When we kicked off our 2013/2014 year of homeschooling, we went with the kinder program for our 4 year old, and I’m really excited about it. Having the alphabet on the wall in the kitchen helped her to learn all the letters, so having the words we are working on up on the wall should help her to learn those, too. I have seen other, smaller alphabet tree activities like this one, this one, and this one. When I was a kid, I had a small collection of Leo Lionni books and The Alphabet Tree was my favorite. Clearly, I was inspired by this book!

The tree itself is just construction paper blue tacked to the wall, and I used these adhesive foam letters for the words. I have random letters here and there and also the words cute, candy, play, helpful, funny and sunshine. I made this to have a fun place to display the words we are working on so she can see them everyday. I didn’t want o ruin the construction paper and constantly having to repair it, so I laminated five pages of construction paper – four for the tree part and one on the trunk. Each new word that she works on will go up in the tree and once she learns them we’ll put them in a basket and add new ones.

My husband’s parent’s visited for almost two weeks, it was their second visit since we moved to LA and we had such a wonderful time! Last year we took them to Disneyland, some of our favorite parks, Hollywood and a few of our favorite local places. After another year of homeschooling (and another year of living here) we took them to a totally different set of places. We went to Santa Monica because it’s the kid’s favorite place and we showed off the Heal the Bay Aquarium, Venice Beach, Aquarium of the Pacific, Crafted at the Port of LA, The California Science Center, The La Brea Tar Pits and The LA Zoo. We touched moon jellyfish, starfish, anemones, urchins, hammerhead sharks, and sting rays! The kids used a pulley system to lift a truck and we all saw the space shuttle Endevour! We also of course watched Wee One #1 do his jiujitsu classes and Wee One #2 do her dance lessons and Wee One #3 was more than happy to show them around one of her favorite places, the Aquarium of the Pacific. I’m still recovering from it all, but it was so great. There was a lot of barbecuing together, late nights full of laughter and lazy mornings full of sleeping in. My husband and I even managed to get out one night with our friends to a fair. We fit school in around all the adventuring and the kids got to bring their grandparents to homeschool check in day!

Megan, over at Brassy Apple mentioned on Facebook last week that there are 15 Saturdays until Christmas. I? Exploded. I’m just starting to get hyped about Halloween! It does remind me that there is a lot of knitting and cross stitching to be done so maybe I should stop drooling over patterns on Ravelry and get knitting!

Learning about seahorses at Heal the Bay Aquarium, Venice Beach, Touching moon jellyfish, starfish, a sea cucumber and a sting ray at Aquarium of the Pacific, 2 Market Street cookie cutter shop at Crafted at the Port of LA, the LA Zoo, Lomita fair, (not so) Wee One #1 training at jiujitsu, and Wee One #2 mastering her middle splits!

This is not a recipe, it’s just a cute idea. It takes less than 10 minutes and it’s really adorable. All day in the sun was super fun and calls for some strawberry ninjas.

fresh strawberries (hulled)
fresh whipped cream
mini chocolate chips

All you do is place the hulled strawberries upside down and cut enough of the point off so you can fill it from the top. Remove the point, fill the strawberry with whipped cream and put the point back on. Pop mini chocolate chips in as eyes and voila. Super cute snack for pretty much anytime.

I spent the day at Seaside Lagoon with all the littles. With the load of work we have for homeschool this year, I’m not really a fan of taking a day for the beach, but I made an exception today because this is their favorite spot and it’s seasonal so it closes for the off seasons this weekend. Our last time for 2013 was super fun and I’m looking forward to going back again next year.

This year, Wee One #3 would be starting kindergarten if we were still in Canada. We’re all happy to be homeschooling, and we’re all happy to be down here but it feels really weird to not be registering our four year old for kindergarten. So while I can’t officially enroll her in the same homeschooling program our other two are in, I can start formally homeschooling her. I will drone on about that more next week. 🙂

Right now, I’m excited about some of the supplemental activities I’ve pulled together for her. There are a lot of great finds over at Confessions of a Homeschooler, and these wheels are two of them. I find that after kids learn something new, it’s important to make sure they practice it enough that it sticks but not so they are bored with it. These matching wheels are awesome for reaffirming what kids already know, but are not so boring that they’re over them if they know the material already.

