Skincare, Homeschooling Curriculum, and Smoothie Recipes (or not)

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

I’m a big fan of your blog! As you look wonderful, I would like to ask if you have any frugal ways on skincare or maintaining beauty?

Thanks!
Wing

Aww, thank you. I’m so glad you enjoy my blog. 🙂

I have a pretty low maintenance skincare routine, which basically consists of washing it with gentle soap and warm water twice a day (once in the shower in the morning and once at night to remove the day’s makeup) and sometimes using a moisturizer in the winter if my skin gets dry.

But I have kind of oily skin, and if that weren’t the case, I’d probably need to modify my routine to include more moisturizing and less washing.

Though I may change my mind as I get older and my skin needs more help, I’m currently of the opinion that the beauty industry sells us a lot of over-priced stuff that is unnecessary/ineffective.

As far as makeup goes, I keep that pretty simple too…I usually use drugstore brands (not department store brands), and I generally stick with foundation, powder, and eyeliner, and maybe some eyeshadow, mascara, and lip gloss when I feel like doing a little bit more.

I am planning on homeschooling and have read through most of your posts. I find your simplistic approach to homeschooling refreshing and encouraging! My question is do you have a post where you break down what you teach by grade/age level and which curriculum you use? I would definitely pay for an e-book! I know there are several on-line, but I have been overwhelmed when looking at many other sites. I want to keep it simple!

Thank you,
Suzanne

So many of you have emailed to ask what curriculum I use, and I just have not managed to put together a good list, except for kindergarten.

(I put together a list of the basics I use for kindergarten right here.)

I realized recently that Amazon has a feature where I can set up a grouping of books, though, so I tried it out to make a list of what I use for second grade materials.

I’ve never used this feature before, so apologies if anything is wonky.

The books on that list cover math, grammar, handwriting, reading, vocabulary, history, science, and art. In addition, I’d add 30 minutes of library-book reading and a daily journal (here’s how we do journals). Also, for PE, my kids are enrolled in a martial arts class and for music, they take piano lessons from yours truly.

Zoe is technically in second grade, but she is one smart cookie, so she’s actually doing the third grade versions of a number of those books.

Oh, and Zoe is also is using the BJU reading textbook and workbook.

Big Fat Disclaimer: There are a lot of things about BJU that I am not a fan of, but the reading curriculum has not had any racist/legalistic issues. The books are mostly workbook-style stuff which I am not a huge fan of, but to a degree, I think it’s good for my kids to be exposed to this kind of thing simply because a lot of it is similar to what they’d see on a standardized test. So, we use this, but I do not think it is the pinnacle of curriculum, nor do I think it’s the most helpful thing we do. I think my kids get way more out of their 30 minutes of daily reading time.

By the way, the list is on Amazon because that’s the simplest way to do it, but Amazon doesn’t always have the lowest prices. I also check half.com, ebay, and CBD to see where the best deals are.

If you guys find the Amazon store list to be helpful, let me know, and I’ll put together pages for other grades as well.

Also, just so you know, if you buy something through the Amazon links in the store, a small percentage of the sale goes to support this site.

What are your smoothie recipes?

Thanks,

M. Shatz

I don’t usually use a recipe, actually…I just eyeball it every time because I don’t want to mess with measuring and getting more dishes dirty! I usually use maybe 2 cups of yogurt, a banana, and then a random assortment of frozen fruit, depending on what I have in the freezer.

If I’m using spinach in a smoothie, I like to blend that up with the non-frozen stuff first and then add the frozen fruit. Also, if you’re using spinach, you can make it look more palatable by adding blueberries or blackberries. Your smoothie will then be purple instead of green (or brown, which is what it will look like if you use spinach and strawberries!)

I’d recommend experimenting around to see what works for you and your taste buds.

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Readers, have at it! If you’ve got opinions about the topics today, do share.

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Joshua’s 365 post: Bogged Down