Once Upon A Book Mom ~

Flu or the Plague?

April 9, 2019 by onceuponabookmom Leave a Comment

Maybe I’m being slightly dramatic but let me just be the millionth person out there to say that the flu is evil. I honestly don’t know how I functioned when I had infants. Getting up multiple times a night to dose out medications, rub backs, and apply cool cloths has got me like a cast member of The Walking Dead.

I know I haven’t updated the blog in a while, Christmas knocked me out. I was basically like my normal self except with 8,000 other things to do each day. Taking on too much has always been an issue for me. I know you can all probably relate. I have missed sharing my thoughts and feelings and need to make writing a priority again.

Anyway back to the flu- how do you deal with homeschooling when sickness throws the whole family for a loop?

It seemed just as we were starting to get back into the swing of things after the holidays we were all infected one by one. I am ashamed to say it but Netflix and Nintendo became my best friends. While I laid in bed dying I had no clue what was going on downstairs. I do know at one point my son dumped 3 bottles of bubbles into my pool and turned it into something that looked like a Vegas nightclub party. Other than that everyone was happily absorbed in screens and living on cereal and granola bars.

It’s been a few weeks and I’m slowly trying to get us back into a rhythm. We aren’t super structured to begin with but it was nice to at least read aloud everyday and get a little math done here or there. The pressure of the end of the school year has gotten me a little panicky. I have this vision of us finishing up all of our curriculums and having an end of the school year pizza party where we talk about how they’ve finished 1st, 5th, and 7th grade. Then I snap back and realize that we can still do that even if we don’t finish the workbooks cover to cover.

Movie day for these sick kids

So here I sit, finally almost 100% back to normal, asking to Universe to please let me sleep through the night again.

Soon enough my snuggly, sick kids will be running around like crazies again and this month will be a blur in our memories. If any of you have gone through a rough winter, I’m over here saluting you Katniss style. Springtime is finally here and sunshine and picnics are around the corner.

Our Favorite Christmas Books

November 19, 2018 by onceuponabookmom Leave a Comment

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

I love the magical feeling that the month of December brings to our home. The cocoa and cookies, decorating the tree together, and of course, curling up with some festive Christmas books. We have a slower pace in the month of December, with activities on hold and the weather turning chilly. I welcome this with open arms every year.
We have a fun tradition where our Elves, Crystal and King, bring new books a few times throughout the month. It’s usually a mix of picture books and activity books. These Greene’s love it! Which is such a mom win for me since sometimes when I bring home new books they don’t get as excited. It may have something to do with me bringing home new books A LOT.
Let me be your book elf and share our favorite Christmas books to help get your family in the Christmas spirit.

By Nick Bruel – Bad Kitty Christmas -By Nick Bruel

If you’ve never read a Bad Kitty book with your kids, you need to! We have every single one and they always make us laugh out loud. This story is a little more on the serious side with some great life lessons. It wouldn’t be a Bad Kitty book though without some hilarious naughtiness snuck in there.

Jan Brett’s Christmas Treasury

When I saw this collection at the bookstore recently I almost screamed. Yes, I am that nerdy. We LOVE all the Jan Brett holiday books! Her illustrations are gorgeous and her stories are heartwarming. I’m so happy to have this collection so I can pull it out every year, snuggle with my loves and read story after story.

Santa Bruce (Mother Bruce Series)

Bruce has quickly become a storybook classic in our house. We love his grumpy character and sweet heart. In this new addition poor Bruce has another problem. Everyone thinks he’s Santa! Parents and kids will all be laughing at this one.

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas

How can you not love this groovy cat?! Pete the Cat books have been a staple in our house since my twins were about 4. These were some of the only books my son, Robbie, would read when he was first learning how to read. In this story, Pete saves the day when Santa gets sick. Yay for Pete!

How to Catch an Elf

This is a sweet book with rhyming text that will totally encourage some imaginative play. I’m planning on reading this and then setting up an elf trap station to facilitate some creative building projects!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

You know I had to add this classic! The Grinch has been the bad guy everyone loves for years and this generation of kids is no exception. I love the magical feeling we get imagining ourselves in Whoville for Christmas. Every household needs to have this book at Christmastime.

Usborne Christmas Stories for Little Children

This is another story collection that we will cherish year after year. These stories are so unique and fun. You can read 1 each night or curl up and read all six at once. Our favorite is The Fake Santa. I’d love to know yours?

Grumpy Cat’s First Worst Christmas

If you haven’t noticed we kind of like cat books. Grumpy cat’s Christmas is silly and cute. We love the rhyming text and her humor. If you have a cat lover this is a great pick.

