You Can Vote! (Speaking to kids of course!)

Today I was mailing my ballot so I seized the opportunity to teach the kids about voting.  They had the chance to use ballots, a voting booth and learn the outcome of the vote. I hope your kids have fun, too.

Meet the candidates. PBS presentations of Pres. Obama and Gov. Romney.

 

Schoolhouse Rock the Vote!

 



Printable 2012 Free (You need to sign up for the website. It is free and a great resource for homeschooling moms. Worth it!)

Make your own election book.

My sweeties casting their votes! (In our makeshift booth, tee hee.) Fun story. I told the kids they could keep their vote a secret. Things took an interesting turn. Two votes for Romney and one for Obama. When I announced that Romney won 2 to 1 TK started crying. lol We have a secrect liberal among us!

 

 

 

 

 



Discover Africa!

 

 

There is an amazing resource available thanks to Jessica at Balancing Everything. It is called Discovering Africa and it has it all! It's filled with maps, flags, photographs, paper dolls and more. It is a great resource for Homeschooling families for the great price of $15 for the download. There is a Freebie of The Discover Africa photo pack here. Or review (bottom of page) the summary and download the complete packet by clicking on the Discover Africa! link in the top left column.

Discover Africa! includes:

• A 19 page Resource and Instruction Guide to help you get started. It’s packed full of helpful suggestions, recommended books, and directions for printing and organizing the PDF printables.
• A file containing 54 single / individual beautifully designed, blank notebooking pages for each country in Africa in PDF format.
• A file containing 54 single / individual mostly-filled-out PDF notebooking pages for use in a homeschool co-op / classroom setting, or for use with younger children. These pages have most of the areas filled in, but still leave areas of activity for the students.
• A file containing outline maps of the continent of Africa, Africa with countries defined, and individual maps of each country.
• PLUS more files containing the single notebooking and map PDFs merged together so you can print one big book all at once. Both styles (blank & filled out) are included.
• A 7 page file containing all 54 African flags – use these as a color guide when the children color in the flag on the notebooking pages, or shrink them down for use in passports (instructions to make or buy passports is in the Resource Guide).
• A 6 page file packed with beautiful thumbnail photos for children to paste on their notebooking pages. Photos show a wide variety of African peoples in their traditional, ceremonial, or every day dress. Photographers are listed in the Resource Guide with their URLs so your family can explore more of their pictures.

To download, click on Discover Africa link in the top left column.

Happy teaching and learning to you all!

Teaching by Mom

 

 

 



Chicken Broccoli Bake

6 oz. Chicken, boiled and diced
4 oz. Broccoli, raw
2 pieces of Bacon, chopped
2 t garlic, minced
1 1/2 cup Mozzarella, shredded
1 t Parmesan, shredded
1/4 cup Mayo
1/4 cup Sour Cream
1/4 cup Hot Water
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil chicken until no longer pink inside. Prepare the broccoli -boil or steam until cooked, but still firm. Save 1/4 cup water for the sauce.  Chop bacon. Combine water, mayo, sour cream, bacon, garlic, onion, salt and pepper. Next add, 1/2 of the Mozzarella and 1/2 of the Parmesan. Dice Chicken while still warm. Combine sauce, chicken and bacon in bowl. Spread in casserole dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake @ 350* for about 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.

**I double this recipe for us and still use one casserole dish. It takes a bit longer to cook but still turns out great. You may want to toy with it to suit your family. I use a bit more chicken. You may want a bit more broccoli. Whatever sounds good! Have fun!

Math Enrichment aka UNO

Today we played UNO during our math time. The kids are always very excited when I break out any kind of game. What a bonus that they are learning addition, subtraction, counting, colors and the tough lesson of being a good sport (More about that below in the TK comments.)

BJ is not a great lover of games. She is usually all in for the first game only. The details of the rules bore her.

