"Mm" is for Moon!

 If you've been following my homeschooling posts recently you will know that we are doing a letter a week like "My Father's World" kindergarten curriculum has but we aren't doing it in their order.  THIS week is all about the moon and I found some books at the library to introduce some of the concepts about the moon.

  One fact about the moon is that there isn't any air or atmosphere there so there isn't any wind.. which means that the foot prints left by the astronauts will stay there!  I thought those concepts were something we should focus on and to help them remember I painted their feet and they got to leave their own footprints on our "doodle on the moon" (we did the medium sized print out which was 6 pages.. you could do the large one if you have more space and more kids!)

Even the baby thought this was a pretty spiffy project!

I'm pretty sure this made an impression on them and the 4 year old was even able to answer back correctly when I asked "why do footprints stay on the moon and not blow away?"  -- because there's no atmosphere! 

My 6 year old especially liked the fact that the moon has less gravity than the earth so we'd be really light and springy if we walked on the moon.  ;]

 I showed them a few videos talking about the phases of the moon and here is a pretty good one if you'd like it!  "Why does the Moon change shape?"
While they watched the videos that I'd collected I helped them turn their cookies into the shapes of the moon.  This of course was fun for them since they got to eat a LOT more cookies than I'd normally give them in one sitting!   

If you have to be gluten free like us, might I suggest these cookies!  They are super tasty.  My husband who doesn't have to be gluten free loves them as well so they won't make anyone feel less special.

The girls have been doodling on the moon a lot this week, but the foot prints were the biggest hit of all.

Last foot to do is on the little one.

Squishy!

The final doodle was my oldest making her toes into a family.  How cute is that!?  :}

gluten free pumpkin cream spice filled pizzelles

 I wrote up some gluten free recipes for the pizzelle on a former post so I will try to not repeat myself too much.  I have a few things to add now though!  My husband wanted a sort of cream cheese spicy pumpkin filling in the pizzelles for his birthday.  Personally, I'd have gone with just nutella, but it is becoming cooler and Autumn is in the air so the pumpkin thing was a good idea.

A few changes from the former recipe is that I've been using Pamela's gluten free mixes so I didn't have all the individual flours like the original post uses.
1 &3/4 cup flour mix
half a stick of butter (or so)
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp anise extract or vanilla extract (I used vanilla because it matched the pumpkin filling best)
(and 2 tsps of baking powder if you don't use a mix that already has that in it.)

The filling was about a half a can of pumpkin
one thing of cream cheese
about a 1/2 cup of honey or agave (or to your taste!  I kept tasting as I went)
1 tsp of cinamon
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1/2 tsp of ground cloves
1/2 tsp of ginger
(Again, taste it and add more spice if you like it spicier or more sweetener if you like it sweeter.)

Spread out the filling along one edge and start on that side to roll it up.  You've got to do this really fast before the pizzelles harden.  After they are rolled up just put them on a plate and stick them in the fridge so they cool quickly.

Here's my example of one that I overdid and the blond one that rolled correctly.  The one that is more done tasted fine, but it was too crispy to roll well.  Be prepared to open the Pizzelle maker 30 seconds after putting the batter in to check them.  They cook super fast and it's really easy to over do them.

So, in the end it was much easier than I thought it would be!  You can use your own frosting (or nutella!) or another filling of your choice.  They keep well in the fridge for several days (IF they last that long!)

If you have any questions write them in the comments and I will be happy to clarify... or if you have specific flours that you'd like to use you can ask about that too and I can help with the ratios and how to use them.

Butterfly puppet tutorial

So many great ideas can be found on the internet and pinterest!  I got this one from THIS blog My 6 year old loves doing art so much that this was a great choice for her to practice reading her site words (it's like coloring with numbers.)

Another idea from Pinterest was making letters with drawn circles so that the child can cover the circles with glass rocks.  Our letter of the week is "Bb" so my four year old worked on her project.

