home (pre)schooling

   For those of you who know me well, you know I am an advocate of homeschooling. So why it didn't occur to me until this week to homeschool Lincoln for preschool is beyond me. I sat there on my computer just willing a new preschool program to pop up onto my google search, "Wonderful, Amazing new preschool in Decatur only $50 a month!" Yeah. Right. Like that's EVER going to happen. So then it dawns on me. I wonder what type of activities I could do with him at home that are preschool-ish enough so that he's learning the basics. Googled that, and Voila! TONS of online preschool resources. There was one website I found to be particularly awesome and wanted to share it with you. A wonderful person named Katrina Lybbert has posted a website called: www.letteroftheweek.com. Here she has three stages or steps that will prepare your preschooler for reading. So Monday Linc and I start the Preparatory Curriculum for Brightly Beaming Steps to Reading, and I am SO excited!! You have no idea how excited I am. This program is legit. It has lesson plans and themes of the week and songs and poems and shapes, colors, numbers, you name it. I feel like he's finally going to get the preschool experience I've so been longing for him to have. And the best part is, I don't really have to pay much at all. So far with supplies I've spent about $15. Yup, fifteen buckaroos, that's it.
    And I know what you're thinking....Heather you could have been teaching him poems and songs and letters all this time ya know...and here's what I have to say to that. I know. But I am the most indecisive person ever. Plus I have a hard time with follow through. So to make a decision on which song to teach Linc and then have the memory to keep singing it to him, doesn't often happen. Direction is what I needed. And direction is what I've found. Like I mentioned before this program has weekly lesson plans all laid out for you and a suggested daily schedule. It's simple things and the whole lesson probably won't last more than 30 minutes, but at least it's something. And I'm so ecstatic about it.
   I also happened upon a blog that I found very encouraging ...http://mommylife.net/archives/2009/03/why_homeschool.html...if you don't want to read the four part post (which is understandable) here it is in a nutshell. Why NOT homeschool your preschooler? You have cared for and raised this child so far...who better to teach them too? A degree isn't what always makes a great teacher. The desire to teach can also make a great teacher. So if you're a mom and have the desire to teach your child, there should be nothing nor anyone stopping you. Geeze, that makes me feel invincible! :) I know that I will be winging it for the first few weeks and probably not as organized-minded or patient as someone with lots of experience teaching, but I like to think that I'll get the hang of it and hopefully learn a lot about myself, my child and education in general in the process.
   So if you haven't been able to send your little one to preschool because of your budget like me, or you just want to homeschool period, I highly recommend this. Of course we'll see how it goes the first week, but she makes the actual days so flexible I can't see this not going well. Here's a few pictures of the things I've prepared for the week...sorry about the quality, I had to use my phone! :) I'll try to update with some more pictures once we start coloring and cutting and things like that. Thanks for letting me share this! :)

These are all the "cow" books we checked out from the library.

I used clear contact paper to "laminate" all of our weekly letters/numbers/etc. I just folded it over on itself then cut around the edges. This way they last through the next few children. :)

Every week we will use a counting folder to help us learn our numbers.
You add stickers counting up to the number on the page.
Ex: the number one would have one sticker. :)

We also have a Review Folder that we will go over every Friday.

It contains the number, letter and shape/color for each corresponding week.

And here's the finished product! She has you make a poster board for reference when teaching your munchkin. I've taped things on with tape that can easily come off, so next week these come down and go into a folder and the new letter/number/color/etc. goes up! Simple as that.

tasty tuesday's

In honor of my brother-in-law, Sam, I am posting Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Cake today. His birthday is on Thursday and he's requested his favorite dessert! Happy Birthday, Sambo!

   Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Cake
This is originally a Paula Deen recipe. Enjoy!

