Monkey Man is starting Pre-K in the fall! This is such an exciting and nerve-wracking time! We "played" preschool last year when he wanted to, but this year we are officially starting. I have been reading about the various methods and curriculum available. Ultimately, I have decided not to use a packaged curriculum. I will be doing a combination of unit studies and pulling what I want to meet the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). A post on this to come.
I have ordered the books we will be using for writing, and I am really excited. The Usborne Wipe-Clean books will be great for Monkey Man! He loves wipe-clean books/cards and dry erase boards. These will teach him to write his numbers and letters (1) (2). I will also use his dry erase board and continue using the worksheets from Skill Building Early Learning Activities, Pre-School, More Skill-Building Early Learning Activities, Pre-School, as well as various dot-to-dot books and printables. This is a lot of worksheets, and the only reason I use them is that Monkey Man loves worksheets. I do not believe that most 4 year olds should sit at a table and do worksheets all the time. I do believe that you should follow your child's learning style and until he quits enjoying the worksheets, I will use them for him.
For our reading curriculum, we are using Usborne's Very First Reading Set. I am very excited about this one! It is a set of 15 books for kids learning to read. Each book gets a little harder and introduces new phonemes. There is also a parent guide and a website that allows you to get additional activities to use with the books. Monkey Man has been really wanting to learn to read, so I figure we'll go with it as long as he keeps interest. Reading is so important, and it is something I really don't want to push. I want him to love to read and I think that enjoyment and love will be lost if he feels forced!
This is all of the specific subject material that I have picked so far. I only have about a month until we start school, so I really need to get on the rest of it! I know we will be doing a body unit for science and probably some fun science experiments. We always do lots of crafts, and Monkey Man has expressed interest in playing guitar and/or piano and taking acting lessons. I definitely want to follow his lead for now, and try to make his interests fit into the CCSS.
Are any of you homeschooling moms? What curriculum choices have you made?
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Day Zero Project Update
It's been almost 2 months since I started the Day Zero Proejct. In the interest of accountability, I thought I would post an update of my progress. Here's a spoiler - it's not much! I'd love for you to join in and make your own list. If you blog about your list, let me know! You can also follow people's lists on the Day Zero Project website, so feel free to leave your name in the comments, so we can follow you!
Date started: February 10, 2012
Date to be finished: November 7, 2014
Bold is completed. Italics is in progress.
So basically I've watched a lot of movies. Oops? Perhaps I should write reviews of them to catch up on my 1 blog post per week. I also realized that I have some duplicates on here - go on a wine tour and go on a wine tasting. Those are pretty similar. And apparently I really want to clean out my closet. I guess we live and learn.
Date started: February 10, 2012
Date to be finished: November 7, 2014
Bold is completed. Italics is in progress.
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What's on your list? How are you progressing?
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
7 Week Meal Plan
How many of you meal plan? I have been a "meal planner" for quite some time now, but I kept finding that I was spending hours each week planning and making grocery lists. In fact, I often spent so long doing that part of it that we never got around to eating the things I'd planned! It was ridiculous. So I decided this year to plan the entire year, complete with grocery lists, so that I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. I planned January, and gave up. It was too much!
Then I had a new idea - make a few weeks of meals and rotate them throughout the year! It turned into 7 weeks of meals, complete with grocery lists. I started by making theme nights.
My themes are:
Sunday - Mexican
Monday - Vegetarian
Tuesday - Italian
Wednesday - Vegetarian
Thursday - Miscellaneous
Friday - Grill Night
Saturday - Open
I left Saturdays open so that if we had a night out or something came up we could switch things around without needing to rewrite the grocery list. I also left it open in case I wanted to try a new recipe.