 Scrapbooking and blogging are really invaluable to us mothers.  Too often we get bogged down with all the stuff that we have to do.  Like my last post about not feeling like I could enjoy the little moments.  Today I was overwhelmed with the mess at the table after we did these projects (mainly because I didn't have time to do anything about it because I had to go grocery shopping and then put all the groceries away while I was making dinner and it was under a time crunch because of the event tonight *blah blah* you get the picture.)

Well, sometimes enjoying things fully come in our memories.  So, here I am looking at the pictures and realizing that my feeling of "WHAT am I doing?  Where is my grocery list?  What was I supposed to get?  How am I going to keep it all in budget?  Oh no, I forgot to do language arts with Lily!  Why do we have so many toys on the floor?  ACK, I forgot to put chocolate on my grocery list!  Where are the babies shoes?  Bother, I walked out the door without remembering the sling or to change the toddlers diaper first.  Should I try to buy something else for the cats fleas or wait?"  ...and on it goes.. yeah, too much in my head to really enjoy these sweet moments with my kids, but they had fun.  I was even able to make the fussy toddler a bit happier today than in past days, so I call it all a success!  Even though I have to do a little school with Lily on Saturday -- it's all good and I'm determined to keep this up because we are getting better at it!

Both girls absolutely LOVED watched some videos of a butterflies life cycle and a butterfly emerging from it's chrysalis today.  We've also been playing the song "Bullfrogs and Butterflies" this week since last week was all about Frogs and this week was butterflies.

"My Father's World" curriculum does a 'badge' in the shape of the subject each week with the 'words to remember' on it.  This week it was "God can make me new" but rather than using a badge this week I decided to pull out some craft stuff to make butterfly puppets and it was so cute that I took some pics to make a tutorial!  So, first fold the felt in half.

Cut a butterfly wing shape on the folded felt so that it will become symmetrical.  I didn't use a pattern.  Just wing it!

Ta da!  Not brilliant, but it works.

Snip four holes on either side of the fold line.

Slip some pipecleaner through the hole and loop it around the wooden spoon handle.

Cross it over and back into the other holes so it sort of looks like this.

Twist around the handle again so it's something like this.

Curl the ends.  You can now wave it around and the wings will "flap" up and down sort of like a butterfly... only heavier. 

Curl up the ends so it looks like the antenna of the butterfly, and decorate however you wish.

The older one wanted to cut up felt to decorate hers and the middle one wanted to use these bangle things.

I squirted some tacky glue on a paper plate and gave them Q-tips to dip in it to make it a bit easier for them.

I wrote the words to remember and a Bible verse on the spoon part.

Almost done.

They kept adding more and more!

It even has a cute red poof-ball for a face.

All done!  Except later she added 6 legs and a proboscis (the "tongue")

 So, to recap.  You will need --
  --Felt
 -- decorations to glue onto it (this could be other felt or sparkles or puff paint or buttons or paper.. glue or staple the decorations on.)
 -- wooden spoons
 -- Pipe cleaners

Week 2 update on homeschooling

First off, I should say that the more we work through the girls language arts programs (from Sonlight) the more I'm impressed with it.  The pacing is perfect and it's consistent without being boring because they change it up just enough.  It was "mix it up" day for the spelling words for the 6 year old and so rather than having her write on paper we went outside and she wrote them on the sidewalk with chalk!

She's wearing my glasses that are for a slight stigmatizm and they actually DO seem to help her.  We really should take her in to get her eyes checked.

My 4 year old is having so much fun with her school that she begged me to do just "one more page" about 4 times!  "Developing the Early Learner"-- is her favorite and I just got the last three books for it (I'd only gotten the first one because I didn't know if she'd like them or need them, but they are amazing!)  I wish I'd known about these for my oldest.  The language arts for the 4 year old is a bit easy for her at this point, but I don't know if I want to skip ahead since she's not even 5 yet.  She heard me doing spelling words with her older sister and got up to the table and sounded out and spelled and WROTE the word "Cat" legibly! 

An advantage of homeschooling is that the kids can roast marshmallows while I read to them.  Wouldn't you have loved this?  The 4 year old is just smashing and eating hers, but still.. totally awesome perk of schooling at home.