What you need:
  - 1 box yellow cake mix
  - 4 eggs
  - 2 sticks of butter
  - 1 box of cream cheese (8 oz; softened)
  - 1 can of pumpkin (15oz)
  - 1 teaspoon vanilla
  - 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  - 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  - 1 box of confectioner's/powdered sugar (16oz)

What you do: (Preheat oven to 350 degrees)
   For the crust, mix the cake mix, 1 egg and 1 stick of butter and pat it into the bottom of a sprayed 13x9 pan. *note: Don't follow the cake box instructions, just use the dry mix, 1 egg and butter. That's it. You'll have to work with it to get it to cover the bottom of the pan.
   For the filling, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin together until smooth. Then add the remaining eggs, butter and vanilla and beat together. Next, add the cinnamon, nutmeg and powdered sugar. (I find it less messy if you add in the powdered sugar in small increments. It'll fly all over your kitchen if you pour the whole box in!) Make sure it's mixed really well then pour into your pan overtop your crust. Bake for 40-50 minutes. Make sure you don't over bake this...it's supposed to be Ooey and Gooey remember? Now, dig in!

Just for fun: delicious variations of this same recipe!
   - Ooey Gooey Pineapple Cake. Just use a 20oz can of crushed pineapple instead of pumpkin. Make sure you drain it.
   - Ooey Gooey Banana Cake. Use two bananas instead of pumpkin.
   - Ooey Gooey Peanut Butter Cake. My personal favorite. Use chocolate cake mix instead of yellow for the crust, and use 1 cup creamy peanut butter instead of pumpkin. Delicious!!!

tasty tuesdays's

Hello, All! I am bringing a new recipe to you today that was even new to me until yesterday! Fun! Graham and I have recently read and started the 4 Hour Body, Slow-Carb diet and I wanted to share this recipe and a little bit of info from the book with you...So the great thing about this "diet"(I hate calling it that...I think it's more a new food regimen) is that you don't cut calories or food groups. You cut out some foods, but replace them with healthier ones instead in the same category (mostly being white, processed carbs for spinach and the like). Here are the five rules of the Slow Carb Diet:
1. Avoid white carbohydrates. (pasta, breading, milk, etc. with the exception of kidney beans and cauliflower.)
2. Eat the same few meals over and over again. (We do this anyway if you really think about it.)
3. Don't drink calories. (You are still allowed coffee, wine, and some "diet" sodas in moderation.)
4. Don't eat fruit. (Our ancestors didn't eat fruit year round, every day...why should we?)
5. Take one day off per week. (He calls this "Dieter's Gone Wild", the day you can literally eat anything and everything you want, no holding back, no feeling guilty. My favorite part. :) )

So I decided to make somewhat of a chili/stew/veggie-free-for-all and it turned out pretty darn tasty! I was worried to make any of the chili recipes I was already familiar with because I usually put sour cream and cheese in it and didn't want to feel like I was having the same thing, but without the delicious part....so I literally threw all these ingredients in a pot and ate it later with nothing added to it. So good! I encourage you all to check out his website and blog (www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog) and read up on this for yourselves, so far it's been hard, but I feel so much better (no more food comas) and don't really feel deprived because I know I can have whatever I want come Saturday. :) Totally worth it! Enjoy!

Healthy "Chili" 
 This makes 6 hearty helpings.
   What you need:
         1lb ground beef (we used yummy grass-fed beef from Trader Joe's)
         1 can diced tomatoes (or freshly diced tomatoes)
         1 small can tomato paste
         1 can whole kernel corn
         1/2 a green pepper chopped
         1/2 onion chopped
         2 cloves garlic
         garlic salt (lots of this stuff made it delicious!)
         onion powder
         kosher salt
         pepper

   What you do:
     Throw it in the crock pot and cook for 4-6 hours. I did about 3 hours on high and the last hour on low. It tasted great for lunch, too! :)

things you only say if you're a parent...

