This Time of Year

Well, we have officially been on our CC break for almost 3 weeks! It has been such a nice break and a back-to-normal of homeschooling and taking care of the house and kids! Well, in addition to all the holiday hustle and bustle that is now upon us! We are a little late in our decorating this year; we have been so busy, and honestly, it is a little hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it is 75 degrees outside and we can wear shorts and short sleeved shirts to go outside! But, nonetheless, it is great playing weather for the kids!

Judah doing crafts at our church Holiday decorating party!

Judah is about to turn 3 years old on Christmas Eve! I can't believe how fast time flies! He is such a joy to our family, and I can't believe how fast he is growing up! He is my snuggler and sweet, calm one and is just a delight! We are going to have a small birthday party for him, his first friend birthday party, themed around his puppy pillow pet which he adores. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees his cake that will look like his pillow pet! Of course made by his very talented Aunt Lydia!!

First Thanksgiving!

My sister, Briana and I

The Thanksgiving spread

Tad and his sibs on Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was good! It was fun to have my sister, Briana, and her family come visit from Colorado! They spent Thanksgiving with us at Tad's parents house, and we got to do some other fun stuff with them while they were here!
We have a few more weeks of school and then a 2 week Christmas break, which will be nice! I'm sure it will all go by so fast! And Ruth is about to have her first Christmas! She is getting so big! Well, not really big, persay! She is only 15 pounds at 9 months! She is only in the 3rd percentile for her weight! Both of my other kids had teeth by now and were crawling. But Ruth is taking her sweet time! She is pulling halfway up, and is so close to crawling. She does some kind of scoot thing while she is sitting up which helps her get around some.
Maddy has been sick a lot lately. I'm gonna do some research as to how to boost her immune system because I don't think it's normal how much she has been sick. She has had 3 rounds of the stomach flu (all of which didn't last very long at all), and now she just came down with a nasty cold with a fever, sore throat, and incessant coughing. I'm not sure what's going on with her, but I'm planning on pumping her full of vitamins and healthy food to try to build up her immune system. Any suggestions please leave in the comment section below!
Maddy is also about to have her first ballet recital! Last week, they performed in a nursing home, and I really look forward to seeing their full routine in their Christmas performance! She will actually be done with her ballet, tap, and jazz class after her recital. It wasn't her favorite class and she is actually anxious to get back to swim lessons! So I will savor this recital! I will try to post pictures if I can!
I have really been trying to lose weight during this eating season. Eating is my biggest downfall, and I haven't done so well in that department. But I have really stepped up my workouts, and have tried to vary them so that I can confuse the muscle groups and keep them guessing! A lot of times, I get stuck in a routine of doing the same workouts, and I really want to work different areas and also not get bored!

Tad, carving the turkey on Thanksgiving!

Tad has been working with his clients at work, and also doing some odd jobs for his parents and our pastor. He is running a 50 mile trail race with some good friends from Moody in the spring in Arizona, so he is training some for that right now. He has gotten in really good shape over the last few months!

 

So that's our most recent update! Sorry I haven't been too regular on this here blog! Sometimes I feel more inspired to write and other times I feel like I don't know what to share! So this post was kind of jumbled! But that's where we are at! If you are still reading this long-winded post, Happy Holidays to you and your family!!

Corn Souffle

image credit

 This is one of my all-time favorite recipes and things to eat! I had it all growing up, as my grandma Crandall used to make it for lots of family functions. When I got married and started cooking, I just had to get the recipe! This corn souffle becomes everyone's favorite when they try it! This year, for Thanksgiving, I was going to try a new recipe for a corn souffle with cheese and bacon that I found in a magazine, but my sister-in-law wanted to be sure that I was going to make my corn souffle! So I just decided to make my tried and true recipe that is oh-so-good! It came from an old church cookbook, and though the ingredients will make you wince because of their lack of nutrition, you are allowed to make this recipe for special functions and you will not get penalized!! And it is seriously the easiest thing to throw together and then let it cook for an hour and a half! Let this be your new Thanksgiving side! I promise you will not be disappointed!!

Corn Souffle
Leroy Community Chapel Church Cookbook
Recipe via Kathy Keeney

2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 can whole corn, drained
1 can creamed corn
1 cup sour cream
1 cup melted butter (2 sticks)
1 pkg. Jiffy cornbread mix
salt and pepper to taste

1. Stir together the eggs, whole corn, creamed corn, sour cream, and butter.
2. Add the package of cornbread mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix all ingredients together.
3. Pour into a buttered casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

So easy, and so amazing! Try it this Thanksgiving!
So sorry for stealing the picture from Flickr; every time I make this dish I forget to take a picture of it! It goes fast!

Family Holidays!

Briana and her family in Branson

I'm so excited that my sister and her family are coming to visit for Thanksgiving! We haven't gotten too many visitors since we moved to Oklahoma, and I was so happy when she said they wanted to spend Thanksgiving with family! So we will all venture over to Tad's family's house for a big feast! I can't wait! And it just so happens that Tad is off work on Thanksgiving and the day after, so it works out perfect! We saw my sister and her family this past summer in Branson for our family vacation, but it will be nice to get the cousins together (our kids only actual cousins!) again and show them all where we live! I warned them there isn't much to do in our town, but they are looking forward to just spending time with family! I always have to throw that disclaimer in there, especially after everyone was used to visiting us in Chicago where there were so many fun things to do! All you have here is us in Oklahoma!

The cousins!

 I'm still in the middle of planning my part of the menu for Thanksgiving! I pretty much had everything picked out, and then I realized that I was making a lot of fun extras and not really helping with the traditional sides. Then my mother-in-law told me that she wasn't going to assign me ANYTHING since I will have family in town. Well, if you know anything about me, you know I just LOVE to cook and I look forward to Thanksgiving especially because it is so fun to make so much stuff. So anyways, I know I am going to make Pioneer Woman's pecan pie, as usual. And I think I will make my homemade applesauce. I still need to figure out which traditional sides I should help make. I just love cooking outside the box, and making different, exotic, yummy tasting things but Tad's family isn't used to anything like that, so I have to stick to traditional things. But that's okay!

Homemade applesauce!

