Art Show!!

So this week Hailey was entered into an Art Show for Home Schooled students. She was so excited. It will be on display at the East Libarary for all of April. Then there will be an Art Reception for all her family & friends to attend April 29th.

She loves her Art.

Space, Stars, & Spring Break!!

So this weekend I found a great app for my phone. Galaxy Sky Map. It is so fun- it shows the stars, constellations, the planets all from the current point you are at. Hailey has a huge desire to know the stars just as I did as a child. So this is something great her & I will be able to share together. I am very excited.

As we have been started Spring Break this week we have not really done much as for our normal school work. But we still learn in the simplest of was in every day life. I love this part so much. Hailey is so super happy that her brother is home. He has read to her and just shared with her. They build things together. And today they have spent 90% of the day outside in the sandbox.

Happy Momma!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

This is one of my favorite holidays for so many reasons. I love green, I love irish food & it has always made me think of my grandma Weeden as she was Irish. I miss her to pieces.

So this morning, Hailey woke up to a scavenger hunt for a pot of gold. She laughed & had so much fun with the fun messages the Little Leprechaun left for her. Then she had Lucky Charms for breakfast actually 2 bowls. Then we just made clover shaped pretzels for lunch. So much fun to be had today. We had our dinner last night of corn beef & cabbage with red potatoes. As our Sat Nights are busy.  =D

Then today another great thing was that when Hailey was in public school she had started to dislike math a lot. But this morning after she found her pot of gold she turned & looked at me & asked if she could do her math. I was like wow really ok sure. This is the program Time4Learning. I am so happy. She is doing so well & having fun learning again.

I am a happy momma!

Have a wonderful Green Day!

I won!

Ok so I never win. Thats something my mom & Dan can do with ease, call the radio and win anything. I have tried & tried with no luck. lol So I was on a blog "Whimsical Homeschooling" to enter a contest and didn't give it a thought until yesterday when I got an email saying I won. It was not what I had entered to win. But it ended up being a wonderful blessing. It was a membership to abcteach.com and I have fallen in love with this place. Then lessons I have found, the crafts, every subject including sign language. YEAH! I am just so happy. It has been super fun researching and finding activities for Hailey to do these last two days. I have even found stuff that I can do with Donnie and Hailey at work. And they have fun!

~Blessings in Disguise~

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Spectrum Sight Words

Since before homeschooling we looked into fun was for Hailey to learn her Sight Words. We found that flash cards just were not getting the job filled completely. With Spectrum Hailey is using the sight words in sentences. She also works with writing and word hunts and reading. It is a wonderful way for Hailey to learn her site words and how to use them.

I really would love to share Spectrum Sight Words with anyone looking to Homeschool or to even just help in these areas.

Sign Language

One of things Hailey & I love about Homeschooling is we are learning Sign Language together. The library & you tube have been great sources for our learning. She is having a blast. I have always loved Sign Language since I was in 3rd grade. I really look back and the time I should have studied more. But now its very exiting to be learning with her.

=)

First Week with Time 4 Learning

Hailey really likes this math program. She is doing great with it also. She is still figuring out the Reading program but doing good.

She also found the playground which has many educational games for her to play & learn & the same time.

But I also found she gets a lot done in a shorter amount of time. We both like this a lot.

Looking forward to continue this program. =) Will keep you updated each week.

Can't wait to play this. hehe

Hug Freeze Tag

God loves each and every one of us very much. He gives us His love, and we

can also give it away to others.

A simple way we can show love to our friends and family members is by giving hugs. To begin, designate a safe place to play tag, either inside your home or in an open space outside. Choose one person in your family to be “it.” Her role will be to tag the other members of your family. Once she tags somebody, that person is now frozen. Once a person is frozen, he must remain that way until another unfrozen member of the family finds him and gives him a hug.

The game ends once the “it” person has frozen the entire family, or you feel it is time to select another “it” person.

Hailey's Art

Hailey is a vivid artist. She sees it and puts it to use. I love everything she creates. She has had no formal training. We just give her the tools and she does it all on her own. We will be giving her more mediums to work with. Like pastels, chalk, paint, and will be attending art events at any chances we can.

She also so is in choir and is growing with leaps and bounds, she has her first concert Sunday March 11 at 6:30 pm. So excited and she has been working hard to learn all her songs. As soon as all her class work is done she sings her songs, she goes to sleep singing her songs. I am so proud of her.

We will also be adding cooking to this creativity. She is very excited about this!

We are also looking for more outlets for her like Dance and maybe swimming. Just working out financial parts of these.

Time4Learning

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

4 Weeks into Homeschooling

Hello All as we are 4 weeks into homeschooling we are loving it! chalk is working on all her subjects she loves Social Studies & Science the most. And Art & Music of course. We just went & got her an easel to do her art. It has the chalk board, dry erase & paper. We will start working with pastels, chalk, colored pencils and painting. Social Studies has intrigued her interest of our presidents so we are going to be studying each one. Science is the earth science that she is most interested in we will start our small potted garden soon. We are reading American Girl & Little House on the Prairie and will be working with them in Lap Books. We will also be working with the Bear Snores On, Bear Feels Sick, and the other books. Math is still not fun so I am finding ways to teach her math that will be fun. Like Lego Math. =) I will be trying different curriculums until we find her match.

Our only wall we are really hitting is being around other kids. So working on finding homeschool groups to meet. But we are also doing Lib. trips, museum trips,  looking into dance classes, And roller skating saturdays. We are also very involved in Girl Scouts as she is a Juliette we are doing the city wide events instead of Troop events. But do hope when we move we can find a group in that area she can join.

I will be posting regularly. I'm excited to take this adventure with my bumble bee!

Slow-Cooker Vegetarian Chili With Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 28-ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
• 1 15.5-ounce can black beans, rinsed
• 1 15.5-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed
• 1 medium sweet potato (about 8 ounces), peeled and cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces
• sour cream, sliced scallions, sliced radishes, and tortilla chips, for serving

Directions

1. In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine the onion, bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, cocoa, cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Add the tomatoes (and their liquid), beans, sweet potato, and 1 cup water.
2. Cover and cook until the sweet potatoes are tender and the chili has thickened, on low for 7 to 8 hours  or on high for 4 to 5 hours (this will shorten total recipe time).
3. Serve the chili with the sour cream, scallions, radishes, and tortilla chips.