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

Tot School–Homes and Houses

Nathanael is currently 38.5 months

Last week, we only met one day for our co-op, and we did one day of activities at home. With Labor Day and my sister being in town, it was a mixed-up kinda week :)

Our theme was “Homes and Houses”. When I started working on the plan, I was stumped, but once I started rolling, I actually found a bunch of great resources! Thank you to the others who post your things so that I can use them too. I am also trying out Google Drive for sharing my plan sheets and printables with you, please please let me know if you have any trouble so I can try something else!

Here’s what we did for our Homes unit:

Building a house from shapes. Teaching shapes, use of glue stick, and spatial awareness.

Cracker Houses. I really couldn’t find a good snack that didn’t involve graham crackers, which we did twice last week. That, and I didn’t have time to go to the store and get anything special. So this is my creation: cracker “houses” stuck together with plain cream cheese. The kids liked it, so I guess that’s what counts :)

Three year old version of jumping jacks, heehee.

Two activities we did at home on Thursday:

(click to download PDF versions)

 

These are the books that we read and some others that I checked out from the library but we didn’t get to.

What did you do for school this week?

~S

I have a Pinterest board for all of my Tot School findings too, which of course I will be adding to as the year goes.

Tot School–Beaches and Oceans

Nathanael is currently 38.5 months

Again, I’m later in posting this than I want to be, but I am working on getting back on track, so I’m going to post it anyway!

Tot school. It’s a little different with the second kid. With the first, I had a lot more time to devote to just her. We started earlier in her life. She’s a girl and she absolutely loves crafts and always has. Nate, on the other hand, is 3 and 2 months (yea, that means 38 months), and doesn’t know any of his letters or numbers. He excels at other things, but academics just do not interest him.

Now, remember when I said in my Weekly Wrap-up post that I had come up with the ideal schedule? And that I had this great idea for a co-op tot school? It’s all to encourage my dear son to learn something and not just play wedgits all day long.

So, here’s my great idea. I was throwing around ideas about what I was going to do this fall since I still have Liam until mid-October (he’s the 2-year-old that I watch in the mornings while his mommy works). I decided I wanted to do some form of tot school, maybe going back to Hubbard’s Cupboard or Kitchen Table Play and Learn, both of which worked decently well with Kahlen. I mentioned this idea to a friend (who has a 3.5-year-old), and she said jokingly “Hey, maybe we’ll join you” and a co-op was born. It expanded to two more families, and I now have 5 kids coming to my house twice a week for two hours. Two of the mommies come too, so I’m not alone with these crazy monkies, but I am doing the planning and the “teaching”. So far, it’s been really fun, but a lot of work too. They burn through activities like you wouldn’t believe! (Unless, of course, you’ve taught preschool before). My original ideas about just using lesson plans I already have didn’t hold up, and I’m making a new lesson plan now for every week. It’s still thematic, and not really based on a learning objective, but I want them to have fun while learning how to learn (geez, you’d think I tend toward classical education or something )

Last week was our first week (as I’ve already mentioned several times), so I’m still getting in the groove. Here’s our basic lesson plan for each week:

1. Sing a verse song
2. Read a story
3. stART project related to book
4. Worksheets
5. Sing a song. You know, one of those classic kid’s songs that we all learned growing up.
6. Play a game or some kind of movement activity
7. Have a snack
8. Read a story
9. stART project related to book
10. Play another game, this one not necessarily movement. Sometimes we’ll use Education Cubes for this one.
11. Read another book
12. Do another craft
13. Sing verse song again
14. Watch a short movie related to theme.

Here’s our specific plan for our Beaches and Oceans theme that we did last week. I’ve tried to include links to where I found the various things, but I’m sure I’ve missed a few.

I started with the plan sheet found at Hubbard’s Cupboard, and expanded from there.

Here’s the printable plan sheet with supplies you need for each activity. I don’t have the actual PDF creator, so the links don’t work in this file. That’s why I’ve included the activities again below.

Day 1:

1. Sing Verse Song – Genesis 1:1
2. Read book – Beach Day by Karen Roosa
3. stART – Make a “beach towel”
4. Worksheets 
5. Game – Sharks and Minnows OUTSIDE
6. Snack – Sand Snack – Blue yogurt with crushed up graham crackers for sand and chocolate sprinkles for ants
7. Read Book – At The Beach
8. stART – Sand Painting
9. Game - Beach Ball Roll – What color is your finger on?
10. Craft – Make a Sand Scoop using milk jug
11. Sing Verse Song

Day 2:

1. Sing Verse Song – Genesis 1:1
2. Read Book – Way Down deep in the deep blue sea
3. stART – Paper Plate Jelly Fish
4. Worksheets
5. Game - Land or Ocean? (Tell them an animal. If it lives in the ocean, go to one side. If it lives on land, go to the other side of the yard)
6. Snack – Edible Sea Life
7. Read Book – Commotion in the Ocean
8. stART - Paper Bag Fish
9. Education Cubes – Ocean Animals Bingo
10. Activity – Ocean Shapes Mural using Pictures of Ocean Animals
11. Sing Verse Song

Goodreads Bookshelf – Here are the specific books that we used for school.

Printables for off days – I’m also coming up with a handful of activities for my two to do on the days we don’t have tot school, and printing extra copies for the other kids if they want to use them. This time, I was able to find a bunch of activities thanks to Totally Tots.

Size sorting whales.

And I made them a little sensory bin with some things I already had. I used pinto beans, shells, shovels, and bottlecap letters. They don’t share very well, and the point of having the sensory bin is so that I can get some activities done with Kahlen. So I made two that are smaller than I am used to making, but they worked great. Kept them entertained for almost half an hour twice!

Whew! That is one long post! If you made it this far, I’m impressed :) This was actually all last week now, it’s taken me a long time to write this post. This week, our theme was “homes and houses”, and I’m going to try really hard to get a post up about it on Sunday. Next week, we’re doing “Me and my Family”.

Questions? About resources, activities, anything? I <3 comments, so ask me anything :)

~S