My Favs 2011 Part 2

Books - Here is a list of all the books I read this year with stars by my favorites and BC by my book club books

1. Giving It All Away: The Doris Buffet Story BC
2. Breathe by Keri Wyatt BC
3. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp**
4. The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean
5. A Pig in Provence by Georgeanne Brennan
6. Leaving by Karen Kingsbury**
7. One Thousand White Women BC
8. The White Queen by Phillippa Gregory*
9. Uniting Church & Home by Eric Wallace
10. Dressing Your Truth by Carol Tuttle **
11. For the Family's Sake by Susan Schaeffer *
12. The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski
13. The Maze Runner by James Dashner*
14. Honey for a Child's Heart by Glady Hunt
15. What Women Fear by Angie Smith **

Not my longest book list ever but better than nothing ... right? :)

Blogs - blogs I visited most often (not awesome ones I want you to think I read;)

1+1+1=1

Confessions of a Homeschooler

Counting Coconuts

Cherish Everyday

Websites - once again websites I visited most often

Money Saving Mom

Becky Higgins

Amazon

The Mom Creative

Dressing Your Truth

YouTube Channels - yes I have youtube channels I subscribe to. they are not life changing. just my own fun interest. if the boys are watching a cartoon, I have my own viewing time.

Carol Tuttle

Elle'sGlitterGossip

AllThatGlitters21

SunshineLovesFire

OrganizedLikeJen

MyHousewifeLife

TV Shows - we have not had cable our whole 8 years of marriage. We decided this year for various reasons that we would start having cable yearly Nov. 1 - March 31. So I am new to TV. but here's what I got into this Fall 2011 -

Wizard's of Waverly Place

Shake It Up

Jerseylicious (comes on Style -not Jersey Shore which comes on MTV)

Giada at Home

The Rachel Ray Show

The Martha Stewart Show

Tori & Dean

Quints by Surprise

Movies -

Harry Potter 7: Part 2****** we seen this in the theater and I loved it! My #1 movie of the year!

The Dilemma

X-Men First Class

I have not seen Sherlock Holmes 2 but I'm sure it would be on my list!

My Favs 2011 Part 1

I've been seeing tons of videos and blog posts on "end of year reviews". I thought it would be fun to do some myself. Don't worry - I know I'm flaky with my blog so I already wrote all my posts and they are set up to post everyday the rest of the year! YaY! :D

MY 2011 Favorites Part 1

Girl Stuff- Due to something that happened last year, this year I renewed myself. I certainly didn't want to be self centered but children & hubbies alike enjoy you the most when you put the me in Mommy. (i heard that somewhere) So I spent some of this year remembering myself and "rediscovering" me. My husband has enjoyed this greatly. ;) anyhow I have always loved "girl" products. I just do. I can't help myself. When I was in high school I think 50% of my money earned went to beauty. The smell of a nail salon soothed my weary teenage soul! While it wouldn't be wise use of our money to do most of what I did as a teenager, I did use coupons and rewards to stock up my lonely beauty supply. Pictured here are my favorite finds of the year. Most of these I've used since Feb. If any look unused it's because I've bought another of it.

• Ulta Professional foundation brush
• Ulta medium powder brush
• Ulta smudge brush
• Victoria's Secret kabuki brush
• Victoria's Secret bronzing powder (sun goddess)
• Ulta lipsticks 134 & 138
• Lady Speedstick Stainguard (daringly fresh) ~ I've used this brand since middle school
• OPI mermaid tears ~ most used, most complimented nail polish I've ever had
• Juicy Couture ~ I got this bottle for Christmas 2 years ago and I just finished it last month
• Physicians Formula smoky hazel eyes
• Almay bright eyes - i've gone through tons of these (um ok 2, but that's a lot!)
• Mary Kay eyeliner bronze
• Almay smart shade smart balance 100 - my favorite foundation of all time

so now the homeschooling world knows (or at least those that subscribe to my blog LoL) - it's true - I love girl products!!

In the Kitchen-

I've had these babies for 3 years now! They are called spoonulas (in case you didn't know) and I've found it to be completely true! They do work as a spoon and a spatula. In fact, I do not own any spoons (cooking) or spatulas! I just have these and I love them! I've use these things for everything - they've frosted every single cake made in the past 3 years, stirred countless soups, stews, sauteed countless veggies, and so and so on, you get it!

In the Mommy World - I became an Amazon Mom. This is probably my favorite "mom" find of the year. Where I moved to is 30 minutes from "town" and there is not a nearby BJs. So I found Amazon Mom. I love it. I subscribed to Pampers Cruisers and Babyganics wipes. The diapers come once a month and last 5 weeks. The diapers come once every other month and last exactly until the next shipment. When your an amazon mom and you subscribe these products become $37.75/160 diapers and $15.19/400 organic wipes! They are affordable, I'm never out, and I never have to remember any while in the store! I really enjoy my Amazon Mom membership. It's defiantly my best Mommy find of the year! :)

Raising Rock Stars ~ Week 4 & 5

Week 4:

Letter- I

Number- 4

Sight Word-can

The only picture I could find for this week was this half finished board. I must say ... it looks a little... shabby. Well I'm sure learning and fun were achieved that week. :)

Week 5:

Letter- F

Number- 5

Sight Word-for

Resources:

1+1+1=1

Confessions of a Homeschooler

*all resources are linked

Christmas Activities I

There is so much to do for Christmas, so many ideas, but I try my best to not overcrowd it. There are just so many choices. I plan on listing in a few posts on some (or all :D) of the activities we are including this year.

