Crock-Pot Baked Potatoes

Baked Potato with Vegetarian Chili and a side of Broccoli 

It's been hot around here and the last thing I wanted to do was heat up the house making baked potatoes all afternoon... but I REALLY wanted baked potatoes.  I decided to try them out in the crock-pot and I had great success.  After making these I read a variety of reviews saying anything from these turned out great, to they didn't work at all.  All I can say is they turned out great for me, but I suppose you should make them at your own risk.

Crock-Pot Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

Potatoes

Foil

Crock-Pot

Toppings of Choice

 Make sure each potato is wrapped tightly in foil with no exposed skin.  Cook on low for 8 hours.

Instructions:

Scrub your potatoes well and make sure to dry thoroughly.  Wrap each potato in foil making sure they are tight with no exposed skin.  Place potatoes into crock-pot and cook on low for 8 hours.  When it's time for dinner pop them out, remove the foil, and enjoy your yummy baked potato with your favorite toppings!

 

Be careful, these babies are steamy hot!

Everyone has their favorite baked potato toppings.  Do you love the classic: butter, cheese, bacon, and sour cream?  Are you more a fan of veggie toppings?  I personally am a fan of the chili baked potato which I enjoyed here.  I threw a can of Trader Joe's Vegetarian Chili on the stove and then spooned it onto our potatoes with a side of fresh organic steamed broccoli.  

It was such an easy quick dinner, great for a night when you have somewhere to go and not a lot of prep time.  These tasted just like a baked potato that had been in the oven for hours.  The girls gave them 2 thumbs up and I'd definitely make them again!

 

Let the Craziness Begin...

Our crazy fall schedule is officially in full swing with the start of this week.  My church Bible Study (which luckily has a wonderful kid's program... yay for it counting as a day of K) starts up again tomorrow.  This means almost every day and night of the week we have something going on.

On Monday nights handsome hubby and I do pre-marital mentoring for couples at our church. On Tuesday morning I take the girls to Bible Study, we go to the library, and then we go to Gama's house where we spend time with her and then have family night where the granparents, siblings, and kiddos get together for dinner and games or activities of some sort.  On Wednesday morning the girls have gymnastics and then we rush home to try to fit our school all in before lunch.  On Wednesday nights the girls go to Sparks, and for anyone else who does the same you know the rush and craziness of dinner's and the late nights that ensue on AWANA night.  On Thursday's Nana comes over in the afternoon and I either make a family dinner for all of us, or every other week hubby and I get a date night while she puts the girls to bed.  This leaves us Friday night for family movie time snuggled on the sofa, and the weekend to relax (or do any one of the myriad of things that needs to happen that weekend) as well as go to church and get all our errands run for the following week.

Phew!  We've had a nice few weeks getting used to our school schedule and adding in 1 thing at a time, but now it's all on the schedule and we're ready to rock!  Let's just hope it doesn't fly by as fast as the summer did... I'm not ready to think about Christmas yet.

Progression

I don't know about you, but one of the great rewards of homeschooling is watching your kids work through something they found difficult and coming out on the other side having made progress.  Handwriting for us isn't necessarily the most fun part of the day... but it's starting to be.  The girls are getting better by the day with holding their pencil correctly and having good control over what their tiny hands are doing.  It used to be a big area of frustration, but over the past week they each seemed to have flipped a switch in their brains and are doing so much better.  They also LOVE to color and draw on the animal picture on the back of each of their A Reason For Handwriting worksheets which has also helped. 

Aside from our handwriting lessons I've been working with the girls on writing their names and writing their numbers.  We usually do this at least once a week in their notebooks.  Poor Av just hadn't been able to write a good 3.  She always made an extra loop in the middle and felt like she would never get it right.  I worked with her to try to make 2 c's backwards and touching but she continued with her little extra loop.  Then a few days ago while doing her math worksheet she jumped out of her chair and proclaimed, "I did it mama, I did it!  I made the best 3 ever!  Take a picture, take a picture so we can show daddy!"  So here she is, my proud little peanut with her Best 3 EVER!  Her smile doesn't get more genuine than this and I will always treasure this image!

Creamy Mushroom Pasta {Vegan & Gluten-Free}

Gluten Free Brown Rice Pasta with creamy mushroom and asparagus sauce.

Last week I was in the mood for a creamy pasta, which can be a bit difficult if you can't use dairy.  I decided to just play around and whip something up with some ingredients I had on hand.  You'll have to bear with me since I usually make things up as I go and don't write things down. I didn't decide to blog this until I was about to plate so I'll try my best to remember what I did and be as accurate as I can with the amount of ingredients.


