Finally Friday!

It's finally Friday! What a long week this has been, and we barely got any school work done. We'll just chalk this one up to a bad week and work harder next week.

• Monday: Labor Day:  Daddy was home so we took the day off too.
• Tuesday: Library Day! we read plenty of books and brought some home too! I love our library!
• Wednesday: seriously, there was something strange in the air that day. Alexis was plagued with the inability to focus or sit still, which made school work extremely difficult. 
• Thursday: Doctors appointment. . . ALL DAY!!!! the day was almost completely wasted between the hour long commute there, the FIVE hours actually at the hospital, and the hour drive back home. Thank goodness we brought three sets of flash cards with us, they kept her occupied (somewhat) and will count as our school work for the day.
• Friday: Babysitting Day: I loved every second of it! Alexis had fun with friends, and I got to spend my morning with amazing kids and the afternoon with an amazing woman. Couldn't ask for a better day. Lessons of the day: patience, sharing, and helping others! That counts as a school day, right?

Next week we plan on applying a little more focus to our lesson plans. Wish us luck! 

A few questions for all the homeschooling mommies out there: (just wondering what works for you)

1. Do you plan your curriculum around doctors appointments, or specifically ask for appointment times that will not interfere with your lessons?
2. Do library days count as a school day in your house? How often do you go to the library, and when you are there is it free learning time or structured to match you lessons for that week? 
3. How much emphasis do you put on "life lessons", and do you use those lessons as curriculum or just magnify them when the opportunity arises?

Whats for Dinner?

Who doesn't love a simple and simply delicious dinner recipe? This alfredo sauce is ready before the noodles are, and is it SO YUMMY!  This is the only meal I cook without Tony Chachere's, it's that good! Sometimes I serve with pan seared, boneless skinless chicken breasts, but this pasta dish can stand on its own. One day we will try it with seafood, or maybe even mushrooms and spinach. . . yum!

 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 Kraft Parmesan & Romano Cheese
3 egg yolks from fresh jumbo eggs
Salt and black pepper to taste

Procedures

1. HEAT milk and cream in a heavy bottom saucepan until it begins to simmer. Turn off heat. Slowly whip in cheese, then remove from heat.
2. PLACE egg yolks in a separate bowl and slowly whip in a portion of the hot milk and cream mixture. Slowly add egg yolk mixture back into remaining cream mixture. Place back on very low heat and continually stir until simmering. Take sauce off heat so it thickens. (This will increase temperature of egg yolks, known as tempering).
3. SEASON to taste with salt and black pepper. Serve over your favorite pasta.

Homeschool Week 1: Alphabet Activities

We have successfully completed our first full week of home school! Though it didn't go quite as I had planned, it went very well. Perhaps even better than I had planned! I started Alexis on pre-k Language Arts, which is perfect for her right now. She absolutely loves anything ABC oriented and it is good practice since she still gets mixed up on the letters that look the same (like "n" and "u"). However, I don't see her paying attention to the "letter of the week" lessons that are supposed to start next week. A letter of the day may be more suited for her level. We also started on kindergarten Reading/Phonics, and this is where my troubles really began. My child does not recognize "sight words". . . she reads them. She sounds out the letters of the word and can determine what the word is without ever seeing a picture. Of course, it is usually the simple words although she was able to figure out "dinosaur". We blew through almost the whole week of Phonics in one day, all stuff she already knew or easily picks up on. So, now we have no curriculum to follow.  I will still use Lesson Pathways, but I will have to speed up the pace, skip sections, and add lessons to it. Still, I am optimistic about homeschooling, even though my kid will outsmart me soon. I really will be dumber than a fifth grader, LOL! Here are some pictures of her fabulous Alphabet Activities.

Airplane Banner (Uppercase Letters)

Alphabet Scavenger Hunt

A is for Air Conditioner! Can you see the excitement?

Dining Room (please excuse the reconstruction in the bathroom)

Jump Rope ~ this game was tons of fun!

Q ~ because she is "Queen of the World" when she is up there.

Alphabet Caterpillar (Lowercase)

Alphabet Pathway

We live on a dead end road, so we used the whole thing!

Alexis called it her ABC hopscotch. 

You had to jump to a letter and then name it, we also did the letter sounds

All of the activities are in the Lesson Pathways curriculum for pre-k Language Arts. We also made letters out of play-dough and went to the library to read their ABC books. It was great practice, and it was a good way to ease into homeschooling. Next week, I will have a new curriculum and hopefully find lots of cool games to play that help keep the lessons fun!

What's for Dinner?

Last night I made Hamburger Casserole for the second time. I must say, this recipe is becoming a family favorite. Simple enough to make and everyone enjoys it. Thanks to my awesome cousin for this recipe!

1 lb. ground beef
1 1/2 cups of cooked rice (approximate)
1 can cream of mushroom soup

We brown our ground beef cajun style (nearly burnt with tons of seasoning), add cream of mushroom soup and  cooked rice to your preference. We use 2 pounds of meat, 2 cans of soup, and 3 cups of rice to make sure we have plenty for leftovers the next day. This recipe is super simple and versatile. In the future I will be trying it with noodles instead of rice, and adding sliced mushrooms or other veggies for fun.

Meredith LeVande's Monkey Monkey Music CD- What Are the Odds: Review & Giveaway!

The fabulous Kayla over at and Potato makes three! is hosting another product review and give away! This give away features the latest and greatest children's music by Meredith LeVande.

Meredith starting playing during college and she preferred to sing about children and their struggles to find out just who they were on the inside. She ended up taking the traditional children's songs and making them her own. It was a hit!

If you want a chance to win  Meredith LeVande's Monkey Monkey Music CD- What Are the Odds, head over to Kayla's blog and enter her give away! She also has sample songs and videos from the CD for you to check it out.