School planning- part 3

I bought the stars you see, hopefully, to use as a reading log for our wall.  I am looking for something cute to draw on a white poster board with an inspiring reading/ star quote.  I hope i' ll find something.

Distraction projects

I figured that with all my planning it would be good to come up with a few activities or projects that are not school centred but fun centred therfore giving the  kids the idea that they are being given a day off, or afree day. They would be  learning something anyway, but kids like a break from scholarly learning.

1. World license plates - a cool site to see all the different license plates in  the  world.  Using Ontario plates guidelines they can create their own vanity plates to put on the wall.

2.Family newsletter - write about what they are learning, loving, hating, things they've seen and  done etc.

3. Postcrossing.com - postcard program with people worldwide

4. X-Mas thumbprint ornament project with photo glued to one side.

5. Create a country

6. Artist appreciation- learn about an artist,  view some of their work, recreate a piece your own way...add names and dates to abc book

7. Grow bulbs in water indoors, measure and chart their progress

8. Glow in the dark bowling at home- use plastic pop bottles filled with water, crack a glow stick and put one in each bottle and close tightly, trydifferent kinds of balls to find one strong enough to knock them down but not break open.

9. Treasure hunts- using pictures, words and riddles or clues

10. Bake cupcakes and decorate them to look like dirt and worms

11. Activities from 3 puzzle books

For now these 11 will do, but as ifind more i may add them here and on my pinterest page if it is an online tidbit.

School planning- part two

Alright, math will be relatively easy/ straight forward....each has an hour of one on one tutoring time with me, our visual math dictionary, and whatever manipulatives they need, as i've got plenty!

Let's just hope baby cooperates with my time managing methods to get this accomplished!

I have devised a unit study for Chet to learn about nursery rhymes.  Our first unit will be Little Bird.  So, there will be a lot of bird projects, writing practice, cutting and pasting and colouring. We will then pick a bird to learn about and create a poster board to highlight interesting facts. There are also 1-2 minute cartoons on youtube for a bunch of rhymes so it'll be fun to see it another way.

Language learning will be done at home this year using the free program from BYKI.com in hungarian as this is my hubby's family heritage. We will also be using our hungarian/ english dictionary and the hand full of picture books we already own....hmmm maybe a new one would be good, maybe one where we can also own it in english for context.

Chet will also be receiving half hour reading lessons from Hooked on phonics kits from chapters. They do really work well for him after enjoying phonics cartoons from leapfrog.

For group work we will be doing exercises from crime scene who dunnits, dr.dooriddles, and some comprehension detective assignments. Alexwill do more detailed assignments from the comp.detectives on his own.

I have a writing assignment book called 1001 writing projects, that i haven't yet decided on how often it should be done. They only take about 15 minutes to do, so i wonder if Alex already has too much to do to use this every day or every second day.

It's hard to decide how their work load "feels". Is it sparse, too busy, too long, too easy? I mayjusthavetotryit as it is for now and wait and see.

As i only want to plan for september to see how everything plays out i won't worry too much, i can edit or add in october.

School year planning- part one

Alright writing this post a second time as i forgot to save it.

I need a place to write out my ideas for this school year so i don't lose it, rewrite it to three different notebooks that I have going and to see if it makes sense at all.

So for September:

• How to eat fried worms : • each day a chapter will be read aloud
                                               •Alex will correct/edit a passage from the chapter        that I have written out incorrectly
                                               •Chet will write out the corrected version of the passage for handwriting and reading practice
                                                • both will draw pictures for various assignments
                                               • Alex will have writing assignments at the end of the book as a review and one as an ending rewrite
                                                • both will create a poster for nightcrawlers research project(science) internal anatomy, food sources etc.
                                                • compare to movie
                                                 • vocabulary and dictionary research for unknown words used in the book

What's in a Name?

A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet...

So, how does one come up with a name for a company that will effectively stand at the forefront of all that this company will give the world??

