Author: thefamilyo

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal Week 1

Recently I saw a blog post from a Homeschool mom that I follow. Sam from The Kelley Eight was excited to start a journaling program. I have always wanted to journal but just felt overwhelmed with starting from scratch.

The cool thing about this journal program is that it has questions for you, that you answer. This is so much easier for me, whew!

Thanks to the Homeschool Chick and The Kelley Eight I will now be journaling this fantastically crazy journey we are on. I am thrilled, excited and thankful!

Here we go, Week #1

In my life this week…

Working my regular part-time, working on websites for others, homeschool, grocery shopping tonight, lots of organizing.

In our homeschool this week…

Math, math, math for the 1st grader, word problems and learning about feeding your body for science. Water experiment will be done with Daddy on Saturday. My 2 year old is doing centers, matching colors, shapes, baby animals to their mama’s he is doing so well!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

The past several weeks have been jammed packed this week we took it easy. The boys did get to go on a field trip with their Aunt to their Butterfly Pavilion. They held a tarantula, saw turtles, snakes and butterflies.

My 1st grader also attending his weekly clubs meeting.

My favorite thing this week was…

Observing my 1st grader “get it” when it comes to double-digit vertical math. He was struggling then I saw the light bulb go off right in front of me, it was awesome to see!

What’s working/not working for us…

Sitting side-by-side my 1st grader definitely works for us, even better when the 2 little ones are actually out of the room. Not working – having the little ones around.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…

I am starting to like the more organic approach and not so regimented. I am realizing it does not have to look exactly like “school”. Less focus on checking off items… more focus on learning, the fundamentals yes, but really learning.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Oliver, my 4 year old said “Mom, look I can count in Spanish with my eyes closed!”. He was so excited!

ONE more I am adding. My 4 year old loves to dress himself and I love his creativity and boldness. So each week I will show Oliver’s wardrobe choice of the week:

February 25, 2011
Content Kids Means I Can Actually Shop

My Fashionisto Oliver with the new cart

If you have small children or have had small children I know you can sympathize with me when it comes to grocery shopping. A battle, that quite frankly, I refuse to fight alone. Usually I run in by myself or I enlist my husband for help with the3 boys.

Usually it comes down to the boys wanting to buy everything under the sun or they want to run around, bother each other, you name it. The end result is me rushing through the store not gettting everything I want.

Well King Soopers, my local Kroger, has offered a fantastic solution! A very smart solution too, now Moms can take their time and spend more money. It’s a win-win!

The carts they now offer are really cool! My favorite feature? It’s hard to choose. They have locking doors (from the outside), a video screen for the kids to watch kids cartoons, big, high baskets, and a drink holder for a nice, yummy Starbucks.

There is a console for parents too. Hopefully, in the future they will let you scan your shopper card and see what virtual coupons you have loaded, maybe save items for next time, and a list of products we buy vs. what is on sale.

Kids love them, in fact so much that I have seen a few kids throw a tantrum when it is time to get out of them. Thankfully, my kids were ok with leaving when it was time to go, whew!

Thanks King Soopers!

February 24, 2011
A Great Ladies Night Out!

Recently, thanks to Living Social I had a fantastic afternoon out with my Mom and Sister. I must say that since Groupon started it all, we have been able to do things we would never do.

This deal was for a painting class that includes a glass of wine, so it is called Painting and Sipping. Sounded fun. I have always wanted to paint on canvas but would never, ever go buy all the supplies. We have plenty of poster paint, finger paint and water colors but nothing fancy.

This was a great opportunity to get my hands dirty so to speak.

I sent the link to my Mom and she was in, she also bought one for my sister to join us. You can go to their website and look at a calendar and see the subject that is to be taught that day. Some are flowers, Van Gogh, Water Sunsets, French Rivera, Snowflakes, Dandelions, Sisters, and some others.

We went to a session they call “Standing Tall”… Here is the artists picture:

Sipping and Painting

The studio is located in LoHi (Lower Highlands) close to the restaurant Lola. We walked into a great space with rustic wood floors, high ceilings and artists stations set up everywhere.

Once everyone has put paint on a plate and had a seat, the artist goes up and starts instruction. She then walks around and helps you individually and returns to the front for the next step.

We all enjoyed it very much. It was really fun and relaxing.

Here are the final products (one note I must mention, our paint dried before we could blend so the reult with a bright flash looks like a striped background. To the naked eye the stripes are not that dramatic,*steps off of soapbox*):

my painting

My Moms Painting

My Sister's Painting

The do look lovely in our homes, what a great treasure packed with memories of a fun date with my Mom and Sis … Thanks Ladies!!

I highly recommend trying a painting class, just one session is fun! If you love it sign up for more.

We went to Sipping and Painting in Denver.

February 21, 2011
Homemade Valentine’s Day Cards
This year I was invited to a Valentine’s Card making get-together and had so much fun that I had one for the women in my family, that was also a blast.

When it came time to think about the kids Valentine’s cards this year, it was a no brainer that they would make homemade ones as well, I had all the supplies ready to go. In previous years, especially since they were in school, it was easy to just go pick up some pre-made ones. Now that we homeschool we do more homemade things then ever, we have the time and resources so why not? The boys made some for friends, some for family and some for their Sunday School teachers.

We used heart stickers, flowers stickers, scripture stickers, glittery stickers, puffy stickers, crayons, markers and stamps. We used card stock folded in half.

notice the "Text Me" on Yahoo… lol

All done! I got them all in the mail to Loveland to go through their “Valentine Re-mailing Program“. If you send them your pre-addressed, stamped envelope (I sent all in 1 big manila envelope), they stamp them with the Loveland PO postmark that includes a cute graphic and saying. This will be the programs 65th year.