We are in our 2nd 7 week rotation now, and I am loving it! It is so nice to have all of my meals planned and lists written so that I don't even have to think about it. I put my weekly planner and grocery list back to back in a sheet protector. Then I take the page protector out of my binder when I am ready to go to the store. I use a wet erase marker to mark things off that I already have at home (I prefer these to dry erase because they don't just wipe off), and then I use it to mark things off while I shop. When I get home, the meal plan goes on the fridge for the week. Between these two sheets I have all of the recipes I need that week. It saves me tons of time and paper because now I print it once, and have it for the entire year (or however long I keep this up).
Then I had a new idea - make a few weeks of meals and rotate them throughout the year! It turned into 7 weeks of meals, complete with grocery lists. I started by making theme nights.
My themes are:
Sunday - Mexican
Monday - Vegetarian
Tuesday - Italian
Wednesday - Vegetarian
Thursday - Miscellaneous
Friday - Grill Night
Saturday - Open
I left Saturdays open so that if we had a night out or something came up we could switch things around without needing to rewrite the grocery list. I also left it open in case I wanted to try a new recipe.
We are in our 2nd 7 week rotation now, and I am loving it! It is so nice to have all of my meals planned and lists written so that I don't even have to think about it. I put my weekly planner and grocery list back to back in a sheet protector. Then I take the page protector out of my binder when I am ready to go to the store. I use a wet erase marker to mark things off that I already have at home (I prefer these to dry erase because they don't just wipe off), and then I use it to mark things off while I shop. When I get home, the meal plan goes on the fridge for the week. Between these two sheets I have all of the recipes I need that week. It saves me tons of time and paper because now I print it once, and have it for the entire year (or however long I keep this up).
Do you meal plan? What's your planning method?
Friday, February 17, 2012
Day Zero Project
Have you heard of the Day Zero Proejct? It's pretty awesome. You make a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days (which is roughly 2.75 years). Your listed goals need to be measurable and specific, so no ambiguous language that could make it hard to determine if you actually met the goal or not. Other than that, the goals can be anything from short term goals like writing a letter to an old friend to long term goals like learning a language. The goals can be really important or just a lot of fun. Really it's open to whatever you want. I made my list last weekend, and now I'm going to share it with you. I'd love for you to join in and make your own list. If you blog about your list, let me know! You can also follow people's lists on the Day Zero Project website, so feel free to leave your name in the comments, so we can follow you!
Date started: February 10, 2012
Date to be finished: November 7, 2014
Bold is completed. Italics is in progress.
Date started: February 10, 2012
Date to be finished: November 7, 2014
Bold is completed. Italics is in progress.
| Sleep under the stars | |
| Leave an inspirational note inside a book for someone to find | |
| Go camping | |
| Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the Alphabet | (2/26) |
| Tie a note to a balloon and let it go | |
| Get a massage | |
| Go on a picnic | |
| Ride in a hot air balloon | |
| Buy a lottery ticket | |
| Have a baby | |
| Go on a cruise | |
| Go horseback riding | |
| Write a book | |
| Go ice skating | |
| Host a dinner party | |
| See a drive-in movie | |
| Clean out my closet | |
| Write a short story | |
| Learn to knit | |
| Sing karaoke at a bar | |
| Climb to the top of a tree and take a picture of the view | |
| Visit an old teacher | |
| Throw all of the world’s countries in a hat and pick 10. Read a book on each country’s history. | (0/10) |
| Learn how to play one song on the guitar | |
| Participate in NaNoWriMo | |
| Play paintball | |
| Take a random road trip | |
| Lose 20lbs | (0/20) |
| Clean out/organize my closet | |
| Make 10 items pinned on Pinterest | (0/10) |
| Write a list of 101 things I’ve already achieved in this lifetime | (0/101) |
| Read 50 new books | (0/50) |
| Organize the kitchen | |
| Go on a wine tour | |
| Play Mini Golf with my family | |
