Week 12: Did and Didn't

Oct. 1-5

Homeschooling

Well, after not thinking about it much, I decided to take the week off of homeschooling. That's right, after all, every school (public, private, home, and other) take a break every so many weeks. I wasn't really planning on it, we just got extremely busy with other things and honestly, next week is still looking packed, so I am not sure if we'll be homeschooling next week either.
I was doing ok finding time to put together the next phase of K's Language Arts lessons, but once I got all the copies made and cut all of the pieces and sorted them in their folders (for folder activities), I just haven't found the time to glue them onto the folders! I have been graciously given a bunch of glue sticks and have it all sorted; I just need the time to go one by one and glue the material together. I can't really do too much at this point in Language Arts until this is done. Sigh. I am hoping for little breaks here and there to get this done as soon as possible.
We did learn and we did find teachable moment this week, we just didn't formally "do school." That's ok, too. Some people would call it unschooling.

Homemade bagels

I tried this recipe for the first time and, whoa! I love it! I made plain and can't wait to try other flavors!  Click here for Homemade Bagel Recipe

Rear-facing carseats

Yes, we did it. We turned K around again to face the back of the backseat. After doing a lot of research and talking with some friends and my husband, we decided to have both kids in rear-facing car seats. Once we decided, I was holding my breath as I went to the garage to see if K's car seat was a convertible one (meaning that it works front-facing and rear-facing). It was! Whew! No need to buy a new one. 
K actually likes it a lot better for several reasons. The biggest reason is that his toys don't fall all the way down to the floor when he drops them. Surprisingly, he is communicating with his sister a lot more now that they're both facing backwards. It is cute the hear them chatting back there. 
And no, there's no need to panic about him not being able to watch the TV in the car. He can still watch it just fine, he'll just have to relax his neck every once in a while or he'll get a crick in his neck. Haha. In all honesty, we don't drive that much and when e do, he hardly ever watches it.
We are very happy we did this and have more peace of mind. Here is a little bit of what we looked at that convinced us to switch. Do more research if you're still not convinced. Please consider it, seriously and prayerfully. To us, it was a no-brainer.
Look at these angels!

CPSafety

About.com

YouTube Video 1

YouTube Video 2

carsafety.org

Need more? Probably not.

UPDATE (27 Jan 2013): K is 3 years old and A is now 1 year old. We are not planning on turning either one around for a long while. :)

Week 11: Different and more relaxed

K has always been enjoying boyish stuff, but especially lately. He loves superheroes, tractors, dinosaurs, cars, and muscles. He cracks me up when he's showing off his "muscles" or when he's pretending to be a dinosaur, stomping all over the place.

Another thing: As soon as we get home, K loves to take al of his clothes off, except for his big boy underwear. Must be a boy thing, too! By the way, he is almost completely potty trained! It was incredible! One day, he's not "with it," and the next, he's holding it and going at the right times like he's been doing it for years!
In the past two weeks, he has had no accidents during the day, he has stayed dry during naps and has peed in his pull up at night only twice! I couldn't be more proud! And I am so glad that the worst is behind us. After all, he's a big boy...he'll be 3 in December. Sigh. Bittersweet...

About our homeschool, well, I am in awe that we've been at it for 12 weeks already. Incredible. We took it easy this week and didn't fret with schedules. There was a lot to do that wasn't related to homeschooling, that I was like "Oh well..." <shrug>
He still learned a lot; we just didn't, per se, do Calendar / Circle Time every single day.

For Chinese and Spanish, I made a poster of K's favorite animals.
He really likes it and tries to read them often.
I still have to help him with the correct pronunciation,
since he wants to read them with an English accent.

This is a chart of the colors in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

"It is my deepest conviction that the children should be seen and heard as our most treasured assets.  They are not ours to be used or abused but to be loved and nurtured and encouraged to engage in life to the full extent of their being, free from fear."   ~Nelson Mandela

Homemade natural deodorant recipe

This post contains affiliate links. To learn more, please click here.

