Hi friend, hope you’ve been doing okay!

Today I’m going to share a variety of thoughts and ideas with you:

• Halloween / Fall / Autumn

• Guess Who (MATH)

• Gift ideas (including magazine subscriptions, as I mentioned on IG!)

• Secret Word (a game)

• Homeschooling update

• Working out (and fitness)

Halloween / Fall / Autumn

I realize Halloween is a big thing in the USA but not so much elsewhere. So this will include seasonal ideas too! I love dressing up and, if I can, going to a haunted house or haunted maze. I like being scared in a controlled environment. This year, the big kids both decided we should do a family costume: Super Mario Bros. They must have been chatting about it secretly because, when I said, “Any thoughts on Halloween costumes?” they both said, “Mario!” Charlie wants to be Bowser, which will be the trickiest costume for me to pull off. Luckily, I’ve got a couple weeks to make it work! I’m going to check thrift stores for the princess dresses for me and the girls, and then I’ll either make or buy the crowns.

One thing about living out in the country is that we do not get trick-or-treaters. Our closest neighbor’s door is at least 5 minutes walking from our door. It would be a long night if we went door-to-door around here. 😄 It’s always fun to see all the little kiddos in their costumes and then hand out candy, but alas, we don’t get that experience here. We go to a friend’s neighborhood most years.

Earlier this week, I made some soft pretzel bites, which feel very “fall” to me. They’re pretty easy and very tasty.

I saw this apple fritter quick bread on Broma Bakery’s IG the other day, and I MUST MAKE IT. It looks amaaaazing. She’s one of those recipe creators who puts out consistently delicious recipes. (Broma Bakery, Sally’s Baking Addiction, and Cafe Delites are my top 3! Half Baked Harvest always looks good but is hit-or-miss on actual results.)

One more idea is this cute felt pie banner. I found some scraps of felt in a box, which isn’t enough to make a banner, but I think I’ll have the kids each make their own slice of pie (that we’ll hang on the wall)!

As for the rest of the season… any ideas? We will make an apple pie. We may go to a pumpkin patch or find a corn maze. Family photos?

Guess Who (MATH)

This week, I made a MATH version of Guess Who. We have the board game, so I just measured the existing pieces and created Math cards of the same size.

It’s great for practicing a lot of skills:

• multiples

• odds and evens

• rounding

• digits

• prime numbers

• how to spell numbers

Now, I only made this one set. I’d LOVE to make a few other versions. Someone on IG mentioned selling the PDF on Teachers Pay Teachers, but I would want to beef it up before doing that. Here are some ideas (some are mine, some are from IG followers!):

• shapes and colors (for young kids)

• sight words

• 3-digit numbers

• squares and cubes

• fractions and decimals (such as “is your number equivalent to 1/2?”)

If you’ve got other suggestions, send them my way!

There’s the PDF if you want to download the Math Guess Who cards yourself. 🙂 Once I beef it up, I’ll let you know! ❤️ 

Gift Ideas

As promised, here are some MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION ideas for your kids, for Christmas (or birthday or whatever!). 🥰

1. Ranger Rick, 7+ (and RR Jr, 4-7, and RR Cub, 0-4). $15/10 issues.

2. Ranger Rick Dinosaurs, 5+. $15/6 issues.

3. Nat Geo for Kids, 6-8. $39/10 issues

4. The Week Junior, 8-14. $49/25

5. Oyla, 12+ (and O Jr, 8+). $96/12 issues (or $54/6)

6. Lego Magazine, 5-9. FREE

7. Highlights, 6-12 (and Brain Play, 7+, High Five, 2-6, Hello, 0-2). $4/issue

8. Sports Illustrated Kids, 8-14. $20/6 issues

9. Illustoria, 6-12. $16 per issue, NOT a subscription!

Here are some more suggestions I got on IG after I’d made the list above!

• Spark, 4-8. $9/month

• Cricket, 9-14 (and Spider, 6-9, Ladybug, 3-6, and Babybug, 0-3). $30/6 issues

• Muse (this is part of Cricket now!)

• Marine Biological Association (it’s a membership that includes a quarterly magazine!). £20/year

• Wild Kratts - it seems like this isn’t a subscription but stand-alone issues you can purchase. There are many!

• Wildflowers, 8-12. $70/5 issues

• Writings from the Wild - this is a LETTER subscription. This looks super cute and unique 🙂 $7/month

• Readers Digest, not kid-specific but a fun suggestion. $10/6 issues, current sale price!