We are just getting over being sick, and got a little "fall break" from school, if you will, so it's nice to have a little bit of extra time to get things done. The stomach flu is making its way through our family right now, and I'm wondering who it's gonna hit next! But it's a really fast bug! Hopefully everyone will be better by Thanksgiving!

What are you making for Thanksgiving? Any fun new websites, recipes, or ideas you could share! Please share in the comments section!

Classical Conversations - Weeks 10 and 11

Well, I am playing a bit of catchup! Again, I got busy this week (and sick) and didn't get a blog post out for week 10 so I will do a double post this week for weeks 10 and 11! Forgive me! I cannot believe we are nearing the end of the semester of CC! We are almost halfway through Cycle 1! It seems like just a few weeks ago that it was summer and I was anticipating the start of the year! Where did the time go?
Well, we have had some fun, creative grammar review games in the last couple of weeks, and I really like mixing it up so the kids are always doing something new. I'm excited to share those with you! I am now preparing for week 12, and then we have our long holiday break. I am planning our holiday party during snack time and I'm excited to send my kids home with some little take home goodies and a craft that they can do at home over the break! I just wanted to throw something fun in there and I'm sad that I won't see them close to Christmas, so I wanted to send them home with a little gift from their CC tutor! So here is what we did for weeks 10 and 11:

Timeline: learned new cards and hand motions
History Sentence: Heian Empire and Byzantine Empire: used hand motions to go along with the songs.
Geography: Used their big maps to find the new geography and color, underline, or trace it with a dry erase marker, they always get to glue their passport stamp onto their own passport for that empire.
Latin: For review of 4th Declension, they played musical "worm" which is essentially musical chairs just set up in a worm formation. I never take a chair out so they can all play each time. But there is one chair missing initially. For the intro to the 5th declension, I always use the clip art sheets off CC connected that has pictures representing each sound. Then they can take these home for practice.
English: learn new hand motions, practice the whole preposition song to the tune of Yankee Doodle, which is what our campus is doing.
Math: I always find worksheets off CC connected and we turn the song on and they point with their finger and follow along on their sheet. (squares and cubes)
Science: Leaves and leaf parts: I was using a binder from another tutor, and she had pictures of each leaf printed out, so we used those and I made up simple hand motions from looking at each picture to remember them. Parts of a flower: showed them the acronym (which is how I remember it, but they might be too little) and then we used a picture off CC connected with labeled parts and I had them circle each part we were learning, and then below that they could draw a picture of a flower and try to draw the specific parts we just learned, which were in the picture above.

Grammar Review: Human Tic-Tac-To, used tape to make the board on our floor, they were divided into 2 teams, each person from each team had a chance to answer a question, and they would stand on the board holding papers with X's or O's.
Candyland: I have heard so many tutors say they use this game! I used the review cards that are printed by CC, and divided up the kids by 2's and there were 2 kids to 1 game piece. Whatever color they landed on there was a corresponding color of review matching cards and we would either review it or they would have to tell me about it. It worked quite well! 

And as always, they have sticker books that they get to put stickers in periodically in class if they are good, and they have sticker charts, and if they are good throughout that class, they get a sticker on their chart, and every other week we have a treasure box for whoever gets both stickers. I have had to take some people's stickers away, but not without ample warnings, and they usually were much better the next week!

Any questions, comments, suggestions, please comment below! I have learned much from you!

Life Around Here

 Well, life has been pretty crazy around here. We have been extremely busy! I must say, this is the busiest I have been as a mommy! We are doing Classical Conversation once a week (a classical, Christian homeschool education) and I am a tutor (which is the teacher of the class, they like to reserve the title "teacher" for the parent who directs their child's education), Maddy is taking ballet/tap/jazz class once a week, we have church, worship team, and many other things that fill up our schedule! And of course, we are enjoying being close to family who we can share all our adventures with!

Tad, Judah and Ruth hanging out at the park!

 Our weather is like the Ohio summers I am used to, so there are still lots of days we spend our afternoons outside or take evening walks on the path behind our house. We usually do that when Tad is working a double and we need to get out of the house!

 This is Ruth with her Aunt Lydia! She works at a salon and a bakery and goes to school, but in her "free time" she comes over and visits us, and we love it! I think they love Aunt Lydia more than they love me! And sometimes she brings the kids yummy stuff from the bakery! I seriously don't know what we will do without her next year when she goes off to college!

 It is fun being near family, and sometimes we get to go a little bit outside of our town and see extended family. On this particular day, we were invited to Tad's uncle's house to help build onto their house, and for a birthday party! It was so much fun to see family and the kids had a blast!

 Pops (Tad's dad) got a Spyder motorcycle and the kids were playing around on it. He even let Tad and I take it for a spin around the neighborhood; it was pretty fun! I can't wait until Tad can get his motorcycle fixed! We still have plenty of warm days left!

Ruthie is eating solid food 3 times a day now. Hmmmm. She must not like this one. But she is adorable! And she does like a lot of the baby food we feed her! She is probably my least picky baby eater out of the three!

Cute as a button! She looks like a little "who!" Her hair always seems to be in a mo-hawk. I can't figure out if her hair naturally does that, or if someone (AKA Tad) always puts her hair like that. Anyways...
Just a little bit of what we are doing around here! We have Classical Conversations for 2 more weeks and then we are off until around mid-January! So that will be a nice break and hopefully I can get some more things done and not feel as crazy busy as I am right now! I'm looking forward to the holidays, and we are excited to get our Thankful Tree going like we did last year! Hope this finds you all well!

Escarole and Butternut Squash Salad

This is one of the best salads I have ever had. Especially one of the best ones I have ever made!! And not to mention that it is served with a homemade dressing that is really good, especially because it has a little kick to it! I have made this salad twice to accompany a pretty lavish gourmet meal, but the salad was one of the best things about the meal, and Tad and I decided that I should just make the salad by itself more often! The combination of flavors makes it a wonderful fall salad, perfect for an afternoon lunch, an accompaniment for entertaining, or you could use the homemade dressing for just about anything! It would also be a great dish to serve at the Thanksgiving table! Enjoy!