So, all that to say there's some really great moments in our school time.  I feel like we are making great progress and having My Father's World as well is helpful and the girls like to learn new songs and Bible verses and other projects that comes from that curriculum.

Going to the grocery store offers learning and training time for the girls, but it's far from "relaxing"..

BUT ...

The little one is insisting on joining in now.  It's so much more stressful than it was with just one.

Truth time.  While I love homeschooling.  I love having my kids with me and teaching them and I'm excited about what we are doing and I wouldn't have it any other way ...  I have to say.. it's such a drag sometimes.  Often I just want some time alone.  I usually don't feel like starting school (but this is partly just me because I don't *feel* like starting most things.  I'm good at continuing and finishing something, but not so great at starting it.)  I'd love to do all the school in the mornings so that the baby's nap time could be time for me, but how often can I get it all done when the baby is fussing?

I'm not sure how many times the library is going to let me renew this Muppet show.  We might have to buy it to save my sanity.  It's pretty amazingly great to take a 15 minute shower and not have the baby fussing at the door for me near the end of it.  The other girls like it too and the song "I've got everything that I need, right in front of me" is encouraging.

Then I put on the Muppet show and the Baby will sit quietly and watch it and actually give me a break (note: this is the only show she will actually sit and watch-- clearly she has impeccable taste) still I feel like there's not enough of me to go around and I should spend more time reading or playing or cleaning or something, and what do I want to do?  Eat chocolate, drink tea, read a book, or do a project, ALONE.  Yes, I don't get enough alone time.  I'm introverted.. I admit it.  Energy is always in short supply for me.  I want to homeschool my kids and then hire a baby-sitter!  I wish I could drop them all off and Gramma's house at least once a week, but the travel expenses would kill me.  I'm so thankful for our church that has "parents night out" and other things for the older two to go to.  I wish it happened during the day though so I could use it to truly be alone.

The hallway at our church is so kid friendly!

I feel like I'm constantly in need of encouragement.  Just the "keep it up, you are doing great!" is always good to hear.  When I've felt overwhelmed and tired my husband has often said that we could put them in a school instead of homeschooling.. which is only depressing to me at this point and wouldn't help any of my troubles... it would just be hard in other ways.  Yes, I'd get alone time, but to do what?  Oh, clean.. yeah, that's my dream.  My brilliant idea was to hire someone to clean our house really well once a month or something!  Wouldn't THAT be great!   I often wish we could just order pizza for some nights, but ordering gluten free stuff would be too expensive.

I love reading to my kids and going to special art events and having a malleable schedule to take advantage of unbusy times of the day and great weather.

Okay, anyway.. enough complaining.  I really do love what we are doing with school.  I'm thankful for my husbands job that allows us enough food money and a schooling budget.  I feel like I have practically everything that I wanted when I was young except the energy to enjoy it.

There is always something to enjoy and something to be thankful for but do we look for those things?  Do we actually take the time to enjoy them?  I'm thankful for cartoons and the fact that my girls have fun doing projects on their own.  I need to enjoy THOSE quiet times to do my own stuff instead of wasting that precious time with dishes.  (Utilizing paper plates more often is my next plan.)

I know that if I work harder at planning my own projects and making my own space and time (all the "self care" that we are told we all need) that I will enjoy being with my kids more and truly enjoying the time with them.  Often I think too far ahead and what is coming up that I don't want to do.  And what does Jesus say?  "Don't worry about tomorrow.."

Lets enjoy the moment even when it's interrupted with crying and fussing and fighting between the siblings, because in between that is laughing and smiles and sweet hugs and moments of reflection and quiet.

I think I'll go make some more cotton candy before dinner.  :]

What I wish I knew 2 years ago

 I wish I could talk to my previous self when my oldest was 4 and 1/2.  Now the middle one is that age and starting Kindergarten.  In 3 years my third one will be in this same spot, so perhaps I should not only post what we are doing in school this year just for myself right now BUT for my future self for when the little one is 4 and 1/2.