Creamy Vegan Mushroom Pasta

Ingredients:

1 T Earth Balance
1 Onion - Chopped
4 Cloves Garlic - Minced
2 cups Mushrooms
2 cups Asparagus
1 tsp Thyme
Sea Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper - to taste
1/2 - 1 cup Light Veggie Stock (I used one that didn't contain tomato)
1 1/2 cups Unsweetened Coconut Milk
1 tsp Cornstarch
2 tsp Water
1 package Brown Rice Pasta (or pasta of choice)

Occasionally stir cooked pasta with veggie sauce to incorporate flavors.

Instructions:

Melt earth balance in pan and cook onions until they are translucent (about 5-6 mins) add mushrooms (I used a full bag of pre-sliced from TJ's) and cook for about 10 minutes then add asparagus (chopped into 2" pieces) and garlic and cook until asparagus is done.

Add veg stock (I used organic no-chicken broth) as needed to keep veggies from burning.  When veggies are done add the remaining veg stock, thyme, S&P.  Add coconut milk to your sauce - making sure it's unsweetened.

Create your cornstarch mixture by adding 2 tsp cold water to 1 tsp cornstarch in a separate bowl.  Once that's combined add it to your sauce to thicken and stir it all to combine.

In a separate pot boil your water, add salt, and cook your pasta as directed making sure not to overcook.  When pasta is complete strain and transfer pasta to your sauce and mix it to incorporate.  Keep it on low heat for about 5-10 mins while occasionally mixing to incorporate the flavor into the pasta.

Plate and serve immediately enjoying your yummy creamy pasta goodness!

 

Plate and serve immediately then watch it disappear from everyone's plates!

School Away From Home

The Wynn - our gorgeous school away from home.

For the past week we've lived, schooled, and worked away from home.  Every year handsome hubby has a trade-show in Las Vegas, and since it's close enough for us to all drive and his hotel expenses are covered by work we've always gone along.  My thinking a few years ago was that even though he was super busy with work and we hardly saw him... it was easier to be there doing something different with little ones than to just stay home and be alone for the week.  Now that they are older they enjoy going becuase we can swim, shop, and play during the day and they are much easier to handle regardless of where we are.  Daddy is still busy and going from morning until the wee hours of night, but us girls have fun girl time and enjoyed our week. 

 I brought along a mini white-board which was perfect for our lessons.

I brought our school stuff along and we just pounded through our work which took about an hour each morning and then we were off to enjoy our day.  I did our reading in the afternoon to give us something to do during the heat of the day and break things up a bit.  Poor peanuts came down with a cold the day before we left so we couldn't swim as much as I had wanted, but I'm glad we went because while they still had a cough they were feeling much better after a few days and really enjoyed the trip.  It's always nice to change up the routine a bit but now it's back the grind.  We're home now and I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend before it all starts again!

August in Review

I'd have to say we've had a wonderful first month of Kindergarten. I love that we started a bit earlier than our local public school so I have some flex time for a longer Christmas break and or some day's off near the end of the year.

 

Lacing Cards, Math-U See practice, Alphabet Writing Review, Snack Time, Alphabet Order Review

We spent the first week doing mostly alphabet and number review to reacquaint ourselves with everything we learned last year. We went right into all our curriculum and the girls are doing really well with everything.  They love art, singing, and our fun activities, and put up with the worksheets that round everything out.  They've started gymnastics once a week for an hour and it's a great outlet for their energy.  It's also been wonderful for them to work on their flexibility, coordination, and ability to follow directions from someone other than me.

 Practicing first names with capital and lowercase, A Reason for Handwriting Letter Worksheets, Number Writing 0-9

Both girls are slowly but surely improving their handwriting.  This is still by far the area that gives them the most frustration.  I'm having a bit of trouble getting Avalyn to hold her pencil correctly, and she's all about being quick and sloppy so it's something we'll have to keep working on.  I'm hoping that repetition is the key though so along with their handwriting worksheet each day I have them write their names and numbers once a week as well as put their name on the top of everything they are working on.

Math-U-See Worksheets & Review

Math is continuing to go really well, and it's still almost too easy for them.  They know their numbers up to 100 from last year, can count by 10's and recognize and write their numbers pretty well so I'm continuing to plug along with 2 lessons each week since everything is still basic counting 1-10.  It almost feel silly at times, but I'm hoping this is just giving them a great base for math and that they will just stay ahead as it gets harder.  I might get an extra workbook that goes over time, money and some other simple things to give them something to learn that they don't already know.  At least they are loving their math and haven't complained about the fact that it's easy and they think it's fun... so I'm just going with it!

