Wordless Wednesday (on Thursday): Fingerpainting
This post is being shared on the Wordless Wednesday linky at Life at Rossmont.
5 Random Things ~ August 21
1. I recently started taking the Aqua Zumba class at our local pool. It’s for about an hour twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays). I really enjoy the class. It’s a very low-impact workout, but definitely a workout. Because a lot of our normal activities (biking, tennis…) are considered “risky” during pregnancy, we haven’t done as much of those this summer. Will and the boys walk a lot to get their exercise, but that’s hard on my hips so I typically pick them up in the car once they’ve gone several miles away. The Aqua Zumba class is perfect for me to also get some good exercise in. And because it happens in the evenings, I don’t miss very much of the boys on those days. They usually go on a walk with Will while I’m at class, and he puts them bed before I get home. I come home and give them kisses.
2. One of the quilts I finished last week wasn’t very good. I didn’t even bother labeling it with my name or taking pictures of it. I was that embarrassed/ashamed of it. So needless to say, it won’t be appearing here. Will thinks I’m crazy for that and that your average person wouldn’t even have noticed the imperfections. Due to his point of view, I did go ahead and finish the quilt (which did have some redeeming characteristics – the pieced binding I did that took forever to make added a nice layer of depth and interest to the quilt, for instance), but I still wasn’t happy enough to keep it or document it. When my dad came over one day last week, I asked him if he wanted it at his house for when grandchildren came to visit, and he said sure, so I gave it to him. He thought it was pretty great, so I’m glad the quilt has gone to a good home.
3. On a similar note, the turtle quilt I shared about a couple of weeks ago met a similar fate. I wasn’t as pleased with it as I’d hoped to be, so it’s gone to my mom’s house for snuggling grandsons (between my brother and me, she has 5, soon to be 6, grandsons and no granddaughters) in.
4. Small Fry is really into the book Go, Dog! Go! lately, so we’ve been reading that once or twice a day. When I read it to him today, he could quote several pages of it in a row. And he very cutely said, “I read it!” (Read, of course being pronounced as the present tense of the verb – reed – not the past tense – red.) He was so proud of himself 🙂
5. Speaking of reading, the summer reading program at our library concluded this week. We decided that next summer, we’re going to buy some prizes for our boys to earn and do a private summer reading/French program rather than participating in the library’s. Two or three years ago, they switched systems so that with every 10 days read (or being read to, in the case of younger children), each child gets an entry into a drawing for a prize rather than actually getting a prize. It’s rather discouraging to read every day for 60+ days and not get anything at the end (which has happened to my boys ever since this new way of doing things started – until this year, when Small Fry won something). Combine that with the fact that Seahawk is in the “teen” program now, even though he’s only 11, where you can theoretically get entries into the drawings and never read a single book, and we’ve decided we’d rather pass next year. We want to encourage our kids to read during the summer, not get disappointed over reading for “no reason” or look for ways to game the system.
What’s going on with your family this week?
Blessings,
Homeschool Curriculum Plan ~ 2015-2016
When I wrote last week that we were only three weeks away from starting school and I didn’t have a clue what we were going to do, that kind of lit a fire under me to make plans. Preliminary plans, at least. So here’s what I’ve got.
Despite the fact that the boys are in different grades (Seahawk is starting 6th and Munchkin is starting 4th), we still do pretty much everything together. There are a few exceptions, but as a rule they do similar work. This will be changing just a hair this year. The courses will be the same, but since Seahawk is officially entering the middle school grades, he’ll have a bit more work. My goal with him over the next 2-3 years is to get him used to working more independently, and not balking at doing more work than his brother.
