Candace Creations

I Lost My Husband One Year Ago

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 03:02:00 +0000

I don't know if people still read blogs but sometimes my IG posts are getting too long and hard to read through all the comments. So I'm back here to share our story and the journey.

I hope to go back an tell more of our story but for now here is a summary of what has happened.

Thought I had my hands full with 3 children but after a while God kept putting this little girl in my mind and I struggled with trusting Him and indecision over having a 4th for like a year.

My husband was happy with 3 but He supported that sense that our family wasn't complete and agreed to having a 4th.

I still struggled to trust and tormented myself with fear and indecision, but ultimately trusted.

We found out we were pregnant with our 4th and were excited.

9 weeks in I had an ultrasound with no heartbeat. I ultimately needed to have a D & C procedure because my body would not release the baby on its own.

We tried again when the Dr. said we could and were pregnant again.

We experienced another miscarriage, however after that, turned out to still be pregnant with a baby girl! We had another beautiful homebirth using the same midwives as last time. This time Tyler read a doula book and even though he was always a good birth partner, he really stepped up his game and I nicknamed him my Moula (man-doula).

When baby girl was 6 months old, I got the call from my mom that my dad, 7 years into his ALS battle, was starting morphine. My husband had the baby and I on a flight within 8 hours to get cross country and I was able to get there in time for my dad to lay eyes on his 10th grandbaby for the first time before he became unresponsive. He peacefully passed on 9/11 and we felt relieved for my dad that he was no longer confined to that prison of a body ravaged by ALS.

As we planned my dad's funeral, my husband Tyler was running a lot and began having pain in his leg that didn't feel like shin splints and so he figured it was a stress fracture from all the running and hiking he was doing and stubbornly refused to pay for an MRI when they can't do anything about it anyways, so when we got home from my dad's funeral, he picked up a bike and started cycling while he tried to limit the stress on his leg.

November, He had 2 colds back to back that lasted longer than he normally experienced and started wondering if something was wrong with his immune system. Thanksgiving was at the end of the month that year and he felt good on Thanksgiving and made the entire meal like he always did and we decorated for Christmas that night, something we never did before. We usually waited but for whatever reason we did. the next week He was starting to have a headache and coming home from work early which, if you knew Tyler, was a beast and could normally push through anything.

I had made a dr appointment that was a week or two away because it was hard getting in any sooner the end of the year. Took him to a massage and the next day discovered awful bruising on his back that had me really alarmed. Things started to go south quick and took him to a walk in clinic rather than wait for that appointment. We didn't expect it to be anything awful, but the next day he went from bad to worse, he was cold but sweating profusely, I really got scared, reminded me of my dad as we were by his side the night he slipped away. I called them to rush his lab results. They called back and said his blood cell count was high and to go to the ER, and that he likely had leukemia.

He went to the ER on Dec 12, (speaking of beast mode he actually was trying to go into the office that morning as he was concerned about finishing a project but I wouldn't let him...and if you know me I rarely would stand in someone's way) the ER doctor confirmed the Leukemia diagnosis. Next day transferred to Cancer Center and further testing narrowed down to ALL with the Philadelphia Chromosome. I plan to share more details about this time later, but for now the short story is, he began Chemo, had a bad feeling about it, he felt like something bad was going to happen and rightly so, an hour or so into being hooked up to his first treatment he suffered a devastating brain bleed as I watched hospital staff pour into the room and try to revive him. He was shocked and intubated and then on life support for 3 days which was removed December 23, 2019. He was a strong, successful, amazing father and husband and only 36.

This Christmas marked our one year as a family without him with us. It's still hard to fathom all that happened and that he's really gone. For months the kids and I felt like he was on a work trip and would be walking in the door any moment, but as the year pressed on despite our resistance, the reality settles in more and more. Covid and everything else in 2020 just felt like...well why not? Our world already didn't make sense anymore losing Tyler going into all that, it was hard to even be phased by it and other times it just compounded the overwhelm of life without Tyler. But with all that, one of the last things I said to the ICU nurse as she held my hand near the end as I faced the impossible was "I still believe God is good." And a year later, despite the highs and lows, I still believe that God is good...even more so.

Homeschool Science with Free Videos

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 05:03:00 +0000

I haven't posted much this last year or so, a lot of life going on around here with pregnancy loss and then pregnancy and keeping up with homeschooling 3 kids and all their activities while pregnant. This year we decided to try The Good and The Beautiful for LA and History and are enjoying it and continued with the next books in Sassafrass Science and stuck with CTC math. That's the main stuff. However, I have really struggled with my motivation to do science. The chapters feel long, I didn't feel like we were getting a ton out of the SCIDAT log books...my kids only like the story but they logbooks became a big chore, science felt very time consuming and even though I kept wanting to love it, my kids weren't retaining what they had learned very well. Not to put that against the science curriculum it may just be that my kids learn better through different methods. But I started to feel like it wasn't worth the time when after all the time and effort in science and they couldn't recall much from it later on, yet they could offload detailed facts about things they had learned from a wildkratts episode they had watched a year ago or from watching the Planet Earth and Life series as a family.

With a preschooler and a baby about to join us, I want to be intentional about how we manage our time and learning. The more my kids would randomly talk about in depth facts from science related videos and documentaries they watched a long time ago, but couldn't remember what we had studied in our homeschool time, it didn't feel like a good investment of our time. The more I thought about this the more I figured if my kids retain information so much better from videos rather than a living book with notebooking (as much as I love the idea of that) then I should just have them do science learning through videos and then let it be delight directed learning from there. So if they watch a video on something and they get excited about it, we can look up more on it, watch more videos, look up experiments or demonstrations they can watch and or do. So this is a compilation of some resources for approaching science in a more unschool-relaxed way of learning that I think we are going to try. I haven't previewed many of these but saving the links here for myself and anyone else that wants to quickly find free videos for science topics and unit studies. This will be an ongoing compilation, if you know of any great resources to add please comment and share! from here you can do notebooking, project based learning, lapbooking or simply narration or as enrichment to go with your packaged science program...there are so many ways to enjoy learning and it's important we don't get stuck within the security blanket of a purchased curriculum product for everything we do, Sometimes it's easier to just have that open and go curriculum and I totally appreciate that, but we don't have to be hostage to certain products or methods of learning and teaching every subject either. I'm curious to see how it goes just watching videos, then having the encyclopedia handy for the kids to look and then seeing where things go from there.

ANATOMY

Operation Ouch - The Amazing Human Body on YouTube
Tongue, How Babies Grow, Eardrum, Breathing, Toxins in Wee, Kidneys, Spinal Cord, Energy, Bone Marrow, Poo. Body Bacteria, Plaque, Skin, The Heart, Guts, Couching, Blood Vessels, Flouresence, Red Blood Cells, Digestions, Wrinkly Skin, Bacteria Breath, Epiglottis, Vocal Chords, Vomit, Enzymes, Strength, Hormones, Fueling the Body, The Eye Lense, The Diaphragm, The Stomach, Brain, Pain Receptors, Sneezing, Diarrhea, and Nastogastric Tube.

Operation Ouch - The Endocrine System
Muscles, Energy and Adrenaline, How Tall Are You, Sleep, Insulin

Operation Ouch - The Human Head
Ear Injuries, Tongue, Head and Heachaches, Snotty Noses, Throat, Mouth, Excellent Ears, Getting Hairy, Teeth and Braces, Lip Injuries, Incredible Eyes, Contagious Yawning.

Operation Ouch - The Immune System
Bacteria and Infections, Alarming Allergies, Frightful Verrucas

Operation Ouch - The Nervous System
NERVES, Spine, Brain

Operation Ouch - Cardiovascular System
Blood, Blood Pressure, Pumping Hearts

Operation Ouch - Human Skin
Top 5 gruesome cuts (skip if you don't want to see gruesome cuts), Belmishes, Skin, Smelly Sweat, Sore Scars, Stretch Marks, Deep cuts and wounds, Bruises and blisters, Birthmarks, Burns and Skin Grafts

Operation Ouch - The Skeletal System
fingers and toes, Sprains, Broken Bones, Skeletons, Ankle, Wrist, Breaking Bones, Joints and Skeletal System, Lively Legs, Fantastic Fingers, Fixing Feet, Dislocations, Broken Arms, Knobby Knees, Tending to the Toes.

ENERGY- Heat - Light - Sound

Energy | The Dr. Binocs Show

Here Comes the Sun: Crash Course Kids

Three Methods of Heat Transfer

How does Heat Flow - CC memory song

Heat Transfer: Conduction, Convection, Radiation

1st law of thermodynamics (experiments)

1st Law of Thermodynamics (Classical Conversations)

1st & 2nd Law Thermodynamics - Experiments and Explanations

2nd Law of Thermodynamics (Classical Conversations)

Laws of Thermodynamics CC Song

The Laws of Thermodynamics, Entropy, and Gibbs Free Energy

Light - 3 characteristics of light - CC memory song Reflection, Refraction, Spectrum

Light | The Dr. Binocs Show

Top 10 Experiments For Kids with Light and Optics

How Is A Rainbow Formed | The Dr. Binocs Show

What is Sound? | The Dr. Binocs Show

Super Cool Sound Experiments To Do at Home

ZOOLOGY

free on amazon prime

Wildkratts

Exploration Animal Science

MARINE LIFE

The Living Sea

EARTH SCIENCE

Free School Earth Science playlist

3 states of matter, landforms, bodies of water, volcanoes, astronomy and space, rock cycle, clouds, oceans, glaciers, water cycle, snow, how leaves change color, thunder and lightening, caves, eclipse, why is sky blue, erosion, giant causeway, leap year.

ASTRONOMY AND SPACE

Free School Astronomy and space for Children - Playlist
solar system, astronomy and space, phases of the moon, the sun, dwarf planets, milky way, solar eclipse, nebula, apollo 11, about the moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Myth of Orion, Aurora Borealis, Cassiopeia, Lunar Eclipse, Scorpius, Leo, Pluto not a Planet anymore, Ceres, Light Years, Taurus

Wicker Chair Makeover

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 20:19:00 +0000

I snagged these wicker chairs for àt a local thrift store going out of business so...they were not very expensive...maybe I paid $20 for both..I don't remember exactly as it was last year. But I wanted to spray paint them and have had the paint in the cupboard and finally today got around to doing it after cancelling pool plans due to my youngest having a nasty cold after a short beach trip. Today is the definition of a lazy summer day!

