Video of the Week: Dancing Baby

We spent a Monday evening a couple of weeks ago doing family movie night with one of Will’s and my favorite movies from our teen years: That Thing You Do! It’s such a great movie, and even a music non-lover like me really enjoys the songs along with the movie. Dragonfly loved dancing every time any of the songs would start – he was so cute!

 

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Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

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Creamy Chicken and Pasta (Recipe)

We recently got a Costco membership as a belated anniversary present to ourselves. One of our first purchases was a book entitled A Year of Recipes. The premise is that there’s a new recipe for every single day of the year (including February 29th). Some of them aren’t super helpful when it comes to mealtime because they’re desserts or require some specialty ingredients, but a fair number of them are easy to pull off with little or no notice. The recipe I want to share today is one of those.

In the middle of packing up the house for an upcoming move (this week!), I wanted to make something for dinner that would use up some of the food we have on hand. The one for the specific day I was cooking (Saturday the 25th) was this one. I was quite skeptical based on the ingredient list (it seemed too basic), but when I tasted it, I was absolutely sold on this recipe. It was so delicious, and it’s going to make its way into our regular rotation of meals.

pasta dish

I had to make a few alterations to the base recipe in order to use up stuff we already had (sherry for white wine, ditalini for penne, and green beans for peas), and the recipe I’m including today is my modified version rather than the official one from the book.

Creamy Chicken and Pasta ~ serves 6-8

  • 4-6 chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)
  • 1 pound bite size pasta
  • 3/4 cup cooking sherry
  • 1 pound frozen green beans
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 1 tbsp dried parsley flakes
  1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
  2. Cut chicken into strips (or cubes) and cook over moderately high heat until cooked through. Add the cooking sherry and cook over high heat until the liquid is mostly evaporated.
  3. Add the green beans and cover the pot. Cook for 5-6 minutes, until the green beans are hot and tender.
  4. Add the whipping cream, cooked pasta, and parsley. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes to soften the parsley and thicken the sauce.
  5. Serve hot with the side dish of your choice.

We ate this meal with glazed carrots, but it would be equally delicious with “normal” pasta sides: salad, garlic bread, etc.

Blessings,

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Journeying with our Sons into Manhood (Manhood Journey review)

Today’s review is a guest post by my husband, Will. Enjoy reading his thoughts instead of mine for a day 🙂

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For a lot of parents, there’s a big challenge in knowing the right way to pass on your values and beliefs to your children. Manhood Journey & City on a Hill Studio hopes to help bridge that gap with the Manhood Journey Father’s Starter Kit. The concept is straight forward: they’ve built a weekly curriculum that takes the key concepts that are important in spiritual formation, and they focus them down into a form that’s easy to use as conversation-builders and study groups.

I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I was immediately impressed with the packaging. The size of the books was great, and the package looked great and felt great. It made me want to open it immediately.

Inside were five items: A book by Manhood Journey Co-Founder, Kent Evans entitled Wise Guys. Along with this book were the Embarking Group Discussion Guide and The Embarking 1 on 1 Discussion Guide. There was also a DVD of introductory videos and a pack of ten “Maprochures,” which are helpful in recruiting dads to join your group and to help the groups select which modules they’d like to do.  

The Group Guide encourages the leader to use the material as a foundation and then adjust it to fit the specific tone of the group, so I spent quite a bit of time mulling over the content from the first session and working out how I would present it to our boys. The session was built around an analogy of Big Rocks and Small Rocks, paired with a few Bible verses to draw deeper meaning from the “word picture.” This was great. As I presented the concept, the boys’ eyes lit up with understanding. Then I presented the scriptures and challenged them to meditate on how they were all connected.

I let them perk on the ideas overnight and we arranged a time to continue our discussion. Then, I helped guide them through refining their insights.

If you can get a larger group together on a regular basis, this will be a good tool to use as the foundation for that group. I also find that it’s flexible enough that you can make it work on your own with your own children if that’s all you have.

My only critique of the program is that some of the references to pop culture feel dated. I’m sure that some of the parents would get the references, but I’m not sure many of the kids would. I think if you are using this with your own children, you may find that it’s useful to adjust things so that they relate to a younger audience. I’m not referring to the meat of the program (which is excellent) only the supporting examples. For instance, one of the goals of the discussion is to create a “porch moment” like on The Andy Griffith Show when Andy and Opie would talk about the day’s events. If you’re familiar with The Andy Griffith Show, you’ll get it. But you might find that a more modern example (or skipping the pop culture reference altogether) would be better in your specific group.