| Keep a “My Day in Six Words” journal for 6 months | |
| Write down 100 things that make me happy | (0/100) |
| Create an inspiration board | |
| Have dinner by candlelight | |
| Have a romantic weekend away in a log cabin | |
| Dance in the rain | |
| Become fluent in Spanish | |
| Relearn Japanese | |
| Go through closet and get rid of old clothes | |
| Write a letter to an old friend | |
| Write a screenplay | |
| Write a love letter to my husband | |
| Write a book of poems | |
| Write a children's book | |
| Get rid of 100 things | (0/100) |
| Choose 10 countries and read a book by an author from each | (0/10) |
| Take a photo of the same place every month for year and then turn it into a calendar for the next year | |
| Join a community garden | |
| Memorize the presidents in order | |
| Make fresh pasta | |
| Play a new board game | |
| Go Geocaching | |
| Put together a disaster preparedness kit | |
| Host a New Years Eve dinner party at home | |
| Learn to read music | |
| Write at least 1 blog post per week | (0/143) |
| Track every penny spent | |
| Start a book club | |
| Teach my son to read | |
| Get back into exercising at least 4 times a week | |
| Start a quarterly game night | |
| Have a homemade Christmas | |
| Build my kids' library to 500 books | (266/500) |
| Learn how to use a DSLR camera well | |
| Start a compost pile | |
| Plant a garden | |
| Plant a tree | |
| Sell books to 3 libraries or schools | (0/3) |
| Go on a family vacation | |
| Write a letter to myself to open in 10 years | |
| Go to a wine tasting | |
| Do 20 Usborne Book Shows | (0/20) |
| Go 1 week with no TV or movies | |
| Learn the names of all the countries in the world | |
| Quit drinking soda | |
| Start a new tradition | |
| Pay off my new car | |
| Sing karaoke | |
| Get a dog | |
| Organize e-mail (delete a lot) | |
| Organize my bedroom | |
| Organize the office | |
| Organize my kids' toys | |
| Write a non-fiction book | |
| Learn to play the piano | |
| Detail my husband's car for him as a surprise twice a year | (0/6) |
| Teach my son to write | |
| Complete a weekly marriage builder | (0/143) |
| Form an advertising network | |
| Try 5 new restaurants | (0/5) |
| Put in new floors | |
| Mail Christmas gifts on time | |
| Bake something for 10 friends "just because" | (0/10) |
| Find a system for organizing all of my papers | |
| Get my husband to do a 101 in 1001 list | |
| Make a new 101 in 1001 list | |
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Squeaky Bear's First Birthday!
Squeaky Bear turned 1 last week, so we had a family birthday party for him at our house. The theme was trains, and I kept it really simple. We bought some invitations at Dollar Tree and sent them to the boys' extended family.
Decorations were very basic.
Train cake - I used the Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake recipe from www.100daysofrealfood.com. A funny story about this cake - I forgot to put in the oil for the first batch. It was so good without it! I made the second batch with the oil, and it was definitely fluffier, but the first oil-free batch was much richer! The cake tastes great either way.
And what's a 1st birthday post without a messy cake face? Squeaky Bear's ice cream is the banana ice cream from 100daysofrealfood.com. It is super easy - cut and freeze bananas overnight, then mix in a blender with milk. Yum!
All in all our train party was a success. What 1st birthday party themes have you used?
Decorations were very basic.
Plates, Napkins, Cups, and Forks set up as a train engine.
Train banner with photos from ultrasound, 10 days, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 1 year!
Train set and food dishes.
And speaking of food, I served goldfish (after my homemade crackers didn't turn out because my food processor was too small!), homemade trail mix (nuts, dried fruit, and pretzels), and finger sandwiches with peanut butter, red pepper hummus, and pimento cheese.
Squeaky Bear and the pinata from his paternal grandmother.
Monkey Man and the pinata.
All in all our train party was a success. What 1st birthday party themes have you used?
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Family Date - Open Houses
Last Sunday I decided that the hubs and I need a date. However, on such short notice and with as picky as we are about sitters, I knew we'd have to take the kids with us. Then it hit me - we could go look at open houses! Sundays are great for that because there are always so many open houses.