I mean....look at this kiddo...chillin' in the rocks listening to music and slowly burying himself in rocks. He is also the sick one so just glad he's just hanging out and relaxed.

Here is the before of my wicker chairs.

Pretty worn. I had picked out this Stone Gray color...and as I was about to start I did what I always do, second guess myself and almost decide to leave the chairs alone. But I pushed through my little moment of doubt and in no time, had this, too late to change my mind now.

After picture of thrift store wicker chairs.

My 8 year old came out and asked why I chose that color...good question son...I just happened to like it while standing in the spray paint aisle...but he did say he thought the chairs looked better before...what do you think?

The great thing about spray painting wicker chairs is that it a super easy thing to do and can easily be changed.

The black chairs are what's left of my bistro chairs with the plastic wicker that disintegrated and I ripped most of it off and just use the metal frame with a cushion. Meh...it works. I have never really splurged on furniture yet other than our bed, but we didn't get the set, just the bed...so maybe one day I will post some night stands I figure out for our room. I have had other projects going on this year keeping me busy, including a complete boat interior makeover that we spend about all of January working on a bit each weekend.

Charleston, SC Weekend Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 08:08:00 +0000

Last weekend we spent the weekend in Charleston, SC for JJ's gymnastics meet. Us gym moms don't always enjoy traveling to meets, but this is one I don't mind because I LOVE Charleston! This was my 3rd or 4th time to this city and it doesn't get old for me, and it's not just me...the kids can walk and explore and look at all the art in all the galleries as much as I can (well....almost!) But it is fun when we can have a fun weekend together as a family and root for our girl at the end of it as she does her thing. It was short and sweet but the memories last a lifetime :) Here is a little video I made from our trip, some of the footage was taken by my 7 year old whom we just gave our old FLIP video recorder to that we never used anymore and he is super excited about it...he doesn't have an ipad or iphone so this is his device to play with :)

Now I will admit we were all pretty wiped on Monday as my hubby had to get to the airport that day so we drove home late Sunday night. It was actually peaceful and nice and felt relatively fast until we stopped for gas about 40 minutes from home and the four year old was NOT happy the rest of the way home after getting woken up. But feeling refreshed from the beautiful city of Charleston and spending time in all the galleries and looking into the courtyards as we walked down the residential streets, I came home feeling inspired and got to work doing some outdoor projects and also looking forward to a day soon that the kids and I can all paint together. As we explored each gallery, I told the kids to find their favorite painting in each one and then they showed the rest of us and what they liked about it. Studied some of the technique and what we observed about the paintings and told the kids to take mental notes to get ideas of something they might want to paint and how they might want to incorporate some of the neat styles and ideas they picked out and do it in their own way.

Weekend Girls Gymnastics Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 00:18:00 +0000

This was from one of my daughter's recent meets which was like a little weekend girls trip! We had a great time and I introduced JJ to No Doubt after she played the Roly Roly song for me...She thought I was crazy rocking out to some good ol' Gwen but I think deep down she knew Spider Webs was a way cooler song than Roly Roly. I mean...come on...don't you agree? Spider Webs and Roly Roly aren't even in the same league!

ROLY ROLY

OR

SPIDER WEBS - NO DOUBT

After discussing it she did agree that the Roly Roly song is pretty dumb but she still thought I was crazy with my No Doubt playlist.

Chores and Allowance - Kids Bank Accounts

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 18:15:00 +0000

CHORES AND ALLOWANCE

Kids Bank Accounts

There are a lot of opinions out there on chores and allowance, some are against tying allowance to chores as that is an expected part of family life. Others say yes, you should tie work to pay to teach the value of work, others say no allowance period, teach obedience. As parents, we can never do anything right. With such varied opinions put out to us about every minute detail of child rearing and all of it contradictory, at some point you have to just do what you think makes sense and not put so much weight onto every decision as if it's life or death and not worry what other people think. And If you realize you made a mistake, it's not a OK if you change your mind later...pray, live, learn, adjust.

In the attempt to give our kids some life skills, we wanted them to earn some money to learn how to save and manage it, to become aware of the cost of things. So our first approach came from the book Life Skills for Kids. I made a chart with different responsibilities for each child each day and they got $0.05 per item accomplished. At the end of the week it was added all up and my daughter, who was about 6 or 7, had the ability to earn up to $3.00 a week.

After a while, and a new baby, that system gradually went to the wayside and we didn't really do any allowance or tracking system for chores/responsibilities.

Then we picked it back up with a more casual plan, $5 a week allowance if you do your chores and school with a good attitude and have a clean room by end of week. If room wasn't clean by end of week, no allowance. But the chores were based on whatever I decided to ask them to do and while they did do what I asked, I wasn't consistently having them do things for me, I would forget. When life is busy, it's easy for me to get in the habit of doing everything myself and not even think to delegate certain jobs to the kids. I kept track of their allowance on my notes app on my iPhone and if they wanted to buy something with their allowance I would subtract from that but my husband grew frustrated with it as it felt haphazard to him and he felt like they maybe weren't learning enough with it, he felt like we were still just buying stuff for them even when I subtracted it out of their allowance. He also was worried that without a structure of knowing specific responsibilities they would start to expect their allowance without feeling like they needed to earn it and he's big on being a hard worker and not just expecting to have things given to you. So with his help we created a more structured approach that would give them consistent responsibilities and also teach them about banking and keeping track of their money.

My husband created 2 excel spread sheets. One with the list of chores for each child with the weeks marked out as far as we could go. The other excel page is a mock bank account, we decided we will be the bank. This simplifies things for us too right now from having to open bank accounts and then spend time making actual deposits and such when we can just do it on the excel sheet and be their bank. On their statement they can see deposits from the weeks they earned allowance as well as withdrawals, debits and their balance. If they are out with us and decide they want to use their allowance, I can purchase it for them but when we get home I just open the excel file and enter the transaction and it will adjust their balance. If they want some cash, they can ask me for that and I can give them cash and mark a withdrawal on their statement, adjusting their balance. We can print out their statement for them at anytime or show them on the computer.

So far the structure is feeling good and working well. And I'm really appreciating the more consistent help around the house! Even the little jobs make a difference. Our youngest who just turned 4 is so proud about doing chores, we were giving his older siblings their chores and he kept begging to know "what am I supposed to do? I want a chores!" When we gave him some chores, he was so thrilled! Lol I wonder how long that will last for but he is very excited to help right now so I'll take it :). And my oldest whose gotten some bigger jobs she has never done before like vacuuming the upstairs, even if she isn't as enthusiastic as her little brother about it, she still gets a sense of pride from doing it as I have been patient in training her how to do her chores and not overly critical, but trying to be encouraging and appreciative. I also didn't want to become the barking mom Sargent chore nazi!

Here is the system we have implemented with my husband being the excel, finance, management guy pretty much being the one who made the all work.

My husband made this Excel doc with their names and chores with the weeks posted so we can keep track for quite a few weeks without having to print out new charts all the time. If they earned their allowance that week, we check off the week and add their payment to their “bank account” in the other excel sheet. Only once have our kids not gotten their full allowance and once, our oldest got ½ because she had consistently did most of her chores but she let her room become a huge mess and after multiple reminders never took care of it.

(click on image to make full screen)

Kids Bank Accounts

On the excel doc, even if you aren’t good at equations, you can just use a calculator to keep up the balance and enter it manually. But if you or your husband know how to use excel, then it's super easy.

What I love about our kids bank accounts is that first of all…no hassle of actual bank accounts but it does all the same stuff as a bank account…mom and dad are the bank, This is also nice because it was frustrating when we would be out and the kids would want to buy something with their allowance, yet did not have their allowance then I would have to buy it and keeping track of their allowance was harder. I kept a running tab on my notes on my phone but when my phone broke I lost all that and it was just not a very good system, they weren’t learning anything with it, as my husband would say, at then end of the day it still felt like we were just buying stuff for them. They now love seeing their bank statement. We will print it out for them before we go somewhere so they have it on them to look at when deciding if they want to buy an souvenir on a trip or whatever it is, they look at their statement and see what they have, they see how many weeks/deposits it took to earn a certain amount and are now thinking in terms of…”wow if I buy that, it’s like 3 weeks of chores!” And then will proceed to decide if it’s really worth that. And for big things they might wish for, it gives them a goal when they can think, well if I make this much every week and save for a whole year, then I’ll have this much and maybe get some birthday money, I can actually buy that. For example my son wants to buy a kid sized quad…he’s thinking if he saves his money and gets any extra he should be able to buy a good quality used on in 1-2 years and is very focused on that. My daughter is thinking she wants to get into photography and wants a nice camera, if she saves up for 1-2 years or more, she will be able to buy one and by then maybe actually be better able to learn photography.

Another thing, with allowance, the kids can get a raise each year on their birthdays by 1 dollar (at least so far it’s what we’ve done) and maybe the chores will change or a more thorough job will be expected. As the kids have gotten used to their new jobs, they have had their frustrations and complaints, especially if they sweep the floor or vaccum the stairs and say they are done but they missed a good amount obvious areas. The thing I have found to be key and remind my husband is to not exasperate them but just remind them they are still in training and it will take practice to know how to do the job right without us pointing out what they missed. I gently remind them it’s ok we don’t expect them to be perfect and we aren’t being mean or critiquing when we show them what needs to be redone but it’s part of the training phase. (mainly with my oldest who is more distractible and more easily frustrated) Sometimes when weeks are busy and they have a lot of their plate (especially our oldest with her gymnastics schedule) I will do her job with her, knowing she has a lot going on, I still want her to find the time and have the responsibility but I will casually work alongside her with another broom or visit with her while she’s putting her laundry away…it also helps her stay focused as she is more like me and can be starting a job and then get distracted. Or my son with cleaning out the van, I will take a garbage bag out there and be out there with him and help a bit as well but I’m not doing it for him.

The kids still complain about having to do chores some days but I guess I still complain about what I have to do some days too. I do remind them that I had to do chores as a kid and got no allowance for it, it was just part of being in the family and I think there is value to that as well and since we have started the kids being more responsible, they will help out with other things we ask them to do not on their list without feeling entitled to more allowance every time they have to lift a finger outside of the arranged work. It’s been like Charlotte Mason promised…

"a mother who instills good habits in her children ensures herself smooth and easy days."