Escarole and Butternut Squash Salad
Cuisine at Home

For the squash - 
1 1/2 lb. butternut squash
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper

For the dressing - 
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
2 tsp. honey
1/2 - 1 tsp. minced chipotle chile pepper in adobo sauce

For the salad -
1 head escarole (or whatever kind of greens you prefer)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. 
2. Peel skin from squash. Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds. Cut flesh into 1 1/2-inch chunks; toss with oil, salt, and pepper. Roast squash on the baking sheet until browned, 25-30 minutes. Cool squash to room temperature.
3. Mince garlic with the 1/2 tsp. salt, then place in a medium bowl. Whisk in mayonnaise, buttermilk, lime juice, honey, and chipotle until dressing is emulsified. Refrigerate dressing until ready to serve, or up to 2 days.
4. Toss escarole with desired amount of dressing. Top salad with roasted squash and cranberries; garnish with pine nuts.

To toast the pine nuts, put them in a pan on medium heat and watch them closely. Cook until they are lightly browned. It says to shop them, but we put them whole on our salads. Love this addition!

The dressing doubles as a dipping sauce for some homemade empanadas that go along with this meal. Maybe I will add the recipe for these in the near future. Warning: they are to die for!

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 9

Well, there are good weeks and better weeks with CC and this past week was pretty good! It was picture day so we skipped the nature walk for the science project. I didn't know when we were gonna have to go outside for pictures, so that was a little bit of a distraction since we were all anticipating when we were gonna get called. It ended up being at the very end, so it interrupted our review game a little, but that was okay, we were ready for a break!
We have a few more weeks of CC before our long Thanksgiving break, which will be nice. I'm hoping to do a little party our last week since we won't be meeting over the holiday times!  I'm not sure what that's going to look like, since we still have all of our material to cover, but hopefully we can do something fun!

This is what week 9 looked like in our classroom:

Timeline: New cards and motions
History Sentence:  We used the song and a printed our picture from CC connected to point to for cues.
Geography: The usual, found the new and old geography on the maps, used the plastic fish/dinosaur/cars to go to different locations, used dry erase markers to color in/underline new geography
Latin: Used the clip art pictures off CC connected to learn new 4th declension, handed them out to kids, listened to the song
English: New prepositions and motions
Math: Used a sheet off of CC connected saying 15 times 1 = and so forth.
Science: Different parts of a plant: Leaves (stand straight up and pretend hands are the leaves), Stem (stand pencil straight), and Roots (Squat on the ground with hands out like roots).

Grammar Review:  I got small plant containers (about 9 of them) and labeled each one with the different subjects and had 3 blank ones. The kids would stand about 2 or 3 feet away and toss some plastic golf balls until they landed into one or knocked one over. Then they either got a question for that subject or if they got a blank one they got to pick which subject they got a question from.

We had a fun week! I have had fun coming up with different review games because by the end they always have energy to burn and it's fun to see how much they know! I am always amazed at how well they are doing!

Hope this helps, and as always, if you are a parent or tutor feel free to add suggestions, things that worked in your classroom, ideas you use at home, or anything helpful! Thanks!

Priorities

Right now seems like such a crazy time. I think I definitely feel the most overwhelmed since having my third baby at the end of February. She is almost 8 months already, and I still feel pretty overwhelmed. It's not so much just her. It's all three of them put together. And this new year of teaching Classical Conversations each week that involves hours of prep work. And the ministries that I have at church. Plus the regular homeschooling, which I want to be one of my top priorities because I don't want that to fall by the wayside. And my home, and all the responsibilities that come along with that that pretty much fall on my shoulders alone. And then there are other things that I wish I had more time for. Like working out and spending time with friends. I feel like my friends are totally on the backburner right now. The only ones I really get together with are the few that pursue me to get together. Bless them!
Whenever anyone asks how I'm doing or what is going on, I feel like the answer is always "Busy." "Overwhelmed." "Crazy." "A lot going on." And if I'm not doing anything, or if I'm taking a nap, or relaxing, I feel like I should be doing something productive. And I wish I could get up early and get more things done before the kids get up, but lately, I have been getting so little sleep that my energy levels have been down and I have been struggling with depression so I can't really give up sleep right now. Ruth is up a lot at night, Maddy and Judah are in the same room now and they fall asleep a lot later than they used to, and get up a lot earlier than they used to. And usually about the time I lay down to go to sleep at night, Ruth wakes up for a feeding. And it seems like she is up way too much at night.
There is just so much going on right now. I miss having time to bake, cook, decorate, clean, exercise, entertain, all the things I used to blog about. My passions. The things that used to give me breaks. But now, I barely blog and probably because I don't have anything fun to blog about, it seems like I just keep griping about how overwhelmed I am. And how important things keep falling by the wayside. I know there are tons of systems and schedules out there to keep you on top of things. But when you homeschool, you are in a totally different game. When am I suppose to do those daily chores? My whole morning is filled with getting breakfast for 4 people, maybe picking up the kitchen, nursing Ruth, and getting school done with Maddy. And we are usually doing school in the afternoon after naps too.
I need the professional homeschooling veteran moms to help! When do you get things done? And how do you find the energy to get all those things done? It seems like my house is suffering, my health is suffering, and I cannot stay on top of things!! Maybe I'm just having a little emotional meltdown. I know the rewards of homeschooling and I know that that is more important than having a perfect house and entertaining weekly.
My mother-in-law was trying to help me by reminding me of my priorities: God, Husband, Family, Others/Church, Me. That breaks it down, showing me that my family is more important than church, Tad is more important than the kids, etc. But it can still be hard to break it all down and figure out how to get everything done in a way that I'm not going crazy. And I desperately miss my husband. My love. I so wish we had the money to have a getaway to focus on each other and relax. We have barely had that in our whole marriage. Maybe once. Or twice.
And it can also feel a little lonely being at home. Especially when the kids get sick. Even your husband doesn't understand what it's like to have all the responsibilities of a SAHM and be home with them all the time. And to never get a day off. Or a night off. It can be exhausting. Like today. Tad went to work, came home on his lunch break and saw the craziness for like 10 minutes and went back to work. Came home and took a nap on the couch. Left for worship practice and church while I stayed home with sick kids. Came back and did dishes for me and helped clean up and now he is gone on a run with his sister. I have been here all day. He did offer for me to go run, or for us to run together, but I just don't have the energy.
So there's my life. Crazy. Busy. And I don't have any answers, persay, I guess I'm still looking for answers.

