Random thoughts, cute St. Patrick's cupcakes, and school this week (letter R, CC week 18)

I'm sorry to all of you who have no interest in what I'm doing for our homeschooling week! : )  I'm actually going to be doing a book review before the week is out on a book that is keeping me on the edge of my seat...so...I will post something other than our homeschooling adventures!  I will also be receiving a children's book in the mail soon that I will be reviewing and having a giveaway (!!) before the month is out.  Stick with me!
 Honestly, during the school year I'm SO busy with teaching the kids, church activities, and just normal, everyday life, typing out these weekly blog posts is the only thing keeping me on track with school during the week! I know...I'm not a super-organized-have-it-all-together-Mom.  That image...that I'd love to have...is dying a slow death!  I'd love to have a clean house and all the laundry caught up...but with three little people 7 and under, two adults, and about 1400 square feet of space....it just isn't going to happen.  My house may never be as clean and organized as I want it to be.  Just keepin' it real.  But that's ok.  I love my life!  Anyone is welcome to come by our house as long as you don't mind me apologizing (I always do that...can't help it) for the messy state of affairs, making some kind of excuse as to why it's not clean this week (it rarely is...let's just be honest), and then once we're through those formalities we can get on with the fellowship.

I do manage a few Pinterest sessions during the week to, you know, boost my confidence in my cleaning, DIY-ing, and sewing abilities (ha!).  Actually, it is kind of therapeutic and helps me dream dreams.  My newest dream is to make some cool cupcakes for our school time next Monday, which happens to be St. Patrick's Day.  That also happens to be the day after my baby boy's birthday, so I thought cupcakes would be a fun way to celebrate both.  Here are some Pinterest-inspired ideas...

                                      
I think they're all SO CUTE!  I think what I would really love to do is cut out the middle of the cupcake when it's cool and fill it with the M&M's...that way it would be a cool surprise.  Then I could do the rainbow thing on the top or do the Lucky Charms.  Fun!  I would also make the cupcakes egg free for my little guy.  I'm excited already!  I know it'll be time consuming, but worth it for little man and for the other kids in our group...hoping I can manage it! : )

Now on to school this week.  We are on letter R for my PreK-ers so today at our homeschool group we did these crafts....

I LOVE how they turned out!  I got the ideas from Pinterest, of course, but they were super easy...especially since I had all the stuff.  I drew out the R cut them out for the kids.  Then I let them glue it onto a half sheet of construction paper. Then I let them glue the yellow road dashes on...they did a great job!  I had the car/train/motorcycle/plane stickers that I got in a pack from the dollar store.  We've used them three times now...they've definitely been worth the $1 I paid!  For the rain picture we glued cotton balls on the top, used my blue Bingo stamper (from the dollar store) to make the rain drops.  Then I took a mini cupcake paper, folded it and turned it upside down for the top of the umbrella and cut part of a pipe cleaner and formed it to make the handle.  Easy and fun.  Other ideas I'd like to do for this week:
Rr is for...
*Rainbow
*Rocket
*Raccoon

I also got a great book at the Goodwill called "Rain".  It fit perfectly into the crafts and things we did for letter R.

On to week 18...only 6 more weeks to go! (I'm going to try and put just a few good resources for each...I need sleep! : ))
*This blog post by Classical Conversations at Home on week 18 is a great resource!

History--United Nations
*Apparently my video is having trouble embedding here....I'm even having trouble pulling it up on YouTube.  If you search "United Nations for Kids" it should show a cartoon-like video explaining the UN.
*There's also an "episode 2" after this one
*Another video: The UN Explained

Geography--More Central Europe


*map of central Europe

Science--Newton's Third Law
*Click here to find an explanation of the third law, but it would be too hard for my littles to understand.  Better for older kids.
*I'm pretty sure I posted a video with Newton's Second Law that demonstrated this law.  I wasn't able to find a good one for this week yet!  If I do find one I'll come back and post it.
*Science blog entries with some free printables.  I really wanted to print their Laws of Motion booklet, but had trouble with the images centering correctly.  Technology...arggg!
*Laws of motions with matchbox cars

Fine Arts--Morisot
A great printable is available through the link I put above to Classical Conversations at Home

Geometry--area of a triangle



Ok..that's all I can handle for one night! : )  Hope you all have a great week!

Q activities and CC week 17

Last week I was wiped out...therefore, no blog post.  The week didn't go nearly as smoothly.  I'm back in the game this week despite the fact that I'm still kind of tired.  I've been doing a new crossfit-style workout at 6am three days a week...and it's doing exactly what it's supposed to.  Wearing me out, strengthening muscles that haven't been used in quite a while, and helping me lose some weight.  Yay!  My kids have also started jujitsu classes three nights a week and are enjoying it.  I'm just thankful that God has provided a way for our whole family to get some much needed exercise for FREE!  Amazing.  Only God could orchestrate that!

