Ligia, Author at Journal of a Busy Mom

Simple Machines Foldable

November 8, 2016 By Ligia

My son is taking General Science at our co-op this year. This week he was studying simple machines. We made a simple machines foldable this week to help him with remembering the formulas and names of the different simple machines. Kids with dyslexia struggle with remembering formulas, so I decided to create something to help him and his classmates.

First I found the picture of the simple machines:

Then I used a blue paper (can be any color) and folded it into shutter:

Shutter

And then glued the pictures to the outside.

Then we watched the video clips in the Exploring General Science Multimedia Companion CD to write out each of the following:

Mechanical Advantage Formula

Drawing of the simple machine

And examples or other diagrams to help with solving mechanical advantage problems.

Here is what ours looked like:

Simple machine

Inside foldable

My son will be using this to take his Module 4 test.

Ligia

A Cleaning Schedule that Works

October 22, 2016 By Ligia

One of my biggest problems I face is creating a working cleaning schedule. For a long time I did the Flylady method which includes: routines, daily cleaning and zone cleaning. This system really worked for me until I moved to a bigger house and then it became hard to keep up with all the zones and daily cleaning. That was 5 years ago!!!!

So since then I struggled to figure out what works for me.

I have tried cleaning calendars like this one:

I did the Morning and Evening routine okay, but the Weekly fell through the cracks and so did the other Extra Days etc.

Next I tried a weekly cleaning calendar. I started with just my bathroom chore. I decided I rather do a little every day instead of trying to clean the whole bathroom in one day. Then I started thinking, why can’t I do that with all my chores? I can do a little a day in each room/section so then I created the A/B schedule.

I started using this method about 2 months before reading this book, but to my delight, Simplify you Life reaffirmed what I was doing. Other than a Morning and Evening Pickup, author Ramsland suggests creating a weekly cleaning schedule similar to what I did. It’s not perfect, and often it does not all get done but it has been really working so far.

I am sharing my schedule here:

Another cleaning suggestion that I really like is the Clean Up Clutter Project. This is the cleaning that you can’t get to every week. So things like cleaning grout, vacuuming behind the sofas etc. These can be small cleaning projects.

So I am creating a running list in my planner that will help me to get to some of those pesky projects that don’t get to on a weekly basis. I will try to share more about this in another post. I’m still trying to see how this will fit into my life.

For now I am happy with what I am doing.

Ligia

Note Taking App #2: Audio Note

October 19, 2016 By Ligia

I shared previously that I am on a quest to find the right note taking app for my son. He has dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADD which makes it hard to:

listen and write at the same time
copy off a board
spell and write at the speed of the lecturer
focus on the speaker and notes, and everything else going on

These apps help because even if he doesn’t take great notes-even minimal notes-the audio recording will allow him to be able to go back to the lecture and listen to what was said.

I will be spending time teaching him to take notes. He has to learn how to do it properly, but that doesn’t mean that he will be able to do it at the rate that most non-LD can.

So here are two videos that I really liked about AudioNote.