I have since switched to a glass container.

My concoction:
-Baking soda (aluminum free)
-Celtic sea salt or Himalayan Salt
-Organic cornstarch or organic arrowroot powder
-Essential oils that you like (therapeutic grade, 100% pure)
Tip: I am a Young Living essential oils distributor. You can order from www.youngliving.com (click here to go to the link) and use my distributor number to order if you'd like (1498096).
-Makeup puff (like you'd use for pressed powder make-up)
-Glass container

Optional:
-Organic coconut oil
-Organic jojoba oil
-Organic vitamin E oil

Mix equal parts of baking soda, salt, and cornstarch. 
Add 10-20 drops of the essential oils. 
Mix in well. 

This will make it powdery. If you prefer it to be a bit “wet”, then add some coconut oil and/or Vitamin E oil to make it a bit pastier. These supposedly help make the mixture more effective. 

Use the poof to put on armpits or any other areas in the body that need to stay dry. It might take a couple of weeks for your body to adjust to not using antiperspirant, so you might need to wipe with an organic baby wipe with witch hazel and apply twice a day until the adjustment happens.

Personal note: I used 1 tablespoon of each powder. Mixed well. Then I added 10 drops of tea tree oil and 10 drops of lemongrass essential oil. Mixed well. I like mine powdery, but not too dry because then it doesn't "stay" very long. So I added coconut oil (you can add any of the above-mentioned oils) until it reached a mildly clumpy, but still dry consistency. I have Vit E oil, but didn't use it in this batch. I'll try it in the next one, I guess.  

Another thing, the sea salt in the mixture doesn't itch my skin, even right after shaving. I don't have sensitive skin, though, so if you do, maybe make a tiny batch and try no salt or half the amount and try it.

This amount usually lasts me a couple of month (sometimes I used it twice a day).

Other recipes I've found:
- One of the best deodorants is plain old baking soda. You can pat it right onto your skin or mix it with a little cornstarch for extra staying power and moisture control. Try 1/2 cornstarch and 1/2 baking soda. Some readers say that mixing in anti-bacterial tea tree oil makes it even more effective.
- Use Milk of Magnesium dabbed on with a cotton ball

Week 10: Went by fast!

Last week (Week 10 of homeschooling) went great. I am reaching the 8th month post-partum, so the hormonal imbalances should be subsiding soon and I feel more energetic, even though I am not 100% yet. Giving birth can really take a toll on one's body, even though you are eating right and staying fit, especially so if you let a little something called STRESS sneak into your life on a daily basis.

It is normal to feel stressed when big changes come to our lives. One of our biggest changes was the birth of our daughter. All of a sudden, we had a toddler and a newborn and things felt like they were spinning out of control some days. On top of all that, she turned out to be very high maintenance (at least compared to our son). So we all had to adjust to their individual needs. It has been stressful the last few months, yes, but it has been wonderful at the same time and, if I had the chance, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.

I love my children beyond words and being a mother is the most challenging, humbling, and growing experience I have ever gone through. It has truly made me a better person. I have understood God's love for me better. I have realized that two pairs of little eyes are always watching and absorbing everything. They have taught me to laugh so much more than before and to capture and enjoy the simple things in life.

If it were for my daughter, she'd be the happiest baby on earth if I were to hold her on my lap and we stare and smile at each other for hours on end. It is the sweetest thing to feel so needed and loved. Breastfeeding has definitely made our bond stronger. I feel so blessed to be able to breastfeed. It is so rewarding! All in all, being a parent makes one feel "lost" at times, but we find ourselves again in our little ones' eyes. Sigh...lovely!

Homeschooling

This week, K worked with the number spindles. He enjoyed it and caught on quickly. After half a demonstration, he was doing the activity all by himself. He liked it so much that he kept doing it over and over.

Basically, you have a wooden box cut in half and divided into 5 slots
with numbers from 0 to 9. The two halves are placed side by side. The
child then puts the corresponding number of spindles in the slots.
For example, the 0 gets no spindles, the 1 gets one spindle, etc.