The Path to Clean Eating

For the past 2+ years our family has been moving in a direction towards healthier eating.  It started slowly by just trying to be more aware of what was in our food.  We believe strongly that what we eat and put into our bodies has a direct effect on our health and well being.  I had always shopped at Trader Joe's for a few things here and there, but knowing most of their food was preservative free, and that they cared about the ingredients that went into their food along with a great selection of organic ingredients... I fully made the switch and haven't looked back.

I began finding or developing recipes that used only TJ's ingredients and quickly got the point where I almost never went to the "regular" grocery store.  My shopping is done at TJ's, the farmer's market, and the health food store.  Like many people I also became aware of the amount of meat and dairy we were consuming and stared doing "Meatless Monday's" which led to mostly meatless or vegan cooking.  I'm at the point where almost all the meals I cook are now meatless, aside from the occasional fish or chicken dish about 1-2 times a month.

Despite the fact that we were eating really healthy I was noticing that my health wasn't very good.  I was having almost constant tummy issues and it didn't seem to matter what I ate, I'd almost constantly feel sick.  Just over a month ago I decided I'd had enough.  I decided to go on a 3 day juice fast to cleanse my system, and then move towards a super restricted diet so I could begin to rule out possible food sensitivities or intolerance.  Each day I drank about 48oz of "Mean Green Juice" from the Joe Cross documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead along with about 64oz of water.  After the 3 days of juicing I eliminated gluten, dairy, meat, grains, eggs, corn, processed foods, and sugar.  I ate only fruits, veggies, and nuts for the first 2 weeks and then slowly started adding in other things.  The goal was to feel good and then slowly add new foods to see how I felt and to help determine if they were safe foods or not.  Over the rest of the month I added rice, corn, some meat, and some sugars. 

I wasn't sure what this was going to look like for my family, and that was the most daunting part in the beginning.  I decided to keep their breakfasts and lunches normal and then make dinner for all of us based on my dietary restrictions so we could enjoy dinner as a family.  This meant transitioning to brown rice pasta's, lots of soups, salads, lentils, and mainly veggie based dinners.  Luckily the girls have been fine with everything and have even loved some of the new recipes!

I got a little over-excited at the end of the month when we went out for date night and tried dairy on my gluten free pizza which made me realize I'm definitely lactose intolerant. :-(  I'm hoping to try gluten soon and keeping everything crossed I'll find out that dairy is the source of my troubles and I'll be fine with gluten.  If not though I'll continue on doing the best I can to feed myself and my family so I'm healthy and happy and able to serve them better.  I feel so blessed to have already been on this path so the foods I'm having to make now don't at all seem weird like they would have a few years ago, and many of my standard recipes are already gluten or dairy free. 

I've been on the hunt for gluten free and diary free recipes and plan to post a few of my own as well.  Let me know in the comments if you have food restrictions in your family and how you've dealt with them.  Feel free to link me to any great recipes you love and check back soon for some recipes from me!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

At the end of our last school year we read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (which is a free kindle download on Amazon.)  The girls really love our chapter books and enjoyed the adventure we took together to the Emerald City.  Before we started reading it I added the movie to our library queue so we could watch it for family movie night when we were done.  Sadly, it took 7 months for it to finally be our turn so it was just a bit delayed.  We got our movie on Thursday so I figured Labor Day weekend would be the perfect time to watch it.

We all snuggled up on the sofa for family movie night and watched the movie as the girls eyes lit up and they squealed with delight as each new song was sung.  We compared and contrasted the differences between the book and the movie as we enjoyed the silly antics of the scarecrow, tin man, and cowardly lion.  The girls loved the good witch and thought she was SO beautiful!  It was such a fun evening and great to remember watching this as a young girl with my family.  I'd definitely recommend the Wizard of Oz to anyone else starting out in chapter books with their kiddos.

Now we're on to our next chapter book adventure... it's hard to believe  the girls will be reading them on their own before long. 

Family Night

I feel so blessed to have some of our family close by.  Every week we get together with my parents (Gama & Pop-Pop) and my sister and her hubby (Aunt Stacey & Uncle Matt) for family night.  We all have dinner together and then we take turns planning the activity for the night.  We've done everything from playing at the park, having a Wii tournament, playing board games, having a bon-fire with s'mores and sparklers, to a family swim night.  It's always a lot of fun and I'm so grateful for the memories we're making for the girls.

