Learning While Away...Part 2

Yesterday, I shared our learning while away lesson on how we can always be learning, even when on the road. A lot goes into planning a vacation, why not get some learning squeezed in there too. This has helped so much in this time of emergency, when I didn't have time to come up with a real lesson plan. You can read part 1 HERE!

Today's lesson is a very important one when traveling, it involves a lot of math and all of it is mental math. It is important to know how to do your math in your head when travelling, because you will purchase most items at outdoor stalls and booths, in open air markets and from people that may not be as educated as you wish they would be when dealing with money. Everyone makes mistakes, it is important to not have them made to you.

Today's lesson was on changing money. It is important to only change the amount of money you will need for the day, unless you think it is a very good exchange rate. The rates fluctuate daily and even multiple times during the day. Also keep in mind that not all places pay out the same amount, so keep checking with more than your hotel front desk and houses of change, banks tend to pay out higher amounts but also have longer lines.

1. The first step was to find the days exchange rate, this can be found by a quick Google search.
2. I gave the children the amount of money that would be exchanged and they had to calculate what I would get back if the exchange rate we came across was the exact same as what we found online.
3. We headed out and went to buy PESOS, we went to 3 different places and they had to write down the exchange rate at each place and calculate how much we would get back. Out of the 3 places, they then told me where we would get the most for our USD and we headed back there to exchange money.

Because we were spending most of our time in hospitals, much of our trip was spent eating out at food stalls, stands and some restaurants and our souvenir shopping (if any) was done in open air markets, this was where it was time to prepare the mind mentally as you don't have the time to pull out a calculator, and you should always be prepared!
1. If the kids wanted to buy something, I sent them to several stalls to compare prices, once the best price was found, they had to exchange it to USD at the price we paid and find out if in fact it was a good deal or worth the price.

2. When paying, the children had to show me which bills and or coins to pay with and then they had to tell me how much change they would get in advance of paying, so that they were ready when the change came.

3. At the end of each day, they would look at the amount we started out with and the amount left and then they would calculate how much money was spent and if we were on budget if a budget was given ahead of time. As this was an emergency trip, we were not going on a budget.

I hope you enjoyed this part of our lesson, stay tuned for more on part 3 next week!
Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Sunday School Post #2

Happy February my friends! Last week was the launch of my new Sunday feature entitled Sunday School. In this feature I discuss a bit of the things we covered in Our Little Catholic Homeschool! We have continued with Adoration once a week and it seems to be something all the children enjoy and need. We change out their Adoration Bags weekly if needed, but this has mainly only been necessary for the youngest. I really do plan on doing a post only about our Adoration Bags, in which I will keep updated their contents and anything new that may arise. My children are 7,9 & 10 and doing 1 hour a week has worked wonders in our lives. We make sure to have all of our school work done by lunch time, then we eat our lunch and head out. Once we leave Adoration, we usually head right across the street to our local Catholic store and each child is allowed to pick out a new Holy Card. Next, we head to the library to return or pick up any books and finally off to pick up daddy from work. My husband carpools, but since we are already out and about on Tuesdays, it works out perfectly to grab him ourselves! Do you do adoration with your children?

I have 3 children studying the Baltimore Catechism and a great way to keep track of all the questions, is to use a index card binder with all the questions labeled by number. The top one belongs to my daughter who just finished BC #2 and the lower one is BC #1, but only my middle son is creating the index card binder. They are a great way to not only study but reinforce what they are learning as they are writing it all down. 

My youngest is learning the St. Michael the Archangel prayer and what better way to learn than a coloring page! On this page he colors each word as he says it and stops after every line to repeat what he just colored. As he continues, little by little, he is locking the words into his head and creating a beautiful piece of art work!

A sneak peak at next week has me working on an Our Father lap book for a friend of mine that requested something for her beginning learner. I will share this finished product and the 10 Commandments one I did as well!

Be sure to follow my Catholic Homeschool board on Pinterest!

I printed out these BIBLE 411 sheets for my children to fold and tuck into their Bible for when they were in need of something at a certain moment in time. They are a great way to get children involved in the Bible more and also a great reference point as I printed out one for myself as well!

Every month I print out the Catholic calendar HERE & then we read about the daily Saints from our many Saint books, if I have time to prepare ahead, I will have a fact sheet with small coloring page to accompany the readings.

My the Lord Bless you all my friends and my you remember to enjoy every minute!

