Weekly Wrap up - Week 4

We are finishing our unit on North America.  I feel like we need a few more days on this unit to wrap it up. We will be taking the first few days of next week to work on this.

My laptop, that I have all my school files on, crashed this week, so I had to spend some time working on that... still do not have it working but felt I had to just set it aside for now.   I was loosing some momentum toward the end of the week so it was a blessing to have our monthly co-op on Friday to recharge alittle...

I thought I would share some of the things we are working on:

We have been reading various books on North America, Oceans and the three main Countries of North America ( USA, Canada & Mexico).  I love A True Books because they are colorful, easy to read and cover simple basic facts about the subject without getting to lofty or overwhelming with facts and information. Another of my favorites are the Explore series by Fact Finders.  We will be using these for our Biome Series.  One last series I like are the Bobbie Kalman Books.I have bought some of mine at Amazon and found others to add to our unit studies at the library.

 

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 We did a study of the Ocean Zones and made these flap books.  When you open up the flaps the ocean Zones are listed with a description of each zone. We used construction paper to show the water. They turned out really cute and were a great tool in teaching and reinforcing the different zones. I want to use the same printable (which I found in a Mailbox Magazine) to make a game for the learning center.  I will post that when I have completed it.


 We put together out Expedition Eath Notebooks and added all of our papers from this unit into them under the North Ameica Tab.  I bought the 8 tab set for each of the "three silly sisters" - one for the World and they other seven for each of the continents.  We are also using these for our monthly co-op.  My "little one" is into writing her name with curley letters... love it!!!


We ended our week with our monthly co-op meeting.  My unique son and some of his buddies are starting a "guys Bible study during our co-op time.  They also help us mom's by playing games with them while we are setting up and keeping an eye on them during lunch.

 For lunch we had foods that represented North America... Mac & Cheese (Canadians are know for eating more mac & cheese than any other country - Beans and Chips, Salsa, and Quesadilas for Mexico - and even maple cookies. 

During our teaching time I read from this book....
about Joni Eareckson Tada.  I could not get through the chapter without crying...  My kiddos are always teasing me about this... I cry during comercials, I cry when we read books, I cry during shows... even when someone tells a story... What can I say - I am an emotional person...  I love this series for reading quick overviews of different missionaries and Christian men and woman who changed the world.  They are perfect for our co-op setting.



 Well that was our week check out these links to see other homeschooling families weeks...

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Pizza Pasta

With Fall coming I like to make casseroles. Here is one to try...

Pizza Pasta Casserole by Kim

2 lbs ground beef   
1 large onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 (26 once) jars spaghetti sauce
16 ounces rotini pasta, cooked and drained
5 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
8 ounces sliced pepperoni
Brown ground beef, onion, and garlic in oil. Drain. Stir in pasta, spaghetti sauce, and 3 cups cheese. Place mixture in 2 greased 9x13 pans. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Top with pepperoni. Cover and freeze or bake uncovered at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until heated through.
I like to add parmesan cheese too!
http://freezermealsforus.blogspot.com/2010/03/pizza-pasta-casserole-by-kim.html

Enjoy~
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Weekly Wrap Up – Week 3

We had a great week.  Some of the highlights were:

Our read-a-loud time. 

This is something I have wanted to be consistent on for years with all of my children.  When my older children were in school and we had many younger ones about, I found read-a-loud time to be one of the biggest challenges and struggles we had.  I had visions of all my children sitting around me on the coach as we were engrossed in a wonderful book (kind of like the FIAR covers)

But reality always pierced right into those dreams and visions and painted a completely different picture in our house…  complete chaos…

It has not been until these last few years that we have been able to have special read-a-loud times with my three silly sisters…
 
even Pepper sat nicely for the story…




We celebrate our Art and Music Appreciation time by having Tea Time.  This year I have decided to have us make snacks that reinforce the Bible lessons we have during the week. 

 We are reading through the DK Illustrated Family Bible this year and we are using The Good Book Cookbook to reinforce those lessons.

This week we read about Cain and Abel and made this snack: 


The girls made these completely on their own – without any help from me:



  
They each had a part in making the final product.


  They turned out so cute. Even my special son came and joined us during our tea time – eating our Cain and Abel Cupcakes and drinking our Lemonade while we listened to Bach.



We finished our time off with some fun pictures:

 

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The joys of having my kiddos home with me are endless…
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Oatmeal in a Muffin

I want to start eating oatmeal again, now that fall is coming - these seemed like a fun easy way to add this back into our mornings...

 Oatmeal in a Muffin

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups applesauce, unsweetened
• 5 cups, Old Fashioned rolled oats
• 1 banana, mashed
• 2 3/4 cups milk (I used 1%)
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
• 6 packets of Sweetleaf Stevia or 1 1/2 teaspoons stevia powder or 1 cup of sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 3 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Optional toppings: raisins, walnuts, chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix eggs, vanilla, applesauce, banana and Stevia together in a bowl.
3. Add in oats, salt, baking powder, flax and cinnamon and mix well with wet ingredients.
4. Finally pour in milk and combine.
5. Spray a 12 and 6 capacity muffin tin with cooking spray or use cupcake liners.
   Pour mixture evenly into muffin tin cups.
6. If using toppings add them onto the tops of muffins now. If using fresh or frozen fruit, drop it right into the batter.
7. Bake 30 minutes until a toothpick in center comes out clean. Cool and enjoy or freeze them in gallon freezer bags.

Additional Notes:

• Use a half cup to one cup of honey in place of stevia if you don’t have any.
• Nutrition info is without any toppings.
• The batter will look RUNNY, don’t worry!
• Freeze them in an airtight container or Ziploc bag after they have cooled. Thaw overnight in refrigerator for morning you want them.
• Reheat 45-60 seconds.
• Spray the cupcake liners with nonstick cooking spray.
• Adding cream or milk over the top after warmed is very yummy!