Having the kids help out with these chores has been a game changer. They don’t make as big of messes now because they know they have to help clean it up, it gives all of us, including me, the structure to stay on top of housework and having them doing their chores makes me more conscious of my own work and if I’m keeping up on it or not. It has also taught them money management and banking and they are good about saving and spending responsibly as we print out and show them their statements with their deposits, purchases and withdrawals. And there has been a LOT less annoying conversations of the kids constantly asking me how much money they have or reminding me how much I owe them (Oh how that would get under my skin!) because they know they can just check their "bank statement". I am so thankful that my husband stepped in to help create a better structure for our chores and allowance, my brain is more abstract and sometimes I just don't think to break it down in the same way he would think to.

DIY Knee Patches

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 16:36:00 +0000

DIY KNEE PATCHES

If you have boys like mine, it only takes about a month for a new pair of jeans to have holy knees. Today I decided to take the time to start patching them up so they can still wear them. No point in buying new ones...they look like this so soon anyways.

If you are a non-professional sewer like me, this a fun way to patch up those jeans and add some personality to them.

Set up Thread...choose a matching or contrasting color for fun.

(wow didn't notice that big fuzzie thing on my thread til I uploaded this pic! lol)

Set on a zig zag stitch (this is as fancy as this machine gets) and not too tight of a stitch length. You can always test out your stitch on a scrap piece of fabric to get the right size zig zag you would like.

Remove the extra storage compartment to give you a smaller sewing arm because you're going to need to be able to get those little pant legs scrunched up on there and there is not a lot of room to work with. Mine were 3T...The legs were almost too narrow to slide up onto this smaller sewing arm but I had JUST enough room to work with.

Start with one of the holes.

Cut a scrap of fabric that is larger than the hole. My scraps came from a knit throw blanket I made last year. I love me a good scrap buster! (Used to host a Scappy Link Party on here years ago for creative scrap buster projects).

Place the patch fabric inside the pant leg and line up with the hole, making sure there is overlap of both materials all the way around.

Pin the fabric in place so it doesn't move and leave you with another hole.

Trim the long threads of the ripped jeans so they don't get caught on your presser foot as you sew...(I forgot to do this on my first patch.)

Slide paint leg up onto sewing arm through the waist of paints. Careful to make sure everything stays in place and then right above the beginning of the hole, make your first zig zag stitch which will run horizontally across the pant leg. Make sure to back stitch every time you start and end.

I did not take the pants off the sewing machine to trim the bottom thread after every stitch. After completing a row and back-stitching, I would lift the presser foot and turn the need up if it ended in a down position, and pull the pants off slightly to lengthen the thread coming through the needle, trim the thread close to pants leaving a tail (a couple inches long), then slide pants back up to the next area to sew, always pulling the tail thread straight back away from you.

Work your way down the patch, starting your stitch on the denim part, back stitching to secure the stitch, then sewing across the patch and back stitching when you get to the end.

You can see my back stitching where the thread appears to be darker/more bold. (if you are newer to your sewing machine and didn't know, back stitch is where you use the reverse button or lever on your machine to sew backwards over the seam you just made...I go back and forth a couple times. All sewing machines are different so consult your manual if you are unsure of what which button or lever you need to use for back stitching.)

Keep working your way in rows to secure your patch as you work your way down the pant leg.

See how scrunched up the jeans are on my machine? I did have to wrestle it (a little) as I got closer to the bottom of the hole where the jeans narrow. If your jeans are bigger thank 3T this will be much easier.

Finish sewing the zig zag rows across the patch. End with a final seam across the bottom of the hole on the denim securing the bottom of the patch fabric to the jeans.

Turn Jeans inside out and trim the threads on the back of the patch and trim away any excess fabric.

Repeat on other pant hole. Little boys pants have been given a life extension! You can have fun with the fabric choice, adding some personality to the pants with your patch. This really was super easy and doesn't require much sewing skill. As long as you can do basic operations on your machine. This doesn't have to be perfect (unless you want it to be), just have fun with it, I mean the pants were pretty toast anyways anything is an improvement.

And after patching these pants I realized they are almost too small on him anyways...oh well...but all his hand-me-down jeans from his brother have holes so I will be doing more of this.

Homeschool Preschool and the Early Years

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 05:33:00 +0000

I recently shared this topic at our local Holistic Moms Network monthly meeting and wanted to share it here as well. The Topic was Homeschooling Preschoolers and the Early Years and was addressed to moms who may already homeschool as well as those who have not homeschooled but are curious and interested. If you are looking for a local chapter of holistic parents, you can look up here to join your local community as well as the national community.

One of the first obstacles to overcome in making the decision to homeschool is our own personal insecurities and ideas about what education should be. The first question is, am I qualified? How can I teach my child if I have no training in early childhood education?

How have they figured out everything they have learned so far in their little life? You have been their primary teacher from day 1 from teaching them to smile, eat solids, stand, walk, talk. The preschool and early years are just a continuation in their developmental milestones and brain development to which you have already been an amazed witness of. You didn't need special skills to teach your child to walk, she had the natural desire from observing others walk and when she was ready, with the support and safety of her parents around to encourage, it was accomplished. And just like walking and talking, not every child meets their educational developmental milestones at the same time. Some kids might be able to count to 20 when they are two and some may not be able to until they are 4 or 5. What it really takes to teach your child is a willingness to continue being in tune and engaged with your child, becoming a student of them so you can recognize when they are ready for the next thing and being ready to provide the resources and environment to encourage it.

What about reading? Let's get that out of the way real quick as it's sometimes homeschoolers biggest obsession-getting them to read! We worry that we don't know if we can teach them to read. How soon they start reading can be the pass/fail determination on our ability to teach our children. When I was agonizing over the decision to homeschool or not and asked my mom who raised 5 kids through public school. She gave me this answer. "They introduce reading at school but the kids that learn to read well, it requires the parents teaching and reading with them at home after school. I taught all you kids how to read. So basically, just take your pick, have it introduced at school and then reteach it at home after, get them a tutor, or just teach it yourself during the day and be done." There are many great programs and methods (and plenty are free and inexpensive) for teaching your children to read and it doesn't have to be intimidating. And again, reading is a major developmental milestone and not all kids brains are ready at the same time. Homeschooling gives you the ability to either cater to their quickness without them becoming bored and just as importantly allows you to slow down and take the pressure off as they learn at their own pace as some kids just need more time and a more gentle approach.

First of all- keep it simple.

Great advice given to me from a seasoned mom when I was still just starting out was "don't kill yourself, all the amazing things you do, they mostly won't remember". So choose how you invest and spend your time in creating an educational, inspiring environment for you and your children and choose resources that are most conducive to you enjoying using them with your children because this is a special time with your children and it's meant to be enjoyed. But also don't go overboard trying to DO IT ALL. Because you may end up with Adrenal Fatigue and your kids wont remember the elaborate things you did. Pace yourself.

The story of the tortoise and the hare applies to teaching our young children. It's OK to go slow, live slow and be amazed as you watch them grow and find yourself growing in new ways with them. Trust them. We don't need to program them into little know it all geniuses by age 5 to prove ourselves and validate our decision to homeschool. But rather to:

Cultivate, protect and preserve their natural curiosity, and desire of discovery and learning. While enjoying the precious time we have with them while they are still growing, because they grow fast. Giving them a quiet time to grow and develop before joining the busy train of our society which they will be on the rest of their lives.
To enhance the family bond, having more focused time to instill the character and values that matter to your family and overall quality and quantity time together. Also, for us, my husband has had to travel a LOT in his career and sometimes get home late. Homeschooling has given us the freedom to tag along with him on some of his trips where the kids and I just enjoy the hotel pool and location while he works, we’ve bonded on many road trips we wouldn’t have taken with him if we didn’t homeschool. It’s also allowed us to have a slightly later bedtime since we can wake up when we want and my husband can have some quality time in the evening after dinner without having to rush them to bed.
To provide a healthy safe environment, where they can be themselves and not be put into any boxes. If your child is a kinesthetic learner who needs to move a lot, you can accommodate that and it isn’t a problem. You can accommodate their personality and learning styles. Also they are not constantly exposed to germs and if they have any food issues, it is nice to have them home where you can make sure they are not accidentally being exposed to things they can’t have when they are too little to know the difference.
For overall freedom to choose when you travel, how your child learns, what they learn, what they eat, owning your calendar- you design your schedule and life without the demands and requirements of school. We are able to visit our family on the west coast twice a year for a couple weeks each time we go, off season when travel fares are not as expensive. We’ve been able to spend so much more quality time with our family out west over the years because of homeschooling, and with my dad having ALS and sweet nieces and nephews growing up fast, every visit we can make is cherished time that makes it all worth it on the days I feel like I don't get a break.
You can give your kids a customized private education without the expense or commitments of private school and you can do it very affordably. Some people spend almost no money on curriculum with all the free resources available. There are plenty affordable books and resources and on the other side, expensive curriculums and hybrids. It goes back to the freedom to design and plan what you do and how you do it and what works for your family.

For the Preschool-Early Years we focus on the importance of play.

You don't need to buy a curriculum. If you find one you love then Go for it but it is not necessary. In the US we start formal education around ages 4/5 but In Sweden and Finland, kids do not start school until age 7. Many believe that formal education should be held off til later in favor for informal, play based learning.

"These countries that start later actually have better academic achievement and child well-being. If we consider the contribution of play to children’s development as learners, and the harm caused by starting formal learning at 4 to 5 years old, the evidence for a later start is very persuasive"

Research has identified play as an adaptation that enabled early humans to become powerful learners and problem-solvers.

Neuroscientific studies have supported this view of play as a central mechanism in learning. The 2009 book The Playful Brain: Venturing to the limits of neuroscience, for example, reviewed many studies showing that playful activity leads to the growth of more connections between neurons, particularly in the frontal lobe – the part of the brain responsible for uniquely human higher mental functions.