  So for a while now I've been compiling an ongoing list in my head of things that myself or Graham has said that if not for being a parent really wouldn't be said otherwise. When you have barbarians running around in your house it's not uncommon to find yourself explaining the most simplest of things or asking this young person questions that seem completely ridiculous. This is in fact why I call my children barbarians. They can't feed themselves, bathe themselves, speak (clear) english, they resort to violence and thievery when they feel it's necessary ("you take my toy, I push you down") and so forth and so on....So you can imagine that situations arise throughout the day that need explaining or questioning. Here are some of my favorites, only naming a few:
  "Chapstick doesn't go IN your mouth...it goes ON it."
  "Don't drink the bath water, your brother just peed in it."
  "We don't play in or around the trash."
  "Please don't sit on or stand on or in any way squash your brother."
  "Just because he put his finger in your mouth doesn't mean you HAVE to bite it."
Also I find it amusing that we have to differentiate our Thomas the trains now that we have multiple ones...there's huge Thomas, big Thomas, Quinny's Thomas and my favorite...poop Thomas. Yup, you heard that right. We have a Thomas strictly as a reward for pooping.
   We've been somewhat potty training Linc since his second birthday. Peeing in the potty was no problem for him, but pooping in the potty is an entirely different story. I don't know when or how, but he somehow associated pooping in the potty with pain, so for the longest time he would just hold it until nap or night time and just wait to be changed until after. For months we have had a Thomas the Train (the real one: wood and metal, the right colors in the right places, the right size, etc.) sitting up high in the bathroom just waiting to be collected when Lincoln went poop on the potty. Just this past week I'm not exactly sure what clicked, but all of a sudden he tells me he has to poop. So of course, I bring him to the potty and voila! he's done it! We jump and clap and rejoice! We immediately give him Thomas as well as m&m's and two tokens on his chart for doing so well. (We have a chart to encourage him to share, stay in his bed, clean up, etc...do all things less barbarically if you will) He's ecstatic! So we tell him (just like we've said a million times before) the only way to KEEP poop Thomas is to KEEP going poop in the potty. If you poop in your pants again, we will have to take poop Thomas away.
   So after the rejoicing we are all sitting around in the living room and I'm watching Lincoln very intently. It's almost as if I can see the little wheels turning in his head and I can't wait to hear what he's come up with. So I sit and wait patiently until he looks up at me and asks, "Lincoln poop potty?" To which I reply, "Yes, Lincoln pooped in the potty! Great job!" Then he asks, "Lincoln poop on couch?" To which I reply, "No, Lincoln shouldn't poop on the couch. Poop only in the potty." And he proceeds to ask me about every object in the room...the lamp, the table, the floor, the wall...then he gets this smirk on his face and asks, "Lincoln, poop on Daddy?" And of course, Graham and I bust out laughing...I mean come on, to explain that one is pretty hilarious...so I say, "No, Lincoln should definitely NOT poop on Daddy!"
   I think it started out him actually wondering if the poop needs to always be in the potty or just not poop in his pants. But once he figured it out I loved that he played a joke on us! Needless to say....I never thought I would have to explain to someone. "No, you shouldn't poop on your father."

Ahhh....the joys of parenthood. And I apologize for all the "poop" talk for all the non-parents out there...this just so happens to be my reality right now. :)

tasty tuesdays's

Today I bring you a new recipe I tried out this week that ended up being delicious! And the great thing about it is you probably have most of the ingredients already in your kitchen...so here we go!

     Honey Mustard Chicken
 What you need:
    - 4 to 6 chicken breasts
    - honey mustard sauce (I made mine from "scratch" I'll post directions for that below)
    - bread crumbs of any kind
    - parmesan cheese (or any other shredded cheese you have on hand would probably be good)

 What you do:
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Dip the chicken into the honey mustard, then cover it in the bread crumbs. I found it most efficient for the sauce to be in a bowl and the bread crumbs on a plate. Then place the chicken in a 2 1/2qt or 13x9 baking dish. Sprinkle the tops with the shredded parmesan and cook for about half an hour or until the outside is a little crispy, cheese is melted and juices run clear. Enjoy!

In case you don't have any honey mustard on hand....here's instructions on how to make your own.
  What you need:
     - about 1 cup of mayonnaise
     - about 1/2 cup of yellow mustard
     - honey
     - cayenne pepper
 
   What you do:
   Combine the mayo and mustard in a bowl and then add the honey and pepper until you like how it tastes....simple as that! :)