How to Teach Multiplication Tables

At the suggestion of a teacher at our school, we discovered a fun and effective way to teach multiplication tables at home. We had been using flashcards, but were not making much progress, so a teacher suggested using Schoolhouse Rock. There is a DVD that contains all of the Schoolhouse Rock songs ever broadcast. My kids and I agreed that in place of flashcards, they would watch the multiplication song for whatever number we were working on for 15 minutes every morning before school and then take a 100 problem test on that number and I would time them to see how fast they could finish. It took only a short time for my 4th grader to know all of the times tables well enough to pass them off.

After they memorized the Schoolhouse Rock songs, we moved on to games. Right now we are playing War with flashcards. My two boys in 5th and 2nd grade play for 15 minutes in the morning before school starts. They split the deck of flashcards in half and take turns turning over a card from their decks. The first person to answer the problem correctly wins the card, and the first person to have all of the cards wins (if there is time...) This is working great! In just a few days they are much faster, and they love it! Here are some links to Schoolhouse Rock DVDs:

Schoolhouse Rock Anniversary Edition (contains all the songs)

Interactive Schoolhouse Rock Multiplication DVD

New Disney Movies Coming This Year

Disney movies are a great way to make the most of your money! Our family loves to get together and go see a Disney movie in the theater, or watch one at home for what we call our "Family Movie Night" on Saturday night. We often learn great life lessons from Disney movies. So here are some of the upcoming Disney movies for this year. Enjoy! :)

EARTH (April 22)



UP (May 29)



Okay here's one more for UP, just because I love it so much...



G-Force (July 24)



Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure (Fall 2009)



The Princess and the Frog (December 12)



Lots of good popcorn nights coming!

How to Save Money on Your Grocery Bill

1. Plan a simple two-week menu. This will help you create a shopping list of dinners you have planned, other meals, and staples.
2. Shop with a list. Shopping with a list helps to decrease impulse buying. It helps to cross things off as you buy them and shop with the intention of only buying what is on your list, unless there is a really good sale on a staple item.
3. Buy in bulk. Lots of stores sell bulk items for less. These are sometimes less expensive than buying larger quantities, and also save gas money and travel time. Check the price per lb./oz./item to compare. Sometimes on things like Peanut Butter, Macaroni and Cheese, Pasta, and Tomato Sauce it's hard to find a better deal than you can get just buying in bulk at Sam's Club or Costco.
4. Stock up on sale items. When Cream of Chicken Soup goes on sale for 50 cents a can, I buy as much as I can carry home! Also our favorite cereals are handy to buy a few boxes on sale, and when there is a good price on meat, I buy several and freeze some, or rearrange my menu to fit it in during the week.
5. Buy simple and unprepared foods. If you buy sliced cheese, baked goods, prepared fruit, etc. you usually have to pay for the labor to prepare the food and sometimes special packaging as well.
6. Rotate your pantry. Using a rotating pantry helps you to waste less by using everything you buy before it expires.

7. Renovate leftovers. Sometimes giving your leftovers a little boost can save money and be as good as creating a whole new meal! This works well with lightly seasoned chicken (crockpot chicken is ideal), beef, and pork. Even vegetables can be made over with a little cheese sauce or cream of mushroom soup mixed in.
8. Get a dry-erase board and keep a running list. When you run low on a staple item through the week, add it to the list. This keeps you from having to make multiple trips to the store throughout the week, using valuable time and gasoline money.

9. Check ads and clip coupons. Sometimes a certain store has just the right thing on sale, and it's worth it to make a trip there just to stock up. I do most of my shopping at our local Stater Brothers because I find the best day-to-day values there, and I mostly use the same things so don't need a larger variety. Coupons are very useful when I only clip the ones I use regularly.

10. Keep track of how much you spend. Sometimes I'm surprised at how much I spend on things I don't really need. Snack foods like cookies, crackers, chips, etc. are really expensive. If I make my own, I spend less and eat less because there are usually fewer to share. :)

How to Plan a Two-Week Menu

Planning a two-week menu is really easy and saves time and lowers your grocery bill. There are many ways to do it. Here are some suggestions:

1. Look at your rotating pantry list, and also in your freezer, and in your refrigerator, and find the things that are set to expire soon and plan to use them in your meals, as well as any weekly specials you can find in ads. If you have more than one or two things, it may be helpful to write them down on the top of your paper.

2. On a piece of lined paper, write the days of the week and dates on every other line going down the left margin. Example:

M 3/23

T 3/24

W 3/25

TH 3/26

F 3/27

S 3/28

Su 3/29

3. It is helpful to plan a themed dinner for each day of the week for variety. This is what ours looks like:

Monday: Chicken
Tuesday: Italian
Wednesday: Beef
Thursday: Mexican
Friday: Fish
Saturday: Fancy
Sunday: Simple

4. In the body of the paper, write your meal selections next to each day and date. It helps to have your cookbook organized the same way as you do your themes so you can easily pick meals.