Experimental psychology has consistently demonstrated the superior learning and motivation arising from playful, as opposed to instructional, approaches to early education.*

In 2004, a study of 3000 children, funded by the UK Department of Education, showed that an extended period of play-based preschool education made a significant difference to learning and well-being through the primary school years.*

In New Zealand, severalkey investigations compared children who started formalliteracy lessons at age 5 with those who started age 7. They showed that earlyformal learning doesn’t improve reading development, and may even be damaging.By the age of 11, there was no difference in reading ability level between thetwo groups. However, those who started aged 5 developed less positive attitudesto reading and showed poorer text comprehension than those who had startedlater.*

Now we have cleared up that we don't need to feel pressured to go crazy forcing our babies to be instant geniuses. Yay! But what we can do is preserve that sweet special honeymoon time in your young family life before all the chaos and busy-ness of life inevitably ensues. The early years go by fast, they grow up so quick, and being able to consciously slow down and relish it is an incredible freedom and choice that we have.

So what do we do in the early years?

PLAY.

Play is meaningful work. Provide open ended, creative play things like blocks, magnet tiles, play silks/fabric, mudpie kitchens and other creative resources. Also make sure you schedule unscheduled time in your days to allow creative play to happen.

STREW.

The art of strewing is allowing your child to discover something you have casually left out or strategically leaving “invitations” for learning and creativity out for your kids to discover on their own. By strewing you can instill a love of learning by engaging your child's natural curiosity.

" Strewing is not about adding to the clutter. It’s about creating subtle but irresistible invitations. Product placement if you will. Strewing works best, in fact, in an uncluttered space.

Strewing is more about helping your kids explore and play and create on their own. It’s about introducing or reintroducing materials, books, concepts, in a non-pushy way that lets them own the experience and gives them the thrill of discovery." Artful Parent

Ex: construction - setting out a bin of building materials like magnet tiles, wooden blocks, etc

Reading -a wordless book or touchy feeling book or a book set open to a certain page of interest

Nature-set out a tray of sea shells or other nature finds, setting out some kid binoculars on the window ledge with a bird book nearby

A lacing toy or other educational toy or manipulative.

Charlotte Mason said "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life." Strewing helps create that atmosphere where learning can be like breathing, something that happens all the time.

LIFE SKILLS & HABITS

Montessori would call this practical life activities, Charlotte Mason would call it habit training. This is teaching your child to be a helpful member of the family and eventually a good citizen. Mason said “There are many simple age appropriate tasks and chores that children as young as 2 can do.” And “A mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days”.

Here is an example with printable made by Thirty Handmade Days. You can find more goodies and information about life skills by clicking the image below.

Here's a habit list as an example of Charlotte Mason style habit training. This gives one habit to focus on each month. (below image can't find original post came up on google images by The Unplugged Family but I think they must have taken down the site.)

SENSORY LEARNING.

Sensory play is important for all children. It enhances learning through hands on exploration of the world they live in.

Here are 5 reasons why sensory play is beneficial:

1. Research shows that sensory play builds nerve connections in the brain’s pathways, which lead to the child’s ability to complete more complex learning tasks.
2. Sensory play supports language development, cognitive growth, fine and gross motor skills, problem solving skills, and social interaction.
3. This type of play aids in developing and enhancing memory
4. Sensory play is great for calming an anxious or frustrated child
5. This helps children learn sensory attributes (hot, cold, sticky, dry)* Source

From sand tubs, water beads, play dough and sensory bins there are many ways to engage the senses. Just Pinterest sensory play and try limit yourself to how much time you have to spend on the Internet because there are ideas GALORE. Pick the easiest ones to prepare and implement.

TIME OUTDOORS.

Have a nature table or shelf. Just somewhere to display the things your child finds and collects during time spent outdoors. Fight back against nature deficit disorder. studies agree that kids who play outside are smarter, happier, more attentive, and less anxious than kids who spend more time indoors. (According to this article)

Time outdoors builds more confidence, promotes creativity and imagination, teaches responsibility, provides different stimulation, gets kids moving, makes kids think and reduces stress and fatigue. It's also beneficial for us too, so if we dedicate ourselves to spending time outside with our kids, we all benefit.

-Go to the park

-Take a nature walk – collecting things along the way of interest to bring home and display on nature table, glue into a nature notebook as a collage, make a rubbing or paint on.

-Take a listening walk – a listening walk is no talking, but listening and identifying all the sounds you hear, birds, lawn mower, cars, crickets, bees buzzing, airplane, crunch of gravel or leaves underfoot, scraping of shoes on concrete, sound of stroller wheels, wind rustling the leaves etc.

-Create a mud pie kitchen in your back yard or make a portable one to take to the park or nearest beaches. It could be a simple crate with some bowls, buckets, kitchen utensils and a small cookie tray from the dollar store.

-Hike as a family
-Sit on the front steps with an ice cream, cup of tea, hot cocoa/coffee, etc and just listen and observe.
-Eat Dinner outside whenever the weather allows.
-Pack a spontaneous picnic and go to your favorite local spot when the weather turns out too be just too wonderful to stay home.
-Just go outside and play with the kids, then let them start to do their own thing while you relax in a lawn chair.

READ ALOUDS.

Reading aloud promotes language development and early literacy skills. It is widely accepted that reading aloud is the single most important researched activity leading to language development and promotes early literacy skills ( 2, 3), such as: Word sound awareness. Book handling and naming. (source)

Not to mention the nurturing and engaging that happens as you snuggle up, learn and discover together. I wasn't a big reader as I grew up, but have found reading and learning with my kids so fulfilling and enjoyable.

Read aloud every single day with your child and don’t worry about making every cute coordinating activity from pinterest (just look up The Hungry Caterpillar ideas and you'll quickly see how in depth you can go, which is fun an all, but it's also OK to just enjoy the book for what it is too).

Check out and subscribe to the read aloud revival podcast.

Click on over to Ambleside Online for book list

Or Check this book list on Simply Charlotte Mason

JOT IT DOWN-NARRATION

For the earliest form of writing, get your children to see you value their thoughts and put them on paper. If your child has a story to tell you, write it down for them. It's a great way to model writing in the early years without the pressure to perform that task yet. One thing we did with my son was make a Happy Thoughts journal. It was just a small notebook and at bedtime I would ask him what were his happy thoughts from the day and as he told me I would write them down in his book for him. He was so proud of his book and loved hearing me read in back to him. My daughter would narrate stories to me and I would write either illustrate them (with stick people) as she made it up and then as she got older, I would write down her story as she said it. As I discovered Julie Bogart of Brave Writer, she refers to this type of activity and phase as the Jot it Down Phase (which is geared to more like k-2 grade but you can do it for fun with your younger ones).

Also have them narrate to you. Charlotte Mason is big on narration- describing things they saw, things they did, things that happened in the story you just read together. This will build the foundation for future writing and trains them to pay attention to the details and builds vocabulary and communication skills. It can be as simple as show and tell with family or relatives over Facetime.

Here are some very holistic educational styles/philosophies that can greatly inspire your educational and teaching approach with your children. They don’t focus on rote memorization, early pressure on academics, but rather take a gentle approach and focus on the child as a whole, acknowledging their natural ability and desire to learn and protecting that so that their curiosity or love of learning lasts a lifetime.

Reggio

Founded by Regio Emilia and easiest summed up as a projects based approach.

Strewing would fall in line with this approach as well. You can look up REGGIO PROVOCATIONS on Pinterest for lots of ideas. Parent is a student and mentor to your child to understand their interests and help them go further. Projects aren't planned in advance, they emerge based off your child's interests, such as a child being curious about how a flower grows, rather then just tell them, encourage them to find out. That may lead to planting some seeds in a pot and watching them grow. You also document and display the projects to show what has been learned over the year.

Montessori

A holistic approach to child education developed by Maria Montessori, Italy's first female physician, in the late 1800s. It is child-led learning by creating spaces scaled to their size with objects organized and accessible to them.

and focuses on the following principles:

movement & cognition, movement can enhance thinking and learning, put on some Ziggy Marley and start your day with a dance party and allow your child lots of freedom to move throughout their day)

choice, learning is improved when ppl have a sense of control over their lives. Give them simple choices.

interest, people learn better when they're interests are fed

extrinsic rewards avoided (rewards negatively impact motivation),

learning from & With peers (host a weekly peer interest group to engage in creative play with like puppet shows, plays, art etc),

learning in context (learn by doing),

teacher ways and child ways (have them help pick out their library books, decide the menu and help shop, what order to get things done on lost and honor their judgements),

order in the environment (having a tidy clear work space, 10 minute cleanup times.)

Charlotte Mason

Educator from the late 1800s-early 1900s

Charlotte Mason counseled mothers “In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother’s first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time.”

Charlotte Mason encouraged mothers to give their little ones a full six years of developing good habits, getting acquainted with nature, exploring with the five senses, growing in their spiritual lives, and playing outdoors. You can spend most of your time focusing on developing good habits, outdoor play, read alouds, and bible. If you want to do more you can add handicrafts, art, music and poetry. Then gently as your child shows readiness you can introduce reading, writing and math through informal activities.

“Children are born with all the curiosity they will ever need. It will last a lifetime if they are fed upon a daily diet of ideas.”

Waldorf

Another beautiful, peaceful play based holistic approach to early childhood education focusing on predictable structure and routine with certain days of the week for certain activities. Involves a lot of story telling and creative learning as well as time outdoors, playing outside everyday no matter the weather. There are no media really and makes use of wooden toys and natural materials. Kids explore with watercolors, sculpting with beeswax, using natural beeswax crayons, engaging in small world play, and activities revolving around celebrating the seasons. Lots of focus on their imagination, which is why media is so discouraged and open ended, natural play things encouraged—like play silks. A basket of playsilks that can be used by their imagination into any game is a staple in Waldorf. And look up Waldorf dolls, they are so sweet!

Can you mix and match? YES! You can become a purist to any educational approach but in reality you and your child can benefit from implementing any of the ideas and elements that various educational approaches and philosophies offer. All of these methods take a holistic approach and emphasize the importance of play, protecting the natural love of learning with a gentle approach and encourage imaginative play and time outdoors with appreciation for nature.

The important thing is to find a rhythm rather than a rigid schedule and parenting consistently to build life skills and good habits. Choose quality resources over quantity and enjoy your time together. Provide access to art and craft supplies. As they begin to show readiness for further academic instruction, provide short sweet lessons where they can be completely focused for a short amount of time and just be consistent and low stress. If your child is melting down over school work that is put in front of them, be patient. They may not be ready to handle formal work yet and continue the gentle, holistic, hands on projects based approach until they are able to do more without being overwhelmed. Also, many of these elements can be brought into your home family life even if aren’t homeschooling full time or at all.

