2015/16 Curriculum Choices

2015/16 Curriculum Choices

I can now say that I am very happy

 with my Curriculum Choices

for this year. In fact

happier this year than past years.

Here's (*Some* not all) of what we're doing....

~

6th Grade with Lil Miss Diva

Math - Accelerated Christian Education

 - Math - Grade 6

English - Accelerated Christian Education 

- English - Grade 6

Spelling - Accelerated Christian Education

 - Word Building - Grade 7

Lit/Home Ec/Bible - 

The Prairie Primer 

Science - Christian Kids Explore Science

Earth and Space

History - Early American History

__________________________________________

4th Grade with BanaBana

Math - Accelerated Christian Education

 - Math - Grade 4

English - Accelerated Christian Education 

- English - Grade 4

Spelling - Accelerated Christian Education

 - Word Building - Grade 4

Lit/Home Ec/Bible/ and more - 

The Prairie Primer 

Science - Christian Kids Explore Science

Earth and Space

History - Early American History

Some of the other things we are doing...

Spanish, typing, art, music, reading, and more

A little more info on our curriculum, and why we chose it..

below is my own personal opinion

 (this is my own personal opinion and no one else's, and I am not getting paid for writing my opinions in any way)

I grew up using Accelerated Christian Education 

I feel that it gave me what I needed...

it has sort of a bad rep online, and I have no idea why?

I love the Christian based curriculum!

it's set up to be used on your own 

or be taught

I love the boxes at the top of the page that remind you

of things you have already learned to refresh the child,

or to teach new material...

It's been updated since I was in school, and that's really nice too.

Having one dyslexic child I think that the Word Building is wonderful for her also!

~

I ran across the Prairie Primer online, and I thought it looked really neat. We are now in week 2 of using it, and we are LOVING it!

It's better than I thought, and it can also be used for a ton of other subjects if you wanted.

~

We had stumbled upon our Science before last years school started, and I really liked how it had so many hands on activities. The multi age level approach was also great for us since we have 2 girls in 2 different grades!

~ 

Easy Peasy History wouldn't have been my 1st choice for history, but surprisingly my kids are learning a lot! I love how they have the ability to listen to the online books too! My 4th grader does so much better when she hooks up her earphones. I love that my youngest has the option to listen to the books. This is defiantly a plus for children with dyslexia!

Special Delivery

Mid week last week we had a special delivery of a new baby cousin!!

So excited over this little blessing!

#proudauntie #cousins

Science - Learning About Earth

Last year we used Christian Kids Explore Science - Biology

 and 

we loved it so much that we are back this year using

CKE - Earth & Space

We started out the week coloring a structure of the earth coloring sheet..

Today we worked hard on making something special..

We used a hole punch so we could hang it from the ceiling 

Adventures with the Prairie Primer - Big Woods

Adventures with Prairie Primer - Big Woods

We are in week 2 of the Prairie Primer and loving every minute!

This week we made bread!

 

Adventures with Prairie Primer - Big Woods

Adventures with Prairie Primer - Big Woods

We've started reading the 1st book

Little House in the Big Woods 

and so far we love it!

This week we made butter!

All we did is pour heavy whipping cream in a glass jar 

and we shook it for about 15 or so minutes.

We ended up with butter & buttermilk 

Back To HomeSchool 2015/16

Back to HomeSchool 2015/16

We started out the day with the girl's favorite breakfast..

PANCAKES! 

I let the girl's pick their back to school breakfast.

Yum!

We got to work around 9am.. A little earlier than last year.

It's working really well for us!

We did a 1st day of school interview that we found on pinterest!

We did our school work.....

1st day of school photos!!

Icecream with cousins to celebrate the first day!

Later that evening...

The girls picked dinner and I ended up making ..

Walking Tacos

I think we had the best 1st day of school ever!!

a look back...

my babies are growing up!!

Grandma's Lasagna Re-Mix!

you will need...

9x9 Pan

Tin Foil

1/2 a box - lasagna noodles (uncooked)

1/2 a pack of pepperoni 

1/2 a pack of mozzarella shredded cheese (1 cup)

1/2 a container of cottage cheese about 4 oz

 (I hate cottage cheese but I love it in this!)

(give it a try!)

1 can of spaghetti sauce

1/2 cup of banana peppers

1 lb cooked ground beef

How you cook it...

Pre heat your oven to 350

In a pan cook hamburger meat, drain, and return to pan

add in spaghetti sauce

layer....

in a lined pan soon in a small about of meat mixture

3 noodles broke in half

more sauce

2 oz of cottage cheese

(take a spoon and spread c.c)

1/2 of your pepperoni

3 more noodles broken in half

meat mixture

the rest of your cottage cheese

(take a spoon and spread c.c)

the rest of your pepperoni

1/2 of your banana peppers

3 more noodles broken

the rest of your meat sauce

the rest of your banana peppers

top with moz cheese

cover the pan with tin foil

bake at 350 for 1 hour and 20 minutes 

(check to see if your noodles are done)

Enjoy!

This is a little remix of my grandma's lasagna 

My husband LOVES ricotta but I do not I think the taste is a little strong

and it over powers the lasagna

I like the cottage cheese instead... My grandma told me she had but cottage

cheese in her lasagna and I was a little surprised because I've never liked the stuff

but the taste in the lasagna is perfect... not to strong at all .. you can 

taste all the flavors in the lasagna

I added the pepperoni and banana peppers (my husbands favs!)