So rather than doing separate posts for our plan, I’m going to stick with just this one. Like previous years, we’ll be doing the same topics, but the scope and sequence will vary for each of the two of them. My goal this year is for us to attempt a more “notebooking” approach to schooling. I think the things I have/have chosen will be best using that approach. I’ll be purchasing spiral notebooks for each child – one per subject. Another thing I’m going to do color code those notebooks. I read this idea on another blog recently and I just loved it. For her children’s school supplies, she assigned each child a color, and then bought all the supplies for a particular child (pencils, erasers, notebooks, pens, scissors, etc) all in that color. That way, there’s no fighting over whose supplies are whose when it’s time for school. I thought that was absolutely brilliant, and I’m going to do it this year as well. As much as possible, anyway. Things like rulers (wood, not plastic) only come in one color, so those will match. I’ll put each child’s name on his ruler though.
One thing that we do a little bit differently than some other families. We school four days a week instead of five. This allows us one weekday (Mondays) to get errands done that simply can’t be done on the weekend (doctor’s appointments, banking, etc). I also found that having that third day off each week lessens the overwhelm and fatigue for all of us. Additionally, we’ll likely take a few weeks off in November and December for the birth of Dragonfly – and the holidays, of course.
So, what will we be studying this year? Here’s the list. It might change, especially as I discover things we might be reviewing as the school year progresses, but this is at least where we’re going to start.
Reading: Each day (seven days a week), the boys will be reading from a novel or non-fiction book at their grade level. Thanks to my subscription at Super Teacher Worksheets (there’ll be a review on that in the coming weeks), each book will have comprehension questions to go through as they read as well as a report due at the end.
Science: This will be done twice a week, and we’re going to use our subscription to Visual Learning Systems, which I reviewed earlier this year. We all really enjoyed that program, and it lends itself well to a notebooking approach of learning. We did Earth science during the review period, so I think we’ll move on to Life science as we begin the school year.
History: This will take place on the days opposite science. We’ll be using the Famous Men of Rome set that I reviewed earlier this year.
Spelling: Munchkin doesn’t need a spelling program; he spells well on his own. Seahawk, though, definitely needs to study the topic. We’ve tried a variety of programs in the past with varying degrees of success. This year we’re trying something new: The Phonetic Zoo from the Institute for Excellence in Writing. I’ve been so impressed with every single we’ve reviewed from them in the past that I have high hopes that this will be “the one” that finally helps him with his spelling. There will be a review of the program here on the blog in early- to mid-October, so make sure to look for that in a few weeks.
Grammar: I was so impressed with our use of IEW’s Fix It! Grammar The Nose Tree that we’ll be using the second book in the set for our grammar studies this year: Robin Hood.
Writing: I have a few different ideas for writing, so this is one subject where there will be a lot of flexibility. If we use an official curriculum, it will be the Student Writing Intensive from IEW that we reviewed a few weeks ago. If we go with just “write something,” we will likely use some of Hewitt Homeschooling’s My First Reports. For creative writing, my boys love just writing stories – they’re each in the middle of one right now – so I’ll let them continue writing on those.
Bible: I’m not sure what we’ll do here yet. We will either continue to use our Firmly Planted study or we will just read through the Bible together without an official study to go with it. Ideally, we’ll read from the Bible seven days a week, even if we don’t do an official study all of those days.
Math: Because we started using Great Parents Academy partway through the school year last year, and it was so much more comprehensive than our previous math program, the kids will finish up their “old” grades and then move straight into the new grades using the same program. They really liked it, and I liked how much they were learning. It’s a keeper for sure.
Unless otherwise mentioned, each subject will take place four days a week (Tuesday through Friday).
So that’s my plan. Have you started planning your school year yet?
Blessings,
Five Random Things ~ August 14
1. We’re only about 3 weeks from “back to homeschool” and I have no idea what the plan will be.
2. This week we were gifted a set of real-silver silverware from my mom and stepdad. It belonged to my stepdad’s mom before she passed (which was right after my mom and stepdad married, before I ever had a chance to meet her, so circa 1986). My mom guesses that it’s from the mid-50s when my stepdad’s parents first married. We will be using it as our main silverware. New flatware was on our list of things we wanted to get anyway, so this way we don’t have to spend the money, and it’s much better quality than anything we would have purchased for ourselves anyway.
3. I’ve been in a quilt-making groove recently. I’ll share some pictures sometime soon; I’m just waiting for Will to help me take photographs of them because he’s better with a camera than I am.
