Before Five in a Row

Tawna recently asked me what BFIAR was. Here’s your answer, Tawna.

BFIAR stands for Before Five in a Row. It’s a book that is part of a company called Five in a Row. The premise is that you take one book and read it each day for a week. And in the FIAR book, it gives you all kinds of ideas of things to do in relationship to the book.

For example, last week we read If Jesus Came to My House. In the book the main character is fearful of the shadows he sees while walking down the hallway.

One of the options (and it is titled for science) is to talk about shadows, and how shadows are made, and we played “catch my shadow.” We also (for Bible) talked about fears and how God does not want us to fearful. Another day, as we read the book, we kept track of what animals we saw on the pages, and discussed what those animals were doing.

BFIAR has an emphasis on manners and daily life whereas the older books involve more actual “schooling.” Some of the things we have been practicing with our first two books (Corduroy was the second) is how to greet guests when they come over. What to say when they leave. How to talk to them while they are in our home. How to handle it when mommy says no to buying something. We’ve been doing a lot of role playing and Alex and Hannah love this!

Here is one scenario that has been being played out in my home a lot since last Monday. Hannah and Alex stand on the edge of the living room.

Them: “Knock Knock”
Me: Please come in. Hi Hannah and Alex! Welcome to my home!
Them: Hello. Hello.
Me: Won’t you come and sit in my favorite chair.
Them: Yes, thank you.

Them: Okay, we must go now.
Me: Okay. Thank you for coming. Please come again!
Them: Okay. We will.

5 seconds later “knock knock” LOL

Sometimes I get to be the visitor. I like to throw curve balls at them…and ask for cookies.

A Matthew Moment

Samantha got some new earrings for her birthday.  We gave them to her Sunday evening.

She wore a pair of them yesterday for the first time.  She was showing me in front of Matthew, and she commented about how much she loved them.

Matthew said, “I saw them earlier.”

Samantha says, “Uh huh…I got them for my birthday.”

Matthew says, “I KNOoooooow.  You’ve been wearing them for months.”

Schedule or Checklist?

This is my 8th year homeschooling.  The first 4 years I had no schedule and no checklist.  We just did work throughout the day and I prayed that we’d get it all done!  As we added more children to our lives, this didn’t work so well.

Then I discovered MOTH.  MOTH stands for Managers of Theirs Homes.  It’s a great product and can be found at www.titus2.com.  Steve and Terri Maxwell are a wonderful couple that offer some great resources.  For the next 3 years I would diligently sit down and make a schedule.  Every hour of our days were scheduled out.

One year I had short time periods for the different subjects.  Last year I had longer time periods and the kids were to read if they finished early.

I love the idea of a schedule.  I really do.  I would love to have my days planned out better.  To know that I have time for scrapbooking because I’ve scheduled it in.  To get enough sleep each night.  To have dinner on time.

It just doesn’t work for me.  I don’t even really know why.  I started saying that I was too random.  Life is too random.  The real reason is that I just don’t want to do math at 9am every morning.  Maybe I’m in the mood for history then.  Maybe the baby is crying and I need to nurse her and math would be a pain right then.  But I could read then.  Or…whatever.  Or maybe the meal I want to make for dinner takes more time than the 1 hour I had scheduled at 5pm.  Maybe I decide it’s time to make cinnamon rolls and we all stop school and enjoy that.

I trembled at the thought of not having a schedule.  Then I remembered that I only followed it for 3 weeks anyway and then would give up.  Why torture myself??

But how to make sure we were getting everything done in our day?

First I made a list of everything that we needed to do.  Then I thought about what would work best for mornings and what would be best for the afternoons (when the 3 little ones are napping).

And tada!  Here’s our checklist.  Each day we just make sure to do everything we need to do for that.  I didn’t X off the days we don’t actually do something.  For example, we only do BFIAR on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  But just in case I miss Monday…we can “catch up” on Tuesday.

I looked at my checklist today?  Everything is done for the week!!  Week 1 of school - SUCCESS!