This past week it was the girls turn to plan our family night.  When I asked them what they wanted to do, they each immediately had an idea.  Avalyn wanted to start the evening with a tea party.  She REALLY didn't want the boys to be there, but when I said that wasn't an option she finally agreed.  She wanted to have mini shaped grilled cheese sandwiches, and drink lemonade in little tea cups (becuase only old people drink tea.)  Brinley decided that after the tea party we should all watch a movie.  We learned about penguins last week for science so they decided we should all watch March of the Penguins together. 

Gama agreed to the night and got to work with a surprise concession stand for the girls to work at.  We were all ordered to go outside after dinner while the girls helped Gama get setup and even I didn't know what they were doing.  When they finally opened the back door we were greeted by adorable little girls donning aprons and announcing free snacks.  There were drinks, popcorn, candy, and two kinds of rice crispy treats.  The girls said that everything was free, but tips were accepted which made us all laugh.  They made $3.31 each and excitedly added it to their piggy-bank.  We all got our snacks and snuggled up together to watch our movie while Brinley narrated and commentated, which was better than even Morgan Freeman in my opinion!   Overall, another great and successful family night!

Overcoming Frustrations

For the past two weeks we've been working on lines for art class.  We learned about diagonal, vertical, and horizontal lines.  We discussed what parallel and perpendicular were and pointed out all the different types of lines around the room.  We also practiced making patters with the different types of lines using markers and colored pencils.



For our big art project last week I *thought* I picked the perfect line art project to combine our cutting and pasting practice with our knowledge of different types of lines.  The idea was to cut lines of different thicknesses out of construction paper and then cut and paste them into three different sections to make diagonal, vertical, and horizontal patterns.  This would have been great, and was just fine for Av, but the inner perfectionist in Brin reared it's ugly head again.

Once we implemented our star chart last year we didn't have any more perfection frustration.  The girls really embraced the idea that they just had to try their best and worked hard to get that sticker.  I haven't printed up any new start charts yet this year and I think without that reminder Brin is starting to get frustrated again when she feels something isn't done as good as she wants it.



When I walked over to see how they were doing and saw tears dripping onto her art project becuase she couldn't cut straight enough... I decided to just shelve it and move on.  We came back to it the next day and I reminded her of our virtue of the week "Self-Control" and told her that it was her choice how to react, and this is just something for fun and to learn how to cut so it doesn't have to be perfect.  With a day's break, and a little help from mommy cutting some straight less uneven lines, Brin was able to finish her project without any tears.



I'm glad we went back to it and I had her finish it away from the stress and frustration of the first day. Instead of using our star charts moving forward for the rest of our subjects I've decided to let them get a stamp for good attitudes without frustration. We've only done it for a few days, but so far they are LOVING the stamps and a quick reminder gets them focused on where their attitude should be.

A Day in the Life of Our Kindergarten - Part 2

Yesterday was A Day in the Life of Our Kindergarten - Part 1 where I went through the overall schedule of our day.  Today I'll share the details and breakdown of a typical day of school...

For calendar time we talk about days/weeks/months/years.  The girls take turns marking our day and then counting how many days we are into the month.  They have to say the day correctly, "Today is Wednesday, August 15th 2012" and then they say what yesterday was and tomorrow will be.  We then sing our days of the week and months of the year songs.  The person who didn't mark the calendar gets to go outside and tell us what the weather is like.  Living in Southern California it's usually just hot and sunny so I plan to change our weather area a bit so it's more than just the actual weather, but seasons, etc.



After our calendar time we go into song and movement (one of the girls favorite times of the day.)  I choose an old Sunday School song that we sing and do the hand motions to, and then M/W/F we do a movement song as well where they get to follow directions and dance around the room.

We then sit down and have our Bible time (in my eyes the most important part of our day) where we go over our virtue of the week and then I read a passage from the Bible that covers that virtue and ask questions to the girls about what we've read.  Once AWANA starts we'll do their weekly Sparks lesson and memory verse Mon-Wed and focus more on our Bible lesson that teaches the virtue on Thurs-Fri, but we'll review the virtue and talk about it all week.

After Bible we do our handwriting worksheet and whatever activity I've planned to round out our day.  Sometimes it's an extra writing activity, shape & pattern builders, or even a game.  Sometimes it's more art related like lacing cards, drawing, and other times we work with numbers. I try to keep this fun and very hands on though.


First day of school: Dancing for song and movement time. Reviewing our lowercase alphabet recognition with Confessions of a Homeschooler's K5 alphabet tree.  Math-U-See worksheet. Virtue of the week. TYCTR phonics lesson. Handwriting alphabet review.