4. We went to the Farmer’s Market yesterday and got some delicious fresh peaches. 8 of them for $5. Yum!
5. Small Fry is really into drumming lately. I have to hide the pencils because he takes them and drums all over anything he can with them. At this rate, all of our pencils are going to have the lead all broken inside!
And a bonus random thought:
6. We recently switched away from ballpoint pens and started using fountain pens. I’ve never had much luck with a fountain pen in the past, until we tried this brand – Pen & Ink | Sketch. The pens are completely self contained (no dipping) and come with 3 disposable cartridges filled with ink as well as one refillable cartridge. So far, Munchkin, Will, and I each have one. Seahawk’s planning on getting one pretty soon, too (Munchkin bought his with his allowance money). It feels really nice in your hand and writes as well as a ball point. I highly recommend them! (We paid $17.49 at the local art store, but they also have them on Amazon for a little under $10. We just didn’t want to wait for shipping, and also we wanted to support the local economy.)
Have a great weekend!!
Blessings,
Hobo Spider Update
If you read my Picture of the Week post last Friday, you’ll remember that we caught a large spider in the boys’ bedroom. The “monster” was crawling across Small Fry’s pillow as he was getting ready to change into his pajamas, and it caused the 3-year-old to scream in terror.
The next day, we took the creature to the county etymologist’s office. The official etymologist wasn’t working that day (Friday), so they kept the spider and said to come back on Monday. Well, the verdict was still out when we called to check in on Monday, so we went back in today (Wednesday) for the final explanation for the animal we’d caught. Turns out it wasn’t a hobo spider after all. It was just an oversize (read: older) common house spider. Nothing to be afraid of, outside of its enormity. While the spider was huge and frightening, I’m glad to know none of us were in any real danger.
And now the boys have a new bug for their collection of framed bugs. (The county extension office, where the etymologist works out of, killed the spider in a way that preserves it – by drowning it in rubbing alcohol. We just have to let it dry out a little bit now before we (well, Will and the kids) frame it.
Blessings,
Picture of the Week: Hobo Spider
When Small Fry was getting ready for bed last night, we suddenly heard a blood curdling scream. Fortunately, Seahawk was with him and able to comfort him while he brought his little brother up to see me for additional cuddles and comfort. Will headed downstairs (where the boys’ bedroom is) to investigate what might have caused such a reaction from our three-year-old, and found this guy crawling on Small Fry’s pillow:
We were afraid it might be a brown recluse, so Will caught it to examine and do some research on before just killing it straight away. Fortunately, we were able to eliminate brown recluse as an option (those guys are really dangerous). After about an hour of internet research and comparing photographs of our spider vs those online, we’re comfortable in knowing it’s a hobo spider. They’re venomous but not aggressive or deadly to humans. Just really frightening due to their size – this one is easily 3 inches in diameter including the legs.
The plan is for Will to take it to an exterminator later today for a more precise identification.
Have you ever found super scary bugs in your house?
Blessings,
25 Weeks
Things are going well still. Dragonfly (that’s the blog nickname I came up with for new baby) is kicking and squirming all over the place. Occasionally, it can even be seen and felt from the outside. Everyone will be quite excited when that becomes a more regular occurrence and they can all feel him on a moderately regular basis.
At my doctor’s appointment this week, everything went really well. I’m measuring a week ahead, which is something I’ve never experienced. The other boys were all spot on for their gestational age, except for Small Fry toward the end; I was a little small with him. After my next appointment at the end of the month, I’ll have to do my glucose screening, but I’m not terribly concerned about that.
We (the doctor and I) had a moderately lengthy conversation about what I want to do when it’s time for the birth – the clinic she referred me to for VBAC care doesn’t take my insurance, so going there isn’t possible (paying out of pocket definitely isn’t in the budget). I wasn’t in a very good mental place when I found out about them not taking my insurance, so I sent an email to my doctor saying that maybe I should just have another c-section. But I know in my heart that that’s not the right answer either. She told me to think about it for a week or two and send her an email to let her know what I decide. If I still want to try for the VBAC, she’ll find a doctor who will take both me and my insurance. But I’ll be into the early part of my third trimester at my next appointment (where does the time go??), so the doctor change will have to happen fast after that. Although, it may all end up being a moot point if my low lying placenta doesn’t move. That’s considered a medically necessary c-section, not just an elective one, and I’d be okay with that.
