Hi there,
I am visiting from our larger family’s blog called Se7en. We have Se7en kids at this stage: four boys, three girls and one pending. We always intended to have se7en kids… and when #7 arrived we looked at each other and knew that we needed, well one more! So #8 is due in September.We don’t feel like a larger family, but since most of our “large-familied” friends have four kids and we will have double that, then I guess we can be called a slightly larger family! We do turn a lot of heads when we venture out in the world and since we don’t fit so well into a cupboard we generally turn a lot of heads!!!Turns out that we really just blog about the life and times of our family: crafts we do, recipes we try and plenty of homeschool resources that have worked for us. We do also post a couple of “Organizing Se7en” posts and we are intending to post some of these posts over here on LargerFamilies.com. Turns out blogging about our day to day life not only provides tips and ideas to other moms but it does blast some of the “larger-family” myths out of the water… Just because your kids are part of a clan doesn’t mean they aren’t individuals, with their own personal purpose and ideas!!!
So let me introduce the family: There is me: The mother person and my husband: The father person. Followed by the Se7en Little Hoods…Hood #1: Is eleven and he loves writing books and cartoons, and is mad about anything to do with dragons.Hood #2: Is almost 10, he loves all things electronic and anything to do with gadgets: making them or dismantling them.Hood #3: Is just 8, she loves anything pretty and girly and is passionate about paper dolls.Hood #4: Is almost six, he is also our resident artist at least three times more prolific than his nearest sibling rival.Hood #5: Is four and is our celebrity chef and resident cook. He has been contributing to every meal we have had since he was about 18 months old!Hood #6: Is almost three and she is totally wild about animals, the wilder the beast the better! She is always dragging obscure creatures into our house from the garden… frogs, moles, wild ducks…Hood #7: Is nearly 18 months and just loves reading - anything and everything!That’s us for now!
Education is always a great investment, and improving your mind (or your child’s!) for free is even better. With the economic outlook plummeting and the cost of tuition on the rise, now is the perfect time to go online to learn!You won’t be able to earn an actual degree for free, but if you’re trying to increase your expertise at the office, wondering whether to switch careers, or just wishing you had taken that film course back when you were in college, there are some truly amazing opportunities out there.
(I’ll admit, my first thought was “I don’t have the time!” But the beauty of learning online is that you can do it at your own pace. And if you have a chance to study something you’ve always wanted to, and to study it for free? Find time. You’re worth the investment.)
If you’re looking for ways to give your kid a boost in the science, vocab, history, or math departments, there are plenty of great online resources to choose from, and you don’t have to be a homeschooling veteran to find them. Here are five of my favorites sites for getting an awesome, and free, online education for adults, plus five more online destinations for educational games that your kids will enjoy.
1.) MIT Open Coursewear. This is quite possibly the biggest education jackpot on the internet — lecture notes, videos, and exams on nearly everything the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology has to offer, except for the actual diploma. There are close to 2,000 undergraduate and graduate-level courses here, from aeronautics to women’s and gender studies — and it’s all free. No registration is required, because you don’t earn college credits or a degree by taking these courses, but if just want to learn, if you’re homeschooling, or if you have a high-school student at home who isn’t satisfied by what he or she is getting at school, this is an unbelievable site.
2.) Livemocha. This learning community offers free online lessons in 12 foreign languages — Spanish, French, German, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic, Icelandic, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese and Korean — as well as the opportunity to practice as much as you want with members who are native speakers. It’s free to join, and you can learn at your own pace. I’m going to brush up on my French so I can finally speak with my cousins properly — and it won’t cost me a cent.
3.) Free-Ed.net. With practical offerings such as carpentry and medical billing, GED basics, and remedial courses on everything from algebra to computer fundamentals, Free-Ed.net is a great place to study if you’re looking to review material you previously learned in school or prep for an exam at work. There’s so much available here that it can be a bit overwhelming; their primers on how to study at Free-Ed and critical reasoning and creative thinking are two good places to start.
4.) The Library of Congress: American Memory. You don’t need to visit Washington, D.C., in order to browse this amazing collection. No formal courses here, per se, but tons of information about, well, everything. Check out the Leonard Bernstein Collection, peruse Thomas Edison’s work, learn more about immigration and American history… it’s a digital record of American innovation.
5.) Annenburg Media. This company provides content to many major distance-learning institutions, but you can watch videos on all sorts of subjects for free. Their series on American Cinema is fantastic, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.
Want more? Wendy Boswell points out that many US college offer coursework online for free (without the degree, of course), and there are plenty of options that aren’t online as well. Check with your local museum for free-admission days, get a library card and set your own course of independent study, or look up your local community college or vocational school to see what extended learning opportunities are available.
Looking for something for someone slightly younger than you? Here are five educational websites for kids:
1.) Exploratorium. The physical Exploratorium is housed inside San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts and was founded by Dr. Frank Oppenheimer; the web version sprawls over 18,000 pages and hundreds of scientific subjects. A kid could get (wonderfully) lost without every having to leave her desk.
