DoodleBlog – Page 35 – Crazy Smart Articles from Timberdoodle.com

How Do You Do It All? Housework

In Our History, Scheduling, Timberdoodle News, Tips, Tricks, and Opinions

4 Min Read

Originally posted in a 1992 Timberdoodle Catalog.

If you have been home teaching for any length of time, friends, relatives, and strangers have undoubtedly asked you, “how do you do it all?” Oftentimes, the implication is not only why would you do it all, but can you possibly do it all properly. What is “all”? When we get this question it is referring to housework, schoolwork, and our business.

If you are new to home education, let me share some ideas that have worked for us. In the area of housework, let me share my basic rule of thumb: if I am working and nobody else is, then I have either mismanaged my time or theirs. With Children 11, 10, 8, and 5, there seems to be no reason that I should be working while others are playing.

This month, for example, Joy, 11, is responsible for cleaning both bathrooms, and for setting and clearing the table after each meal. She also deals with the compost, a necessary but very disdainful job. This is an exceedingly easy list of chores for an 11-year-old, so we rotate jobs on a monthly basis. Joy looked forward to this month’s duties.

Hope, 10, is in charge of all the linoleum floors. This means that they are swept at least once a day and the kitchen and entry floors are also scrubbed once a day, usually in the afternoon while everyone else is at the warehouse. Hope is also responsible for maintaining the childrens’ bedrooms. This is often the dreaded job because the bedrooms in our mobile are exceedingly small and it does not take too much activity in them for them to look trashed. Abel’s bedroom right now is doing triple duty, not only as a bedroom, but also as a toy room and a pantry. Organization in there is critical, and will be more so when his room acquires yet another title this winter of nursery! Hope’s final job this month is garbage. In our small mobile, if this is not done on a daily basis, we really know it!

Grace, 8, has kitchen duty this month. Though a relatively simple assignment, it is probably the most time-consuming. It entails cleaning all the dishes, pots, and pans. It also involves cleaning the counters, sinks, and all appliances. She is also depended on to keep all our carpets vacuumed. This is the first time in our married life that we have so much carpeting, so we have made Grace’s job easier by instigating a “no shoes in the house” policy. Therefore, for the most part it is just lint that she is vacuuming and can be maintained with a once a week vacuuming.

Abel, 5, is in charge of laundry. Because of his age and size there are certain limitations, but he can do the bulk of the job. He sorts the laundry, loads the washer, unloads the dryer, and changes the dryer lint trap. Because his head barely reaches over the top of the washer, I empty the clean clothes into the dryer. I also add the soap because I am a little concerned about someone that small lifting something that caustic over his head. Abel also deals with all towels and foldable laundry. He sorts each person’s clothes and couriers them to their rooms. For Dan and myself, he puts away all our folded laundry, but for the girls he just deposits it into a bin in their room for them to sort. He sorts all clothes that need to be hung and he places them in the right room. Because he cannot reach the clothes rods and there is not enough room in our tight mobile for him to haul a chair from room to room, each person is responsible to hang their own hangables.

As you can see, the bulk of the housework is done by the children.The unassigned jobs, like window washing, car cleaning, gardening, and dusting, are distributed as “extra jobs” earned by bad attitudes to regular tasks, by dawdling, or by jobs sloppily done. I suppose it is to our shame that this happens enough that all extra jobs do get done in a timely way. I am in charge of meals, relying on homemade, pre-made meals stored in the freezer. I also undertake the fussier jobs like waxing the floors and removing stains, but for the most part, with regards to housework, I truly lead a life of leisure. So, how do I get housework done? I delegate!

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How Do You Do It All? Home Education

By Deb D.

In Our History, Scheduling, Timberdoodle News, Tips, Tricks, and Opinions

5 Min Read

(Originally published in a 1992 Timberdoodle catalog.)

How do you teach your children and maintain the rest of your responsibilities? It is not as hard as some might think. First of all, we are very content with being homebodies, so we do not spend huge amounts of time on field trips or on other activities that pull us in too many directions. Second of all, as soon as our children can read, they assume a large measure of the responsibility of getting their school work done. So our first priority is to develop adequate reading skills in each of our youngsters. Some of our children were reading as toddlers, others as preschoolers, but none under duress as some “experts” claim. We don’t profess to be authorities on early childhood learning, but we don’t hesitate to claim expertise in knowing our own children and knowing when they are feeling that learning is no longer a blessing, but instead a burden.

