tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86737644191929107032023-11-16T13:47:29.925-05:00Groovie Momgroovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-67579809822659129612012-10-02T00:12:00.003-04:002012-10-02T00:12:47.115-04:00Foodie PenpalsIn September I participated in the ever so popular Foodie Penpal exchange created by Lindsay at <a href="http://www.theleangreenbean.com/">The Lean Green Bean</a>. How fun! Never heard of it? Well here's the gist...I signed up on Lindsay's blog to be matched up with another foodie. I was paired with two Gayles (or Gails). I sent a box of treats to Gail Lynn in Illinois and Gayle from Pennsylvania sent a box of treats to me. Here's a look at what I got:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlko3TRXNRwHe5Xs2qJdIg5sc5WGzvZkJe4VhmT70CxDGA_p53SGvDd23-DOfrrS1-YpyPJYcrIJBxC9ISfSh1smZZ3dgSn6-j1_fQ7qSndIwcmeadN7BzSejWcaORb8IwOkl7pi-uc0/s1600/023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlko3TRXNRwHe5Xs2qJdIg5sc5WGzvZkJe4VhmT70CxDGA_p53SGvDd23-DOfrrS1-YpyPJYcrIJBxC9ISfSh1smZZ3dgSn6-j1_fQ7qSndIwcmeadN7BzSejWcaORb8IwOkl7pi-uc0/s320/023.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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A box full of yummies! Sport and Spice were just as excited as I was to dig in. Gayle also sent a handmade card with a description of each item chosen.<br />
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The Granola Factory Granola, made just down the road from Gayle's home, was strange (in a good way) and addicting. I love granola and this one had a unique saltiness to it. It was the first thing to disappear.<br />
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The Good Bean chickpeas made for a tasty, crunchy snack. Gayle must have read my mind because the day I received the box I had purchased the ingredients to make roasted chickpeas.<br />
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I'm still enjoying the dry roasted edamame (even as I write this). I've had steamed edamame, but never roasted so it's a nice treat.<br />
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I've been wanting to try the single size servings of peanut butter and almond butter from Justin's, so I thank Gayle for buying them for me.<br />
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The kids couldn't wait to get their hands on the Clif Kids grape and mixed berry fruit snacks. They each took a half and unanimously voted grape as the best flavor. They also tore into the Fruit Stripe gum. I loved this during my college days, but apparently never introduced the kids to it. To say they loved it is an understatement. I left them alone for a few minutes and when I came back there were only about 5 pieces of gum left out of a 20 piece pack! I rescued the few remaining pieces and stashed them away so I could actually have some later.<br />
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The only thing I have not tried yet is the cashew flavored Larabar. I tucked it away in the pantry out of the kids' sight (do you see a pattern here?) and forgot about it. I'll try to sneak it out tomorrow.<br />
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I enjoyed my first round of Foodie Penpals and am looking forward to participating again this month. If you'd like to give it a try head over to <a href="http://www.theleangreenbean.com/">Lindsay's blog</a>. You've got until Thursday to sign up.<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-33803169134355558722012-08-08T22:53:00.003-04:002012-08-08T22:53:29.240-04:00I'm Baaaack...I'm not even going to try and explain my absence for the past year and a half. Let's just say I've been busy. There have been some big changes though, most notably we have moved back to Louisiana to be near family and (old) friends. I look forward to sharing new faces and places with you as we remodel our new old house and continue on our homeschooling journey.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-21696426413326184812011-03-02T22:00:00.000-05:002011-03-02T22:00:16.715-05:00Swagbucks Coupons Work For MeAre you a <a href="http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/lsunutt">Swagbucks</a> collector? What about a coupon clipper? Did you know you can have the best of both worlds by earning <a href="http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/lsunutt">Swagbucks</a> when you use coupons? <a href="http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/lsunutt">Swagbucks</a> has a page on their website where you can print coupons. The site is powered by coupons.com so if you're a regular couponer you're probably already using many of the coupons available on the <a href="http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/lsunutt">Swagbucks</a> site, but not getting credit for them. Today I printed out coupons to save 40 cents on 6 cups of Yoplait yogurt, $1 on Kashi cereal bars, and $1 on Kashi cereal. There are also coupons for Udi's gluten free bread. I have a friend who buys gluten free products so I plan to print those for her so she can redeem them and put some bucks in my account. Go to the <a href="http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/lsunutt">Swagbucks</a> website, click on <i>earn</i> and then <i>coupons</i>. You'll find 18 pages of deals to choose from.<br />
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If you aren't earning <a href="http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/lsunutt">Swagbucks</a> yet, what are you waiting for?!? I've earned nearly $100 in Amazon gift cards in a little over a year just by using the toolbar. That works for me! For a homeschooling mama of two reading machines, free Amazon money is pure bliss! Head over to <a href="http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/lsunutt">Swagbucks</a> now to start your account then go to <a href="http://wearethatfamily.com/">We Are That Family</a> to find out what's working for everyone else.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-57737810238974578622011-02-10T20:46:00.000-05:002011-02-10T20:46:08.820-05:00Learning with the American GirlsIn just a matter of weeks, Spice turned into an American Girl addict. We received a catalog out of the blue in the fall. I was going to chunk it right off the bat, but decided to hold on to it for a bit to see if she showed any interest. She did not and I thought I had tossed the catalog in the recycle bin. About a month later, I walked into the living room to find her deeply engrossed in the catalog. Apparently it had gotten buried under some books on the coffee table and she unearthed it. Since that day she hasn't talked about much of anything else. She got an AG doll from Santa (one of the My American Girl dolls, not a historical character) and Sport bought her a mini Kaya doll for Christmas as well. This semester she is taking an American Girl class through a homeschool enrichment program we participate in. The class will spend the entire semester studying Rebecca Rubin, a Jewish girl living in 1914 New York. After reading through the books, I decided to supplement her studies at home. I'm also in the process of planning a more in-depth unit on WWII and American Girl Molly. I have decided to post about the work Spice does at home and in class in case others want utilize the wonderful books in their child's studies. I will post about each book in a series as we finish it. First up will be Meet Rebecca. Check back soon for our first installment!<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-9398499834814070732011-02-08T20:53:00.002-05:002011-02-08T21:57:21.068-05:00Taco PieI haven't done a recipe post in awhile. Just haven't been able to find the inspiration, but it came this week in the form of organic ground beef on sale at Publix. I stocked up and was trying to think of how to use it when I remembered this recipe. It's a family favorite, but I haven't made it in a lonnnggg time because I quit buying canned biscuits - too many weird ingredients. I recently discovered Trader Joe's has a (relatively) healthy store version though so this recipe is coming back into the rotation.<br />
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</i><br />
Here's what you need:<br />
<blockquote><i>1 lb. ground beef (sometimes I substitute the fake Morning Star Farms meat and no one is the wiser)<br />
1 packet taco seasoning<br />
8 oz. tomato sauce<br />
8-10 oz. can of biscuits<br />
1 cup refried beans<br />
1 cup cheese (I use whatever's in the fridge)<br />
1 small onion, chopped</i></blockquote><blockquote><i>Brown beef and stir in tomato sauce and onion. Heat until it begins to boil. Lower temp and simmer 15 minutes or until thickened. Lightly grease 9-inch pie plate. Flatten biscuits over bottom and up sides of plate. Spread beans over dough. Top with meat and bake for about 20 minutes at 375. Sprinkle cheese over top before serving.</i></blockquote><br />
This recipe is being linked with <a href="http://beautyandbedlam.com/what-are-your-favorite-brands/#comments">Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday</a>, <a href="http://allthesmallstuff-cole.blogspot.com/2011/02/tuesdays-at-table-salsa-verde-pork-stew.html">All The Small Stuff's Tuesdays At The Table</a>, and <a href="http://www.titus2atthewell.com/">At The Well's Tempt My Tummy Tuesday</a>. Head to either of those for more yummy recipes.<br />
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Jen over at <a href="http://www.beautyandbedlam.com/">Balancing Beauty and Bedlam</a> is also taking a poll to find out what brands we can't live without. In other words, if you found out a particular brand item was going to be discontinued, which ones would you stock up on. Here's my (not so short) list:<br />
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<b>Coca Cola</b> - No diet or zero stuff here. Can't beat the <i>real</i> thing.<br />
<b>Kroger Natural Peanut Butter</b> - I could live with other brands if I had to, but this one is the best in my opinion.<br />
<b>Annie's Mac and Cheese</b> - Spice is a mac and cheese addict. I don't feel quite so guilty when I serve her the Annie's all natural brand.<br />
<b>Reese's Peanut Butter Cups</b> - Nothing else compares...<br />
<b>Tostitos Restaurant Style Salsa</b> - Nice and refreshing. The closest to actual restaurant salsa I've found in a jar.<br />
<b>Tostitos Baked Scoops</b> - The perfect complement to the above mentioned salsa. These are the ONLY baked chips I like and they make my constant craving for chips and salsa a little less guilt inducing.<br />
<b>Crayola Crayons</b> - The rest are just colored blobs of wax.<br />
<b>Oral B or Johnson & Johnson dental floss</b> - All the other brands fall apart before the job is done.<br />
<b>Scrubbing Bubbles Bathroom Cleaner</b> - The only one that actually works on the tub.<br />
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And No. 1 on the list...<br />
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<b>Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning</b> - My luxury item if I'm ever on Survivor. This stuff could even make grass taste good.<br />
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Head over to Jen's blog to see what brands other reader's are loyal to and feel free to leave a comment here telling me your favorites.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-65930293351467420742011-01-29T18:20:00.005-05:002011-01-30T17:29:47.054-05:00Frugal FashionistaJen over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam is hosting a <a href="http://beautyandbedlam.com/frugal-fashionista-fashion-show-today-2/">Frugal Fashionista fashion</a> show this weekend. I’ve wanted to participate in one for so long, but it seems like once I first discovered them she didn’t do one in forever then when she did have one I totally missed it. So here’s my first Frugal Fashionista post. Unfortunately, the pictures aren’t the greatest. My camera was taking <em>for-evah</em> to charge so I had to get Hubby to snap a few pics with his camera phone. Not the best quality and to say he wasn’t into it nearly as much as me is a huge understatement. But it’s all we’ve got so here goes…<br />
