Marshmallow Play Doh

Adalyn's 3rd grade class, created an activity book for winter break fun! Each kiddo created a page and came up with an activity to be shared in the book, and we found an idea for Marshmallow Play Doh! She thought it sounded like the best idea ever, so we thought we'd share with y'all too, in case you need some winter break or snowy day fun! 

What You'll Need:

Marshmallows

Coconut Oil

Corn Starch

Food Coloring

What You'll Do:

Heat marshmallows on the stove using low heat, and stir constantly. Add 1 tspn of coconut oil and stir in as marshmallows melt. Add 3 tbspn corn starch, food coloring, and mix, mix, mix. 

We opted for a green color for Christmas! 

Let it cool then start playing! 

Our dough was oily, so make sure you don't play on a surface that can't be cleaned easily! Store in an air tight container!

Let us know if you try this activity! 

 

The End of Homeschooling

Well, we did it! We survived an entire school year of homeschooling! Before this year if you would've asked me to homeschool my kids I would've laughed in your face. I knew that there would be lots of head butting and arguments involved and I just knew that I wouldn't be happy.

Well, I was wrong! 100% wrong. I absolutely loved the slower pace and being home with my girls 3 of 5 days a week. Our homeschool year was wonderful and I would love to do it again.

Unfortunately for me, I was working way less and I really need to bring in a bit more each month, so we decided to go ahead and send the girls back to school next year. And, the world is finally returning to whatever this normal is. So long as masks aren't required next year we can figure out a way to deal with the rest of any craziness that might happen. 

That being said, I figured out that once you remove the external stress of: waking up for the day, getting kids dressed, fed, out the door, and then rushing home to do homework, activities, feed, bathe, and get to bed- life is a heck of a lot simpler. I was not stressed much at all this past year, because we had removed all of the things that stress me out. If we could afford for me to stay home, I would do what I could to continue homeschooling. 

Adalyn used a mixture of The Good & The Beautiful for language arts/reading and handwriting, Brain Quest workbooks, and an actual 2nd grade math textbook. We also incorporated Bible verses, science that sisters were doing, spelling, sight words, and watched some history lessons on YouTube. 

One of my favorite things I did was have her call her grandparents on the days that I worked so she could read to them! It was a wonderful way to connect them together.

Math was by far her favorite subject, although she absolutely hates when she has to regroup in subtraction. She is well on her way to learning the basics of cursive handwriting, and she knows about all 500 sight words that our elementary school would require. We are currently working our way through 600 & 700, and she knows a good portion of them already! 

The curriculum I wanted to use with Megan wasn't available at the beginning of the year because it was sold out! So many people started homeschooling last year!

We started off using Brain Quest books with her, and then transitioned her over to Easy Peasy All in One, which was the same program that Gretchen was using. 

I loved it on the days that I was home with her, but on the days that I had to work, she continued her Brain Quest workbooks. Eventually we had her using Easy Peasy even on days that I worked, once she could navigate the website on her own, and that worked well for about 2 months. Then I realized she was completing the workbook pages only and not logging in. Grr. 

On my off days I had to go back and reteach what she was skipping. So, needless to say it took us a long time to get through math! We are still working on it throughout summer and touching up on some things so she'll be ready for 5th grade! 

She also used Good & Beautiful for handwriting, and I am amazed at how much growth she had in that area! 

Spelling was also an area that Megan excelled in! 

Currently, she's working her way through reading The Swiss Family Robinson, and once she's done, she'll be finished with the reading for the school year. 

Gretchen excelled at school work this year, but that's just who she is. She loves school and learning. She took pre-chem, algebra 1, language arts, reading, and 2 history courses. 

She also used Easy Peasy All in One and read too many books to count! She completed end of the year power points and taught us some things too! 

She's super excited about going back to school next year and being with friends. 

I absolutely loved this homeschool year and I don't regret it for a minute. Seeing them learn, grow, play together, rely on each other, teach each other. Those are moments I will always treasure. We laughed together, cuddled, read books, studied the Bible, memorized verses, wrote stories, and just had fun. It was definitely a year to remember! 

 

A Homeschool Update

I don't remember when I've done a homeschool update, so I figured I would share one today! 

I get asked a lot if homeschool is going well, and I always answer with a resounding yes! I absolutely love homeschooling and being with the girls. I really never thought it was something that I would enjoy, because I was always stressed, but I found out that once we removed public school, and the running out of the house in the mornings and the rushing around after school and trying to get homework done, the stress of doing it all went away. We get the school work done, and then we're done, so there's no before or after school stress. 