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 8

Well, after the "off" week I felt like I had on week 8, we had a really good week for week 9! I was so pleased with how things went, and I was so glad that I had a review game that was different and kept the kids moving! We had visitors this past week, one of my students was back after her family adopted 2 kids from Ethiopia, and we had a lot of material to cover! So it was a crazy week! But the kids had so much fun and I was glad to do some different things with them that kept their attention and got some of their energy out!

Week 9

Timeline: introduce new cards and learn hand motions
History Sentence: for the Age of Imperialism, I printed off pages that said Imperialism, 1858, 1877, 1948, a picture of Mohandas Gandhi, and a picture of fireworks (for independence). I had the kids stand in a circle and hold each of these and hold them up when we said them in the song, and the 2 that didn't have cards would pretend to sip tea when we said British, and pretend to place a crown on their head when we said Queen. They loved it! And they loved being Mohandas Gandhi!
Geography: Used maps to find new geography and review old geography, kids glued their "stamps" for China onto their passports, they always get a plastic car, fish, dinosaur, or airplane to find their geography
English: We always use the preposition motions and do our preps to the tune of Yankee Doodle per our campus.
Latin: Since it was a review week, they played musical chairs but they had to sing the Latin tunes or they were out automatically. I let the "out" kid back in every time, so we didn't remove any extra chairs. They had a blast!
Science: We said monocot, dicot, conifer, oh my! Like the Wizard of Oz, and held up 1 finger, 2 fingers, and made a triangle for conifer.
Math: I printed off a math sheet from CC connected that had all the numbers printed with bugs and so they put their finger on the numbers as we sang the song.

Grammar Review: We did review stations (as suggested by one tutor in my comments section! Thanks!) where 2 parents and myself ran them. We had 3 kids to each station, and each parent would quiz them on 2 subjects and then they would get a sticker on their shirt, and switch stations. When they had reviewed in all 3 stations, they got a medal necklace ($1 for a package of 8 at the dollar store!! )

Treasure Box: Every week, they get to put a sticker on their sticker chart if they were good, and every other week if they have both stickers, they get to pick one thing out of the treasure box. I remind them of this every week as motivation to be good! I have had to take away a sticker from a couple of kids, and as sad as it was, I think it was a good reminder to be good and shape up! They seemed better after that!

Hope these ideas help, and as always, please share your ideas in the comments section for me and other tutors who visit this site!! They are very helpful! Especially when you are planning and you get "tutor's block!"

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 7

 Well, if you are wondering why it's been so long since I have done a CC post, it is because we had a week off! So we are about to head into week 8 already! Time flies! I have enjoyed hearing from different tutors who have read this blog, and have really enjoyed the input and suggestions other creative tutors have offered! Let's help each other!
I was really at a loss for a grammar review game this week. We ended up reviewing a lot of songs, and the different ways we learned the different subjects. It wasn't really a game, and I was less than impressed with myself for not being more creative! I thought all week about how to do a review game, and I was just coming up with nothing! But I recently went and planned through week 12 and came up with several new and exciting review games, so I'm excited!
In our training sessions, I remember the leader of our session saying that some weeks it was all she could do to get to CC with her kids, and it was difficult. I think I had one of those weeks this past week. There has been a lot going on in our church, with sickness and hardships, and I just felt very heavy during the week. I think that's why I couldn't come up with a review game! But you know, that's life. I don't think we can all be spot on every week. But God gives us grace to get there, get our kids there, and to keep going with what we have! What would we do without His strength?
So, here's what we did for week 7!

Timeline: Learn new cards with hand motions
History Sentence: Printed the words Hinduism and Buddhism on different pieces of cardstock with their symbols behind them and held them up whenever we said those words with the song.
Geography: Used big maps to find old/new geography, used individual passports I made them and they pick a "stamp" each week and glue it on and I write the name of the new Empire for the week inside.
English: Learned new hand motions for the new prepositions, sang the whole song of the prepositions to the tune of Yankee Doodle (up until what we know), which is what our campus is doing
Latin: Used the clip art page off of CC Connected to introduce the 3rd declension with the song
Science: For "how do animals reproduce?" we did hand motions: live birth (cupped hands at stomach opening up), eggs (hands cupped together like an egg) and fragmentation (I had the kids all hold hands and I lightly karate chopped their hands as I said frag-men-ta-tion, they loved it!)
Math: skip counting the 13's, sang the song and followed along on the board where it was written

Science Project: We are using the nature books that we printed off of CC Connected, we looked at the parts of a flower and they all had individual flowers to look at, then they drew and colored a flower (I didn't have them write and individually label all the parts)

Orchestra! We are doing orchestra this quarter because our orchestra leader is leaving in December! So we flip flopped our tin whistle and orchestra, which will push our tin whistle to the final quarter!

Presentations: The kids sit on individual carpet squares and the presenter stands in the center of a bulletin board that has a calendar in the center of it, so they know where to stand. I remind them of proper ways to do a presentation, what to avoid doing, and remind the class of good audience manners!

And that's it for week 7! Come join us next week for week 8!

