The Paper Monster

What's Schoolin'?

There are 2 sides to the paper monster in our homeschool:  before the children use the paper and after the children use the paper.  This is about the "before" aspect of keeping our papers organized and available.

I am fortunate to have an armoire in the office with supplies.  I have some heavy paper sorters stacked almost all of the way up in 1/2 of the armoire with lots of different things in them.  Five slots are dedicated to paper:  graph paper, lined notebook paper, white cardstock, printer paper, colored/misc paper.  Cardboard sorters would not hold up to the weight of being stacked but the ones I have are hard-sided.  Make sure you check that before buying if that is a feature you like.

They are similar to this and I found them at Sam's many years ago.  The inserted shelves can be taken out which is very convenient for storing non-paper items or, for example, extra notebooks (which we always seem to need) upright in another space.  Make sure you check that before buying if that is a feature you like.



For construction paper I added a shelf to my regular bookshelf about 6 inches from another shelf that holds the long construction paper.  I just have them stacked, not sorted by color, and this seems to work fine.  I have the 1/2-size construction paper in the same shelf on top of the long sheets.  My children don't seem to use a lot of construction paper any more.  They prefer the other paper except for certain craft projects.

This holds 1/2-size construction paper.  I had something similar in my classroom made of cardboard and it worked well:



What's Cookin'?

Horse treats:  My youngest has made homemade dog treats - which our dogs LOVE by the way.  Now my oldest two are going to make homemade horse treats:  apple and carrot varieties.  I'm excited about it and will post our recipe once we tweak it.

Here are some Gottatries that I don't want to forget:

Preserving Kale (by washing, whirring with some lemon juice, and freezing).  Kale is one of those few plants that I could grow really well at our old house... but nobody really likes kale in my family :).  This is a fantastic way to add it to soups and dishes (he, he, he...):
http://behealthybehappywellness.com/blog/2012/06/save-your-kale

Coconut milk:  I normally make dd almond milk (and use the 'mush' to dehydrate and use for baking as almond meal/flour).  However, recently I had been wondering about making coconut milk.  I was thrilled to read this recipe and see how it's done.
http://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/how-to-make-coconut-milk

Quinoa salad (with zukes):
http://glutenfreescdandveggie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/quinoa-salad-gf.html

What's Gardenin'?

This is a great post about organic pest control:
http://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/garden-disease-control

What's Green?

Here is a good post about conserving energy.

http://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/reducing-standby-power

I plan on buying this energy meter to help us save in the long run:



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