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<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_5KpbVL68iRg/TUSgx01VbsI/AAAAAAAAAmI/s9w454nYFfo/s1600-h/IMG00333-20110128-2245%5B10%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG00333-20110128-2245" border="0" height="401" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_5KpbVL68iRg/TUSgybHK_FI/AAAAAAAAAmM/Sh1155LxWOI/IMG00333-20110128-2245_thumb%5B11%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG00333-20110128-2245" width="175" /></a><br />
This jacket was my thrift store find of the week (and I found some goooood stuff this week)! Abercombie and Fitch via Goodwill for $5.90! As for the rest of the outfit…<br />
Ribbed turtleneck – FREE from a <a href="http://grooviemom.blogspot.com/2009/09/swap-party.html">homeschool swap</a>.<br />
Jeans – FREE from an awesome consignment shop. I bring most of my unwanted goods to this consignment shop so I have built up a nice little line of credit. It’s fun to walk out of a store with a sack of free goodies and not have to worry about the police tracking you down.<br />
Shoes – $4 on clearance at Cato.<br />
<b>Grand Total: A whopping $9.90!</b><br />
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<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_5KpbVL68iRg/TUSgy8uN4mI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/FoNVlX8M92g/s1600-h/IMG00336-20110128-2247%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG00336-20110128-2247" border="0" height="484" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_5KpbVL68iRg/TUSgzEkwVuI/AAAAAAAAAmU/XRtYXqjiksg/IMG00336-20110128-2247_thumb%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="IMG00336-20110128-2247" width="175" /></a><br />
I picked up this nice and cozy sweater yesterday. Can’t wait to wear it!<br />
Sweater – $2.72 from America’s Thrift Store<br />
Jeans – same as above<br />
Axcess Shoes – $3.88 America’s Thrift Store – These aren’t my normal style of shoes. I prefer “sensible” (i.e. comfortable shoes) but for some reason when I saw these yesterday they just called to me. Here's a better picture:<br />
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<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_5KpbVL68iRg/TUSg0pDCogI/AAAAAAAAAmY/WjRiEWMud4o/s1600-h/100_2438%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="100_2438" border="0" height="248" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_5KpbVL68iRg/TUSg1GSSH5I/AAAAAAAAAmc/ObwYyShOH2E/100_2438_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="100_2438" width="371" /></a><br />
<b>Grand Total for that outfit: $7.76</b><br />
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Ooh! I almost forgot this sweater and it’s one of my new all time faves. Luckily, Spice was kind enough to take a picture for me today.<br />
I picked up this Dress Barn beauty at a church run thrift store on Tuesday for $2.00!!! The aqua shirt underneath came from the same store last season for $1.50.<br />
<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_5KpbVL68iRg/TUSg2La1aPI/AAAAAAAAAmg/hF6jPTtb214/s1600-h/100_2437%5B9%5D.jpg"><img alt="100_2437" border="0" height="276" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_5KpbVL68iRg/TUSg2vrVI2I/AAAAAAAAAmk/8f0BT7YXAV8/100_2437_thumb%5B13%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="100_2437" width="400" /></a><br />
Hope you enjoyed taking a peek at my bargains. Can’t wait to show off more next time. I already have a nice little wardrobe of spring goodies built up, but since neither my legs nor my toes are in spring mode, they’ll have to wait! Check out other fashionista bargains at <a href="http://beautyandbedlam.com/frugal-fashionista-fashion-show-today-2/">Balancing Beauty and Bedlam</a> and <a href="http://myredapron.com/2011/01/27/thrift-store-thursday-plus-sized-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-7207">My Red Apron's Thrift Store Thursday</a>.groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-85268733281797145422010-12-16T00:44:00.000-05:002010-12-16T00:44:07.581-05:00Christmas CraftapaloozaTwo weeks ago we rounded up a few friends and hosted the first ever Christmas Craftapalooza at our house. I love the idea of kids giving handmade gifts for Christmas, but I'm not so much into giving out cheesy toilet paper roll Christmas ornaments or framed handprints (OK the handprints aren't necessarily cheesy, but there's only so many years you can really do those and have them mean something). I'm all about having the kids make GOOD and USEFUL gifts that aren't just pulled out once a year when the grandparents know you're coming over for a visit. <br />
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Usually Sport, Spice, and I make <a href="http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/ice-candle-673590/">these</a> candles every year for my mom and a few friends. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSWMUeb3ETbK0BvNS6jN6Klf8TykY_zUuIlM9UORXnhtOvn2m_fXZw_45HJmYlC1fKKofMhw64f-T1M7_ojtY1M844nAfo3AC5fp0NNZ7MibC096VEoSI1JEuf2jFUfbz7EJiVbk-PNOc/s1600/ice-candle-winter-craft-photo-260-FF0108EFGA01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSWMUeb3ETbK0BvNS6jN6Klf8TykY_zUuIlM9UORXnhtOvn2m_fXZw_45HJmYlC1fKKofMhw64f-T1M7_ojtY1M844nAfo3AC5fp0NNZ7MibC096VEoSI1JEuf2jFUfbz7EJiVbk-PNOc/s1600/ice-candle-winter-craft-photo-260-FF0108EFGA01.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Photo from Family Fun</span></i></div><br />
Obviously adult supervision is required, but they make a nice gift and are fun to create.<br />
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We've gotten a bit tired of those though so this year I scoured the internet to come up with some new ideas. Here's a look at what was created at our craftapalooza...<br />
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<b><a href="http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/homemade-cards-gifts/homemade-gifts/homemade-christmas-gifts/last-minute-christmas-gifts/beautiful-beaded-rings-671558/">Beaded Rings</a>:</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcnWHkAWohCcmzbISr5r04EQgVqbn4_lkEmOxmu4W-Mq7llbFQkJK4W-qDIg8d9WQBrroEaPG8dI9lIZ2K0O_BlLEUPmyZgLEQOr4lV4U1EbGMjuf0Ezs0TjJq4Azri8_9XEv_5666lHU/s1600/beautiful-beaded-rings-craft-photo-260-FF0107GIFTSA06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcnWHkAWohCcmzbISr5r04EQgVqbn4_lkEmOxmu4W-Mq7llbFQkJK4W-qDIg8d9WQBrroEaPG8dI9lIZ2K0O_BlLEUPmyZgLEQOr4lV4U1EbGMjuf0Ezs0TjJq4Azri8_9XEv_5666lHU/s1600/beautiful-beaded-rings-craft-photo-260-FF0107GIFTSA06.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcnWHkAWohCcmzbISr5r04EQgVqbn4_lkEmOxmu4W-Mq7llbFQkJK4W-qDIg8d9WQBrroEaPG8dI9lIZ2K0O_BlLEUPmyZgLEQOr4lV4U1EbGMjuf0Ezs0TjJq4Azri8_9XEv_5666lHU/s1600/beautiful-beaded-rings-craft-photo-260-FF0107GIFTSA06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Photo from Family Fun</i></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Spice and I actually made one of these as a make and take on a recent trip to Micheal's. We liked them so much we decided to make more for Christmas. I found instructions at Family Fun. Our rings were similar, but we used small pearls in place of the silver beads to give it a fancier Christmas look. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of any of the finished products. We had kids aged 5-9 at our event and some were better able to do this than others. I'd recommend it for ages 7 and up as an unsupervised craft. Some of those pearl beads are hard to string!</div><br />
<b>Cookies in a Can</b>:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXwBbHF65aDxJsHl9jl1WecYeAU29mHZdoJzximdkdt-G2PMRDJNOyJ2PKirmPiX0s10wryPVWwSjPovPGTqCKCr48rZkgn1SecRJnE7vS7quJGzG7U4PCGJ9cSIkkbn6qngYRZYvfUTQ/s1600/cookies.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXwBbHF65aDxJsHl9jl1WecYeAU29mHZdoJzximdkdt-G2PMRDJNOyJ2PKirmPiX0s10wryPVWwSjPovPGTqCKCr48rZkgn1SecRJnE7vS7quJGzG7U4PCGJ9cSIkkbn6qngYRZYvfUTQ/s320/cookies.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Similar to cookies in a jar, but uses Pringles cans instead. (This was one of those spur of the moment <i>"I'm in desparate need of a gift NOW!"</i> ideas I came up with last year.)We wrapped Pringles cans then fillled them with cookie ingredients in Zip-Loc bags. Here's our recipe:<br />
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<blockquote>In one quart-sized Zip-Loc bag, combine 2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, and 1/4 tsp. salt. </blockquote><blockquote>In a second bag, combine 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar.</blockquote><blockquote>Fill a sandwhich size bag with 3/4 cup chocolate chips, raisins, nuts...We used the peppermint swirl chips for a festive look. They were delicious!</blockquote><blockquote>Place all bags inside a 6 oz Pringles can and add a gift tag with the following instructions:</blockquote><blockquote><i>To use combine all ingredients in a large bowl with 3/4 cup shortening, 1 egg, 2 Tbsp. milk, and 1 tsp. vanilla. Form into one inch balls and bake 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees.</i></blockquote><br />
<b>Altered Notebooks:</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Q-l9k24475LwlvNM2cgJkvTPfPetMd5UrM_PFIUXSiOwTFg8TEAMtSf33SISnQQYybqmrtV3outLvATRbG97adnOKk7NLfH8Ek5nNOGfdDCDkgVmh3aZXCAhKKeDNHCAybAhXWOdWYk/s1600/100_1982.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Q-l9k24475LwlvNM2cgJkvTPfPetMd5UrM_PFIUXSiOwTFg8TEAMtSf33SISnQQYybqmrtV3outLvATRbG97adnOKk7NLfH8Ek5nNOGfdDCDkgVmh3aZXCAhKKeDNHCAybAhXWOdWYk/s320/100_1982.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
By far the favorite craft of the day was altered notebooks. My kids are still making these. I purchased three-to-a-pack memo sized notebooks at Dollar Tree. These had a plasticy type cover on both sides. One side had a second cardboard cover underneath the plastic layer so I cut the plastic cover off (I was worried the glue would not adhere to it as well) and we worked with the cardboard side. Before the party I traced the cover on a bunch of pieces of scrapbook paper and cut them out so the kids could just pick the paper they liked best and glue it on. Once they had a new decorative cover they were able to add embellishments using paper punches, stickers, and stamps. Some websites give instructions for removing the spiral wire so that the entire front of the notebook can be covered, then making new holes and reinserting the wire. Way too complicated for my tatste! We just glued the paper as close to the wire as possible, leaving a small white edge along the top of the notebooks. I think this worked out just fine and made it much easier for the kids to complete the project on their own. Oh and for all you true bargain hunters out there, I've since found more notebooks at Big Lots that come four to a pack, making these cute little personalized gifts come out to about 30 cents each.<br />
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If you're still looking for gifts to put under the tree, get the kids to work and if none of these ideas float your boat, check out <a href="http://wearethatfamily.com/">Works For Me Wednesday</a> for more last minute gift ideas.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-47260332168298053962010-12-01T21:27:00.001-05:002010-12-01T21:30:00.858-05:00Easy Teacher GiftIt's been a while since I've done a Works for me Wednesday post. I've been planning on making my comeback with this idea for two weeks now, but kept forgetting to post. Guess that's a good thing since today's WFMW topic is Gift Giving. You would think as homeschoolers, we wouldn't have to worry about teacher gifts, but you're wrong! There are co-op class teachers, piano teachers, dance teachers... the list could go on and on. We gave out our first round of gifts the week before Thanksgiving when Sport and Spice's weekly enrichment classes came to an end. Here's what the kids handed out...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2KOiFnPsIRU86XotD3AGiphZTEOr05ECG_iEHnmP-BwfQFy7XNYbt1mtcUlPLgLawTe8eQESsAUlJ09ygJbV6i54Yccw3axN9wR_Nyx3PbHSdZCPcqF4ON2BFZU1tXyG0RP-WowQoMvI/s1600/100_1902.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2KOiFnPsIRU86XotD3AGiphZTEOr05ECG_iEHnmP-BwfQFy7XNYbt1mtcUlPLgLawTe8eQESsAUlJ09ygJbV6i54Yccw3axN9wR_Nyx3PbHSdZCPcqF4ON2BFZU1tXyG0RP-WowQoMvI/s320/100_1902.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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a roll of Christmas wrapping paper with a note that says "May your holidays be wrapped in love." We also added a homemade flavored coffee drink mix to this batch. I tried some of it later though and found it kinda gross (guess I should've taste-tested it <i>before</i> we give some out) so I'm not sharing the recipe. I am not a coffee drinker though, so what do I know? Maybe that was how it was supposed to taste. At any rate, we also included a few chocolate dipped spoons with the coffee mix so that should have improved the taste. We will be giving out more of the wrapping paper gifts. They were a big hit and I like giving out gifts that can be used up rather than a cheesy knick knack that does nothing but sit around gathering dust. I found these rolls in the Target dollar spot. I like them because they are shorter than regular rolls, but have a<i> ton</i> of paper on them. <br />
