Summer…Birthday…Fun!

Posted on August 31, 2012 by

As summer comes to an end, I wanted to share some of the activities we have done.

Playing in the water – Lake Tahoe

Summer: Summer in our family means two things, Lake Tahoe and Cars! This year it also meant CAKE!

This year, our annual trip to Hot August Nights, in Reno, Nevada, coincided with the annual ICES convention. If you are a cake person (as in a cake decorator…not a person who really loves to eat cake – LOL!), you know this is one of the biggest events in cake decorating!

Cruising – Hot August Night – Reno Nevada

Hanging out with Joshua John Russell – Food Network Challenge Winner

Saying good bye to Tracy Quisenberry – Founder & Executive Director of Icing Smiles

I had the opportunity to volunteer at the ICES convention as part of the Icing Smiles team. This amazing nonprofit organization provides custom celebration cakes and other treats to families affected by the critical illness of a child. They understand that the simple things, like a cake, are luxuries to a family battling illness. Their goal is to create a custom cake for the ill child, or their sibling, that provides a temporary escape from worry and creates a positive memory during a difficult time. I have volunteered with them for a little under a year, and I love it! It is the perfect fit for me and my family, I love cake, and I love that something so simple can bring such joy to the lives of people who need something to help them keep fighting. If you have some time, so check them out…and maybe make a donation.

Birthday:

Summer in our family also brings birthday fun…and yes…you guest it…CAKE!!

Years ago I got inspired by the original cake show, Aces of Cakes. I am a big fan of Chef Duff Goldman, founded Charm City Cakes and Ace of Cakes star. I made my first cake for Love Bear’s 1st birthday, and many others have followed. I have developed my skills as a cake sculptor and decorator for  almost 5 years. I’m not amazing, but I love to work with sugar! People enjoy looking at my designs and I enjoy creating something people can admire and then enjoy.

Imagination Bear’s 3rd birthday cake – made by me :)

Imagination Bear turned 3 this year and wanted a princess party…that is because on any given day she will be found dressed in full princess regalia – heels and all! This child LOVES dress up and anything sparkly! This year we had her party at a local indoor play place and gymnastic center called My Gym. They have an amazing staff that helps with decorating, entrainment, and clean up! I was a happy hostess!

I made a castle cake (at her request) and we had an amazing time with friends and family. It was the first year she actually cared and had specific requests for her birthday – it was a blast! Happy birthday princess!

Fun:

We have had an absolute blast! Gardening, traveling and planing for our first “real” year of homeschooling. Who knew I would have so much fun planing and picking curriculum!! We have narrowed our curriculum and will be using the following.

Reading/Language Arts: Explode the Code & Montessori Movable Alphabet

Over summer Love Bear figured out how the letter sounds, which she has learned through things like, Super Why? and Letter Factory by Leap Frog, are put together to make words. Thus, she has began to sound things out all over the place and is a beginning reader. I gave her the placement test for Explode the Code and we will begin with Book 1.

We have also ordered a Montessori inspired movable alphabet. We will use it  for our writing/spelling.

We also got a double line dry erase board from Target and will us it to practice letters….and a few other things I’m sure!

Math: Singapore Math – Earlybird Kindergarten Math B

I gave her the placement test for Singapore Math and although it suggested we start with grade 1 , I know we never did Book B for Kindergarten, so we will start with that. I know with this program every step is important and necessary because it is so different to what every other math program teaches.

If you don’t know much about Singapore Math, here are some basics: It is a comprehensive, activity-based program designed to provide kindergarten students with a strong foundation in mathematics. Math concepts are developed in a systematic, engaging and fun way.  Hands-on tasks, meaningful activities and attractive illustrations rich in mathematical content engage students’ active participation in the learning process.

Science: Variety of Children’s Books & Magic School Bus Science

We love Usborne books, so we have a collection of them with different themes. We will start with the body! I’ll incorporate some hand-on-activities and some Magic School Bus videos and science experiments we got from The Young Scientists Club – The Magic School Bus Science Club

Social Studies: Variety of Children’s Books & Montessori geography activities

We love living history type books, historical fiction for kids. We are excited to have a selection of readers from  a variety of sources including Beautiful Feet. I will not be using their teachers guide, but will use many of the books in their reading list to create some units. I will also be incorporating some more awesome Usborne books to our Social Studies units.

We will also do some great geography Montessori activities to get acquainted with the continents/world.   I have to admit, I’m terrible at geography! I’m excited to learn along with the little bears!

PE: Gymnastics, Yoga, family walks and free play!

We will continue with some stuff we have been doing already. For example, this cool yoga DVD, called Storyland Yoga, that the little bears love! We do it at home every other day or so. They also attend a yoga class at our local YMCA and both little bears continue with gymnastics class.