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Pop-Up: A Petrifying Pop-Up for the Holidays

The Nightmare Before Christmas has been one of my favorite movies since I was 12 years old. Yes, I had a phase where I shopped almost exclusively at Hot Topic, don’t we all. Anyway, how gorgeous is this book?! I am nerding out so hard on the illustrations, and the details. This needs to be on your Christmas list!

The Night Before Christmas

Every family needs a copy of this classic poem to read on Christmas Eve night. I love the classic illustrations and beautiful lettering in this copy. It even has a giant fold-out page that your kids will love to open. Don’t lie down for your Christmas Eve nap before grabbing your family a copy of this book.

Happy Holidays everyone and of course Happy Reading!

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Doing All The Things

November 18, 2018 by onceuponabookmom Leave a Comment

Who else out there feels like they can do it all until suddenly its time to actually DO all the things?

Run that bake sale, oh sure. Host science club, yes I have time for that. Take this field trip two hours away, definitely! Sign up to volunteer to feed the homeless at 6 am, we’ll be there!

Ok as you can tell, I’m a major culprit of overscheduling and then almost instantly smacking myself saying whyyy?? All I really want to do is curl up on my couch and snuggle my dogs. Here it is November and I haven’t written a blog post since the end of summer. I thought it would be easy, get up early and write before the kids got up. Boy did I underestimate how hard jumping back into school work would be with four kids to teach this year, minimal planning and way too many activities. I wish this were a post to help you other moms out there know how to do it all…but no I don’t have all the answers. Actually, if anyone has a post like that available can you send it my way.

School work? Who has time for that?

This is the first year that I’m doing structured learning with my twins, who just turned 7. I try to get some form of math and language arts in daily, but even that is a struggle with all of our activities. I know once we start going and get into a rhythm and routine we are all good, it’s just getting there that’s tough.

Some days feel like the homeschool I’ve always dreamed of where everyone is actively engaged in something and then we all snuggle up to a great book together. Each subject checked off of our whiteboard checklist by 12:00. This is not typical though. Most days I’m bugging my 10-year-old to do his math while simultaneously spelling words for the 7-year-olds and just trying to pry my 12-year-old out of bed before noon. All of this before we have to go to theater class, hit Whole Foods, and make it home in time for football practice. By the end of the day, I am so utterly exhausted that I can barely read a chapter of my own books before knocking out.

On the plus side…

The good thing is, I know learning is happening every day, even in this craziness. In the car on the way to dance when my son is reading road signs. When we are walking around the supermarket and the kids are adding up how much all of our fruit will cost. When my daughter becomes obsessed with the musical Hamilton and suddenly knows everything about the American Revolution. It’s not the kids and their learning things that I get the most stressed over, it’s all the other stuff. The Momming that never ends. The household running stuff, the full calendar with no end in sight.

I can’t be the only one who struggles with maintaining the balancing act of errands, chores, social activities, and actually being home to do our schoolwork, right? Just about every homeschooling mom I talk with tells me the same thing. Why do we keep trying to do it all?

Is there an end in sight?

Here is my answer for you. Yes, I know I said I didn’t have answers. I’d call this my advice if you’d like to follow suit in what I’ll be doing. As we approach the new year, I’ll be taking some time to scrutinize everything that we have going on in our lives and examine what is really important. What sets my soul on fire and what makes each child truly happy. Instead of just signing up for every field trip and co-op group, I’ll be asking my kids and myself if we really want to do this or are we just trying to stay busy. Instead of following every page in our curriculum, I’ll ask myself if this is just busy work or is this meaningful to us. Even when it comes to housework. I’ll be unleashing new chore charts because I can’t do it all. No one can and still be sane afterward.

Writing is so important to me, I need to make sure that I’m carving out time for it every day. In doing so it will show my kids that we all need to follow our passions, even as adults. As Julie Bogart says, we need to practice Awesome Adulting. I will be focusing on teaching my family that when we work together to get the NEED to-dos done we will have more time for the WANT to-dos.

The truth is we can’t do it all. Something somewhere will be lacking with each new thing we take on. We just need to figure out how to decide where our energy needs to be. I hope that in the coming holiday months you can join me in reassessing what’s important to your family and start out the new year living more intentionally. Join me in not being afraid to say NO so you are more available to say YES to what really counts.

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Enchanted Engineering Is Magical

August 20, 2018 by onceuponabookmom Leave a Comment

I have always loved fairy tales. There’s just something so magical about being transported into another land- someplace where frogs talk, candy houses are real, and mermaids swim in the deep sea. I wanted to pass this love of fairy tales down to my kiddos. Of course, we read almost all of them, watched movies, and drew pictures. Our favorite activity though was a club we did last year called Enchanted Engineering also known as fairy tale STEM.