Based on the Starter Kit, it seems like a great tool for helping fathers open a spiritual dialogue with their sons.

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As always with Homeschool Review Crew reviews, there are several others talking about this product this week. Make sure to click the banner below for more information.

Blessings,

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Manhood Journey Father's Starter Kit {Manhood Journey & City on a Hill Studio Reviews}
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How Dad Helps in Our Homeschool

A lot of homeschool families rely on one parent (usually Mom, but not always) to do the bulk of the schooling with the kids, and ours is no exception. However, we do have one “advantage” over others in that my husband is self-employed, and works from home most of the time. This means he has the opportunity to be more involved than he might otherwise be if he worked a traditional job. Here are some of the ways Will helps us out in this adventure we call homeschooling.

He takes the little boys out during school hours.

This might not seem like a way he’s helping with our homeschool, but it totally is. While Small Fry is nearing school age, and therefore isn’t usually too much of a distraction, Dragonfly (at only 16 months old) definitely causes problems sometimes. Sending him away with Dad for a few hours in the mornings assures that I can help the older boys with some of the complicated things that they need help with. While Will doesn’t do this every day, I always appreciate it when he does have the time to make it happen.

He’s really interested in history…

…and he shares this passion with the boys. My husband absolutely loves reading old books and learning about bygone eras. His current favorite is the French Revolution, and they’ve been doing a lot of studying together about this time period. Together, they’ve been reading Les Miserables, watching the film version of the opera in spurts, and learning everything they can about Napoleon. This included watching a 4-part documentary that they found on YouTube. Past units they’ve worked on together include WWII and the US Civil War.

dad and boys bigger

He’s teaching them the “family business.”

Our family business is pretty non-traditional. My husband works in publishing both as an author/illustrator and as a graphic designer creating books for other self-published authors. He also puts out his own newspaper with content that he creates himself, including selling the ad space. On some of these outings (to deliver the papers or sell ads, mostly), he’ll take one of the boys and teach him what needs to be done and how to do it. Learning by example is a great way to understand things.

On the other side of things, he’s passed his love of drawing on to the children. They are all most comfortable with a pencil or crayon in their hand. This is definitely something they get from their dad. Sometimes we all work together to write the jokes for his comic strip, and this too is valuable life experience for the boys.

He encourages me when I’m feeling down.

This is another thing that might not seem like it really is related to our homeschool experience, but it’s definitely a helpful thing when things aren’t going perfectly. Knowing that my life partner is supportive of this endeavor we’re on is vitally important in our success. He’s a constant reminder that what we’re doing the right thing, even if it sometimes feels like we’re floundering.

He helps come up with big projects for the boys.

Because our two older boys are getting to the point where they need to learn to be self-starters, I often assign them bigger projects to help teach them time management. This is always in addition to whatever regular schoolwork we’re doing at the time. Sometimes I’m not very creative in coming up with what those projects should be, so Will is always helpful in coming up with ideas.

He’s a good disciplinarian.

I tend to be kind of a pushover sometimes, but not my husband. He can definitely be playful, but he takes his job as Dad very seriously. He knows that we’re not just raising “our kids,” but rather “someone else’s future husband.” We want our boys to be good husbands one day, and having a firm upbringing is part of this. Having such a strong leader in our family is a real blessing for both me and our boys.

These are just a few of the ways my husband helps out in our homeschool and our home lives. He’s a fabulous person to be married to, and I’m grateful for him every day.

How does your husband help you in your homeschooling journey? I’d love to hear your experiences, so leave me a comment below.

Blessings,

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This post is part of the roundup “Dad in Our Homeschool” through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Dad in Our Homeschool

Kids in the Kitchen: Mixing a Marinade

kids in the kitchen

When my older two boys were little, I wasn’t very good at involving them in the cooking. It’s something that I knew I should have been doing, but it was just never something that “fit in” to what I was doing at the time.