FK does love games and loves when things take a turn, even if not in her favor. She loves the roller coaster of a game, but she has some to learn about losing still. That always ends in tears. I wonder if shouting "LOSER!!' has anything to do with it. Totally kidding! (But I do say to myself sometimes. Ha. )

 

TK loves games more than the others. He gets LOUD and hyper. He slams down those Draw 4 Card with a passion unrivaled. Today he won when it was the two of us battling for the title. He made sure that everyone knew he beat me by shouting 'YOU LOSE! UH-HUH! UH-HUH!' Normally, I would gently remind him that it isn’t nice, but since this ridiculously energetic outburst was followed throwing up a little in his mouth. I had to laugh. Then he said 'I'm okay, Mom. I just have the hook ups now'. That had me laughing so hard I was crying. I am hoping those 'hook ups' are not something that follow him into his dating years! Hiccups, Son! Hiccups!

 

Digital Scrapbooking - Free Tutorial Lessons

If you have ever had an interest in digital scrapbooking, but only get as far us using the generic automated scrapbooking websites your are stuck in lack of creativity rut like me. Oh, how I totally desire to have a custom family scrapbooking ability. I love the idea of making my own designs, but up until now have had no idea where to start. I recently heard that there is help for the digitally challenged soul like myself and wanted to let you in on it!

I am so excited to invite you to join me in learning to digital scrapbook as Mia Marie, a super friend, Mom and designer, breaks it down for us so we all can all begin without feeling overwhelmed. Here is the download for the Getting Started Package (Free. It's all free!). Now that you have that, lets get going! I totally want to learn this. Here is Lesson One.

Here are few pieces of her work. I'm super excited to learn to digital scrapbook! Mia Marie is very talented. I love her sweet creations.

 

 

 

 

Meeting Bags

I have heard a few mentions of the Horizon Rectangular Crunch Can by Umbra® recently. Today I was reading one of my favorite blogs and there was a post on the bag, too!  I have mentioned before I am such a total bag lady when I walk in to Classical Conversations, or any other public gathering for that matter. Not only that,  I also am such a bag lady at heart. Period. Just ask my husband and he will tell you of my collection of backpacks, purses, totes, etc. Hey, most are for family use. Well, except for the purses. What girl doesn't love and need an assortment of bags??

After you read this post on The Pioneer Woman's Homeschool page I think this bag will go on your Must Have Bag List, too.

Free Printable PAPER DOLL - Dress Up

Yesterday, I shared one of our favorite boy printables (Matchbox Car Track). Of course I had to offer something for the girls, too!

I hope your girls enjoy this page of paper doll fun. I encourage my sweeties to cut them out themselves (I always have to repair a few things) and then I laminate all the pieces so we can get some long term use out of them.

There will be more to come soon that will include different skin tones. Have a great day!

Please click HERE to download and print

Free Printable - Matchbox Car Track

If you have boys that love cars like mine you know how great keeping a few cars in your purse can be! Since we are often at church and school events I made this 4 page printable (that folds down to a 8x10) to take along with us. It is such a hit even our girls love it.

Print out each page. Cut along dotted line. Laminate if you have a machine if not that's okay, too! Tape together with a small gap to allow folding (I recommend using clear packing tape. Dont forget the back seams). Cut off excess tape.  I hope your boys enjoy! Sending me some pictures!

Click to  download #1

Click to download #2

 

Click to download #3

 

Click to download #4

Blessings,

 

Teaching by Mom

Our Little School Room

Last year in our tiny house we did FK's Pre-K work in our tiny kitchen. It was really cramped. Our storage space in the kitchen is very limited. This year we knew facing K for FK and Pre-K for TK and BJ (our twins) so hubby and I decided to clear out the tiny loft which was our office space. We stored away our books in our basement (this was hard for both of us!) keeping a few reference and favorite books in our closet. Our bookshelves went in the basement and the desk and chair were given away on our lawn with a FREE sign. When we could we bought a laptop to further save space.