In Chinese class, K learned to say "slippers."

Since he already knew how to say "dinosaur,"

he put them together to say "dinosaur slippers."

Kong long tuo xie!!!!!

This is a work of art that consists of cut up construction paper, glue, and flower petals.

For science/art, K went around the backyard looking for stuff in nature.

He collected leaves, flowers, rocks, dirt, dried grass, and some seeds.

He glued all of the items on black construction paper.

This is what it looked like in the end. Beautiful! 

More art!

This is another Montessori Sensorial activity. It is Color Box #1.
It is quite simple, just matching the three primary colors as he manes them.
I made it a bit more interesting. First, he named the colors (super easy).
Then he matched the colors (like you see in the picture above).
Finally, I made patterns and he had to copy them. This was a bit more challenging,
but he caught on quickly and was successful at replicating every pattern.

This is the Bolts and Nuts Set 2. Basically, there are 5 screws
ranging from thin to thick. The holes match with each thickness
in that same order. Put the screw in and twist, twist, twist until
it doesn't twist anymore.

 Food

This week, I did try a couple of new recipes, including baked eggrolls that were a big hit. They did have a little bit of ground beef, but they were about 80% veggies. They were delicious.

I am collecting some egg cartons to start to plant my seeds for our fruit and veggie garden. I went to a meeting a couple of weeks ago where a horticulturist taught us how to plant and when to plant a garden. I am excited to get started again and I am hoping that it'll be a successful project, especially now that I have learned some important tips. I'll update on this project every week or two.

On a different note, I ordered some grapeseed oil to try because its flavor is neutral and it can substitute butter in baking recipes. I really like it! You should research it's nutritional and healing properties; it's truly incredible. I am now going to alternate using it and coconut oil, which is also an awesome product.

Other

Homemade toothpaste: I made my second batch last week with a few changes and I must say, wow!

Here are the two recipes I like:

Recipe #1

Aluminum free baking soda

Coconut oil

5-10 drops of Peppermint essential oil (therapeutic grade, 100% pure)

2 drops of Clove essential oil (therapeutic grade, 100% pure)

Make a paste with all of the ingredients above until desired consistency. It will thicken up if it is cold and it will be more oily if it is warmer (properties of coconut oil).

Recipe #2

Aluminum free baking soda

Grapeseed oil

5-10 drops of Wintergreen essential oil (therapeutic grade, 100% pure)

2 drops of Clove essential oil (therapeutic grade, 100% pure)

pulverized egg shell (1 egg shell) - I used a mortar and pestle

Same thing as above. Make a paste until desired consistency. I made this one last week and I am loving it.  The egg shell has calcium, which helps strengthen teeth, but the fact that it is a powder, it helps to remove plaque and other impurities on the surface of the teeth. I don't want to overdo it, so I will alternate between the two.

Oil Pulling: All I can say is whoa!

I had hear about it, but after talking about it with my neighbor, I became even more curious and decided to try it. I am in shock at how well it works.

Visit this Oil Pulling Website and learn all about it.

In my experience, I used sesame oil and have done it a couple of times. I have felt more energetic and I can see that my teeth are whiter (already, yes, already). It is so simple and so natural that I can see myself using this as a remedy to many ailments, not just to whiten and strengthen teeth. Check it out!

Fall Recipes

Click here to go to the post of my very favorite rolls recipe in the world! This recipe is a keeper; trust me!

Apple Nachos! Yummy!

I made these for Bible Study this week and they turned out great! It is one of Pampered Chef's Fall recipes. The only three changes I made to the recipe are: 1) I used vanilla extract instead of almond, 2) I used real cherries instead of maraschino cherries, and 3) I used coconut oil instead of canola.  I got great reviews from this recipe, so I am definitely making these for my Fall Pampered Chef show in a couple of months.

