A Few Random Articles

Periodically I come across a few articles that I enjoy and like to share.

The first one is one that my dad posted recently on his Facebook Page from Christian Mom Thoughts concerning elementary Sunday School.
 

Ironically, I had just had a discussion with my husband about an area in church that I feel like is failing.   Guess what it was?  The Children's area!  What is always pushed is to have a great youth pastor and a great youth program.  Don't get me wrong, focusing on the youth is a great thing but I think in doing so, it is often at the cost of the Elementary programs.  Personally, I think if a church would focus more on their Children's ministry - the ages from about 3years to 6th grade, the youth program would grow itself.  Think about it.  If the children's programs are grounded and teaching those kids how to live the Bible and not just Bible stories; and if those programs bring in fun activities that reinforce those truths and well, are just fun; and if those programs involve the parents in various ways I believe several things will happen.  One, the church will grow.  Parents that involve their children in church and, therefore are involved, will attend.  It is harder to drop off a 3 year old for church than it is to drop off a 15 year old.  Two, the youth group will be "home grown" - a vast majority of children who have loved being involved in that well planned children's program will be excited  to move up to the next level.  There are so many things that those elementary kids can learn and be grounded in before they ever reach the youth group which would in turn, make for a stronger youth group and teenagers who might actually love church :-)  But, that's just my opinion :-)

On a separate note, a friend of mine posted this article from Dallas Moms Blog concerning changing your wardrobe.


I've never had a huge wardrobe but I like the ideas the author talks about and also the numbers she gives for what you really need.  I'm really posting this more as a reference for the future for myself as anything else :-)

Teaching Tuesday - The end of a school year and summer plans

With a very anti-climatic end, we finished our school year.  I taught in a classroom for 7 years and the end of the year was always such a huge deal with countdowns and wrap-ups; class trips and field day.  Homeschool?  Well, we just finish up our books and play more.  I think that in future years, I do want to attempt to play a year end trip - something fun to look forward to during the last few (boring) weeks of school to keep us all motivated.  I do still need to get a year end photo of each of the boys but this week, they are having fun at their grandparents house so the photo will have to wait just a few more days. 

So, this is what I've been up to over the last week.

 This is our "new" wall.  I am so horrible at remembering to take "before" photos before I start taking stuff down :-(  We've had two posters on our wall for about two years - an simple ABC poster and a simple # poster.  Well, the boys needed better pictures showing but the upper and lower case letters and just a new look at numbers so I found these over at Confessions of a Homeschooler which is great since they coincide with the curriculum I used with the boys for preschool so the pictures are familiar.

 I also have added minutes to our clock.  So, it's not 100% perfect because we need to move some pictures that are currently on the wall but for now it works.  The numbers are free over at Teachers Pay Teachers.

 The other big thing that I'm working on is putting together our entire summer plan.  Originally I was trying to find all free worksheets for review but, then I found a couple of fabulous review packets at Teachers Pay Teachers (which I will link up to a little later) that gave me every single thing I needed for the entire summer.  Added to that I found a whole set of free sight word practice sheets to use and I had everything I needed for our review portion.  Finally, each month will have a very loose theme based on science and art.  For example, May our theme will be plants.  We will learn about them, do some crafts, and do some science (like plant our garden!) My goal is to have our entire summer planned and in those file folders that are peeking out from under those stacks of papers in the photo above by mid-May. 

Right now, my summer plan is pretty simple. 
Monday:  The free day - nothing planned for Mondays.  This will allow me time to put everything together after busy weekends and, if I get super daring, I may go grocery shopping on Mondays with the kids.  (I'll probably do it one week and never again HA)
Tuesday - Art - I like to do art projects early in the week so if something needs to dry to get sent home, it has time to do so and still leave my house by Friday. 
Wednesday and Thursday - Review days.  We will do "school work".  Review worksheets and phonics.  The plan is just to have about 30-45 minutes of work
Friday - Science and/or field trips.  Fridays are great days for science experiments outside and/or to take a field trip.  We are all ready for the weekend so taking time out to do something fun related to learning is always good. 

This schedule may or may not change - I just want to have a routine so the boys know what to expect each day.  Most of their summer days will be spent playing though :-)

Finally, we've been working on learning to tie shoes.  I have wanted to get this book for a long time but it is very hard to find and therefore, even used, it was often selling for $60.00 (seriously!).  I finally found it for $12.00 and snapped it up!  We have discovered that Darryl has to work with them on this though . . .because I tie shoes backwards  . . .I'm lefthanded!  We were trying to follow the pictures in the book and I got so confused HA! 

Weekly Menu - The one without kids (yep!)