Now that I have a “second chance,” so to speak, with the little boys, they get involved a lot more. Especially Small Fry (4). He absolutely love helping out in the kitchen. And if it’s a meal where there’s not much for him to be helpful with, he at least likes to stand on a chair and watch, so he’s still learning. I understand now that I really missed out in my impatience as a younger parent; having kids help in the kitchen is a lot more fun than it is work. I never expected it to be such a blessing, and I know that I’m giving him something that will last a lifetime. With the older boys, it will be an uphill battle from now on teaching them to cook. It’s something that will have to happen, because I’m sure they’ll be living on their own at some point and they’ll need that skill.

But for now, I’m going to enjoy having my littles in the kitchen with me. Even if just doing tiny tasks like dumping in the premeasured ingredients or mixing up a marinade.

How do you get your kids to help in the kitchen?

Blessings,

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Elementary Science: Growing an Avocado

avocado pit growth

Munchkin is finishing up his science class for the year this month (he’s been working double time to be able to complete the program before our subscription runs out, which is why he’ll be done in March instead of June). One of the things he was instructed to do to learn about plants and roots was to grow an avocado pit. I’m sure this has been done in countless homeschool (and maybe non-homeschool) homes over the years, but it was our first time doing it. Luckily for him, we actually eat avocados now! Until about two years ago, we didn’t eat them. Ever since I tried one a couple of years ago, though, I realized how delicious they were, and now we eat them regularly. (By “we” I mean everyone but Will and Seahawk. They just won’t be convinced.) So having a pit handy to grow was pretty painless.

It took a very long time – long enough that he’s out of that unit now and onto other studies within the course – but it was neat to see the pit grow anyway. Our only regret with this experiment is that we don’t live in a climate warm enough to support an avocado tree!

Blessings,

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Picture of the Week: Poor Sick, Unhappy Baby

Dragonfly sick

This week has been one of illness in our family. Poor Dragonfly picked something up at church (I wish people would keep their kids home when they’re sick! We do.). He always ends up with back-to-back colds, it seems. He’s sick for a few days or a week, then he gets a day or two of health, and then he’s sick again right away. He’s currently on the second round of colds (this time). Here’s hoping it goes away soon and he stays healthy for a while.

Blessings,

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From Boy to Man (Celebrating Manhood review)

Celebrating Manhood Review at Ladybug Daydreams

In case you don’t know, I have sons. Four of them. And no daughters. I sometimes feel “incomplete” because of this. I often feel sad at not having a girl to raise (to be clear: I’m not sad about having sons. I’m sad about not having a daughter). I was going through an exceptionally difficult time with my emotions a few weeks ago, when I first learned of the book Celebrating Manhood: a rite of passage guide from Home School Adventure Co. There were several e-books being offered for review, and some of them looked really neat. But at that time, I knew that I was supposed to review Celebrating Manhood. I can’t tell you why, but there was something about this book that I felt would be a salve to my soul and help to heal the pain I felt at the time. I knew that I needed to embrace my boys and love my life for what it is (a boy mom) rather than what mourn what I wished I had (children of both genders).

So even though I was quite interested in Creative Freewriting Adventure (a book full of writing prompts), I’d Rather Be Your Mommy (a storybook for moms and young children), and Walking with the Waodani (a unit study on missions in Ecuador), I had to choose Celebrating Manhood instead. (In case you’re interested, all of these books are being reviewed by members of the Homeschool Review Crew. When you’re done reading here, head over to that blog for links to other reviews. I’ll provide a link at the end of this post.)

After all that blither-blather, let me move on to what Celebrating Manhood is all about. Author Stacy Farrell opens the book with this statement:

Extensive research asserts the importance of acknowledging a young man’s entry into adulthood. However, most of Western culture does not mark the transition from boyhood to manhood in any meaningful way. Consequently, an important opportunity is often lost.

celebrating manhood coverBecause Seahwak, my eldest (13 years old), is basically through puberty at this point, I thought this book would be a provide us a good opportunity to celebrate that with him. I want him to know that we (Will and I) understand that he’s getting older, he’s changing, and we want to bestow some additional responsibility on him. As much as I wish it wasn’t true, he’s not my little boy anymore. He’s rapidly becoming a man, and it’s time to acknowledge that. Celebrating Manhood is a book designed to help parents plan a “party” with just that goal in mind.

