u/Castironskillet_37

My primary goal of homeschooling is to teach my little humans how to human. I get it that they need language arts and math etc and we are studying and not ignoring the educational standards. But I want my kids to have frugality, handiness around the home, social skills, finance skills... Home economics strengths. Nature knowledge. Etc, lots of skills that arent grammar or addition per se. I had to teach myself how to cook, for example. I want them to be taught by me so they dont feel lost.

Im hoping for more ideas up this alley of projects we can do on the side with my 7 yr old as he grows. So far I have,

Sew old socks into sock puppets

Plant seedlings in an egg carton

Create a planter from an old water bottle

Patch a tire on his bicycle

Lubricate squeaky door hinges around the house

Help with painting a room

Sand down and paint some wooden blocks for baby brother

If anyone else is doing similar stuff, Im looking for more ideas of side projects to build handiness and DIY knowledge into life. The kids will keep growing and growing, so open to ideas for when they are older as well.

For 2nd/3rd grade phonics in particular, those who incorporated Phonics Pathways, what ways did you turn into lessons?

We'll utilize a whiteboard, have my son read some directly from the book, both participate in spelling out words (I write first half he writes suffix etc), have him illustrate some sentences, pick sentences to write out, read him the lesson when there's explanations.

Idk about like writing parts of words on notecards and seeing what words he can create like a puzzle. Im hoping for some other ways to apply this material if anyone has used this book. Its a little bit open-ended. Thanks in advance for any ideas.

*This is NOT the full language arts course for next year**

**Solely phonics portion of our language arts, I have 2 other books Im using to round out + a booklist**

My 18 month old has always had loose stools. Ive cut dairy for him but his whole life its just, not been fun to deal with. Cutting dairy hasn't resolved

Liners help, but dont contain the mess. I stepped away from cloth a week ago when teething exacerbated the problem and frankly Im not looking too much into returning due to this. He frequently goes more than once daily if not 3-4x, often getting onto the prefold + cover, Im left hand cleaning a big mess before washing

I really dont know why its this way. My first child always had constipation so Im grateful this baby is not constipated but perhaps, 3rd times the charm and we'll have a 3rd with perfect poops and I can enjoy cloth

What solutions could there be if its not lactose intolerance? I dont want to constipate my kiddo. He eats tons of rice bananas and apples and still its like this. Hmm