Sleeping Situations

Well, we finally did what I have been putting off for awhile. We moved Judah to a toddler bed and moved him into Maddy's room on the same night! Let me give you a little background information. Ruth had this little stint of getting up in the middle of the night and being up for 2-3 hours almost every night. This lasted for weeks. Sometimes she would be screaming, and sometimes she would be perfectly content. But she did not want to be in her bed. So I was exhausted. She was also waking up when we would go to bed, which was frustrating. So I had the brilliant idea to put our mattress in the living room. Well, Ruth started sleeping so much better, and I loved being able to watch tv, talk to Tad before bed, and not have to tip-toe when I went to sleep. But the flip side is that the mattress always seemed to be in the living room, taking up the whole living room walking space, and when Tad got up early in the morning for work, he couldn't turn on any lights or really make any noise without waking me up since I was still sleeping. I loved having our mattress in the living room, but Tad mentioned that he didn't like tripping over the mattress everyday. So one day, in a moment of craziness, I decided to surprise Tad and do this big project before he came home from work. I was going to transition Judah to a toddler bed, and move him into Maddy's room. Since I wanted to surprise Tad and get the whole thing set up, where we had our own bedroom, Ruth was in Judah's bedroom, and Judah and Maddy shared Maddy's bedroom, I just decided to do the whole transition thing (Judah to a toddler bed and moving to Maddy's room) in one night! Crazy, I know!
That night was the usual transition time where it was cool at first, but then he was up for awhile talking to Maddy, bugging her, and not wanting to go to sleep. But over the next few days, he really adjusted very well! I have been very pleased! He barely ever gets out of his bed, and in fact, he would wake up and ask if he could get up from his bed!
We still do have our issues, though. The main issue is that he used to sleep in until 8 or sometimes 9, and now he is getting up at 6. I know that Maddy wakes up pretty early, so I'm trying to iron out if she is waking him up, or if he is just waking up that much earlier. During nap time, Judah gets his own room, Maddy sleeps in our bed, and Ruth has her own room. So if I nap, I just sleep on the couch, and everyone sleeps great during nap time!
So, that's our latest big transition! We are still working through it, but overall, we have been pleased! Now, if I could just get them to sleep in a little later than 6, I would be ecstatic! Yawn!
And here are some of the most recent pics of the kids! They are getting so big!

Classical Conversations Weeks 5 and 6

I am so sorry I didn't get a CC blog post out last week! It has been a crazy week! So I will include ideas for both weeks in this blog post! I can't believe that we just finished week 6 yesterday! It seems like just yesterday that I was preparing for the first week and wondering how it would all go! And now we are already done with Fine Arts/Drawing! Our location is actually swapping Orchestra and Tin Whistle since our Orchestra teacher will be leaving in December since they are moving. So for those of you who will be doing Tin Whistle next, I won't have any ideas for you until January!
Also, I need some fresh, new ideas for classroom management. I have tried some different things that have worked, and some that haven't. I am realizing more and more that 3 hours of intense classroom time with one break and a lot of memorization for littles can be a challenge! But granted, I am so impressed with these little kid's characters, manners, respect, their obvious work on the material at home, and how quick they usually are to get back on track if I have to call them out on behavior issues!
From the first week, I printed off just a printer paper with their name on it, and made a little book out of it. Each week they get several stickers to put on it when they are all being good. The first several weeks, I would do it during class time, but they were taking too long to pick out stickers and missing the new grammar, so I moved it to snack time or times that certain ones were finishing up (drawing or something else) so that no one was missing anything important.
They also each have a sticker chart and each week if they are good throughout class, they get a sticker and every other week they get to pick out of the treasure box if they have gotten stickers for those 2 weeks. So that is good motivation for them too.
I need some new ideas for some "ice breakers" or times to get their wiggles out and take a couple minute break. It is a long time to sit and work on memory work! If I get some new ideas, I will share them here! Or other tutors/parents can share them here! It would be much appreciated!
So, here are some ideas for week 5 and 6...

Timeline: Say and use hand motions
History Sentence: Split of the Roman Empire: I found this great worksheet on CC connected where the long sentence is in pictures and really helped the kids to learn it. Fall of Rome: I found pictures on Google Image of taxes, slavery, unemployment, and diseases and the song certainly helped! I always use the songs for history!
Geography: I printed out individual passports for each child, and each week they get to glue a stamp on their passport and I just write the name of the new empire we are learning. Then we use our plastic fish/dinosaur/racing car to find our old/new geography and they color them in with dry erase markers on their laminated maps.
Math: Last week we used a worksheet off of CC connected where they just wrote in the numbers under the number that was already printed for them, then they could bring it home and practice. This week, I printed off number charts for them and put them in page protectors and they used dry erase markers to circle the 11's and 12's and it was fun because they could see a pattern as they circled them, and then we all said them together. I just play the math song during this time on repeat.
Science: For invertebrates, we did hand motions for each one and pictures for each one and they really helped them remember it! For vertebrates, we just looked at pictures of each one and said them. I also showed them the acronym FARMB to help remember them.
Latin: Used the clip art charts from CC connected (I think? I am using a book my director put together and I think she got them from there) that shows pictures that go along with each ending. We use the song, sometimes I sing the song and stop and ask which one comes next.
English: We use hand motions for all the prepositions. But we sing ours to the tune of Yankee Doodle, which is what our campus uses. One of our tutors sent it out so we all have the song. It's slower than the CC song!

Grammar Review:
For review, I have been trying not to single out any kids to ask them questions, because it just seems like some kids really know their memory work, and it is more of a struggle for others. So I don't want some kids to get left behind if they don't know past work perfectly! Also, I know that some of my kids might not be able to read, so it is a struggle to find games for new grammar and review without doing any reading!
Last week, we did a human board game. I put the kids into 2 teams with a parent as facilitator on each team. I made squares from 1-10 for each team, and we went back and forth and I had them answer questions, and then they got to "move" on their squares. They could work as a team, with moms helping to cue them and help them come up with the answers.
This week, I put them in teams again, and had them sit in chairs facing each other, in teams. I went back and forth, for example, the first team said the first commandment, the second team said the second commandment, etc. Or I would do the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, and they would go back and forth. It went really well!

I always save time at the end for a book or a devotion, cleanup chores (which they are all assigned to on the board, and they love!), and the treasure chest if we have it that week. Yesterday, we ended up being done really early and one of our helpers led the kids in some quiet games. I really need to have some games in my back pocket for when we have extra time like that! Or more ways we can review!

And as always, feel free to leave any comments, suggestions, or things you have found helpful in your teaching, parenting, or coaching your child along in their memory work!

Raspberry Cream Scones

 
I have been waiting to post this recipe for a long time! It is one of the best things I have ever made! I love scones, and finally found a recipe I love! Yes, I have already posted a recipe for mini scones, but this recipe is much better! And you can really cut them into any size! I also love sharing recipes out of cookbooks, since they aren't so readily available on the internet for everyone to use! I recommend dipping them into whipped cream! Or putting jelly on them, or butter, or if you're really authentic and English-like, you can somehow find or make clotted cream! Which I have yet to do! These definitely aren't gluten-free, so Tad won't be having any of them, but I actually made these and took these pics during the summer, so he did get to have some!


