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Menu Plan 10/7/2013
Time to start easing into the Fall food! Pumpkins and soups, coming up! It must be Fall, because around here, a lot of leaves got swept up and moved to the chickens’ area this weekend! The chickens are very happy to have some new playthings, but I think the kiddos are going to be vying for their own leaf pile to jump in on the next leaf-sweeping go-round! In the meantime, here’s the general game plan for feeding everyone this week: Monday Pumpkin Spiced Oatmeal Black Bean Soup, Chips, Apples and Melons Roast Chicken, Roasted Asparagus and Carrots Tuesday GF Pancakes Pasta and Salads, Grapes and Apples Crock Pot Baked…
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Classical Conversations Cycle 2 Week 6
Whew! We got to spend a really great weekend with my parents, visited a wonderful farm, and took a trip to a nearby aquarium in route home. We rushed back into town on Monday night and then spent quite a bit of time preparing my husband to teach three new (to him) online high school level classes on Tuesday, so this is the least attention that CC has gotten around here in a long time! This post might turn out to be short . . . hopefully it will be sweet, or at least slightly helpful. Math It’s around this time (skip counting 11’s-15’s, squares and cubes) in the math…
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Classical Conversations Cycle 2 Week 5
Are you familiar with the 10-24-7 rule? It isn’t exactly the method that we employ with Classical Conversations, but it’s similar. It basically says that to move something new from your short-term to your long-term memory you need to review the information 10 minutes after you’ve first learned it, then 24 hours later, and then 7 days later. If things were to go according to plan in a CC classroom, we’d introduce the new grammar information to the children earlier in class, then review it at the end of class (not exactly 10 minutes later, but within an hour or two). Then, outside of the classroom, the information is theoretically being…
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Granola Bars . . . or Super Swim Bars!
I love a good granola bar. The kind that is a little chewy and still a little crunchy. I like them to be sweet, but not so sweet that they have that “burn” that sometimes comes from too much sugar, or especially too much honey. This summer, we needed some snacks to take to swim meets (hence the alternate name, SUPER Swim Bars!, by which they will forever be known around our house), and I found a recipe for granola bars that I liked, but didn’t quite love. Now, with a few tweaks, I’m really happy with it and it’s been a hit with the whole family. Granola Bar Recipe…
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Shopping for Groceries Online
I am CONSTANTLY having conversations with friends (or acquaintances) where I mention a grocery item that I purchase online, or I mention how infrequently I go to the grocery store (and mostly for things like bananas and spinach) and my friends are really SHOCKED that I purchase a LOT of groceries from Amazon. Apparently, many people are still not aware of Amazon’s great “Subscribe and Save” program. Using this program, you can subscribe to certain items (not all items are available for subscription) and get an additional 5% discount on the item, plus free shipping. If, in any given month, you have 5 or more “Subscribe and Save” items shipping…
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Great Grocery Deals! 11/10/13
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Menu Plan 9/23/2013
Well, it’s officially FALL! Tomorrow, I’ve got to get going and actually switch out some of the summer decor around here for fall things! I love fall, but the last two years, I’ve been so busy during September and October that it’s usually November before I’ve really thought about getting some fall decor going, and by then . . . it’s pretty much time for Christmas! I’m bound and determined to get it out and enjoy it this year! It’s also probably time to switch to more fall-like food, but I’m just not quite there emotionally, yet. SOON, though, especially if the weather continues to feel fall-ish. In the meantime,…
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Classical Conversations Cycle 2 Week 4
English The Schoolhouse Rocks video about Pronouns (which we’ll continue to cover in grammar thru week 6) is very entertaining . . . and possibly educational. You can find it via a search of YouTube. Science Just to keep in simple, I made a little cycle hand out that can be used while we’re going over the cycles. If you’d like to use it, you may download it by clicking on the image below. The Magic Schoolbus Episode and Book “Wet All Over” covers the water cycle really well. Both the DVD and the book are available at Amazon, and the video is also available on you tube: There are…
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Making Yogurt at Home
If, you’re not making your own yogurt at home . . . well, that’s okay. I make lots of stuff from scratch, but I’m not of the mindset that you’re really falling down on the job if you choose convenience over the extra time it takes to make stuff from scratch. We’re all trying to find a balance that works for ourselves and for our families. I think that balance is probably different places for different people. I like to make stuff from scratch. Partly, because I just like to know that I can, and partly because I really do like knowing more about what’s in my food. It makes…
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Easy Halloween Decorating Ideas
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Classical Conversations Cycle 2 Week 3
A little background: This is our family’s fourth year to participate in a Classical Conversations (CC) community. We participate in the Foundations portion of the program, which is designed for children ages 4 to about 11. The Foundations program lasts for 24 weeks each year. Each week the children cover 7 different grammar subjects (Timeline, History, Math, Science, English, Latin, and Geography), do a short (2-3 minutes) presentation, participate in one or more Science experiments and cover some area of Fine Arts. It’s a VERY busy morning! This week, we focused on reviewing geography. Here are some resources: If you have access to CC Connected, there’s nice little packet put together by another parent…
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Menu Plan 9/9/2013
It’s going to be another busy week around here and I know that I do better when I actually have a plan (of some sort) for what we’ll be eating for the week! All things are subject to change, of course . . . but if you live in the real world, you already knew that. If you’re looking for a menu plan document that works for you, below is the template that I use. You can see it filled out for this upcoming week (the colors are just to remind me of things I need to do, like make something that takes a little preparation or post the recipe…