Visual Performing Arts: Kindermusik, Art and more!

We have the fortune of having access to the awesome Kindermusik program. We are excited to introduce music to Love Bear (possibly Imagination Bear too!) The program is describe on their website as: Using a small-group approach to music education, Kindermusik for the Young Child provides a pressure-free class where your child can develop a strong musical foundation by learning the concepts, language, notation, and vocabulary of music and its greatest composers.

Art will be a bit of free art at home and some very basic introduction to different media.

We may also look into some acting classes, and the both little bears will continue with ballet!

Spanish:

The little bears have already started learning Spanish and will be attending Spanish classes/co-ops this year.  We also will do some fun activities at home, but I don’t think we will do any “formal” curriculum this year…unless some of you have some awesome suggestions! I’m looking for something with music, as both little bears love to sign and dance!

We really hope you had an amazing summer too!

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Practical Life Lessons

Posted on August 4, 2012 by

I don’t know about you, but my little bears want to help me do housework and other life tasks all the time! Many times, as busy moms/dads, we feel that doing it ourselves would be faster and more efficient. We don’t allow the kids to help, even when they volunteer to help, and we could not be more wrong!!

Although I consider myself an eclectic homeschooler, a lot of our schooling is based on the Montessori Method. According to Maria Montessori, children are interested in what she called “practical life activities” because these activities respond to all the important periods of childhood development (sensitive periods). These Practical life activities are a foundation that will transfer into the other areas of the classroom (at school or at home), and in to their everyday life. Montessori Print Shop has an amazing Scope and Sequence for Montessori Practical Life. Some of the skills on the list are food prep cutting, spreading, peeling (carrots, etc), and juicing.

I set a goal to allow the little bears to complete something once a week, using the scope and sequence listed on Montessori Print Shop. I know what you’re thinking….I don’t have time, that’s going to be difficult, I can do it faster/better. I’m not going to lie! It is HARD!! I am a full-time working mom of two (I work from home most of the time). Between homeschooling and a huge list of activities outside the home, allowing the kids to take time to do these things is NOT easy…but it is so worth it!!

Week 1: PB & J Sandwiches – spreading

Spreading peanut butter.

The little bears got to help make their PB & J sandwiches. The helped gather the ingredients and placed them on the counter. Then they proceeded to spread the peanut butter and jelly on the bread.

Love Bear (4) did great with the peanut butter and was a bit more challenged with the jelly. She did love feeling independent and I felt great help her develop motor skills.

Imagination Bear (almost 3) had a more difficult time understanding the idea of slightly pressing down and spreading at the same time. She did need a lot more help, but she really like feeling included and part of the activity.

Week 2: Pasta Salad – Cutting

Love Bear cutting cherry tomatoes with help from Mama Bear.

On week two, the little bears got to help make pasta salad for dinner. They helped gather all the ingredients and placed them on the counter. This included some basil from our patio garden.

Love Bear go to cut the cherry tomatoes (from the garden of our friends over at MCAD – Managing Chaos and Dinner). She did a great job and really used many motor skills to get the job done. She added them to the bowl with the pasta. I was very surprised at how well she could handle the task on her own. It was a great reminder for me, that she can do way more than I think she can!!

Our pasta salad ready for us to enjoy.

Imagination Bear got to pour the dressing into the bowl with the pasta and tomatoes. She did this with minimal help after She even did a great job opening the bottle of dressing. (Next time I want to make our own so she can help with that!)

Both little bears took a turn mixing the pasta and adding pepper using our pepper grinder.

Week 3: Keeping it clean! – Dusting

Our duster find from the dollar store. Two textures. The little bears love this!!

We live near a busy road and our house gets very dusty. How excited do you think I was when we found some hot pink dusting gloves at the dollar store…and the little bears really wanted one!! SCORE!!

The have been wearing the gloves and dusting everything they see. They can find dust I don’t see sometimes (this may tell you how high dusting is on my to do list!). This is one of my favorite dollar store finds. The Little Bears are loving them and they are super easy to care for! You just pop them in the washing machine.

Week 4: Dinner Prep- Peeling & Smashing 

Peeling potatoes.

Love Bear assisted in peeling potatoes for our mashed potato dinner side. This was her first time helping with this task and it took a LONG time!! I almost gave up on this one because it was taking forever and really needed to get dinner on the table/ I managed to stay focused on a few other tasks that needed to get done while she worked. She was excited to help and learn a new task, so why stop her!

In the end I did have to clean up the potatoes a bit, but all in all she was focused and willing to do the work. She actually had fun doing it and it really did not get dinner on the table any later than if I had not it myself.