Seahawk got to go with me to the appointment this week, which was nice. He was scheduled to have an immunization, so they said I could just bring him to my appointment instead of him needing to have his own. Since he was at church camp four weeks ago when we had the ultrasound appointment, I was glad he got to come to this one, even if it wasn’t as exciting. He loved hearing Dragonfly’s heartbeat (which is still a steady 150 beats a minute – it hasn’t changed since our second appointment), and even more so hearing baby kick at the Doppler. He thought that was basically hilarious. And I took him to get a muffin from the store for breakfast afterwards – he deserved it after having to get a painful shot.
That’s about it for baby updates.
I’ll start having pictures with my next post 🙂
Blessings,
Homeschool Curriculum Review: Funtastic Unit Studies
One of the best things about being a part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew is that I get to learn about – and try – new homeschooling gems that I’ve never even heard of before. Such is the case with today’s review. Funtastic Unit Studies brings a new science book for children ages 4-13 called Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers ($16.95).
This physical, softcover book is divided into 20 chapters, each one exploring a different area of science. The first ten chapters are written with ages 4-7 in mind and covers topics such as the senses, the body, animals, insects, magnets, stars and planets, and others. The second half of the book, where we spent the majority of our time, is for ages 8-13. Some of the topics overlap the chapters written for younger students (insects and plants, for instance), but there are quite a few that are completely new as well – microscopes, atoms, matter, chemistry, weather, and more.
It was asked of us, as reviewers, that we accomplish at least one of the unit studies presented in the book. When I first requested to be a part of this review, I thought I might do two of the studies during the summer months, but when I actually saw it I decided to stick with just doing one now. The book is good enough – comprehensive enough – that I plan to use the rest of the 8-13 units for our science curriculum when school starts up again in the fall. We chose to explore atoms and molecules for our summer study. (Incidentally, you can get the atoms and molecules study as a free sample – the entire lesson – on the author’s website if you want to see it before you decide to purchase the book.) I chose this one because it had the most readily available supply requirements.
Searching the periodic table for water
The opening of this unit study explains what an atom is and what a molecule is. While the text of what to say isn’t scripted per se, it is written clearly enough that a non-science parent (such as myself) can understand what’s being explained in order to explain it to the students. Or you can just read it to them – it’s easy enough for them to understand as well. It then introduces students to the periodic table of the elements. The explanation for the difference between atoms and molecules comes immediately after giving students time to examine the periodic table. Students are asked to find water on the table – of course, it isn’t there because water is a molecule made up of two elements, or kinds of atoms (hydrogen and oxygen). This simple activity was enough for Munchkin (age 8 and the student for this review) to understand the difference.
Building marshmallow molecules
The following activities build on that first one. Students are able to “build molecules” using marshmallows and toothpicks (we used spaghetti noodles because we didn’t have any toothpicks).
A glass of water and some food coloring shows how diffusion works.
The steam coming off a pot of boiling water is compared to a cup of ice to show that molecules move slower or faster depending on the temperature.
Students draw pictures of a variety of atoms by following specific directions for how many protons, electrons, and neurons are in each kind (there are some of these listed out with the correct numbers for parents/teachers to describe to the students).
And at the end of the unit study, which should take one to two weeks to complete, there’s a test.
Marshmallow molecules. Clockwise from right: hydrogen dioxide, water, and methane.
My overall opinion of this book is very positive. The units are easy to follow and understand, and most of them use supplies that you probably already have on hand, or are very easy to get. I like that each unit starts with a list of the supplies needed for that specific unit, so it’s easy to decide whether it will work for you in the short term. I also really liked that there’s such a large variety of activities for each unit. While not exactly experiments, they’re hands-on enough to keep almost any child interested in what they’re learning. So, the big question: would I recommend this book to other homeschooling families?