After our snack we do our Math-U-See lessons.  I started the girls in the primer book, and although they are way ahead of where it's starting I want to make sure they have the foundation they need to move on.  I'm doing 2 lessons a week for now until we get to point where it isn't so easy and then we'll move to a lesson per week.

We do art next and work on things like cutting, pasting, and basic art terminology.  We do projects about once a week using different mediums.  After art we do our language which happens to be ASL since my brother is deaf and we want the girls to be able to sign to him.  We review our alphabet and then each week we learn a variety of vocab words that correlate with the letter we're working on.

This ends the time in our schoolroom and we head to the family room to do our phonics and reading snuggled up on the sofa.  Now that the girls are advancing in their reading I'm doing their phonics lesson separately so I really know what they are individually learning and they can't help each other.  Whoever goes first comes with me to do their reading lesson and the other one stays and uses their leapfrog TAG reader or our Britannica science pen to read on their own.

After I've finished with both of their phonics lessons we read a few library books together.  We always start with the science one they picked out from the library and do a few pages of that and discuss it together before reading a few books for fun. 


First Day of School: Cutting practice. Name handwriting practice. ASL Alphabet flashcards. Snack time.

Linked up with "Day in the Life" Week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop over at iHomeschool Network.

 

A Day in the Life of Our Kindergarten - Part 1

Do you ever wonder what those of us who decide to homeschool do with our day?  I can tell you it's not all soap opera's and bon-bon's.  In fact, I didn't sit down for more than 20 minutes of "me time" all last week.  It's actually a lot of work, but the rewards of watching your kids learn make it more than worth it.  While I may not have much time to myself, we do have much more time as a family which I feel is one of the biggest perks!

Here's a schedule of what our typical day in Kindergarten looks like...

6:00am - Daddy is the morning person in our family, so he gets up with the girls and makes them breakfast. Sad for me (I'm SO not a morning person) they have always been up at 6am on the dot raring and ready to go. They spend a little daddy time helping him, reading with him, or just hanging out in the morning. 
8:00am - Daddy leaves for work and I get up and start my day.  The girls are allowed to play or watch some TV during this time while I shower, dress, and do my Bible study.
9:00am - The girls have to pickup the downstairs and then get dressed while I make myself breakfast and get everything together that we need for school.  The rule is, if it's not picked up and put away by school time, it gets taken away to the time out toy bin for a week.  Surprisingly they always get this done! :-)
10:00am - Pledge, Prayer, Calendar Time, Song & Movement, Bible, Handwriting, and Activity
11:00am - Snack
11:15am - Math, Language, Art, Phonics, Science, Reading
12:30pm - Lunch
1:00pm - After lunch the girls are free to play while I use this time to check email, blog, and do any lesson planning I need to for the next day.  I prep any crafts we have and figure out my schedule for the rest of the day. I then use this time to get some of the housework done, work on any of the photo sessions I have for clients, take the girls out to play, run errands, go to the farmers market, or get things together for us to leave if we have plans for the afternoon or evening. 
4:30pm - Our days where we don't have to be somewhere I usually get started with any pre-dinner prep I have to get done and then make dinner.
6:00pm - Daddy's home and it's dinner time!
7:00pm - The girls get to spend some time with daddy and then at 7:30 it's showers and getting ready for bed.
8:00pm - We try to get the girls in bed by 8:00 and then the evening is our down time to relax, watch TV, read and just spend time as a couple.  I often do my photography work during this time while we hang out together in the family room.
11:00pm - This is my goal bedtime, but it doesn't always happen.  I try to be good about it though becuase it definitely catches up to me if I don't.

Our afternoons and weeknights are pretty busy as well.
Monday - Library
Tuesday -  Bible Study, Family Dinner
Wednesday - Gymnastics, Farmers Market, AWANA
Thursday - Crafts and dinner with Nana - Date night for mommy and daddy every other week
Friday -  Family Movie Night

I firmly believe that our schooling takes place just as much out of the schoolroom as it does in it.  For this reason, we do lots of hands on learning as we go about our week.  We learn about science as we explore at the park, cook together, or just talk through things the girls are interested in.  We learn daily Bible lessons as I regularly bring up Bible stories and verses that support the behavior the girls should have.  We learn to read as we're out places and I ask girls to sound out words they see, and we learn math as the girls help me decide what the best deals are when we're grocery shopping or at the farmers market. Overall though, they learn how to behave and act respectful when out in public, and how we need to treat others with love.  I value our time in the schoolroom, but I value teaching them life lessons they wouldn't get anywhere else if they weren't with my husband and I learning them on a daily basis.

Check back tomorrow for the details and breakdown of our typical school day. A Day in the Life of Our Kindergarten - Part 2.

