Speak Up Saturday–TOS Review–Family Time Fitness

Okay, so I know Kahlen is only five, but I’ve been thinking about how to help her with coordination and develop her large motor skills. She is active and fairly athletic, but lacks coordination. Enter Family Time Fitness. Now, I don’t see myself as not being able to teach PE, or come up with ideas, but it certainly is nice to just have a well-laid out plan and be able to follow it with very little prep. Especially since I have a tot schooler and a baby around, I just don’t have the time to come up with well-rounded, well-prepared PE lessons. Nor do I want to just sign her up for classes or sports since that will actually take more time, driving back and forth, etc.

Here’s what they say about their program:

Have you ever asked yourself...

Can I teach physical education, even though I don’t know anything about it?
Family Time Fitness says: Absolutely!

The Fitness 4 Homeschool Curriculum allows homeschool parents to teach physical education without previous knowledge of physical education and athletic development. Our program, designed by experts in fitness training, nutrition and body movement, is designed to suit every age and ability level while affordably fitting into your budget. Our program combines flexibility and fun with a comprehensive curriculum to give your children a foundation for strong bodies and minds.

We created the Fitness 4 Homeschool curriculum because of a lack of fitness programs for homeschoolers. We started this program because we couldn’t find any at all! With the child obesity epidemic on the rise in the U.S., now is the time to give our children the exercise guidance they need while building the skills necessary to stay fit for a lifetime.

We believe that a PE curriculum is absolutely essential for a balanced homeschool classroom. Our expertly designed program has been created to maximize the benefits of spatial awareness, body awareness, environmental awareness, enhanced neurological development, mind-body coordination, stress reduction, social engagement, poise and confidence.

Each lesson has a one-page summary that you can print to use while you are doing the lesson as well as a detailed description of the lesson/session that includes links to demonstration videos. There are 260 lessons! The lessons are designed for K-8th grade, can mostly be done inside, and take about 25-45 minutes. Each lesson has a warm-up, activity or game play, a cool down, and an outside activity that can be done for as long as you or the student wants to (for example, the first one is jump rope). There is also an assessment test available which you can use to measure progress over the course of the year.

For us, this program will be a ton more useful when I can include Nate in the sessions as well. So many of the activities are way over his skill level for the moment that it made it hard to find a time to do the sessions with just Kahlen. There were some of the activities that I could adapt to make them more useable with a 5 and 3 year old, but some of them are just over both their heads. Kahlen enjoyed the variation within each lesson and from lesson to lesson. She’s not one that likes to keep doing the same thing over and over again, unless of course it was her idea ;) I liked the ease of setting up each lesson and that we could do most of it inside or outside with very little equipment needed.

This curriculum will be something that we will continue to use, and probably for several years. Even if the kids are in sports, that’s not going to be every day and it’s not going to teach them other ways to move their bodies, which is so very important for long term health. I also feel like it’s a good thing for me to do with them! As a mom, I don’t always feel like I have time to get in the physical activity I should be getting for my own well-being. If I do 30 minutes of activities WITH my kids, what better use of my time could there be?

(Sorry, no pictures. It’s hard to take pictures of them while walking like a crab myself)

You can purchase the Fitness 4 Homeschool - Core 1 Physical Education Curriculum K-8 Curriculum for just $57! It is downloadable PDFs which you are free to print or put on your tablet or just look at on your computer.

~S

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Tot School–Me and My Family

Nathanael is currently 38.5 months

We had a very successful and normal school week this week! We focused on All About Me on Monday and All About Family on Thursday. I’m still tweaking my plan sheet and how I get it to you. Anyone have any opinions about Google Drive? Do you even want to see my plan sheet or just pictures of the activities that we did? Is anyone out there? Enough talking…here’s my weekly plan sheet for Me and My Family:

Me and My Family		Day 1: All About Me!
Verse Song:	Colossians 3:20
Story	ABC I Like Me	I’m Gonna Like Me	I Like Me
Craft	All About Me Mini Book & Worksheets	Full Size Me	Jell-o Name
Song	Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes		Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes & Verse
Game	Red Rover	Cubes: Picture Game	Video: Chrysanthemum
Snack	First Initial Cheese & Fruit Leather

Me and My Family		Day 2: My Family
Verse Song:	Colossians 3:20
Story	Me and My Family Tree	Mommy Loves Her Baby/Daddy Loves His Baby	Oonga Boonga
Craft	Family Tree File Folder & Worksheets	Family Quilt	Family Puppets
Song	He’s Got The Whole World		He’s Got The Whole World & Verse Song
Game	Mommy Says (Simon Says)	Crazy Walk	Video: Because Your Daddy Loves You
Snack	People cutouts using tortillas and hummus	Activity: Family Puzzle

Extra Printouts

1.      Coloring Page from picture

2.      First Initial coloring pages

3.      Family Size Sort

To see my supplies list and print the plan sheet, download it here.