Gluten free pumpkin pancakes

Delicious Eggless Oatmeal Cookies

Homemade Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (YUMMM)

Week 9: A little bit of old, a little bit of new

I wanted to start today's post with a sweet thought (see quote below). I think that sometimes we get caught up in the "bad parts" of the stage we are in, that we don't realize how quickly time goes by and we might be missing out on the "good parts." 
Being a mother is not only the greatest gift (after having Jesus as my Savior and finding the love of my life), but it has been a great teacher to me.

"You will never have this day with your children again. 
Tomorrow, they'll be a little older than they were today. 
This day is a gift. Breathe and notice. 
Smell and touch them; study their faces and little feet and pay attention. 
Relish the charms of the present. 
Enjoy today, mama, it will be over before you know it." 
                                                                                ~ Jen Hatmaker

Homeschooling

~ Circle Time: It was great, although, I confess, we didn't do every single day this week.  We either got busy, went to town, or took longer naps.  But when we did have Circle Time, we had lots of fun and K is definitely thriving.
~ Potty Training: K has been wearing BIG BOY underwear daily and had maybe 3 accidents all week! He is doing so much better at letting us know when he needs to go.  We have a timer to remind us to encourage him to go if he hasn't gone by then.  It used to be set to go off every 30 minutes, then we changed it to every 40 minutes, but now, it's set to every hour.  He's even going both to pee and poop in bathrooms at stores and restaurants!  He's doing awesome! He still wears a pul up at night, just in case, but this morning, his pull up was dry!  I am beyond proud of him.
~ Scripture Memory: K is doing excellent in memorizing the Word of God.  He really enjoys it, too.  We were at Kohl's the other day and I found a small picture album (see picture below) on Clearance for $1.49, so I put in each page the Scripture verses that he has learned so far and I will keep adding more as we learn/memorize more.  We still have the verses on the wall at home, but this is a great idea because he can take them anywhere, even in the car when we go to town.

~ Chinese and Spanish: I have made small posters with the numbers (0-10) in Chinese (pinyin and characters) and Spanish to put on the wall so K can look at them often and not forget them. Plus, it makes it easier to practice (repeat out loud) during Circle Time.

~ Number Train (Families): I have explained how we work on it in another post, but I have not added the names of the families (zero, ten, twenty, ... one hundred) to help K recognize the number words, too.  It is actually helping a lot.  He can count up to 70 now!

~ Bible Reading: K is starting to want to read the Bible himself every night before bed, instead of us reading it to him.  I never thought that he'd be doing this so early (he's only 2.5 years old!). Precious.  Thought I'd share.  Sigh.  Sniff.

This is one of our new activities (from Pinterest, of course). He loved it!
I wonder if it'd work if I used the letters of the alphabet....

I made these for Bible Study this week and they turned out great! It is one of Pampered Chef's Fall recipes. The only three changes I made to the recipe are: 1) I used vanilla extract instead of almond, 2) I used real cherries instead of maraschino cherries, and 3) I used coconut oil instead of canola.  I got great reviews from this recipe, so I am definitely making these for my Fall Pampered Chef show in a couple of months.

This is the artisan parmesan bread I made for the first time. According to my husband, it is the most delicious bread I've ever made (and I've made lots of different kinds of bread). Let me know if you are interested in the recipe.

K was here. Hahaha!

I tried making sushi last night for the first time ever! We found a cheap sushi kit at Barnes & Noble and have been collecting all of the ingredients little by little. Finally, all we had left to buy was the shrimp. It was pretty good for the first time. I'm sure it was a lot cheaper than at a restaurant and it wasn't that hard to do.  Next time, I'll marinate the shrimp and buy smoked salmon and cream cheese.  I need to order a Julienne peeler from Pampered Chef, too! It'd make peeling carrots and cucumbers a breeze.