I love seeing what everyone else considers a day of homeschool, and this week is "Day in the Life" Week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop over at iHomeschool Network.

 

Ballerina

I don't know about you, but one of the perks to homeschooling... you can let your kids wear dress up over their PJ's to school.  We're really good about getting dressed in the morning and starting our day fresh and ready, but sometimes when the girls have been playing they ask to stay a princess or ballerina... and I say why not!

Balancing Act

Now that we're back in the full swing of things and school is back in session, I'm having to make sure I plan and schedule my time much better than I did over the summer.  Over the summer I sort of let the housework get behind, didn't keep on top of the girls picking up their toys throughout the day, and often left my meals unplanned so I was having to make quick dinners that were thrown together at the last minute.  We had great, fun, lazy days... but it lacked the structure which led to the motivation I needed to get tasks completed.

Maybe it's just becuase it's still rather new, but I'm really loving having more structure and what feels like set times to get things accomplished.  I'm doing well keeping on top of my bible study/quiet time, the girls clean up, our school day/lesson plans, lunches, our extra-curricular activities, and even my photography/work schedule.  I haven't yet found the place or time to keep on top of the household cleaning.  I deep cleaned the week before starting school and I've been great about keeping everything neat and picked up, but I have yet to work the continual weekly deep cleaning into my routine.  Partially becuase I hate cleaning, but partially becuase my day is so full of staying on top of everything else that I don't really know where to put it.  I'm thinking it's time to pay a little visit to Fly Lady and work to get my house cleaning schedule back in order.

My goal for this next week is to work on a regular cleaning schedule for my week as well as make myself get back to monthly or at least weekly planning our meals.  If I can get those two things under control (and keep up with what I'm already doing) I think we'll be in for a great and organized year!

What are your tips and tricks for keeping your house clean?  Are there areas that you feel you fall short trying to balance being a wife, mother, and teacher? 

Very Silly Sentences

Last year the girls got Very Silly Sentences for their 5th birthday. I didn't think they were ready for it last year, so it remained unopened.  Since the girls are now starting to read a bit I decided it might be a good idea to pull it out for our Friday Funday. 

The game has 2 sides and I decided we would play the shorter version of the game so they wouldn't need to get as many words.  The only problem was, without the prepositions the sentences weren't always structured correctly.  I think next time we'll do the other side so the sentences make more sense. 

The girls needed help reading some of the words, but they really enjoyed it and laughed at all the silly sentences we created.  The paper dice doesn't land on all the sides well since the sides aren't all that straight so we played where they got a card for every turn.  They got the color for the area of the board they were on and then when they only had a space or two left I just had them choose one they needed on their turn.  I wanted the focus to be more on building sentences and sounding out words as opposed to being frustrated that it was taking forever to finish.  It worked well and everyone was happy and got a little intro to proper sentence formation.

Our {Home} Schoolroom

This is the full view of our classroom.  Our schoolroom doubles as a playroom so it holds all the girls toys, crafts, books, games, etc. We decided when we moved in and the girls were just babies that it made more sense to make our front room a playroom instead of a formal living room.  It's the first room you see when you walk in the front door, but we had no other space to hold the girls "stuff" so we felt it would be best for our family.  It's naturally progressed into the schoolroom so it's been perfect!

The majority of our classroom furniture is from IKEA.  LOVE!!!  We have a Billy Bookcase on each side of the window with ab Expedit Bookshelf on it's side under the window.  The girls and I all have the Vika Amon Table Top (mine is larger) and I have the Vika Alex Drawers on one side.  The shelf organizers are either from IKEA or Target's $1 Spot.

Now let's go on a tour of the room...

On the back wall I have my cute vintage alphabet cards.  I still can't part with the girls toddler table and chairs, becuase they still use it for messy crafts and it's so marked up I don't care about it getting ruined.  The left wall has my whiteboard, their toy bin, and our calendar area as well as my desk, printers, and craft/toy/dress-up cabinet.  The right wall has the girls desks, barbies, and doll house. 



The left shelf holds our school supplies, manipulatives, curriculum, workbooks, and some of my craft and sewing supplies.



The right shelf holds all our games, books, and toys on the bottom.



The Expedit hold all our craft supplies, puzzles, leap pens, library books, play-doh, and misc toys.  On top we have our roll of paper from IKEA which is great for the girls love of art and drawing.

My desk holds 3 IKEA magazine holders which house our completed worksheets and daily curriculum.  It also holds my lovely sewing machine, color printer, and my laptop which has my lesson plans.