Yes. For all of the reasons I just stated.
Blessings,
Make sure to click the banner below to connect with other homeschooling families who are reviewing this book this week!
Turtle Quilt
I go back and forth among the crafty things I like to do a lot. I might spend several weeks (or months!) on, say, crocheting, and then switch to cross stitching, then quilting, then embroidery, then something else, and then back to crochet. It’s quite the cycle. Right now, I’m all about the quilting. But just a couple of weeks ago, I was really into embroidery. So I combined these two pursuits into one and made this crib quilt.
Each of the white squares has a different embroidered turtle on it, and the patchwork squares are what’s called a “churn dash” block with a pinwheel in the center square instead of a plain square. I quilted it just using straight lines in a diamond pattern (though not a very good one since I didn’t draw the lines out in advance). I really prefer to use free-form quilting, but I haven’t been able to make that work on my current sewing machine, so until I can figure it out I’m stuck with straight lines. (For those of you who know anything about quilting, my problem is that a) my feed dogs don’t drop and b) the presser foot squishes the fabric too tightly, so there’s no maneuverability in there, even if I set the stitch length to 0, effectively disabling the feed dogs.) I read somewhere online recently that my sewing machine does, however, have an adjustable presser foot pressure, so I’ll have to explore that facet to see if I can get free-motion quilting to work for me.
Oh, and in case you can’t see the individual turtles very well, here are a few pics of them from my Instagram feed:
Blessings,
Easy Homemade Chicken Taquitos (Recipe)
Have you ever had taquitos? I only have a few times, but the other day, I got one of those pregnancy cravings for them. Don’t ask where it came from since they’re not something I eat often enough to really “know” about, but there it was. So I looked up the basic method on my favorite recipe website (allrecipes.com) and modified it to fit our tastes, budget, and what we had on hand. Enjoy!
Blessings,
Easy Chicken Taquitos
2015-07-18 23:48:50
Yields 30
Prep Time
45 min
Cook Time
15 min
Total Time
1 hr
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
54g
Yields
30
Amount Per Serving
Calories 100
Calories from Fat 21
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 2g
4%
Saturated Fat 1g
3%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1g
Monounsaturated Fat 1g
Cholesterol 17mg
6%
Sodium 79mg
3%
Total Carbohydrates 13g
4%
Dietary Fiber 1g
6%
Sugars 0g
Protein 7g
Vitamin A
1%
Vitamin C
0%
Calcium
6%
Iron
3%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Ingredients
- 30 corn tortillas
- 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup salsa (your favorite)
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, optional
- oil, for brushing
For the filling
- Poach the chicken breasts in broth or water for 10-15 minutes, until cooked through. (Poaching is recipe talk for boiling.)
- Shred the chicken using two forks.
- Add the salsa and toss to coat, using the same forks that you shredded the chicken with.
To build the taquitos
- Coat a large baking sheet (mine is 11x17) with oil.
- Warm your tortillas. This makes them easier to roll and less likely to crack and break. You can do this by wrapping them in damp towels and microwaving, placing them in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes, or warming them in a dry skillet for 30-60 seconds per side.
- Place a small amount of the chicken mixture on the edge of a tortilla.
- Top with a slight sprinkling of cheese, if using.
- Roll the tortilla up tight.
- Place seam side down on the prepared baking sheet.
- Repeat with remaining tortillas.
- Brush each taquito with oil. This helps them get nice and crispy in the oven without drying out.
- Bake at 475F for 15 minutes.
- Let cool 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
- When the taquitos are rolled properly, they should look like super-skinny enchiladas without sauce.
Serving ideas
- Add additional salsa, some sour cream, and/or guacamole to each plate for dipping.
- Serve taquitos just like you would enchiladas or other Mexican fare, with Spanish (or Mexican) rice and refried beans.
Ladybug Daydreams http://www.ladybugdaydreams.com/