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<a href="http://grooviemom.blogspot.com/2009/12/simple-womans-daybook_21.html">Here</a> is another twist on a popular gift that I blogged about last year (scroll down to the picture at the bottom). We had friends over today for our first ever Christmas Craftapalooza. All of the kids put together a few of these kits, and made some other cool gifts that I hope to blog about in the next few days. In the meantime, head over to <a href="http://wearethatfamily.com/">We Are That Family</a> for more great gift ideas.<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-13408603219608905102010-11-16T22:27:00.000-05:002010-11-16T22:27:20.180-05:00Roasted Carrots With Feta and ParsleyHi all! I'm back from my extended hiatus to share this delicious recipe from Martha Stewart. Jen over at <a href="http://beautyandbedlam.com/">Balancing Beauty and Bedlam </a>is looking for Thanksgiving recipes for today's Tasty Tuesday. I tried this for the first time earlier this year and have planned on adding it to our Thanksgiving feast since the first bite. Not only is it delicious, it's super simple to throw together and looks quite impressive. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2kuy0ou1Dz1FSgsW6XoEoyy57IJjJCLJkEW_p-jNfZtupx8_DcYeyHr66K_1NfaSib1yl-u6suIR7G7xHkbpUT_2XkRPxKUZRVtucmhBGZH4ggxExLc6euZkoybu5J4-HwU1skH3Ri6M/s1600/carrots.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2kuy0ou1Dz1FSgsW6XoEoyy57IJjJCLJkEW_p-jNfZtupx8_DcYeyHr66K_1NfaSib1yl-u6suIR7G7xHkbpUT_2XkRPxKUZRVtucmhBGZH4ggxExLc6euZkoybu5J4-HwU1skH3Ri6M/s1600/carrots.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: orange;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Photo from marthastewart.com</span></span></span></div><br />
Ingredients:<br />
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3 pounds medium carrots, cut 1/2 inch thick on the bias<br />
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil<br />
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper<br />
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese<br />
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley<br />
Directions<br />
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Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss carrots with oil on a rimmed baking sheet, and season with salt and pepper. Roast until carrots are caramelized and tender, about 25 minutes.<br />
Transfer carrots to a bowl, and toss with feta and parsley.<br />
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Check out Jen's<a href="http://beautyandbedlam.com/"> blog</a> for more new dishes to add to your Thanksgiving feast.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-27424450987712353982010-09-13T09:00:00.002-04:002010-09-13T23:22:55.518-04:00Muffin Tin MondayThis week's Muffin Tin Monday theme is Movies. This is probably a stretch, but here's my contribution...a build your own pizza kit because what goes better with movie night than <strike>popcorn</strike> pizza?!?<br />
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Truth be told, I've never been good at keeping up with the MTM themes (that would require planning ahead) and it's sheer luck that with just a little imagination, today's meal could acutally work with the theme. The thing I love about MTM is it's a great way to serve a decent meal when the pickins' are slim. I come up with some of my best meal inventions at the spur of the moment on Mondays when the kids proclaim 5 minutes before eatin' time, "It's Muffin Tin Monday!"<br />
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<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcv3I82ckX0yKzOoWLrpMS0AKjoFBW0vkWJq90gaGg3pAZvDw1iJcJOUeS_WI17MgDBIvwmjtujacdq8adf382ypQ-KBKf9LnOzjCpX01Qq43fiMpq8n4kCDeGomYJi1QKad2gY4T1MJg/s1600/100_1145.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcv3I82ckX0yKzOoWLrpMS0AKjoFBW0vkWJq90gaGg3pAZvDw1iJcJOUeS_WI17MgDBIvwmjtujacdq8adf382ypQ-KBKf9LnOzjCpX01Qq43fiMpq8n4kCDeGomYJi1QKad2gY4T1MJg/s400/100_1145.JPG" /></a> </div><br />
Today, I lucked out and found two large pepperonis in the fridge. We were out of tortillas, pitas, English muffins (you get the picture), but I did find one hamburger bun lurking in the cabinet. I toasted the bun, gave each kid a half and called it a pizza crust. I also lucked up on a little piece of Parmesaen cheese that I sliced up and split between the two and a stash of homemade pizza sauce in the freezer. To round out the meal I added in a handful of almonds and a couple shreds of carrot. Spice is the world's pickiest eater. She'll eat carrots, but only with a side of ranch dressing. I put the carrots in the tin and acted like it was a perfectly normal pizza topping and it worked. She actually put them on her pizza and ate them. Score one for Mom!<br />
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Check out the <a href="http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/2010/09/muffin-tin-monday-theme-movies.html">Muffin Tin Mom</a> for more creative muffin tins meals.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px;" /></a><br />
<div style="clear: both; text-align: CENTER;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img align="middle" alt="Posted by Picasa" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" style="-moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; border: 0px none; padding: 0px;" /></a></div>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-25065247262972140162010-09-10T22:27:00.002-04:002010-09-10T23:11:40.771-04:00Weekly Wrap-Up For The Birds Part 2We continued with our bird theme this week. I thought we would wrap things up today before taking some time off to visit Disney World, but the kids are really enjoying themselves. There's always more to learn so maybe we'll extend our studies for one more week before taking a few more days off to tag along with Hubby when he goes to a conference near the beach. <br />
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We do most of our heavy work from Wednesday to Friday. Mondays are devoted to the basics and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Story-World-History-Classical-Ancient/dp/1933339217?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Story of the World Volume One</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1933339217" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Sport has a religion class and Cub Scouts on Monday nights so I like to make sure he has <i>some</i> time for fun during the day. The kids have homeschool enrichment classes on Tuesday so I also don't like to start in on our unit study work on Monday just to be interrupted by Tuesday! We do math and grammar every day of the week. Wednesday through Friday are more of our FUN days - assuming the kids like the unit we're working on. So...when I write these weekly wrap-ups and go on and on about what we did Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday that doesn't mean we didn't have school on Monday and Tuesday. It just means whatever we did wasn't exciting enough to share. We actually did have school this Monday, despite the holiday. Hubby had to go out of town, so after a morning of family mountain climbing, he left and the kids and I had night school. They were intrigued by the idea at first until they realized it was just regular school held in the evening.<br />
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Wednesday we started the day by going to Mass, then made a quick library run and visit to the park with friends. We came home and spent some time in the backyard looking and listening for birds. Then we put together profiles of the birds we spotted. Sport's profiles came from Cornell University's online <a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/NetCommunity/bbimages/PDFs/ColoringBook.pdf">bird coloring book</a>, an awesome<i> free</i> resource.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_EVXjd1Rkf2Tf5huaBj3UMmlUD1MHx21vqJi__R4FEsSiFTj54WWVvuLrmQcnuxfjFJjLfRvMhZ022cOk7l_JG5BcIknpGWcnTKar5KBL5B27s5-QeHHrnERRfG9v2AjOKcbdfZKJh_8/s1600/100_1213.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_EVXjd1Rkf2Tf5huaBj3UMmlUD1MHx21vqJi__R4FEsSiFTj54WWVvuLrmQcnuxfjFJjLfRvMhZ022cOk7l_JG5BcIknpGWcnTKar5KBL5B27s5-QeHHrnERRfG9v2AjOKcbdfZKJh_8/s320/100_1213.JPG" /></a></div><br />
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Spice's profiles were from <a href="http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/birds/printouts/">Enchanted Learning</a>. We added to our collection of bird profiles throughout the week. Spice also had fun using her Math-U-See manipulatives to complete this <a href="http://www.homeeducationresources.com/free/wksht/FWduro6.pdf">Duck Stories</a> worksheet from Home Education Resources.<br />
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We studied bird nests on Thursday. I'd been waiting for this day so we could work on our big art project for the week - making yarn nests! I've seen this project all around the web. Some crafters refer to them as yarn bowls. The basic idea is to cut strands of yarn, dip them in watered down glue, and stick them all willy nilly around a curved surface. Let them dry overnight and viola, you've got a nest (or bowl). I picked up a skein of brown variegated yarn from Wal-Mart for Sport to use because I knew he would want to go au naturel. Spice wanted to make her nest out of her favorite color...rainbow, so I dug out the yarn stash I put together for 75 cents a skein at Big Lots earlier this year. We started with about 30 4-6 inch long strands each, but ended up cutting more, so I'd double that amount.<br />
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My little darlins' hate to have messy hands so the idea of swishing yarn around in a bowl of glue was almost too much to bear. They did it, but weren't happy about it. I think both of them could have used more glue, especially on the ends of each strand. Here's how the nests looked about halfway through the project:<br />
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</div><a href="http://localhost:50144/c1d43f018b68282d32a09895dde6da8d/image/55df6fe6a27df8a6.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://localhost:50144/c1d43f018b68282d32a09895dde6da8d/image/55df6fe6a27df8a6.jpg?size=400" /></a></div><br />
The original instructions I saw for this project said to turn a bowl over then place a piece of plastic wrap over the bottom of the bowl to provide the nest shape. I decided this would be too aggravating 'cause we all know plastic wrap never actually stays in place. I taped a barely inflated balloon to a large cup for each kid and had them glue the yarn to the balloon. I drew a line just above the halfway mark so they'd know where to stop with the yarn. Overall the project turned out well, but it was difficult to get the balloon unstuck this morning without messing up the nests. Here's a look at the finished products:<br />
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<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5k9oYLbZJmxy9gKifmg_KfkXBvvrCbPY9JxhbE25SsIZDvNAL4qsQQU3pwwH9vgTZgkU_2ZXKy5SrNbGU-G-WltCDJENC3uNZscMu_9Ohcq1Md0QtnGFvRUM0depGFVbiJJkzz5DGPNY/s1600/100_1219.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5k9oYLbZJmxy9gKifmg_KfkXBvvrCbPY9JxhbE25SsIZDvNAL4qsQQU3pwwH9vgTZgkU_2ZXKy5SrNbGU-G-WltCDJENC3uNZscMu_9Ohcq1Md0QtnGFvRUM0depGFVbiJJkzz5DGPNY/s400/100_1219.JPG" /></a></div><br />