Details on the Re-Mailing Program:
- Deadline for delivery within the US in Feb. 9th, within Colorado is the 11th, you still have time Colorado peeps!
- Put all your pre-addressed, stamped envelopes in a bigger envelope or small box and then mail it to:
Postmaster – Attention Valentines

446 E. 29th St.

Loveland, CO 80538-9998
February 8, 2011
Another Hit from Allrecipes.com

My husband has been asking for a pasta casserole for a long time and so this past Friday, I decided to cook up a yummy casserole for my Dearest.

I went straight to Allrecipes.com as usual, love that site.

Used Ingredient Search for: Spinach, Pasta, Cheese

I decided on Cheryl’s Spinach Cheesy Pasta, which has 4 and half stars from 238, make that 239 people!

We rate it a 5! All the boys cleaned their plate and Daddy was heating up bite-fuls all night!

February 7, 2011
Redbox – DID U KNOW??

I love Redbox, love it! We pick 1 or 2 movies up every other week, can’t beat it. It’s not like the days of the video store packed on weekend nights. You walk right up, pick your movie, swipe your card, done – 2 minutes tops and only a dollar each!

The last time we rented 2 movies watched them and when we were running out the door we could only find 1 case. At the time, since we were leaving, I told my husband that we could just rent another movie and change out the case so we would have more time to find the lost one. Fast forward several days – We totally forgot, couldn’t find it, figured we would have to buy the movie. But nope, little did we know Redbox has prepared for lost cases.

Summary for our lost Redbox case dilema:

I went to Redbox.com, come to find out… You can buy an empty case right out of any Redbox for just a dollar, guess I never noticed that before.

I was so happy! Thought I would pass it on in “case” you didn’t know.

February 5, 2011
A Nostalgic Lunch

What to do for lunch? That question is the question I battle with almost daily. I never want to get boring or bland with the lunches I make for my little guys. I partake in Muffin Tin Mondays sometimes, which is fun. You arrange all kinds of yummy food in muffin tins, kids love it.

While trying to figure out what to make yesterday all I knew is I wanted it to be warm and comforting. I also did not want it to be too filling since it was only lunch time and we have 2 snacks times during the day. I thought chicken noodle soup sounded yummy, open the cupboard – no chicken, no noodles, no soup.

But I did come across Tomato Soup. YES! What goes perfectly with Tomato Soup? Of course, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches!

I loved this always as a child, so delicious, warming, comforting, the perfect combination of flavors.

Tomato Soup, Grilled Cheese, Sliced Carrots & Applesauce

My kids love this meal too! Even though I almost always forget to make it. Last time they had it must have been last spring. They even decided to put their sliced carrots in the soup.

What really blew me away: my middle child. The ULTRA picky almost 5 year old had 3 servings of soup. I was shocked he even tried it, but I played it cool and he kept asking for more, success!!

February 4, 2011
Rethinking the Coat Closet

Being a homeschooler and living in a small space can be frustrating at times. I pretty much turned my living room into a school room, then over time, a couch and love seat were brought in. I needed space but wasn’t sure what else could be done.

Recently while cruising a blog hop I found this blog and wow I am soooo thankful I did, so thankful for the inspiration. She had all of her storage bins in her coat closet. I went to work right away!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Coat Closet Storage

PlayDoh, Crafts, Books, Games and Puzzles

Markers, Crayons, Chalk, Office Supplies

Oops I guess I forgot to take “Before” pictures of the closet and “After” pictures of the Living Room. :O)

February 3, 2011
Quick, Low-Cost, Yummy Dinner

Yesterday marked day 3 of being at home. We ran out of a lot of things in our kitchen. I wanted to throw something warm and comforting together. I also spent most of the afternoon reorganizing so when dinner time came let’s just say I didn’t have a lot of time or energy.

I went to the pantry and found 2 cans of cooked chicken breast (a nice item to have, quick and versatile), I also had carrots that I needed to use, chicken stock was the 3rd thing I found. I then went to allrecipes.com and did an ingredient search… The results came back and they had some excellent chicken recipes… most take some time to prepare and cook.

Back to the fridge… Pillsbury rolls… cheese. Got it… Cheesy Chicken Popovers, the quick and easy version.

I brought 2 cups of stock to a boil, then added 1/4 cp milk and 1 tbsp of corn starch, brought to a boil and then reduced the heat and added chicken and sliced carrots, added salt, pepper, seasoned salt, onion salt and garlic salt. I also added 2 tbsp of cream cheese and a 1/2 cup of marbled cheddar.

I rolled out Pillsbury biscuits and put them in my Jumbo Muffin Pan (they do not look there is much room, but this is a JUMBO pan). Baked them for 5 minutes.

this were baked for 5 minutes

I then filled them and topped each one with another rolled biscuit. Baked for 8 minutes on 350.

In the oven

with Munster on top

One Happy Diner

They were delicious. One thing I would change is the type of Pillsbury rolls, I only had Flaky Layers Biscuits, would have preferred Crescent Dough.

Kids and husband gobbled them up.

February 3, 2011
Snowy Days

One thing I love about Colorado is the balanced seasons. I like the snow but could not live somewhere that was snowy and cold all the time.

It was -11 degrees earlier this morning. Too cold for my taste.

But snow is amazing, beautiful and fun to play with.

Brr, "let's go find the escape pod"

The other great thing about Colorado is that sometimes you can experience different seasons all in the same week. I was looking through some recent pictures and remembered it was sunny and 65 degrees the other day.

Downtown in January

February 1, 2011