Homemade Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (YUMMM)

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)

3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)

1 cup raisin

Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Prep Time: 20 min       Cook Time Time: 08 min

Variations

Bar Cookies: Press dough onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered. 24 BARS. VARIATIONS: Stir in 1 cup chopped nuts. Substitute 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or candy-coated chocolate pieces for raisins; omit cinnamon. Substitute 1 cup diced dried mixed fruit. HIGH ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Increase flour to 1-3/4 cups and bake as directed.

Yield 4 DOZEN

MY VARIATION

Follow the instructions above, but I made 5 changes.

Change #1: Instead of using 1 stick and 6 tablespoons of butter, I used 1 stick of butter and 6 tablespoons of coconut oil.

Change #2: I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free rolled oats.

Change #3: I used white wheat four instead of all purpose flour. Next time, I'll use unbleached, organic all purpose flour.

Change #4: I used aluminum free baking soda.

Change #5: When the recipe instructs you to mix the flour, baking soda, etc (all dry ingredients), I mixed in 1/4 cup of raw unsweetened cacao powder.

You can always add stuff like chocolate chunks, chocolate chips, shredded coconut, pecans, almonds, flaxseeds (ground or whole), or even M&Ms!  Whatever strikes your fancy.

And you can always substitute the 2 eggs for 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseeds and 6 tablespoons of water.  Mix them in a bowl and let them sit for a few minutes to "gel", then use in the recipe instead of 2 eggs. The ratio is 1tbsp ground flaxseed in 3 tbsp of water to replace ONE EGG.

The following videos are of Baby Girl sitting up tall, playing with her ball.  She is using her brain so well as she passes the ball from one hand to the other, how she handles it, and how she problem solves.  This is actually one video, but it was too long, so I had to breaking into two parts.  Enjoy!

THINGS I WANT TO TRY SOON

I am a Pampered Chef Consultant, so I am always coming across and
trying new recipes (and purchasing great kitchen products).
Fall is upon us (thank God!), so many recipes involving apples, nuts, pumpkin,
and sweet potatoes are surfacing yet again and that is wonderful!
Fall is my favorite season of all!

APPLE NACHOS!!! Who would've thought?! Yumm!!!

Baby wearing while dancing flamenco! What an incredible picture! Gotta try this for sure!

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls Recipes

These homemade cinnamon rolls are one of the breakfasts that my family lives for! They are so good! I've made them so many times, that now, I feel very confident substituting ingredients to see how well they turn out.  Let me post the original recipe first and then give you a few variations that I've liked.

 

Week 8: Already?

Good grief! Time is flying and I cannot believe we've ended Week 8, we're in September already, and it's almost Fall (my favorite season, by the way).

Let me get into the Homeschooling aspect of our week, then I'll go into a few more fun things that happened.
We absolutely have our Circle Time established. K knows the routine, he asks for activities by name and in the right order, and he is taking the lead in some of them. I love to see how he's such an innate leader and he loves to take charge. The only challenge about this is that when I'm introducing a new activity (one he's never seen or worked on before), he is impatient and wants to mess around with it instead of waiting for me to show him how the activity goes, what the steps are, and what is to be learned from it.  That is the difference between work and play and I really want him to understand this difference.  With some things, I do let him explore them and try to figure out how they work or what their purpose is, but with other things, it is imperative that he practices patience and learns through observation first.  He is getting better and better at it every week.  He is just so eager to work that he get ahead of himself sometimes.

For Culture (Geography), we have been learning where we and K's grandparents live.
He really enjoys pointing at the map and saying the names of the states. Soon,
we will be adding the names of the cities, followed by the names of the states.

K loves to point and say the months of the year. As you've noticed, he's wearing a pull up only. We are still potty training and put him on the potty often, but it is easier to have him in a pull up during school, just in case he has an accident.  I'm excited to let him wear big boy underwear only during homeschool, too.  He already is at his daycare and he's only had one accident per day.

One of K's favorite things to do is practice left and right (yes, he already knows which is left and which is right) and yes, those are his very own handprints.  I think it personalizes it and makes it more special.  We started around week 4 with just left and right hands.  Now, we are practicing left and right hands, feet, knees, shoulders, cheeks, eyes, ears, etc.  He loves this activity because it's like a game to him.  Lots of giggles there.