Today, as a fun activity to close out the week, we played hide and seek with these little birdies we colored in earlier this week. The template came from <a href="http://www.preschoolexpress.com/pattern_station02/bird_patterns_apr02.pdf">Preschool Express</a>.<br />
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<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwyANlxmtFwkE0zxIF_jzt23XRgAEP_ns5r0HeG9rOMnn_TJ5kLNtTJcsM2t22yRGD7n4uyoin-VqYAg80THFHoPtk8I6qut8dFegfhsBo9TLCgdv3M4DPQ5HGoJ-eV1kOaIew4_r15yE/s1600/100_1224.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwyANlxmtFwkE0zxIF_jzt23XRgAEP_ns5r0HeG9rOMnn_TJ5kLNtTJcsM2t22yRGD7n4uyoin-VqYAg80THFHoPtk8I6qut8dFegfhsBo9TLCgdv3M4DPQ5HGoJ-eV1kOaIew4_r15yE/s400/100_1224.JPG" /></a><br />
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</div>The first time around I hid the birds in easy to find places, like the red cardinal on a black TV stand. Spice quickly found all 6. The next time around, I made it much harder by camouflaging the birds. I stuck the bluejay on a blue part of their American Idol dance mat (it was <i>free </i>people<i>)</i> and the cardinal on a sheet of Strawberry Shortcake stickers. Spice had a much harder time finding the birds which led to a discussion about how birds camouflage themselves to hide from predators.<br />
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We read or referred to these books throughout the week:<br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=grooviemom-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0395922763&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe> <iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=grooviemom-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1550744712&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe> <iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=grooviemom-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0064451275&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe> <iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=grooviemom-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0792253140&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe> <br />
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All in all we had an enjoyable week of school that did not<i> feel</i> like school at all! If only every week could be that way! To see what other homeschoolers did this week, check out the <a href="http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/2010/09/weekly-wrap-up-one-with-ducksor-geese.html">Weekly Wrap-Up</a> at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-1369887802332037322010-09-10T17:46:00.001-04:002010-09-10T18:55:46.722-04:00QuotablesSport loves to read all of my old Peanuts books. The other day he was telling me about a particular comic strip in which Charlie Brown and Lucy discussed the philosophy of life. Charlie Brown stated, "Life is like an ice cream cone. You just have to lick it." Sport, a deep thinker in his own right, told me he'd come up with his own philosophy: <i>Life is like a thermometer. It has its ups and downs.</i><br />
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Later that day after getting some disappointing news, he applied this philospophy to his own situation, saying, " Life is like a thermometer. It has its ups and downs and right now we're at about minus a hundred."<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-17995004126406053932010-09-06T23:08:00.002-04:002010-09-06T23:17:44.536-04:00Weekly Wrap-Up...For the BirdsLast week seems so long ago, I hardly remember what we did! I felt like we had a pretty boring week, but looking back at the pictures, it doesn't seem so bad afterall.<br />
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I found these synonym cards at the Dollar Tree a few months back. Sport has been learning about synomyms, antonyms, and homonyms in grammar, so I cut these cards apart to make a matching game for him.<br />
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<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWio2fcseI/AAAAAAAADSM/5pKEt_TKU3M/s1600/100_1142.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWio2fcseI/AAAAAAAADSM/5pKEt_TKU3M/s400/100_1142.JPG" /></a> </div><br />
Of course Spice had to get in on the action too. I pulled out some of the easier synonym pairs for her to work with. She begged me to do this over and over the rest of the week.<br />
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<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWipeTG5XI/AAAAAAAADSU/bhVCqUbQhlY/s1600/100_1143.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWipeTG5XI/AAAAAAAADSU/bhVCqUbQhlY/s400/100_1143.JPG" /></a> </div><br />
As promised in my <a href="http://grooviemom.blogspot.com/2010/08/weekly-wrap-up.html">last wrap-up</a> (sadly I haven't posted anything since then), we started a unit on birds. I purchased two unit studies from Currclick (<a href="http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=7901&it=1">Birds of North America</a> and<a href="http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=23381&it=1"> Birds</a>) and we have based most of our work off of them. I also looked around one of my favorite websites, <a href="http://belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow/">The Crafty Crow</a>, and found quite a few bird feeder related projects to work on. On Thursday, Spice strung Cheerios on pipe cleaners to make food rings for the birds in our backyard. They obviously enjoyed it because the whole thing has <em>completely</em> disappeared!<br />
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<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWipvqysmI/AAAAAAAADSc/pR05AVq4wVA/s1600/100_1150.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWipvqysmI/AAAAAAAADSc/pR05AVq4wVA/s400/100_1150.JPG" /></a><br />
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</div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWlJJomtsI/AAAAAAAADS0/nOP0_ZfH_aQ/s1600/100_1154.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513994895408674498" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWlJJomtsI/AAAAAAAADS0/nOP0_ZfH_aQ/s400/100_1154.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 266px;" /></a> <br />
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The always resourceful Sport dug through the recyle bin and crafted a bird feeder out of a Laughing Cow cheese wedge container.<br />
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<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWip6jFRDI/AAAAAAAADSk/guo25PkqovM/s1600/100_1152.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWip6jFRDI/AAAAAAAADSk/guo25PkqovM/s400/100_1152.JPG" /></a> </div><div></div><div><br />
On Friday we set our new hummingbird feeder out on a table on our deck until we could find a place to hang it. It wasn't long before we were rewarded with a visit from a fine feathered friend. The picture isn't the best because it was taken from inside the house looking out the window, but the green blur on the lower left-hand side is a ruby-throated hummingbird.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWqS8_zl4I/AAAAAAAADTM/aG-qTm6qZms/s1600/bird.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514000561373157250" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ew83eyWt6Lw/TIWqS8_zl4I/AAAAAAAADTM/aG-qTm6qZms/s400/bird.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 266px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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</div></div>We also read these two books:<br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=grooviemom-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0152009868&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe> <iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=grooviemom-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1570913889&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><br />
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We will continue with our bird theme for another week or so. Check out <a href="http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/2010/09/weekly-wrap-up-one-with-all-blood.html">Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap-up</a> to see what other homeschoolers have been up to.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-18619215915907521292010-08-26T21:59:00.003-04:002010-08-27T17:13:56.184-04:00Weekly Wrap-Up<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0618243437" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" />Twenty days down and 160 to go for the 2010-11 school year! We started school at the end of July because we knew we would be taking time off here and there to travel in August and September. We're using <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Story-World-History-Classical-Ancient/dp/1933339217?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Story of the World</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1933339217" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /> for history this year and, honestly haven't gotten very far. We spent some time last week putting togethere our family history books and personal timelines then moved on to archeology this week. I set up an archeological dig sight in the backyard and told the kids to pretend they were scientists from the year 3010 looking for clues to human civilization in the year 2010. Before starting the dig, we read this book by Kate Duke:<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Archaeologists-Clues-Lets-Read-Find-Out-Science/dp/0064451755?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Archaeologists Dig for Clues (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0064451755&tag=grooviemom-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0064451755" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;">Sport and Spice had a fun time digging, once they finally came across the first artifacts. For awhile it was a little iffy and both kids decided there was way too much work involved in being an archeologist. Here's a tip if you do this activity: Draw a treasure map for yourself to remember what's buried where. I was sure I'd remember from one night to the next morning, but as it happened we actually did not get to complete this activity until 4 DAYS LATER! By then I could hardly remembered <em>what</em> I'd buried, much less <em>where</em>. At least I had kept the dig site contained to a small area.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJuZnNM8OZlBwiGl7MMaE44aA2L1fVOtfyMgvsUbTCjsOJwOonCR1aZPk4psTUU77jZZeAcGUkofct2dXypNicH_zeP5YlP-Zfn_MFqfXOdhs9uA_BCs_CRhx4GcVh-y9IrgzUmjvjuwQ/s1600/100_1030.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJuZnNM8OZlBwiGl7MMaE44aA2L1fVOtfyMgvsUbTCjsOJwOonCR1aZPk4psTUU77jZZeAcGUkofct2dXypNicH_zeP5YlP-Zfn_MFqfXOdhs9uA_BCs_CRhx4GcVh-y9IrgzUmjvjuwQ/s400/100_1030.JPG" /></a> </div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I had the kids mark off their dig site with string and sticks then draw a diagram on graph paper showing what artifacts were found in each cell. After everything was found, along with a bonus bottlecap that Sport unearthed, we talked about each item and what kind of clues it could provide...pen and can showed they had a developed alphabet and knew how to write; the skaterboard dude and army guy showed what kind of clothes they wore and that they had weapons and wheels; the Mardi Gras doubloon could have been a form of money and the fork showed they had highly developed eating utensils (and perhaps worshipped frogs?) They had a good time with this and of course wanted to stay out digging afterwards which is why I planned this as the very last project of the day.</div><div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirmt9X2uVoAhRGFKmQGZhGqWbkTRdPGHaOKB0TBRZh8yHTzBS0oPBdegPo35KyfaijySF7nSFT8mXqoqC0Ywr83IPt5lie7TnYs7kZHsLLgmr3Vi6rlCZiP6LRrigcFIxPqJdCNeC3eQ0/s1600/100_1031.