Enchanted Engineering is an awesome activity for a co-op or a homeschool group. It can be done at home as well. We had a blast with our small homeschool group focusing on one fairy tale project each month. I’ll give you a few ideas so you can have some fun with STEM and fairy tales with your kids! Here’s a little tip-start saving loads of recycled materials.

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Build a Slide for Rapunzel-

We loved this version of Rapunzel found in Mary Engelbreit’s Fairy Tales: Twelve Timeless Treasures that I read aloud. Then the kids got to work on building Rapunzel slides to escape her tower. That would have saved her a lot of trouble!

Materials-

Cardboard Tubes, as many as you can save up. They can be cut and taped to form your slide.
Duck Tape
Scissors
Bits of Foil or cardboard
Markers and Stickers
Little doll to use to test your slides like this one

Construct a New Bed or Chair for Baby Bear-

The kids had a blast with this one! First, enjoy reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Then let the kids get to work creating beds or chairs for Baby Bear. I couldn’t believe how creative all the children got with the materials I set out for them!

Materials-

Recycled Cardboard and Tubes
Index Cards
Foil
Pipe Cleaners
Scissors
Duck Tape and Glue Sticks
Markers
Teddy Graham cookies make a fun snack 🙂

Build a Raft for The Billy Goat Brothers-

Who doesn’t love some water play? After reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff we used recycled materials to build rafts so the goats could escape the mean troll! We brought buckets and bins to the park and filled them up so the kids could test their creations.

Materials-

Bins with Water
Index Cards
Recycled Cardboard
Duck Tape
Scissors
Foil
Plastic Straws
Popsicle Sticks
Recycled Foam and Plastic
Little Goat Figure from this Safari Ltd Petting Zoo TOOB

Help Jack Escape With a Golden Egg Experiment-

This activity was by far their favorite all year! I loved watching them go back multiple times to adjust their creations. We started by reading Jack and the Beanstalk at the park. Then the kids used recycled materials to pad their eggs to, hopefully, keep them safe from breaking as we dropped them from the top of the play structure! Be sure to pick a park with a high enough play structure to really drop the egg far, also it’s a good idea to bring wipes for this one 😉 We dropped a control egg with no padding first, they loved that!

Materials-

A Dozen ( or more) Eggs
Gallon Sized Ziploc Bags ( we put every egg package inside a bag to minimize mess)
Any and All Recycled Materials- Packing foam, cardboard, plastic containers, foil, plastic cups, plastic bags ect…
Tape and String
Scissors

I hope you have as much fun with these activities as we did! It’s amazing to see what kids can do with a few recycled materials and some tape. Send me a comment to let me know which one your children liked best! Have fun creating and may you live happily ever after!

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Finding Your Homeschooling Tribe

August 13, 2018 by onceuponabookmom Leave a Comment

Who else has had this experience? You find a park day or field trip for homeschoolers and get so excited. “Yay,” you tell your kids, “We’re going to meet some new friends who are also homeschooled!” The day of the event comes, you scramble out of your minivan, your kids actually dressed in real clothes and you’ve even put on makeup for the occasion. Walk over to the meeting area and no one even says hello to you or acknowledges your existence. You think, Ok maybe in a little while someone else will come. Your kiddos go play on their own and you sit there awkwardly, thinking about how you should have grabbed your book off the kitchen table. Maybe you decide to rip off the band-aid and just go say hi to someone. You’ll make small talk for a few minutes but have already known after 30 seconds that this Mom isn’t going to be your bestie anytime soon. Finally, you round up your kids and pack them into the van. They announce that no one played with them and they’ll never meet any friends who are homeschooled. Then without even consciously meaning to you wonder if this homeschooling thing will work out for your family.

This was our experience during the first year we started homeschooling. I felt like a lone wolf that longed for a pack. Not only were my kids craving friendships with other kids in their unique situation but it was really me that needed the solidarity of other Mom’s who were like us. I felt so far removed from some of the friends I had made when my oldest two were in public school. I was so done with hearing, “Wow, I could never homeschool,” day in and day out.

In our quest to find more families like us I ended up realizing that I was already blessed with my tribe.

Yes, I still wanted to meet new people, but I became extra grateful that the Universe had already given me all the support that I needed in a few amazing Mom’s that I met up with every week for a playgroup. We met years before any of us were even officially homeschooling, through a mom’s group that I joined when we first moved to Arizona. Over the years these ladies became more than just other moms I talked about curriculum with. They became my family, my tribe. Once I found my people I felt so much more secure in our decision to homeschool. We weren’t going through this huge life-changing experience as a single fish in a big pond anymore, we finally found our school.