But reading or not, we sit down individually with each child and map out a program of learning for the year. Besides reading, our basic requirements include math, thinking skills, science, geography, art, history, and 2-5 electives. For the older children, history and reading are often combined into one requirement, and there are unlimited other combinations that we have made in the past. Currently the hot electives are French, Sign Language, and What is Electronics?, but there are no limitations on what they choose.

Unit studies work well for electives, and we have had loads of fun hatching quail, raising guinea fowl, and planting an orchard. After determining our long range goals, we set some short term targets. Right now we are planning around our baby’s birth. After so many years of waiting for this blessing, it would be unreasonable for us to expect that the children will want to do anything but be with the baby. So we have planned that most of the year’s requirements are accomplished before December 1. After the first of the year we will spend a portion of each day on drill work so that they will be prepared for our state’s yearly test. The body of the school time will be spent on frills like sewing, quilting, and testing some new products we want to preview before adding to our catalog. I know that I will be still getting my “sea-legs” after the birth of the baby, so I will be doing what I can to minimize my stress level during this time.

After setting these short term goals, we go a step further and break down each topic to what is required on a weekly basis. Because we are so computer dependent, all our lists are maintained on our computers and are printed out once a week for each child’s reference. They are required to finish each item on their list every week.

Aside from activities that we do together, the readers are on their own as to when and where they actually do their schoolwork. When we moved out to a mobile adjacent to our warehouse, we knew that we would never have enough room in the mobile to do school work. So we transformed a loft above our warehouse bathroom into a schoolroom, complete with bookshelves, small file cabinets for each child, and a lovely table Dan and his father spent a lot of time making. So where do the children do their schoolwork? In the car, at doctor offices, on cleared inventory shelves, in the guinea house, in cardboard boxes, and everywhere else imaginable! That’s OK, we are not as fussy about where it is done as we are about how it is done.

For Abel, whose reading skills are still shaky, we are a little more involved. He likewise gets a checklist every week, but I coach him through a fair number of the activities. He works on them in the afternoons, asking questions between phone calls, and generally paces himself so that he is not working very long without a break. He dearly loves to be first to finish his weekly assignments, and generally drives his sisters to distraction by giving them his daily countdown, “Only 10 more pages and I’ll be done for the week!”

So how do we do it all in schoolwork? By insisting on a system of accountability for each child. We have found that children will accomplish far more and learn far better when we stop hovering over them. Children sincerely desire to have as much control as possible over their lives, and this is a wonderful way to introduce them to the adult world of responsibilities and consequences.

Added in 2010
We have now added free downloadable scheduling PDFs at http://www.timberdoodle.com/schedule. These work particularly well with our Core Curriculum Bundles, but can be easily adapted for almost any curriculum.

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1991 – Warehouse Sales

By Joy D.

In Our History

2 Min Read

As best as we can determine from our records, 1991 was the first year we held our warehouse sale at the warehouse. (Lest that seem redundant to you, yes we did indeed hold “warehouse sales” in my aunt’s covered picnic area before the warehouse was built!) Warehouse sales were our opportunity to showcase our favorite products at discounted prices, and more importantly, sell our bent or damaged items at incredible discounts.

One year we had cars parked alongside the road over half a mile away! That year families came in from as far away as Canada. Imagine their shock to see the checkout line snaking back forever, with excited families waiting their turn to haul all the ‘good stuff’ away. After a long walk and a longer drive, sadly very little was left.

Grandma and Grandpa always helped out with our warehouse sales. Grandpa often directed traffic on the property while Grandma tended the calculator, making change. Mom and Dad answered questions, and the children, when not standing around with our mouths hanging open or gawking at all the babies, entertained the other children who came. At the end of the day, as Mom and Dad pondered the successfulness of the day one of my sisters was astounded to discover that we had indeed made a profit. How could we have accomplished that, she wondered, when all day long she had seen her Grandma “Giving all our money away!” How do you explain ‘making change’ to a child who is just learning to count?

Want a glimpse of what daily life was like back then? Check out this sample schedule from 1991 to see our routine on days that didn’t include warehouse sales!

Today’s Giveaways
Lauri Puzzles were a featured item at one of our earliest warehouse sales, so it seems appropriate to give away Lauri A-Z UPPERCASE and lowercase puzzles. In addition to that, we’re including a Critical Thinking Press title of your choice – these are also featured in the pictures above, if you look carefully!

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A Typical Day At The Timberdoodle In 1991

By Deb D.

In Our History, Scheduling

5 Min Read

(Originally printed in a 1991 catalog)
Many moms have called and written asking for a schedule of what a typical day is like at the Timberdoodle. I hope they haven’t been too disappointed to discover that there are few average days here at the Timberdoodle. None-the-less, here is a thumb-nail sketch of what we try to accomplish every day.