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirmt9X2uVoAhRGFKmQGZhGqWbkTRdPGHaOKB0TBRZh8yHTzBS0oPBdegPo35KyfaijySF7nSFT8mXqoqC0Ywr83IPt5lie7TnYs7kZHsLLgmr3Vi6rlCZiP6LRrigcFIxPqJdCNeC3eQ0/s400/100_1031.JPG" /></a> </div><div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: left;">In math, Sport is humming along with Teaching Textbooks Math 4 this year. This is our first year with Teaching Textbooks and so far it seems to be a good fit. We started around Lesson 40 though because the first part was way too easy and I didn't see the point of spending the entire year in review. He is still reviewing, but he could always use more help with multiplication facts. Spice, meanwhile, is having a blast with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Math-U-See-Alpha-Teacher-Pack-Complete/dp/B001F2COEM?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Math-U-See Alpha</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001F2COEM" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" />. She loves Decimal Street and has asked everyday this week, "Are we going to go back to Decimal Street today?" So of course we do. Yesterday we used Mrs. Bear, one of her purple bear counters, to go from door to door asking how many units, tens, and hundreds were home. Spice has quite the imagination and can tell you a story that goes on for hours so this was right up her ally. I finally managed to tear her away after about 5 different number stories and two tornadoes on Decimal Street. </div><div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9lTcpZ8mUoBEorPUVYFDPa2YPmkMxHi5ixT0oH2ASr6DO0SXn_s_4BtDSd2uBGl6wZJvTsW194iLVVP0mIoECVSMRnhqxPlKwDwQ-EtEBOkNeqVhIZQ_yFvQBz9PbEfiNa76Tp2mtKo/s1600/100_1103.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9lTcpZ8mUoBEorPUVYFDPa2YPmkMxHi5ixT0oH2ASr6DO0SXn_s_4BtDSd2uBGl6wZJvTsW194iLVVP0mIoECVSMRnhqxPlKwDwQ-EtEBOkNeqVhIZQ_yFvQBz9PbEfiNa76Tp2mtKo/s400/100_1103.JPG" /></a> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
In just about every other subject, we've been studying John James Audubon. I'm employing more of the unit study approach this year and so far we are having a really good time with it. It has been much more relaxing for me too. Planning out 2-3 weeks at a time seems so much more managable! Sport has always loved birds, but his interest was piqued again during a recent trip to <a href="http://www.tabasco.com/tabasco_history/avery_island.cfm#targ">Avery Island</a> in Louisiana. I promised him when we got back from our trip we would study birds. Next week we will focus on two bird units I picked up from <a href="http://www.currclick.com/">Currclick</a>. I thought learning about John James Audobun would be a nice way to ease into the unit. This week we read The Boy Who Drew Birds by Jacqueline Davies. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Drew-Birds-Outstanding/dp/0618243437?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon (Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12)" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0618243437&tag=grooviemom-20" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Then followed many of the unit study ideas from <a href="http://www.homeschoolshare.com/boy_who_drew_birds.php">Homeschool Share</a>. Today we recreated some of our favorite Audubon prints using <a href="http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/elem/Joanna-glass.htm">this</a> idea from Incredible Art Lessons. Spice drew a mallard.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7hJvErIRKBNXuXCeI5h6Zruj7EYVimVeMPfpGVQ9-hUzppAs1WBSfPXjzpeCO5ipxrYUr59muC8iuJm20XBAQe7noyyl9rdG3pIGSb5BbOQXkZM3RKwC9pvEZAAxzkpxivgOmYB_Yrs/s1600/100_1105.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7hJvErIRKBNXuXCeI5h6Zruj7EYVimVeMPfpGVQ9-hUzppAs1WBSfPXjzpeCO5ipxrYUr59muC8iuJm20XBAQe7noyyl9rdG3pIGSb5BbOQXkZM3RKwC9pvEZAAxzkpxivgOmYB_Yrs/s400/100_1105.JPG" /></a></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Sport, the bird afficianado, used the ceramic birds he just<em> had</em> to have from the thrift store as models. He drew a cooper's hawk and a Florida Jay.</div><div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdGhnnbcuqI_Wxpx9uEhTJshTMWFin22pjB_8aDVFyy9NT0EpO7erB-zOLs9-zmjtxBmg3fSYkLrtUHtCJwDYgzU8I5V-YTl_gaUhqLjCWBd9Ko-Axn165hofnaMTYZVCrFXjaeLwgKAc/s1600/100_1106.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdGhnnbcuqI_Wxpx9uEhTJshTMWFin22pjB_8aDVFyy9NT0EpO7erB-zOLs9-zmjtxBmg3fSYkLrtUHtCJwDYgzU8I5V-YTl_gaUhqLjCWBd9Ko-Axn165hofnaMTYZVCrFXjaeLwgKAc/s400/100_1106.JPG" /></a> </div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Here's a look at the finished products. (That's my Carolina wren in the middle. I can't resist getting in on the art action.)</div><div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHrq_STbLNMyBcXV-KRVobHazdksnsq0Oa6HKvH-pWC3B5Ou1UE_jDL5rdO5Y59O_MTT1f388xKqooRokE2NYRbwMyA3jnu1MbxbK1oO2cT4Vb4ixioj4t4chvjelLnj_lVHPXSOysHaU/s1600/100_1107.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHrq_STbLNMyBcXV-KRVobHazdksnsq0Oa6HKvH-pWC3B5Ou1UE_jDL5rdO5Y59O_MTT1f388xKqooRokE2NYRbwMyA3jnu1MbxbK1oO2cT4Vb4ixioj4t4chvjelLnj_lVHPXSOysHaU/s400/100_1107.JPG" /></a> </div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihQg-qSBc_5mT_peBTrRwcQLyWfpIxHuCOxHwRncFNDPb-Zt-ybJnDCf4_Keg4ri7EvSgUQM8Zqw-mDFxzbq3V4ZS41ql9TUXs0QB4THTRTWcV9rfcV0q6zFh4Xa56OR5ELOIKEo4vOb4/s1600/100_1108.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihQg-qSBc_5mT_peBTrRwcQLyWfpIxHuCOxHwRncFNDPb-Zt-ybJnDCf4_Keg4ri7EvSgUQM8Zqw-mDFxzbq3V4ZS41ql9TUXs0QB4THTRTWcV9rfcV0q6zFh4Xa56OR5ELOIKEo4vOb4/s320/100_1108.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>That's pretty much a wrap on our week in homeschooling. Tomorrow we'll go to morning Mass, do some math, head to art class, and then enjoy an afternoon at the park with our homeschool group. Hope your week was as fun as ours. To find out how others are homeschooling, check out <a href="http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/2010/08/weekly-wrap-up-one-where-i-quickly-saw.html">Weird Unsocialized Homechoolers Weekly Wrap-Up</a> post.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px;" /></a></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img align="middle" alt="Posted by Picasa" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" style="-moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; background: 0% 50%; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></a></div></div>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-44699463193259887602010-08-24T08:20:00.002-04:002010-08-24T19:54:50.001-04:00Leftover Rice LunchesWhen Hubby was stationed in Okinawa with the USMC one of his favorite meals out in town was TRC - Taco Rice and Cheese. He has talked about it often and I have tried to make it many times, but there's always something not quite right according to him. Last month he spent some time in the kitchen on our anniversary and whipped up some TRC for lunch. Even then he complained that it wasn't authentic enough. Well, I don't know how to help him, but I do know my kids loved the meal and have asked for it often since then. Hubby and I are not fans of leftover rice, but the kids don't mind it so I've taken to incorporating it into their lunches anytime we have it. TRC is pretty self explanatory...take some rice, add some taco seasoned meat and a little cheese on top and serve. Last time I made it I added in a little taco sauce too and got rave reviews.<br />
<div><br />
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gKnjHrZr1Z2_67v7vCNiJ1i83rF58B-WhCXFiRb8n2XJPFZJvMq22JB4zSw_UhdvZXB7KgeqYVZxcA0gkr3flEXYKTIlwh9f2TCljnD0lV1VJASx7PXRish694aP8r7UuGVgauKo55A/s1600/100_0886.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gKnjHrZr1Z2_67v7vCNiJ1i83rF58B-WhCXFiRb8n2XJPFZJvMq22JB4zSw_UhdvZXB7KgeqYVZxcA0gkr3flEXYKTIlwh9f2TCljnD0lV1VJASx7PXRish694aP8r7UuGVgauKo55A/s400/100_0886.JPG" /></a> </div><br />
Now, it's a rare occasion when we have leftover taco meat. The other day we had leftover rice and no taco meat, but the kids were clamoring for TRC. On the fly I came up with PRC - Pizza Rice and Cheese. I threw some rice in a bowl and chopped up a few pepperoni slices and some cheese. We didn't have any unfrozen pizza sauce so, in another moment of desperation, I stirred in some tomato paste and Italian seasoning. They LOVED it and I love having two frugal, easy meals to add to our lunch rotation.<br />
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I'll be linking these "recipes" to <a href="http://beautyandbedlam.com/">Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday</a>.</div><br />
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<center><a href="http://blessedwithgrace.blogspot.com/"><img alt="Blessed with Grace" src=" https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz6zGvXzSuxeMafOVxhplUTrX0sv3qzQl5h5xJajNsDVZOVaveMJiGCwdfmkjP6oSy-Ryo4L1d24EQ7xA7r9tb0lIaQcng3201SIPsHjfJJTzHEMBvemEnjqJ2M35gzuAP_XIgOIv8gnUN/s200/tmtt3.jpg" /></a></center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><a href="http://allthesmallstuff-cole.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i432.photobucket.com/albums/qq48/aprildurham23/NicoleFButton.png" /></a></center><br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a><br />
<div style="clear: both; text-align: CENTER;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img align="middle" alt="Posted by Picasa" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" style="-moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; border: 0px none; padding: 0px;" /></a></div>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-14630976453100467132010-08-23T20:48:00.003-04:002010-08-23T22:10:28.422-04:00Bargain ShoppingSport and Spice started their homeschool enrichment classes again last Tuesday. We are lucky to have a mega church nearby that offers all types of classes for homeschoolers. So while they're busy learning dance, art, geography, video game creation, Lego mechanics, and music, I get to go workout in the church's fitness center and shop in the basement thrift store. What more could a mom ask for?<br />
The thrift store is small, but has unbelievable prices. I find that most church run thrift stores like this one or St. Vincent de Paul usually have the best prices. Amazingly, I wasn't in the mood for too much shopping, but as usual, I still managed to find some great bargains like this 99 cent Ralph Lauren turtleneck. Not many people are looking at sweaters when it's 99 degrees out, which is probably why they were running a 99 cent special. <br />
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqkW_lIm1brqs21qHg-TQwY8mICN24OjAL4DDjpQFvjRrEfaJT-nGB0S2-FHd32tMCG5gdlcaWUTAoiL4k4vxIKwCh8-2L3t9_k-95s5R87z7rnCP7uF8EpDT8_qis7XVX5FU_zKWw36M/s1600/100_1037.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqkW_lIm1brqs21qHg-TQwY8mICN24OjAL4DDjpQFvjRrEfaJT-nGB0S2-FHd32tMCG5gdlcaWUTAoiL4k4vxIKwCh8-2L3t9_k-95s5R87z7rnCP7uF8EpDT8_qis7XVX5FU_zKWw36M/s400/100_1037.JPG" /></a><br />
<br />
<div align="left">I also found this apothecary stye jar for a buck (shells included). I've been hooked on apothecary jars ever since <a href="http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/">Thrifty Decor Chick</a> first ran a post about them. My only problem is I'm never quite sure what to put in them. Any suggestions? I know the shells won't stay. We do have a large jar full of shells in our guest bathroom though so they'll be added to that collection. </div></div><div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipCELmhSB8KCYrlRTcaWErcMUnYcuocIhhsrjzc3zsrUCkyu1_l7kS25fwrjCpUTeHHnsh0fGOJA8wqNC0fJcehiN6fkMBR-UwDfSG_6y2eFWV4V2O4rd6ZtP3r86BnR1toGbwZ_axg10/s1600/100_1035.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipCELmhSB8KCYrlRTcaWErcMUnYcuocIhhsrjzc3zsrUCkyu1_l7kS25fwrjCpUTeHHnsh0fGOJA8wqNC0fJcehiN6fkMBR-UwDfSG_6y2eFWV4V2O4rd6ZtP3r86BnR1toGbwZ_axg10/s400/100_1035.JPG" /></a> </div><br />
My two favorite finds were this large letter C and this brass key for only 25 cents each! Can you believe that? <em>25 cents!</em><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEJf5K9WLvlEIMIbIcBdcao-FaqCan-ThLqmqPD6oM6KbadCBwRnJbEsRF4yiO6E8abOhX5_G5Rix7E4VVYervVxOt5D7uQW8RsAeeULcRO4EkiL3iMEiX-ZO7W_7TRMJeGol7zKjRfU4/s1600/100_1033.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEJf5K9WLvlEIMIbIcBdcao-FaqCan-ThLqmqPD6oM6KbadCBwRnJbEsRF4yiO6E8abOhX5_G5Rix7E4VVYervVxOt5D7uQW8RsAeeULcRO4EkiL3iMEiX-ZO7W_7TRMJeGol7zKjRfU4/s400/100_1033.JPG" /></a> </div><br />