Smashing potatoes.

Imagination bear had the job of smashing the potatoes. It that was a great job for her. She really had a great time getting them all smashed and ready for the rest of the ingredients.

What we learned:

Mom learned to let go and allow the Little Bears to explore and expand their abilities in the kitchen. (The letting go part is very hard for me!)

The little bears gained confidence, contributed to the family by helping with dinner preparation, and gained some motor skills.

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No Garden? No Problem!

Posted on July 23, 2012 by

I’m lucky to be connected to different people in my community. It brings so many opportunities for my girls and me. I just love that!! This year, I really wanted to garden…because Love Bear wanted to garden! The question was where?

The front Garden at Mrs. W’s front yard.

We live in a small apartment in the city. No back yards or open space we can use to grow much. The nearest community garden is…not near us! So I settled for planting in containers in our patio. It’s going great, but we only have a few plants and the truth is Love Bear is really into gardening. She wants to compost, weed, and do all those things that our tiny container garden can’t provide. I was feeling a bit annoyed at the fact that I couldn’t provide this learning opportunity for her. Then, Mrs. W made us an offer we could not refuse!

The little bears exploring the garden.

Mrs. W is an amazing woman we have the pleasure of knowing. She has a granddaughter that is Love Bear’s age…and they even share the same name! She offered to let us to work in her garden, and tend to it while she visits Love Bears “twin” this summer. Mrs. W has an amazing garden and unlike me, she has a green thumb…maybe two…maybe more! She grows a variety of flowers, berries, fruit trees, you name it, she probably has it in her garden. She composts and collects rain water for her garden…doesn’t that just sound like the most incredible thing ever! Without even thinking I said YES!!

We had a day with her (a private gardening lesson) to learn about the basics of maintaining the garden. I learned to properly cut roses and to tie tomato plants to help guide them as they grow. Love Bear and Imagination Bear had a blast discovering the earth worms in the soil and planning seed and flowers.

Large tomato plant

All summer we have made trips to the garden to check up on the plants and do some maintenance. Who knew you didn’t need a back yard to have access to an amazing garden; you can just borrow one! We have enjoyed harvesting and creating yummy meals from the plants in the garden. I have enjoyed working in the garden, and feel really lucky to have two little bears teaching me to love new things. It’s really amazing to be out in the sun, connecting with the soil, spending time with the land that will offer our family nourishment. It is hard, hard work, but the girls love it…and so do I.

Thank you Mrs. W for giving us the opportunity to learn in your garden!

Avocados, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, rosemary and a tomato from Mrs. W’s garden. Waiting for those Jalapenos so we can make some salsa!

Imaginary tea party in Mrs. W’s garden.

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Garden, Teach Me Science!

Posted on July 11, 2012 by

In my life I have never been able to keep plants alive…EVER!! Trust me, I have tried and they just die! I guess you can say I have the opposite of a green thumb…whatever that is!

You can imagine how nervous I was when Love Bear asked if we could plant a garden in our small apartment patio this year. I wanted her to have the experience of learning through gardening, but had some serious doubts about my ability to keep these plants alive long enough to teach her and Imagination Bear anything.

With my nerves in my back pocket, Love Bear and I headed down to the local home improvement store and spent some money on soil, pots, seeds and flowers. The joy and excitement in her face was priceless…but would it last?

We purchased tomato seeds, strawberry and basil seeds. We used the information we found at Renee’s Garden about growing tomatoes as our how-to guide. I love that her techniques and tips come fully illustrated with step-by step photos! Great for visual learners like me!

The basil is growing fast – I see pesto in our future! – July 2012

The little bears helped plant our seeds and water them. They water their seeds, now plants, regularly and have kept them going for weeks! We are happy to report that we now have a big tomato, two strawberry and four basil plants. We even have a small green tomato growing already!! I’ve also been able to use some of the basil to top homemade pizza and pasta dishes, which is very cool in my book! We haven’t had any strawberries yet, but they are coming…and Imagination Bear can’t wait – That is the only plant she cares about!

This is our strawberry plant – July 2012

While the little bears have been waiting for the tomato and strawberry plant to produce fruit, we’ve used a yard stick to measure our basil and tomato plants periodically. They’ve also been keeping a small “science journal” (AKA – pieces of blank paper the girls get to draw on – nothing fancy) where we track the growth of the plan. We use these papers to then see what things have changed on the plants. In the future we will be dissecting one of our tomatoes and continuing to expand our garden into a science unit on plants. For now we are just happy that plants are growing and that we will soon have a tomato we grew from a seed!

