I think spring is my favorite time to homeschool.  We’ve been having so much fun going to different parks and seeing everything coming back to life. 

Emme is finally (FINALLY!) catching on to her multiplication tables!  End of 4th grade or not – at least they are finally sticking!  Hurray!  I’m very relieved about that.  She’s been doing about 200 problems a day – no kidding – but I had tried every other option out there and nothing was working.  Whatever works!

She’s loving the Fairy books by Daisy Meadows.  She’s reading Shannon the Ocean Fairy right now.  I love that she is reading more.

Another subject she is enjoying is Mythology.  She’s reading D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths.  Also, she was really excited to see that a new Mythology Island opened up on Poptropica.  Fun learning.  I want to see the Percy Jackson movie and on Netflix Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Greek Myths. I’ve been thinking about the old Clash of the Titans – as I am not sure if the  new one would be appropriate. There is a lesson pathway about Greek myths as well. Here is a mini printable book on GreGece from Enchanted Learning. There is an Ancient Greece lapbook for free on Homeschoolshare. Greek coloring pages, including the gods and goddesses. Here is a picture of a lapbook with a complete list of how she made it.

We’re going to be homeschooling part time (3x a week) throughout the summer months.  I need to try and catch up more in math and her cursive still leaves something to be desired! 

I think we are going to move to world history for the summer, as we have been working on post Civil-War American right now.  We plan on taking a trip this summer to DC, Colonial Williamsburg, the Liberty Bell, Plymouth Rock – we are very excited!

Have a wonderful weekend with your homeschoolers!

Sherry

Finally back!

I haven’t been posting on this blog for over two years.  I moved to Blogger for awhile, but decided I wanted to come back  here!

I work now, three days a week.  Emme is able to go to work with me and she does her school work at a desk in my office.  I have enough freedom that I am able to answer any questions she might have and to check over her work.  It’s working out quite well for us!

Right now we are reading "A Wrinke in Time" and we are both really enjoying it.  We saw "Alice in Wonderland" last week and thought it was great.  Emme and I both agree that the book is WAY better!  It’s her favorite.

We are just starting our third term and things are going pretty smoothly.  Math is still a problem subject for her so we are behind – but other than that, she is doing really great and at grade level.

We moved recently and are living in an area near a large field with a trail running through it.  We’ve taken several nature walks and we have found a bird skeleton, part of a spine, a hawk talon, rabbit fur, and jawbones with teeth attached of ….well, something.  LOL  I hope to have pictures up soon!

Just wanted to give a quick update!  Blessings to you and your families,

Sherry

Monday Meanderings: November 12th Edition

It’s 12:20 a.m. and technically not Monday any longer, but this is the first chance I’ve had to plan the rest of my week!

Monday Meanderings is a wonderful meme hosted weekly by Tiany. Please stop by and read what other homeschool moms have planned for this week as well!

My Bible reading for this week will center on the book of I Peter. I have seven more books of the Bible to read before the end of the year, with Revelation being the only long one. This is my first entire read through of the Bible – so I will be working more on specific studies next year.

My "Must Do’s" of the week include finishing up my Term 2 Schedule for our school. On Ambleside the entire month of December is a vacation with the start of Term 2 the first week of January. We are going to start on December 3rd and go through the first two weeks of December before we start our vacation so we finish up in mid-June with my other two who are in public schools.

Other Must Do’s include:

  • Send out Netflix and update queue
  • Bring blank cd’s over to my sister so she can burn us a copy of Handel’s Messiah and Josh Grobin’s Christmas album (LOVE HIM! — can you tell how old I am? I just said "album" *sigh*)
  • Mail out bills
  • Go to parent/teacher conferences for my older two on Thursday
  • Finish reading "The Other Boleyn Girl" and start another book for the Fall Reading Challenge
  • Send out order forms for bedroom quilt (so pretty) and scheduling book

Zone:

I haven’t looked at the zone of the week and I am not sure what the FlyLady zone actually is. I think it is the bedroom — but I am going to stray from my usual plan and go with the bathroom — which needs a good scrubbing and some extra special attention!

Train Them Up:

I’ve been working on manners and 1st time obedience but NOT being consistent enough. That has always been my problem. I am going to single out 1st time obedience this week and really follow through!

Menu Plan:



Welcome to the week-before-Thanksgiving Menu Plan Monday! Thanks to Laura for hosting!

Our week is going to start out with a Mexican fiesta! I’ll be making our favorite rice and beans and nachos with all the fixin’s! This meal makes everyone in my family very happy!

I’ll also be making Chicken Alfredo for my dh while the kids and I have dinner at my Mom’s house. He’ll have peas on the side.

I thought I would try this recipe that has been sitting in my Recipezaar cookbook for awhile now: Sesame Chicken Bites. I’ll serve this over penne that has been mixed with a mushroom, garlic, and green onion saute in olive oil and soy sauce. Served with a green salad.

And since I found a great price on steak, I’ve decided to make the pepper steak that I posted about in Slow Cooking Thursday! We’ll serve it over rice and have steamed broccoli on the side.

I have pork chops left over from last week so I am going to make this pork chops and rice casserole. It looks simple and very tasty!

I’ve also been meaning to try this hamburger soup. I listed it a couple of weeks back but didn’t get around to making it. I’ll have garlic toast and salad with this.

Finally, I’ll be making my husband’s favorite on another night we are at my mom’s: sausage and fried potatoes w/ onion. Too greasy for my taste, but he LOVES it!