I still have to figure out where to put both of them. I also snagged a 12 pack of white plastic hangers for 50 cents bringing my grand total for the day to a mere $3.18. Not bad if I do say so myself!<br />
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This post was linked to Today's Thrifty Treasures at <a href="http://southernhospitalityblog.com/">Southern Hospitality</a> and <a href="http://apronthriftgirl.typepad.com/">Apron Thrift Girl's</a> Thrift Share Monday.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px;" /></a><br />
<div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img align="middle" alt="Posted by Picasa" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" style="-moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; background: 0% 50%; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></a></div>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-74823027014363448472010-07-27T22:22:00.006-04:002010-07-28T21:12:25.284-04:00Angel Food Surprise CakeIt doesn't get any easier than this! All you need is this...<br />
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<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtZ24hI_TET6BOqlD_g5Ofmmqo_j9NvB-2DIim3_lIPbV0OQWM1hLWa5-l0m04_ZbU5wM9VPgvi_-LJOBMDUFGkiDLIAj_SJZM6bNpt2tVU9rIAMfCfSRI89Q3DEd5_w9mJkGjMATPmu4/s1600/100_0839.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtZ24hI_TET6BOqlD_g5Ofmmqo_j9NvB-2DIim3_lIPbV0OQWM1hLWa5-l0m04_ZbU5wM9VPgvi_-LJOBMDUFGkiDLIAj_SJZM6bNpt2tVU9rIAMfCfSRI89Q3DEd5_w9mJkGjMATPmu4/s320/100_0839.JPG" /></a> </div><br />
to make a delicious low-cal, low-fat, low-sugar dessert that the whole family will enjoy. (Well, except for Spice of course. She was out as soon as she saw that a fruit that was NOT grapes or apples was involved. Oh well, just leaves more for the rest of us.) To top it all off, you only need to dirty one dish - two if you count the spoon - to make this tasty treat.<br />
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Here's what you do:<br />
<blockquote>Dump angel food cake mix in an ungreased 8 x 12 sheet cake pan. Add in 16 ounces of crushed pineapple in its own juice. Stir with a spoon and watch it grow. (Sport really likes this part. I'm sure there's a science lesson in there somewhere. I just haven't figured it out yet.) Once well mixed, pop it in the oven and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. We like to top it with Cool Whip - fat free of course.</blockquote><br />
This post is linked to <a href="http://beautyandbedlam.com/">Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday</a> and <a href="http://wearethatfamily.com/">Works For Me Wednesday</a> at We Are That Family because any dessert that my kids can make from start to finish works for me!groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-6828922121102346652010-07-07T21:58:00.000-04:002010-07-07T21:58:23.225-04:00DIY Easy Bake Oven RecipesI planned to save this post until next week's <a href="http://wearethatfamily.com/">Works For Me Wednesday</a>, but when I logged onto We Are That Family today and saw the topic for this week was favorite summer recipes I figured I'd better go ahead and get posting. This isn't your typical "summer recipe" but if you're looking for a way to keep the kiddos occupied, these are a lot of fun!<br />
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If you have a young 'un with an Easy Bake Oven, I don't have to tell you how expensive the mixes are. Lucky for us, Santa left quite a few when he delivered the oven this past Christmas. We've just about run out though, and honestly, they're not so tasty. Awhile back I came across a website with recipes to make your own EBO mixes. I filed it away in the back of my mind until last night.<br />
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<br />
Sport is in Louisiana visiting all the grandparents and cousins so Spice and I have been trying to do some girly things. Today she had a friend over so we broke out the EBO and they made their <i>entire</i> lunch in it. Who knew you could make things like pizza, quiche, and quesadillas with nothing more than a heap of plastic and a light bulb? Here are the two concoctions we cooked up today:<br />
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<blockquote>Bean and Cheese Quesadilla<br />
<br />
whole wheat tortilla<br />
cheese<br />
Frito Lay bean dip<br />
dab of butter<br />
non-stick cooking spray<br />
salsa<br />
<br />
First we folded a soft taco size tortilla in half and cut out a circle the size of the EBO pan. (You can get 4 circles out of one tortilla this way.) Spray some olive oil in the bottom of the pan. Place one tortilla in the pan, cover with cheese. Spread about 1 Tbsp. of bean dip on the second tortilla then place it bean side down on top of the cheese. Put a dab of butter on top and bake for about 7 minutes. Serve with a side of salsa for dipping.</blockquote><br />
The girls gave this a big thumbs up.<br />
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For dessert, we made peanut butter cookies:<br />
<blockquote>1-1/2 Tbsp. peanut butter<br />
1/4 cup flour<br />
1 Tbsp. butter<br />
sugar<br />
chocolate chips<br />
<br />
Combine peanut butter, flour, butter, and 2 tsp. sugar in a small bowl. Stir until it comes together. Separate dough and roll into small balls (about 1/2 inch). We used natural peanut butter so we rolled them in a bit of sugar before baking to sweeten them up a bit. Place 3-4 balls in EBO pan and flatten gently with thumb. Place 1 chocolate chip in the center of each cookie. Bake for about 7 minutes.They're pretty crumbly when they come out so let sit for a few minutes before removing from pan. This made 12 tiny cookies.</blockquote>Here are a couple of links for more EBO recipes. Soon I hope to have the kids cooking dinner with the thing.<br />
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<a href="http://www.eborecipes.com/index.shtml">EBO Recipes</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.budget101.com/frugal/easy-bake-oven-mixes-187/">Frugal Easy Bake Oven Mixes</a><br />
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<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; border: 0pt none ! important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-81704936998387200372010-07-07T14:04:00.000-04:002010-07-07T14:04:27.274-04:00Free Chick-fil-A!Are you in the moooood for free food? I hope so because that often overlooked holiday, Cow Appreciation Day, is <i>this</i> Friday. To celebrate, Chick-fil-A is giving away free chicken to customers dressed like a cow. Anyone in full cow regalia gets a free meal. If you're too classy to go all out, you can at least get a free entree' by donning a cow print shirt, scarf, handbag, or anything cow related. If you've always dreamed of wearing a cowbell around your neck, this would be a good time to do it! <br />
If you need help getting started here are a couple of links to printable cow masks that you can make at home:<br />
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<a href="http://www.freekidscrafts.com/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_patterns&id=742">Design Your Own Cow </a><br />
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<a href="http://www.leehansen.com/printables/masks/cow-mask.htm"> Mean Cow </a><br />
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<a href="http://www.printable-masks.com/cow_mask.html">Cute cow (available in color or black and white)</a><br />
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Or you can go straight to the source and download the official <a href="http://www.cowappreciationday.com/assets/pdfs/costume_kit.pdf">Chick-fil-A Cow Starter Kit</a>.<br />
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This post is being linked to <a href="http://wearethatfamily.com/">Works For Me Wednesday</a>. <br />
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<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; border: 0pt none ! important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-90659044087696527582010-06-29T21:44:00.002-04:002010-06-29T21:48:34.806-04:00Homemade Cake Batter Ice Cream<div style="margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg04prTinwDvtCWjhrgu5Y72thy4ZG3gDPAWVymR6MulcTIYcXpw8rS-da94LYVA6VUlzdB966lIw6-5nExqzG0P8QURUqmox-ztTtqGsf1Y1ea8oFEtX4LFO-umUrOCqx_8HwAhlDA32M/s1600/Picture_084_l.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg04prTinwDvtCWjhrgu5Y72thy4ZG3gDPAWVymR6MulcTIYcXpw8rS-da94LYVA6VUlzdB966lIw6-5nExqzG0P8QURUqmox-ztTtqGsf1Y1ea8oFEtX4LFO-umUrOCqx_8HwAhlDA32M/s320/Picture_084_l.jpg" /></a> </div><br />
I admit, I have a thing for cake batter. My favorite flavor snowball is wedding cake. Even when I tell myself over and over that <i>this time I'm going to order something different</i>, I always cave at the end and go for the sweet taste of cake. On those rare occasions when I set foot in a pricey ice cream shop, the only thing that can tear me away from peanut butter and chocolate goodness is cake batter. If cake batter is on the menu, I'm ordering it. If I had been in Marie Antoinette's shoes, I would have shouted, "Let them eat cake...BATTER!" So I may be a bit biased when I tell you the kids and I whipped up some homemade cake batter flavored ice cream Sunday and it was awesome! It would have been even better if I hadn't scorched the mixture ever so slightly. It was barely noticeable though and the kids had no complaints. I'm sure if you asked them, they'd say they're used to mom burning stuff. But a day later there wasn't the slightest trace of ice cream left and Hubby wasn't even here to get in on the action. I hope to get<br />
more made up for the 4th. It just isn't the 4th of July without homemade ice cream and this will make a nice change from boring old vanilla. Guess I'll have to replace the leftover red and green Christmas tree sprinkles we used for a topping with something a little more American though! I found the original recipe on <a href="http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cake-Batter-Ice-Cream/Detail.aspx">All Recipes</a> and made a few changes. Here's my lightened up version:<br />
<blockquote><br />
1 cup milk (I used 1% Hood Simply Smart)<br />
1/2 cup white sugar<br />
2 egg yolks, beaten<br />
3 teaspoon vanilla extract<br />
2 cups evaporated skim milk<br />
3/4 cup white cake mix, sifted<br />
<br />
Whisk all ingredients together in a saucepan until well blended. Cook over medium-low heat until mixture reaches 160 degrees F. <i>Stir constantly!</i> I only stopped stirring for a second to put the milk back in the fridge and the mixture was already beginning to stick to the bottom of the pot. Remove from heat and cool in the refrigerator or freezer.<br />
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Pour the chilled mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions. Once it has the texture of soft-serve ice cream sneak a little for yourself all the while telling your kids it's not ready and needs to harden some more. Place whatever's left in the freezer in your ice cream maker's container or in a lidded plastic container to harden. </blockquote><br />
Next time I will double the recipe since this only made about 8 small servings. I also want to try cutting the sugar down to about 1/3 cup. As is, it was not too sweet, but I think the sugar could be reduced some without it making much of a difference.<br />
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This post is being linked to <a href="http://beautyandbedlam.com/">Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Parade of Foods</a> and <a href="http://wearethatfamily.com/">Works For Me Wednesday</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; border: 0pt none ! important;" /></a><br />
