Friday, June 24, 2011

Messy Mondays!! {Summer Fun}

During the summer months, we are slowing down our formal homeschooling lessons {just a tad} and enjoying as much time outdoors as we possibly can!  One of the great weekly activities we have instituted is called "Messy Mondays." I have come up with a ton of messy craft ideas from searching the web and, each Monday, we will make a fun craft that will allow the girls to get a bit messier than they normally do. (Mommy tends to prefer NOT cleaning up huge messes, but will all for the name of fun learning, lol:)

Here was our first "Messy Monday" Project-----homemade sidewalk chalk paint. Have you ever tried this before? Oh, it was so simple and so much fun! The girls really, really liked it. It kept them busy for a while and we all got some much-needed Vitamin D from the gorgeous sunshine!

To make the paint, all you do is mix equal parts of cornstarch and water and then put in a few drops of food coloring! That's all! (Mommy loves simple crafts:)









Why don't you make this over the weekend? Put some old clothes on the kiddos and let them paint everything in sight:) The rain washed it away in a few days, but it really was pretty and made us smile every time we came home and saw it:)

Blessings, 
Aria:)

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Homemade Laundry Detergent {the powder kind}

We have been making our own laundry detergent for years, now! It has really, really saved us a lot of money. It is really easy to do and the girls enjoy helping me make it. We usually make the liquid kind, but I have been wanting to try to the powder kind and found a really nice recipe for it!

It is super easy!

A SIMPLE RECIPE

Each batch yields approximately 32 ounces (between 32-64 loads based on how many Tbsp used per load).
**I personally prefer to use the Fels-Naptha bar soap**

 Simply grate the bar of soap and add it to the rest of the ingredients. Stir really well for 5 minutes or so. That's it:) I promised you it was simple.

Just pour in 1 Tablespoon per load and you are set to go! I have tried it and it works really, really well!

Here is a link to the liquid version recipe as well as some money-saving info from a Yahoo personal finance article. We typically add lavender essential oil to our liquid mix to make our clothes smell really good!

I have also heard you can make your own detergent for the dishwasher but haven't tried it since we hand-wash our dishes.I know, we are weird, lol.

Have you tried it? Please let me know!!
Blessings,
Aria:)

Neat Father' Day Craft Idea {Salt Dough fun}!!

With Father's quickly approaching, your kids may need a good, last-minute gift to make for Dad. Here is a really cute salt dough idea we found here.





We love making all sorts of play dough, so this was a hit with our girls. I had to help them with placing the rocks in place to spell Dad Rocks, but it was an easy craft to do!

We also plan on completing an interview about Dad. I cannot wait to hear how the girls will answer the questions from Simply Montessori!  We plan to print it off and frame it for Father's Day!

We will go to our traditional Father' Day Brunch and eat way too much! LOL. We have some more surprises in store, but we are going to save those just in case Daddy is reading the blog today:-)

What special ways will you celebrate Father's Day this year? Sending many blessings to all of the wonderful Fathers out there!!!
Blessings,
Aria:)

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Taco Tuesday {with a twist}!!

So, our family typically has "Taco Tuesday" in our house. Every Tuesday, just about, we plan to make tacos. We usually stick with crunchy or soft tacos with variations of ground turkey/chicken or shredded chicken as the base. Then, we try to add different toppings (from corn and tomatoes to guacamole) and see what we end up with. 

WELL..........this Tuesday, I just wanted to try something totally DIFFERENT!!
So, I decided to invent a Taco Tuesday Pizza!!
It turned out GREAT, so I just had to share:)

 My biggest helper, Elle. She is such a blessing to us!!
 Here it is fresh out of the oven! 
I started out with a whole wheat pizza crust. Topped it with pizza sauce mixed with a little softened low-fat cream cheese. I know, it sounds weird, but it is what "made" the pizza so special!!

I sauteed some ground chicken and seasoned it with taco seasoning. I never add water to it, it just dilutes the flavor to me:) Cooled the chicken and put it on the sauce. Sprinkled mozzarella cheese on top and baked it! Easy peezy!
 Once the pizza cooled a bit, I drizzled some low-fat sour cream on top, chopped fresh tomatoes and lettuce. I then sprinkled a little more taco seasoning on top for good measure!