• I seen an idea on pinterest where you wrap up your holiday books like presents. So I have a total of 19 holiday/winter books that are being wrapped up plus one big Christmas Stories book to fill in the gaps. We are going to read one Christmas/winter story a day from Dec. 1 - 25. (i will list the books in the post with pictures)
• I found these cute December Calendar Dates to use for our calendar.
• I'm printing out these little calendar date pages to use daily in our circle time. (you would click on the part that says "download mini images" above the book section) In our Christmas Stories book there are lots of little stories about how they celebrate Christmas in other countries that will work perfect in conjunction with the calendar pages!

I'm working on these things right now as I type! I can't wait to share pictures but wanted to share the links in case others wanted to do it too!

Charlotte's Web ~ book & movie

I've been wanting to do this post for sometime. Maybe a month or so ago we finished our first read a loud for Sonlight Core A ~ Charlotte's Web. We are behind on Sonlight's schedule but slowly we are making these kinds of read a louds a daily family activity. Chris enjoyed this book. I think some parts were a little slow to him but he certainly listened. I enjoyed the re-living! My mother read this book to me when I was in first grade, a little bit, every night before bed! This was a great starter for the year.

I decided that any read aloud that there were movies of, we would watch the movie AFTER reading the book for something fun. I picked out the Charlotte's Web with the people, not the cartoon. I was regretting it at first b/c it's so different from the book. However, after we watched it, we had a lengthy discussion on the differences in the movie and book. I couldn't believe how much Chris noticed! It really opened my eyes to how much he was paying attention when I thought he wasn't. One example of something he noticed was that in the movie when Fern and the boys are at the fair, they buy tickets. In the book, they use money to pay for their rides! Such a small detail, I so didn't even notice that!

Overall this read a loud was a great experience. ... I would recommend the cartoon not the people movie of this book though. The cartoon has much less differences from the book! Still a great family experience whatever movie you pick.

*pictures are linked

Raising Rock Stars ~ Week 3 ~ H

Letter: H

Number: 3

Sight Word: and

A few of the activities:

Resources:

*all resources are linked

November Missions

Yes - I know - Gone for so long! Lots of excuses .. but I shall not bore you with them. ;) I'm really going to try to blog on some kind of regularity. I have all these plans in my head and just none seem to come out from my fingers to the keyboard and onto my blog!

With that said onto the good stuff. I've been enjoying Mama Jenn's little blogspot lately. She has a mission of the month. I've been doing weekly missions on my own the last three weeks so I thought this would be a fun way to help hold myself accountable (in some form) with my personal goals.

My November Missions:

• Make all of Babystep#1 Preflight Check my daily routine
• Print out and deliver kids' size info. for grandparents and finish wishlist
• Finish Nathanael's first year baby album
• Catch up on Project Life
• Completely prepare for Advent
• Have Christmas card pictures taken
• Have school year pics. taken and Nathanael's 1 year old pics.
• Start the Belly Fat Cure with husband
• make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Well that's it ... my November Goals!!! Can't wait to get started ... I just love lists and goals :) Thanks Mama Jenn for feeding my list and goal need while encouraging me to be productive with myself and my home!

Preschool ~ Week 2 ~

I just realized I didn't take any pictures of this week!!

Lesson:

Letter: T

Number: 2

Sight Word: the

Resources:

Carisa's Letter T post! ~ I always view Carisa's blog post on the letter we are working on. She has additional links and others who did the curriculum link up with their ideas so it's a great resource.

*resources are linked

Zack's First Week of Preschool

We are actually on our first review week (so week 7)! I have a lot of catching up to do on my preschool posts. Zack seems to be enjoying the curriculum and school in general.

This week:

Letter: L/l

Number: 1

Sight Word: see

* We mainly followed the suggested curriculum.

*We played a game where I printed out 5 each of the letter, number, and sight word. I taped them all around the house and he then had to hunt for them. He really enjoyed that game.

* Read "My L Book". (awesome goodwill find, almost the whole collection!)

Resources:

*resources are linked

August Trays & Shelves

We moved to a little country city just a few minutes outside of Nashville, TN! Here school started August 5! I've had very little time for getting ready for school between moving, packing, and all the stuff you gotta do when moving to another state. However, we started! No choice in the matter do to homeschooling laws around these parts! ;)

So here are our trays & shelves in our very own homeschooling room (pics. to come when it is actually complete):

Chris ( age 6/First Grade):

Superminds - will be changing pattern every so often

Sketch Book - we have not incorporated any drawing, sketching, art time. We do have a weekly art picture study but until we work in hands on art this will do. He seems to look forward to his sketch time and gets into it. One side is regular oil pastels and the other side is chalk pastels. I bought them both on clearance at Jo-Ann's for $1.97/each!

