Monday, December 16, 2013

Menu Monday




Ahhhh....that is how I felt this past week, even though I planned out everything.  It just seemed like most things took longer than planned.  I ran short of time because of whining and uncooperative children.  Yet they still wanted fed...go figure!

Here's the plan for the week......

Sunday
B- Open
L- Black bean soup
D- Tacos

Monday
B-cereal and toast
L-
D-Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes

Tuesday
B- Smoothies and Toast
L- Snacky Lunch (hm lunchables with grapes, crackers, turkey and cheese)
D- fajita chicken & chile potatoes

Wednesday
B- Muffins
L-leftovers or sandwiches
D- Chicken and dumplings

Thursday
B-cereal and yogurt
L- Salad
D- Sloppy Joes and Fries

Friday
B- doughnuts and milk
L- spaghetti and meatballs
D- hm pizza (using california pizza crust recipe)

Saturday
B- hashbrowns and gravy
L- Chili
D- chicken pot pie

See how this week goes!!  Hope everyone has a yummy week!


Sunday, December 15, 2013

What we are up to this week - Week 29




Going to have the usual piano lessons, hopefully guitar this week. The girls have Zoo class and World Travelers.  Caty has speech too.  Joey signed up for a Minecraft LEGO class.  He is pretty excited.  

Combined learning is going to be Art, Health and History.  They are going to be doing a oil pastel drawing for art and in history they will be reading about some tall tale legendary figures.  In Health, we will be continuing to go over Safety reminders.

Math
Joey & Brayden - Counting line segments, comparing numbers and working on more complicated word problems
Lydia - Finding the unknown and counting backward using a number line
Caty - Simple adding with games

Science
Joey & Brayden - plant and animal cells
Lydia - Sunlight and the important parts of plants, she also has her amphibian report to do for zoo class.
Caty - working on a unit about winter

Geography
Joey & Brayden - reading longitude and latitude
Lydia - Map reading also

Grammar
Joey - writing complete sentences
Lydia - Action verbs

Spelling
Typical stuff and Lydia is going to be practicing words for the upcoming Spelling Bee

Caty is working on making a Timeline of her first 5 years.  Beginning sounds reviews as we finish her Letter review.  She is also working on the Letter F sounds for speech.

Hope everyone has a safe (with all the nasty weather going on) and wonderful week!!!



Saturday, December 14, 2013

Homeschool Mothers Journal - Week in Review for Week 28




In my life this week....

Well while trying to start back into a smooth workout routine, fibro flare-up has been occurring.  Go figure.  So I am doing as low impact as I can, but still trying to get exercise.  So no jogging, but walking and bike riding (at the gym).  Low-impact ball workout too.

I am trying hard to get things going a little more scheduled.  I have been floudering, and my fibro is not helping.  It causes intense brain fog and inability to focus.  I feel like I need meds to control my fibro induced ADHD.   I am going back to carrying my notebook for notes.  I desperately need to write stuff down constantly now.

I treated myself to an essential oil diffuser, ok it's for the family too.  I have found some calming oils that help Caty during some of her moods.  So since they help Joey too, we are going to try and diffuse to help maybe control some mood swings.  I guess we'll wait and see.  I am grasping at straws right now to help them all.

In our homeschool this week....

Since I gave the kids last week off, I was very nervous about starting back this week.  I had plans in place.....but well as we all know, "plans are made to be broken."  Even with some minor adjustments, the kids did wonderful completing their schoolwork with minor whining!!  I was so happy!!!  Lydia even worked independently today on her work in the van.  First time ever.  If she wasn't sure of a word, she would spell it for me (because I was driving).  I was so happy and proud!!

Lydia worked really hard on finishing her craft swap she made her friends in Scouts.  She sewed pocket tissue holders for their purses.  We loosely followed this pattern loosely for this project.  She attempted to do bleach art on them, but we didn't know felt wouldn't bleach.

This really was a good week for us schoolwork wise.  I am very proud of the kiddos for working so hard.

Projects I am working on.....

Field trips....field trips.....field trips.  I let the house go downhill last week, so it is filthy!!  I am trying to pick up between projects.

Lydia and I are trying to make a bunch of pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer.  Lydia sewed her first pillow case last night.  We are continuing to make more.



I have some decluttering to work on also.

I want to make a weighted blanket for each of the kiddos.  Right now my main ones will be for Caty and Joey.  I have been scouring the internet for how to videos and making a plan right now.

I am also restructuring some lesson plans for certain subjects for the kids.  A couple things were not working and so making adjustments.  I also need to add some extra spelling practice for Lydia since she decided to do a spelling bee in January/February.