With all that being said, the girls are going back to public school next year. I need to get back to working more, because things are just tight, and we are hoping that the school year will look much more back to normal than it did this year. One big reason we pulled them was because if they were exposed to COVID and had to quarantine, then it would be impossible to do that with our jobs. We can't really take off for 2 weeks, and we don't have anyone that could help and be home with them. The virtual school model was also stressful for two working parents, and we didn't want them off and on the computer all day. 

We also wanted to have some freedom to do a bit more traveling and camping, but knew that we wouldn't be able to do that in the Fall (thanks to football) and while we did go camping to west Texas, and to Arkansas, we ended up not having another one planned until Memorial day, and then we have a big trip planned this Summer- so while we thought we would do some little trips, they've all turned in to big trips. 

Anyway, here's a look at how our day to day homeschool life is going. 

When the weather is warm, you'll find us outside on the trampoline. Adalyn is working her way through her math and doing great. We've mastered 2-3 digit addition, regrouping, subtraction, subtraction with borrowing, and we're beginning to work on simple multiplication and division. She loves math, and says it's her favorite subject she absolutely hates borrowing when she does subtraction. In fact, she often cries or whines she has to borrow. 

DJ's aunt Gina came to town and we spent the morning learning new games like Rummikub. She taught them so well that they enjoy playing it on their own. 

Megan has art once a week, and Adalyn will often join in. One week, they made a Medusa craft, and then we found videos on YouTube to teach them a bit more about Medusa. 

Over Easter weekend, we did Peep science experiments. You can read about that here. 

Not every morning goes as planned, especially if we sleep late or I have to shower to get ready for the day. Those mornings, you'll find one kid in the bathroom with me taking a spelling test, or working on math or reading. 

Each week, the girls have spelling. Megan is doing great with her word lists and almost always makes 100% She's also working on long division, fractions, decimals, and doing a little review on all of the math concepts she's learned so far. Fractions are not a favorite at all. 

The last few Fridays we've dubbed "Fun Friday". Twice I've taken the girls to the park, and once they found a ton of caterpillars! They asked to bring them home, but I think we'll grab this kit and hatch our own butterflies. 

Adalyn's reading progress has grown so much this year! She doesn't love reading like her big sisters do, so one goal we really had was to get her reading more! She will finish with her 4th unit of The Good and the Beautiful Level 1 this week or next, and then we just have one more unit to finish up! We're starting to work through it a little quicker, and working on 1 1/2 days each time we work on it. 

We also figured out that if she can call one of her grandparents and read to them, that she's more excited about reading! It has been the best trick we've had, and it's one we're going to continue! Also, it's kind of relieved me of some time- while she's reading I can help Megan or do some house work. It's kind of taken that one thing off my shoulders and it's very rewarding for her. 

School has been more than math and reading though... this year we've learned about baking bread. We love being in the kitchen and it's really helped math skills. One fun thing about homeschooling is everything is actually school! The girls can hand write our grocery list, read a recipe, and learn really functional life skills that sometimes we just didn't have time for before. I know that non-homeschool kids learn these things too, but before- I felt so guilty having my kids do chores when they were at school all day, then had homework, and activities. So, while it might get done, it was usually grudgingly. 

Adalyn's 1st grade teacher made comprehension notebooks for her class last year, and it came home when school let out last Spring, but it wasn't filled out! We decided this would be part of her curriculum this year, and she just finished it last week! 30 weeks of reading stories and answering questions.... we're now moving on to a 3rd grade reading comprehension book, but I've told her she doesn't have to do it every day ;) 

We have just a few weeks left of our actual school year. I do plan on keeping them engaged this Summer and continuing with a little math, reading, and handwriting- Megan and Adalyn are both learning cursive right now. 

Gretchen is doing great. She does her school work independently, and it takes a few hours in the morning. She's working through two history classes right now, is writing a short story for a contest, and continues to work her way through pre-algebra. I'm not sure if she'll have to take pre-algebra next year, because it's typically an 8th grade course, but if she has to, I expect that she'll have a solid foundation. 

Here's to the next few weeks of our school year! 

 

Peep Experiments

Hi Peeps! (See what I did there?) 

Saturday morning the girls and I found ourselves with zero plans. We were suppose to have a garage sale and the girls had a play date planned, but Adalyn was running a temperature on Friday night and not feeling her best, so we cancelled everything and planned a science themed morning. 

We did lots of Peep science experiments and the girls had fun learning. Earlier in the week, they each picked out a package of peeps. We measured the length, width, and height, and Gretchen figured out the mass and volume of the peeps.  

Then we made predictions about what would happen if we put them in the microwave!

We put them in for 30 seconds, measured, and then put them in for another 30! They grew so big!

The girls then decided they wanted to take a bite, but it was an ooey gooey mess and they all didn't think it tasted good! 

Next, we predicted if peeps would sink or float, and then we put peeps in different types of liquid. One water, and one vinegar and we observed what would happen. 