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Our Catholic Homeschool

**PLEASE NOTE** Picture Heavy Post

It's no big secret that we are Catholic's, in fact I am quite proud of that fact. It is just not something that I blog about often. I am not a Catholic blogger, I am more of a blogger that happens to be Catholic. I blog from a parenting/teacher/homeschooler perspective. I unfortunately notice that when I post about Catholic activities that I have done with my children, I lose likes on facebook. It's too bad, and as I do not do it often, I will not stop posting about it. It is part of our education process, so I will share. As many of you already know, we use a Catholic curriculum to homeschool with and it is SETON SCHOOL. This is a fully accredited school, which my children will receive a high school diploma from, NOT a GED. Anyway, today's post is about some religious activities I have put together for my youngest as he goes on to prepare for his First Communion!

We use this awesome Liturgical Calendar from Illuminated Ink to keep track of our Holy Days of Obligation and Saint Feast Days! This great little number was a bit on the pricey side at 25.00, but in the end I found it a good investment. We also added tabs at the back of the binder to divide up the liturgical year and keep any crafts or worksheets in the back so that I have them all ready to go when we reach a certain time of year.

It comes with all the stickers you will need to complete the calendar and many pages for your Littles to color. The only negative comment I have on this is that seasonal stickers it came with. The small purple, pink and white color stickers that you place on each day for the season we are in (Ordinary, Easter, Etc..) These were so difficult to peel that they tore and we ended up ruining so many that we just colored them appropriately in the end and gave up on the stickers. Other than that, this is an awesome binder that we use all the time! I do wish it was a bigger binder though, we are overstuffed but don't want to lose the beautiful picture it came with on the cover of their binder. 

Some fun Saint Printables from Arma Dei, gave us an AWESOME opportunity to turn our Guess Who game into Saint Guess Who! We took it even further and keep the Fr. Lovasik Saint books nearby and we quickly read about which saint we got. At the end of the game, each person tells a little bit about their Saint with everyone else.

Illuminated Ink strikes again with their awesome Saint Symbol stickers! These stickers are so fun for the kids to color, but then we purchased poker chips to place the stickers on and as each pack comes with multiples of each saint, we were able to make a memory game!

Blessed Mother paper dolls were a hit at our house when these beauties came home with us from the homeschool conference! Once again from Illuminated Ink! I am beginning to regret not buying a large poster for the kids to color. 

As each week passes, I like to teach the Mass to my First Communicant. We are in the process of creating our own Mass Kit in a DIY style. I introduce a new piece each week and it does double duty as a lesson manipulative and then as part of the overall mass kit. These 'hosts' were made from wood circles that I picked up for a song at the craft store.

A bread plate from Family Christian was the perfect tray to hold our hosts along with a simple tray that holds the pitchers for the water & 'wine'. This is as far as we have gotten, but I plan to add felt pieces as the altar covers in proper seasonal colors. There is so much more to come, but we are doing just a small bit each week, to ensure comprehension. This is also a great set to practice carrying the gifts, so your littles can be prepared should your family get selected! We are lucky enough to be regulars by now, but I still get nervous when they hand my klutzy guy the hosts!

Our family absolutely loves coloring pages, I enjoy making some of my own for the kids to learn prayers from. This simple Hail Mary prayer becomes easier to learn as they recite each word while coloring it. Using a different color per word makes it easy to memorize. Get yours HERE!!

Our Advent wreath is felt and stays out year round. I keep our activity and reading books with it on a tray so that the kids can always read and play and learn with it. I also find it loads safer and cheaper in the end, because I don't have to worry about burnt fingers, burning down the house or making sure I have the candles at the right time!

More about our ADVENT BOX can be found here!!

Another fun game in our Catholic Homeschool is Vatican! A game for everyone to learn how men become Pope. It's a bit complicated for the younger set but having them around the game and involving them, lets them learn at their own pace through repitition! Check it out HERE!

Prayer Card Memory Game:

What You Need:
A roll of tape, blank index cards and a pair of scissors. 
Steps:
1. Cut the index cards down to the same shape of the cards.
2. Tape the index cards to the prayer cards only at the top.
(this is to make all the backs the same color but making the prayer still accessible)
That's it! Now we have our very own memory game and we play the same way as memory, the only difference is when we get a match, that person has to say the prayer out loud before they add the match to their winnings! Learning and fun all in one! You can do this with any type of card you have pairs of, but one side doesn't match or create your own with anything that needs memorizing help! (AS SEEN HERE!)

