I am currently in this weird phase where I have a teenager, preteens, little kids and a baby. My oldest turns 13 tomorrow so I am feeling extra sentimental. I am still in the thick of things but I miss a few aspects of having a lot of little kids is our duvet days. We would pile into my bed and Read books and watch movies on dreary days. I miss their little kid voices. I can already see the change in my 5yo. She is not even one ounce the same person she was when she was a baby. I am finding myself snuggling my 9 month old more because she is my last and I am still not ready for that chapter to be over no matter how crazy my life is.

Every year I plan the first 10 or 12 books that I read aloud. For us, read aloud time happens at breakfast time so hands and mouths are occupied. I try and balance older kid reads with younger kid reads. Oh! And yes some of these I have read in the past to my big kids. For the upcoming year we have Grades K, 5, 6 & 8. 1. Fantastic Mr. Fox 2. That Scatterbrain Booky 3. Odder 4. The Vanderbeekers Ever After 5. The Mouse & The Motorcycle 6. Stuart Little 7. Pippi Longstocking 8. A Song for a Whale 9. Mr. Poppers Penguins 10. Kingdom of Wrenly #1The Lost Stone 11. The Train to Impossible Places 12. Tiger Rising Tell me what is on your read aloud list and add your kids ages.

I count colours. Like, if I'm talking with someone I would start with their face and count all the colours there and work my way down to their shirt and then arms. If I'm bored by myself I find myself doing it too.

I am running around with kids so my basic look is biker shorts. I also have a few pairs of blue denim shorts and 2 pairs of colorful denim shorts. I dont know if it's stylish but it's comfortable. I also recently bought this pink dress and want it in all colors even though my husband asked me when I'm milking the cows because it's cute and comfortable.

My meal plan goes from Friday to Thursday 1. Rainbow Quinoa Salad - tuesday 2. Black Bean Burgers, potato wedges - Wed 3. Pizza - eaten friday 4. Broccoli Impossible Pie - Thursday 5. Tofu Fried Rice - eaten Saturday 6. Mac and Cheese - eaten sunday 7. Leftovers - Monday

There are no words. I am so sorry.

My kid loves Explode the Code. I bought it when I bought All about Reading Level 1 just to use during the summer for handwriting/phonics. She did a Lesson this week and she loved being able to color the pictures after. I may stick with this over the summer and if it's still working I may scrap AAR because I am worried about all the moving parts.

I'm sure it would be great with almond butter

When I clicked on the thread I was excited to give my granola recipe. Turns out you already posted it! My kids favourite Granola is also this one. We usually add flax to it as well. https://joyfoodsunshine.com/healthy-peanut-butter-granola/

New one today. My husband surprised me with tickets to see Tom Papa in Montreal. Spending one night there. My MIL will be coming over to spend the night and day with the kids.

The youngest 4 have swimming lessons every weekday for July. We also will be swimming a TON thanks to my parents and my MIL's pool. My twins have a week of STEAM camp and my older girls have a week of pony camp.

The sunshine. My kids playing in the sunshine. We are also two weeks away from summer vacation!

Can we get an ongoing thread for what you're going to be making and eating? I need inspiration every once in a while. 1. Rainbow Quinoa Salad 2. Black Bean Burgers 3. Pizza 4. Broccoli Impossible Pie 5. Tofu Fried Rice 6. Mac and Cheese 7. Leftovers

We serve fruits & veg at every snack or meal. They are free to eat it or go without. We also have easy things for them to eat between meals or snacks: cheese, trail mix, crackers, fruit. We eat a vegetarian diet so our diet is more carb heavy: but I also have celiac disease so we eat more rice/quinoa for lunch and reserve bread for breakfast when we don't always eat the same thing for that meal. We also eat beans, tofu, fruit, veg, nuts.

Maybe? I dont feel that everything from scratch is cheaper? Especially if you're thinking your time is worth money. I will admit we have a large grocery budget because of my celiac disease. We also make food from our garden but it isn't cheaper when you take into account the time and equipment. I do it because I like canning and preserving.

She is for sure one. She also is pure chaos. I can't comprehend how someone buys things from her or even believes her. She has an entire grocery store amount of food in her house but only serves minuscule amounts of food.

I didn't want to name specific families because I realize I am only getting a small glimpse into their lives. My assumption could be wrong.

Oh for sure, my kids have regular meal times and snack times but I understand that kids might be more active one day or maybe going through a growth spurt so they will need more than the 2 snacks and 3 meals I normally provide.

I haven't seen this family but I will have to watch their videos. That does seem reasonable. I also like Mama to five. She eats similar to what my family ate when we ate meat.

Does anyone else watch large families on YouTube? We have 6 kids, so I know what it takes to feed large family and I am always so disturbed how little the families eat, how fanatical families eat(nothing processed) or the exact opposite of only processed foods and nothing fresh. I understand we only get a small glimpse into their lives but I want to see normal large families. My kids eat processed food but we also eat a ton of fresh stuff and if my kids are hungry and it isn't a snack or meal time, the kids are still allowed to eat. Some of these videos snd families make it seem like the kids are forced to scavenge and sneak food in order to get their nutritional needs met. It just makes me sad because these kids are going to have lifelong food insecurity.

*Update* I am loving having the biggest meal as lunch. It allows my husband to help more in the kitchen during the week and my kitchen is typically pretty clean by the evening which is amazing. For the evening meal if someone is hungry we have been doing finger food, Smoothies, perogies, cereal, sandwiches.It depends on how hungry everyone is.

I probably have 60? I have significantly less but I'm a homeschool mom to young kids. I have 4 seasons which makes the amount higher because I need layers. I live in jeans or leggings. I have only 5 pairs of footwear. I have two purses. I don't care what is in fashion so that helps keep the amount down.

YouTube has a ton of videos of homeschool families favourite curriculum they used for the current 2022/2023 year. I'm curious, what have been your families favourite? New favourites? Old favourites. I asked my kids and they said Bookshark Science and my 9yo said he loved IEW because it makes writing easy.

My kids havent had that much access except for the older kids writing things. I just tell the other kids and they are very encouraging to the younger kid to do it right.

For us I insist if you want to write you have to do it properly. If you dont want to or can't you aren't ready. I will usually buy the preschool HWT book at that point and encourage them. Once my kids have mastered with 90% accuracy of letters, I also get them their own pencil case with writing and coloring supplies and that also works as a good incentive. My oldest has beautiful Writing, my second does not because she wants to write fast. My twins have nice writing too.