Raspberry Cream Scones
The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook
Food to Live By
Myra Goodman

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for topping
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into bits and chilled
1 large egg
1/2 cup heavy (whipping) cream, plus 2 tablespoons for the glaze
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
3/4 cup (from 1 half-pint) fresh raspberries or frozen (unthawed) unsweetened raspberries

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly butter a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.
2. Place the flour, 1/3 cup of sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine well. Add the chilled butter. Using a pastry blender, 2 knives, or your fingers, blend the butter into the mixture until it is crumbly and well combined.
3. Place the egg, cream, and almond extract in a small bowl and whisk to combine well. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until just barely combined. Gently fold in the raspberries. Do not overmix the dough or the scones will be tough.
4. Turn out the dough, along with any loose dry bits, onto a lightly floured work surface and pat into a disk about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut the dough with a knife into 6 pie-shaped wedges and place them on the prepared baking sheet.
5. Brush the scones with the remaining 2 tablespoons of cream and sprinkle them with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.
6. Bake the scones until they are golden brown and firm to the touch, 15 to 20 minutes.
7. Place the baking sheet on a wire rack and let the scones cool for about 10 minutes. Serve the scones warm or at room temperature. The scones taste best the day they are made but, if necessary, they can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Reheat them in a microwave for about 10 seconds or in a preheated 350 degree oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

Cookbook suggestions: You can substitute 2/3 cup of any kind of fruit or nuts for the raspberries. You can use fresh blueberries, strawberries, chopped nuts, dried fruits like apricots, cranberries, or cherries, and you can also substitute vanilla extract for the almond, or orange zest for the lemon zest!!  And they also freeze well! So you can freeze the dough, transfer them to an airtight bag or container, and thaw them overnight on a baking sheet before you want to serve them, and glaze them right before you put them in the oven! Ah, possibilities!!

You will seriously drool over these scones! These are perfect for a brunch, shower, or having your friends over for tea!  Or in my case, coffee!

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 4

I can't believe we just finished week four of Classical Conversations!! Each week is a unique with different challenges, ups and downs, and creative ways to present the material. I hope my parents are being patient with me as a first year tutor! I'm still working through the kinks of classroom management, taking care of Ruth and Judah (sometimes Judah has been in our class if he's sick or really sad without Mommy, and some moms have really stepped up in helping with Ruth!), coming up with creative ways to present the material, and coming up with ways to get the kids to start to memorize that week's memory work. It is all a challenge! I was spoiled this past week because my husband, Tad, was off and will be next Tuesday as well, so he gets to come help take care of Ruthie and watch our classroom! Extra bonus!
I am noticing that the time is long without much of a break for that age of kids. I might need to break up the subjects or come up with some ways to help them get a little energy out. They definitely are starting to get more of the wiggles in class, which is understandable! Tad just kept saying that that was a long time for that age to be in class without more breaks. But that is the way CC is set up, and there is a lot of material to get through in a "short" amount of time! But they are doing great! I am really impressed with the kids, and I can tell they are working on their memory work at home! It's not easy material! It takes all week for me to memorize all of it to present it to the class!
If any of the moms from my class, tutors, other tutors out there or anyone else ever has suggestions for how to creatively present material, please comment below! I have gotten kind of repetitive with a lot of the material since we build with hand motions and songs, and I want to try to do some different stuff next week, especially with the review time!
I have yet to get on CC connected, and once I get on there, I think I will have a lot more resources that will help me in my planning!
So, without further adieu, here is this week's schedule:

Timeline: Say and learn the hand motions
History Sentence: Say and learn hand motions with the song
Geography: Use fish/dinosaur to travel around to our previously learned locations, learn new location and color/trace on map with a dry erase marker (used acronym HATAC to remember the areas of the Hittite Empire)
Science: Used a diagram of the parts of a plant cell, tried to get the kids to remember that there are 6 parts of a animal cell, and 8 parts of a plant cell and to distinctly remember the 2 that are added to the plant cell
English: Used these hand motions, but at our location we are using a song that one of our tutor moms sings to the tune of Yankee Doodle. Since it goes pretty fast, I just sing it slower with them as we do our hand motions, instead of playing it in class. The parents have access to the song if they want to use it.
Latin: Review of singular and plural declension noun endings, used the clip art pages and sang the song, also sang and stopped at some points to see if they could tell me the next sound.
Math: Skip counting the 7's and 8's, sang the song and passed a ball to each other like a "hot potato" while slowly singing the numbers.





Presentations: Tell me something about the Ten Commandments

Next week: Tell me about your favorite toy

Drawing/Fine Arts: Abstract Art

Science Experiment: Pollution


Grammar Review: Had them pick pieces out of a bag with names of subjects we would review


Timeline: Used the timeline song and did hand motions
History Sentence: Used previous songs/hand motions
Geography: Named previous empires if drawn out of bag, we always review our past geography during Geography
Science: Just stated the questions we have learned and how we learned them
English: Reviewed the whole Preposition song (to the tune of Yankee Doodle) with the motions we know
Latin: Review
Math: Reviewed the previous songs if they drew that card out of the bag

