I love PINTEREST so much!

One of the most useful homeschooling tools that I use these days is PINTEREST (also great for hobbyists and crafters too).

Pinterest is a social bookmarking tool used to “pin” images found around the Web into categorized collections, or boards. It’s like an interactive, shareable scrapbook.

I am almost positive I am not alone when I put this website down as a great homeschoolers resource site. You can and will find ideas and inspiration for anything and everything you can ever imagine. It’s a way of keeping the stuff you find and want to refer back to another time. And if your memory is going like mine, (not sure whether that’s a mama or age thing … ) the fact that you “pin” things by images is great as it is usually a much easier and quicker way to remember which site you were looking for. You can also just sit and lose time searching through Pinterest for inspiration.

 

SOME TERMINOLOGY 

PINS - A pin is an image or video, either from a website or uploaded from the user. A description can (and should) be added to pins.

 

BOARDS - Pins can be organized by topic, called boards. By default, Pinterest starts users off with a bunch of boards, but these can be deleted or renamed to suit a user’s interests. Within my pin boards, I’ve created collections of everything from recipes I want to try and Home schooling boards broken down by subject. Ie Anatomy, history, math, music, crafts, natural cleaners, healthcare, and so on (and so and so on … oops).

FOLLOWING - You can follow anyone, even if they aren’t following you back. You have the option to follow all of another user’s boards, or you can just select certain boards to follow. I follow a number of homeschoolers and that way I get a feed of their latest pins. It is surprising how often a pin will show on my page when I go in for a look that is on the very subject that the girls are currently interested in.

REPINS - Repinning is sharing an image pinned by someone you follow or found while browsing Pinterest, and then adding it to one of your own boards. Repinning gives credit to the person who first pinned the image. You can also edit (or add to) the description when you repin something. Source links also stay on the pin no matter how many times it is repinned. You don’t need to be following someone to repin from them.

LIKES - Liking a pin just adds it to the “Likes” on your profile, but doesn’t add it to one of  your boards. Again, you don’t need to be following someone to like their pin.

SHARING - Anytime you pin something, you can easily share it on Twitter and Facebook but you don’t have to. I recommend unless you are wanting lots of people to follow you that you don’t do this as you may end up annoying some friends who get sick of seeing you pin stuff all the time!

PINNING FROM THE WEB - You can add a “Pin It” button right onto your browser to easily pin things you come across on the Internet. You’re given a choice of which image to use from the page you are pinning and you then select which board to add the pin to. Remember you can add or change a description.

 

How to Join (Come on you know you want to … )

1. Sign Up – You used to have to get an invite to join the site but this doesn’t have to happen anymore. When you do sign up, you’ll have the option to link either your facebook or twitter account with your Pinterest account if you have any of those. If you prefer to start with just your e-mail address, you can always connect your social accounts later if you want to (but there is no real need).

2. Create Your Profile - When you create your account, think about the other social accounts you have. Try to stick with a consistent username if you already have a blog name, or Twitter or Instagram account. That will make it easier for anyone who follows you to find you via searching on Pinterest. It also helps to use the same profile photo—that way people know it’s you. You can also remain completely anonymous. I even let my young daughters have their own accounts (using fun, false names of course) and they can now be found making boards on knitting, horses, origami, the latest musician or anything else that is currently taking their fancy. Say for instance they want to make some origiami, they can click through to the board and pin and it will link them straight through to the blog and instructions.

3. Check Your Settings - Once your account is active the first thing you should do is take a look at your e-mail settings. Luckily, Pinterest’s options are straightforward and easy to understand. When you first start pinning, keep all the e-mail notifications on. It’s a great way to find new people to follow by seeing who likes, comments, or repins ideas from your boards. You can turn them off later if they are clogging your inbox. 

WARNING -- Pinterest is extremely addictive and it can also cause feelings of inadequacy. Oh and husbands can get a little annoyed with it, when you keep showing them outdoor settings made out of pallets or other decorating and gardening ideas that “will just take like 5 minutes for you to make hun”! That will teach him for watching rugby and leaving me to amuse myself on Pinterest … hehehe.  Now must be off, am about to whip up a fail proof recipe off Pinterest that looks the bomb!  

Planning Term 2 with just a little bit of help!

I had only just started to plan the girl's school term on a big whiteboard, when I was called away to  answer the phone. I had gotten as far as writing Living Math on Wednesdays and that was about it.

On  my return I found The Fashionista had kindly taken over the planning.  I am not sure "no school, no school, no school, etc." is really what I had in mind.

Nice try kiddo!

Menu Planning Saves my Sanity ... well a bit of it!

 


For quite a while there I produced a monthly menu plan but I stopped doing it over summer whilst on our school break and just haven't bothered starting it again this year. "Big mistake! Big! Huge!" Yes I get mistaken for Julia Roberts a lot, it's that short, dumpy, blonde thing I have going on. I found last term a real struggle meal wise and we ate quite a few fast food meals (by our standards as we live in the sticks and any take aways are MILES away) because I wasn't at all prepared, therefore we have been eating far less healthily and spending way more than we need to also. Hello, whatever happened to Fish and Chips being a cheap family takeaway, or is that a dream I once had?

Although as a rule I enjoy cooking, coming up with an idea at the last minute drives me to despair. If you ask anyone here it's "I dunno" or something so ridiculous I end up just rolling my eyes in the back of my head and stomping off into the kitchen to open every pantry, fridge and freezer door in the hopes that inspiration jumps out at me!

