mrstracymartin.com

Road trip!

The saga continues...

(download)

Random Thoughts on our books for homeschool..

These are the books I'll be utilizing this year for homeschool.  We had wanted to be part of a Classical Conversations community, but there will only be one this year in our area and it's currently full.  So I am going to follow the basics of it at home. 

We currently have and will use the Classical Conversations Foundations 2  I snagged the book and the CD.  For those not familiar with the Classical Education model, it's outlined very well on the Classical Conversations website right here.  There will be lots of memory work and we've already started on some of it.

So along with this I'm going to dive into (insert:hoping to find these books on the cheap so if you have a copy you'd like to sell me that'd be just dandy) the Writing Road to Reading Spalding method of learning to read book. 
This Art book  to learn to draw and this Art appreciation book.  For History, I'm also going to use the Veritas Press History time line cards  ( we are going to just use the cards, not the other material that is optionally available for this material).  For Science I'm excited about 201 Awesome, Magical, Incredible and Bizarre Experiments.   

I'm excited most about these being books we utilize year after year.  Most of them are real world books, not just a text book.  It will create more of a real world fun environment for the early years of school, I can easily incorporate Jameson in on Natalie's early learning.  I can learn right along with them.   Additionally this will provide for lots of time to explore the wacky questions Natalie asks me on a regular basis.  "mommy will you teach me to count to 1000, Mommy, will you teach me how your food turns into poop, what is under the dirt, how far is it from the earth to the moon" 

For my little guy I've decided to start with letter sounds rather than letter recognition and lower case letters as well.  He loves it.  I made letter flash cards and we play 10 minutes worth of games with these cards.  He is also getting stronger on his shapes, numbers and colors.  He has this amazingly natural love of learning and is extremly easy for me to teach.   

Random Thoughts on computer time black hole and a recipe...

I have certain things that have to be done on my computer, but it seriously feels like a black hole of time!  I think I need a timer to set and just race to finish the task at hand and get off! 

I have been bargain hunting for homeschool materials, surfing the web for the best deals on items we need for this year.  I'll put a list here in case anyone has them they want to sell us, CHEAP!

I really hate it when I get on here to do two quick things and get pulled into two hours worth of other things!  I did manage to snag a few new recipes that I'm going to try batch cooking this month and freeze!   

I made some freezer burritos with some left over steak and they were a huge hit.  Both with my husband, whom I made them for and for my dear sweet pregnant friend that was in despirate need of immediate protein.  Boy do I remember those days all too well!  I made 9 burritos for the cost of less than one at our favorite taco shack.  So that is a major score and incentive to track down more recipes to try. 

The burritos were as follows:

Left over steak sliced in small bite size pieces
saute some veggies (I used red/yellow and jalapeno peppers and onion) in hot oil.
While cooking veggies crack 15 eggs in bowl add a splash of milk salt and pepper, wisk
Removed cooked veggies from pan and scramble the eggs.  when almost done add veggies and finish cooking.
While eggs are cooking shred cheese (I used 1/2lb of jack), slightly heat tortillas to get htem soft)
Get a paper towel and foil piece for each burrito

When egg are cooked make an assembly line in this order
foil
paper towel
tortilla
cheese
eggs
meat

fold tortilla up burrito style, both ends then sides
wrap in paper towel
wrap tight  in foil

Freeze until solid then put in freezer baggie with air pushed out of it.

When you want to cook them, remove foil and microwave 1 min on each side until hot.  Oven:  I haven't done this yet, but I'd do 350 for 10 to 15 min or so, but you'd need to get the paper towel off before putting in the oven, or not use a paper towel at all.

Random thoughts on unschooling myself...

As I prepare mentally and physically for the upcoming school year I've been giving a lot of prayer, thought and planning to the type of Education I want our children to receive.  I heard a quote this summer that children are souls to be nurtured not something to be measured.  I desire my children to have fat souls.  I want them to love learning, although I know they won't always enjoy the daily process and might push back against challenges.  I want them to love God with all their hearts, souls and minds AND to love their neighbors as themselves.  I've asked James to help me come up with a vision statement for our little school.  Get exact words down, something I can keep in front of me, put in front of our children regularly.  A grid that I can pour all the great and wonderful opportunities through and if it doesn't work for our vision then it's an easy NO to give. 

To start I'm realizing what I'm sure many experienced homeschooling parents have gone through, I have to rid my brain of typical classroom mentality.  I'm not currently in the spectrum of unschooling.  However, I'm realizing that I am in need of unschooling my own brain.  The education we provide in our home for our children can and will be an amazing adventure, one filled with successes, failures, joys, struggles, fun, hard work, laughter, discipline and much more.  But what it doesn't have to be is one filled with is anything that looks like a typical school class.  I'm not saying we won't sit and study, or do a workbook.  I guess what I am saying is that I'm realizing that to be legit, I don't have to "LOOK" like a typical school classroom.   It feels like this is going to be a work in progress and Noelle's kindergarten education will look a lot different from Natalie's as I walk on this journey and my own brain has a chance to see our school as something different than what my own kindergarten class looked like. 

I know it will be an exciting adventure, and I'm thrilled to make this happen for us this year.  We will be starting up next week.  What's great is we will start midweek with just a couple of subjects and then we will add a little at a time over the course of the coming weeks.  Until our schedule is completed. 

Any homeschooling moms out there that have felt this shift in thinking, if so what are some changes you made because of the shift?

It's exciting to me to see God to His thing with what we think is our lives!

Developing story, stay tuned for more!

(download)

End of summer!

It's our last week of summer and some friends joined us for the day! We had a tea party, dance party and oranges off the tree!

Parenting these kids is a work in progress...sometimes more work than progress!

Working on a supa cute crib bumper and skirt for baby boy W! Can't wait to see it finished!