Bogged Down

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 Well, it happens to me every once in awhile. I feel overwhelmed. I have so many new things on my plate, and with CC just starting, and in full swing with 1st grade, I feel exhausted at all my responsibilities. I keep saying I remember the days when I was a new stay-at-home-mom and I actually felt bored and lonely. I didn't know what to do with myself! Ha! I kinda miss those days.
I'm not the best at keeping up with everything. Honestly, I'm the worst with finances. And paper clutter. I feel like I have paper coming out my ears. Mail. Flyers. Calendars. Scratch paper. School papers. Coloring pages. Instruction manuals. Papers for baby, kids, CC, events, receipts, articles from magazines, recipes, artwork from the kids, and on and on. I don't know what to do with it all! I keep coming up with these "systems" to keep everything in it's place. But it seems like as soon as I go through a stack or box of papers and organize them, there is another stack! It's constantly growing! In my head, my systems work, but in the busyness of life, it just gets out of hand and the system gets lost in the shuffle.
CC takes a lot of prep work. I feel a little behind on Maddy's 1st grade stuff, but she is getting a lot of school in besides CC! And she is doing great! Everything kind of fell on me at once! Responsibilities at church, the beginning of the school year, and with all these responsibilities I have had less sleep (partly my fault for going to bed too late, and partly because Ruth started waking up and staying up more in the night) and Tad has been working doubles constantly so I feel like I have been going at it alone. He doesn't have the time or energy to really help me with my load of responsibilities.
So I guess at this point I really need to ask myself what my top priorities are. I can't do it all. And at the end of the day, I don't have that much energy to start 5 tasks before I go to bed. That's my relaxing, chill time. And my only time with Tad minus the kids.
I have been working at a bunch of schedules for chores, school, planning CC, morning tasks, afternoon tasks, evening tasks, and a reading schedule so that life can flow a little more smoothly and I can get things done throughout the week.
And also, life isn't perfect. I'm never gonna have a perfectly cleaned house, all the laundry done and folded, all my tasks done, etc. and the most important thing in my life right now needs to be my relationships. I can't be so busy that my marriage or relationship/time with my kids suffers. There will always be tasks to be done. But this precious time with my kids who are growing up so fast is fleeting. I want to enjoy this time, and not just try to "get through it."

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

Zumba!

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 My sister-in-law has been doing Zumba for awhile now! She kept telling me I should come visit a class, but honestly, the thought of doing a "class" kind of scared me. I'm not in the best shape, and I usually don't attend classes. When I go to workout, I usually stay in the cardio area and run on the treadmill, do the elliptical, or do some other weight machines I am comfortable with. I didn't really know what to expect with Zumba. Although, I kept hearing about it.
So, one day, my 2 sister-in-laws were going to go, so I decided I would go with them. But wouldn't you know, they both ended up not being able to go! Well, I had already planned to go, so I decided to go anyways. It is like an aerobic class, where you follow the instructor, but the dance moves are set to Latin/current pop music. It is a blast! I felt pretty lost the first day, because the moves go pretty fast and I didn't know any of them. But the more I have done it, and they repeat a lot of the songs, the more I feel comfortable with it and can anticipate some of the moves. It is a great workout, and a really fun way to workout, I must say!

 Here is a sneak peek!

I don't think it burns as many calories as the other workouts I have done, but I am definitely sweaty and tired by the end. About halfway through the class, I can always feel myself getting tired and losing energy. Of course, the classes I do are in the evenings, and by then I have had the kids all day by myself, and have done school with Maddy, and hopefully have cleaned the house too!
So, I go when I can. I usually can only fit it into my schedule about once a week. But I hope to try to go more! It is so much fun, and a really nice break in my day after Tad comes home from work. I have been bringing Maddy to the Y with me, and she has a little class called "I-zone" where she can play the Wii (doing dance games) and do other things to get her energy out! I think I might even bring her in my Zumba class tonight when I go! The instructor said she can come as long as she isn't in and out! So if she gets too tired, I will just put her in her class which is right around the corner!
I am looking forward to my workout tonight! Does anyone else out there Zumba?

If you would like to read more about Zumba, click here!

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 3

It's fun getting into the third week! With 2 weeks under our belts, it's fun to have review time and see how much we have stored away in our brains! And the kids love doing it, especially when there are hand motions to go along with what they have memorized! That's why I have tried to find hand motions for so many of the subjects! And of course, I will include the link to the hand motions that I have found for the subjects!
The age of kids that I have is adorable! I do have to try to keep their excitement at bay because at that age, they just want to blurt out anything that comes to their minds regarding, well, anything! You get to know what they are interested in pretty fast, because they will tell you!
Being new to CC, it is very impressive to me how much these kids can retain and say each week. When I first looked at the weekly material, I thought, "How is Maddy going to do this?" But she was interested in it right away, and I'm so glad that she loves the praise she gets when she does good at memorizing it! And thank goodness for the music that goes along with all the memory work! Where would we all be without the music? Once you hear something put to music, it's hard to forget it! Here is week 3!

Cycle 1 Week 3 Lesson Plan

Timeline: Say timeline and learn hand motions for this week: on Pinterest, on YouTube
History Sentence: Say, listen to the song, play instruments with the song (trying to find the beat)
Geography: Use the fish/dinosaur to find the new geography and past week's geographies on the map, color/trace
Science: Used a picture of an animal cell and pointed out the different parts, used an acronym: Nine Silly Veggies Made Sausage Gravy (Nucleus, Cytoplasm, Vacuole, Mitochondria, Cell Membranes, Golgi bodies(I used the "s" sound for the "c's" since they make the "s" sound, especially since I have some non-readers!)
Latin: Passed out a handout and used it to learn the sounds; the handout had pictures that represented the sounds for noun endings, listened to the song!!
English: New prepositions, learned the motions from this song, but we are going to use another song as sung by one of our own tutors, the prepositions to the tune of Yankee Doodle
Math: Used the songs to skip count the 5's and 6's, passed this week's "stuffed animal" to each other as we said the numbers
Presentations: Persuade us to play a game/sport
Science Experiment: Blending and Ground Temperature
Drawing/Fine Arts: Upside down image

Grammar Review: Have the kids draw pieces of paper out of a bowl with the names of different subjects from past weeks/this week's material (we just drew out of a hat until we ran out of time, we didn't get to each of these subjects)

Timeline: Review all the week's timeline with motions
History Sentence: 10 Commandments song/Greek/Roman gods song
Geography: Say the areas belonging to each Empire
Science: Review the weeks in the fun ways we learned them
Latin: Bean bag toss for noun cases, song for noun endings
English: Preposition game (the kids love!! ): they stand in a circle and turn around saying A preposition relates a noun or pronoun (turn around and jump and yell:) to another word!!!
Math: Review songs for skip counting

 I'm constantly trying to come up with new ideas to learn the information in a fun way that gets the material in their head quickly! I have found that hand motions and songs really help! So if I've used hand motions I have included the link here for you! Hope you enjoy learning this week's material!