2.) Zula Patrol. This site seems more game-oriented than educational, but don’t be fooled — there’s some serious learning going on here. The science and astronomy-focused program is geared towards kids from Pre-K to 2nd grade.
3.) PBSkids. Tying in to Public Broadcasting classics like “Sesame Street” and “Arthur” as well as newer educational programs like “Word Girl” and “Super Why,” PBSkids.org offers games that are so much fun, little kids won’t even notice they’re learning.
4.) Funbrain. Kids learn most easily when they’re playing, which is one reason why Funbrain is popular with parents and teachers alike. The teacher’s page directs you to practical things like flash cards and curriculum guides, but parents who are looking to give their children a more casual learning experience can head right on over to the free games section.
5.) Enchanted Learning. Enchanted Learning offers easy-to-digest printables for preschoolers and kindergarteners, as well as plenty of craft ideas tucked in among the lessons. The picture dictionaries are especially cool for budding linguists.
Do you have an online educational resource that you love? Please share it in the comments!
Lylah is a full-time working mom and step mom to five kids who range in age from teenager to toddler. She writes about work-life balance, frugal living, and parenthood at The 36-Hour Day and blogs about writing at Write. Edit. Repeat. When she’s not at the office, glued to the computer, or solving a kid-related crisis, she’s cooking, doing laundry, or, occasionally, asleep. This post origingally appeared at The 36-Hour Day.
Who couldn’t use a bit of extra money right now? With the job market tightening up and our time at a premium to begin with, taking on a second job to earn some extra income may not be an option, but there are other ways to bring in cash without having to commute.
I recently took a look at the amount of clutter taking up space in my home and decided that there must be a way to dig out from under it — I mean “put it all to better use” – and make a little money at the same time. Here are five ways I was able to create cash out of clutter — without resorting to Craigslist or Ebay (though those are good options, too):
1.) Sell your extra books. I’m a book fiend, a book addict, a book enthusiast. My family has come close to staging interventions for me over my first-edition addiction, but I culled through my collection and made about $200 selling some of them to Cash4Books instead. Cash4Books accepts audiobooks and text books as well as softcovers and hardback tomes, and they even pay shipping — type in the ISBN (above the barcode) to see if they’re buying what you want to sell.
2.) Cull through your DVD and video game collections. Half.com is part of the vast online flea market that is Ebay, but it’s much, much easier to navigate. There are no listing fees, for one thing, and while you do pay a percentage of the profit once your item has sold, it’s really quite reasonable. You’re listings are limited to media (books, video games, music, movies), but Half.com reimburses most of your shipping costs, collects the money from buyers for you, and pays out twice a month via paypal (no chasing down delinquent bidders. Woot!).
3.) Pick up those pennies and turn them into gift cards. Those green Coinstar machines at your grocery store can do more than count your change for you. If you cash in more than $40 worth of coins and turn the money into a gift card or eCertificate, they’ll waive the counting fees. The gift cards are for big-name stores like Amazon, AMC movie theaters, Lowe’s, Old Navy, and ITunes. Keep in mind: You don’t have to give the gift cards away; use them augment your own holiday shopping budget, if you need to. Think those nickels and dimes aren’t worth the time it takes to dig them out from between the sofa cushions? My husband gathered up the change from his nightstand and random coat pockets and ended up with more than $100. Crazy.
4.) Get crafty. This isn’t a “money for nothing” suggestion as much as it is a “money for something you do anyway” one. If you have a hobby, put it to work for you. Making cute ornaments out of recycled lightbulbs? Sell them on Etsy. Make your own giftbaskets? Sell them on Etsy (or give them instead of purchsed gifts and save money that way). Have a knack for creative and unusual and cool jewelry? Etsy, Etsy, Etsy.
5.) Make money by saving money. The folks at CafeMom have some great tips on winterizing your home; the less you have to spend on heat, the more you have to spend on other things. Also: Check out the Frugal Moms discussion group here at Work It, Mom!
How do you bring in a little extra money?
Lylah is a full-time working mom and step mom to five kids who range in age from teenager to toddler. She writes about work-life balance, frugal living, and parenthood at The 36-Hour Day and blogs about writing at Write. Edit. Repeat. When she’s not at the office, glued to the computer, or solving a kid-related crisis, she’s cooking, doing laundry, or, occasionally, asleep. This post origingally appeared at The 36-Hour Day.
For the past several years, I’ve been filling baskets with homemade treats for my friends and family members for the holidays. I started doing it because I couldn’t think of what to give my brothers, who have everything they need (as well as the ability to buy for themselves anything they don’t already have); now I do it because, well, money is tight and it’s just getting tighter, but homemade gifts hold their value.
Many people think of homemade holiday gifts and have visions of bean soups layered into jars or batch upon batch of labor-intensive cookies crumbling in boxes. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are 10 homemade gifts that take less time, energy, and money to create than you might think — and they still make quite an impact. 
