fold and one little component at a time that eventually adds up to one whole complex cool lapbook.  Don’t get overwhelmed by the finished products.  At HomeschoolShare they have a whole section on blank resources if you care to do them yourself or expand on the lapbooks they have available for you.  When you click on an already prepared lapbook each component is listed seperately so that you may pick and choose the items you want to include in your lapbook.  With those items you print are instructions of how to fold them.  They also include pictures at the end of each section to show you what their completed lapbook looks like.  But it’s always just a suggestion.  And I’ll always take comments or emails and talk you through any place that you’re stuck.

How do you know just how much to include or when you’re through with one lapbook?

This is a good question.  You can play by the rules and print off the whole list and when you work through it, well, then you’re done.  I’m not a good rule follower.  I go by my kids’ levels of concentration.  I pick components I think they would like (or let them pick), print them off, and have them on hand.  I’m not a great planner or stick to it-er once I have a plan, so maybe I’m not a great one to ask.  Or maybe I’m the perfect one to ask.  You pick!  Either way, this is how I do it.  I print off the things I want, we jump in one morning and get started, when my kids start losing interest for the day, we quit.  Then we do some more the next day.  And we keep going as long as they show interest and aren’t fighting me on it.  When they seem through, I quit, put it all together, and give it to them like a present.  If they show more interest than I have printed items for, then I go get creative.  I go to sites like Enchanted Learning (a paying site for the premium stuff – $20 a year last I checked, but very trustworthy, legitimate, and a WEALTH of resources), an awesome site full of free stuff is Jan Brett’s site, I do a search for the topic we’re working on, and/or there are usually related extra resource sites at the end of each lapbook on HomeschoolShare with lots of free printables to add to your finished project.  This is yours and ultimately you’re in control of all of it!

How much do they learn, does it cover enough, and do you use it a your sole curriculum?

Hmm… Depends on who you ask, but since you asked me, I’ll answer!  My kids have learned a ton and have retained nearly all of it.  Really.  When they see something in real like that reminds them of a once-covered lapbook they get excited and start reminding me about what they learned.  It can be your sole curriculum and cover enough if you’re dedicated.  They are great as a companion to Five In A Row.  I have one friend who uses Abeka and plans to use these to kick off or wrap up each 6 week series they start.  I have another friend who wants to use these mostly during the summer and do their “regular curriculum” during the “regular school year”.  It’s up to you.  Homeschool Share even has ascope and sequence checklist for the things you might want to cover with your child according to grade.  Print that off, make a plan, work through it.  And you have an entire school year ahead of you, if you’re that organized and so inclined.  If you are, I envy you and dream of being you some day.  For me, I’m kinda lazy.  Or kinda busy (at least that’s what I tell myself, though I have a sneaking suspicion it’s more the former).  So we do lapbooks according to their desires and fill in the blanks with workbooks and textbooks when I get tired of lapbooking (yes, it can happen, even for an enthusiast such as myself), or run out of one of the necessary items to lapbook.

Which brings us to another question I get..

What do you need to get in order to lapbook?

This is a running joke amongst my lapbooking friends and myself.  Just go buy stock in glue sticks, printer paper, ink, and file folders now.  I’m kidding.  Kind of!  Depending on how many lapbooks you do, how often you do them, how many children you have and how many of those children either contribute to one large combined lapbook or each have their own you may very well find yourself at one of the super mega supply stores buying in bulk.  But when you consider the price you pay for curriculum or other fun learning projects then the price is nominal.  If you’re a beginner I suggest you buy a pack of file folders (I buy the manila ones because I’m cheap – we have painted and decorated them before, but mostly just leave them plain, however, they do have colored file folders if you desire); several glue sticks (I like the sticks over the liquid, because when you’re doing that much gluing – your paper will tend to wrinkle – and well, that just drives me crazy); a pack of printer paper; a pencil; and some colors, markers, or paints; those brass brad things are handy, but not always necessary; a stapler; and sometimes you may want some clear contact paper for the things you want to keep “just so”.  As with most things, they can be as simple or as elaborate you want.

An example of a simple literature-based lapbook my 3 year old daughter did is What Will You Wear Jesse Bear?

And an example of a more elaborate exhaustive topical lapbook is the Volcanoes lapbook my 5 year old son did kindergarten year.