<div style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img align="middle" alt="Posted by Picasa" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 50% transparent; border: 0px none; padding: 0px;" /></a></div>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-19678068378729600712010-06-23T21:10:00.005-04:002010-06-23T22:46:27.408-04:00Learning All Summer Long - Fun Boredom BusterWe are on the go <span style="font-style: italic;">a lot</span> during the summer. It's rare to have one of those days when there's absolutely nothing on the schedule and no where to go. Even so, when one of those rare days comes along, the kids start getting restless. I don't think they've ever actually uttered the words, "I'm bored" but it's pretty obvious they need something to do when they're laying on the floor, rolling around on top of each other, and arguing. A couple of weeks ago when one of those rare days rolled around, I was prepared.<br />
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Spice received an <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Bake-Oven-Center-Hasbro/dp/B001DI4VN0?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Easy Bake Oven</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001DI4VN0" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> for Christmas and sadly the only time she has actually used it was to bake hubby a birthday cake...on Christmas! I've been meaning to get it out again, but I knew Sport would want to be in on the action too. So to drag the fun out as long as possible and keep everyone involved I came up with a BRILLIANT idea (that's my opinion anyway).<br />
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While the kids weren't around (another rare occurrence) I wrote this on our dry erase board:<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Help Wanted<br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Baker - Young female needed to bake cakes and cookies. Must have experience with mixing and stirring and know how to operate an Easy Bake Oven.</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;"><br />
Quality Control Manager - Experienced cake and cookie eater needed to taste baked goods and determine if they meet our high standards. Must be able to communicate likes and dislikes well. May be required to taste icing or frosting on occasion.<br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-style: italic;">See Mom to apply.</span><br />
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When they came downstairs later looking for some entertainment (i.e. me), I directed them to the board. I was worried Sport may be jealous he did not get to actually bake. Instead I heard him exclaim, "YES! I got the best job." They ran to see me, ready to get to work. I told them it wasn't that easy and that they must first apply for the job. I gave them each an application I had found online and printed out and had them fill it out. This was a great educational opprotunity. They were able to practice filling in a form asking for their name, address, phone number...as well as answer harder questions like "What previous experience have you had that can help you in this job?" and "Have you ever been convicted of a crime?"<br />
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Once the applications were turned in, I called them each in for a one-on-one interview with the boss. It was funny to see how nervous they were that they might not actually get the job. During the interview I threw in some random school type questions like "Can you do math? What's 7x9?"<br />
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I'm pleased to report both of my kids had a great time. They took their jobs very seriously and there was no fighting over who got to push the cake pan into the oven or who got to eat the first cookie. They've been asking me when we'll do it again. Lucky for them we have another lazy day coming up tomorrow!<br />
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This post is being linked to We Are That Family's <a href="Works%20For%20Me%20Wednesday">Works For Me Wednesday</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="border: 0pt none ! important; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-68832741837369637442010-06-02T22:09:00.017-04:002010-08-31T16:10:30.178-04:00Learning All Summer Long - Board GamesA while back I decided to clean out our game/puzzle cabinet. Here's a <span style="font-style: italic;">before</span> picture of all the games and puzzles. This doesn't include the stack hidden behind the couch...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi47vu5WnoLanb7xEDAQbM2hozALXXJRrw4Tno4sjumi-F0gRFeEw6a9bAcKicHZ55bmd1yltKN-Iv4kAC_708-ndGj4Y7hItXUzjqV-xiwKC6zHtE9nZBuKbj3c3lWt4S4MxFsHikYwlg/s1600-h/100_8002.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi47vu5WnoLanb7xEDAQbM2hozALXXJRrw4Tno4sjumi-F0gRFeEw6a9bAcKicHZ55bmd1yltKN-Iv4kAC_708-ndGj4Y7hItXUzjqV-xiwKC6zHtE9nZBuKbj3c3lWt4S4MxFsHikYwlg/s400/100_8002.jpg" /></a><br />
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Sadly, the <span style="font-style: italic;">after</span> shot didn't look much different. The fact is, we LOVE to play games (and do puzzles) so while our game cabinet is bursting at the doors, it's really hard to clear out too much when we really do play them all. I've bought pretty much every one of our games at garage sales or thrift stores, or picked them up for free at one of our <a href="http://grooviemom.blogspot.com/2009/09/swap-party.html">homeschool</a> swaps, so for us board games are a way to have a <span style="font-weight: bold;">lot</span> of fun at a <span style="font-weight: bold;">very low</span> cost. I lean heavily towards games that have an educational purpose. That's just my way of sneaking in a little more learning each day. We use board games regularly in our homeschooling as well to spice things up a bit.<br />
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I think <span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> board games provide an opportunity for learning...patience, focus, winning and losing gracefully...but some teach much more than others. Here's a look at some of our favorite educational games:<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004NKL3?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00004NKL3">Smath</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00004NKL3" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><br />
Consider this a math version of Scrabble. Instead of spelling words, players create number sentences using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Though it is difficult, Spice plays this game too. I have access to her tiles and will guide her in coming up with equations, but leave a certain # out for her to figure out for herself. For example, I'll say, "Place your 3 tile before the addition sign, place the four tile after it, add an equals sign and the answer." She'll look through her tiles and find the 7 to finish off the equation.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000IV34?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00000IV34">SET</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00000IV34" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
This is an awesome critical thinking game! Players lay out 12 cards and race to make sets of three. Sounds simple, but it's not. I have been making a real effort to teach Sport to FOCUS on one thing at a time. This game is excellent for that. If you're not giving it <span style="font-style: italic;">all </span>of your attention <span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> the time, you're toast! Spice has not played this with us yet. (It's hard!) But the last time we played, she watched and did call out a couple of sets of her own so maybe she's ready.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000IWD4?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00000IWD4">Boggle Jr. </a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00000IWD4" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
This game helps preschoolers learn their letters and beginning words. Players roll the letter dice and try to find all the letters needed to spell the word on their card. Players can see the word they are trying to spell to make it easier, or the word can be covered up for added difficulty once the child becomes more proficient at spelling and sounding out words.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00073JTQQ?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00073JTQQ">What's Gnu</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00073JTQQ" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
Similar to Boggle Jr., but geared towards early readers who can put together three letter words. Instead of dice, it uses a cool sliding dispenser thingy that kids love to spit out letter tiles. Spice could just sit and play with that part all day.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001RNC1EM?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001RNC1EM">Scrabble Junior</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001RNC1EM" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
Like the grown-up version, but has words already spelled out on one side of the board for players to match their letters to. More advanced players can turn the board over for a blank slate.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000IWH6?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00000IWH6">Yahtzee</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00000IWH6" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
Not much explanation needed here, but we use it for math practice. I let Spice count the dots on her dice when needed to add up her score. For Sport, I quickly scoop up the dice and have him add or multiply in his head.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004TZY8?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00004TZY8">Uno</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00004TZY8" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
This may not seem like an educational game, but if you have a preschooler it's great for reinforcing numbers and colors. When Spice first started playing, I pretty much knew every card in her hand so I easily could have run her over, but sometimes it's not about winning the game, but providing lots of practice on certain concepts instead. (I have to remind myself of that often.)<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000J15D?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00000J15D">Go Fish</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00000J15D" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
Another one that's good for number and color recognition. Even those he's mastered those skills, Sport still likes to play this game. That darned fishing pole is just too much fun!<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000IWD2?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00000IWD2">Monopoly Jr.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00000IWD2" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
After I played my first game of Monopoly Jr., I knew I'd never go back to the grown-up version. Monopoly Jr. is fun, easy to follow, and most importantly, doesn't take 3 hours to play. This is a favorite of Sport and Spice. In the beginning, Sport was our banker, but lately, Spice has taken over that role and is getting in tons of math practice.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000IWC6?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00000IWC6">Trivial Pursuit for Juniors</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00000IWC6" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
I picked this up at an estate sale in my neighborhood recently and much to my surprise, the kids have really enjoyed it. There are questions that are easy enough for Spice to answer, but sometimes if she gets one that's too hard I might rephrase the question or make up a different one altogether. No one's ever the wiser. The science questions are much more on my level too! Most importantly, both Sport and Spice have been able to spout off facts they remember from the game.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W8JPMY?ie=UTF8&tag=grooviemom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000W8JPMY">Wiz Kidz</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=grooviemom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000W8JPMY" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
