Piggy Tales - Homeschooling

This is the sixth in a 15-week series that I’m participating in over at Mommy’s Piggy Tales.
My excuse for the late posting this week is that I was on a wonderful anniversary trip with my husband and just didn’t get the post scheduled like I wanted to.
This week is about when I was nine.
So, I’ve written before about how I was homeschooled and loved it, but here’s a few more reasons why.
This is at the Children’s Museum in Denver (I think) with some good friends. One thing that was always nice with homeschooling is that it didn’t really matter how old your friends were. This girl is a year younger than me, and a year older than my sister. She’s a twin so it was great for the four of us girls to get together, which we did very frequently.

I can’t find the picture right now, darn it, but there’s a picture of a whole group of us on a field trip to a museum in Denver. {Hooray! I found it!!}
We did many such trips, either just our family or with a group of homeschoolers. One day, we went to several different small museums related to Colorado’s history. Another day, we went to several different religious buildings such as a mosque, a Jewish temple, and a cathedral, all in Denver.
I loved being able to do my school work where ever and whenever I wanted to. My mom worked in Boulder (about an hour away) one day a week, and usually my sister and I would go to my grandma’s house all day. We would do our school work, but then when we were done, we got to do other fun things like play restaurant with real food or have a tea party for 20 of our “favorite” stuffed animals.
Nothing else specific is coming to mind about this year, so I’m calling it a night :)
~S

Wordless Wednesday – Happy Anniversary!

We’re on vacation in Grand Junction for our 9th anniversary! We had dinner at a delicious restaurant called Il Bistro after a nice rafting trip on the Colorado River today.

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Piggy Tales – Water World

This is the fifth in a 15-week series that I’m participating in over at Mommy’s Piggy Tales.

This week, the story is about when I was 8.

When I was 8, we started a birthday tradition for me that continued at least until I got married. My birthday is in August, the perfect time to go to the water park!

If you were in Colorado in the 80’s, this was about the only choice for a water park. I have lots and lots of fond memories from going.

Here is me at age 8 with my sister and three friends. I’m the only one actually looking at the camera. We always brought along several friends since it was my birthday party. We would bring our lunch and play aaaallllllll day. My favorite part as a kid was the lazy river or the River of the Lost Pharaohs, a four-person tube ride that went in and out of tunnels and had animatronics people throughout.

The wait was sometimes over an hour for a three minute ride, but we felt like it was worth it! (The video doesn’t have sound and isn’t the greatest, but you get the idea)

It’s fun to go there now because I remember when most of the attractions were built or remodeled or remember going on them a bazillion times as a kid.  We’ve taken Kahlen once, when she was 18 months, and she *loved* it! We’re going to try to go every year, but with new baby last summer and crazy busyness this summer, we’ll just have to see how that goes.

~S

Wordless Wednesday – Getting Ready for the Fireworks

Notice her earplugs :) We got rained out on the 4th, so they postponed the fireworks until the 5th. It all worked out in the end.

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Tasty Tuesday – Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs

Welcome to another week of Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!

Please link up your recipe at the bottom of the page. You can post a link to a recipe on your blog or anywhere else. In the title of your link, please leave your name too (especially if it's not a blog post) so I know who it came from :)

Also, feel free to grab my Tasty Tuesday button, it's on the right side, just under my spiffy new tabbed box.

Every Monday, I plan on trying a new recipe. If it goes well, that’s what I’ll be posting on Tasty Tuesday. If not, I’ll post a tried and true (i.e. something I don’t have to think about too hard) ;)

This week, I tried these delicious Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs. I found the recipe somewhere online, but can’t find the source on my printout, oops.

{Directions}

• 1 1/2 pound ground meat I used ground turkey
• 3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs I used regular bread crumbs and added Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk I used skim
• 1 whole Mozzerella Ball, fresh I used mini balls because that’s what was on sale :)
• Pasta
• Spaghetti Sauce

{Directions}

• Mix the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, egg, and milk in a mixing bowl. Add to the ground beef until just incorporates; do not overmix.
• Using a metal spoon, scoop out mixture in the size of the meatballs you’d prefer. Before forming into a ball, place a small amount of mozzarella cheese in the middle and form the ball around so that all of the cheese is completely covered. You now have three cooking options – choose whichever works best with your time frame:

1. Cook the meatballs and sauce in a crock pot on low for 6-7 hours.
2. Brown the meatballs slightly, leaving a pink/red center, then place in the crock pot with sauce and cook on low for 5-6 hours.
3. Brown the meatballs until almost completely cooked. Place the meatballs on a foil-covered baking pan, and bake for approximately 8 minutes at 350 degrees.
4. Serve with pasta and sauce, yum-yum!

~S

Preschool Planning – 4th of July

My turn to plan our school unit! This time, the theme is 4th of July. As I type this, my dear daughter is supposed to be taking a nap, but is too excited about the fireworks to sleep :)

To try and make this a little easier, I’ve decided this time to go through the activities one by one  and post either where I got the idea or the printable for it. Since some of them are combined, it might be not quite as simple as that, but we’ll give it a shot.

Here’s my overview page: 4th of July Unit Planning Sheet

And here's the Detailed Activity List: 4th of July Detailed Activity List2

Here’s what I used for each activity:

1. USA Coloring Page
2. Shape Race
3. Red, White & Blue Collage – Collected random craft supplies from my stash. Didn’t buy anything for it or print anything specifically.
4. F is for Flag Handwriting Page
5. Cherry Playdough
6. US Flag discussion (nothing special there)
7. Graham Cracker Flags
8. Match Flags (see page 1)
9. Make a Flag Windsock (nothing extra needed)
10. F is for Flag Dot Page (page 2)
11. Cupcake Fireworks
12. Holiday Sort
13. Sort Stars
14. Glitter Fireworks
15. Find the Fs
16. Flag Puzzle (page 3)
17. Bubble Wrap Stomp (nothing extra needed)
18. Loud vs. Quiet
19. Star Sticker Counting (pages 4-6)
20. Straw Fireworks Painting
21. Cutting Practice (didn’t find a good themed one, so I just used one that I liked. Scroll down a bit)
22. Edible Sparkler

Proverbs 15:1 song chart

Can’t wait to start this unit tomorrow!

~S

Piggy Tales – Road Trip anyone?

This is the fourth in a 15-week series that I’m participating in over at Mommy’s Piggy Tales.
This week, the topic is age 7. I really struggled with coming up with something, hence the late night post :)

Me, my mom, and my sister

It wasn’t that things weren’t happening, I’m sure, I just have very few distinct memories from this year.

I do know that around this time my sister and I started taking long road trips with my paternal grandparents. Every year, they would drive from Colorado to Wisconsin to visit relatives, and sometimes they would take us with them.

My sister and I had a great time. We had lots of adventures along the way. My grandpa is retired Air Force, so we would generally stay on base on the way there. I remember every time we went with them, they would buy us a new game to play in the car. Remember those little travel versions of Connect 4, Guess Who, and so on? I think we owned all of them eventually.

We would stop for lunch at a rest stop every day and break out the picnic things. It always seemed like a real meal because we had food that required a plate and utensils, not just sandwiches (although we had sandwiches too). We would stop for a good long time before continuing on our journey. I think that’s what made it successful to travel with us short people, I’m gonna have to remember that!

~S