Love these ladies!

Homeschooling can be such an isolating experience.

Many of us focus so much on our kids finding friends, but what about us Moms? Without like-minded women to talk to, homeschooling can quickly become borderline depressing. Finding where you fit in can be tougher than you’d think. At first, I thought it would be easy to make friends in the homeschooling community, we all have this huge part of our lives in common. While that does give us one big talking point it doesn’t equal instant friendship. For me, it was almost the same as meeting other parents while waiting outside the school building to pick up my kids when they were in public school. You’re all there for the same reason, maybe your kids even have the same teacher, but does that make you instant best friends? No, not so much.

Finding your Tribe as a homeschooling mom

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Here’s my advice to you if you’re still searching for your tribe in the homeschooling community.

Don’t be afraid to get into those real, deep conversations quickly when you meet another homeschooling mom. Show others your vulnerability because most likely you’ll meet someone who may be feeling the same way but is scared to show it. Don’t pretend like you’re perfect and have it all put together because let’s be honest, everyone is flawed in some way. Let’s actually get to know each other instead of just chatting about which curriculum we are currently using. Yes, sometimes we need that advice also but if that’s all you talk about then how will you really get to know each other. We can get so consumed with our kids that we forget to make time for ourselves and our friendships. Be sure to go out, drink some wine, and laugh your heart out as often as you can. But don’t forget to be yourself and that it’s OK to not talk about homeschool for a little while!

You all deserve an amazing tribe of friends that you can go to not only in joyful moments but also when you’re so fed up you’re in tears. I wouldn’t be where I am today without some incredible guidance, reassurance, and many shared tears between my Mamas. It has been so gratifying to watch our friendships grow right along with our kiddos. For some of you, that tribe may be online, and those friendships aren’t ones to discount, they can be very real too. I hope you find your tribe- those who make your soul feel at ease, who you can be unapologetically yourself with. Go and find your own kind of weirdo, we all need those friends in our lives.

How To Create A Complete Kindergarten Curriculm Using Usborne Books & More

August 8, 2018 by onceuponabookmom Leave a Comment

Homeschool Mom confession coming up. I cringe when people ask what kind of kindergarten curriculum they should be using. There I said it, I don’t believe in a structured kindergarten curriculum.

I don’t mean that I believe unschooling is the only way to go for kindergarten. I’m just not for sitting your five-year-old down at the table and making them do math sheets and spelling lists unless they’re super into that kind of thing. I believe the fastest way to getting your five or six-year-old to hate school work is by over-structuring everything so early on. I didn’t always feel this way. It took me many months of unnecessary pushing to get to my realization. Thankfully, I had discovered Usborne Books & More around the time my twins were approaching kindergarten and thank goodness I did because it saved my sanity. I found that with a few wonderful books, some games, and manipulatives, they were learning just as much if not more, without the struggle or pushing from me.

Are you feeling the same way I felt when my twins were starting kindergarten? Do you want to do some kind of real school work with them but both you and your child aren’t quite ready for big structured curriculums? I have an awesome alternative for you, make your own curriculum using Usborne Books & More materials!

I’ve created the perfect list of books and materials to get you and your child all set up for kindergarten. These books are just the basic building blocks. If you would like to create a unit study based on their interests then I can help you create that. If they are passionate about space and astronauts or farming and growing food, I would totally recommend taking the time to support their interests. Even if you are using a structured curriculum many of these choices can also be used as supplements or fun add-ons. Here are my recommendations for your kindergarten curriculum by subject.

Math-

Usborne First Illustrated Math Dictionary This internet-linked book is a great resource to have for kindergarten. If you’ve never used an Usborne internet-linked book what that means is there is a website to go to and pages throughout the book link to additional web resources like games, videos, and information. This feature is what makes Usborne non-fictions such great curriculum choices. This dictionary has colorful pages that help to explain early math concepts in a clear and fun way. Use this as a teaching tool along with some of the other books on the list.

Usborne Count to 100 Learning to count to 100 is so much fun for kindergarteners with this beautifully illustrated book. Use it when working with manipulatives or even as a bedtime read.

Usborne Wipe-Clean First Math Practicing simple addition and subtraction will be fun for your kids with this wipe-clean book. They won’t have to worry about erasing messy pencil marks and using this book will help with their pen control. Each Usborne Wipe-Clean book comes with a special pen.

Usborne Lift-the-Flap Adding & Subtracting It’s been proven that kids absorb more information when lifting flaps and reading in bite sized chunks. This book is a great resource to use when first teaching addition and subtraction. Your kids will love lifting over 125 flaps while learning math skills!