If you bake your noodles instead of boiling them

the lasagna will stay together

I hate when noodles go sliding everywhere!

Dry Erase Marker Hack

I dunno where I first seen this but I love it! 

We had a eraser but we kept loosing it so this is a lifesaver!

What you will need:

Dry Erase Markers (found mine at the dollar tree) $1

Pom Poms from the craft section (dollar tree) $1

Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

White Board HomeSchool Hack

I've been wanting our white board more accessible for awhile now

I like to sit with the girls at the homeschool table and teach

so...

white board + paint easel 

=

When I first started homeschooling I wanted our classroom to look like a real school room

now after homeschooling for awhile I realize that the best thing about having a 

homeschool room is comfort! Seriously I want to be comfortable while I teach! 

I also want the girls to be comfortable while they learn!

I think this is going to work out wonderfully! 

HomeSchool Table Makeover

 Our HomeSchool table has a new look!

The girls wanted to give our table a new look

What we used:

1 roll of chevron duct tape 

1/2 roll of groovy duct tape

1/2 roll of owl duct tape

Cost: $6.00 

or if you get 3 rolls like us $9.00

and you will have some to spare to make some other

duct tape things

A closer look!

easy to wipe clean

makes a ugly table cute

easy

cheap 

First Day Back To HomeSchool

Back when my girls went to public school we always had special things we would do to prepare for back to school time and special 1st day of school traditions.

Last year back to school time was BanaBana's 1st full complete year of home-school and 

Lil Miss Diva was still going to public school so we had a mixture of things going on at our house.

I am happy to say that this will be our 1st
Full year with both of the girls at home!

I'm so excited!! I know this will be a great year!

If you are new to the blog I started homeschooling BanaBana half way through

 1st grade and Lil Miss Diva half way through 4th grade.

So how are we getting ready for 3rd & 5th grade you may ask?

1. Home-School Room Clean Up

Major changes with the school room this year.

 We moved the school room upstairs..

It was A LOT of work but we finally have it put back together.

Moving or Not this room needed to be organized

for the upcoming school year.

2. Shopping

The girls and I picked up a few new things for the school room.

The girls always enjoy decorating in there!

The girls also picked up some things like new notebooks

(the cute overpriced ones... they never want the 50 cent ones that are on sale)

Pencils, Dry Erase Markers etc

Cute Crayon Pouches

and cute new lunchboxes for Home-School Enrichment Days

Getting a few new things really get the girls excited for the new school year!

3. Back To School Clothes? Oh yes!

Even though the girls aren't going to a public school that doesn't mean

I should miss out on some really good sales on clothes and shoes.

They love shopping !

4. First Day Outfit

The girls have always had a back to school special outfit...

taking time to pick their favorite outfit from our shopping trip

I wasn't about to leave this tradition!

We have decided to dress up for the 1st day of enrichment.

Last year I just let BanaBana dress up for the fun of it and that was ok too!

5. Picture Time!

I love those back to school snapshots !

Here are some from last year...

 This tradition will defiantly carry on!

Tradition Re-Mix

6. Hot Breakfast will become special breakfast

Those public school years .. It was so hard to get them fed and packed up 

ready to get to school I was lucky to make them a hot breakfast on the 1st day.

This year I plan on making them their favorite breakfast dishes on the 1st day since we have time to spare!

7. Special Packed Lunch will become special lunch together 

with their favorite lunch

dishes 

& best of all we get to eat together!

New Traditions...

8 .Growth Chart

I plan on marking their height for the 1st day of school and the last day of school

9. Journal Time

Last year BanaBana did this but Lil Miss Diva didn't get to

It will go a little something like this...

On the first day of school...

My Fav part of the day was...

10. Special Craft or Activity 

Bana Bana really enjoyed this last year and I know Lil Miss Diva will too

11. Ice Cream & Library

Not sure if this will be on the first day but defiantly the first week of school

12. Count Down

This was something new we have decided to do this year.

The girls enjoyed our countdown to beach week so much we 

decided to do a count down to back to school too! 

Looking forward to getting this school year started!

Summer Vacay is almost over...

Summer Vacay is soon coming to an end.

We've had a great summer!

So sad to see it coming to an end!

The girls enjoying the beach at the OBX

BanaBana enjoying the zoo

Lil Diva enjoying picking berries 

Smores with cousins

Bike riding with cousins

Thankful God has gave us this time for some much needed rest to prepare for the upcoming fall & winter.

“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14 

New

Time for a change!

New look for my blog!

New name!

New school year coming up!

Keena's Famous Lasagna

My sisters best friend makes some really good Lasagna ... here is her recipe

1 pound of ground beef, lasagna noodles,

1 jar of spaghetti sauce, 

1 and 1/2 cups of cottage cheese,

1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese, 

2 TBS of grated Parmesan cheese, 

and make as follows:

Brown ground beef and drain, spoon 1 cup of sauce in bottom of a 4 quart crock pot.

Mix remaining sauce with beef. Place 2 uncooked lasagna noodles on sauce in crock pot. Spread 1/3 meat mixture on top of noodles. Spread 3/4 cups of cottage cheese over meat. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese over cottage cheese.

 

Add another layer of uncooked noodles, 1/3 meat mixture, the remaining cottage cheese, and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Place another layer of uncooked noodles, meat mixture, and mozzarella cheese.

Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over top and cook on low for about 4 hours, but no longer because noodles will be tough! Enjoy!