For people who like to see tangible products to show what was learned, rather than making kids do workbooks at an early age, you can document with you phone. If they drew the alphabet or some shapes on the driveway with sidewalk chalk then snap a picture or write it down. In the early years I found it most helpful to have a small list of things I wanted to do with my kids and then start a new list that I wrote down the things they did as we went along our day and I was always amazed how the page would fill up and yet only 1 or 2 things from my original list would end up on there. Looking at the after list was very assuring of all the amazing, meaningful things that were happening with them each day rather than just crossing off one or two things on my more arbitrary list.

Websites for further planning and research

Pinterest - look up preschool counting, Montessori preschool ideas, Reggio provocations, reggio preschool, play invitations, Montessori practical life ideas, Charlotte Mason preschool, Waldorf preschool etc for inspirationg and planning

Www.artfulparent.com

https://wellnessmama.com/60555/montessori-at-home/

https://amongstlovelythings.com/early-years/

http://amblesideonline.org/00bks.shtml

http://amblesideonline.org/00sch.shtml

www.naturalbeachliving.com (waldorf)

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/28717.Books_to_read_together_in_the_early_years (read aloud book list for early years)

http://blog.bravewriter.com/2012/05/30/03-jot-it-down-stage-of-development/

Suggested programs for when ready for more formal but still gentle lessons

HandwritingWithout Tears

ProgressivePhonics (free online program you can either print the books or save to ibooks and read on your ipad)

MathU See

CTCMath (online but still short concise lessons with manipulatives on screen works, great for dyslexic learners who struggle with writing down their answers they can just type them in. We've found our place here)

1+1+1=1 - LOTS of free early educational resources and activities. I liked the calendar and calendar book for K-1 age range with mine. Printables start from TOT SCHOOL, move onto PRESCHOOL and then KINDERGARTEN and a little past. This was my main resource when I started homeschooling. I bought a $30 laminator and laminator pouches, paper and dry erase markers and was pretty much set!

If you are already a homeschool mama, PLEASE COMMENT BELOW and share YOUR favorite resources and advice for homeschooling in the early years! We all have learned things through this journey that can be valuable to others.

If you have questions, bring em on as well!

Homeschool Plan for 2017-2018 so far

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Sun, 11 Jun 2017 13:44:00 +0000

Homeschool Outline for 2017-2018

With a 3.5 yo, 2nd grader and 4/5 grader

(4/5 grader- what seems to have worked best for my oldest is being in-between grades, giving us flexibility to be at her own pace. So while this will be her 5th year homeschooling, if she was in school, I would have waited another year before sending her to kindergarten so she would be in 4th grade so we just hang in that range.)

We are eclectic Charlotte Mason inspired homeschoolers, have done Classical Conversations in the past as well as experimenting with unschooling which is where my daughter amazed me with the growth and improvements she made in spelling and writing without being forced. I like to cater to inspiration and delight in the moment led learning but with some great tools and resources available too where the kids can get even more inspiration and new ideas from. Unschooling for me involved a LOT of intentional strewing and seeds planted and being observant and available. That is why I can't have a rigid schedule so we can relax and enjoy the unexpected learning, inspiration and rabbit holes that spontaneously happen, a spontaneous lake day when the weather is too perfect to be inside all day and to accommodate our twice a year trips cross country to visit family and a variety of small trips with my husband as sometimes we tag along with him for his work travel. But I find by having a general outline, I can modify and find a rhythm to still be intentional and make it all jive by the end of the year, even if it might make someone else go cross eyed trying to understand lol! This year I will probably be scheduling a little more than I have in the past to just wrap my head around time frames and how to get it all done with other big commitments that we may have this next year outside of the home but that is all still undetermined. I am still finalizing the details but I have lots of notes around and need to gather my thoughts in on place so I'm doing it here.

Also, I do as much combined with my 7 and 10 year old as possible and modify accordingly to make it easier for the younger one or a little more challenging for the older one. I don't want to be going crazy doing everything different for each child and keeping track of it all, I don't think I could handle that, the thought of that makes me go cross-eyed so we will do as much learning together as we can as long as we can, accommodating each child accordingly. When it gets to a point I feel they can't do as much together, then I'll probably start looking at hybrids, virtual classes or something lol! So without further ado, here is my working list for the upcoming school year as of now.

HISTORY

Beautiful Feet Early American History

We began this program this year and are doing it over the course of 2 years so we ended with Pilgrims and will start the fall with Benjamin Franklin.

To go along with this we will re-download the Classical Conversations App Cycle 3 which we already bought all apps in the past. We will use cycle 3 for American History memory sentences as they tie into our BF American History. Should be quick and easy as they will be familiar from before.

LANGUAGE ARTS

I also have gone through the book list for BF and found other great books to add in as additional reading for personal reading, read alouds or audiobooks for book reports or Arrows (by Brave Writer) that coincide with the history we will be covering. I will post a list at the end of this general outline.

*Language Lessons for Today by My Father's World (Grammar, composition, narration, picture study etc) grade 2 and grade 4 books

*Daily reading independently (partnering with 2nd grader til he's more comfortable on his own)

*Shakespeare - I will read to them Much Ado About Nothing this year followed by watching the movie, then let them help come up with a project of their choice, either their own acted out video, puppet show, art project...they'll have to determine their project.

*Friday Freewrites (they were a hit this year) from the Brave Writer lifestyle.

*Movies - another reason why I love Julie Bogart of Brave Writer! I have always found movies and tv series to be great teaching tools but she goes out of her way to give you permission and emphasizes the educational and relational value of watching good movies together! Our movie selections will also coincide with other subjects we will be covering. I am excited! (Listed below this outline with the books)

*Arrows for my 4/5 grader that go with historical books I mentioned above. Arrows use a book to teach copy work, dictation and literary elements learning from great literature.

*Explode the Code (with spelling words coming from the code lessons) and WWT continued for my 2nd grader

*thinking about Writing and Rhetoric also for my 4/5 grader. Will also be looking more at Brave Writers products and IEW just to see. But I do gravitate so much towards Julie Bogart of Brave Writer. Also may use Spelling Wisdom by Simply Charlotte Mason as I found book 1 & 2 for a steal at a used book store. But we will see my daughter has suddenly decided she loves spelling tests and Spelling Wisdom is all spelling through dictation. It was cheap enough to grab but not sure yet if I'll keep it.

*Creative Writing-whether my daughter takes a class again at enrichment for this, we will all spend time writing stories, from my preschooler where I jot it down for him, to my 7 yo where I will jot it down/partner write with him, he still gets fatigued getting it all written and will need support, to my 4/5 grader who already does this as a hobby on her typewriter. I will also encourage song writing, as we do poetry and sing hymns and other songs. This was/is my secret favorite hobby I started when I was around 10/11. It's such a great way to express yourself, as well as enjoy whatever instrument you are learning. Even for the kids being very beginner music students, it's exciting if they can take what little they know and apply it to a simple song of their own.

*Journal Keeping my daughter started keeping a personal journal this past year. My son has a happy times journal that I write in for him. As he tells me some of his happy thoughts about the day.(basically a mini gratitude journal). As he gains more independence in his writing he can go on to do more journal keeping independently, although I'm guessing he won't gravitate to it as naturally as his sister. We shall see. I don't even tell my daughter to write in her journal anymore she just does that on her own and I don't read it unless she wants to show me something. She kept wanting me to read all her entries in the beginning which was sweet but I figure we are around each other A LOT, I told her it's ok to have her own thoughts that she keeps private in there. Like if she's mad at her brothers and vents in her diary, I really don't need to read it because it would probably make me annoyed and my impulse would be to get after her.

*Beginner Blog my daughter started her own little blog so that will be another writing project where she will be motivated to complete her posts because it's fun and have a good attitude about editing as she wants my help to make sure it reads right and doesn't have lots of spelling mistakes. We can focus more on grammar, punctuation and such as she has a reason to care. This also will help with her computer skills and photography which she is interested in.

MATH

*CTC MATH. We have a family subscription and my kids and I have really enjoyed this program. It is a great fit for us.

*Occasionally incorporate math games from Family Math and other hands on games like Dino Tracks, Monopoly, Battle Ships etc..there are so many games you can enjoy with your kids that reinforce math skills.

*Will use the Classical Conversations app here as well to memorize skip counting. My daughter has them all down but now it's my 2nd graders turn.

SCIENCE

we will start our first real science program this year. In the past we have just been really organic and Charlotte Mason Nature Study focused, with being involved in a nature club and then my kids have taken science classes at an enrichment program each semester that involved lots of hands on science. We also had a little Charlotte Mason Enrichment group and did a science experiment together once a month and then in the past Classical Conversations memory work for science and using nature notebooks. The kids watched a lot of Wild Kratt's which they have retained so much information from and we would watch documentaries on sea turtles and dolphins or whatever they were into. I think the science we are going to do fits really well with our style of doing school and will give us a little more structure in this area.

*The Sassafras Science Adventures: Volume One: Zoology

I hope to finish this in one semester and then move onto Volume Two: Anatomy later in the year. You need the novel, the logbook and the guidebook.
We will also pull from our Classical Conversations science materials over the 3 cycles to match up memory sentences with the main topics. I already have all that because we did 3 cycles. When we go back to it, it is fun for the kids as it familiar and they just need a refresher.

*We will still continue to enjoy being in nature and observing all that stuff and keeping nature journals but our main focus will be this series.

*Inventor Biographies - as a little side dish, as we cover American History we will also watch or read some inventor biographies such as Benjamin Franklin, The Wright Bros and Thomas Eddison. We may just watch the videos created by Nest entertainment and have the kids make a narration page or oral narration. Maybe go on Pinterest to get some coordinating project ideas. Honestly those Nest videos are great I grew up watching the animated scriptures and that is how I remember all the bible stories more than anything else I probably was taught as a kid! Either way, we will incorporate this aspect. And maybe take a projects based approach and see if the kids are inspired to invent or create something but if not, I wont force it.

CHARACTER/BIBLE/DEVOTIONAL

*We will continue to use My Brother's Keeper. We have been doing it VERY slowly even though it is designed for a couple weeks or so. But we do it every now and then and it gives the kids time to digest and practice the lessons. I tend to pull it out when siblings need to hit the reset button on the direction of their relationship...and it definitely helps!

