The Homeschool Mom of 2

I have a series of articles over at Single Mom that would be helpful to any homeschool family. Enjoy!

By Shannon Buck

© June 2008

Green is the way to go now-a-days, but how to you green a used book business? If you are like me, much of your selling is done online. You are using electricity while selling, and fuel during the delivery process. Not to mention all of the packaging. So, how do we go about greening our business? Read on for some tips to help you do just that, in the best way that you can.

As you can see, there are ways in which online used book sellers can have less of an effect on the environment. Here are some other options for your business:

These ideas will get you started, but only you will know for sure what to do for your business. I do believe that it is our responsibility to lessen our impact on the Earth in any way that is feasible. These steps will be a good start.

We do not have much money for our autumn decorating, so we improvise when we can. When you are looking to decorate, check yard sales and clearance sales. You may also have things handed down to you. Feel free to visit resale shops as well. They may have some items that you can use.

Here are some ideas for frugal autumn decorations:

* Grapevine wreaths of all sizes can be found pretty cheaply. You may have some autumnal ribbon and flowers laying around your craft area, and you can find some items for your wreaths out in nature. Put these on your wreath with a glue gun. Hang a big one on each door. Then smaller ones from curtain rods.

* If you grew your own pumpkins and other things that you can use for decorations, you will have some nice things to use. If you don’t, see what you may be able to come up with at good prices. I like the small pumpkins, just big enough for a tea light candle. I clean them out and line them along my porch railing. I can put tea lights in them and light them at night.

* I reuse baskets at this time of the year. I fill them with gourds and such, and leave one on either side of the bottom step of my porch.

* This year, my mother grew pumpkins to give to all of the grandchildren. Each of them got one, and she gave one to me as well. We have put them on the steps to the porch as well.

* The dollar tree has scarecrows and other items that we can use for porch and garden decorations as well.

* If you have a bench, you can put a scarecrow and pumpkins on it.

* You can also find table decorations at the dollar tree. You can make up a pretty fancy looking dinner table this way.

* Small pumpkins, cleaned out, can be used as bowls for your Thanksgiving meal. You can also toast the seeds for a snack.

Use whatever resources you have available, and do something nice for your home.

***

Shannon Buck is a single, WAH, homeschooling mom of two teenagers. You can contact her at thehsmomof2@aol.com.

It seems like prices are going up on everything again. Just when I thought that we would be fine financially, everything has gone up. And prices will be rising again. I work hard for the little bit of money that I make, and it would be nice to be able to keep some of it. I find that, yet again, I will have to try to cut corners to make ends meet. How do rising prices determine what this single homeschool mom will do to cut costs and be able to afford an entire homeschool year? Well, I will have to sit back and determine my priorities and how I can cut costs. I will have to think about every aspect of our lives. What can we cut back on? What can we eliminate, if anything? What are we not willing to give up?

* Gas

Sometimes we pitch in for gas when we are with others, but we do not have to worry about this on a daily basis right now. None of us drive, until Skye gets her license. We walk most places, most days. This is good because 1) we do not have to pay for gas and repairs, 2) we are not harming our environment, 3) I am losing weight, and 4) my children are not overweight. If we lived closer to a grocery store, we could even do our shopping without transportation. We would just be shopping a little more often.

* Food

We are learning new from scratch recipes. We used to cook from scratch a lot more than we do now. Due to the fact that some of it can be a little time consuming, we have cut back. We will just have to start doing this more. What can we make cheaper from scratch than by purchasing pre-made? Bread, English muffins, pizza crust, soups/stews, pastry crust, muffins, lasagna, breakfast and snack bars, desserts...

I planted quite a few tomato, zucchini and cucumber plants this year, and I am hoping they will do well. Half of them are in good soil, and the rest are planted in the not-so-good dirt around my tiny little lot. I always have chives growing as well. I am planting where ever I can fit things in. I am hoping that I will not have to by so much when these can be harvested.

* Cleaning Supplies

I resolve to always have on hand: Vinegar, baking soda, salt, dish/dishwasher/laundry detergent. Nothing else is necessary. But, when affordably found, some other things would be welcomed.

* Personal Hygiene

I will purchase only what is necessary: Soap, shampoo, toothpaste/brushes, floss, mouthwash, q-tips, razors, deodorant and womanly needs.

I have not had a haircut in more than year! I will find someone to do this for free/barter.

* Utilities/Other Bills

Over the last two years, each of these have went up once or twice: Lot rent, water/sewer, electric and oil.

1) I took everything off my phone bill except the maintenance service and the call forwarding. The maintenance plan can (and has) saved me a lot in repair bills. I feel that call waiting is necessary so that my teenage daughters can let me know where they are when they are out and about. My phone bill is $8 per month.