6:00 AM Rise and shine! Well, better make that just rise. As in all families, there are morning people and there are those who don’t do mornings. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for the majority of the rest of the family, I am a morning person. Before breakfast everyone is responsible to be dressed and do their own personal devotions. Breakfast ends promptly at 7 AM to discourage those who tend to linger long over meals.

7:00 – 8:00 Chore time! Everyone has their assigned chores. Those chores not completed by 8:00 are contracted out. In other words, get your jobs done on time or be forced to pay someone else to do them! At first this seemed like a great option to the girls as they hired others to do their chores. Until the day of accounting when they realized the bikes they were saving so diligently for were about to become nothing but pipe-dreams! Now everyone cringes at the thought of contract labor.

8:00 – 11:00 Unit studies and the activity-of-the-day. Unit studies are the highlights to our days, and morale takes a real dip around here when time pressures squeeze them out. The activity-of-the-day may vary from month to month, but generally we have one geography day, for working on puzzles and Geosafari. One day is for science, meaning experiments, Lego, or Fischertechnik. Another day is for music, and so forth. What alters this routine is when a unit study consists of one of these topics. For example, this spring we are doing two unit studies concurrently, art and music. So those days have left holes in them to be filled with other topics. Is this too confusing?! While we’re having all this fun, Dan is working in the warehouse. Sometimes Abe will opt to go out with him, but most days he’s involved with us.

11:00 – 12:00 Dinnertime! We eat dinner at lunch to give us the necessary energy for the most grueling part of the day. Our evening meal is typically much lighter.

12:00 – 2:00 Abel naps while the girls are involved in self-directed learning times. Many days this consists of nothing more than the “grunt work” of workbooks. But this is also the time to tackle art projects, practice musical instruments, and so forth. This is not a playing time, but is supposed to be a time devoted to learning something. Some days are better than others! Meanwhile, Dan and I are busy working on business related projects.

2:00 – 4:00 Abe is up and everyone who wasn’t before, is now at the warehouse. Each child apprentices, even Abe. Our business couldn’t survive without them. After achieving their set tasks for the day, the kids enjoy some time to bike-ride, explore, and dream.

4:00 – 5:00 Baths and what we refer to as the library hour. A time for reading or for quiet play. The quiet part is harder to achieve on rainy days, but worth the effort.

5:00 – 6:00 Lunch and final chores.

6:00 – 7:30 Devotions and a family read-aloud time. This must be the best time of the day. Sometimes I think it is the best just because the end is in sight!

7:30 Bedtime for some, others follow in an hour. Again, the “rule” is quiet pursuits, reading, hand-crafts, and letter-writing. Mom and Dad need this break! When the kids are in bed we hash out business details, schedule the next day, and maybe take time for some personal reading. Well, that in a nutshell is our day. Nothing is in concrete around here as we flex for unexpected truck shipments, snow days, potty training, and all the other opportunities God has given us to develop character. Being a family is a time for loads of personal growth and change, and that includes schedule!

Notes from 1997:
Six years later, what a hoot this article is! Home schooling younger children was so much fun, I’m thankful God has blessed us with Pearl. I am amazed about how full we thought our lives were, yet how little we did. Now that our business has grown to include a dozen or more employees, just supervising has become a full-time job. The four oldest continue to work for The Timberdoodle but now about 20 hours a week. Add to that the never-ending farm chores, bi-weekly youth group and our hospital and therapeutic riding volunteers, not to mention the ever essential home education, and I remember fondly of the days of 1991!

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1990 – The Last Conference For More Than A Decade

By Joy D.

In Our History

1 Min Read

We didn’t know it at the time, but after 1990 it would be 16 years before we again participated in a homeschooling conference. With children 8, 7, 6, and 2 years old and the business hurrying along at home, we felt that there were higher priorities to attend to.

In 1990 our catalog was growing too. We added articles about Homeschooling Toddler Tornadoes and Disposable Toys, and I’ve reposted those articles in case you’re curious!

About Today’s Giveaway
Thinking Putty has been a perpetual favorite since we returned to the conference circuit. At one conference with lots of speaker sessions we noticed even parents coming by and purchasing a tin to fiddle with during the next session! Today’s winner will get to select a Thinking Putty for each member of their household. (Pets in your house excluded, grandparents you live with included!)

Or read all about the giveaways here

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Disposable Toys?

By Deb D.