PW’s Brisket

I promise I am trying other things besides Pioneer Woman’s recipes.  It just so happens that when I decided to start reviewing recipes I had some of her things on my weekly menu.

So here’s our take on the brisket.  This is something I can eat alone.  This is huge for me.  Usually I eat each bite of meat with something..like potatoes..or dressing..or rice..or …  you name it.  I LIKE my foods mixed.  But I gave this a chance..all by its lonesome.  And it passed the test!  The flavor was delicious.  Even my 2 year old ate a big piece.  My husband went back for seconds.  We won’t talk about my 4 year old dipping it in Ranch…well, he did, but he dips most things.  But he ate it!

It definitely passed the fork test.  That puppy fell apart just lifting it out of the pan!  And I didn’t even have to cut the fat off, it just scraped off to the side.  SWEET!  Thanks, Ree, for another great recipe!

Here are the ingredients used:

In the pan…I took Ree’s advice and used disposable.  Much easier!  See the yummy garlic floating around?

In the refrigerated sealed up tight.  It marinated for about 40 hours…it was only supposed to be for 24 but I forgot to put it together..and then I had to wait another night..and well… it sat for a good 40 hours.  I’m sure it was worth it!

And the final product:

And would someone tell me why my tomatoes are grainy???  I’m going to spend some more quality time with my camera tomorrow!

And this is where I admit that the only reason I made the brisket is because I want to try PW’s version of nachos.  And in the nachos….brisket.  Stay tuned for the nachos!

*Link to the brisket recipe is on my sidebar.

First Day of School

Technically we school year round. But we took off a little time around the birth of Leah.  Then there was the moving.  Then we couldn’t find the school books.  Thankfully we had started last year early and then really pushed right before Leah was born.  So besides math, we really did start a new school year.  It won’t be long though and both Sam and Matt will have finished last year’s books and will be ready to jump into the new year.

I’ll be posting some pictures of our first days, and I’ll start you off with Monday morning.  It was around 8am.  We went outside and they had a great time posing for me.  It was already about 150 degrees outside.

Kayla, 12th Grade, 17 years old

Samantha, 5th Grade, 10 years old

Matthew, 2nd Grade, 7 years old

Alexander, K-4, 4 years old

(Why do some say Pre-K and some say K-4.  I know why I do!  Because I would say Alex is kindergarten as he doing work that might generally be done in kindergarten, but he is only 4, and some of the stuff is for younger grades.  Like he really can’t WRITE yet..but can do all the phonics and math.)

Hannah, 2 years old

Alex Tidbit, Bear Cont #3

Roy and I are in the main rooms and I keep hearing Alex being noisy in the bedroom.  The kids are all down for bed and he should be quiet!  Roy goes back once and gives him a warning about being quiet and going to sleep.   A few minutes later I hear the noise again.

I listen.

It’s growling.

I kind of ignore him for a minute to see if he’ll get it out and then settle down.

No.

The growling increases.  Louder.  And more growlie…for lack of a better word.

I go  back there and we have this conversation:

Me: Alex, I believe daddy warned you already about being quiet.

Alex: It isn’t me.  I am quiet.

Me: Well, I heard a lot of noise coming from this room.  Why are you growling?

Alex: It isn’t me!!!  I being quiet!!

Me: Then who is growling?  (guessing the answer already!)

Alex: It’s my bear.  I keep telling him to be quiet but he just won’t.

As I walk out of the room, “That bear better be quiet and go to sleep or he’s sleeping outside!”

Haven’t heard a peep since!

Dollar Movies

When you think of dollar movies, what do you think of??? I think of my younger years when my mom would take us to the dollar theater in Escondido. The movies were several months old, but who cared?? It was the movies! And they were only a dollar! Mom would even let us get popcorn for that price! LOL

Here on Marine Corps Base 29 Palms, we have a movie theater. It is only a dollar. Old movies?? NO! New movies. And the dollar includes a soda fountain drink! We were really surprised. They play a variety of movies at different times. There is only one screen and the theater is huge. Seats 1,000’s is my understanding.