Day 1 Pictures:

Worksheets

Jell-o Name(Glue and powdered jello over printout of name)

Name Game: I printed two pictures of each kid and put one set in a Stack n Smile Photo Blocks Stacking Toy. The other picture I put in a circle of yarn. We rolled the cube, then they had to run to that kid’s circle an stand in it.

Full Size Me: I traced each kid on a large piece of paper and then let them color it. If we’d had more focus, I’d have let them decorate it more, but coloring it was about all they could handle by this point.

Nate was very proud of his picture

Day 2 Pictures:

Dot Painting their initials. They love the dot painting!

Family Puzzles: I printed a plain black and white family picture and another color one on cardstock. I then cut the color one into four pieces and had them lay it over the black and white one. This was just enough of a puzzle for my bunch. They were able to just do it by themselves. Mostly. It was very good practice.

Nate has been enjoying daddy’s new Nexus tablet. His current favorite game is Kid’s Shape Puzzle so we actually bought the full version for once.

Here’s the books we used this week:

This week we are only doing one day because I have a huge consignment sale to get ready (which I already mentioned in my Weekly Wrap-Up Post, but it bears repeating!) If you’re local, be sure to join us on Friday. 9/21, from 10-8 and Saturday, 9/22, from 9-2 for the biggest and best kid’s consignment sale in the area!

~S

Weekly Wrap-Up–September 14–Week 3

I feel like we might be getting into the swing of things a bit better. Still feeling 1/2 a step behind as far as planning, etc, goes, but the curriculum that we’re using this year doesn’t require that much planning, except for Tapestry of Grace, which I have actually spent time planning. The other subjects, though, I can basically just pick up the book and do the lesson with very little prep, hooray!!

This week was the first week of our 1st grade co-op. While I’m teaching Tot School at my house, a friend is taking Kahlen and doing 1st grade Tapestry of Grace work once a week. This week, they did a cast of an arrowhead while talking about the bronze age and also worked on a mini-book about Animals of Israel, which is part of Erica’s Expedition Earth: Discovering God’s Animals curriculum.

Here’s the arrowhead broken out of it’s clay cast. They just used plaster to make the arrowhead.

We also worked on a tribes of Israel map. I used an outline map of Israel and roughly traced in the lines of the tribes. She then had to label each territory based on the map I traced the lines from.

Since we were talking about Joshua and Judges this week, I also let her watch Josh and the Big Wall as well as Gideon, Tuba Warrior. I’m happy that she’s finally at an age that she likes VeggieTales, because I like to watch them too :)

We also worked on a basic drawing of Cell Anatomy in science. She did all the drawings, based on the picture in the book, and asked me to do the labels, which I was happy to do.

 

We of course continued on in Math and Spelling, nothing exciting to report there. In Language Arts, she is really close to memorizing her first poem, The Caterpillar by Christina Rosetti. She got inspired when her buddy recited it to her at co-op, and came home and worked on it! This is a case where peer pressure is a good thing :)

Next week is promising to be another crazy one! There’s a huge consignment sale twice a year that I sell at called the Grow With Me Sale, which features all thing kid. I sell their old stuff and buy all their new stuff, but it takes a lot of time to tag and prepare the stuff to sell, not to mention getting it all to the sale and working my shift at the sale. Totally worth it, though! I end up selling about as much as I spend for the kids’ wardrobes for the entire year! If you’re in the area, you should come check it out Friday from 10-8 and Saturday from 9-2 (lots of 1/2 price stuff on Saturday!). It’s at The Ranch and admission and parking are free.

That’s it for first grade this week…what did you do for school?

~S

Speak Up Saturday–TOS Review–Speekee TV

 

Today I am reviewing Speekee TV, an online video-based Spanish program for kids 2-10 years old. I will be the first to admit that we didn’t get to use this as often as I would have liked since we received it, as I have heard great things about it around the blogosphere. But with the end of summer (vacation!) and the beginning of 1st grade and tot school (yep, I’m leading a co-op of 5 kids under 4), it just got pushed to the middle of the pile instead of the top. That said, though, we have really enjoyed what we did try out!

Here’s what they say about their program:

Speekee TV is designed so that children can learn Spanish in their own time and at their own pace. Available only via the web, Speekee TV is loved by children and their parents around the world.

• 10 episodes of Spanish
• Over 150 minutes of pure Spanish learning
• Learn Spanish from real Spanish children in real Spanish locations
• Features songs, animation and puppets
• Optional subtitles in Spanish and English
• Free activity sheet downloads
• Great fun and extremely effective
• Created by specialist language teachers
• Free optional curriculum
• Songs you can't stop singing

This program includes not only a video series, but also has a weekly FastTrack email lesson plan to help you with other activities and specifics to help “maximize your child’s Spanish learning experience”.