So I have decided it is imperative that our family goes back to Menu planning, for like my sanity people.

When I menu plan I like to do it for a whole month at a time, cause I am special like that. Some people have asked me why I do it monthly and the main reason is that we have a mad, crazy schedule so it saves loads of time to do it just once a month rather than week by week. I also live in a rural town that doesn't have a large supermarket so it helps if I can cut down on trips to a nearby town, or at least just pop in quickly for a few of the essentials rather than do a big shop every week. Also I can look out for specials if I am aware of things I am after ahead of time.

It is not always quick and easy to plan our menus, as the Papa works shift work and I have to take his hours into consideration. I try to plan things, that he doesn't like as much, but the girls and I do, to have when he isn't around and of course food he loves (PIZZA, pizza and oh yeah pizza) on one of those nights he's home. It also means I can't always follow the previous years plan for the same month but generally I try and use that one to start with.

I have a few themes that I also follow which makes planning easier.  i.e. Meatless Mondays, Slow Cooker Thursdays (we get back late from dance classes so it's nice to come in to something ready), Fast food Fridays (it's homemade fast food),Saturday roasts and Simple Sundays where we often have leftovers or a toasted sandwich or soup but I do plan a yummy dessert to make up for it. If anyone is desperate for dessert any other night they are welcome to have some ice cream or fruit otherwise I only plan dessert for Sundays.

I also make a cooked breakfast on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. We aren't big cereal fans and I also find it is often cheaper to have a cook breakfast what with the price of cereal these days. So I plan cooked breakfasts for those days and everyone looks forward to them, except for me who'd prefer to be in bed with her head under the pillow drawing out those last few minutes of peace and quiet.

And as we homeschool, we eat at home most days, so I usually plan a few different things to have during the week. i.e., soup, wraps, etc to keep the menu interesting. I know great mum aren't I ... actually it's simply to stop us ALL whining that we are "bored" with sandwiches again.

Lastly I try and add some weekly baking as we all prefer home baking to any store bought. Did anyone else pick up on the "try" in that sentence.

Of course if I need or want to detour from the menu, then I do, it is not cast in stone (despite what my family thinks!) but it really does take some pressure off this Mama's shoulders.

I'd love to share my spreadsheet with you,  it's nothing fancy but who knows maybe there will be some new meal ideas for you to try, but I am clueless on how to do it. If  anyone knows how to, and wants me to then please let me know.

Happy planning.

Starting a Command Centre

As a big Pinterest fan I have seen a number of "Command  Centres" which look really useful. For those who haven't seen them, basically they are a section of wall that you arrange with notices boards, calenders, baskets (or similar) for bills, etc. Basically a central area for the family to refer to notices, dates, birthday's, bills and such.

The Papa works odd hours and days because of his shift work and for this reason, and apparently not just because he doesn't pay attention to what I say, he tends to forget odd jobs, repairs and dates. He has told me on more than once occasion that I don't nag him, which apparently is part of my job description (who knew), so how is he supposed to remember anything. Seriously you just can't win sometimes ...

Anyway with these command centres in mind, which I decided we just simply have to have with our hectic lifestyle, I purchased my first cork board especially for him. We'll pop notes on it for things that he has to do. I thought we could colour code them, IE red for urgent attention, orange for has to be done but not urgent and green for those little jobs that we would like to do sometime. You know a new garden bed or such.

I explained to the girls what the board was for and left it on the table overnight. I thought I'd paint the frame as it's a bit cheap looking and had hoped to get onto the next day.

I was rather amused when I got up the next morning and saw that The Fashionista had added her own wee requests on it for The Papa.

They read "Make hit for goats", "Start looking for a friend for Scruffie" (Scruffs our dog and they desperately want another one, can you tell!) and lastly "Play with girls". I simply love their priorities!

My Reading List for 2103

Last year I realised that for many years that I hadn't been reading much fiction. I had read lots of homeschooling resources and learning books but no really good fiction.

So after reading about a few people who compile book lists at the beginning of the year I decided to give it a go. I keep the list in my planner and it is so much easier to pop into the library (or grab something for the kindle) if I know exactly what I wanted. It also meant that I was not wasting my limited reading time on trash.

Last years book list worked really well and I managed to read a couple of really good books. Some from the list and some not. I didn't manage to get through the whole list, our library doesn't have the best selection and was not prepared to pay $20 - $30 to read a book. Let's hope I have better luck in 2013, especially now that I have a kindle.


Here's my list for 2013 ... in no specific order ...

MY READING LIST FOR 2013

FICTION

Girl in hyacinth blue by Susan Vreeland
What looks like crazy on an ordinary day by Pearl Cleage
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I know this much is true by Wally Lamb
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simons
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
The Homeschool Experiment by Charity Hawkins
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Phryne (Fry-nee) Fisher Series by Kerry Greenwood (only 1 or 2 of them)

The Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews (only 1 or 2 of them)

 

NON-FICTION

You Can Buy Happiness (And It's Cheap): How One Woman Radically Simplified her life and you can too by Tammy Strobel

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan
Never have your dog stuffed by Alan Alda
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry
Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living by Rachel Kaplan and K Riby Blume
Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too by Adele Fabe and Elaine Mazlish
The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain
Paleoista by Nell Stephenson


Thank you to those who recommend books. I wont hold it against you if they don't turn out to be very good ... although I may look at you a little differently .... haha