Last week I did Letter P with the preschoolers, so I wanted to briefly recap what we did.  We all liked the activity.  I let "P" stand for prince and princesses, so we got some free Burger King crowns and decorated them with stickers that I bought at the dollar store.  The kids loved it.  Then I wrote "P is for prince/princess" on the inside.  We also read the story, "The Princess and the Pea".  I really wanted to bring some Barbies or some other dolls and act it out for the kids...but I didn't get it together in time.  That would've been fun, though.  Another great book is "The Princess and the Kiss"...a treasure for little girls.

This week I taught letter Q.  We read a little story about Queen Esther that was right on the kids' level.  I also had a coloring sheet that I got for free from education.com. It's a great place for free worksheets.  I brought a small quilt for the kids to sit on during our class time and they just loved it.  We also had a "picnic" for snack time on the quilt.  We talked about question marks, quiver (of arrows), quail, and you could also talk about the quarter. At first I didn't know if there would be much other than queen for the letter Q, so it was nice to find some other fun activities.

Week 17
History--WWII leaders
*Free coloring page of Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt.
*Dressing up with Sola Gratia Mom group and doing some experiments with Newton's Second Law
*Every day of WWII...sped through and showing on the map which power controlled different parts of the world
*Horrible Histories!

*Four WWII Horrible History videos
*Winston Churchill biography

*Tojo of Japan biography
*Hitler biography (shows brief images towards the end of dead bodies from the Holocaust)
*Stalin biography (also shows very brief images of dead bodies from a distance)
*History Sentences video for weeks 13-24 (LOVE THIS!!)
Moving on...
Geography--Central Europe



Geometry--area of a square 
*This video also includes the area of a rectangle



Science--Newton's second law
*Make Me Genius video
*I like this one better:

English--nouns
*First grade "Noun Town" worksheets from www.education.com (free!)

Fine Arts--Degas
*Dancers at the Barre free coloring sheet (also from education.com)
*Ballerina free color sheet and short Degas bio
*Nice 3D Monet and Degas art projects from Sola Gratia Mom

And there we have it!  Plenty to keep us busy this week!  : )  Hope you all have a blessed one~

Valentine treats, letter O, and week 15

Today was our CCH (Classical Christian Homeschoolers) day and we had our Valentine's party.  It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad my kids get to experience little parties like this with friends.  I wanted to share what we did for our Valentine's and a treat I made that was cute, yummy, and easy! I will say that I referred to Pinterest for all of my ideas! : )

Valentine treats:

I made these easy marshmallow pops for a treat.  They were super easy...my 7 year old helped me make them...and I got great reviews from the kids at the party ; ).  I had leftover chocolate from the candy melts so I popped it into some molds I had. Delish!

Valentine cards:

*I think these free Scripture cards and bag toppers are so cute!  In our small town there aren't a lot of options for Valentine cards at the store and I personally love the inclusion of scripture, so these are a great option!

*Click here for the cute scripture valentine cards that we used. There were 6 to a page, so I didn't have to print a lot for our group of 24 kids.

*Amazing resource for free scripture Valentine's Day things

For my kiddos:

I thought these free Valentine coupons would be cute to give the kids this week.  Some fun ideas for things to do/treats for each child and the whole family.

Letter O:

We had fun in our 3-5 year old class today with letter O.  Here are a few of the things we did, plus some other ideas.

*Octopus--we happen to have a stuffed octopus, so I counted the amount of legs with the kids and then we played sort of a hot potato game with some fun music.  They seemed to like it : ).  There are so many cute octopus crafts, too!  Making a paper octopus with a toilet roll, a big letter O with octopus legs coming off of it, etc.

*Ocean--an octopus lives in the ocean...great transition!  We talked about the ocean a little (there's lots of ways to expand on it) and I just happened to have some foamy stickers with ocean animals and plant life.  So we made ocean pictures and the kids REALLY loved that!

*Oranges--the color and the fruit.  We didn't cover this, but I plan to talk about it this week since we happen to have an orange.  Nice treat!

*Owl--talk about the animal and you could do a craft/coloring sheet

*Olympics!--the perfect time to watch some events and talk about it.  Here is a free O is for Olympics printable in which you decorate it with Fruit Loops.  What a great idea! 