There are two decks of cards, one with a set of topics like "a piece of furniture" or "something found at the mall" and another deck with letter cards. Two cards are flipped over at the same time and players try to be the first to come up with a word that fits the category and starts with the correct letter.<br />
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Money, Money - A Discovery Toys game that is no longer produced, but if you see it at a garage sale or thrift store snatch it up. Players make their way across a board earning or spending allowance on every space for things like recycling cans or feeding the fish. The player with the most money at the end wins.<br />
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Math Magic - A self correcting game by Ravensburger that focuses on addition and subtraction.<br />
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Don't forget old fashioned favorites like dominoes (great for math skills with all of its different scoring versions), checkers, chess, and a good ol' deck of cards. Sport and Spice have been hooked on Solitaire lately (another one that I hope will improve Sport's attention span.) I think there is a Bingo game available for pretty much any subject too. We probably own about 95% of them - addition, division, ABCs, human body, Spanish...<br />
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This post is linked to <a href="http://wearethatfamily.com/">WFMW's</a> "Mom I'm Bored" edition.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; border: 0pt none ! important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-69932988533430134282010-06-01T22:01:00.019-04:002010-06-02T00:04:23.641-04:00Learning All Summer Long - MathWe Are That Family is hosting a special boredom busters edition of <a href="http://wearethatfamily.com/">Works For Me Wednesday</a> this week. We keep boredom at bay around here with lots of games, preferrably educational ones. Over the next week or so, I plan to write a series of posts about how we keep learning all summer long.<br /><br /> Did you know in Singapore children attend school 25o days of the year? Japanese students log 243 days, while those in Scotland, The Netherlands, Israel, South Korea, and Thailand total 200 or more. Heck even the French spend more days in school than Americans, and their countrymen are on vacation for more than a month out of every year. Is it any wonder our students lag behind the rest of the world in so many areas?<br /><br /> Call it "brain drain" "education eraser" or "loss of learning" the 2-3 month summer break students so look forward to only makes matters worse. It's estimated the average student loses 2 months worth of learning each summer. As homeschoolers, we could easily school year-round, but we don't. I admit, I like my summers and haven't been able to give them up completely although they do keep getting shorter. : ) Our summer break officially started last week, but being the sneaky mom I am, I continue to sneak in all kinds of educational activities for Sport and Spice. Sometimes they're on to me, other times they're clueless. This post will focus on the subject that seems to suffer from "brain drain" the most...math.<br /> <br /> Sport will be reviewing his multiplication and division facts everyday. We could go the boring old flashcard drill route, but why do that when you can have FUN! Here are some of the ways we practice basic facts (any of these games can easily be adapted for addition, subtraction, or division):<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Target Practice:</span> Choose three (or more) multiplication facts for your child to practice (sixes, nines...) and write each of those numbers on a separate sheet of paper. If you want to go all artist like, draw a bull's eye on each piece of paper and write the number in the middle. Remove all of the number cards from a deck of cards. If you have a deck for each person, even better. Players stand behind a line and take turns trying to hit the targets with their cards. If a card lands on any part of the target, the player has to multiply the number on the card by the number on the target. If correct, the player earns that many points. If incorrect, the opposing player gets a shot. Set a number to play to and the first player to reach that # wins (200 works well for multiplication). As the child improves, make it more fun by adding in the jokers as wild cards. It's tempting to use the joker to create an easy equation, but a thinking student will realize a harder equation likely adds up to more points!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Football:</span> Draw a rectangle on a piece of paper. Mark off 2 end zones and 10 yard lines. Randomly label the yard lines with the numbers 1-10 (or whatever facts you want to practice). Make several footballs out of cardboard or heavy cardstock and label each with a #. Player 1 selects a football (without peeking). Starting at one end of the field, the player multiplies the # on the football by the # on the field. If correct he continues across the field. His turn ends after scoring a touchdown (and earning 7 points) or committing an error. Player 2 then takes over with a new football from his end of the field. Set a time limit in advance to keep things exciting and keep the game moving quickly. The player with the most touchdowns at the end wins.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Multiplication War:</span> Using only the # cards from a deck of cards, two players flip their cards over at the same time. The first player to correctly multiply the two numbers together and call out the product wins the pair. The player with the most cards at the end of the game wins.</span> <br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Use a clock to practice the fives times tables. Point to a number on the clock and have the student quickly call out the number of minutes it represents.<br /><br /></span> There are tons of websites and software programs that offer fun math practice as well. One of our favorites is Quarter Mile Math. Sport loves to race against his previous scores to try and set a new personal best time. Students can choose horse or auto racing. Parents get to set parameters to determine exactly what is practiced, for example addition facts for the numbers 1-5. The best part about it is both of my kids can use it. QMM topics range from kindergarten to 9th grade. At the kindergarten level, letter recognition is covered as well as numbers. Spice often practices finding what letter comes before/after another and identifying vowels or consonants. Sport has tried everything from multiplication, to fractions, decimals, division, and estimation.<br /> QMM is offering a $5 discount to anyone who orders the software using the following link:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.thequartermile.com/?rc=6V2W9%22%3E"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 165px; height: 178px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsa5w7Ehm38bNKauSkualVdLk1qs_HSpcAvXc-oPWK_c8PdNLPIuIBdOp99KsR3Gu-EWVGhT2pYjYflTifOM7owmBr-SiIb1CyvRc7XUfaaokMX4SbcPyjyfZBxTKEHd3_xJrZsNGw_w8/s400/qmm.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478010857742496626" border="0" /></a><br /> Another favorite around here is <a href="http://www.bigbrainz.com/">Timez Attack</a>. This program offers a truly entertaining way to practice times tables, but at $30 or more, is a bit pricey considering it only tests multiplication. We have enjoyed the free basic download available from the website though.<br /><br /> Hope this post gets you to thinking about how to sneak in a little learning this summer. Check back tomorrow for a look at some of our favorite educational boardgames.<br /> <br /><a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="border: 0pt none ! important; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-56543876708522924772010-05-26T21:32:00.001-04:002010-05-26T21:34:28.395-04:00Start the Bed Making Habit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwNXITiigLtLp1OhWFhhHMYkGUhuJBxLplpLp_iTkl-MeBZdkfpljRCL-__RGsyKgmGXDluDXd9puabTXY2MciL87ijsmPS6cbWnf2IIReuov5-i9zKkBiTnZC976Yypgb1mvITMl7ERU/s1600/wfmwbannerKRISTEN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwNXITiigLtLp1OhWFhhHMYkGUhuJBxLplpLp_iTkl-MeBZdkfpljRCL-__RGsyKgmGXDluDXd9puabTXY2MciL87ijsmPS6cbWnf2IIReuov5-i9zKkBiTnZC976Yypgb1mvITMl7ERU/s1600/wfmwbannerKRISTEN.jpg" border="0" /></a></div>One thing I've always wanted my kids to do automatically is wake up each morning and make their beds. I learned from <a href="www.flylady.com">FlyLady</a> a freshly made bed can make a huge difference in the appearance of a room and the sooner it's made, the better. But face it, in the morning rush getting the bed made is usually low on the list of priorities.<br />I know, I know...we're homeschoolers so sending the kids back upstairs to make their beds before starting work for the day shouldn't be a problem, but you'd be amazed how a simple task like going to make the bed can turn into a 20 minute ordeal, what with all those Legos and books around begging for attention. So it's a job that rarely gets done at our house, by the kids anyway.<br />Now that summer's here, I plan to change that. I've been priming Sport and Spice to wake up and make their beds as soon as they jump out of it. This has been especially exciting for Spice who just moved to a big girl bed this weekend. I've made a bit of a competition out of it to see who actually remembers to make their bed before coming down for breakfast. So far, Spice has been spot on each morning. Sport has needed a reminder here and there, but at least he hasn't. And at this point, if he gets lost in Legoland for an hour or two, who cares? Today we had friends come to play unexpectedly so I took the opportunity to point out how good they must have felt by having a neatly made bed ready and waiting.<br />My hope is by the time summer is over this bed making bit will have become a nicely formed habit and once we start back to school, making beds will be as natural as eating breakfast in the morning.<br />Hope this idea works for you. Head over to <a href="http://wearethatfamily.com/">We Are That Family</a> for more helpful hints and tips.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; border: 0pt none ! important;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8673764419192910703.post-41428475107033400442010-05-12T21:15:00.005-04:002010-05-12T21:27:21.704-04:00Free Summer Movies<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwRbxudow_j293Tg3ar1aAh96WTDDIeMCtINSBiEALimPTdXcDRIAvMIbS1Zq-NfWknEfwSUzjw9CwqvcNzXIbStKRopiF9rB_TRGpZ9lJflU_w_QP_1mPznYm0WknWQ3e6Gwy-oOGWsg/s1600/wfmw.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 230px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwRbxudow_j293Tg3ar1aAh96WTDDIeMCtINSBiEALimPTdXcDRIAvMIbS1Zq-NfWknEfwSUzjw9CwqvcNzXIbStKRopiF9rB_TRGpZ9lJflU_w_QP_1mPznYm0WknWQ3e6Gwy-oOGWsg/s400/wfmw.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470558613005205954" border="0" /></a><br />School's almost out and that means finding new and exciting ways to entertain your kids every. single. day. for the next 12 weeks or so. When it gets too hot outside, head over to Regal Cinema for their <a href="http://www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/familyfilmfestivalschedule.aspx">Free Family Film Fest</a>. We are not big movie watchers around here so we don't run to the theater every time a new kiddie movie comes out. The free movies are a real treat for us because we get to see new shows and not be too disappointed if one's a dud.<br /><br />If you have kids who are easily spooked like mine, check out <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">thorough</span> reviews of each movie <a href="http://www.usccb.org/movies/">here</a> beforehand.<br /><br />This post is linked to <a href="http://www.wearethatfamily.com/">We Are That Family's</a> Works For Me Wednesday.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/69/9CB200321DD447783722C2E7BC7F2E2B.png" style="border: 0pt none ! important; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;" /></a>groovie momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02211429197412434283noreply@blogger.com1