Starting school each day--

We talk about what day it is and look at the calendar and add a number to the 100 chart.  There is also a little flip book to the left of the calendar that has different weather options so it can be changed to whatever the weather is each day. The jars hanging above are full of the girls collections from what they find or from the nature exchange at the zoo.

Basic plan is to read a Bible story or lesson then read from a fairy tale collection or fables book while the kids color.  These books will be swapped out for others of the same type.  We can read through our book shelf pretty efficiently with this easy system of daily reading and drawing (or play dough or whatever).  Pretty much the plan for all of last year and we got through a lot!  It's amazing how much the girls learn from a well crafted story.

    I borrowed this teachers guide from a friend of mine and I really like the Bible lessons and some of the things they do.  How they tie in the letter of the week with a part of nature and a Bible verse I think is quite memorable for the kids.  I have been using this rather then the Bible lesson book pictured above, but I will add things here and there if we need it.

A website with coloring pages like this one.  There are SO many great free printables out there!

Language arts program from Sonlight The Grade K is for my 4.5 year old and the first Grade is for my 6.5 year old.  Just a note, the binders didn't come with the teachers/activities guide and the 1 inch ones that I got JUST barely fit. 

This particular week of school (week number TWO) is going to be all about the alphabet.  I'm still reading through their language arts programs to get a handle on how to use it to teach them and in the mean time we'll be doing a bunch of alphabet activities to review.  I actually had all but two of these books!  The two on the far left I got from the library.  For so many years we've been collecting books and games and resources that I wanted to actually use what we have.

Extra stuff geared more towards the 6.5 year old.  I already had the "Take off""Scrabble Junior" "Rummikub" and chalk board puzzle map, but I just got the Musical instruments coloring book and CD from My Father's World and the book on the far bottom right "Drawing with Children" was also from their 1st Grade pack.  So far I am loving the book for me as well as for the future when I start using it with her!  She LOVES to draw and I'd like to draw better and practice more also.  I thought this would be a super fun extra thing we could do together.  The games and puzzles (we have many more than these!) are also just fun to do sometimes and teach some good skills without even trying.

An idea that I want to use for my kids Found here to learn how to spell site words.

Some of the Animal Antics books by Barbara DeRubertis.  LOVE these!  They are well written and interesting to read, but also creatively contain words that have the letter that is highlighted.  Like "Sammy Skunk's Super Sniffer" has many many words that contain the "s" sound.  At the end of each there's a little "fun facts" thing about the featured animal.  I'm going to use these to go along with the My Father's World that has a letter a week.  The first lesson starts with "S" and I'm thinking that if I just have a lot of books or activities that feature the letter of the week it will help to emphasize what they are learning that week.

A few extra things for my 4.5 year old.  She enjoyed the games and activities of both her older sister and younger sister, but these are probably closest to her age that I have.  After I pulled out the big foam letters this morning to take a picture of them both girls had fun making an alphabet road with them and I was glad to just hang back and let them work together.  "Where's the 'Q'?"  -- "I found it! I found it!"  They didn't know they were doing school.  ;]

You wouldn't have to use "Animal Antics" books to go with the letter a week theme.  Pulling out an Encyclopedia or looking up something on-line is great too.  If you are brilliant like me and come up with obtuse words that start with the letter you are talking about than it's a good idea to have some resources ready to go.  "B" says "buh" for... uh, Barracuda.   "Mom, what's a Barracuda?"  -- yeah, good time to look up a picture on the internet and have a little impromptu science lesson.

So, speaking of letters... A fun idea that I found HERE (through pinterest of course) is to make crafts of letters that look like an object or animal that starts with that letter.  My plan to do this is to look at the pictures and draw out the shapes for my kids to cut out themselves.  I'm NOT cutting all these out!  Seriously, they can do that part.  Just need some construction paper and a few other things.  I know they will love doing one of these a week to match their letter of the week.  Maybe I'll have one kid do a lower case and one an upper case?  We'll see.. they might insist on doing the exact same project.  Our house will soon be even more over-flooded with craft projects then it already is.  ;]  Oh, and HERE is another website with the same idea only different in case I don't want to do them just like the ones on the first website.