Things we have been doing.....

The girls had their ballet recital Friday night.  It's always so much fun.  They have such a wonderful teacher.  She is doing a great job teaching them various forms of dance and allowing the girls self-expression.  They love going to Ms. Kathy.

Lydia got to go to see the Nutcracker and then go backstage to meet the lead dancer who played Clara.  She was so excited!!


The kids also had a class at Build It Lego Play area.  They got to make their own comic strip with LEGOs.  They created their strip, made their set.

 Made their characters.
 And then photographed each scene.

What I have been cooking....

For the most part we stayed on menu plan.  I changed it up a bit a few times.  To make up for lack of an ingredient or time.  We did really well eating at home or packing, and for a treat we ordered pizza on Friday after the recital.  I didn't create anything new and unusual though.  Kept pretty plain, didn't have much extra time.

What I have been reading....

Nothing...big disappointment.  No extra time this week.

Photos from our week....

Lydia sewing her tissue pouches.
Caty trying to be me at the gym the other day.
 Working on her Letter S-Snowman
 Caty and her friend Sydney working on their spaghetti structure.
 A game I picked up at the Dollar Tree.  Thought, "Hey it's a $1.00..no real loss."  But it's great for build visual perception skills.  They have to notice those difference quickly.
 Caty's letters this week.
Another Caty project.  She is working on learning about community helpers.
 Lydia at her ballet recital.


The girls had so much fun at their recital with their little friends :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful week.  Linking up with other moms at So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler.



Friday, December 13, 2013

Allergen Friendly Quinoa Pancakes





2 cups organic quinoa flour
2 cups water
3/4 cup organic cane sugar
2 TBS baking powder
1 tsp sea salt (adjust this to your taste)
2 tsp coconut oil (for cooking)

Mix all the ingredients above.  Dry ingredients first, then add water.

The batter will be runny.

Cook on a medium heat.  I put about 1/4 cup of batter in at a time.  It will bubble like this and start to look a bit dry on top.

When you flip, they will be golden brown on one side.  These cook very quickly!!


I attempted to add frozen blueberries to these and they did not do so well.  So I suggest making a fruit compote syrup for the top if you like fruit in your pancakes.  We served ours with maple syrup.  This is the first batch of pancakes that Brayden has eaten in several attempts of gluten-free vegan pancakes.  Everyone really liked them!!!  It's hard to get his seal of approval on "egg-free" recipes.  The hubby even said they were fluffy and tasty too!!!


Thursday, December 12, 2013

Three Things Thursday




This project may get harder and harder for me to work on.....hmmmmm

1.  I am addicted to Farmville 2.  I "farm" a few times a day.  My kids love this game too.  I had to open them Facebook accounts with severe restrictions to allow them to play with me.  They love it.  So I am working this new love as an economics lesson for them :)

2.  I have severe food allergies.  I am allergic to so much, it's hard to keep track of it all.  So that is why I cook everything we eat from scratch.  My biggest "processed" foods are potato chips (cooked in olive oil).  My parents gave me a grain mill for an anniversary present last year.  So I grind our rice flour and quinoa flour even.  I love to make new recipes or try out new ones I find online.  Then I try to blog what worked for us, in case it might help out others and their struggles.  My kids do eat "junk" food, but I am trying to limit it and the girls and I try to "re-create" as much as we can.

3.  I love to color.  It was something I so looked forward to doing with my kids.  Laying on the floor with a big box of crayons and some coloring books while watching Disney cartoons.  But guess what.....I do not have kids that like to color.  I can buy all different kinds of books, in just about every favorite character, they still don't like it.  I can still get short periods of time with them doing this.  So I limit coloring generally to schoolwork, and hope that sometimes they will color later with me.

Linking up with other Three Things Thursday Fans at Heidi-Strawser.com.


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Learning about Picasso



We have been doing a lot with line art in our class, and I can tell it's boring the kids.  So changed it up a bit.  This month we are learning about Picasso.  The kids love bright colors and making cool projects, so his unique art definitely fits what we needed :)

This class we looked at Picasso's Weeping Woman.....


We used the Pick and Draw cards created by Rich Davis for this project.  We have used these a couple times this year.  They are a hit every we get them out.

First we drew large ovals.  Then the kids were to draw specific amount of eyes, mouths, nose on their picture.  They used black oil pastels to do this.



Next they used watercolor and water color crayons to add color to their pictures.  The oil pastels were resistant to the watercolors then.

















We have some awesome kiddos in this class!!  They do a great job!!!  Next lesson is also on Picasso.  They love his art!!