Our teaching/calendar wall is still in the works.  So far I have our whiteboard, a pocket chart with our ASL alphabet, our day's of the week cards, our calendar, weather and virtue of the week cards.  I plan to add more to our calendar area, but wanted to at least have this for the start of school to get us started.




The girls do the majority of work at their desks, and then we do our reading time in the Family Room snuggled up on the sofa. It's the perfect setup for us and where we are at this point in our education!

Linking up this week with iHomeschool Network!
Check it out for a ton of other amazing homeschool rooms!

First Day of Kindergarten

I'd have to say that today was a fabulous success!  After much grumbling from the girls for the past week in response to the fact that summer break was over and we'd be starting school today... they had forgotten how much they loved it and enjoyed it so much!  We started our day with school pictures and then went into a similar routine as last year.  The girls looked adorable in their new back to school outfit from Gama and had fun modeling for their pictures.  We got started on most of our new curriculum and I really think they are going to love it all.  I'll know more once we've really gotten into it all in a few weeks, but I'm excited to see how much they learn.  Here's some first day of school pics of my big Kindergarteners!

Avalyn

  

Brinley

  

Love my happy smiley girls!

 

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Twas the Night Before Kinder...

How did Kindergarten get here so quickly???  It seems that just yesterday we were enjoying our carefree summer days with school nowhere in sight and then suddenly the girls are school age and preparing for real school to start.  I can't believe my babies are 5 1/2 and starting Kindergarten tomorrow. 

I feel lucky that I don't have to have the big, sad sendoff moment that many mom's have.  I don't have to drive the girls to a strange new school and walk them to the gate where they'll stand and wave at me before walking into a new class full of strangers.  I don't have to turn away and hope and pray that they'll be okay and God will bless them with not only a great teacher, but nice kids to befriend them who will be good influences in their lives.  I instead get to serve them by being the example I should be and helping them to learn not only school subjects, but how to be the little people God wants them to be.  I don't have to be sad that I'll miss out on everything they are learning and experiencing and instead get to see it unfold first hand and I'll be the one rewarded when I watch it click.  I'm so very blessed to be able to homeschool these girls and I can't wait to watch this year unfold!

So tomorrow we'll wake up, have our breakfast, get dressed in our new first day of school clothes, take some back to school photos, and then start Kindergarten.  It's official... we're a homeschool family... and I couldn't be prouder!

Our 2012-2013 Kindergarten Curriculum

I've been doing non-stop research the last few weeks knowing I had to make some final decisions for our upcoming school year.  I wanted to keep it simple and only get what I thought we would need to get started.  I'm hoping everything I have planned works out for us, but in the event something isn't working I'm more than okay moving on and trying something else.

Here's my plan for our Kindergarten Curriculum...

• Bible: We Choose Virtues and AWANA Sparks
• Reading: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
• Writing: A Reason for Handwriting - K
• Math: Math U See - Primer
• Art: How to Teach Art to Children, Kumon Cutting and Kumon Pasting
• Language: American Sign Language
• History & Science: - Library Books

Calendar Time & Bible: Like last year I plan to start our day with the pledge, calendar time and singing.  We'll then go into our virtue of the week and continue to rotate through these all year so they really get instilled in the girls.  We'll practice our verse for Sparks and do the lesson together over M-W and then Th/Fr we'll work on our virtue verse.

Reading/Writing/Math: These are the only set curriculum's I'm using.  We've already started our reading lessons over the summer and they seem to be going well.  As soon as the girls are reading a bit better we'll incorporate easy readers into this time as well.  Depending on how long it takes us, when we complete the 100 lessons I'll evaluate what to move to next.  We'll work on our handwriting and math each day and I'll also bring in some of our fun activities and manipulives that are more hands on from last year mixed in.

Art:  I'm hoping to do Art twice a week and it will mostly just be for fun, allowing them to try different things and techniques.  Nothing too structured here.  I already have all the books listed so we'll just use them here and there as needed along with all our other art supplies.

Language:  Since their Uncle Josh is deaf I had already decided that ASL would be a great language for them to learn.  I don't have any formal plans other than doing what we did last year and learning a few new vocab words each week that correlate with the letter of the alphabet we're working on.

History & Science:  Again, I have nothing specific planned here.  The girls are really interested in science and learning, so like last year each week we'll plan to pickup a book from the library on a topic of their choosing and we'll go through it.  Topics like: dinosaurs, insects, sharks, planets, animals, the US map, etc. will more than likely all be touched on over the year.

I'm hoping we can fit our school day into 2 hours using the last 30 minutes to read library books together for fun.  That will allow us to have lunch and then the afternoon free for playing, running errands, going to the library, park, cooking, etc.  I'm looking forward to a great year and I'll definitely keep you updated with how each subject is going and what's working for us.  The countdown begins!!!