Last weekend I took Samantha and friend to see Kit Kittredge. Cute movie by the way. I paid $3 for us to get in and then another $5 to get 2 popcorns and 2 candies!! What a fun afternoon treat for less than $10.

This theater is one benefit to our military life here that I am happy to say I’m glad we have!!

Here’s the link to the movie schedule if you’re interested in seeing what we have available.

http://www.mccs29palms.com/calendars/movies.html

(I think there were a few bored Marines that evening…many single Marines were in watching the movie with us.  LOL)

Pioneer Woman’s Onion Strings

I love to cook. I’m always trying new recipes. Pioneer Woman’s recipes are appealing to me because of all her pictures. Seriously. First, I rarely make something new unless it has a picture. The exception would be if the ingredients just sound really, really good together! Secondly, it’s not that she has just one picture of the finished product. She has lots of pictures! I think it makes the recipe even more appealing.

The link is on the side bar and just keep in mind I’m STILL learning my camera! I did take over 200 pictures today and am figuring some things out.

Back to the strings….

We loved them! They were crunchy and light and the onion flavor was subtle. I put some  .. okay .. a lot .. on my hamburger and the whole thing was delicious!!!

One large onion made more than enough for our whole family. We’ll be having these again. Thanks, Ree!

Cutting the onion. Kayla was checking to be sure you could “see the knife through the onion.”

Soaking in the buttermilk.

Getting ready to use my deep fryer….then realizing we can’t find the plug.

Getting the pan ready instead.

I don’t have a candy thermometer, but if you wait until it swirls, and then wait another few minutes, and then put your utensil on the bottom, and see if the bubbles start, then you’ll know it’s ready!

Hmmm…look at them cooking!

First batch done! Yummy!!!! Tell me if you make them!

Curriculum #3 - Art

Prior to this year, we have not done an official art program.  After a lot of reading on The Well-Trained Mind message board, I decided to go with Artistic Pursuits.  It includes history, appreciation, and application. There are 4 levels of books: K-3, 4-6, Jr. High, and High School.  Each level has several books.  You can read more about them on their website.  (Link on the sidebar.)

I purchased K-3, Book One and 4-6, Book One.  I’m doing K-3 with Samantha and Matthew and then Samantha is working through 4-6 on her own.  Now that I have the program and love it, I’ll be buying the high school books for Kayla.  Here’s a quick run-through of our first lesson from the K-3 book.

The front cover:

There are 32 lessons with projects in this book. The first 10 lessons are “What Artists Do.” The next 7 lessons are about “What Artists See.”  And the final lessons are entitled “Where We Find Art.”   To give you a hint, where we find art is in cave drawings, Greek pottery, Egyptian murals, Medieval tapestry (to name a few).

In this first lesson we learned about how Artists Compose.

The next page includes a painting with some questions.  The questions ask us things about the painting’s coomposition.

The third page of the lesson is a project where the child puts into action that which they just learned.  In this project, my children drew pictures of something they had seen that day in our home. Matthew took liberty with that. LOL

The supplies used are “real” supplies.  A supply list is included on their website and the authors encourage you to get quality supplies for your children to use.

Here’s Matthew composing his picture.  He tells me that it is of him riding his bike down a hill.

He was having a good time.  LOL  He did break his pencil from pushing too hard and he was getting ready to sharpen it here.

And with the final product.  Can you see the likeness?

Leah in her saucer was Samantha’s inspiration.

Here’s Samantha hard at work.  She kept turning and looking at Leah and Leah loved that.

I never did get Samantha with the final product. You can sort of see the saucer in the pictures though.  She said at the end that she didn’t like how Leah was not proportioned correctly.  (We’ll get to that lesson eventually, Samantha!)

What I love about this first book is that it a good introduction to different mediums of art.   If you haven’t found an art program for your children yet, I highly recommend this one!!  Check out their site!

My Mosaic

I got this idea from

http://weedsandwildflowersdesign.typepad.com

The Concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your nickname.

Can you guess my answers based on the pictures? Some are easy. I’ll share the answers in a couple days.