Bought this at Border's with 50% off coupon! Chris loves it and has only used it once a day for a week and has learned how to tie shoes from it!

~ his shelf at a glance ~

Zack (age 4/ preschool):

Math ~ there are numbers 1 - 6 in the card pile.

He sorts them out and then matches a bean to

each picture.

Fine Motor ~ cutting. He still struggles with just this basic cut.

So I bought him scissors like these to help as his little hand muscles develop.

They have made a big difference!!

A part of his shelf that's not trays :)

~~ beads/lacing, puzzle, & card sorting ~~

~ his shelf at a glance ~

I really, really can't rave enough about trays and shelves!!! The boys absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!!! In addition, I've seen much improvement in the boy's various skills!

VBS 2011

Vacation Bible School is something we look forward to every summer! The church we are members of do not have a VBS. However, the church where my MOPS group meets does! So that is where we go. This year was a bittersweet year for us. We are moving in July so it was our last VBS year and Zack's first year old enough to enter! We all had a great time and I so will miss this church. They are such a sweet group and the Pastor there just loves people. I was the leader for Zack's group so I don't have many pics. of Chris. Not only was he in a different group but the elementary children are in a separate hall from the preschoolers & kindergardeners. Here are a few pics:

Zack is holding up the J for a song that we sung.

Chris is on the far right with some boys

that he hung out with that week in his group.

Zack is second from the left. This was his whole group.

We actually had the smallest group. The boy in the middle was our helper.

What's Going On

What's going on for us:

June -

• Week 1 - our first family vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC ~ was AWESOME!!! will post pics.
• Week 2 - trip to Missouri
• Week 2 - trip to Tennessee
• Week 3 - Vacation Bible School ~ another fun week! it was Zack's first year! will post pics.
• Week 4 - Found out we will be moving by mid July 10 1/2 hours away from where we live now!!!!!

July -

• Lots & lots of packing to be done!! plus tons of other things - phone calls, visits, etc.

So school will not be starting in July for us this year but the tentative date is August 1!

Good Finds

I bought several of these little handicrafts on clearance last summer at JoAnn's for .50/piece!!

It sure came in handy to buy so many because Chris broke 2 before completing this one. This required much concentration and hand and eye control for him! The activity came with little squares of tissues that they wrap around a point needle (but not) type thing and dip it in glue then punch it into the foam.

I found them in the vacation bible school or summer craft type section. I will be keeping an eye out for these babies this summer (as they are originally only $1) and end of summer because .50 is always awesome!

** 2011 - 2012 Curriculum **

I'm so excited for this years curriculum! I've had lots of time to look over (&over) tons of resources and have spent some time thinking & praying. I'm so thankful for all the resources available and the work that is made ready for me!

Chris ~ Grade 1: I basically followed the CM Curriculum Guide (i seriously love that site btw) while changing up some things.

• He will have 3 Montessori based trays.
• Math - Math U See Alpha
• Copywork - A Reason for Handwriting
• Science - 106 Days of Creation Study
• Personal Development - Learning to Get Along Series I'm so excited about this find!! ~ incorporating Laying Down the Rails
• History, Geography, Reading, Read A Louds, Bible - Core B with Grade 3 Readers
• Poetry - Montessori Style Poem of the Month
• Nature Study - I Love Dirt!
• Picture Study - We have 3 Come Look With Me books that we will be working through the year
• Art - Drawing With Children. I also have lots of left over art supplies we didn't use this past year due to home circumstances that I will be delighted to use with them this year!

It's a lot and that's why I left out quite a few subjects suggested on CM. We had such a lackadaisical curriculum last year that I didn't want to throw us in shock and accomplish nothing! The Poetry, Nature Study, and Picture Study will be weekly. The Science is 3 days a week.

I still have quite a few ideas spinning around in me head and I'm trying to figure out if they will work or not!

Zack ~ Preschool:

• 6 Montessori based Trays
• Raising Rock Stars Preschool - we will being joining to have access to the power points as well
• Reading Time each day
• Joining Chris for Poetry, Nature Study, and Art
• His own Personal Development program using the same resources I'm using with Chris

Nate ~ Toddler: ohhhhh how I don't like the thought that he will be a toddler during this school year! He's still a baby in my head so squishy, juicy, and lovey! And I know he still will be all those things, I just really like the idea of him being a baby cake!

• Some form of Tot School mixed with some CM & Montessori applications

I'm working on a schedule and trying to figure out how we can work everything with as much ease, comfort, and fun as possible.

Happy Mother's Day

I hope all Mommies are enjoying their Mother's Day!!

Handprints made for Grandmas & Me :)

Cards made for Grandmas (our moms) at TinyPrints. Very happy with them!