2)  I have done quite a few things to reduce these bills already. I replaced all of the major appliances over the last few years so that I could have more energy efficient ones. I also switched to compact flourescent lightbulbs where appropriate. We use natural light as long as we can each day. We use the laptop more often than we use the desktop because the laptop uses less electricity. The desktop was a gift to us, and I purchased the laptop refurbished from Dell rather than purchasing a brand new one. This saved quite a bit of money. We are using the television less. I like the background noise when I am working, but am trying to do without it. This is my second biggest (new) change for saving money. During good weather, we hang the laundry outside to dry. I try to hang as much as we can inside during bad weather.

3) We take significantly shorter showers now, and I cannot really cut us back any more here. I purchased a dishwasher, which is supposed to use less water than doing dishes by hand. However, I used the dishwater to water the gardens, so I will have to figure a way to do this still. I have a portable dishwasher, so I can put the dish pan under the faucet and let the water drain into that. I can watch it to make sure that it does not overflow, and replace it with the big bowl when needed. After the water in these cool , I can use them in the garden. This will be a big money saver this summer. Also, I use the water from cooking vegetables and pasta in my gardens. The plants love the nutrients. I just make sure the water is cooled all the way before using it.

4) There is not much I can do about the sewer bill unless I can lower the water bill. The sewer bill is always twice as much as the water bill.

5) I will be keeping my AOL. I pay a monthly fee, am happy with my service, and my name is linked to it. It stays.

6) The oil is expensive, and prices have gone up here as well. During the winter months, we wear extra clothing and keep plenty of blankets around for covering up while watching television. I turn the heat down to 60* - 65* when I go to bed. We have covered some major heat loss areas, and I will have the curtains made by winter so that we are not losing so much heat that way. I am also going to try to make the things that you lay across the bottom of the doors.

7) DirecTV is a necessity to us. It has quite a few educational channels that we use regularly. It is also our main form of entertainment. I also use it in my childcare business due to the educational value. It is an expense, but it is something that I am not willing to let go of unless it is necessary. We are all hoping that we can cut back far enough on other things to keep the DirecTV, as well as cover other necessary living costs. If not, we will have to let it go.

8) We cut back on our Blockbuster membership, but did not eliminate it completely. We switched from being able to have 3 movies mailed to us at any one time, to being able to have 2. This provides us with educational movies, as well as regular movies. I do not generally buy new movies, as I wait for individuals to sell them at very low prices online, and I will not buy something that I do not know for sure that we will like. This way, I can test drive the movies. We have a rather large collection of DVD's that we own, and keep acquiring them as we can find them cheaply enough. We also have three family members who buy the new DVD's, so if we absolutely have to get rid of this, we will still have plenty to watch. For now, cutting back seems to be enough.

9) We do not require a lot of entertainment (other than movies!), but there are a few things that we like to do. Unfortunately, these things usually cost money. So far, this is what we have done. Our vacation this year is a concert and a trip to a friends camp. Skye and Zowie purchased their own tickets from  money they earned, and my ticket is a freebie. So I paid nothing for this concert. The camping trip only requires me to buy our food, and I will try to force gas money on our friend.

Bowling happens only a few times a year, on discount days, and I do not play. I keep score and watch the girls. It is a lot of fun.

We go to the movies only for the big ones: Pirates, Harry and another choice or two throughout the year. We go to a discount theater. We eat first and/try to get the food deal as well.

We go to free events whenever possible. We will sometimes even bring our own picnic lunches.

We play board and card games.

* Other Items

I only pay full price for things when it is necessary, and we try to keep most purchases to the bare necessities. We wear clothing until it is no longer useable or until we grow out of them. We do not have any actual game systems, though we do have some educational computer games and a couple of Scene Its. Skye won a lot of her CD's.

I love thrift and consignment shops, clearance aisles, yard sales, used book stores, flea markets, department stores, dollar stores and the Good Will.

***

Shannon Buck is a single homeschool mom who lives in a small town in Maine. You can contact her at thehsmomof2@aol.com. For some tips on acquiring homeschool supplies cheaply, see her article Preparing for the 2007 Home Education Year at http://www.thehomeschoolmomof2.com, and for more money saving tips, see her site The Low-Income Way of Life.

Although my daughters are both doing high school work, I believe that parents with children of any age will get a lot out of this article.

Somtimes planning for a new year of educating our children at home can seem like a daunting task. Sometimes it can actually be a lot of fun. I try to do something alone with each of my children during the planning stage of a new school year. They feel special, I get to do something with each of them individually, and they get to participate in planning the year ahead.

To begin with, I order 2 copies of The Homeschooler's High School Journal. They also have journals for lower grades. When these arrive, I look over the general guidelines for high school credits and make note of what courses each child still needs to acquire in the notes section of their assignment books. I also note any subjects or information that I think they should learn during the year.

When the steps above are completed, I take each of my daughters out to lunch for our special alone time. I have lunch with Skye one day, and Zowie another day. We talk about whatever comes up in each child's life, not just education. We also talk about their future plans. We talk while waiting for the food and while we are waiting. The whole time, I am making notes in the assignment book about what they want to learn and their future plans. We go over the lists I made. They decide what they want to do from the course list, and I tell them what I want them to do from my own list. I then write down anything that they would like to learn themselves, as well as which books they would like to read for Literature or just for fun. I also make a list of any supplies that they tell me they need for the coming year, such as folders, paper and pencils.