Usborne Lift-the-Flap Telling the Time Learning how to tell time is important to bring up in kindergarten. Even if they don’t master the concept it helps to give them a foundation to build on. This book teaches about digital and analog time and teaches important topics such as what is time and the different units we use to measure time.

Usborne Wipe-Clean Telling the Time This is another fabulous Wipe-Clean book for your kindergartener. Even if they don’t master telling time this book will help them get introduced to the topic in a fun way.

Learning Wrap-Ups Kindergarten Math Center Kit with Base I was introduced to the Learning Palette System when I became a consultant with Usborne Books & More and I immediately thought that these were some of the most unique educational products that I’d ever seen. This kit comes with 1 – Learning Palette Base, and 5 Titles of Learning Palette cards ( Matching and Early Numbers, Numbers-Coins & Fractions, Intro to Algebra, Intro to Geometry and Measurement, and Intro to Data ) each with 12 curriculum cards. Your kids will use the colored shapes and cards to learn their kindergarten math concepts. The awesome thing is once you have the base you can use it for the next few years in math and reading, you’ll just need the curriculum cards.

Language Arts and Reading

Usborne Lift-the-Flap ABC I love this book for new kinders just learning their letters and sounds. As I said earlier lifting flaps makes learning so much more fun and with this book, each page is like a game. Another great thing about this book is that it introduces both lowercase and uppercase letters. I have noticed that many early alphabet books just focus on uppercase. It’s nice to get them seeing both forms of the letters early on.

Usborne Wipe-Clean Alphabet Cards This set has 30 wipe clean cards and comes with a special pen. I love that you can work on one or two letters at a time so it doesn’t seem overwhelming to a children.

Usborne Alphabet Sticker Book Kids love sticker books! Believe it or not, they learn so much from doing them like fine motor skills, creative thinking, and reasoning. I love to pair a sticker book with whichever topic we are learning about.

Usborne My First Reading Library This comprehensive library comes with 50 books! These books will take your kindergartener from beginning to read CVC words all the way up through early chapter books as he gets older. It is by far one of the best collections to add to your home library!

Usborne Phonics Readers Box Set This library of 20 books is perfect for kindergartenrs that have mastered CVC words and are ready to move on to the next level. These books have beautiful illustrations, engaging stories, and rhyming text. My twins love how you can see some of the same characters in each book.

Science

For science, I recommend staying interest led. Take trips to the science center, go on hikes, observe and explore as much as possible! These books are great to have in the house to introduce topics and have some fun with science.

Usborne 365 Science Activities I fully believe in making science fun and hands on, especially at the kindergarten level. Delve into their curiosities with the awesome activities in this book. They’re easy and most require very little prep or materials. You’ll use this book for your homeschool year after year.

Usborne Beginners Science Box Set This 10 book box set includes Astronomy, Earthquakes, Living in Space, Planet Earth, The Solar System, Storms and Hurricanes, Sun, Moon and Stars, Volcanoes, Weather, and Your Body. All of these books are chocked full of information and include internet links to delve further into topics that interest your child. My 6-year-old, Robbie, is obsessed with the Weather and Volcanoes books.

Social Studies and History

For Kindergarten I recommend keeping this subject mainly interest led. Take trips to museums, landmarks, Renaissance fairs, local government offices, and so on. When you travel as a family bring books about the areas you’ll be in and start a travel journal. If your child is interested in animals, pull out a map or picture atlas and talk about where those animals are native in the world. Reading age-appropriate historical fiction is also a wonderful introduction to history for youngsters. These books are wonderful staples to have in your library to introduce geography and history in a fun way.

Time Traveler This fully illustrated book is a fun introduction to four periods in history. You and your child will learn about knights and castles, Viking raiders, Rome and Romans, and Pharaohs and pyramids while reading about a boy who travels back in time to these periods.

Usborne Big Picture Atlas This 40-page atlas is perfect to teach core geography concepts. It’s not just a boring map, it’s colorful and full of information about food, culture, and geographical facts.

Usborne Stories from Around the World This wonderful storybook is full of short tales from different regions of the world. These stories are full of bravery, magic, and wonderful morals.

Usborne Sticker Dressing Dolly Around the World Your child will have so much fun using stickers to dress dolls in traditional outfits from different countries of the world.

I could totally keep going but will try to hold back my nerdiness for these books, we don’t want a mile long list. This list alone will give you a solid curriculum to start out with. Remember to leave room in your day for play and plenty of interest-led learning. Use your child’s interests to quench their thirst for knowledge with books on topics that they’ll love.

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