Gluten Free?

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For those of you who have followed my blog or know me, you know I like to cook. Let me rephrase that. I love to cook. We had some friends who used to come visit us periodically when we lived in Chicago, and he was diabetic, lactose-intolerant, and had celiacs disease (allergic to wheat). When I cooked for him, it was a challenge and I learned a lot about food allergies. And after they would leave, I would always count my blessings that we didn't have any food allergies in our family that we had to deal with. Ha. Ha ha.
Wellll. My husband has always had a "sensitive" stomach. That's the nice, not-gross way to say that he has had diarrhea almost everyday as far back as he can remember! I didn't really realize it was such an issue for him. And then when Maddy started running to the bathroom and having diarrhea, I just thought that she had Tad's "sensitive" stomach. I never thought of diarrhea being a sign of an allergy so it never occurred to me.
Tad's cousin also has had this "sensitive" stomach, so we would just joke that it was the Davis sensitive stomach. Well, his cousin either got tested or just decided to take wheat out of his diet, and his symptoms went away! So when Tad heard that, he thought he would give it a try. And wouldn't you know that his long-time pal, diarrhea, went away. He said it is so weird to not have it. He feels so much better. So, I didn't know whether or not to take wheat out of Maddy's diet because, poor thing, she survives on wheat. Ever since she was a baby she has loved tortillas, bread, noodles, bagels, and all things wheat!! But Saturday she had a bagel, sandwich, and hot dog in a bun, and her stomach was not happy. So for the last few days I have taken wheat out of her diet for the most part.
And today, I got orders from our doctor and went to the lab and had the Maddy and Judah's blood drawn to test it for Celiac's disease. So, while I do know some about it since we had a friend who had a severe form of it, and my uncle and cousin have it, there is still a lot I don't know. And I'm not used to having to cook different and leave certain things out, especially in the wheat family. And I'm not sure to what degree each person has it, so I'm not sure what they can and can't eat.
So, where do we stand now? We are waiting for test results for the kids. We should find out this coming week. Tad is feeling better and eating totally different, and I'm proud of him for giving up the things he loves. His mom has even made gluten-free options for him when we have eaten over there, which makes it easier for him. So sweet of her! And you know I will give an update here of what we find out!

So here's to a new journey of cooking differently, shopping differently, and doing some research on this whole gluten-free diet!  I know it's a lot more prevalent, so thankfully there are a lot more options than when it first started appearing!

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 2

 We had such a great first week of Classical Conversations!! I was so pleased with my kids in my class and their parents who are so supportive, encouraging, and helpful! And we actually got through the memory work for this week and Maddy has memorized her first poem for her presentation tomorrow!! I have the schedule for tomorrow and what I'm going to do with the kids for each subject, and I will include the link for the hand motions. If you have any questions about that, please ask!
Also, someone had a question about the hand motions for the timeline. I will again include a link to the hand motions I am using, but they ARE NOT official hand motions for CC. They were the only ones I found for the new 2012 timeline, but I have since heard that there are other hand motions out there. Also, I am not on CC connected yet, so they aren't from that file sharing either. Hope this helps parents, tutors, and kids to review their memory work during the week!

Timeline: Sing/song way to say it with hand motions on Pinterest
hand motions on YouTube
History Sentence: Sing along with Foundations cd, hand motions
Geography: Review last week's geography (Fertile Crescent) and use plastic dinosaur/fish to find Fertile Crescent and Assyrian Empire on the big/small maps, trace and color areas.
English: Preposition song with hand motions
Latin: Say the noun cases with different voices (Nominative - hands over mouth and say loudly, Genitive - singing, Dative - high voices, Accusative - stern voice with finger pointing, Ablative - clapping to rhythm of words.
Science - using pictures of different kingdoms, have kids hold them and say them, then put them in order
Math - use a "bean bag" (different stuffed animal each week for different numbers of skip counting) toss while sitting in a circle and use the song to learn
Science Experiment - Belly up and Spider Web
Drawing/Fine Arts - Mirror Images
Presentations: Recite a memorized poem

Grammar Review: (they will draw papers out of a hat to see which review games they will do, what we have time for)
Timeline - mix up cards
Math: Bean bag toss while standing in a straight line, toss around back to next person and say number
Science: mix up cards and put in order, sparkle game, duck duck goose
Latin: toss the bean bag across to partner and say the noun cases
English: review preposition definition song/game, preposition motions with song
Geography: Tell me about...and they have to name the five areas of that location
History Sentence: Review song with motions (have the kids "remind" me of the motions)

I also am going to have the treasure box this week for good behavior; if they have 2 stars, from this week and last week, they get to pick out of the treasure chest. Also, they each have their own "sticker book" that I printed their names on and they get stickers throughout class for good behavior, getting up and doing their presentations, and answering questions right.
I have a fun week planned! I'm looking forward to it!!

First Day of First Grade and a Birthday!

First Birthday

I can't believe my baby is in first grade already! And today she turns six years old! The time sure does fly by! Six years ago I hadn't had her yet. My water broke at 1 in the morning while Tad was at work, and he had to fly home on his bike, get me, and have our friend drive us to the hospital! After 16 hours of labor, and 3 hours of pushing, she was pulled out with forceps! I broke/fractured my tailbone in the process, and didn't know it at first until the epidural started wearing off, so that was pretty crazy! But we had our sweet, precious, perfect little baby girl.
She is a crazy little girl, and always has been! She has lots of energy, is always hyper, always talking, and is on full speed from the minute she wakes up to the minute she goes to bed. She is super creative and artistic; her ideas and artwork blow me away. She has caught on to reading really fast and is doing great in school! She loves playing with her dolls, her brother, playing outside, doing artwork, music, getting read to, playing on the computer, playing with her aunts at Grandma's, and going to church! She is a really big help to me with her 2 little siblings, and she loves to help! She has at least 2 loose teeth, and is starting a ballet/jazz/tap class this year! And she got up and did her first presentation at Classical Conversations! I'm so proud!
She is one special little girl, and I think we'll keep her!!
Happy 6th Birthday, Madelynn! Mommy and Daddy love you very much!