Lunches for the week will consist of grilled ham and cheese, black bean soup, ramen noodles w/ shrimp and lots of veggies, chicken noodle soup, and mac n cheese. Everything is served with a side of fruit and veggies and hopefully milk! (I try)

Breakfasts will be cereal w/ skim milk, toad-in-the-hole, bagels w/ ff cream cheese & apples, breakfast burritos, and my version of crunchy vanilla-almond french toast w/ sausage links.

This is a full menu for a very busy week, but I hope to be able to get around to cooking all of it! (Or at the very least, most of it!)

I pray your week is blessed!

Sherry

Monday Meanderings: October 15th Edition


I’m going to do my best to truly follow my Monday Meanderings this week! It’s not only important to make lists of what you want to do, but to FOLLOW those lists! I hope you all will be able to get everything accomplished that you want to do as well!

For more Monday Meanderings, click on over to Tiany’s blog!

BIBLE STUDY/DEVOTION: I was very bad about this over the last week. *sigh* So I am back where I started last week. Finishing up the book of Hebrews. I WILL start getting up 30 minutes earlier and spending time in the Word each morning this week! I will brew a pot of tea and work on my religion notebook as well! I will!

MUST DO: Weekly home blessing, finish up the yard, call the doctor for a refill of my prescriptions, and call to cancel recurring charges to our checking account.

ZONE: In zone #3 with FlyLady, the bathroom and one other room. I will be doing most of my work in the bathroom, but will work on organizing the school room a bit more as well. I got most of it done before school started this year, but I need to do some tweaking so I can find things more easily!

TRAIN THEM UP: We are working on manners. At the dairy farm field trip last week Emme was not as polite to the adults as I would have liked. We will work on the basics of always saying "please", "thank you", "yes ma’am", etc. I don’t want to have to remind her to say "thank you" every time it’s appropriate to say it!

MENU:

Menu Plan Monday: October 15th Edition

It’s that time of the week again! Menu Plan Monday! Click on over to Laura’s blog and see what everyone will be eating this week!

I have to say that tonight’s dinner ended up being one of my favorites and will be added to our family cookbook! I was going to do a Rachael Ray noodle bowl and then someone showed me the Rachael Ray thai shrimp noodle pouch and I sort of combined the two and made my own recipe.

I don’t have the exact ingredient amounts, but I cooked linguine in one pot. In a pan I sauteed 3 cloves of garlic, a medium onion, 8 oz of mushrooms, and about 1 cup of cabbage in olive oil. When it was nearly done I added soy sauce, lime juice and chili powder. I KNOW it sounds weird, but it was good! When the linguine was done I added more of the same to it and added pre-cooked shrimp to the vegetables. I mixed it all together and it was SO GOOD! You’ll just have to trust me.

So, here goes for this week:

MONDAY: Pork roast with potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms

TUESDAY: Cheddar Cheese Chicken with Bacon (aka heart attack waiting to happen) I will be using real bacon in place of the bacon bits though. Served with salad and green beans.

WEDNESDAY: TGI Friday’s Black Bean Soup with home made rolls.

THURSDAY: Dinner at Mom’s. Leftovers for dh.

FRIDAY: Jambalaya! Yum, I love it! I add shrimp to mine though.

SATURDAY: Dinner at Mom’s. DH will have some type of "Helper" meal.

SUNDAY: Roasted Greek-Style Chicken with Greek Village Salad and Crusty Whole Wheat Bread.

I hope that everyone who reads this is blessed beyond measure!

Sherry

Not surprisingly I am a day late for Monday Meanderings.  It’s not the first time and unfortunately probably won’t be the last!  I don’t feel organized unless I get this typed up though and it inspires me so much to read what other people list as their goals for the week.  Thanks again to Tiany for hosting this!

Bible Study/Devotions

I read the first 1/2 of Hebrews last week and will finish up this week.  I found this study online and will be using this as well. 

I’ve also started a Christian Notebook that I would like to continue to work on.  It has notes from sermons, studies, inspirational photos, pamphlets from church, and prayer requests, amongst other things.

MUST DO:

I must get my yard completely ready for the upcoming season.  There is still a lot to do! 

Zone

I am in the kitchen this week!  I want to get it decluttered a little more and really get it sparkling!

Train Them Up:

In school we have our history co-op on Monday and a field trip to a dairy farm on Thursday, so we have a lot of schooling to fit in on the other three days of the week! 

As for behavior and chores, Emme has been working along side of me on a lot of my FlyLady missions.  I’m going to continue to give her more responsibility. 

Menu Plan:


I’m going to try a few new recipes this week and I have a recipe to review for you as well! If you need ideas for your own meal plan or for a new recipe, check out Laura’s Blog!

SUNDAY: Yesterday we tried Kielbasa Cheddar Bake that I found at Sandra’s blog. I had to make a couple of small changes because we didn’t have everything, but it was SO GOOD! I had leftovers for lunch today and it was even better warmed up. Yum!

MONDAY: Tonight we are going to have sandwiches and soup because there is a homeschool meeting.

TUESDAY: Black bean quesadillas and Army man rice.

WEDNESDAY: Rachael Ray’s Noodle Bowl

THURSDAY: Dinner at Mom’s. Mike will have tuna noodle casserole with peas.

FRIDAY: THE BOY’S 9th birthday! Per his request: Pizza and instead of cake, Pumpkin Crisp and vanilla ice cream!

SATURDAY: THE BOY’S b-day party at Mom’s house. Mexican food, doritos, and marble cake with chocolate chip frosting. (HIS MENU! Grandma never says no!)

I hope you all have a very blessed week and that you are able to enjoy your meals in the company of family and your loved ones!

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