Our kindergartener is still working on matching up some of the uppercase / lowercase letters and having the alphabet wheel in my (admittedly huge) purse has been really helpful for her learning some of the lowercase letters in small doses and it has the very pleasant side effect of keeping her engaged and happy while waiting at doctor offices and the like. She uses them at home sometimes too when I am busy with the other kid’s lessons and so far, so good! We have alphabet and number flash cards and worksheets in folders that she will dig out just so she can clip the matching clothespin to them!

If you’ve been homeschooling for any length of time, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to invest in a good laminating machine! I only mention it because I try to buy things based on recommendations from others who get heavy use out of items I know I’m going to get heavy use out of, and I love my Scotch Laminator!

Huge thank yous go out to Confessions of a Homeschooler for making these printables and making them available free for personal use! All you need is a printer, a laminating machine, wooden clothespins and a marker! I keep each set in gallon-size Ziploc bags.

The number wheel has dots from 1-10 and clothespins with the matching numbers on them. Since there are no dots on the clothespins and no numbers on the wheel, this wheel is wonderful to drive home a lesson on numbers or review the same concepts a few days later. This wheel has helped our kindergartener to have a solid understanding of numbers up to 10. There is another wheel available for the numbers 11-20.

The alphabet wheel follows the same basic idea as the number wheel with the uppercase letters on the wheel and the lowercase letters printed on clothespins. This is a little trickier of course, since there is so much more to remember. Trying to teach a pre schooler or even a kindergartener the entire alphabet at once is overwhelming, but a few letters at a time breaks it down into manageable pieces and teaching aids like this one are perfect for both reviewing and introducing new letters!

This is a hit or miss when it comes to the kids actually eating it at the end, but Miss Wee One #3 really liked making it. Some of our friends in the 10 and over crowd liked it, all the adults who tried it loved it, but none of the littlest ones liked it very much. Except for the syrup. Oh my. It so good, I made extra to give to a friend that loves caramel because it has that caramel taste to it (it’s only one ingredient away from the Amish caramel I make). I haven’t tried yet, but I’d imagine it would be perfect on everything from ice cream to apple slices.

I think the syrup is the main attraction here and it really takes the date cake over the top, but the cake itself is pretty good. It is a spice cake dotted with dates which really make or brake loving this or not. If you’re into them, it’s a win. If you’re not, just leave them out!

Sticky Toffee Pudding via Baking with Kids

Preheat to 350, and pour the boiling water over the chopped dates. Add the baking soda and let it sit for a while.

Mix the sugar, butter and vanilla until well combined. Whisk the eggs on their own to break them up and then add them to the sugar/butter mixture one at a time. Make sure it’s well mixed each time.

Today is the first day of school across the LAUSD – for the homeschoolers as well! In our case, we check in with one elementary school teacher and one middle school teacher so we have the same teachers as last year! Fun! I pulled together a couple of sweet ideas I had pinned a while ago to usher in the new school year right.

A lot of homeschoolers don’t like working with their school boards, and I’m not really sure why. I love having teachers to go to with questions about the kid’s work and also being able to work closely with them in an independent study program is wonderful because we can tailor projects and activities to fit them while at the same time working in a school situation that comes with report cards and transcripts!

One of our daughters, Wee One #2 has been working hard over the last year to fast track through second and third grade. She has just a couple of months left in 3rd grade and then she’ll be able to start on 4th. Thankfully, we have the same teacher until 5th grad to help us get through the process! She’s a really sweet person and a great teacher!

She drinks coffee and we have a similar sense of humor so I thought she’d both find this gift funny and useful. It a 16oz Starbucks mug filled with Starbucks instant French Roast coffee packets. The little note is a reproduction I’ve seen all over Pinterest – a little something to get you back to the grind. That’s delicious cheese, amirite?!