*oatmeal--for breakfast or you could make oatmeal cookies (my kiddos would probably love to do those) : )

Week 15:

History--World War I countries

*Some of the resources from my last post would be great for this week as well.  Here are a few more to go with them:
*Wonderful resource--free worksheets, maps, and explanations for WWI

Some more "Horrible Histories" videos:

*This one is a little more crass/disgusting...but apparently true!  Lice and food in WWI video
*25 Interesting Things You Did Not Know About WWI


*Timeline of events leading up to WWI and beyond from annefrank.org.
*German trench warfare features
*video: WWI summary too complicated for my little ones, but would be good for older children...and parents (like me!) who want to know more about the war and can break down the info to younger kids
***The more I watch/read, the more amazed I am that I knew so little about this war!  It's crazy all that went on...and how many deaths occurred!***

Geography--Middle East


Science--Kinetic/potential energy

Activities to do for kinetic/potential energy...and some sentence dress up ideas

English--4 purposes of sentences
*info on 4 types of sentences


Fine Arts--Gainsborough



And that's all I have, friends!  Hope it's helpful! : )

Catching up...week 14 and letter N

Last week, well...school just didn't happen.  It was a crazy week.  My Papa's burial and memorial was on Monday, we got in late that night and Tuesday I was just not physically and emotionally able to get in the groove.  Then it seemed like something else happened and the week was gone.  My daughter's birthday was Thursday and their big birthday bash was Saturday.  We did a medieval feast and tournament theme...it was so fun!  A lot of work for me, but totally worth it.  I just love making memories like this with my children.

We missed our weekly homeschool group meeting the past two weeks for a holiday and a Ken Hamm presentation about dinosaurs, evolution and other topics from a Christian perspective.  Then we missed today because 4 out of 5 of our family members weren't feeling well.  But...we can't put off school any longer!  So we're going to try to get back in the groove tomorrow...and picking up with letter N and week 14.

Letter N ideas
*Noodles...I love this idea!  Making noodles and trying to eat them with chopsticks (chinese take-out maybe?!); noodle art; noodle necklaces
*Nest...hunt for a bird's nest outside; make an art project of a nest;
*ninja...my boy would love this!
*numbers
*net
*Click here for a link to all kinds of cute crafts for letter N

Week 14
History--World War I leaders...Clemenceau, Lloyd George, Nicholas II, Wilhelm II, Wilson
*Great intro to why the US entered the war.  I love the idea of the role of journalism and writing a letter. There are other links posted on this blog post as well.  This may be more for week 15...but I liked it!
*I love the WWI dress up kit on this blog post!  Such a cute idea.  This post also has other ideas for the week 14 material...and a video I was going to post as well.  Love the "Horrible Histories" videos!
*Lots of info and resources on this blog post!
*WWI summary video...I think it's a little advanced for my littles, but I think it would be good for me to watch and then summarize in my own words for them.
*WWI tactics and strategy video--50 minutes

Science--acids and bases
*An interesting experiment...not sure if I have all the stuff to do it, but it would be worth trying!
*I like this apple science experiment...definitely using acids and bases I can find around the house!

English--Adverbs

*adverb adventure worksheet

Math--linear equivalents
*I love this cute printable from Suzanne Shares!  This link also has printables for other cycle 2 Math things.

God bless your week!

Giving thanks in the sorrow

One of my favorite authors is Ann Voskamp.  In the chapters of her book, One Thousand Gifts, she talks about the goodness of God.  And if God is good and never changes, then can he be good in the bad times as well?  The "ugly beautiful", as she describes it.  The answer must be yes, but oh how hard it is to grasp that!  Her focus in this book is gratitude and how we can count the gifts God has given us and be thankful.  If we count the gifts that are abundant around us, even the "ugly beautiful" gifts, we can experience a miracle.  A miracle of joy and thanksgiving in our daily lives.

The past couple of months my grandfather, who we call "Papa", has been having some health problems.  It started with a heat stroke last year after working in the yard, something he loved to do.  He slowly recovered but never quite got back to his old self. He was experiencing more and more problems, and no one seemed to know exactly what was going on.  He had to receive some blood transfusions, went through some tests, and a couple of hospital stays.  Thankfully he was recovered enough to be home for Christmas, even though he wasn't able to do all of the things that he normally did.  We went to visit him and my Nanny during that time, and I'm so glad we did.  It was very hard for me, though, because I knew that he may not be with us much longer.  Last night, after a short hospital stay, my Papa passed from this world.  He loved the Lord, so I know that his faith has become sight...he is with his Father in Heaven.