 I have learned the trick to a great pizza crust is to dust your pan with corn meal prior to putting your crust on it to bake-works like a charm!!
As you can see, the first one was eaten so fast, I had to make another one minutes later! ha, ha!
Seriously, it was THAT good!  Plus, it has lots of good, healthy ingredients!
Enjoy!! Please let me know if you make this:) I would LOVE to hear from you!
Blessings,
Aria:)

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Our Cooking Lessons {Weekly Wrap-Up}

This week in homeschool, we focused on studying cooking in the kitchen. We started with a trip to Trader Joe's, our favorite grocery store.  The girls LOVE having their very own shopping carts:-)

We discussed pricing, weighing fresh food items, couponing, paying for the food, analyzing receipts, and where food comes from. Tons of lessons in this one trip alone:-) The girls love to help me prepare meals (I cook 95% of our meals), but this week, they were 
 able to plan the menu!

 Our Bible Memory Verse for the week! 

This is a really good one! We discussed how God wants us to honor Him with our bodies and that we should take good care of ourselves. We should always glorify God no matter what we are doing. We should eat healthy foods, stay active and maintain healthy weight levels. We also talked about why it is important not to drink alcohol or anything else that can be misconstrued as ungodly. 
We really had a great and FUN week!
    This week's lapbook contains the menu, kitchen rules, measuring activities, fractions work, place setting, kitchen utensils, recipe cards, grocery lists, receipts, coupons, and what to eat vs. what not to eat paper.

    Learning more about coupons! Gotta teach them about saving money from a young age:-)
    Em LOVES to eat:) She had fun sorting out the felt foods. We categorized them. Talked about their properties and whether they are good for us or not. Em and Elle picked out their favorites and tried to find them in the grocery store!
    Elle writing out the menu for the week. Her handwriting is really improving and she is really good at trying to spell on her own!
    Em is loving the stacking cups.
    Elle loves working with the measuring spoons and cups!
    Elle's book of Kitchen Rules.
    The girls used the book of Kitchen Science ideas to pick out some experiments to work on this week. It is a great resource!! Found it in the library!
    The love doing this! The old milk, food coloring and dish soap experiment.
    Look at that great "look of discovery and awe" Em has!! I LOVE this!!! I am so glad I get to witness her love of learning firsthand!
    Our silly girls making salt dough.

    Elle was really being creative this time. She put two plates together and made a pot pie. It looks just like the ones I make for real!
    Em enjoyed making shapes from the dough.
    Here are our cooking books for the week.
    The girls LOVED picking out recipes!! We actually tried a lot of new ideas and even some foods we have never paired together before!

    I baked their salt dough shapes in the oven and the girls painted them.


    The girls had so much fun playing this game! My little sister bought it for them and it is perfect for this unit! It is a match game where you turn over the cards with a spatula and try to match the picture of a food to the beginning letter of the word. Both girls did an amazing job with this! I am always so impressed with how well Em(33 mos) knows her letter sounds and what words they make!

    The girls made tuna melts for the first time!

    Waiting for the yeast to bubble for the bread bears.

    Em picked out these, of course:) She is certainly our animal lover!
    The girls had so much fun playing with the dough and making their bear shapes. Next time, we will try to make them a bit smaller, lol. Oh, and they forgot to put ears on them, ha, ha!

    Didn't they turn out cute!?


    Princess Em playing in her kitchen.
     I put these printables in a plastic sleeve to protect them and let Em use her Mickey Mouse as the "marker." It really worked out GREAT! She loves counting and she loves her animals, so it was the perfect combo for a math lesson:)

     Elle trying to teach Em how to read, lol. Using some animal flash cards we just recently picked up at the thrift store.
     Elle working on her geometric shapes.
    We LOVE making fruit smoothies!!!




    Zucchini muffins---so, so good:) We took some to the beauty shop with us to share and they were GONE in no time! Everyone said, "we don't even like zucchini" but they were eating them like they were cupcakes or something! Shhh, don't tell them I made them with whole wheat flour and organic rice milk;-)
    Our girls loving their zucchini muffins!



    We found some all-natural crescent rolls and hot dogs at Trader Joe's and decided to make some "Dogs in a Blanket".
    They were a huge hit!

    Elle doing some language arts work.
    This is the perfect workbook for Em since it has animals:)
    We hope you enjoyed our cooking lessons! We sure did! Oh, and this week, we also signed the girls up for "real" cooking classes at a local Kid's Culinary Academy. The girls are looking forward to going later this summer!

    Blessings,
    Aria:)

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