*NEST Videos - Old and New Testament

*The Action Bible

*Bethany Hamilton's 90 Day Devotional RISE ABOVE continued for my daughter

*His Mighty Warrior for my son

*Big book of 5 minute devotions for all three kids over breakfast or lunch and love that it all brings lessons based of lessons about animals as we will be doing zoology.

MUSIC

*Hymn Study - I will teach them a hymn and usually play the piano or ukulele as we all sing along, sometimes give the boys drums to play on. Then later I will use a hymn we are learning as copy work and then we visual journal around it or watercolor paint over it. We do one hymn every month or two.

*Music Practice - for all of us. daughter has taken ukulele and will practice that or piano as I have been slowly teaching her. She will be trying violin this summer so if she decides to continue with that then she will need to practice according to what her teacher says.

My son is trying guitar lessons this summer, so same with him, hopefully he will want to continue as we will have daily practice time. And I will keep recommitting to giving myself time on the piano/guitar/ukulele. I love it so much but get SO out of practice.

*Song Writing- as I mentioned under creative writing in our Language Arts but it overlaps.

*To go along with our American History we will have fun learning and singing American Folk Songs. I can figure those out on piano or guitar but I'm hoping as my son gets comfortable he will enjoy playing the as we sing along as I'm sure there some super easy versions of them. If possible maybe they can play guitar and violin together on easy folk songs and little brother can tap a drum.

*Musicals. My kids haven't seen a lot of the great musicals that I have added to our movies list for the year.

*Live Blue Grass concerts. We live in the south east, we can find some live blue grass to enjoy with the kids. And hope to get them to as much free live music events as we can.

ART/HANDICRAFTS

*We will study American Artist Thomas Cole 1830s father of American Lanscape Painting. I'll do some related art projects.

*Charlotte Mason style artist study/picture study (I use Ambleside Online as a guide, this is quick)

*American Colonial and pioneer games and handicrafts will find on Pinterest 😘🤓😎

*Native American handicrafts-cave paintings, stonework, earthenware, feathers, clay, turquoise, silver, glass, fabric, totem poles. symbols-sun, moon, bears, eagles or people. Jewelry-rich in symbolism used to adorn, protect and honor.

*daily drawing (they have sketchbooks for practicing drawing skills either still life, following tutorial or lesson from me)

GEOGRAPHY

*Geography is part of our Beautiful Feet as we cover the beginning of the colonies and then expand westward. We will also make use of the 50 states I Want To Take a Trip YouTube video that is fun to sing, use our United States Map floor puzzle and possible work on some sort of project like making state floats, if you look that up on Pinterest it is such a neat idea but my kids would have to make 25 each over the course of the year to get all 50 states for the "float parade" which I think would be a fun crafty, hands on project but we will see if it is too ambitious or not. If so I may just have them do a few. But there are lots of resources on Pinterest for the 50 states so I will be going there for more ideas.

UPDATE: I printed off the 50 States Geography notebooking pages from the same maker of Sassafrass Science. Can be found HERE. The only thing I will do different is not bother with state seal and in that box have them draw interesting things about that state that stand out to them like a coke bottle and or peach for Georgia, the Statue of Liberty for New York or whatever the decide.

I got this book to go with it. I love that it looks like a nature journal as you go through. I thought it was perfect because in the notebooking pages for each state I am going to have my kids draw the state flower, state bird etc.

*The Sassafras Science program also includes geography work as well.

BOOK LIST

This list includes all the books from Beautiful Feet as well as the ones I've added in as part of language arts to tie in. I'll note after each (BF) for Beautiful Feet or Arrow for brave writer or LA other language arts/reading projects. There will be other books we may add in based on child's interest but these are the books that will correlate to our History.

Benjamin Franklin by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire (BF)

Ben and Me by Robert Lawson ARROW-historical setting

A More Perfect Union by Giulio and Betsy Mastro (BF)

George Washington by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire (BF) also watch Nest video on him

George Washington's Mother by Jean Fritz - audiobook on Epic

Daring Book for Girls p136-137 Abigail Adams' Letters with John Adams and Writing Letters p142-144 (LA)

Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes ARROW-Opening Hooks and probably watch the movie after

Nate Donovan Revolutionary Spy - audiobook on Epic reading app

Boys and Girls of Colonial Days by Carolyn Bailey (BF)

Moccasin Trail with ARROW-Alliteration and book project

Winter at Valley Forge by James Knight (BF)

George Washington's Breakfast by Jean Fritz (BF)

the Courage of Sarah Noble (BF)

Matchlock Gun by Walter Edwards (BF)

Carry On Mr. Bowditch with ARROW-writers voice

Abraham Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire (BF) watch Nest video about Abe.

Meet Abraham Lincoln by Barbara Cary (BF)

Like a River - Civil War novel (LA) book project

The Perilous Road - audiobook on EPIC (reading library app)

Caddie Woodlawn - with ARROW-conclusions

Possibly start Laura Ingalls Series

Buffalo Bill by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire (BF)

Sarah Plain and Tall - late 19th century time period with ARROW-confusing word pairs

The New Land First Year on the Prairie by Marrilyn Reynolds - (available illustrated read aloud on EPIC)

The Fourth of July Story by Alice Dalgliesh (BF)

The Indian in the Cupboard (LA reading and book project)

Your story hour CD's H1, H2, H3, H5 through audible. (BF)

Some of these extra books may also be listened to via audiobook.

MAPS Book we already have to look up geography we will cover in Science

Inventors Secret what Thomas Edison told Henry Ford - audiobook on Epic

Kate Shelly and The Midnight Express by Margaret Wetterer - (available on epic)

Movies- some during school time some as family movie night
many you can find on youtube, amazon, or your local library

Liberty Kids Series for free on youtube or on Amazon

Ben and Me Disney Short Film

Disney American Legends

7 Brides for 7 Brothers

Oklahoma!

Annie Get Your Gun (buffalo bill)
Calamity Jane

Much Ado About Nothing

Davy Crockett

Indian in the Cupboard

Jeremiah Johnson

AG Felicity - 1775, just before the Revolutionary War
Beyond the Mask - BEYOND THE MASK is a revolutionary new family film that brings history to life in a faith-filled adventure celebrating grace, liberty, and true freedom.

Newsies - 1899

Nest Entertainment bible and history

Tall Tale: the unbelievable adventure - Pecos Bill & The American West

Miracle at Sage Creek - 1888 Wyoming two families overcoming prejudice

The man From Snowy River - not hisotry related but for my daughter with horse interest

Return to Snowy River also not part of american history really but want to include.

The Black Stallion

National Velvet

Long Road Home

White Fang (gold rush in Yukon)

Rocky Mountain Express (transcontinental railroad)

Mandie and the Secret Tunnel (1899-native American prejudice and African American issues)
Little House on the Prairie Series

SONGS TO LISTEN TO/LEARN

America The Beautiful

this Land is Your Land

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Blowin in the Wind

Poor Wayfarin

She'll be Coming round the Mountain

Yankee Doodle

Amazing Grace

Buffalo Gals

Skip to ma Lou

I've been working on the railroad

Etc...

Reversible Flirty Apron

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 18:28:00 +0000

I have been wanting to make the flirty apron by the dating divas for a long time but have not been inspired enough to take the time to sew one until now with my small group, a sweet bunch of women who enjoy celebrating each other! With one of the birthdays this week being for a gal in our group who is particularly mind blowing creative and is always baking and hosting, this apron tutorial popped in my mind! She is always doing special, amazing, creative thoughtful thing for others. I followed the apron tutorial pretty closely the only change I made was that I made it reversible with coordinating fabric on the reverse side and used the fabric from each side as the pocket fabric on the opposite side and I changed the pocket shape on one side for variety and added some Rick rack instead of the pocket ruffle. This friend has dark hair and looks great in jewel tones and I think green and dark blue look great on her so I scoured Joanne's and had a couple other options picked out that were okay and once I had settled on some other fabric, I got lucky and after thinking I had seen everything, found these fabrics on my way to the cutting counter which I had missed! So glad my 3 year old distracted me or I wouldn't have seen them.

Here is the original tutorial by the dating divas. http://www.thedatingdivas.com/flirty-apron-tutorial/

Here are some pictures of the apron process as I followed the instructions and added the reversible detail.

Pre washed and dried fabric

Pattern cut out with contractor paper I have. My friend is taller so I added an inch in length to the dimensions given in the tutorial.

Fold fabric in half and line up pattern on fold and cut out two coordinating aprons.

A little note that my newly turned 7 year old dropped by after I let him have some of the fabric scraps to tie around his head like a ninja.

All the pieces cut out according the the dating divas tutorial with the addition of an extra apron and pocket. I decided to switch it up and not do a ruffle on the pockets. One side is the rectangle pocket and the other side I cute it to be rounded and added the Rick rack detail along the top. Also my fabric for the bottom ruffle was not long enough, so I cut out two strips and then sewed them together to get the needed length.

Sewing the front pocket, I cut it out with the top on the fold of the fabric, then turned it right sides facing together and sewed around the open edges leaving a small section open on the lower right side so I could turn right side out,

Then it looked like this. I ironed it out and folded in the open edges to match the seam and ironed it flat

The. I ironed the Rick rack o. And wrapped around the edges, and pressed with the iron. This is temporary and doesn't hold it but it held it in place enough to sew it on.

Then did the same process with the rectangle pocket for the reverse side of apron. Cut on folded fabric and top of pocket is the folded edge and then sewed around raw adages and left an opening to turn right side out.

To get the pocket placed right I folded the apron in half to find the center then lined up the pocket with the center and pinned it in place on only the top layer of fabric, then unfolded and pinned the other side down flat and top stitched around the sides and bottom of pockets.

Both pockets are now sewn onto the aprons.

Next, follow the instructions on the original tutorial by making the bottom ruffle. Sew the neck strap and waist ties inside out leaving ends open and then turn right side out.

Carefully pin everything in place. The bottom ruffle will need a good amount of pins to keep the ruffle edge and apron edge lined up. This is all pretty much just following the if aging diva instructions so far.

But then...take your reversible apron and lay it face down on top of everything thou just pinned. Carefully line up the edges especially along the bottom ruffle and pin everything good so it all stays in place.

Sew all the way around your apron leaving an opening on the side, make sure the opening isn't where any straps or Ruffles are attached. You can see my opening below, it's below the waist strap and above the bottom ruffle. Make sure to back stitch the when you start and finish and I also back stitched over the neck straps and waist ties to make it strong.