The VIA packets are shorter than the cup and didn’t look very pretty at first so I turned a paper Starbucks espresso cup upside down in it and put the packets on top of that so they stuck out more. I have yet to knit with this yarn, but I used a little Biggo yarn in Dogwood Heather from Knit Picks to attach the note (which is just cut out and backed onto brown card stock).

Our oldest’s teacher has been amazing in helping us with the transition to homeschooling a middle schooler, which is an entirely different beast than homeschoooling an elementary aged child! He has the same passion for art that our son has so they hit it off right away. So much in fact, that he’s comfortable calling him if he has questions about an assignment or if he just wants to clarify something. Such a great benefit to independent study!

I hope he likes this little something, I know he likes plants and since he’s working with older kids whose attention can be even harder to hold than small children, hopefully his note will speak to him. 🙂 Teachers plant seeds of knowledge that will grow forever. I went with a cactus since it’s pretty hard to kill them and it went with the whole ‘forever’ theme!

To decorate the pot the cactus came in, I glued pages from the world’s most pathetic dictionary* (the word teach isn’t even in it) to the sides and attached his card stock-backed note with some backyard rope.

I mention that it was a terrible dictionary because the idea of ripping pages from a dictionary (or any book really) totally horrifies me. It had no words between tea and team, for example. It also had a ‘computer terminology’ page at the very back with terms like ‘USB’ and ‘internet’. My husband insisted I laminate it so he could take it to work with him because he is a hilariously ironic dude when he wants to be.

We have made this recipe so many times, I’ve lost count. These pictures are from the first time we made it and they make me nostalgic for our old house, though I quickly remember the snow raging outside so much of the time and then I’m thankful for the beach. 😉

Where ever we are, there is always a lot of baking going on, and this recipe has been one of the ones that has moved around with us. The only down side to non stop summer is there are no cold winter nights that it makes sense to bake something like this on, but of course we bake it anyway!

Banana Loaf via Baking with Kids

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
7 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
2 large bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks

It’s a pretty standard banana bread recipe, but it’s so so good!

Preheat the oven to 350, and grease a loaf pan.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl and stir in both sugars. Make a little well in the middle of the mixture. Melt the butter either in a small pot on the stove or in the microwave and pour that and the eggs into the well. Mix it all up and add the bananas. Mix again and then add the chocolate chips or chunks.

Pour into the loaf pan, pop in the oven and bake for about an hour.

The best thing about this recipe is the kids can so it almost all themselves, especially if you have an older one to help with melting the butter and pouring the batter into the loaf pan. The satisfaction they get from cracking eggs, mixing, stirring and baking is one of those unmatched things. Making something the rest of the family loves is pretty special too! It helps that this loaf is so moist and just sweet enough. It’s not overpowering with the banana flavor either, just perfect – which is probably why we’ve made it so many times!

There are so many different ways to ignite interest in science with small children. Looking at found objects under a microscope and watching the starts come out with a telescope are classics, but the very best one to hold their attention over a period of a time is sprouting seeds! Any kind of planting will do, I will post more of our planting projects in the coming weeks but this one, sprouting seeds to learn about germination is a great launching point.

Use any seeds you like! We used three different flower seeds – zinnias, marigolds and forget me nots. All you need in addition to the seeds are damp paper towels and zip top plastic bags. Place the seeds in the damp paper towel and fold it over, tuck the paper towel into the bag, zip it up and place it in a cabinet for a few days. It’s like magic for them when they open up the bags to see the seeds have sprouted. Be sure to use a lot in case some of them are dead.

After the kids marvel over the sprouts, (it’s even more fun with a magnifying glass) you can keep the magic happening by planting them! Planting them in a clear jar or plastic cup with where you can see the roots growing hold interest too and becomes it’s own lesson, especially if you plant something that grows under the dirt, like carrots or beets.

You can customize your own data charts so the kids can check on their seeds every day and record changes. If you choose seeds that will grow into larger plants (like a bean plant, for example) they’ll be able to record data longer.

