Wordless Wednesday! Thinking outside the box!!!!!

Easy, Healthier Chicken Parmesan

Easy, Healthier Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
4 Chicken Breasts
Spaghetti Sauce
4 Cups Mozzarella Cheese (I said Heather, not completely healthy.  LOL!)
Bread Crumbs

Directions:

Cut Chicken into bite sized pieces. Spread Olive oil on bottom of 9x13 baking dish.  Place chicken pieces on top of oil.  Pour spaghetti sauce over chicken.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes.  Sprinkle 1/2 of the cheese on top of the chicken, sprinkle bread crumbs on cheese, then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the bread crumbs.  Bake an additional 20 minutes or until the cheese is all melted and browning.

Enjoy!

Astronomy Unit Study

If you didn't see my first post about our astronomy unit study, here it is.  We have been adding to our ASTRONOMY unit study by reading books about Mercury.

 

 

 

See that word Updated in the title?  Yea, maybe back in 1980.  LOL!  But, since I know absolutely nothing about ASTRONOMY, it did have things in it that we did not know.  It was a fun, short book that kept the boys attention.

 

The next day, we read this book.

 

 

 

This also was a short, fun book as well.  The boys really enjoyed it.

 

New Do's

Nothing is more exciting than getting a new "do"!  Well, at least for us......

You see, where my boys went to school these past few years, there is a VERY VERY VERY strict code on how you are to wear your hair.  You cannot have your hair spiked, cut into a bowl, or any other way that the teacher or principal may think draws attention to yourself. 

Well, my youngest boy has some funky hair that NEVER lays down.  No matter how much gel or hairspray or anything we put on it, by the end of the day, it was sticking up.  So, we started out the year, last year, with spikey hair, just so he wouldn't feel self conscience about it sticking up.  Well, we were immediately told we could not have his hair that way.  So, we had to paste it down to his head every day (not literally, but you get the gist).

So, when they found out they were not going back to that school...... well, they BOTH wanted their hair spikey.  So, here we go!  Our NOT back to school hair do!  HA!!!!!

And as for me, well I had not been happy with my hair for a few months now.  So, when it was my turn, I had her cut most of it off.  And it gave me a new bounce in my step!  I feel soooooooo much better with this shorter hair.  I feel more confident.  I don't know what it is about a new do that does that, but man the exhilaration!  Double HA!

Do you ever get NOT back to school hair cuts?  I never even thought about it until this year, simply because we always went BACK TO SCHOOL! 

The boys love their hair and ask me to spike it up every day.

God Bless you all!
Sherie

Classroom update!

Classroom update!

 

Well, it’s been a week or so since I wrote about our classroom.  We haven’t done a ton of changes, but we have added new chairs.  Office Depot had these cool chairs on sale for $59.99 each, so we hopped on that sale and got 2.  We got the same color, so there would be NO fighting.  Ha-ha!  Yea, I know I am wishfully thinking.

 

 

I just want everybody out there to know, you don’t have to go out and spend a fortune to set up a “classroom”.  Honestly, I had planned on doing just that.  I had a picture in my head that our school was going to look like a school.  Then, I kept putting things off and putting things off until finally the Lord made it clear in my head how things should REALLY be set up.  We moved desks that we already owned into my office.  I mean, I have a huge room that I was using for my office and only had 1 desk in the room.  I had plenty of room to share with my kids.  And why not show them that sharing is good.  Because I am sharing my office, they will get to keep their playroom.  And why do my walls have to be filled with bulletin boards and chalkboards, and whiteboards like a school room?  They don’t!  We have made the conscious decision to school at HOME, so let’s keep it looking like a home!

 

I hope this encourages some new homeschoolers and maybe even some practiced homeschoolers in the realms of your “classroom”.  As long as they have a place to do their work, that is all you need. 

Before I had this epiphany, we were holding school in the kitchen.  And actually, I kind of miss that…… kind of.  I was able to do dishes while the boys were doing their worksheets.  I was able to plan dinner while they were doing their busy work.  I was able to wash clothes and dry them as soon as the washer or dryer went off.

But, you know what?  Even though I was able to do all that stuff, we needed a place to be able to leave out our books and such.  I had to pack up all of our school books and “stuff” every afternoon, just so I could cook dinner.  Lunch was a nightmare.  I would have to prepare lunch on the dinner table, instead of the island.  I mean, we were making it.  But, this is much more comfortable.

I’m still in the process of organizing the room like I want, so stay tuned and see where God leads us!

 

God Bless You ALL!

Sherie

Is your little person having trouble with math??????

I can get sooooooo frustrated some times.  I know my 7 year old can do math, I know it, I know it, I know it!  But, some times................he just goofs off and acts like he is 1 and has no idea what 1+1 is.  AAAAaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

Well, I needed something fresh to get him to do his 2+ facts.  So, one night I was playing Bingo on my ipad, trying to drown out the fact that my son could not tell me what 2+5 was that day.  And ALL OF A SUDDEN, my brain kicked into gear.  Yep, that happens sometimes.

So, what is a girl to do you ask?????  Jump over to Amazon.com and see what kind of deals they have on Bingo games.  Yep, they had a Bingo game for $17.99 (here is the link!  http://www.amazon.com/Century-Novelty-Complete-Bingo-Game/dp/B0016HN3GO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1375821386&sr=8-2&keywords=Bingo)   AND, thanks to Amazon Prime, we had it in 2 days.  Do you have Amazon Prime?  Oh my goodness, that is the best thing Amazon ever came up with.  For our family, Amazon Prime has saved us so much money on shipping, its crazy!

Here's what we do.  Each boy gets 1 Bingo card.  I will call the number that comes out of the cage, for example 5.  And say, ok what is 5+2?  The 7 year old has to answer.  Then, I say B7 AFTER he answers correctly.  We do the same for the higher number too.  And you know what?  IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm so excited!  He asks to do Math Bingo every day!  WHOO HOO!!!!!  I am one happy momma!

Now, we tried to do this with multiplication for the 8 year old, but the answers were just too high in some cases that the numbers didn't go that high, so only do this with addition and subtraction.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to get your little person to get better with their math factoids.



God Bless you all!
Thanks for stopping by!
Sherie

Astronomy Unit Study

Science:  What do you do for science?

Well, this year we are going to try to do unit studies.  If it doesn’t work out, I will order science curriculum.  But, from all of the “standards”  that I have read, in 2^nd and 3^rd grade, they just touch on each type of science.

Right now, we are doing an astronomy study.  We started by watching this movie.

  

 

 Well, it was bbbbboooooorrrrriiiiinnnnggggg!!!!!!!!!  But, we made it through.  (I kind of took a nap, but don’t tell anybody).  We have some books and another series on Netflix to read and watch.  I also have some crafts up my sleeve to do.

I will update every time we add something to the unit study.  We are definitely utilizing the library for our studies.  I’m so excited!!!!!  If we can keep this up, we will save so much from not buying an actual curriculum.

Science is NOT one of my favorite subjects, but I am working on that.  One of my boys LOVES science, so I have to do my best to keep his interest high in the subject.

Do you utilize your library?  We used to go to a satellite branch of our library, and thought we were getting the best.  Well, a few weeks ago, I decided to make the trip down to the actual library.  MAN, were we missing out!  Our satellite branch could fit inside the kid’s section of the main branch.  We are in book heaven now!!!!!

God bless you all!

Sherie