We took the action outside, and mixed a peep with vinegar and baking soda and observed the reaction. 

We had lots and lots of bubbles! 

Our last experiment was a fun one!

We made Peep Slime!!!!

I am not a fan of slime and it's banned in our house, but this is one I could actually get behind and it didn't make a huge mess!

You'll need:

5 Peeps

1 tbs vegetable oil

5 tbs corn starch

What you'll do:

Melt the 5 peeps and 1 tbsp oil in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Mix it together. Add corn starch as you mix and knead it all. 

That's it! 

Earlier this week, Gretchen made peep play doh at speech therapy!

We used all of our leftover Peeps to decorate a cake for Easter Sunday!

Okay, I am not team Peeps- give me all the peanut butter eggs, but these experiments were so much fun, and if you have leftover peeps your kids would have a blast! 

 

Homeschool Fun!

Homeschooling has takern a weird turn lately. I feel like I'm to the point where it's not new anymore and I'm at the end of the year rush to get things done and concepts taught in case the girls return to school next year. So, I won't lie that I'm stressed out about the end of the year, and I'm worried that we will still be doing school work until the end of June, and that freaks me out a bit! 

In all honesty, I'd love to keep the girls home another year, and I'm not quite sure that will happen unless schools look the same next year. For us, we cannot quarantine a child for 2 weeks, because we both need to work and who would watch our possibly exposed children? It's easier to homeschool than play the on again off again game with the school district. 

That being said, we are trying to have some fun mixed in with learning, and I decided that every Friday in April needs to be Fun Friday! I'm currently working a lot of Friday's to make up missed speech therapy sessions and that also has me feeling behind. I promised myself that I wouldn't work any Friday in April. 

Here's a peek at the fun we've been having. 

Adalyn finished up her 3rd unit in The Good & the Beautiful workbook. She's using this workbook for reading and language arts. At the end of the unit, she has games to play as a review and she absolutely loves them! We will only have 2 units left to finish for this year, but each unit takes us about 5 weeks to complete. 

Back in November, we found a big, fat, green caterpillar. He made a cocoon in one of our flowers, but never came out as a butterfly. We took the cocoon and decided to dissect it. 

Gross. 

That's all I can say about this one. As we shook the cocoon, you could hear the caterpillar loose inside. The cocoon was hard to cut in to. As I cut it, I accidentally cut into the caterpillar and green juice squirted out. The little guy was brown and dead (obviously) but I wasn't expecting the squirt of juice. We didn't really dig much further! 

Ooblek! 

Megan watched a Netflix science show about Ooblek and asked if we could make some. Thankfully I had the ingredients on hand so we mixed some up.

You just need 1 cup corn starch to 1/2 c. water (we doubled the recipe) and you can add food coloring if you'd like. 

When you apply pressure, ooblek is a solid, but when the pressure isn't applied, it becomes a liquid. 

The girls played in it for a while and made a huge mess! They had a blast! 

Friday Favorites: Hiking & Homeschool.

Happy Friday! 

I'm linking up with Erika and Andrea for Friday Favorites. 

In true Friday fashion, I have a random list of favorites for y'all today. 

First up, I found Megan on the table doing her school work. I love that she has the flexibility to complete her schoolwork wherever she wants; this girl is all over the place and isn't readily confined to a chair. I've found her doing school work on my bed, the stairs, the trampoline, our kitchen counters, and now the kitchen table. Homeschooling is so flexible, and it's definitely been a favorite part of our year. 

This breakfast shake is a favorite for when I'm running late or when I don't feel like food. I throw 1 scoop of Young Living protein powder, 1 scoop collagen peptides, 1 scoop PB2, and 1 scoop chia seeds with ice and water, blend, and I'm ready to go! Plus, it keeps me so full all morning! 

A few weekends ago, we drove to Lampasas for a day trip and went hiking. The weather was gorgeous and it was so nice to get out of the house. 

On our hike we found rocks and tried to identify what type they were. 

The girls also found a little waterfall and snuck over to the middle of it. 

There were books on one trail, so Adalyn would stop and read while we hiked. 

We spent a few hours at the park and hiking, and then headed in to downtown for good 'ol Texas BBQ.

 

Gretchen had a gift card to Barns & Noble from her birthday, so we stopped there last Tuesday and spent some time reading their books. 

We have shelves full of books of home but they're never interested in what we already have. Sigh. This was a fun way to get them reading though and we'll have to take more field trips to the bookstore!

And finally, Adalyn finished up our favorite handwriting curriculum and is moving on to cursive! 

Whew! That wraps up our Favorites from the week! Follow along on Instagram for more daily fun from our family and Happy Valentine's Day!!! 