Another idea to do I'd do it a little differently then them I think, I might take pictures with the girls of things that we have that would start with each letter or if they had something really specific in mind we might try to find a picture of it online as well.  I might add a few extra things of my own to their book of things I want them to learn how to spell and read.  I'd label each object like a "real" first alphabet type book.  Maybe this could be something the girls could make for their baby sister for Christmas or something.  How sweet would that be?  :}

Also, just reading several books a day is great!  I've got these organized with stickers on the bottom part of the spine.  Library books are top left, then Red stars for school type books, then orange for Bible story books, then gold stars for the kids story books, then green stickers for story book collections and books on tape, then bottom left is blue stars for the baby's picture books that she loves, then far right on the bottom is purple stickers for the baby's school type books (book of opposites or counting book or "first words" type books.. anything that is more about learning than story.)  If you use stickers as I did be sure to put tape over the stickers to make sure they stay on.  I love this plan because my kids can pretty easily put the books back where they need to go after they or the baby has pulled them down and spread them over the whole floor.  I took this picture right before I put stickers on and organized all the new books we've gotten in the last several months.  Most of them were for the littlest one (1.5 year old) who wants books almost all the time!

I wanted to print a picture of all the resources that I've collected having to do with Alphabet learning.  Just looking at it all gives me ideas on how I can use the stuff... I could have them trace around the alphabet puzzle pieces to work on how to spell their last name or a specific word.  The magnet board with the coconut tree and letters was from a pinterest idea and HERE is another that I liked that used pipecleaners to make the coconut tree.

Web site for this image I thought this was a great idea!  Just another way to practice letters and spelling.  I want to do something like this with the girls last name so they can practice seeing their last name fully spelled out.  I bet it could even be used to help kids memorize their address or phone number or whatever you wanted to teach them.  Just keep rotating all the activities around into different things to learn.  Works great!

The Alphabet Book for the Cuisenaire Rods from My Father's World is fabulous.  Work not only with the letters and sounds and what starts with that sound you can use it for math and counting and so on.  It's fabulous and not very expensive (You can re-use it with each kid!) I wish I had of gotten this for my oldest when she was this age.

Bunch of Math resources that I have.  Again, it's good for me to just look at these in one place because I tend to forget what we have when it's all put away.  The Patternables are especially wonderful.  My oldest is enjoying these too.

The Patternables and shape cards in use.  It's so fun for her to use that she doesn't even know she's learning stuff.  She also can just be creative with them and make pictures like she did in the picture above.  (The white board that the shapes are on works great for the magnetized shapes.)  This is a good project for her to work on while I'm reading chapter books or some other thing where she might have trouble sitting still.  I think they listen better when their hands are busy.. at least my oldest does!  And there's an old apple half eaten on the table.. yep.

All three girls have enjoyed these pegs and numbers.  Even if it's just to play with it works as a learning tool part of the time and a "baby entertainment while the Mommy is doing school with the older ones" the other part of the time.

I think I blogged about making this container and poof ball game last year.  Well, we are still using it!  Not only can it be used for the "baby while I'm busy with school" thing, but it's great for just a fun game of colors and counting.  Note, for the baby play -I just dump out a bunch on the floor and set up the can so she can push the poofs in or spread them around the house.  Sure some get lost, but they are pretty cheap to buy and add more to if you need it.

Sequencing the colors my oldest had left.

I made up a rule on the spot that said if you had only one of a color that you rolled then you could add how ever many other poof balls of ANY color to make the right amount.  So, the game moved more quickly and they didn't know they were practicing their adding.  What do you add to 1 to make 4?  Then just walk them through it... "One plus three makes? (they count the poofs to make sure it's right) FOUR!  That's right.  Push the poofies into the container!"

Speaking of poof balls.  They can be used as a sensory play time for the toddler while the older two are busy doing school.  I've been trying to do as much school as I can while the baby is awake, but once we get more into our math and language arts I might just do the reading and Bible lesson and perhaps the craft or coloring time in the morning and save the math and language arts for when the baby is asleep.

