Mama's Musings

Gratitude is a bit of a buzz word again, isn't it?  As we are faced with a lot of fear and change, isolation and information, I figured it might be a good time to share one of my favourite mental health tools...

I first started consciously practicing gratitude when I read Simple Abundance in 1995.  More than any other tool, gratitude has helped improve my mood and mindset consistently during the past 26 years of motherhood.  Gratitude journals, gratitude meditations, gratitude lists, gratitude apps - I've tried them all!  I also like to ask my children about their favourite part of their day, an outing, a trip, or an activity.

Today's freebie is a gratitude worksheet - a big brainstorming session you can do alone or with your children, family or friends.  Afterwards, if you don't already, you might like to try recognising "three things" you're grateful for, do this in any way you like - on your phone or a notebook, out loud or in your head before...

When The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape was published in 2017, I heard about it everywhere and so grabbed myself a copy in paper and audio editions.  I read the book, listened to the audiobook (read by Scott himself), joined a facebook groups where the concepts were discussed, subscribed to the Barefoot emails....  And yes, I opened the ING accounts!  The books are less than $20 each (new), and are also available as ebooks and audiobooks.

We didn't implement all of the ideas in the book - a lot of the Barefoot steps we were already doing, or didn't apply to us.  The way Scott simply and humorously laid out the strategies he suggests made it easy to implement a few easy changes which meant instantly increased savings, decreased expenses, and reaching goals more quickly.  Reassuringly, he reminds readers often to "tread your own path."

I bought this book for some of my younger siblings and adult children, I loved it so much!  I've...

We love anything to do with DIRT here!  And we love resources collated by others!  So I was pretty excited to see that another homeschool mum (Jeannette) had shared these:

FREE RESOURCES ALL ABOUT SOIL

Do you use printable resources?  Check out Teachers Pay Teachers for free and cheap resources!

Teachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace where teachers (and homeschoolers) buy and sell original educational materials.

Just search for what sort of resources you need, eg: "Australian Money" then narrow down the results using the approx age level on the left, as well as your maximum price and the resource type. Try to be as specific as you can - I just searched for Australian Money resources for P/K/1 level and there are over 850 items!  Please note that prices are in US dollars.


For US$5 I just bought a 56 page pdf download with 4 games I can print and use right away.  It has lists of what we need (eg: dice, counters), cards, game boards, instructions, and "coins" (but we'll use our plastic ones or real money).  

I played (and made) a few money games with my older children when they were young.  I found it gave them the confidence to go into a real...

Did you know that there are FREE worksheet generators online?  I don't have a preferred one, I just search and use whatever appeals.  I just tested this one though, to make a handwriting sheet  for Zeah, and it worked fine.  I printed a page, and also saved it as a pdf.

I used to use worksheet generators when my older kids were young too, to make wordsearches and other activities they enjoyed related to their current unit study or topic of interest.  For little learners, I'd often make pages using our names and address words, because they liked things related to our family, and it was useful for them to know these words.  You can make worksheets and other games for learning at any stage.  Flashcards are awesome for adults learning a language, for example.

Worksheets aren't necessarily the boring, futile teaching tool they're often made out to be.  Personalised worksheets, in particular, can be lots of fun!  Happy printing!

I'm SO excited to have feedback from my first participants of my first online mini-course - 7 Days to a More Organised Homeschool!  This course has been tested over the past few weeks by a small group of homeschooling parents and it's NOW READY FOR YOU!

Here are some of their comments:

"I liked the handouts/printables and the way you organise them so people can print what they need/want."

"I thought your structure was great - the way the course went from the big picture down, macro to micro - yearly, monthly, weekly, then daily."

"It was great how you encouraged parents to include their children in planning."

"My favourite printout was the Order in the House tools list."

"Are you sure about the price?  You've included a LOT of content in this course!"

"I like how you made it clear at the start what we'd need to proceed through the sessions.  I decided to create the whole workbook and go through each step.  Thank you."

"I'm glad it didn't need to be done in 7...

I share printable resources I've made to my email subscribers and on my Facebook page and group.  There are three up on the Resources page right now too!

As a Friday Freebie this week, I'd like to share a new one for the littles (or young at heart)... an animal-themed super-simple weekly planner page - ideal to print, laminate and use with a whiteboard marker over and over again!  

Are you creating things with little people?  I often am!  I have a few craft books to inspire, but I don't regularly use them...  I normally search online for a specific theme, eg: "rainbow craft preschool".  Or sometimes I search for activities to use up specific materials, eg: "seedpod crafts".  I have the beginnings of a folder of ideas in Pinterest, but I forget to add to it!

We like to use materials from nature, mixed with materials that can be composted.  We try to avoid plastic, foam, synthetic fibres, over-packaged kits, single-use everything!  I remember about 20 years ago taking my tribe of small children to playgroup and coming home with at least four creations made from plastic and styrofoam, glitter and googly eyes.  And another four the next week.  And over and over until our home was filled with non-recyclable art that inevitably ended up in the bin.  We still have way too many precious creations floating...

I only received these recently, but I love them already!  Not sure if this is a resource for the kids, or for me...

These Grow Do It Permaculture Action Cards were written by Charlie Mgee (based on his awesome musical offerings) and illustrated by Brenna Quinlan.  There are 63 different cards and they are large.

So far I've used them with Zeah (4) and we've done matching type activities to identify what goes with what...  eg: choose a principle card such as Catch and Store Energy.  It was interesting to hear her reasons for matching certain cards, and also useful for me to have to explain my reasons.  Because she can't read yet, we mostly used the illustration side of each card.

I love Permaculture.  I love open-ended resources which can be used in multiple ways - from setting challenges to action games to creative prompts.  I think these ones are well worth the investment, and I love how ethically they are produced, packaged and promoted.  Each...