Here is our first little green tomato – July 2012

Here is to setting your fears aside and diving into something you think will be an epic failure. Why, you ask? Because the kids want to learn about it!!

So what have we learned while gardening so far?

While planting our seeds we learned some great practical life skills like scooping and pouring. We learned to read the back of the labels on plants – who knew they had so much information on them!! (OK – you all probably knew this already, but I didn’t!)

While waiting for our seeds to sprout we learned that plants don’t grow overnight. Watching seeds grow and change, and tending to tiny seedlings had helped us gain patience and learn about the basic needs of plants.

While observing our plants we’ve learned about observing to identify change. Spending a few minutes each week focusing in on what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and predicting what we thing will change next. We’ve learned to use tools like a yard stick, and our “science journal” to collect data about the changes we see happening.

The back of these little tags has information. From how much sun the plant will need, to how far apart plants should be planted from each other. We asked at the home improvement store if we could bring one home for the seeds we purchased – the same info is found on seed envelopes, but I liked the little tags because if I forget they are there!

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The Bread and Butter

Posted on July 4, 2012 by

The “Bread and Butter” of homeschooling, to me, is the ability to have fun while learning something. My girls love cooking, so I figured we would get together and have fun with some friends while we learned how to make bread and butter!

The Bread: I didn’t want the kids to wait for hours for the bread to rise and then have to wait for it to bake too! After searching, and searching, and searching, I found this recipe for Quick Soda Bread, by Kelly Rossiter, on the cooking section of the TLC website of all place. I didn’t even know they had recipes on their website!

I decided on a soda bread recipe, because it doesn’t require yeast. It’s a fast and easy recipe the kids can help with! Soda bread is the traditional bread of Ireland; it uses baking soda as the leavening agent rather than yeast so it rises in the oven during baking. We started baking at 11:00 a.m. and we had warm bread and butter for lunch. This soda bread is very dense, so it isn’t really suitable for sandwiches, but it was great to eat with some butter.

At the grocery store I also discovered bread mix! Yes, in the baking section of the grocery store they sell a box with everything you need to make different kinds of bread. We ended up making our own following the recipe I found and it was just perfect!

The kids worked in teams of two to measure flour, salt and soda and mix it all together in a large bowl. We showed them how to make a well. It was fun to hear the kids say the well looked like a volcano. We floured the surface and kneaded just enough to bring the dough together. The younger kids had a bit of a hard time getting the kneading down, but with a little help it all came together quickly.

We put the bread dough on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. I tried to cut the kids first letter of their name into the top of the bread, which looked cool…but really ended up looking just OK once it beaked.

The Bread we made with the kids

The Butter: For some strange reason I had never attempted to make butter. I had the misconception that it would be difficult and take forever! But boy was I wrong!

For this part, I again turned to the internet to search for ideas on how to make this happen easily and quickly. A quick search on You Tube landed me on a video titled Making Butter,Uploaded by Robert Krampf. He is an awesome science loving guy who has great science content on You Tube and on his website! This was one of those finds I love stumbling upon! His instructions were clear and I felt confident that with some heavy cream and some mason jars we would be successful at making butter. And we were!!

We put the bread in the oven and cleaned up while the kids washed their hands. Once the bread was baking we decided it was time to make the butter! We put some heavy cream into small mason jars, closed the lids and told the kids to start shaking! It was fun to see the techniques they came up with. Eventually they got tired before the butter was made, so they did require help from the moms to get the milk solids to separate. We discussed solid, liquids and how the cream changed into butter because of something we did with it. All in all, it went quickly and the kids stayed interested during the process…most of them anyway…almost 3 year old, Imagination Bear, figured she would just come back when it was time to eat!

The butter we made with the kids in Mason jars

The Bread and Butter: By the time we fished the butter the bread was almost done. The kids got to play for a bit and then the timer went off. The kids ran into the kitchen and were excited to see all their hard work turned into yummy treats they could eat! All in all we succeeded in honoring what I consider the “Bread and Butter” of homeschooling. We had fun while we learned something!

What exactly did we learn while having fun?

When we made bread we learned that: combining substances (flour and other ingredients) can produce a new one with different properties (the bread). Heating and cooling can change the properties of a substance.

When we made butter we learned that: By shaking the container, the fat in the cream clumps together. Eventually, all of the fat comes together to form the butter. Everything in the world is a solid, liquid, gas, or combination. Physical actions can change the properties of materials.

Enjoying the bread and butter we made

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Exploring the world and learning as we go!

Posted on July 4, 2012 by

Welcome to Love (them) Raise (them) Teach (them)! This is my very first post, and you can’t imagine how long it has taken to get here! I have been wanting to start a blog for a while now, but  I’m … Continue reading →

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