The book (I received a PDF version) is 37 pages, but really only about half of that is “usable content.” The first bit is the stuff found in most books: positive statements about the book, copyright, about the author, etc. Once you get to the meat of the book, half the pages are blank. I imagine this is because it was a print book first, and it’s designed to have the pages cut out and written on during your son’s rite of passage party. Even though you don’t need those blank pages with a PDF (your home printer will only print on one page at a time), they were left in for the e-book version anyway.

The first thing you’ll find (once you get to the main part of the book) is a timeline of events for your party. It’s designed to be planned by Mom but actually attended and implemented by Dad. The suggested timeline is four hours or so, but that’s easily adaptable depending on your situation. The first thing you have to do is work together with your husband (or son’s father or other father-figure) to decide who to invite to the party. The guests should be men who have a strong influence over your son – grandfathers, pastors, neighbors… Once you send out the invitations (which are included as a printable in the book), then Mom works on planning the main portion of the party, including preparing a meal for the men to share. The reason it’s suggested that Mom be the one to prepare this is to show your son and his guests an attitude of nurture and love by serving them.

All of my young men

All of my young men

Once the party starts, the suggested order of events is: sharing appetizers together, a physical activity lasting roughly an hour or less, having the men eat a meal together, allowing the men to share things they appreciate about your son (blessing him with their words), and ending the evening with dessert (not cake or whatever you normally serve at birthdays – it’s important that this party is nothing like a birthday party) and questions. There are question cards included in the book that you can print and pass out to the men during this portion for them to write on. These would then become keepsakes for your son.

The final thing you’ll find in the book is a printable poster stating “Welcome to the World of Men” with 1 Corinthians 13:11 on it.

Will and I talked, and we decided that before we have this party for him, we want to have something in mind that “being a man” means for after the party. We don’t want it to be a meaningless ceremony, and until we know what that will mean for our family, we’re putting off having a party for Seahawk. I fully intend for us to have one (and will write about it when it happens), but for now it hasn’t yet. But every time I reread this book, I’m reminded of just how important this ceremony will be for my boys – I’ll get to have the privilege of planning this at least four times! What a blessing! But I want to do it right, and for now, that means waiting. Despite not actually having been able to “use” this resource yet, I’m so glad to have been able to review it today.

As I mentioned earlier, the Homeschool Review Crew is reviewing lots of different products from Home School Adventure Co. today. Click the banner below to find out more!

Blessings,

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Learning Basic Language Arts with Eclectic Foundations (Review)

Eclectic Foundations Review

I’m at an interesting place in my homeschooling career. My two older boys are in 7th and 5th grades – one in middle school, and one nearly there. And then I have the two little boys. Small Fry is 4 years old (nearing readiness for Kindergarten), and Dragonfly is just 15 months old. Because of the age gap between Munchkin (5th grade, 10 years old) and Small Fry (age 4), it’s easy to automatically dismiss review opportunities that fall between them as “not a fit based on my kids’ ages.” I almost did just that with Eclectic Foundations. I saw the information provided by the leadership team at the Homeschool Review Crew and immediately thought that my boys were beyond needing something like this. And the older two are.

But then I looked at the website and got to thinking, “You know, Small Fry is wanting to learn to read. Maybe a lower level would work for him.” Once I allowed myself to think about him instead of just the older boys, I realized that Eclectic Foundations Language Arts Level A would probably be a good fit for us. And I was absolutely right.

There are 4 components to this program, and you need them all to run it successfully: the Student Workbook ($24), the Teacher Manual ($12), the Appendix booklet and word cards ($20) and the McGuffey reader (public domain book that’s available in numerous places for cheap or free). You can also purchase a PDF download of the entire program for $30. The thing you can’t do is try to get away with skipping any of the components. Some programs allow you to suffice with just the student book or just the teacher book, but this is not one of those.

Filling in the letter M/m with Play-Doh.

Filling in the letter M/m with Play-Doh.

Each of the books is a softcover, 8.5×11, spiral bound book. The Student Workbook is consumable, so you’d need one for each student, but all the other components are reusable in the event you have multiple students (whether at the same time or one a few years after the other). The Appendix workbook was something unique to this program – I’d never seen anything quite like it with any other language arts curriculum. It is a workbook very similar to the others (8.5×11, softcover, spiral bound), but every single page in it is laminated. These pages are used for some of the games in the program, and are designed to be written on in dry erase or Vis a Vis markers (when playing Tic Tac Toe or filling in letters around vowels, which happens in later lessons), or in some cases, just to have your child point to the correct image (during the “Starts with” and “Beginning, Middle, End” games – details on all of this later). We’re not at a point yet where we’ve needed the word cards (they start at about lesson 65, and we’re only at 21), so I can’t really tell how they work yet.