Start with what I want my business to mean, what message I want to say with the products I am developing, how I want my customers to feel about both the company and it's products....does that sound right??

Why then is it so dang hard to do??

And why are all the names I come up with already taken??

My Morning Rant~A.K.A My Quest to change body image

As a mom, we run into many open opinions, comments and observations by friends, family, and even complete strangers.

It starts with the moment our first baby belly starts to show.  People offer advice, misguided or otherwise, and seem to think you belong to everyone, hence the belly touching.

Then you get more unsolicited advice, more pawing and ogling after the baby is born and you finally venture out in the world.

This is where my rant reallly begins.  I appreciate the comments of 'how beautiful' or 'so cute', but how about the awful comments?  Hmm?? 

Yes, they do actually exist and they always come with a smile, a cooing of somekind and the person speaking to your child as though you knew it wasn't directed at you and something you were doing wrong in their opinion.

The comments of 'my aren't you a chunky one' and 'you must be a big eater' or 'that's an interesting way to do...'

Listen up people, this world is hard, harsh and difficult enough without cramming your body image problems into the lives of growing, innocent babies and children!

Can anyone wonder how eating disorders start at such young ages???  They don't learn to criticize themselves without help.

So, if y'all don't mind....leave my baby alone...he is not chunky...and so what if he eats well, he's supposed to grow 2 to 3 feet in two years!  He needs the energy to keep up!

And on that note everyone should leave all children alone about their weight....it is the parents(caregivers) job to make sure their diet is healthy, not everyone else's.  Open comments are no business of anyone else.

Home-made Yogurt

I know I don't write often enough about my Sally-Home-Maker side and this post is meant to change that!  So bear with me a while.

After having read about two methods of making yogurt on keeperofthehome.org and another similar method in the amazing book called The Homemade Pantry-by Alana Chernila, I have decided to try this again!

It is absolutley amazing how much money I spend on yogurt.  Tubes, mini cups, larger tubs...incredible!  And I buy the cheapest priced and sale items whenever I can.

I bought my ingredients (and even splurged for organic milk!)  Then started to make my creamy(hopefully) concoction.  While I was waiting for the milk to warm I did the calculations to see how much it is costing me per cup to buy ready to eat tubs and how much to make my own...

Results?

0.75/cup homemade
1.33/cup store bought at 3.99/750mL tub

So, here it is:

2L.            Whole milk
5 tbsp.      Plain, unsweetened yogurt w/ probiotics
1 ice cube Large pot
5qt or larger crock pot
Candy thermometer

Directions: Take out a large cooking pot and place the ice cube in the pot, as it melts naturally, no added heat, coat the bottom of the pan with the cold water. When it is completely melted add your milk then the thermometer and turn heat on the medium. Take out your yogurt starter too come to room temp, and plug in your crock pot and set it on low to preheat, with the lid on. Wait and watch, stirring occasionally but making sure not to touch the bottom of the pot, use a metal spoong for this so there aren't any errant flavour from other materials being added to the pot. When your thermometer reads 180•F, turn the dial of the stove down a little to maintain this temp without dropping lower and hold it there for 10 mins or so. Then you will need to remove from heat and cool down your mixture to 100•F, so cover the pot with a lid and sit the pot in a few inches ofcold water in your sink. It should take about 10 mins, give or take. I like to put my starter yogurt in a glass measuring cup so when I need to mix in a little warm milk it is easy to pour back into the pot. That being said you need only mix a cup of milk to the yogurt to mix it evenly with no clumps in it then add it back to the pot. Stir it well then pour all contents into crock pot...unplug the unit now and wrap in towels to keep in the heat...let it sit undisturbed 6-12 hours. The time varies according to your taste, the longer it sits the more sour it will be. Carefully transport the crock into the fridge without shaking too much and when it is cold enough you can transfer to smaller containers. Be sure to save some as a starter for our next batch! Have you tried this? How did it turn out for you?