The BBC has a good video to start with here, called An Introduction to Seed Germination and Growth

More on germination:

How Stuff Works video
Back To Constitution video
Kids Growing Strong

Amazing to me that summer break is almost over for us! We had intended to be pretty laid back this summer (yeah, yeah, I know I can’t) and get some summer school work done. The first two weeks of summer break we ran around South Bay hanging out with my dear friend Jennifer and her kids before they moved back to Texas (sadface), and we really did manage to do a lot in those two weeks. Wee One #2 had a dance performance at a fair and our oldest was promoted to a second stripe white belt in jiu jitsu!

Then? July happened. The oldest two started swimming lessons three days a week, Wee One #2 started dance camp, and evening classes at the studio started up again as well. Most days she was at the studio for half a day, but at least once a week she was there all day. The window of her at dance camp in the morning and the second window of her home from dance camp in the afternoon wasn’t really long enough to go far, but I had fun in the pool and the yard with the other two. Our oldest had jiu jitsu camp this summer as well, every afternoon plus he has regular classes three days a week plus one additional lesson. Wee One #3 made running around our little ‘hood all month feel fun. The library is very close and she’d always suggest a trip over there to get new books between dropping off and picking up the big kids. <3 We had a break last week from the studio, and now our tiny dancer is starting her 'summer dance intensive' schedule today. Half day of dance classes from lunch until just before dinner. The catch for her is that she has her first check in day for school during the second week of intensives but I'm sure we can make that work. So just like that, our summer break is over and it feels both like it didn't even happen (where's the 'break' part?) and like it was well spent! We did manage to sneak in a weekend in Vegas with the kids to hang out with my girl Nichole and her kids and do some tourist stuff too. I am especially grateful to live somewhere that feels like summer so much of the year that you didn't really miss it, even if you missed it. You know? 😉

This week, I’m trying to make my husband’s favorite meals paired with desserts that will win our kids over if they didn’t love dinner as much as their Daddy. 😛

This Week’s Menu August 5-11

Sunday – Homemade Pizza with Ice Cream Sundaes for dessert

Apple Cobbler is hands down one of my husband’s all time favorite desserts and our kids are all big on apples. This was a hit, I loved it so much I shared with our neighbors. 🙂

Apple Cobbler via Baking Bites

1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
5 medium apples (about 2 lbs)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups flour
1/4 cup quick oatmeal
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350, and mix the sugar and cinnamon, you’ll need this later. Peel and core your apples, and chop them up. Mix the apple pieces with the brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Pour this into your baking dish and make the topping!

The topping is really simple and so so good! Just combine the flour, oatmeal, baking powder, salt and 1/4 cup of the cinnamon-sugar mixture you made first. Mash the butter in with your fingers to get it all combined. Drop this all over the top of your apples to form a messy crust, sprinkle with the rest of the cinnamon-sugar and bake for about 45 minutes.

I served it with hard cider from Angry Orchard but it was just as amazing later with coffee. 😉

It was so good I ended up bringing some around to our neighbors!

Something really crazy happened to us this weekend. I mean, it didn’t really come without warning, even though it totally feels like there was no warm up or anything and while it is amazing, wonderful news, it’s also kind of intense.

Yeah, we officially have a teenager now. As in, we are the parents of a teenager.

This sweet little bundle…

Is now this wonderful, official teenager…

There’s a lot that goes along with this happening, but for now I choose to just think about how gone the days are of making birthday cakes for him that fit the theme of whatever he’s into. You know, because what he’s into is Call of Duty and it’s not like I’m going to make an MP5K cake, right? Instead, he now joins the ranks of those of us who are looking for flavor.

Dark cola is pretty much blacklisted in our house. I turn a blind eye at birthdays though, so when I saw the recipe for this I had to make it for him.

Coca Cola Cake via May Flaum

Preheat to 350, spray a 9 x 13″ pan with cooking spray and set aside. Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. In a medium pot, mix up the butter, cocoa, coca cola, and buttermilk. Let that boil.

Pour it into the prepared pan and make the glaze by heating the butter, cocoa and coca cola in a medium pan.