We are doing Singapore math that I found out about through Sonlight.  My oldest is doing just the second book now because the first K one would have been too easy, but I don't want to push her too much and jump her into 1st grade quite yet.  Her personality is such that she probably COULD do the 1st grade right now, but she gets so overwhelmed because she so wants to do things right the FIRST time that I think giving her some more repetition will be good.  (She was like this even as a baby and wouldn't copy me when I'd say a word.. ever.. I think she was just afraid of being wrong or she just wanted to make sure she knew for sure what to do.  When she was older though she'd catch right up, and she's always been really diligent about finishing things and has been advanced with her fine motor skills and so on.) 

Before I start Renna in the first kindergarten math book (pictured above) I'm going to have her go through these "Developing the early learner" This is the first volume but there are 3 more.  If this first one goes well and she's liking it and learning then I'll get the other three for her to finish too.  It looked fun and really useful.  Again, I wish I'd known about how great these are so I could have done these with Lily when she was 4 and 1/2 instead of starting "Sing Spell Read Write with her at that age!  With SSRW the first book worked pretty well but the second was just way too frustrating.  Definitely not our style for me to teach or for her to learn.  The one pictured above develops the skills needed for school NOT the usual "preschool" type book (that is frankly too hard for them and not helpful usually!)  I think that this is a good place to start when they seem ready for school but you don't want to burn them out with trying to learn how to read when they aren't truly ready or doing math problems when they are not even 5.   Everyone told me to "not worry" because Lily would learn how to read eventually.. which I totally understood (I didn't like reading till I was older either) my problem was always WHAT do I DO with her at this point?  With the second it's so much easier because not only have I already been through some of this trial and error on the poor first born, but she can just listen in to whatever I'm teaching her older sister and absorb it all like a sponge.  Like how I didn't really teach her to spell her name and she started trying to do it on her own.  I think I only guided her a couple times.  She also knows all her letter sounds and names and I didn't teach her as closely as I did with my oldest (she just listened and soaked it in!)

So, here's the skinny on the school time where we are now.  I've got several segments of school that we do.  I do NOT have a certain time of day.  Our wake up time isn't perfectly set to the clock or breakfast or lunch either.  There's a snack time somewhere between 3 or 4-ish.  The segments of school are as follows in no particular order;  Baby story time which is just however many stories the 1 and 1/2 year old wants to read, Kids story time, which is generally the story time on the couch, not to be confused with the Story time with fewer pictures in the book while they do coloring or crafts the sorts of books I read to them at that time are the Bible lesson stories or the fairy tales or Aesop's fables or chapter books with few or no pictures.  Then there is Language Arts times two kids, and Math or early development books times two.  I'll do the Language arts or math at the same general time, but just have one kid do a game or puzzle or related activity that they can do on their own so that I can do the workbook with them.  When they are older and can read on their own better then I won't have to be involved during the whole precess with Math and so on, but it's a good idea now to stay focused.  So, what is that?  FIVE segments?  Not bad right?  Not too overwhelming put in this way right?  

 I should point out that we don't do ALL the things pictured here every day!  Seriously.. what?  No, there's not enough hours in the day.  Okay, so maybe the baby could go through that much stuff in one day, but she only plays with something for 10 minutes and that doesn't really count.  My day is filled with messes being pulled out and messes being put away. It's constant unless it's interrupted by a book in the hands of a little one, and it's always a good idea to stop and read said book.  If the girls are excited about reading a library book should I insist we follow "the plan" for the week?  No, it all ebs and flows and that's what works for us.  A lot of this journey is just finding out what works for us and striving for the full potential of the season we are in right now.  My ideas might be just right for you or (more likely)  you'll need to modify them or just pull out an idea here and there from what I have pictured.  Remember, the goal isn't to cram our kids brains full of facts.. it's to inspire them to WANT to learn!  Hopefully we can do this in such a way that we will be able to enjoy the process too!  :]

PS:  In case you actually read all the way down to this point perhaps you might want to follow me on Pinterest  where I've pinned many other homeschool ideas and crafts and kids activities and toddler activities and so on.  I will be checking back to my own pins in the next few months again and again to utilize those ideas!  :]