Do you ever wonder what to do with all of your holy cards? We get them at funerals, in the mail, at stores and so many other places. I laminated the ones that are not laminated and then I punch a hole in the corner and they all go on a binder ring. We then hang this binder ring on a cup hook in our classroom. Perfect for grabbing on the go or when little hands want to look and pray.

My leader and member guide arrived thsi weekend for the Little Flowers Girls Club, a Catholic alternative to secular clubs for girls. This should be a lot of fun, but I would be lying to you if I said that I wasn't nervous about running a group! I will definitely keep you posted as we tackle this new journey in our life!

ADORATION BAGS

These will eventually get their own post that I will link here. For now I will be adding a new bag each day here. We have picked up a family adoration hour at our church and I have Adoration bags for all of my children ages 7-10 and I will share what is in them here. You can read about my 7 year old's bag HERE! Last week I bit the bullet and signed up the children AND I for an adoration hour at our church. This is 1 hour spent in silence with the Lord. I know the big kids will be fine with it but I was worried about the youngest. I figured I would make Adoration Bags filled with things that they can do on their own to reflect and pray to the Lord. I will share 1 each day and they will remain linked over on my LITTLE CATHOLIC HOMESCHOOL post. This week the youngest will have a book on the 12 Disciples along with our foam playset of the 12 Disciples that he can use while reading the story. (I will post more on this playset on the LCH post later). He also has a chunky rosary with a Fr. Lovasik book on praying the rosary. A bible verses book to reflect quietly over and once he has done those things, he has his  Larry Boy book to read. This is more than enough to keep him occupied but I would rather have too much than not enough. All of it is tucked away in his Veggie Tales soft sided bag.

Adoration Bag #2 is ready to be photographed. We head to Adoration this afternoon and the kids are very excited. This bag belongs to my oldest. I bought her a bible of her very own. She has always had smaller ones, children's ones, hardcover ones and the like but has been asking for one similar to my wedding one so that she could make it her own and now seemed like the perfect time. She is free to write in the margins, clip the pages, add post its, prayer cards, use a bible highlighter or anything at all. Autumn is 10 years old and her bag contains:

1. Bible
2. Three different bible highlighters & One pen.
3. Holy Bible Crosswords, each clue is from the bible and you must look it up and read the chapter to get the answer.
4. Rosary & Mysteries on a ring for prayer and reflection

Adoration Bag #3:

Another peek into our Adoration Bags, here is mine! Mine has my wedding day Bible, bible highlighters and my daily devotional journal. In this journal I keep track of all prayer requests that I have been given, some of my own and also journal about day to day activities that I need to reflect on. After going through a few basic prayers, I pray a rosary and then begin my reflection with my bible as I pray for those that asked for prayers.

Adoration Bag #4

This bag belongs to my 9 year old. It has his book that he is currently reading: Bible Wars & Weapons, his holy cards and rosary guide along with a rosary. His Action Bible and the memory verse cards that go along with his bible. (The Action Bible is NOT a Catholic bible, he knows this and it allows him to compare the 2 bibles as he goes through it). His adoration bag is actually his everywhere bag, he is constantly using this items that it just worked out for him to bring this. In Adoration, he uses his rosary guides and prays the rosary and then he prays to all the saints in his ring of saints and memorizes a few bible verses as he prays for his intentions list.

As mentioned above, we homeschool using SETON school. One thing they stress is the Baltimore Catechism. A way for us to keep these questions fresh in our head on a daily basis and to remember what we are learning to to keep an Index Card File filled with cards and ready to be written in. As they come across a question, they write it and fill in the answer. This repetition as they are writing it down is keeping it in their memory. My daughter has been done with both for 2 years now and can answer the questions at the drop of a hat!

I was challenged this week to share my favorite bible verse and I didn't even have to think about it! This one has always been it. During a struggle, I have to always keep in mind that this is the path the Lord has set me on. Enjoy every minute my friends! 

Follow along with our Catholic Adventures in a new feature titled Sunday School and it will post every Sunday on this blog! I will try to keep this post updated as well with all the new postings.

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Tic-Tac-Spell!

