Make Reading Fun!

How WE Make Reading FUN!

I have my very own book club! Yes, right here in our house :) As you know I love to thrift and whenever I see a well loved book from my past or one I see on future book lists for school I pick it up, even if it's multiple copies!

We have our book club meet once a week in our living room. A circle of seats is made, I serve up special snacks and we discuss the reading that we all did throughout the week. (My youngest gets read to from the book!). We talk about parts that made us happy, sad and anything that we have questions on.

My children LOVE that we do this and look forward to it every week! I even hand them a 'special' highlighter for their book so that they can mark anything that THEY think is important (this is sometimes quite fun to see!)

If you have been following my post yesterday, you will remember that my husband had been surprising me each morning with a beautiful flowering plant! As the weekend took over and led to an incredibly busy Monday, I watered my plants and talked of their beauty with him, this morning I woke up again to another wonderful plant. He is quite an amazing man!

Welcome to all of my newest followers!!

Menu Plan Monday...errr Tuesday!

Hello friends! I must apologize for my absence, it seems as though this will be happening more often though. I am incredibly swamped with school stuff as I seem to practically live there now! Add in the normal errands I must run and a car that has been in the shop more than I care to admit (my poor wallet!) and a Doctor appointment that lasted all morning long...well it's been a mess! Hence the garbage can photo! (Even though I did buy this garbage can! LOL)

OUR MENU:

Monday: Meatball Sandwiches and Side Salads

Tuesday: Chicken and Shells Soup with grilled cheese sandwiches

Wednesday: Angel Hair Pasta with homemade pesto and garlic bread

Thursday: Taco Bar served with rice & beans

Friday: Cheese Quesadillas and Vegetable Soup

Saturday: OUT TO DINNER! We are filling up 1 table full of fun, fearless family members at our School Bingo Hall that we have all decided to eat out first!

Sunday: OUT TO DINER! Going to visit my grandfather, so we will be hours away from home!

My husband seemed to sense something amiss lately and all last week I woke up to find a beautiful hyacinth plant on the coffee table. Every morning they would multiply...what a wonderful treat! I now have 4 colorful plants that make me smile when I look at them!

Creative Art!

Sometimes we like to shake things up in our craft cabinet & use things for something other than what they are normally used for! I pulled out the cookie cutters & right away the kids were thinking PLAY DOUGH! I then took out a bottle of glue and they watched me like a hawk! I poured the glue into a plate and walked away. They quickly picked up on my plan and began to stamp away with the cookie cutters! This was a 2 day project which required the glue to dry. Once dried, the glue puffed up a bit and the kids painted the insides! So fun and so cute! 

Love Our World...

We love to travel over here and we LOVE learning about the World! I purchased this inflatable globe and we have a blast learning with it. We play our own version of 'catch' with it. Sit in a circle and pass the ball to whoever you would like. When they catch it, they share the name of the Country where each of their hands have landed! Name of the Country, it's Neighboring Countries, The Continent it is on & The Ocean it is nearest. So FUN & they don't even know they are learning!

I Have a Dream....

Dearest friends, I have a confession...I am a dreamer! My mind wanders off to parts unknown and conjures up the most wonderful of tales, adventures and ideas. I love them all and often times try to jot them down. I have 1 recurring dream that I have had the nerve to speak aloud, only to find out my husband has the same one!

My dream is to sell all of our belongings right down to the barest of necessities and to buy an RV. This would be our new 'home'. I would home school all 3 of our children on the open road. What better way to learn about the Presidents, than in DC? How awesome to not only learn facts about the Grand Canyon, but to BE THERE while reading? How about getting to know where the Oceans that surround the USA are, but dipping your feet in to them!? Oh what fun we could have as we travel the 50 states and stop in each state for a few months at time. No time constraints and nowhere to be...ever!

We live off our savings and supplement by working jobs as we stop. Imagine the people we would meet? The lessons we ALL would learn? Imagine how close we would grow as a family. Yes, this dream is not for all, but that's okay...it's my dream and I go back to it often. What a true adventure this could be! I'm not talking a few weeks, months or even a year...I'm thinking years and years as we truly take our time getting to know this great Country of ours. 

We would document our trips in a daily video casting and take our lessons outdoors as much as possible. We would be free of what is the 'norm' for a family and do our own thing. Together, we would redefine what is normal. We would keep a family blog to let others know where we are and people could keep up with us. The USA would be ours for the making of memories. No State too unimportant as we soaked up information everywhere.

Why does it have to remain a dream? why do I feel so pressured by society to conform to a 'regular' school and for my husband to keep his 'good' job. What's wrong with living on love, memories and experiences? I bet you any money that a life on the road for a few years would instill in my children a love of travel, a love of adventure and in fact teach them more than they ever could learn from behind a desk.

