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Monday, January 5, 2015

Picture Books & Meals on Monday

Happy Monday my friends, what a long and wonderful break. I needed a break from it all and found solace with my grandmother. She passed on 17 years ago, but I was so close to her that it was a devastating loss to me and she is one person that I think about daily. I really wish she could have met my husband and children. Sometimes a calming moment with her makes the start of the year something to look forward to. I hope you all are ready for this new year as well!

In this New Year I am hoping to spend more time with the Good Lord and reading his word. I plan on journaling more often and listening more. This is also something I am introducing into our religion class and hope that it makes for a very spiritual 2015

Why is it that we all begin to organize in the beginning of a year too? Our classroom is undergoing a makeover to adjust to our daily needs now that we have older students and no beginning readers or kids learning how to count and the like. One thing we still have though? Picture Books! We will keep these forever!! I despise book jackets though, they are too pretty to toss but to delicate for little hands that love to love books so what do we do? Use them as display, works of art and eye catching design in a library, playroom or classroom! Staple them up if you will not need them again or even frame them and hang them to preserve their life. Why hide the jackets, when they, like the books, are true works of art?!

Our oldest turns 10 today...double digits?! Where did the years go and how have I not aged a bit??!! Hahaha, well I will post more on this beautiful princess that captured our hearts upon her first breath and never really gave them back. She is our angel that continues to bring us so much joy and happiness.

Menu Planner!
Monday: Crockpot Herbed Pork Chops served with Green Beans and Rice along with a Garden Salad
Tuesday: Meatball Sandwiches on homemade bread w/ Tomato Slices sprinkled w/ Vinegar, Oil & Basil
Wednesday: Loaded Baked Potato Soup served with Cucumber Slices sprinkled with salt & lime
Thursday: Chicken Pot Pie served with Ceasar Salad
Friday: Shrimp Scampi over Zucchini noodles served with a caprese salad
Saturday: Curry Chicken and Basmati Rice served with homemade naan and broccoli salad

Sunday: DIY Soup & Salad Bar (we are spending the day working on the attic project that we want something quick and easy!)

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Friday, March 25, 2011

Corner of my Home...

Welcome to another Corner of my home! This is our educational nook. I am hoping to find the RIGHT rainbow colored rug some day to place right in front of it! In these shelves are games and toys and books that are for learning and educational play! These toys are ONLY allowed to be played with right here, since things have a tendency to grow legs and walk away to their bedrooms and the playroom etc. There are 8 bins in this shelf and I wish we had actually gone with something bigger! I may purchase and set of 4 if I can find one! The unit is the Expedit from Ikea, the BEST store for organizing children!

At the top left you will find workbooks and school curriculum books that I am building up to keep the Summer learning going this year. We will have 'school' for 3 hours every day (Broken up into 2 portions with lunch, playtime and relaxing in the middle). I also have a small bit of markers, pencils etc. here for quick projects or games that we need something to write with and then a large jar of crayons!!

Going to the right, we have our reference books like a couple Atlases, maps, Dictionaries, experiment books etc. and the bell for our reading game (I will touch more on this reading game in another post!!). The next shelf holds our reader books (Levels 1-4), I have 2 beginning readers in the home and I like to keep these out in the open and not their personal book shelves, so that they can look up any words they need in the dictionaries. This also holds our Microscope, that I LOVE LOVE LOVE, it's by Geo Safari and it's FANTASTIC! Even the little one gets into being a Scientist! (This may move to our Science Nook, if I ever get it more under control). The little silver tin holds the slides.

The Microscope Nook is the only one that has recently changed! I moved the beginning readers to the reading nook, where they can snuggle in better with them! I now added the reading manipulatives here, since that seems to be the 1 part of our collection that continues to grow!

The next bin is 'organized' but it still looks like a mess! I really don't know what I want to do with this area (hence the need for the bigger shelf!) This entire corner is full of some learning board games that fit in the nook (I change out these games weakly, so it's like getting new games each time!!), and magnetic boards!

The Bottom shelf is full of 8 bins (one was in use at the moment!!) with the larger ones being labeled (I am having my daughter WRITE the labels for the top row) with photos so that everyone knows how to put stuff away right where it belongs! The Lego Box, is topped with a bin full of Unifix Linking Cubes that are the perfect thing to use with Legos or even alone as a Math manipulative (More on these in a future post). The craft box holds a little bit of everything crafty and the bin above it holds construction paper). MagnaTiles are next and they are FABULOUS!! These magnetic tiles have the kids AND mom and dad enthralled every single time they come out! I even posted about them here! The green bin on top of that one, holds more MagnaTiles! haha! We are obsessed and running out of space!! Finally is our flashcard bin, this holds all flashcards of any sort! We even make our own and those are in there too. The green bin above that holds our Spanish bin, I speak Spanish fluently and will be teaching the kids this Summer as part of our curriculum!! I am so excited!!!