Teaching Tuesday - A Breather

We are taking this week completely off from all things school.  Our "summer plan" begins next week with science, art, and review.

It's My Birthday!

That's all today :-)  I'm spending the day reading, enjoying my family and eating some cake!

Things my Kids Say

* Josh and Nate were recently discussing the future and these are some conversations we overheard.

Josh:  Nate, when we grow up lets live in our house.
Nate: Why?
Josh: Because if we moved I wouldn't know how to get back home and I would always get lost.

Nate: I'm going to be a pilot when I grow up.
Josh:  And I'm going to drive behind the plane so I can pick Nate up when he lands.  He night be tired and need to go home.

Josh:  Nate, lets live together when we get big.  Wherever you go, there I will go also. (Yes, he really said that!!)

I think that the boys are truly best friends.

* Nate crawled into bed with me on a Saturday morning, looked at me and said, "Mom, you are the best mom ever.  I'm so glad that dad picked you"  What a great way to start the day!

* Nate:  "Ok, guys, lets take a break and get some refreshments."

Family Fun - AWANA Games

In March, Josh was able to participate in the AWANA games with Sparks through our Church.  This brought back some great memories for me because I, many, many years ago, played in the Sparks games too. 

 We arrived at the school for the games and Josh picked up his team t-shirt.  Nate was hoping he would get to play too but all of the kids signed up to play showed up so he was a little bummed. 

 My little "Sparkie" ready to play games!

 Two boys being super silly.  About this time, Darryl, Nate and I were going to head to the gym to get seats but Josh got really scared.  I felt so bad for him as big crocodile tears started falling.  It was a brand new situation and he was very overwhelmed so I stayed with him until they were ready to head to the gym. 

 The whole team! 

 Josh is the last kid - this is when they were entering the gym. Both sets of Grandparents came to watch so that was fun too.

 The very first game was the Sparky Crawl where the kids have to crawl across the gym on their hands and knees.

 The bean bag game - Josh did a great job carrying that bean bag on his head.

 In this game, you have to run around the circle and then toss the bean bag from your line to the center and knock down the pin  . . Josh knocked the pin down on the first try.  It was awesome!

 Ok, this is called "Train" and it was Josh's least favorite game during practice because he was in the middle and would fall down.  So, when his leader put him in the front, I kinda was thinking this would be a fail.

 BUT, it was the complete opposite.  Because he was in the front, he ran with all of his might and brought his team to an almost victory!  It was awesome!

 Josh got pulled to play with another church during a game because they didn't have a enough players. 

This picture makes me laugh - look at that face!  The girl behind him had to hug him and Josh is like me, we don't like to be touched by strangers HA!  He endured it though and did a great job following instructions for the game.

After the game we headed to Smashburger with the Grandparents for lunch and then walked to Krsipy Kreme for donuts.  It really was an awesome day!

Weekly Menu - The one with my birthday. Oh, and May starts

After I posted the menu last week, we decided that we would grill out several times instead of eating out . . .then it turned winter again.  We did eat out once but otherwise, I just turned our "grilling" nights into winter meals using what was on hand.  We enjoyed some stuffed shells and sloppy joes so life was good.

This next week includes my birthday and yes, May really does start.  Hard to believe.

Saturday - Our normal plan is to eat out or order in.

Sunday - Sunday is a little up in the air at the moment.  If we are home, we'll grill some steaks and have the fixin's (potatoes, veggies and garlic bread) If we aren't home, we'll obviously grab something out.

Monday - It's my birthday!  I like to plan some things that I can make ahead (like on Sunday) and/or Darryl cooks.  I love having Darryl grill Hamburgs.  This year I'm craving Arby's curly fries and cheese sauce - both of which you can now get in the grocery store!  Plus, my favorite salad that no one really likes but me - Strawberry Pretzal Salad.  Yum!  And the birthday dessert?  Mini Cupcakes . .. store bought . .but they are awesome :-)

Tuesday - Double Crunch Orange Chicken, Fried Rice, and Biscuits  This is a meal that Darryl and I had a few weeks ago and we really like it alot.  Plus, it is SUPER easy and quick!

Wednesday - Grilled Chicken or pork (depends on what is on the best sale).  This time of year, or summer in general, sides are boring.  For real.  I think I'll do some roasted veggies like mushrooms and green beans and maybe buttered noodles.

Thursday - Greek Chicken with Veggie Couscous and biscuits.  I've never made couscous so I figured this would be a good time to try it and maybe make those above mentioned sides . .. not so boring!

Friday - Tacos!  It's been a few weeks since we've had tacos :-)

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!