Linking up with iHomeschool Network for the "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop Curriculum Week!

A Look Back

I was just looking back and reading through some of my first blog posts here.  It's so fun to see where my head was a year ago versus where my head is now.  I went from feeling the waters with the tip of my toe, to jumping head first into the deep end.  But you know what?  God's got his arms around me so there is no way I'm going down!  This past year I have felt such peace about the decision to homeschool.  There has been confirmation after confirmation that it's not only the right thing, but the best thing for our family.  It's amazing how a topic that caused me stress to even think about (the girls schooling and what to do about it) now causes me joy and excitement about what our future holds.

I'm not going to lie though.  There are still many moments when I have no idea what the best choices are and get overwhelmed about it all.  I'm trying my best to do as much research as I can to make wise informed decisions that have our long term goal for homeschooling in mind.  I'm looking forward to being intentional about meeting other homeschooling moms over this next year so I have some support and relationships with people who are going through the same thing.  I'm still unsure about if we should join a co-op and if so... which one?  I feel like I have time to decide those things though as Kindergarten is about fun and learning to enjoy the process of learning.  I've heard from multiple people that K should be fun and you can't screw it up so I'm trying to take that and run with it.  Here's to an amazing new school year!

Summer Lovin!

Our spring and summer has been crazy, busy, and fun.  We kicked off summer with an amazing 2 week family vacation to Maui and have been going non stop since we got home.  It's hitting me though that our school year is going to start in a month.  I'm both excited to be starting, and sad that after 5 years our lives will now somewhat revolve around the school calendar.   We had a successful year of preschool last year and I'm excited to become an official homeschool mama by starting Kindergarten this year with the girls.  I've just gotten the last of our curriculum picked out and ordered and can't wait to get it in and start our year.  I'm thinking we'll begin in August so we have a little flexibility at the end of the year.  That leaves us just under a month to enjoy the rest of our summer and get ready for school.  Can't believe it's gone by so quickly.

My cuties on vacation in Maui!  Oh how I wish we could have stayed there forever!!!

Just Keep Swimming...

I haven't been good at updating, and we've had a busy February. I had friends in town the first 2 weeks in February and didn't end up doing school with the girls. Bad, I know. I'm thinking of it as an early and extra long spring break. ;-)

We did take a trip to SeaWorld on a gorgeous warm day, which we of course used as a learning experience. I love that we can use a trip to SeaWorld as a school day, and get more out of it than had we read about it in a book or watched a videos for a week. The girls are still reciting facts about orcas and the many different fish we saw. I'm so thankful we have passes so we can go back whenever we want throughout the year! Here's a little recap of our favorite moments of the day...

We started the day with the Shamu show. The girls loved the orca's and have enjoyed playing SeaWorld trainer ever since our trip.


One of my favorite shows of the day... the dolphins!


They all waved goodbye at the same time. :-)


This is one of my favorite exhibits in the entire park. A little Sea Lion Love!!! <3

Sea Turtles!!!


The girls loved feeling the starfish and were so brave at the touch pool.


We got so lucky and walked through the beluga whale exhibit right when they were feeding them. I had no idea the beluga whales could do all of shamu's tricks. This is when the trainer had her spit at us.


This was the most hilarious walrus. He was sitting in shallow water right up against the glass and eating a squid (or fish or something equally squishy.) He would spit it against the glass and then suck it back in over and over again.

Rainy Days

I was given some great advice by a wise homeschool mom when I first started on this adventure. She said to make sure I enjoyed the little moments and to make time for special memories amongst our schooling. She said one of the things here girls still remember most from their early homeschool years was taking a break on a rainy day to cuddle together under a blanket with a cup of hot cocoa and a good book.

So today, when I woke up to the sound of rain on my window... I decided to do just that! I asked the girls to get everything cleaned up and then instead of heading into the school room I told them to go wait quietly on the couch for me. I warmed up some hot cocoa on the stove and brought it to them (with squeals of delight) in their new princess mugs they got for Christmas.

I downloaded The Wizard of Oz onto my Kindle Ap and we all snuggled under a blanket drinking our cocoa while I read for over an hour about the amazing adventures of Dorothy. It was everything I was promised and more! The girls were great and listened intently, and we got to just be us, together, making memories we will never forget! I can't wait for more rainy days in the years to come and am so thankful I listed to those wise words and let myself just stop and enjoy the moment!

Oh and as a bonus... my sweet little Brin lost her 2nd tooth today!