1.) Nut brittles. Peanut brittle is a well-known favorite; use macadamia nuts for a more decadent candy. This recipe from the Food Network is easy and fast (if you don’t have a silicone baking mat, generously butter a rimmed baking sheet and warm it in the oven before pouring on the hot candy); make it even more of a treat by drizzling the pieces with melted white chocolate.
2.) Almost anything dipped in chocolate. Pretzels are a favorite, and if you use long pretzel rods then the kids can help you dip. (Is your household gluten-free? Glutino pretzels work well in this, too — lay them on a baking sheet and drizzle away.) But don’t limit yourself to pretzels. Dried apricots are delicious when dipped into dark chocolate, and regular old marshmallows become something else entirely when you coat them in milk chocolate.
3.) Limoncello. This one takes a bit of planning, so if you’d like to give pretty bottles of sunshine-colored lemon liqueur as gifts this year (Hanukkah starts on Dec. 22!), start now. All you need to do is shave the peel from several lemons and steep them in vodka for about two weeks; add simple syrup and pour into bottles. That’s it. I have a few batches hanging out in a dark cupboard right now.
4.) Cookies. The trick here is to make one type of dough and use it several different ways — hey, if we can multitask, so can our baked goods. Country Home magazine has a great sugar cookie recipe that you can use to make five different types of cookies (or, of course, you can just sprinkle a single batch with five different types of colored sugar and call it a night).
5.) Jam. I started making jam because I hated to see blackberries rotting on the vines around our then-new home; now, I make jam because if I don’t, my family says, “Hey, where’s the jam?” It’s probably the most time-consuming item in this post, but it’s pretty easy (and, if you don’t have blackberry canes running riot near you, you can always use frozen berries from the supermarket). This recipe from Alton Brown is awesome, but you can follow the directions inside a box of pectin with good results, too.
6.) Spiced nuts. Here’s an excellent recipe for rosemary pecans from the folks at Wondertime magazine: Heat the oven to 350 degrees, place about 1 pound of unsalted pecan halves on a cookie sheet and toast them, stirring every so often, for about 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 2 teaspoons brown sugar, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, and 1 tablespoon melted butter; add the toasted nuts, and toss to coat. Package the nuts in 1-cup portions. Then go and make another batch, because you’ll have already eaten most of this one.
7.) Spice blends. Make your own garahm masala or rib rub or Cajun blackening spice or herbs de Provence or… you get the idea. It’s easy, it’s delicious, and it’ll definitely be appreciated.
8.) Drink mixes. When I was about 10, my mom showed me how to make my own “Swiss Mocha” mix, a la those International Coffees that were so popular in the late ’70s and early ’80s (did I just date myself here? I think I just dated myself. Moving on…). This Mocha au Lait mix has just four ingredients — dry milk, semi-sweet chocolate chips, brown sugar, and instant coffee — and I’m going to whip up a batch for old time’s sake. Also: Shannon from Rocks In My Dryer offered up a couple of great homemade drink mixes in a recent guest post at Ordering Disorder… check them out.
9.) Baking mixes. My youngest brother is crazy for old-fashioned oatmeal raisin cookies, so last year I packaged up all the dry ingredients, attached a tag describing what else he needed to add and how to put it all together, and he happily baked them up at all hours of the day and night. This year, my neices and godchildren are getting “chef kits” with several homemade mixes for chocolate chip cookies, raisin scones, and brownies. Don’t feel like coming up with your own recipes? You can cheat and pour grocery-store mixes into holiday bags… no one will know.
10.) Trail mix and Muddy Buddies. Combine your favorite fruits and nuts to make your own trail mix, or toss Chex cereal with peanut butter, chocolate, and powdered sugar and make a batch of Muddy Buddies for your coworkers.
Do you make homemade treats for the holidays? I’m always on the lookout for new ideas… share yours in the comments!
Lylah is a full-time working mom and step mom to five kids who range in age from teenager to toddler. She writes about work-life balance, frugal living, and parenthood at The 36-Hour Day and blogs about writing at Write. Edit. Repeat. When she’s not at the office, glued to the computer, or solving a kid-related crisis, she’s cooking, doing laundry, or, occasionally, asleep. This post origingally appeared at The 36-Hour Day.
Welcome to the new (improved) largerfamilies.com! We were having a hard time keeping up with all the spam flooding our Drupal site, and in the interest of being more user-friendly, we decided to make a switch over to Wordpress. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet figured out a way to move our archives over, so if you’re interested in reading our past posts, please visit http://www.largerfamilies.com/drupal.
There are some other changes afoot. First of all, we’re excited to announce that the new largerfamilies.com will include message boards and other fun features like product giveaways and contests. We’ll be adding new bloggers (interested in joining? Send me an e-mail with some information about yourself!) and expanding our content to include more tips, tricks and useable advice. We’ll also be welcoming posts from guest bloggers on a variety of different topics, so register as a subscriber to hear more about what we’re looking for and to keep getting updates on our progress!
We’re so glad you followed us over (or are finding us for the first time!) and are looking forward to having you join the community!
–Meagan Francis, founder
largerfamilies.com