Menu Plan Monday

It's the time again! Another Monday is here and it's time to plan out our menu. What are you sampling this week? Share your links in the comments please!

Monday: Out with friends

Tuesday: Beef Roast with Cauliflower Mashed fauxtatoes & Lettuce Leaf Salad (1 leaf of lettuce with diced tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, corn & vidalia onions on top)

Wednesday: Homemade Shrimp Wonton Soup with Chinese Chopped salad and lime juice

Thursday: Pork & Broccolini Stir fry served over Rice with Bow Tie & Spinach Salad

Friday: Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps served with grape tomato and cucumber skewers 

Saturday: Homemade Ramen Soup served with Southwestern Chopped Salad

Sunday: Rosemary Chicken Breasts w/ Roasted Carrots & Green Beans & Cucumber/Onion Salad

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In The Lab 2015

We're back in school today and we are working in the Physical Sciences. We are trying to see if a battery can operate a single light bulb cut from a strand of Christmas Tree lights!

Our first Lab Report of the year is always done on the board as opposed to their Science notebooks, so that they can get into the swing of things and as my 7 year old gets older, I like to repeat the basics so that they stick into his head a little more each time.

Materials You Will Need:

String of Christmas Lights
Scissors
Copper Wire Strippers
Ruler
Electrical Tape
Batteries of various sizes

The Process:

1. Cut 2 1/2 inch strips of electrical tape
2. Cut Light from strand with 1 inch of wire on each side of bulb
3. Use the wire strippers to strip the wire on each side of the bulb
4. Tape 1 end of the wire to 1 end of the battery and do the same for the other end

What Happens?!

The scientific process is a fun one, let them do it themselves, ALL OF IT! Yes, my 7 year old was stripping wires. Let them work on a trial and error basis. You have an entire strip of lights to work with, don't fret!

Once they get the hang of it, let them take it further! We got as many as 17 lights onto 1 C battery and 6 lights on on double A! They are still going at it and having a blast, is this really learning?!

The Science Behind it all:

  Current electricity is produced when negatively charged electrons move through wire and other devices, in this case the wire. The energy from these moving electrons may be harnessed to do many kinds of useful work, in this case it lights the bulb. The wires, bulb & battery were all connected together in a single continuous loop.  This allowed electricity to begin to flow through the wires from the battery, causing the bulb to light.  Notice that there had to be a continuous loop for the electricity to flow.  If you broke the loop at any point by separating the wires anywhere on the loop, electricity no longer flowed, and the light went go out.

This is the lab report that I made up for my kids to use in class. I print it up and then they cut it out and paste it into their Science notebooks. You can also print them and slip them into binders or whatever else works for you! Print them HERE!

Enjoy every minute my friends!!

*This post is linked up to All Things Beautiful Science Sunday Meme*

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About Last Week...

What a busy week of field trips and  classes and fun! I am sorry that I have been away but I will share some fun we have been having. Our favorite books are the Pigeon books by Mo Willems. They make us laugh so much that we read them over and over again! Here is a fun Pigeon craft that is completely edible!
What You Need:
1. (1)Graham cracker
2.(3)mini oreos
3. Vanilla frosting tinted blue & yellow
4. (1)Orange starburst cut in tiny strip
5. (1) chocolate chip
6. (3) check mix squares
What to Do:
1. Spread your graham cracker with yellow frosting
2. Add 3 check mix squares as windows
3. Add 2 mini oreos as tires
4. Add blue frosting on one mini oreo
5. add chocolate chip to the top of the blue mini oreo to look like an eye
6. Add starburst sliver to blue mini orea as beak
Now you have the Pigeon Driving the Bus!! OH NO!!!

My young engineers had a bridge challenge in their LEGO class this week and their group won! They were able to withstand weight and work together to build it! 

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Beautiful Day

Why is that when we have 2 carts full of groceries from SAMS, we are always in the small car?! Just as frustration hit, we realized that we should be thankful we had a car and thankful we had money for groceries. It's so easy to get wrapped up in drama, even that of our own making.

We had purchased a set of prayer cards from a conference a couple years back, but it came with 3 of each card. We saved one on our prayer card ring and the other 2 sets just sat in a box until I was getting everyone ready for Adoration today. Inspiration struck and I pulled them out, ready to roll!

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!
Interested in other Catholic activities? Check out Our Little Catholic Homeschool, where I try to keep everything in one post for easy pinning and marking!

Enjoy every minute my friends!!

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Pigeons and Robots and Tornadoes?!

Last night we spent an awesome time at a Pigeon Party! We love Mo Willems and his crazy pigeon, do you? If you have not checked out his books, RUN to do so now! My kids were by far the oldest in the room but still had an absolute blast and didn't even realize it, they just became helpers of the teacher and the smaller children. 