As I look back on his physical decline, I can see God's hand in so much of the circumstances.  My Mom, Papa's only daughter, and I talked about this.  God allowed them the peace of knowing that Papa had not only heart problems but blood cancer, without having to go through the physical pain of testing and treatments.  Papa wouldn't have wanted to spend his last days poked and prodded in a hospital.  We also had lots of time to speak with him and visit him.  Many are not given this gift of time when saying goodbye.  These are just a few of the many gifts God gave us.

My Papa was a special man.  Many of you reading this will have never met him, but I had the privilege of knowing him for over 36 years.  I grew up on stories from my Mom, who told me of how he raised her and her two brothers on his own after he was divorced when my mom was 9.  He had to be mother and father to his children.  He was a hard worker and instilled that value in them. My mom has described so many nights when she was little, sitting around talking, working on cleaning the house together, and I almost feel like I was there.  From the time I was a little girl, I knew I would always have a hug and a kiss from my Papa on Sundays at church.  He would slip a peppermint in my hand when no one was looking.  When I was older he was slip a little money in my hand and say, "Don't tell anybody," with a smile.  He loved to grow things and always had a garden and for many years took special care to grow many types of roses.  When we would go visit he would always cut "his girls"...my mom, sister, and I...some.  I can remember coming home with roses wrapped in wet paper towels and tin foil, a big smile on my face.  My most special memory is every year at Christmas he would read the Christmas story from Luke 2.  I'm so glad that one year I video taped it. He wasn't able to read it this year, but while we were visiting him my husband got out his Bible and read it for him so he would know that the tradition would continue.  My Papa loved the Word, and he would read the Bible through every year, for at least 20 years or more.  He stood for what was right and what the Bible taught.  

I think I could count one thousand gifts in just the memories I have of this special man.  It's why I grieve at the thought of not having more memories, even though I can rejoice that he is where he needs--and wants--to be.  God has been good through this "ugly beautiful" and I can give thanks. Papa, you were loved in life and will be honored through your passing.

Back to school..a great art site, letter M, and week 13 *worksheet site added*

Last week started getting back into the school routine, but this was the first week we met back with our homeschool group.  I called last week "art week" since we weren't getting into our memory work yet and I really didn't cover a lot of the fine arts material from the beginning of the year.  So we had a great time trying different art techniques.

One art site that I ran across that I really like is called Art for Kids.  They have lots of fun, easy ideas for art projects for your kids.  Very practical and doable!

I'm probably just going to hit the highlights for this week right now and may come back and add more to it as the week goes on.  I just wanted to have something prepared for tomorrow when we're ready to start school time.  Plus I did this killer circuit training workout this morning...at 6 am...and I will probably feel like I can't move in the morning.

Letter M activities:
*The blog Oopsy Daisy has a M is for Monsters packet that is very cute.  We're actually not really into monsters much, but she did have some nice tracing sheets and letter M sheets that had other things other than monsters (mouse, mitten, and moon)
*M is for:
        ~ music--musical chairs, dance to music, take turns listening to different styles of music, learn about notes/aspects of music, etc...lots you can do with this!
         ~mouse--book: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and activities that goes with that; crawl around on the floor like a mouse/eat cheese
        ~moose--book:If You Give a Moose a Muffin and activities with that
        ~moon--book: Goodnight Moon; talk about the moon phases, moon landings/astronauts
        ~monsters--Monsters, Inc. movie; Where the Wild Things Are book/movie, monster pictures/games, Monster Mash song
        ~mouth--parts of your mouth/teeth
        ~months--months of the year/different holidays during each month
Those are just a few ideas!

Week 13
History--Industrial Revolution: Watt, Cartwright, Whitney
Here are a couple of video links.  For some reason the audio on my computer is not working...so I'm not sure exactly what's being said so you may want to review these first before showing them to you kids...
*Why the Industrial Revolution Happened Here (England)
*Industrial Revolution Overview (I believe there's a link to where you can get a worksheet also)
* Gutenberg Printing Press
Info links:
*A great link for teaching the Industrial Revolution
*Children in the Industrial Revolution and another link about the Life of a child during the Industrial Revolution
*James Watt
*Eli Whitney
*cotton gin diagram

Science--states of matter
*states of matter experiment--very easy and good info
*worksheets...they are from an ESL site, but I think any children could use them

Geography--Northern European Countries
*another song video

Math--liquid equivalents


I came across a site called Super Teacher Worksheets  that has free sheets for "Gallon Bot", states of matter, parts of speech, and more.  You have to be a member to print all of them, but I just stuck to the freebies and found lots of good ones!  The kids and I did the gallon bot one together and they were really getting the concept.

Hope that helps!  I really hoped to find the "This is America, Charlie Brown" video about inventors.  Love to know if any of you have a link to it!

God bless your week~

Goodies to start off 2014!