When I have all of the information that I need, we begin looking at materials that they may like to use. We first look at what we already have on hand. Then we look online, in catalogs, and during a preliminary trip to Borders. If we can find clearance materials at Borders that they like, we purchase them. Everything else waits. We look at other books and, if they look like something the girls may use, I write it on the materials list.

When I know what materials we need, I do a search online and off for anything that I can find for free. This includes doing searches for free materials, as well as posting wanted ads to Freecycle. Then I do an online search for free classes being offered online that we may be able to use.

I try to purchase whatever else I can at discounted prices on Yahoo! Groups and other used curriculum groups/sites. I list everything we need in one post, whenever possible, that has been saved as an email in my saved folder. I just copy and paste my in formation. In another post, I do a for sale ad so I can raise money to pay for some of the materials that I will have to buy. Anything that doesn't sell can be posted to Freecycle. I then check out yard sales, and used book stores online and off.

Whatever else we need, I may have to purchase at full price. I use the teacher reward card that I have for Borders for a discount. They will special order materials for me if the need be. These steps generally get us all of the materials that we need for the entire school year.

Over the course of a month I am able to plan an entire school year for two children, one book at a time. It helps that some of their courses are the same so that I am just copying some things from one assignment book to another.

I first decide decide when we will begin and which days we will take off. I then count from day one to day 175, skipping the off days. I mark what will be our last day of "school" and begin the planning. I put all of this information on the big wall calendar as well.

I begin adding the assignments, what materials we use, etc. For instance, if your child will be using a textbook you will decide what you want her to cover over the year, then divide the number of pages by the number of days of "school". This will give you the number of pages that she will need to do each day. My daughters work on each subject four days a week, split up between five day weeks, so we divide this differently. Each family will do this in their own way.

Keeping a schedule and list of steps available can be a big help when planning an entire year. Doing this all before school starts frees up a lot of your time, as a busy parent, to allow you to work with each of your children.

I love spring! Everything seems to be awakening in a beautiful array of colors. The birds are singing, the trees are budding, and soon we will be seeing pretty flowers growing through the last layers of snow. I love being outside duting this time of the year. The first day of spring is not until next week, but the changes are already noticeable.

I have been walking along the bike path with my sister, my nephews and Rigley (their dog). It has been an enjoyable experience for me. I have been taking my camera so I can photograph the seasonal changes that are taking place. I will try to do this a couple of more times as the season progresses.

I plan to make a scrapbook of about the changes throughout the spring season. I will document the changes not only through photographs, but also through journaling.

We have a family in our town that owns a goose. The family has a fenced in area behind their home for the goose to be in while outside. The goose was honking at us the other day as we were walking by, so I stopped and snapped its picture a few times. These photographs will go into my spring scrapbook as well.

I also took pictures of the dam. The ice and snow are gone from a few sections, and it looks very interesting. I am hoping that the photographs captured what I could see. These I would like to frame and use as part of our winter decor. I thnk that they would make a nice addition to our holiday home.

I will continue to snap photographs of springs awakening. The scrapbook that  I make will be a special one.

***

Shannon Buck is a homeschool mom of two who loves to scrapbook. You can contact her at thehsmomof2@aol.com.

Spring is a great time to get out of our homes, and to take care of our communites. We can accomplish both of these tasks by cleaning up our towns. This does not have to be done all in one day. We can do this by simply taking walks a few times a week. While we are walking, we can be doing a couple of different things.

First, we can bring a bag with us to put returnables in. Depending on the people in your town, you could make quite a bit of money with this throughout the spring. We can take that money and do something special as a family.

Next, we can bring a trash bag and pick up the trash from the sides of the roads. This could get nasty, so I suggest wearing rubber gloves. I clean up the playground when I bring my nephew there to play. They provide the trash cans, and I like for him to play in a clean area.

My nephew likes to pick up the returnables when we are out for our walks. I give him the returnable money, and he helps the environment. Not a bad trade-off, if you ask me. I have even been known to give him a penny for each peice of trash he picks up.

Most people like living in a clean area, but don't want, or have time, to clean up their towns on their own.

***

Shannon Buck homeschools her two daughters in her hometown in Maine. You can contact her at thehsmomof2@aol.com.

The best part about spring is that we can begin to do things outside again. All of these projects can be done out at the pinic table or on the lawn on nice days.

* Using construction paper and markers, crayons or paints, children can make Easter cards for people.

* If you have shelves to hang, you could paint them a color to match the room that they will go into.

* Dressers and other furniture can be brightened with some stenciling, or some rub-ons.

* You could stencil some designs on curtains, napkins, coasters and placemats.

* If you have dried or silk flowers, your family can make May baskets for the neighbors. Your children will have fun leaving them on your neighbors porches, and they sure are day brighteners.

* Paint designs on the flower pots before planting flowers in them.