Carefully flip the whole apron right side out through that opening.

Now let's close the opening. Fold in the open edges to match the seam and press with iron.

Sew that opening shut but top stitching over the ironed seam you just did. I did a small zig zag stitch and decided to keep going all the way around the apron for a little added detail.

And there it is side A

and side B

Such a fun sewing project! I haven't been motivated to sew for a long time but this project got me excited to get it all out and make something. The dating Divas did a great job with the tutorial. I remember once buying an easy apron pattern and it was labeled quick n easy. It took me like 8 hours because the patty was so confusing! I would much rather use an on,one tutorial than a store bought pattern anytime possible. And now you can take that great apron tutorial and make it reversible! Double the fun!

Here's a second reversible cute flirty apron

Bible Verse Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 05:46:00 +0000

Instead of leaving the Easter baskets out and then later also giving the kids more junk in eggs with an egg hunt, I borrowed the idea from a friend in my small group to do a scavenger egg hunt to find the Easter baskets. My mil also hearing her bible teacher share about a birthday party scavenger hunt where all the clues led a a prize and related it to how the bible is full of clues that lead us to the greatest prize of all so I decided to try to incorporate those two things last minute..as in its midnight and I'm just now doing this for when the kids wake up! I picked out some bible verses with hints that could be pulled from the verse as to where to look for the next egg containing the next verse/clue.

Where the baskets normally wait at bottom of stairs is first egg with Matthew 28:6

"He is not here, for He has risen as He has said." And on back of paper there's a hint: Who is He in the verse? Your baskets are not here either, but where your earthly father has "risen today" you will find a clue. (That should lead them to look on dad's side of the bedroom for the next egg.

"In His great mercy, He has given us NEW BIRTH into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" Peter 1:5

Hint: what does the word birth mean? Talking about that should lead them to my bathroom where the last child in our family was born during a planned home birth. (But you could also use the word living and lead to the living room)

"For God so loved THE WORLD that he gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Hint: who did God so love? Only a certain continent? Only places we've lived or people we like? Only nice people? (Talking about the world should lead them to our Globe).

"Jesus said I am the bread of life, He who comes to me will not hunger and He who believes in me will never thirst" John 6:35

(Should lead them to the bread where I put the egg inside the bag that has the bread which we keep in the fridge because it's gluten free bread).

"He saved us not because of the GOOD THINGS we did but because of His mercy." Titus 3:5

Hint: where do we acknowledge some of the good things you kids do? (Our positive reinforcement rock jar)

"And with His wounds, we are healed." Isaiah 53:4-5

Hint: what were Jesus' wounds? Where do we go to take care of your wounds at home? (Medicine cupboard where first aid supplies are, egg inside box of band aids).

"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name UNDER heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." - Acts 4:12

Hint: what name is it talking about?

Do you see any reference to His name nearby? (I have a decor sign in kitchen/keeping room near the first aid cupboard the says "for where two or three gather in my name I am with them" next clue will be under the throw pillow on the chair below that sign.

"And walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma."

Hint: walk in love "me and my happy heart" and around till you find the fragrant aroma - (out back door we made a small stepping stone path and one rock is shaped like a big heart and the kids hop on each stone and like saying "me and my happy heart" or "I love my fam i ly" as they hop on each one. So they will walk on that and follow their nose across the lawn to the lilac bushes in front of house that smell amazing right now, a very fragrant aroma. 🌺

"I am the vine, you are the branches, if a person remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5

Hint: who is the vine? Do we have a vine that can bear fruit? (The grapevine in the backyard that's springing back to life)

"Greater love has no one than this, that one LAY DOWN his life for his friends." John 15:13

Hint: where do our friends and loved ones LAY DOWN when they visit for more than a day?

(This will take them upstairs to the guest room where the baskets will be.)

In the doorway will be an egg with

"You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in Him there is no sin." 1John 3:5

Hint: these clues have helped point you to your baskets but the clues are from the bible which is full of clues that point us to Jesus, the best prize of all. God created you in His image if you look in something in this room, your image will appear, as well as your prize...but don't forget, the real prize is knowing and having faith in Jesus.

When they look in the mirror, the reflection will show their Easter baskets in the corner on the opposite side of the bed that they didn't see when they walked in.

In the back of their Easter basket goodies will be something random to them. I have 3 kiddos so in my 3 year old's basket will be a small Jar of salt numbered with a 1.

My middle child who is 7 will have a small jar with pepper with the number 2.

My oldest whose 10 will have a plastic spoon and instructions tied to it with a number 3.

The instructions are:

*1 Have the youngest pour his salt on a plate.

*2 Have the middle sprinkle some pepper on the salt. The pepper is like sin, you all like salt on your food but none of you like pepper, you might still eat your food if it has a little bit of pepper but you really don't enjoy it as much. Well. That is like when we sin, we aren't as good as we could be and don't feel as great as we should but none of us are perfect, we all sin and need Jesus. We all accidentally grab the pepper shaker and get some on our food sometimes!

*3 Oldest rub the spoon on a towel and then move it slowly over the salt and pepper. What happened? We couldn't pick up the tiny pieces of pepper ourselves very easily or at all, but with the help of some static electricity, something we can't see but is definitely there and working, it's like Jesus being able to take our sins away. We can't see Him but he rids us of our sin just like the spoon was able to get rid of the pepper. Jesus makes it go away and we are good and salty again. Did the spoon have any pepper on it? No it was smooth, shiny and clean. That is why we celebrate Easter, because Jesus appeared to take away sins and in Him there is no sin (1 John 3:5), He laid down His life for us, there is salvation in no one else and with His wounds we are healed, not because of the good things we do but because of His mercy. If we come to him we will not hunger or thirst and have everlasting life! Christ loves us and gave himself as a living sacrifice, He has risen as He has said. He has given us a new birth and a living hope through his resurrection and there is no greater love than the love we have in Jesus Christ our Savior.

Then we can emphasize what they always hear at church "Jesus wants to be my forever friend".

I really hadn't planned much but I'm so glad I did this last minute, it was good for me to have a moment at night when the house was quiet to look thru verses to use and get my own mind, heart and spirit prepared for tomorrow in the process.

I haven't done many scavenger hunts with clues with my kids and whatever I've done in the past it's been so long I'm sure they don't remember so I 'm looking forward to their excitement and getting some of God's word in there as an integral part of it! I'm already predicting they will want to do it again afterwards and I will say no, one set up is enough for me, I'm done thinking up clues and hiding things. Then they will set up scavenger hunts for each other throughout the day lol and my daughter will try to keep it going til even her brothers are tired of it....just my guess;)

I'm sure the kids will want to repeat the salt and pepper experiment a few times and take turns doing it. I hope it works! I didn't test it.

*salt and pepper experiment lesson came from The Friend LDS kids magazine. I do not attend but my grandma got us a subscription to it and it always has some fun ideas and stories to use.

Painting the Outside Door

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 22:21:00 +0000

Well, our back door is technically a side door but it's the most used entrance to our house. Our house is brick but the side porch is all white look and I like the all white look, however between super alien green pollen and red dirt, nothing in Georgia stays very white for long around here! This door was pretty beat up and needing a new coat of paint and for the past year I had envisioned a super dark navy blue almost black paint on it. However when I got samples I ended up with like 50 shades of blue ranging from that super dark navy to light robins egg blue. This color was in the mid-light range and an awesome friend who is much more decisive than me helped me narrow it down to a much more manageable decision. Then I got my final opinion from my daughter and her buddy to decide between the final 2 paint colors. This was not a time consuming project. We did our homeschool in the morning and after lunch I started this project. The drying time takes the longest which was less than 2 hours and during that time I was doing laundry and playing with the kids. Kind of instant gratification....that's my kind of DIY!

Here's a picture of the Opal Silk paint sample card with some of our eggs.

This color reminds me of my favorite blue-green eggs that my Easter egg layers leave me in their nest. It's called Opal Silk by BEHR. I bought a quart of exterior satin enamel (I didn't want a shiny glossy door) in the BEHR Primium Plus ULTRA Stain-Blocking Paint & Primer in One. Along with a small paint tray, small roller and 1 1/2 inch brush.

BEFORE:

This is after already going over it with an electric palm sander to smooth out and remove and marks, it cleaned the door pretty good. I didn't sand in the molding, just whatever I could get with the palm sander. Then I panicked and though maybe I should leave the door white after wanting to paint it for over a year...but I decided to ignore the self-doubt and hurry up and do it! 😅

I pinned up plastic to keep the door clean while working but I ended up taking it down because my cats were driving me nuts pouncing on it and making it fall down. It's still winter, but we had a warm day in the 60s and I didn't have to worry about bugs landing on the wet paint so I ended up tearing the plastic down before even getting to painting. But it's a good idea if bugs are out to keep your paint job from getting messed up. I placed a piece of cardboard under the door to work on and keep my hardwood floors clean.

I removed the handle and deadbolt and taped around the glass window frames, I didn't have painters tape and just used white masking tape.

I think I was supposed to remove hardware before sanding but it didn't really matter. Just make sure to really wipe down the door nice and good to remove any dust before painting.

I looked up on Lowes how to paint a front door and it's pretty straightforward and did not take long. Less than an hour and I only painted the exterior face of the door. I figured if I liked it I could later paint the entire door if I wanted to have that cute color on the inside as well. https://www.lowes.com/projects/paint-stain-and-wallpaper/paint-wooden-front-door/project

First stirred the paint and poured into my small paint tray. Starting with my paint brush, I painted the small wooden cross sections that separate the 4 window panes and the inside trim around that area.

Then using paintbrush, painted the mounding on the bottom half of the door. (Photos taken after)

Using the small paint roller, I then applied paint over the 2 front panels that are part of the mounding on the bottom half, then before it dried, lightly dragged my paintbrush down virtically following the natural grain of the wood to leave natural paint brush marks.

Bottom of door you can see the wood grain/paint is vertical in middle and then cut off by a seam created when you go across horizontally on the bottom of door.

Next, use the paint roller across the middle section of the door and then did the same thing, lightly pulled the paint brush across to smooth and leave the lines going horizontally following the grain of the wood. And repeated that method along the very top of the door above the window.