 

Homeschool Day in the Life

I thought it would be fun to share a fairly typical homeschool day with y'all, in case you're needing ideas of how to structure your days. Of course, some of our days look different, and some days subjects last longer, or kids need more help, or we get started earlier, or later..... the beauty of our homeschool days is that they're super  flexible and we make it work for us. 

I am not an early riser. I told myself that I would wake up around 7:30 on homeschool days that I'm off work, but honestly, I don't do it. The girls typically wake up when DJ leaves for work, and they watch TV, make their own breakfast, feed the dog, and watch more TV. I usually get out of bed around 8:30 or 9. (I'm ashamed to admit that, but I'm much more pleasant with 12 hours of sleep.) Once I wake up, I eat breakfast, and make sure the girls have had breakfast- because some days they wait and don't eat, or they want to eat a 2nd breakfast. Breakfast and getting dressed/ready for the day takes about 45 minutes. 

On good days, we start around 9:30, and some days, we start around 10. 

Megan and Adalyn will start with their handwriting notebooks. We use The Good & The Beautiful for handwriting. Now, Texas doesn't require handwriting, but Megan's handwriting was awful and rushed last year, and I felt that Adalyn needed the practice too, so they're both using Level 2. Megan actually just finished her handwriting workbook and Adalyn is a few weeks from finishing, so I went ahead and ordered Level 3 which starts cursive. Megan never learned cursive, and I heard that our public school teaches it in 2nd grade, so I thought they at least need a foundation in cursive handwriting. 

After handwriting, they write in their journals. I purchased these from the dollar spot at Target, and each day, they write 4-6 sentences about anything they want. I read their journal, correct the spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and write something back to them. We just started journaling this month. 

After journaling, we review work from the day before that needs to be corrected, work in a workbook for extra practice, and Adalyn completes a reading comprehension journal that her 1st grade teacher made, but nothing was actually finished from last year. They also work on spelling. 

While the girls complete those activities (fairly independently), I get dressed, make the bed, start laundry, etc. Then, I sit down with them and work. 

Adalyn starts with either math or her reading/language arts. On this particular day, we started with math. When Megan finished 2nd grade, her teacher sent her home with her math workbook, that was barely completed. I literally do not understand why their school buys workbooks, because they have come home with them the last 2 years, and they're basically brand new. We decided to use Megan's old 2nd grade math book for Adalyn's math curriculum. 

While I work with Adalyn, Megan gets online to complete her homeschool activities. She uses Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool. I chose this because it was readily available and free. I had looked at using The Good & the Beautiful with her, but all of their workbooks were sold out at the beginning of the school year. 

Easy Peasy is what Gretchen uses as well, and Gretchen is 100% independent, so I didn't document her day, but I'll share it at the end :) 

On this day, Megan started with science and is learning about the water cycle. Adalyn and I finished her math, and we made a water cycle in a bag with Megan. 

Then it was time for lunch. The girls fix their own lunches and we take about an hours break to watch a show, eat, and clean up. On this day, Adalyn took my phone and texted this selfie to their babysitter. 

After lunch, I sat down to help Megan with her multiplication from the day before. We decided to skip that day's math lesson, so she could review. 

Her lessons are set up with math, language arts, reading, and science. She completes the online activities, and then works in a work book for additional math and language arts practice. 

Once I was finished helping Megan, Adalyn and I worked through her reading lesson through The Good & The Beautiful. On this day, she had phonics cards practice. She likes to put them in a circle, and dance around to music. When the music stops, she reads the phonics cards. 

After we played this game, we finished her lesson which includes some grammar, spelling, and/or reading. 

We finish by 2:00 on good days. There are some days where we don't finish until 3. On this particular day, we finished by 2, and then did some baking together. The girls love baking or cuddling up to watch a movie. 

As far as history- Megan is working on states and capitals and learning about Texas history. Adalyn usually piggy backs on what Megan is learning. We also watch a lot of movies for history. The girls wanted to learn about Anne Frank, so we watched a movie about her over the last week, and toured her home online. 

We've incorporated other projects- like our Christmas Around the World. 

Every day we focus on handwriting, spelling, language arts, reading, math. Bible, Science, History are mixed in throughout the week in various fashions.

I mentioned above that Gretchen uses Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool as well. She is taking Language Arts, Reading, Chemistry, Pre-Algebra, and 2 History classes. She completes 5 days of 1 subject, and then does pre-algebra every day. So on Monday, she focuses on the entire week for language arts, plus pre-algebra. Tuesday, might be history plus pre-algebra. We found that she was taking a really long time to complete all of her subjects every day and pre-algebra was very overwhelming, so we opted to do 5 days of 1 subject in 1 day, and she's less stressed and happier with this method. 

Most days take around 3 hours for us to complete everything! I shared a homeschool update with activities here and you can read other updates here.