We put in the price range on the state's mls lookup and the area we are looking to move to within the next few years. Nothing came up. We decided to pretend we make a lot more than we do and go look at houses that were a little out of our price range. Who knows, in 3 years when we are ready to move, they may be just right for us!
Then we mapped out our route to maximize the 2 hours that all of the houses were scheduled to be open. We took pictures of things we liked and took note of things we didn't like. We will put these in a photo album to look through when we get ready to work with an architect to build our dream home. That won't be for quite some time. In the meantime, we're enjoying collecting ideas.
I really love built-in shelves in closets. We saw several of these in the houses we viewed.
I'm not sure why, but I really like this ceiling.
Monkey Man and I both liked the little spice pantry at this house.
I absolutely must have a laundry room in my next house - with a folding table! In our current house, the washer and dryer are in the garage on different walls. It is very impractical and makes doing laundry take longer and require more effort. I am all for efficiency in the daily tasks, so that I have more time for my family!
I like windows in this shape. I'd really love to make this into a reading alcove!
The hubs and I both liked this brick work above the garage door at this house.
After we looked at 6 houses, we took the boys to Braum's for ice cream. Monkey Man loved looking around in the empty houses, but I think the ice cream was his favorite part!
We put in the price range on the state's mls lookup and the area we are looking to move to within the next few years. Nothing came up. We decided to pretend we make a lot more than we do and go look at houses that were a little out of our price range. Who knows, in 3 years when we are ready to move, they may be just right for us!
Then we mapped out our route to maximize the 2 hours that all of the houses were scheduled to be open. We took pictures of things we liked and took note of things we didn't like. We will put these in a photo album to look through when we get ready to work with an architect to build our dream home. That won't be for quite some time. In the meantime, we're enjoying collecting ideas.
After we looked at 6 houses, we took the boys to Braum's for ice cream. Monkey Man loved looking around in the empty houses, but I think the ice cream was his favorite part!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Welcome!
Welcome to my brand new blog! I am Ashley, a stay-with-the-kids mom to two wonderful boys: Monkey Man (3) and Squeaky Bear (11 months). Some people call me a stay-at-home mom, but let's face it, we're rarely home! I go where the kids go! I spend my days trying to keep the house in order, feed the family healthy foods, and raise my children to be happy, healthy, and well-behaved members of society. I intend to use this blog as a way to share some of my homemaking and child-raising adventures. I hope you find it useful, and I always welcome feedback.
I will not have theme days (at least to start) and I am not going to stick to a posting schedule (for now). I am going to post when inspiration hits me. Posts will cover all things homemaking from cooking to cleaning to homeschooling to games and activities for kids and families. There will be the occasional post on money-saving tips and bargain hunting. Really I am keeping this blog open to anything and everything in my life. Maybe you'll see a book review. Maybe you'll see a restaurant recommendation. Not everything will be useful or entertaining to you, and that's okay with me. Take what works for you, and ignore (or pass on) the rest! If there is ever something you would like to see on the blog, let me know.
Here's a peek at my life:
I will not have theme days (at least to start) and I am not going to stick to a posting schedule (for now). I am going to post when inspiration hits me. Posts will cover all things homemaking from cooking to cleaning to homeschooling to games and activities for kids and families. There will be the occasional post on money-saving tips and bargain hunting. Really I am keeping this blog open to anything and everything in my life. Maybe you'll see a book review. Maybe you'll see a restaurant recommendation. Not everything will be useful or entertaining to you, and that's okay with me. Take what works for you, and ignore (or pass on) the rest! If there is ever something you would like to see on the blog, let me know.
Here's a peek at my life:
These boys keep me going!
Photography credit goes to Mariya Bozhanova. She is an amazing photographer. If you are in the OKC area, check her out on FaceBook!
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