The interface is easy to use and navigate. If you click through the emailed FastTrack, you can get to the web-based version, which has the links to specific video clips within the main video for the week as well as any printable activity sheets that are available.

The thing that I liked most about this program is that Nate (who is 3) and Kahlen (who is almost 6) enjoyed watching the videos together. Nate really liked it that he was included in Kahlen’s schoolwork, and I felt like the videos were simple enough for him and not too babyish for Kahlen.

I enjoyed the pace of the videos as well. I think a lot of the Spanish programs I have tried thus far try to teach too much in a lesson for this age of child. Speekee did not do that, and I am grateful.

The only complaint I have is the time commitment, which is absolutely nothing against Speekee! Learning Spanish isn’t one of my utmost top priorities right now, and with everything else we are trying to cram into our new school year, it has just really fallen behind. I think to truly use Speekee to it’s full potential, you’d have to commit to four 1/2 hour times per week, and I just don’t have that available right now. Again, though, that’s no fault of Speekee TV, and I think that with half that time, you and your children could still benefit from this program, just not to the full extent that it was designed for. It’s easy to use and requires little to no preparation from you!

Subscriptions to Speekee are $7.50 per month or $60 per year, which is incredibly affordable! This includes the FastTrack lesson plans, access to the videos, and access to supporting printables such as worksheets and flashcards. Also, they offer the first two weeks free with no obligation to continue.

~S

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Wordless Wednesday–Shane and Oma

This is my grandma with my cuddly baby :)

~S

Linking up at:

Tasty Tuesday (on a Thursday)–Baked Pasta Casserole

Welcome to another week of Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!
There’s a recipe index under the food tab above if you’re ever looking for a recipe I’ve already blogged.
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) ;)

So, I mentioned in my Menu Plan Monday post that I was making this tasty classic this week and was shocked to see that I haven’t posted the recipe yet! I have no idea where we originally got this recipe, but growing up, we made it often. It’s simple yet delicious and much more interesting than just plain ol’ noodles and sauce. This is the way I make it, I’m sure my mom and my sister (if she still makes it) and even my dad have their own little tweaks to it :) This time, I made it with mini farfalle and served it with a side of peas. Kahlen still won’t eat anything that looks at all interesting, so she had just plain noodles, but Nate thought it was awesome. Fresh garlic bread would also be good with it. And dang, we ate it before I could take a picture :/

Baked Pasta Casserole with Chicken

Serves 6 adults.

Prep Time: 20 minutes + 40 minutes baking time

{Ingredients}

• 1 pound noodles, any kind
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon season salt
• 1 large container cottage cheese, small curd (I think the container is 1 lb 8 oz)
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2/3 cup fresh grated parmesan or other hard Italian cheese, plus more for topping
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic or about 3 cloves
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 large jar spaghetti sauce

{Directions}

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook noodles according to package.
3. Melt butter in a skillet. Dice chicken and add to skillet. Cook until about half done, about 5 minutes, and add season salt. Cook until chicken is completely cooked, about 10 minutes total.
4. Combine cottage cheese, mozzarella, parmesan, parsley, garlic, and salt and pepper in a medium bowl.
5. Spray a 9 x 13 or similar-sized casserole dish with cooking spray. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom. Layer half of cheese mixture, half of chicken, a thick layer of noodles, and then a layer of sauce. Repeat all layers. Top with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, until it’s bubbly and hot through.

~S

Menu Plan Monday–September 10

I actually did get the entire month’s menu planned again, yippee! I’m loving the flexibility and variability that planning a month at a time gives me. However, I would like to add that if you are new to menu planning, don’t do a month at a time; it will overwhelm you quickly! Just start with a week. Heck, start with the next three days. Just do some kind of plan! It will really bless your family and give you less stress if you know in advance what you’re having for dinner :)

Here’s what I’m making this week:

Monday ~ Leftovers. I had a Pampered Chef fundraising party to benefit a friend of mine whose house burned to the ground this summer in the Woodland Heights fire in Estes Park. Still taking orders if you’re interested in helping out, just put in Sela Young as the host name :)
Tuesday ~ Dinner at my mom’s house. She started raising Tilapia at her house earlier this year, and there’s one with my name on it for dinner, yum!
Wednesday ~ Homemade Pizza
Thursday ~ Baked Pasta Casserole (will try and post recipe, it’s an old family favorite of mine)
Friday ~ YOYO (You’re On Your Own)
Saturday ~ Biscuits and Gravy
Sunday ~ BBQ and Fireworks with friends. They postponed our fireworks in July because of the fire danger we were experiencing. They are going to shoot them off for Mexican Independence day instead; we thought it be a good time for a beginning of the semester BBQ :)

So, what are you having for dinner this week?
Link up at Menu Plan Monday over at I'm an Organizing Junkie or leave me a comment!

I have a recipe index, just for recipes that you can find on my blog. You can also get to it by going to the food tab above.

~S