This is the number train. The engine has a 0 on top (in red) and 1-9 in 3x3 squares (in black). The first wagon has the number 10 on top (in red) and 11-19 in the squares (in black).  The next wagon has the number 20 in red and 21-29 in black underneath.  You get the picture. We call them families (the 0 family, the 10 family, the 20 family, etc).  He can now count from 0-50 while pointing at the numbers and 0-40 by memory without looking at the numbers.  That is pretty good for a 2.5 year old! 

For the months of the year, I added little tabs (top right on October, for example)  to teach K whose birthday is when.  For now, I made one for Dada, one for me, one for K, and one for A.  Later, we'll add the Grandparents and eventually all of the aunts and uncles (there are too many of those right now, haha).  The tabs are small enough that won't get too much attention, but colorful enough for him to notice them when we talk about it.

Here's my other beautiful student.  She loves participating through observation and gets
a kick out of watching her brother sing and dance and recite stuff.  I'm sure she's eager to do the same,
but she's still too young for that.  Soon enough, though.

Let me explain to you what the following pictures are.  I found this activity on Pinterest, where you take pictures of a Mr. Potato Head and instructions on how to add body parts.  My sister-in-law took a bunch of these pictures and I'm working on putting them together and printing them as cards.  Each picture will have a number on top, to let him know the order the cards need to go in.  
It is a great activity that K can do on his own and it is great on teaching a great skill: Following Directions.  We all need a little bit of that, in my opinion.  Without even knowing it, K will be learning so much through play.  I love it! So, here is an example of what the pictures look like:

1

2

3

4

5

6

K's new memory verses are 
Psalm 121:5 (The Lord Himself watches over you.) and 
1 Peter 5:7 (Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.).
He loves reciting them and I hear him reading them over and over. I love to know that he is hiding God's words in his heart.

Here's what we got this week in our basket, except that this is a different company and it is all local produce and it comes with beans, rice, and a dozen eggs.  We usually buy the cage-free, grass-fed eggs, but this will do every once in a while.  It was $25 for all of this, except that I forgot to picture 3 bananas and a bag of lettuce that come in with this as well.  All in all, we got 98 items (counting the bag of rice as one item and the bag of beans as one item and the bag of lettuce as one item, but counting each egg as an individual item) and each item ends up costing a quarter (25/98).  Not bad, considering that mangoes are about a dollar a piece, the bag of lettuce is about $2.50 apiece, the watermelon about $2.50-3.50, etc.  A friend who also got this basket said that se guestimates that all of this would've cost close to $36, maybe more.

These homemade cinnamon rolls are one of the breakfasts that my family lives for! They are so good! I've made them so many times, that now, I feel very confident substituting ingredients to see how well they turn out.  Let me post the original recipe first and then give you a few variations that I've liked.

Original recipe from www.allrecipes.com.

I use organic sugar in all the variations below.

Variation 1: Follow the exact instructions, but use store-bought cream cheese frosting.  I know, it's fattening, etc, but it is easy to use, it isn't used often, and it's pretty delicious.

Variation 2: Instead of using 3 cups of white flour, I use 1 cup of oat flour (throw one cup of old fashioned oats in the blender), 1 cup white flour, and one cup white wheat.

Variation 3: Use 1 cup oat flour, 1.5 cups white flour, and .5 cup coconut flour.  Instead of an egg, soak 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds in 3 tablespoons of water until it gels and throw it in the mix like you would an egg.

Variation 4 (haven't tried this yet, so I'm not sure how it would turn out): GLUTEN FREE Use 1 cup oat flour, 1.5 cup ground gluten free rice chex cereal (or corn), and .5 cup coconut flour.  Same egg substitution for egg as variation 3.

Variation 3 is the closest to making this recipe VEGAN, but I still have to figure out how to substitute the powdered milk to make it completely vegan.  Suggestions are accepted. :)