In Tips, Tricks, and Opinions

3 Min Read

(Originally written in 1990)
Is it just me, or does the term “toys” carry a negative connotation for you? I tend to think of toys as cheap disposable trinkets that keep kids out of their parents’ hair. Educational toys just tend to be higher priced trinkets that parents pull their hair out over, because their children don’t play with them enough to justify their expense!

Tool, on the other hand, is a word we use loosely to describe the things our children use to learn about the world around them. These include dolls, blocks, bikes, balls, cast-off kitchen ware, and so forth. How do you know if you are buying disposable toys or childhood tools? Here are some questions you can ask yourself about the items.

1. Who is this item really for, my child or myself? If you are buying a skill, it is for him; if you are buying peace and quiet, then it is for you. Maybe the ideal object does both!

2. What unique skills does this item teach? A doll is a delightful tool for teaching parenting skills. While real babies are infinitely more fun to practice on, dolls are more forgiving of endless diaper changes or occasional falls to the ground.

3. Will it be of value to my child’s character? While a baby doll can be invaluable for role-playing, “fashion dolls” project values that are inconsistent with Godly character. We should be extremely cautious about allowing in play what we would not want to see in real life. Why touch their palette with such a lifestyle, then forbid them to live it as adults?

4. Is it of value to my child’s health? Will it fine tune his eye-hand coordination or balance?

5. When my child outgrows this item, will it be sold, saved for the grandchildren, passed on to a treasured friend, or thrown away? Be suspect of anything that will be trashed; it may have been trash to start with! These are not the only questions you should ask yourself, but they should give you a good starting point. In our family, we sat down with our girls and discussed the problem of disposable toys. Obviously, some things we buy for our children will wear out with use, like balls and bike tires. Never-the-less, our children are excited about the goal of eliminating disposable toys. So now, before we decide on gifts for the children, we ask ourselves, “Is this a gift our grandchildren will enjoy?!” We are still dedicated to these ideals, though the children are often sorely tempted to buy razzle-dazzle. We compromise and reluctantly agree to let them buy ‘junk’ if they get it at a garage sale. That way they cannot only see how it has stood the test of time, but also what it is worth after a few hours of playing time. If you find it hard to stay on a budget, resolving to keep this type of standard could save you lots of money and grief.

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1989 – Timberdoodle’s First Warehouse, Eating Dirt

By Joy D.

In Our History

2 Min Read

To our amazement, Timberdoodle had expanded so rapidly in the first four years that we needed a warehouse, so we set out to build one. We were so excited to announce it in our catalog, that we made a big deal out of the groundbreaking and worked hard to get a good cover picture. The problem? Abel wasn’t old enough to understand the fuss, and kept happily removing his hard hat and digging around in the dirt for a big stick to chew on!

1989 was also the year we hosted a Homeschool Field Day with 50 kids plus parents participating in races, games and swimming. More importantly, May 5th was Dan’s last day working at the local mill. It was a big decision to go full time, and it still amazes us that God has given us this wonderful occupation!

About Today’s Giveaway
Within a discussion about eating things, a GeoMag set may not seem like a safe giveaway item. Rest assured that GeoMag has done an amazing job of conquering the ball and stick magnet dangers you read about just a few years ago. Instead of using small magnets that could fall out and be swallowed (potentially then sticking together again in the gut and pinching off blood supply to a portion of the child’s intestines) GeoMag completely overcame that danger by ingeniously using a single magnet that runs the entire length of the stick. Now it is not only too long to swallow, but also cannot fall off an end and become a danger. While swallowing any of the marble-sized steel balls could still be a choking hazard, there is no magnetic danger to contend with, making GeoMag sets amazingly safe for ages 3+.

Or read all about the giveaways here

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1988 – It’s A Boy! Squanto?

By Joy D.

In Our History

2 Min Read

After joyfully welcoming 3 daughters into the family, this announcement from the delivering doctor came as quite the surprise! Of course, we were all eager to help name him. I was 6, Hope 4 and Grace 3; and we had been reading, rereading and just poring over a book about the pilgrims. Our name suggestion? Squanto! We couldn’t understand why Dad and Mom turned down our brilliant suggestion in favor of Abel Daniel…

In addition to working for Timberdoodle and leading music at our local church Abel is currently a volunteer lieutenant with our local fire department and has worked 2 summers for the department as an EMT/Firefighter. Even as a very little guy, Abel wanted to be a firefighter, and it is fascinating to look back and see how many of his birthday gifts and interests centered around this dream. In light of that life-long passion, it seems appropriate to celebrate his birth by giving away a Lego Duplo Firestation!