Recipe From: http://www.sugarfreemom.com/recipes/personal-sized-baked-oatmeal-with-individual-toppings-gluten-free-diabetic-friendly/

Enjoy~
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Praying the Psalms – Psalm 5

  Praying the Psalms 
"What matters is not what we feel like praying about, but what God wants us to ask him for. Not the poverty of our own heart, but the riches of the Word of God must decide how we are to pray."

                                                                          Dietrich Bonhoeffer from - The Psalms - Prayer Book of the Bible.

Today, during our Morning Bible Time, we were going over our Habit of the Week – Which is Morning Devotions:

 
Our Action Steps in building the habit of Morning Devotions are:

• Read Devotion
• Spend Time Praying
• Write in Quiet Time Journal and/or
• Fill out Devotion Worksheet.

At the bottom of each Habit Poster is a quote from Emerson:
“Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”              ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

We were completing one of our Action Step Worksheets on this Habit.
  This worksheet asks for a Bible Verse for this Habit. 
We chose Psalm 5:1-3

A Prayer for Guidance

To the Chief Musician. With flutes.  A Psalm of David.

1 Give ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my meditation.
² Give heed to the voice of my cry,
My King and my God,
For to You I will pray.
³ My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.

Memories of my first year as a “walking it out” believer came flooding back…

In that first year, I use to listen to this song over and over again (I had found it on an old record album – this really dates things a bit)

This song is  based on Palms 5:1-3

I use to listen to this version back then – So I pulled it up on the i-pad and the kids and I listened to over and over and talked about it.

We looked up different versions in the Bible for Psalm 5 (found the message very interesting and one worth pondering on).  I gave my unique son an assignment to write this Psalm in his own words.   Even though it is an old style of worship song for my kiddos – they all enjoyed listening to this song and going down memory lane with their Mama…

I found this one on You Tube that I like. I will probably be listening to this over and over and over again this week…  Learning moments at it’s best!!!!


Check out this post on my blog for a list of the themes in Psalms:

• Praying the Psalms

Psalms 5
that all I have to do is look up
a good full week of school under our belt
banners and subway art
family time over weekend
the message
church family
deserts
being creative with what we have
movement
His timing
morning time
special memories of early days
salvation
growth

Looking up ~
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Weekly Wrap Up–Week 2

  This was our first full week of school. 
We are getting back into the swing of things and starting to touch on our enrichment activities.

       For our Art and Music Appreciation
we are covering an artist and composer a month using The World’s Greatest Composers & Artists Unit Studies from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler.
  
These Unit Studies use the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artist & Composters Series
by Mike Venezia. 

We are also covering a Missionary each month for our World Geography Units. This month we are learning about North American and are reading about Cameron Townsend from the Christian Heroes: Then & Now Series by YWAM.

We completed different activities from our learning center to re-enforced some of our lessons this week.  A few of the big hits where these math games:
Chips & Farkle    
Roll and Spell for Spelling List Practice:
and  various items from our Continent Boxes.

We had a FULL week.  We worked hard at our follow through on getting checked off each day before calling a close to our school part of the day.  This is one of the areas I want to be more intentional about this year –and this is an area I need to work on and follow through on my part.

At the end of the week we had a store – using tickets they earned from their responsibility charts - and the girls were able to buy some craft items and treats as a reward for completing our first full week of school.

   
Over all it was a great week~

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Teacher Like You–Part 2

Awhile back I posted about my missionary daughter sharing from a mission trip she was on in Fiji:

“I wore my locket in the village and all the kids wanted to see (and show their friends) my mom, dad, and baby sister... one little girl was asking me about you and dad and asked me what you guys did. I told her that you taught us and later I told her that, before coming to Fiji, I was a teacher. "Oh, you're a teacher like your mother." she said. I thought about it and realized how true it was... I'm a teacher like you.”

You can see that post here:   Teacher Like You

  

This daughter has entered a new season..

                           of teaching…
      of growing….              of being stretched… 

She is teaching at the YWAM based she is serving at…
   teaching K- 2nd grade 

                         … an area she has not formal taught before 

but an area that the greatest teacher – her savior - has prepared her for 

   …by having 6 younger siblings

                 …an area she has helped her Mom teach
         
She is teaching 5 awesome little hearts…
                                                            
                    5 little hearts wide open with wonder…
                                       5 little hearts excited to grow and learn…
and…
            my daughter has the privilege of guiding them…
                         on this glorious journey…
                                 of exploring their creators world…

In this one room classroom… 

more than academics will be taught…
      more than abc’s and 123’s will be recalled…
              more than structure, routine and habits will be formed… 

because these 5 children are blessed…
            to have this one teacher…   

who will challenge them to discover what is not seen…
      who will surround them in creative energy…
               who will see their potential and call it out…
                       who will recognized their weaknesses and gently guide them…
                                 who will see their strengths and help nurture them….
                                          who will embrace them and love them for who they are… 

...because her Savior has done the same for her

I am so excited to see her have this opportunity to be…
              Her Saviors arms and heart to these…
                                   5 children

Things I am thankful for this week:
a new year of school
awesome back to school pictures
celebrating two precious daughter’s birthdays
opportunity to serve with the youth
awesome youth ministry for my kiddos
strength and energy for first week back
joy in seeing my children serve the Lord
seeing new opportunities to trust in our ultimate provider
time with precious friends
noisy birthday parties
friends to celebrate with
friends to encourage
friends who encourage
promotions in Sunday School
New Bibles and new potential
seeing challenges as opportunities to serve

Enjoy the opportunities He brings your way~
 

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