So, my mother-in-law has been wanting to take the boys for a few days and the timing just worked out for her to take them this coming week.  Darryl and I always enjoy some "fine" eating while the boys are gone and this coming week is no exception.

Saturday - This is Darryl's night to "cook" - so that just means that we eat out or order in :-)

Sunday - We are taking the boys to my in-laws after church.  I'm assuming we'll be eating lunch at their house.  For dinner, we are going to pick up some good steaks and enjoy our first grilled meal.  I have a couple of salad recipes I want to try so maybe I'll make up a new Pasta Salad Recipe to go with it along with some crusty bread.

Monday - Tonight we'll eat out - something local since I also have choir practice but even heading to Applebees for 1/2 price burgers is a treat :-)

Tuesday - Tonight we will head out to a favorite - either our favorite Mexican place or, if we feel daring, we'll try the highly recommended Italian place right next door to the Mexican place!

Wednesday - My parents are coming over today to attend something for the boys - but the boys will be coming with my in-laws.  I'm thinking about just doing sandwich fixin's and salads.

Thursday - Last week I did not make a meal - the Pork in the crock pot so the plan is to make that tonight along with rice and a veggie and, of course, rolls.

Friday - Tonight is the AWANA Carnival.  We'll be playing and eating at church! 

A new Book Study

I've started another Book Study through Proverbs31.org.  I enjoy book studies because, well, I enjoy books!

In this study, we are going through the book What Happens When Women Walk in Faith.

I'm really working on staying current with this study, as I often get behind, so this week I'm working on reading the first 4 chapters and following along with the information posted on the blog. 

What We Are Eating - Seven Layer Salad

Seven Layer Salad
 adapted from . . .Me! 

This salad is a family favorite - for the first several years Darryl and I were married, this is what I was asked to bring to every one of his family gatherings!  It's such a simple salad yet the flavors blend together so well while it hangs out in the fridge for 24 hours.  I'll list my original recipe below and than follow it with some substitutions that I often use.

1 small head lettuce, torn in bite size pieces

½ cup green pepper, chopped

1/2 cup celery, diced

1 small onion, chopped

1 – 10 oz. pkg. frozen peas, thawed but not cooked

Mix together:

2 cups mayonnaise

2 tablespoons sugar

Layer on top of dressing:

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Crumbled bacon

Layer in given order, cover or wrap tightly.  Refrigerate for 24 hours

1. I almost always leave the peas off this salad.  I personally don't really care for peas and have found that people either love them or hate them . .. so why put them in? 

2. I love adding hard boiled egg to this salad - it makes a nice "blt" concept. 

3. Cauliflower is another optoin to add as a veggie. 

 

Teach It Tuesday - Spring Break

We took a totally 100% unplanned spring break this past week.  I had totally planned to do school but, well, that did not happen.  We were all fighting various kinds of colds which made wanting to do school work . . well, not fun.  We were lacking sleep (ok, I was) due to several nights of coughing and several nights of thunderstorms which meant I had kids up multiple times during the night. 

And by taking a spring break - I mean we took one from everything.  I read  . . alot :-)  We had several dreary, rainy days so I even introduced the boys to Anne of Green Gables :-)

On that note, I'll be back with a more exciting stuff next week.

Make It Monday - Legos

When we put the bunkbed in the boys room, one of my big projects was organizing their Legos in a way that was easy to keep up and, well, as inexpensive as possible.  I had done tons of research and found some fabulous ideas but so often they involved spending $$ and I really didn't feel like having to budget and wait to get them organized! 

 The very first thing that I did was sort all of the "normal" Legos by color.  This really didn't take too long and I just picked up simple $1.00 plastic shoe boxes at Walmart.  Nate actually helped me to sort these which was nice. 

 Then, I took a file box that I already had on hand and sorted all of their maps by # and put them in numerical order with a basic description on the file folder.  The boys often like to take apart projects and rebuild them so being able to find the maps are very important. 

 This part of the project I'm not totally happy with yet but I used the three drawer bin to sort out the Lego People, the teeny tiny pieces and the pieces that I knew went to specific projects.  The drawers are too full which is why I don't like it.  I need to work on sorting this out more and maybe getting a different set of drawers.  This photo was taken before I had finished sorting but now, that table, is completely cleared off and ready for Lego Building.

Finally, I needed to sort their finished and/or in process progess.  I found some great bins that are long and not too deep - perfect for all of those lose pieces while working on a project.  I then used those same shoeboxes I mentioned earlier to store their completed projects.  I would like to pick up more of those long bins because they stack very well but those run about $3.00-$4.00 a piece so I'll pick a few up at a time. 

I love that I now have a process in place so as the boys get more projects, I can plan ahead and already have bins for building.