It's 2014!  It seems hard to believe!  I wanted to pass on a few freebies and discounted "goodies" to kick off the new year!

  Our first weekend of the New Year has been spent attending a parenting conference at our church.  I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing truths from God's Word and connecting with other parents.  It has been so refreshing.  My first freebie is an excellent resource to share the Gospel with your children, family, church...whoever you can!  The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been the center of everything we've studied this weekend and it has been so freeing to be reminded of that!  Our speaker provided us with a way to see a free powerpoint presentation (over 300 slides worth!) to use and I wanted to pass it on.  Go to this site to download:

*www.oneeightycounseling.com

Another freebie that I'm very excited about is the Scripture Memory Project 2014 to be found on Ann Voskamp's blog.  Those of you who are facebook friends probably see me posting Ann's quotes all the time.  Well, I just can't help it.  It just seems like God just puts a post of hers my way every time I need to hear that word.  I'm not saying she's God or anything.  I'm just saying that God is using her!  There are a couple of girls from church that I've been meeting with on Sunday nights for discipleship and we've been trying to memorize Scripture.  We haven't met for a while but I think we're going to start back soon.  This "project" is so timely!  I also want my family to get in on it, too!  

Photo by Ann Voskamp

I've already printed a set of free Scripture memory cards that she put on the blog post I linked to.  Go check it out.  Consider the challenge and join us!  Most of all...consider committing God's Word to memory.  I'm terrible at this, so it's going to be tough...but I think it's definitely needed!

I also wanted to pass on some more great Kindle book deals.  Several are limited time only so get them while you can!

Freebies:

*This is an awesome deal! Beth Moore (Christian author and speaker) has 10 free Kindle books available right now on Amazon (and I think Nook, too)!  Get them while you can!  I've never seen her books for free. 

*The Preacher's Bride by Jody Hedlund (LOVE her books!)

*Treasures of the North by Tracie Peterson

*Love's Stormy Gale by Lynette Sowell

*A Constant Heart by Siri Mitchell

*Inescapable by Nancy Mehl

99 cents:

*A Light in the Window by Julie Lessman (this one has 5 stars!)

*Dakota Dawn by Lauraine Snelling

*Colleen Coble books (I believe more than one are 99 cents)

*Mountain Homecoming by Sandra Robbins

*Mail Order Vows by Maya Stirling

*Golden Days, Clueless Cowboy, The Bossy Bridegroom and Buffalo Gal (4 different books) by Mary Connealy

*Just Above a Whisper by Lori Wick

*Romans by Kathleen Wiseman

$1.99 Deals:

*To Whisper Her Name by Tamera Alexander (Great book and about to go back to regular price)

*Four stories in one by 4 great authors!

*The Accidental Bride and A Cowboy's Touch (two books) by Denise Hunter

*Angel of the Cove by Sandra Robbins

* The Courier of Caswell Hall by Melanie Dobson

*The House that Love Built by Beth Wiseman

*Once Upon a Prince by Rachel Hauck (just finished reading it and loved it...set in St. Simon's, GA!)

*The Memory Jar by Tricia Goyer

*The Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen

*Moonlight on the Millpond by Lori Wick

*The Preacher's Daughter by Beverly Lewis

*Every Perfect Gift by Dorothy Love

*The Journey of Josephine Cain by Nancy Moser

*Sarai by Jill Eileen Smith

*A Time to Dance by Karen Kingsbury

*The Choice by Robert Whitlow

*BoneMan's Daughters by Ted Dekker

*The Shunning by Beverly Lewis

*Melanie Dickerson's books are all still $1.99!

*The Heiress of Winterwood by Sarah Ladd

*A Dream for Tomorrow by Melody Carlson

*The Yielding by Tamara Leigh (love this series)

$2.99 (several of these are actually TRILOGIES that are for sale...so you get these books for less than $1 each!)

*Montana Marriages Trilogy (one of my absolute favorite trilogies...LOVE them!)

*Sophie's Daughter's Trilogy (read two of these and loved them! I think they connect with the Montana ones, too)

*Lassoed in Texas trilogy

all by Mary Connealy

*Charles Towne Belles trilogy by MaryLu Tyndall (love her books, too)

*Texas Boardinghouse Brides trilogy by Vickie McDonough 

*The Apothecary's Daughter by Julie Klassen

*A Highlander for Christmas by Jamie Carie

My gift to you!  Hope you enjoy!  I'm sure there are more discounted books out there...but these are the ones I found.  Also...read the synopsis/reviews before getting some of these books.  I haven't read them all, so I just wanted to throw out that disclaimer. Some of them I have read and loved...but you might not : ). 

God bless your new year!