Because Small Fry is just starting to show interest in learning letters and reading, we started at the very beginning – Level A (there are A, B, and C), lesson 1. So far, each week follows the same routine, which is nice. It allows him to anticipate what’s coming next.

Thanks to its "open and go" style, even older siblings are able to help teach this curriculum.

Thanks to its “open and go” style, even older siblings are able to help teach this curriculum.

This is an open-and-go curriculum, which is very nice. There’s virtually no preparation required. It’s based on a 4-day school week, and each lesson takes under 20 minutes – perfect for new learners. Each day starts with a recitation of the alphabet, and then moves on to the student workbook pages. The workbook has a wide variety of activities to keep young minds interested. On the first day, they get to fill in the “letter of the week” with Play-Doh (or pipe cleaners for a mess-free experience). This day we also play the “Starts With” game. For this, there’s a list of words that you read to your child (in the teacher’s manual), and the child determines whether or not the word starts with the letter/sound of the week. The appendix book is used for this – there’s a page with smiley faces on it, and a happy face means the word does start with the sound, and sad face means it does not. The student points to the correct image.

Eclectic Foundations review | Ladybug Daydreams

A portion of one of the letter mazes. Click to enlarge.

Other days have other activities, including but not limited to determining whether the sound of the week is found at the beginning, middle, or end of a list of words, finding all occurrences of the letter in a faith-based poem, writing the letter and simple words that include it, and reading simple words using sounds that have already been introduced (so far, we’re up to “man,” “Nan,” “fan,” “ran,” and “Sam”). And then there’s Small Fry’s absolute favorite activity: the maze. This happens on the third lesson of the week (depending on our week, usually Wednesday or Thursday). The maze looks a lot like a word search, but instead of finding words, students are instructed to follow the path of whatever the letter of the week is, from a smiley face at the top to a smiley face at the bottom.

Using this curriculum was a breeze. The teacher manual spells everything out for you, and the student book is full of fun activities. We’ve been using it for just over a month now, and Small Fry (who’s not even 5 years old yet) is already able to read simple words. And he’s gone from being able to copy his name down to writing it all by himself. On top of being effective, it’s really fun. It’s not at all stressful, and my son absolutely adores having his own school to do. Every morning when he wakes up, he asks if he can “do school today.” And the days that have the maze are even better!

Needless to say, we absolutely love this curriculum. I’m so glad I looked closely at the website before just assuming it wouldn’t be a good fit for us, because it absolutely is the perfect fit for my precocious 4-year-old!

Blessings,

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Members of the Homeschool Review Crew are reviewing all three levels of Eclectic Foundations this week. Click the banner below for more information!

Language Arts {Eclectic Foundations Reviews}
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Rose City Comic Con

This post is a long time coming, but now’s the time. It will be fairly light on words because I didn’t go (Dragonfly wasn’t even a year old yet when they went, and it didn’t seem like a good thing to bring a baby to), but I do know that Will and the boys (the 3 oldest ones) had a great time. The four of them, plus Will’s dad, went. It was a fabulous bonding time for the men in the family.

Most of the pictures of Small Fry meeting different characters because it was his first time going to an event like this. Plus, he’s at such a fun age that everyone was thrilled to let him have those experiences. Others will include the rest of the family. I’ll include captions as I’m able, based on the little knowledge I have of the event.

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With Thor

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In front of the Batmobile (from the 1960s show) with Grandpa

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Meeting Iron Man

With a Storm Trooper

With a Storm Trooper

I'm not sure what this guy is lol

I’m not sure what this guy is lol

In his homemade Buzz Lightyear costume before the event

In his homemade Buzz Lightyear costume before the event

And meeting the "real" Buzz

And meeting the “real” Buzz. I’m pretty sure this was the highlight of the trip for him.

This is what Dragonfly was doing while everyone else was away for the day: "learning to knit." :)

This is what Dragonfly was doing while everyone else was away for the day: “learning to knit.” 🙂

Blessings,

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