It was hard to break away from room layout that we were accustomed, but we never did serious office work there. Neither of us have a home business so we thought the space would serve us better as a classroom. It is tight, but works beautifully! Looking at the pictures it looks spacious! lol It isn't. You cant walk at all between the window and table and I barely have space for me and big KoKo (my derriere) between the dry erase board and the table. But, it looks roomy in the pic! ha ha

 
We bought the table and chairs off Craigslist. I had been watching for months and found a steal of deal. After looking at the Ikea’s standard shelves that some friends use in their classrooms, I realized THESE from Walmart were just as good (Check out the reviews.) and less, plus we would have had to drive quite a way to Ikea. I ordered the kids bins off Walmart at the same time using the free Site-to-Store option. The bins store their workbooks, crayons and a folder with their favorite school/church pages.

 

 

If you have a dining room, loft, unused small room or space, stop and think - how would that space get the most use? If you do some rearranging let me know! I would love to see your before and after pics. 

Classical Conversations Family Presentation - Our First

I think  our Family Presentation well this morning!  I was a bit worried. I initially had something in mind along the lines of scene from Annie - Your Never Fully Dressed without a Smile (using my 5 yr old and 4 yr olds to sing and dance mind you). I envisioned the 4 of us standing up on the stage in our little raggedy outfits preforming this...



Ha, ha, ha. I am such a dramatic dreamer!! My kids are barely audible when they do presentations in their ABC 1 class. Bringing myself to reality, I decided on the 'Getting to know Us' theme. It went great. The kids each held up pictures as I described what their favorite things to do and go were. I paused and let them speak if they wanted to, if not I filled the silence. Super cute and I had several moms tell me it was fun and a great new idea for the group.

If you are looking for something for Family Presentation, first let me say skip the big theatrics and keep it simple. Second, open up about who you are if your CC group doesn’t really know you outside of meetings. The other families will love it and your kids will be more likely to open up and share if they are talking about something they love.

'Getting to know us' ideas: Share 8 x 10 pictures of the family and kids, or signs showing their favorite color, favorite toy, favorite outings, accomplishments, hobbies, etc. Have each child hold up a picture and encourage them to describe the photo (not taking too much time). Let me know how it goes!

The Night Before Classical Conversations

Sundays are a day a buzz here in our home. We are up and going by 7 am (I should add that's as early as it gets around here!) readying ourselves for busy church and small group day AND preparing for our Monday's CC meeting! Woohoo!

After church we practice presentations. After dinner I pack everything we need for the morning. Am I the only one that walks in to CC with a million bags, back packs and a stroller?! I feel like a bag lady, but I know I am not alone. All the other moms are toting around multiple bags, lunch 'purses' and balancing misc. items all while pulling bleary eyed children in with them. Mothers are the most amazing creatures when it comes to multitasking! Hooray for us!

It seems we are always dragging our feet to school, but by the time we head to our class (and I have a fresh cup of coffee in hand) we all seem ready to absorb and learn all we can. It's neat to feel eager, even more than the kids maybe, to see them learn and learn alongside them. Watching all of their little minds memorize is truly a joy and treasure.

At CC this week we have family presentations. I had nooo idea what to do as this is our first year, but I decided to do a 'getting to know us' theme were we will each share a few things about ourselves with 8x10 photos. The others in the community have been together for a year or more. We (with another family) are the new kids on the block so I thought it would be a good chance for the kids to let their hobbies, likes, and little personalities shine.

All three of my older kids are in Abecedarian 1 class. Tomorrow they will share their favorite timeline cards with the others, tell why they like that card and do the hand motions. Yea, super interested to see how that goes. *giggle* So far they can’t remember the names of the cards and B-girl thinks the focus of the Age of Ancient Empires card is a 'tiny cave were a bird lives'. I am not sure it is there. Can you see it?? Lower cheek of the Sphinx? Anyway, she sees it. I have tried to encourage her that the Sphinx is what’s amazing. She is less than impressed. After all what is that old crumbly statue compared to the little cave that houses needy birdies?!