Today’s Giveaway
As children we spent hours and hours with our Lego Duplo sets. We built houses with huge families and hospitals with primarily pediatric patients. Our Duplos not only survived for all 5 of us along with assorted Bible studies and guests… but we still use our very early Duplos when we help out with church nurseries and with the little ones we babysit. When the Duplos get dirty, we just toss them in the dishwasher and they are good to go again! We are excited to welcome back an assortment of Lego Duplo products, and are certain that the winner of this Duplo Fire Station set will find it is good for hours of creative play!

Or read all about the giveaways here

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We Can’t Do It All

By Joy D.

In Our History

2 Min Read

When Timberdoodle began, one of our earliest technological investments was a photocopy machine. Our theory was that by doing it all ourselves we would save a lot of money. And for a few years we did make it work.

One year we not only used the “technologically ground-breaking” photocopier to print all of our catalog pages but we also carefully laid our Cuisenaire Rods on the screen around our description and copied them!

We began by printing the pages and stapling them together ourselves. One year we outsourced the assembly to a special ed. class taught by a relative looking for a way for the kids to earn some money. Gradually, though, Mom and Dad realized that photocopying and hand assembling the catalog was way more time consuming and way less cost saving than they had thought.

Dad bought a small printing press, only to be unable to get it up and running. Eventually we graduated to a local commercial printer, and haven’t looked back. Of course, there were some negatives though. There were years (before we were able to update our customers by emails or online) when we sold out of an item and would go through hundreds and hundreds of catalogs stamping “sold out.” Other years we spent hours stapling inserts into the catalogs to highlight new items!

Today we have our catalogs printed in color – a luxury unheard of when we started – and mailed directly from the printer to our customers. I’m sure we will continue to send catalogs in response to individual requests, because we want our catalog in your hands as soon as possible. Still, I have no desire to go back to the early days of stuffing catalogs in envelopes, labeling them, and mailing by the thousands.

Today’s Giveaway
While our catalog layout has come a long way from laying Cuisenaire Rods on a photocopier we still enthusiastically sell Rods as one of our most foundational math manipulatives. This year we’ve added Inchimals for younger children and are so excited about both products that we are combining them for today’s giveaway. Comment on our Facebook post to be entered to win both prizes!

Or read all about the giveaways here.

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1986 – Grandparents are Invaluable!

By Joy D.

In Our History

3 Min Read

My next-door-grandparents have been an amazing blessing to me over the years, but it wasn’t until I began poring over Grandma’s records that I realized how instrumental they have been in the growth of Timberdoodle.

By 1986 Grandpa had built walls of shelves in our laundry room, to store and organize inventory. Soon they invited us to use their basement for the rapidly expanding array of items.

Grandpa helped Dad haul equipment home from auctions. Grandma learned how to use one of our very earliest computers and began inputting information for us. They had relatives over who helped them label catalogs, stuff envelopes and prepare mailings of up to 5,000 plus catalogs!

When we built our first warehouse both of them spent days helping with logging operations, burning stumps, spreading and tying tubing for the in-floor heating, spreading gravel, cutting insulation and gluing the plumbing together.

They watched us kids when the concrete truck came, helped host a homeschool field day and remodeled carts to serve as warehouse shelving. In 1989 the truck with our container load of Fischertechnik got stuck, and Grandpa jumped onto his trusty tractor to pull it out.

During warehouse sales Grandpa oversaw parking cars while Grandma minded a cash register. Grandma also became one of our early employees, in charge of filing and keeping track of the incoming checks. This was a huge job when mail-order was at its peak! On top of that, they helped us with proof-reading, an area in which we desperately needed assistance. And this was just in the early years. They have assisted us with almost every project we have undertaken.

Perhaps even more strikingly though, homeschooling isn’t the most natural thing for them to embrace, at least it doesn’t appear so. Grandpa spent much of his life as a public school teacher, coach, and principal, always a good one, who impacted many, many children. From early on though, they were always very supportive. I can’t ever remember them being critical of my education, but rather them listening with interest and enthusiasm to our plans and what we were learning. Best of all, we were encouraged to work alongside them, handing them ties as they needed them, assisting with burn piles, weeding, and anything else you might imagine.

Today’s Giveaway
Last year Grandpa suffered a devastating stroke after going in for minor surgery. As he recovered, we found ourselves reaching for the tools we’d used time and again for teaching; though never before for his age group. One of those tools was our Mini Wedgits collection. Profitable for ages 5+ Mini Wedgits teach thinking skills, 2D-3D design recognition, problem solving abilities and more, in a simple, addictive, style. Read more about Wedgits here, or comment here on Facebook to be entered to win a Classroom Pack of MiniWedgits!

Or read all about the giveaways here.

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