As we study different topics, I love to have a hands on activity, game, field trip or vacation to go along with the lessons. This Discovery Kids Tornado Lab was PERFECT for our extreme weather lesson. The kids loved it so much that once class was over, they continued to play. They even added in some Monopoly houses to get the tornado effect really going.

Our LEGO Mindstormers Robotics kit arrived last month and the kids still cannot get enough. They enjoy challenging themselves and then creating and programming. My middle son begins his Robotics Competition club this month and he is so excited.

Adoration Bag #2 is ready to be photographed. You can see the other bags HERE at Our Little Catholic Homeschool! 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

Remember to enjoy every minute my friends!!

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Menu Plan Monday...

I have 20 minutes until midnight, it still counts as Monday then right?!
Monday: Chicken Pot Pie with a garden salad & fresh brewed mint tea
Tuesday: Veggie Burrito Bowls served with Cucumber Slices sprinkled with lime, salt & spice
Wednesday: Parmesan crusted Pork Chops with Mashed potatoes and Corn. Served with Ceasar Sald
Thursday: Lettuce Wrap Bar (veggie selection, laughing cow, chicken, shrimp) served w/ miso soup.
Friday: Out to eat for our weekend in Wisonsin, but left pizza coupons for our house sitter! 

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Classroom Confessions

:: Mondays make me nervous that I may not have the motivation to begin school work.
:: The closet of my classroom looks like 321 bins of classroom things threw up.

:: I have a secret stash of smarties hidden away, when caught chewing I swallow quickly!

:: Classical music plays throughout the day and sometimes I doze off

::My heart still soars when I visually see the children 'get' something.

:: I love organizing and reorganizing my book shelves

:: I have feelings of insecurity over their education daily
:: I love the smell of Expo markers

:: I worry

:: I laugh
:: I love

The kids each have Science labs in their bedrooms and the bases are IKEA coffee tables, needless to say they need to be replaced often. They get exploded on, wet, drawn on, experimented on and so much more...this leads to a lot of wear but I am so glad they love to create. As we replaced one, I was ready to toss this, but realized we could use it in the classroom as a gaming center or for group work. Our first project is to give it a makeover this month. Nothing that costs money and using things that are only found around the house. This should be interesting! Hahaha!

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.

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Suddenly Sunday

Give children confidence and you will see them grow! Sunday is here and I am truly blessed for another day with my family. We are celebrating birthdays with family and then coming home to relax and unwind for the week ahead.

A well snuck in nap! We ended up having to get another cart to carry the rest of our stuff!

Multiplication games on the weekends? I Love it! Roll the dice and mark the answer, first one to get 4 in a row wins!

A field trip to the news station brought out so much in the kids, they learned and now love to watch the news with me to see the anchors that are now their 'friends' and they can chat about where they sat and what they did!

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Random Round Up!

Saturday has come and gone, why is it like that with the days we look forward to most? Oh what a Saturday we had, complete with Doctors, Dentists and Firemen...what?! Yes, my children (all 3!) got stranded in an elevator! All was well in the end but it was terrifying for them and I may have had a mild heart attack listening to their screams. They were only going for a drink of water while I made follow up appointments (no cavities for anyone, yay!!) and lo and behold the fountain was broken, so they got no water and a day to remember!! Anyway, this photo was taken for a boy that was so proud of his first fruit salad that he diced and chopped all on his own. What age do you give your children knives and an all access pass to the kitchen as long as you are in there with them? My little Roman there is 7!

With Christmas decorations going away, I am taking advantage of this time to rearrage some items in my living room and I wanted to find space to incorporate some of the vintage Singer Sewing machine drawers that I have from my grandmothers machine. I only have 1 set of drawers on the machine, which is serving as an entryway table in our foyer (sounds grander than it actually is) and I have 3 drawers waiting for new homes! 1 went on our mantel of the fireplace and this one is holding books in the bookshelf and I quite like it!

In Our Little Catholic Homeschool, I never talked about our Advent wreath, so before I forget I wanted to share a photo of what we had out for the season. All our advent books and Christmas books get tucked into this bin along with our wreath and candles. It is all felt and perfect for little hands, what I love even more, is that even though the kids are older they can play with it and I don't have any fear of them burning themselves or even worse...when it's time to light the first one, I am not scrambling to find candles! Our wreath heads to the classroom where it will stay out for anyone that wants to look at it or play with it but the books get boxed away for the season.

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Not Really A Wordless Wednesday...

It is freezing outside today and all the local schools are closed. We of course are still in school, just snuggly warm in jammies! We will be playing board games tonight for wireless wednesday in class and later on as a family when dad gets home! There is nothing we like better than a giant blanket in front of the fireplace and some boardgame fun! This is a vintage Scrabble board given to me by my husband's grandmother and it always stays out like this. It encourages the kids to word play every now and then and more of the time we can't help but create a word and leave it for the next passerby.

Snap Circuits are BIG in our home, we own too many sets, so I had to come up with a fun and visual way to organize them!  

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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