It's Wednesday! That puts us right in the middle of the week, which is usually the middle of our spelling lesson. Here is my youngest son's week 3 spelling list. On Monday, I posted about Spelling Test Success HERE, today we will discuss an alternative or what we do in addition to the notecard daily works.

Start out with a large tick tac toe grid and place it in a protective sheet cover or even a transparency like I mentioned on MONDAY HERE! Now, this board can be used over and over again as a dry erase game. Have the 2 players each pick out a spelling word (Can be played with children of different age levels as well, since each just picks one word from their own list). 

Begin play as though playing regular TTT, but this time use your spelling words, saying each letter aloud as it is being spelled. Winner is chosen the same way! What a fun way to bring in games to learning!

Before spelling comes learning! Here was a great way that I taught my kids upper and lower case letters. We used this worksheet paired with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Get your own copy of the sheet HERE!

How true this is my friends, especially as a homeschooler, I am with my children 24 hours a day and I seem to hardly see a change and then I look at photos from just the previous year and I am astounded by how much has changed! Let this be a lesson to us all to just enjoy every minute!

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School Days...

Happy Monday my friends! What a weekend it has been! As we are on our travels this month, I wanted to let you all know that school does not stop! We school year round and educate 24 hours a day. Long car trips are just as good as a classroom and new adventures are just as good lessons. A simple Science lesson is even taught riding the spinning tea cups!

I have mentioned before that we use Seton School as a curriculum and some of the books are a bit on the pricey side. One way we extend the life of our books to last through 3 children OR just workbooks that have certain pages that need more work than what the workbook offers, like tracing pages and similar is a tip that that will have you excited to finally put to use those long ago shelved office supplies. Our simple way of solving this problem is to use transparency sheets! Place one on top of the page you want to preserve and it works as a dry erase page that can easily be written on with dry erase marker and then wiped clean. Also great for Tic Tac Toe and Hangman in the car without crumpling up loads of paper!

Ahhh..the binder ring, this simple invention has me so happy on a daily basis, I use them for EVERYTHING! A great way to keep track of spelling words each and every week along with studying along the way is so simple!

1. Have the student write out each word on an index card using the Say It - Spell It - Say It method of learning. (Upon completion, review each word in the ring)
2. Have the student go back the next day and trace each word using a colored pencil or something else colorful using the same method as the day before. (Upon completion, review each word in the ring)

3. Have the student return on day 3 to highlight each letter with a highlighter, once again using the same method as before.  (Upon completion, review each word in the ring)

4. Have the student return on day 4 to punch a hole in the corner of each index card as he says the word and spells the word.  (Upon completion, review each word in the ring)

5. It's test day! Your student should be ready for their test!

Use a colored index card to separate the different lessons, so the student knows where each new lesson begins. At the end of the school year, your student can then see exactly how many words they now know how to spell! Binder rings come in many different sizes and you can keep going bigger as the stack gets larger.

Of all the things I teach my children, I only hope they come away with the desire to travel. On the go is the best education anyone can be given. Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Monday Musings...

Welcome to Monday! I hope your weekend went well. Ours was packed to the gills but we had so much fun and would love to have spent all day today in bed, but alas the week must go on and we plan on tackling it with a smile.

We're ticking things off of our bucket list daily and loving it! The kids love seeing that list get full of lines. they are off to camp next week, and cannot stop talking about all the fun things they will do. I love all the energy that kids have and how animated they can get when talking about everything. Want your own BUCKET LIST? GO HERE!  Please feel free to link up ANY activities you have done this Summer or your own lists! I love seeing what everyone is up to! Even a pinterest board dedicated to Summer will do!

On Friday we hit the park for Friday Night Flix and spent the evening eating popsicles and playing UNO and then watching a movie and eating popcorn. We had an absolute blast hanging out with friends and enjoying the weather.

On Saturday we enjoyed our evening at a Chicago Rush football game. These arena football games are some of our favorite to attend, there is enough action to keep you enjoying the game and the players are so friendly that they sign autographs, pose for photos and even chat with the fans after the game. It's an awesome evening of family fun and never too expensive!

If you are one of the first in the door, you have many opportunities to catch footballs, watch practice, sign up for games that take place in between periods and even get a lot of door prizes!

Our relaxing Sunday was spent tidying up the house and then another movie, this one in a Victorian Village! Have you taken a look at events right in your own community? You will be surprised at what you find and you will love discovering new places and enjoying new things.

How was your weekend?

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