5. When you list meals, you can add side dishes, vegetables, and dessert. Here is one way to do it:

Chicken Parmesan/garlic bread/green beans/brownies

6. You can add in other notes and things in the in-between spaces, like breakfast and lunches for the week can be put in before Monday, or breakfast for the weekend can be put in before Saturday.

7. Here is an example of a finished menu:

B: Cinnamon Toast L: Egg Salad Sandwiches/yogurt/peanut butter cookies

M 3/23 Cream Cheese Chicken/green beans

T 3/24 Spaghetti/garlic bread/salad

W 3/25 Cola Pot Roast/sweet baby carrots and potatos

TH 3/26 Beef Enchiladas/corn

F 3/27 Salmon/rice/peas/jello

B: Cinnamon Rolls

Sa 3/28 Smoked Tri-Tip/baked potato/broccoli/cheesebread

Su 3/29 Tri-Tip sandwiches w onion and bellpepper/grapes/chocolate chip cookies

8. It is fun to display it on the refrigerator where everyone can see it, then listen to oooh's and aaah's when your family sees their favorite meals posted. :)

How to Remove Wrinkles From Clothing

Besides ironing, a simple and quick way to remove wrinkles is to fill a spray bottle with water and put a splash of fabric softener in it. Spray your clothes lightly, shake them, and smoothe them with your hand, and they will look like they just came out of the dryer.

How to Create a Rotating Pantry

Rotating pantries help keep you stocked with staple items, and help manage food storage. We are trying to work up to a year's worth of food storage, that way if we should have a natural disaster, loss of employment, or other setback of some kind we are able to sustain our family for a time. To create a rotating pantry:

1. Make a list of things your family uses to cook meals regularly. Ours looks something like this:

Tomato Sauce
Tomato Paste
Cream of Chicken Soup
Cream of Mushroom Soup
Olives
Mushrooms
Diced Green Chilis
Flour
Sugar
Salt
Rice-A-Roni
Oats
Spaghetti noodles
Egg noodles
etc...

Ours are grouped by categories, canned goods, dry goods, boxes and packages, etc. to correspond with how they are stored so it's easy to find things.

You can also go through your favorite recipes and write down the non-perishable ingredients to add to the list. It's also helpful to add freezer and toiletry items as well if you have storage space.

2. Next, laminate your list or place it in a sheet protector and hang it by your pantry where you can see it or place it in a home-management notebook. The plastic covering makes it possible for you to use a dry erase marker to add expiration dates by each item or box of items so you can be sure to use them before they expire.

3. When you plan your menu, use items that are set to expire soon first. It is also helpful to put the oldest items at the front of the pantry to make sure they get used, and put new items in the back after shopping.

For storage ideas, check out Shelf Reliance:



Happy Storing!

How to Tie a Full-Windsor Knot

This is definitely valuable knowledge for Moms of boys.

How to fold a fitted sheet

I think this is the best method for how to fold a fitted sheet. Mine don't come out this perfect, but they are much better than my old roll-and-toss-in-the-cupboard method.

How to clean a stove in 45 minutes

So I have this beautiful white stove with grey porcelain grates, and no matter how much I have scrubbed, scraped, and chipped at it, it has not been really clean in years. Not from a lack of trying, just because, well, I have a life. Then the other day I was surfing eHow and discovered a tip from a lady who must be an angel from Heaven. She said she puts her porcelain grates in a ziploc bag with 1/4 cup of ammonia and soaks them overnight, and the stuff wipes right off. I'm thinking, okay, not my stuff. She doesn't have stuff as stubborn as my stuff, but I'll give it a try. So I did. I put my grates in ziploc bags with 1/4 cup of ammonia and soaked them overnight and guess what? She was right! The fumes were nose cleansing, and I had to open the windows and wear rubber gloves, but when I took them out of the bags and ran them under the water in my kitchen sink the stuff almost rinsed off! I'm not joking! I did have to scrub at them a little with a sponge scrubber and chip at them with a butter knife to get off a few little particles that remained, but after only 45 minutes, my stove that I had chipped at with little success for 5 hours one day was clean and shiny as new. This is the current condition of my 10 year-old stove. Thank you eHow lady!! Mwaaaa!

Just a minute...

This is a blog dedicated to all of us "Busy Bees" who could use more time, space, money, and sanity. We come from all occupations, family situations, and walks of life. Our goal is to create more time, space, money, and sanity, because we are BUSY. Shockingly busy. Welcome to the club! :)