DISCLAIMER: I tried finding a variety of topics, ages, and prices, but I’ve only ever subscribed to The Week Junior, Lego Magazine, and Highlights, so I don’t actually know much about the others. They have good reviews online, though ❤️ 

OTHER GIFT IDEAS:

This is a series of books from phaidon.com that look SO nice!! It’s on my list for my own kids.

I think a customized plate from dylbug.com is such a cute idea. They’ve got bowls and place mats and other play items as well. The customized plate is $32USD by the way!

ANYTHING open-ended, like magnet shapes, large building blocks, wooden blocks, LEGOs, play straws, and more.

Please let me know if you’d like a more detailed list of gift ideas in the future, and I can put some together!! My current lists are very specific to my own children, but I can dig around and put together some gift guides. 🙂 

Secret Word (a game)

I came up with this a few weeks ago, but I’m sure it already exists and has a more official name. Here’s how we play!

One person thinks of a common word. Let’s say “AND” is my word.

I’d tell the kids, “When you say my word, I’ll clap my hands.” You can clap, stomp, spin in a circle, whatever.

Then the kids start chatting, and I listen carefully. Whenever I hear AND, I’ll clap. They have to think back to what they were talking about and see if they can figure out the word. Once one of them figures it out, they’ll start using it a little more until the other person also figures it out.

Then once it’s clear they’ve figured it out, we pick a new person to come up with a secret word!

Homeschooling Update

We’re about 1.5 months into our school year.

Each day, we have “morning time” which is a short powerpoint slideshow that I update daily. The first slide shows the day, date, and which school day it is: basically that keeps track of our attendance, which I’ve never actually done! In Louisiana it is not required to let anyone know that info, so I’ve never felt the need to keep up with it. This year, I’m mostly curious, so I’m tracking!

We have a Bible memory verse, so each day, I block out a few more words until we can all say the verse from memory. Then I pick a new verse.

After that, we do 2-3 things from this list: science, history, music appreciation, typing, handwriting, and read-aloud. The first 4 of those are computer-based, so they are projected onto the TV. We’re using Mystery Science for science this year, and I’m obsessed. I’ve learned something new every single lesson! For typing, we’re using EdClub, and it’s been great so far. (Some folks suggested that typing will be obsolete in the future because of speech-to-text, but I think it can still be a valuable skill, right there next to learning cursive!)

Our current read-aloud book is James and the Giant Peach, so once we finish it, we’ll watch the movie!

We’ve also got 2 weekly school things outside of the home. 🙂 

Working Out and Fitness

This is a personal update! I’ve been doing a 75-day workout challenge. The day you receive this, I’ll be on day 49. I honestly can’t believe I’ve kept up with it, but here we are. The program goals are intense, but I’m listening to my body and (active) resting, as well as fueling myself properly.

Each week, I lift weights 3 times as well as do HIIT workouts or Pilates (on YouTube). In addition, I go for a 45-minute walk each evening (occasionally, I’ll walk/jog, but it’s typically just walking up and down my driveway). The kids have started joining me for a lot of this, so we’ve been outside a lot. That’s been really nice!

As for fuel, I’ve been increasing my protein in small, smart ways. I’ve also been increasing my fiber. One example of a switch is in my breakfast sandwich: instead of 2 eggs, bacon, and cheddar on an English muffin, I’m having 1 egg, 2 egg whites, bacon, and mozz on a whole-wheat English muffin.

A few snacks I like:

• rice cake, a little peanut butter, cinnamon, honey

• fat free Greek yogurt, mixed berries, protein granola

• cream cheese blended with Greek yogurt and about 2 tbsp chocolate instant pudding powder- I also crush some Oreos into it 😄 

• slice of deli turkey with string cheese

• Triscuits with tuna salad

A few victories:

• More energy overall

• More flexibility

• Better heart health! (My watch alerted me that my VO2 max has gone up, which is great news.)

• Greater endurance (when I go for a long walk or jog, I don’t stop as much, I’m not nearly as winded, and my heart rate stays consistently lower than it used to)

• I put on a shirt I hadn’t worn in a while, and the sleeves were tight, which means my arms are getting stronger!

The day I turned 41, I decided “41 is going to be my strongest year EVER” and the very next day, I started this program.

See ya soon!

Have a great weekend and week. I’ll talk to you real soon! Please feel free to just hit REPLY to this email - it comes straight to me. 🙂 

❤️ Bethany