Yet here we sit, in the office as my children do their homework and I continue to dream. A dream that will never lead to anything as I live in fear. Our families would of course ridicule us for this absurd idea and others would wonder what on earth had come over us...so until we have the gall...the ability and the desire to lead our own lives and answer to no one our lives will remain the same as others and yes, we will continue to be happy but will always wonder...what if?

This dream SCARES me...it IS big enough!

Quiet Dice!

We spent some time in the Hospital this past weekend and I needed to keep things quiet, but entertaining for the kids. I brought games, books and the like but I tried to make things as 'quiet' as possible!

Need quiet dice?Buy Foam dice & pop them into a small container, now they make no noise & don't go flying!

Weekend Musings...

Good Day friends! This was a busy weekend for us, as always! My grandfather had surgery and much time was spent at the hospital, coming up with creative ways to keep children occupied in 1 place for many, many hours is always a bit of a challenge! At one point, scrap paper made its way into several pairs of binoculars for a fun and quiet game of I-Spy!

A small hourglass that is timed for 3-minutes made the BEST 'calm-down' tool. They took it to a quiet center of the room and watched the sand drip down. When it was done, they were able to join us again and were always MUCH calmer!

As Valentine's Day has officially come to a close, we have TONS of candy! What did you do with your stash? Ours is headed to Daddy's work for him to hand out to his employees and friends!

Salt Dough Jewelry!

As we prepared all of February for Valentine's Day there was something that I definitely wanted to attempt with the kids! We decided to attack Salt Dough Jewelry to give away! This was definitely fun for everyone involved. Take the ingredients below and mix it all together in 1 bowl. I like to set it all out in measuring cups and let them put it in and follow the recipe themselves. 

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water

Roll out all the dough and after that I let them play with it so for as long as they wanted, just like play dough! This helped smooth it out and turned this simple project into something that lasted much longer. 

The Littles love play dough and this was even more fun, since they knew it was going to be made into something else afterwards!

Now it was time to shape them! We made jumbo buttons in round and heart shapes, for lacing fun, then we made plain hearts and circles for the jewelry we would be making. This part was fun, because they loved taking the cookie cutters and toothpicks to the dough.

Now they are ready for baking!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Mix flour and salt well. Gradually add water, stirring with a large spoon. Finish mixing with hands. Knead until soft and pliable.
3. Roll out on floured surface about 1/8 inch thick. Cut shapes with cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheets. With a toothpick make a hole in the top of the ornament for threading string. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) until hard, about 30 minutes (keep checking on them as ovens vary). Decorate with paint and varnish to preserve.

The painting process made this a 3-in-1 project!

We added glitter to the paint and our necklaces were shimmery!

Almost Wordless...

The playground was empty, so Mommy played with her little guy!

We put change all over town on vending machines!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wow! It is 7pm and I am JUST NOW getting home! What a busy and yet super fun day it has been! We have had so much fun at all the parties we went to and giving out goodies everywhere we hit! We made Bubble Necklaces with cute little 'Bubbly' tags!

The chocolate and sprinkles heart shaped lollipops were a total hit and chocolate covered strawberries for the teachers were absolutely perfect!

Rose-Scented-Sparkle Dough was perfect for the Littles and when I added in cookie cutters in a variety of shapes, they were perfect!

I brought fruit for the pre-k classroom and a straw makes the perfect skewer! Top it off with a foam heart sticker! 

My husband even got fruit and choco covered fruit!

The kids absolutely delighted in drinking their milk from plastic drink flutes! We even had some donuts left over after taking some over to daddy's work for his employees!

We had fun making coasters for the school parties!

Did you know a little chef in the kitchen always makes it all go faster?!

Cutting Hearts out of felt to go with our Valentine Stories that we read at night!

Place Setting at the K-6 Party!!!
Iced Sugar Cookies, Place mat & crayons, bubble necklace, choco lollipop!

How was your day???

Menu Plan Monday!

7 Days of Love Breakfast for my Husband!

Happy Day my friends! How was your weekend? I hope it treated you well and that you had a lot of fun. we kept busy as always, and even managed to squeeze in a family movie at the end of the night yesterday! I apologize for my menu planning post being so late, but I had no time at all this weekend to get 1 done, so I had to wake up extra early and plan it out then hit the grocery store after the kids were off to school!

Homemade Chocolate Pudding for After School Snacks!

Our Menu:

Monday: Pork Chops & Steamed Green Beans

Tuesday: Grilled Chicken Wraps with Hummus & Carrots

Wednesday: Split Pea Soup with Fresh Bread

Thursday: Cheese Quesadillas with toppings bar & black beans

Friday: Swedish Meatballs over Noodles