Poor Ila … she has hardly any updates just for her. I know, having a 3rd really shows in my writing … or lack there of. But, she is getting her 2 year update. =) Well, Baby #3 was a... Continue reading →
As I write this post I am relaxing while my children take naps … in Hawaii! Our family (and I mean my husband’s ENTIRE family-18 of us) are all vacationing in Hawaii this week. It has been Ah-mazing, and has... Continue reading →
I have had so many friends and readers asking about our science curriculum. Well, we finally started it!
This week was our first one back at school full time after our move to the farm. It has been great and everyone fell right into routine.
Part of our new routine includes our first real science curriculum: Elemental Science Intro to Science (which is on a Kindergarten level).
So far this curriculum is right up our family’s alley! It is based on the Classical and Charlotte Mason models of education; as you may know I LOVE teaching using those models and so far they fit my children’s learning styles well. It requires 2 books, 1)The Usborne Internet-Linked First Encyclopedia of Science and 2)More Mudpies to Magnets: Science for Young Children . The third book that is recommended, and I LOVE IT, is Handbook of Nature Study .
Each week you have options for 2 or 5 day lessons; we do a combo depending on how much time we have (it worked out to 3 days this week). You will have your lesson intro, experiment, student notebooking sheets that go with that experiment, and a nature study! (see a sample HERE). There are also short reading assignments for most lesson from the required supplement books above.
The lessons each have an experiment, which for me is awesome because A) it is all set up for me and I have the books I need for it and B) I am not good with hands on … so it is good that it tells me I need to do it! (plus my kids love hands on stuff). I did buy the experiment kit because of the move and everything, I just didn’t want one more thing to do. But everything in it is pretty easy to come by so you could easily set up your own kit to pull from throughout the year. It was about $42, and I wasn’t disappointed.
This week we studied how matter can states; from a solid state to liquid and back again using old crayons for our experiment (via the curriculum). We also did a little experiment that was in the science encyclopedia creating gas!
Then we took our science outside to do our very first nature study which was about pine trees. I did not do a lapbook for this nature study since it was our first week- we just drew/wrote in our nature study book . (look for another post about our nature study notebook soon!)
We are starting all of this very slowly and I don’t want to overwhelm Lexie with too much at once as she is still young, but she is soaking up every single thing we do. I will plan more in depth nature studies when appropriate. 🙂 Mister loves tagging along and wants to do all the same things we are doing, so of course he joins us.
Another thing that turned me on to ES is that in the later years they have tests included as part of the curriculum, along with everything else. Now, I do NOT believe in testing everything all the time. I do however think science is a great area to use test for assessment (and as a tool for learning to take tests when older). So there’s that …
Elemental Science so far has been a delight, and something both the kids (5 and 3yo) look forward to! I would definitely recommend it if you are interested in a Charlotte Mason, gently hands-on, Classical science curriculum.
This entry was posted in counter culture, family, homeschool, learning, PreK, preschool, routine, science, summary.
With groceries at an all time high, we are all trying to find ways to make our grocery budget stretch. I want to share a few ways you can make your meals go farther, using nutritious foods, on a budget.
Carrots in spaghetti– Every family as spaghetti lovers (in my house, it is everyone but me…) All you need is a cheese grater and you are good to go! Simply grate your peeled carrots into the spaghetti sauce (I use 2 carrots for a recipe with 2 pounds of meat). You can use this idea in any recipe that can handle a *hint* of carroty sweetness. You don’t even taste the carrots, really. But it adds bulk and therefore stretches that spaghetti for leftovers.
Zucchini in spaghetti– Basically do the same thing here, that you did with the carrots; only don’t peel them. You can even use one carrot and one zucchini. Not peeling them makes it easier to grate, and adds more fiber.
Fill in with rice or pasta– I am not huge on using carbs to fill in, because they don’t add a lot of nutritional value to a meal. However, I do use long grain brown rice (the regular kind NOT minute rice), and sometimes whole grain egg noodles to fill in recipes.
Use all of the vegetable– For instance, when I use bell peppers, I cut the tops off and use them in my recipe (just pop the core off). This is how I see it: that amount of bell pepper is the equivalent to what will be found in one bowl of my 2 year old’s dish. Cut off and chop up the stalks of broccoli and cauliflower when cooking them- no one is going to notice it is the stalk after it’s been cooked in a recipe. These parts don’t taste any different than the “main part” of the veggies- they just aren’t as pretty.
Always add a salad– This is so easy, and requires little effort. Add a salad to every dinner (even lunches) and you can make the main dish stretch farther. In our home, we all *love* my family’s Italian salad. It is simple- olive oil, red wine vinegar, and garlic with salt and pepper to taste. SO YUM!
Menu plan– this is a LIFE saver for me. Honestly, I am not sure what I did before I started menu planning? But how does this stretch your grocery budget? When you menu plan, you can make many dishes from the same ingredients. So instead of buying a bunch of celery for one dish, you make 3 dishes that week that call for celery- a whole chicken and roasted veggies, chicken soup, and maybe chicken salad. See a trend there? You can also make a whole chicken (or two) on Sunday (one in the crock pot, one in the oven), and then use the part of a chicken for one meal, and the leftovers for the soup, chicken salad, and maybe even BBQ chicken sandwiches for lunch one day.
Start a garden- This is obvious, but look at what your family eats the most of? We eat a TON of tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, squash, broccoli, and carrots. These are things we like to plant in our garden, they don’t require a lot of planning or caring for, just water and sunshine. =)
Price Match- I know we all hate Walmart, I have never met someone that says, “oooh, I just love going to walmart.” However, they price match! Don’t get the paper? Don’t have time to compare all those prices? Do a squick google search for a price matching blog in your area; it is almost guaranteed some lovely blogger has already done the hard work for you. In my area we have www.PriceMatcherz.com I *love* this website, and use it every time I go to the store. I write out my list, then add the pricematcherz price out beside the items on my list. I can’t tell you how much money this has saved me on produce like grapes, apples, and bananas. Now, if you have time to go to the other stores instead of price matching- good for you! And some of the smaller grocery stores also price match now, so no need to go to the Big Blue for everything.
Start eating smaller portions- This is a BIG one, and one we are working on here in our home (mainly because I need to lose weight from my second child haha). I let the kids have as much as they want- they are growing children with tons of energy,they need the third small bowl of chili more than I do 😉 But try cutting your first portion of everything in half, then if you are hungry go back for a second smaller portion. This will help create leftovers for lunches/dinner the next day.
Don’t buy processed foods- You know I am a huge advocate of eating real foods; whole foods that are not in a box, package, and are their own ingredient. Processed foods- chips, crackers, cereals- They’re expensive! Even if you have a coupon, it is cheaper and healthier to buy a real food version in bulk and prepare it yourself. Replace chips with homemade chips (simply slice potatoes and bake), crackers with baked crackers, and cereals with oatmeal that you dress-up yourself (using raisin, dried fruit & sucanat or Grade B maple syrup). This will save so much money and it is REAL FOOD. All of the above can be made ahead of time and stored, or frozen!