You can see the paint brush marks creating the grain after using the paint roller. This is along the long outside sections of the door that go top to bottom.

Last I used the paint roller down both sides of the door from top to bottom and then again, went over with the paintbrush leaving vertical lines following the grain of the wood from top to bottom. I didn't end up taping the sides of the door with tape because with the paint roller it went on so clean and did not wrap around the edges at all. Just be careful when going over with the paintbrush to not flick the sides, but if you do, you can quickly wipe any unwanted paint off with a damp rag.

See how I did not paint the outside edges of the door.

I got some paint on that little piece of weather stripping on the bottom so I just painted the whole thing...looks better anyways because it was stained the Georgia red clay color and looked dirty once I actually noticed it.

I let it dry for 1-2 hours with door left open and then applied a second coat, repeating the steps above which did not take long, 45 minutes at most. The paint was dry within 1-2 hours and I just left the door open the rest of the day even though it was dry before shutting it.

I carefully removed the tape on the Windows, peeling it off pulling at an angle towards the inside of the window. If you pull the tape off without cautions sometimes if the paint is still a little soft, it can pull of the paint around the edges of the tape. There were a few spots of paint that got on the window but I just quickly scratched it off with my fingernail.

It's been a few days now and still looks great :). I went to Charleston with my daughter for the weekend for a gymnastics meet and the hubby text me saying how good the door looks and that I should paint the door on our screen porch that color and our basement doors too! I'm not sure if I'll do that or just leave it to this one cheerful pop of color but we'll see.

Sunny afternoon

Rainy afternoon

I painted this the day before going to Charleston and with this color on my mind, I was loving this house on rainbow row that I had to snap a picture of. Maybe I will paint this someday! Blue green turquoise love going on!!!!

Vitamin C for the Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 17:23:00 +0000

In the past couple of years, I haven't made official "New Years resolutions" but rather spent spare moments here and there reflecting on what I need to work on. Ambitious and sometimes unrealistic resolutions can be exciting and inspiring at first but can quickly lead to beating ourselves up when we quickly fail to even begin to accomplish that goal. So I look at New Years resolutions the same way I look at diets...I don't do them. Rather than going on a "diet" I think it's better to just make simple changes that can lead to an overall healthier lifestyle. Likewise, it is important to be self aware, take time to refocus on what's most important to us, check ourselves and give ourselves some positive things to focus on. Rather than specific resolutions, Just spend some time to make sure our lives, schedules and energy is in line with what we value. Coincidently after I started writing this post, our pastor Andy Stanley did a great series you should watch at reallywantseries.org, it's taken me a while to hit the publish button on this :/ but is all about figuring out what we really value, what we really want.

I will admit, 2016 kicked my a$$. By spring I was hitting mom/homeschool/wife everything burnout and then just struggling to recover and as anyone who's been there knows, it is hard to draw from an empty well. Unfortunately rather than refilling my cup, which I was trying to figure how to do but when your driving down the highway and your car runs out of gas and there's not much around...it isn't all that easy to do. And using the broke down car metaphor, a woman with a broke down car is in a vulnerable position, I became vulnerable to the triad of anxiety, fear and doubt. I actually had a dream one night where there was a dark figure lurking in my peripheral vision, almost like a stage hand orchestrating from the wings and just as I was waking from the dream, the hood on the cloak fell back and I saw a three-headed wolf and I immediately identified them and knew their names, Fear, Worry and Doubt. It was a moment of like...oh now I see you and I know who/what you are! It was empowering because it helped me identify what I was struggling with and then I could figure out how to deal with it. It is funny how this past year I hit burnout, when if you look at the past 11 years of my life starting with our best friend and roommate committing suicide senior year in college, graduating and moving, getting engaged, surprise pregnancy while wedding planning with HG (extremely sick all pregnancy) while dealing with PTSD from the suicide, then adding undiagnosed postpartum thyroiditis turned Hashimoto's followed by 3 cross country moves and 2 more sweet babies in less than 5 years while my husband traveled for his job at least 50% of the time just to rattle off the big things. God was so good through it all and used everything for our good (except the suicide...that will always be heartbreaking, I remember when my daughter was a baby, I'd be driving and pull up to a stop sign and suddenly go blank and flash back to that time and feel overcome by the darkness of it and for years felt like an accomplice to murder. Hindsight is 20/20, at the time I was just immature and ignorant of mental health issues and after it happened, and we were being questioned by police they pointed out that all the signs were there and that is where the guilt would come from). Having our daughter when we did really was a blessing because she moved us forward and helped us grow up faster and really was a dream come true because I was always the motherly type and wanted to be a mom my whole life more than anything else. A funny side note was after Tyler proposed (5.5 years from our first date in high school) we were sitting, admiring the ring on my finger and I was all gushy and "oh my gosh we're gonna have babies!!!" Lol I don't know who says that 15 minutes after getting engaged when they are 22 but we had talked about the future plenty and both knew what we wanted. I just didn't realize that process was gonna start like 3 weeks later! So while she was a surprise, she was more than wanted and we would never have it any other way!

When I started this post I had no intention of sharing such personal parts of my life story but it helps explain where I'm coming from when I say this year was the least busy, least eventful, least stressful year in the books, so it would appear based on history. we didn't move or have a baby, my husband worked less than he has in the past (although his version of less is still like a mad man-he has more drive and discipline than anyone I know!), I don't feel like I have PTSD anymore and can talk about what happened without feeling traumatized all over again, my thyroid seems to be healed as I haven't been on thyroid medicine for 4 years now and tests are all normal as a result of going gluten and dairy free, we are settled in with a home I never ever imagined I would have in a beautiful part of the country we have a great homeschool community and lots of cool homeschooling choices and opportunities, the blue ridge mountains are not far from our back door and we get to explore and be in beautiful nature often so I should feel better than ever! But I think that is just it, I think everything cumulatively caught up to me and I found myself a bit wrecked. Maybe it was just adrenal fatigue I don't know.

The progression of my dad's ALS pinpointed it all along with a fall out with a friend who I had to distance myself from who although I truly cared for deeply, no longer felt like a healthy or safe relationship. It was painful because I cared about her very much. I hadn't had any friendship "breakups" since I was in high school and with families involved I was very torn up, especially because my own family was far away, with a baby and in a different place trying to process my dads ALS and process the guilt I felt for not being closer to help my parents more, it was all just too much to deal with emotionally. For so long I was always strong through all these major life events, trusted the Lord and he always took care of us and things always turned out for the good and I was able to be very Pollyannaish and content with ease. With my dads diagnosis with ALS, that brought on a new level of hope and prayer and faith, desperately begging that My dad's ALS progression would halt at some point before it got too bad as it has for some others or even that there would be a healing miracle and it would reverse. There are people out there who have had their ALS stop progressing and continue to live a mostly normal life still able to function a lot on their own, and there are yet others who's ALS even reversed. With my mom by his side, diligently taking care of him and all the protocols to try and implement, I had hope, lots of faith and hope. I would have visions flash of my dad running up and down the stairs again with a delighted grandchild in his arms enjoying the ride. And while I believe our prayers have been answered in the regard that my dad is at almost 4 years post diagnosis and still here, as its given us more time with him than others have, it's still progressed along the course and it is such a very cruel disease and awful to watch someone you love go through. It doesn't seem fair for anyone, but especially to a healthy young 57 doctor who rode his bike everyday, who never needed to use a sick day in 10 years and took seriously his calling to serve his fellow man by being an amazing doctor who truly listens and cares. When not doing that he was serving in scouts taking the boys on awesome high adventure trips down the Pacific Coast, climbing Mt. Adams, cycling in an annual triathlon, planning a fun family activity to take us all snowshoeing, sledding, snowmobiling, camping on the Oregon coast or jet skiing on the Columbia River. When he wasn't doing that he was helping someone move or whatever need there was he was happy to help.

I think this year, the anger, acceptance and grief of the situation started to settle in more and with it came the burnout of everything else over the years and I just felt fatigued in every way, including spiritually fatigued. I ran out of energy to pray anymore at the same time having bad anxiety about running into that friend and I think that is where the door creaked open for that three-headed wolf to get a grip on me, take over the stage and undermine me in every way. Rather than being filled and sustained with the trinity of God, Savior and Holy Spirit, I was drained by that three headed wolf, opposite of the trinity but also 3 in 1, 3 different names but one in purpose, which is to rob us of everything that God so freely gives us, which is Love, self worth, confidence, joy and peace...all the opposite of the fruits of Fear, Worry and Doubt. With that, rather than just dealing with the anger and grief of the situation with my dad, I was now under attack in every way, into my very being because fear, anxiety and doubt can quickly spread and run deep like a malignant cancer, affecting other areas of our lives and destroy confidence, steal joy, rob us of self worth and make us second guess ourselves constantly. Once anxiety creeps in and puts us in that state of fight or flight mode, it's hard not to let that state of being affect us in other ways unrelated to the original cause of anxiety. Suddenly my grief over my dad's situation, and anxiety over running into that person transformed into self-loathing now that an inner voice that is excellent at tearing you down is given the stage in a moment of vulnerability and being stuck in flight mode. I can look at the whole situation now and see how important our spiritual health is like our physical health and how it is so intertwined. If we get spiritually and emotionally run down, our spiritual and emotional "immune system" becomes weak and we are more vulnerable to "pathogens", and if we catch a "cold" or other ailment, our immune system is further impaired and it's then easier to catch and get run down with other illnesses going around. Without getting the immune system strong again, you get caught in a vicious cycle of always being sick with something or other. Just as there are always bacteria and viruses lurking around everywhere, some more contagious than others, how strong our immune system is determines how well we are able to carry on with our normal life unaffected by them because a strong immune system can quickly deflect and deal with the exposures without taking you out. So can keeping our spiritual and emotional/mental immune system strong, we can walk boldly without fear of being taken by the "viruses" and "bacteria" lurking around looking for a host, we can quickly deflect and deal with them without hardly skipping a beat. We can be friendly, open and loving without being anxious. Maybe you could say anxiety is like getting mono. You feel like crap and exhausted for a long time but everyone thinks your fine, until you get even more sick and finally go to the doctor only to find out you have been sick all along without realizing what the problem was and now have a secondary infection since your immune system was so taxed dealing with that original ongoing illness and now you have to figure out how to heal from a host of issues. Maybe it starts out with some minor anxiety over an issue with someone or a underhanded compliment or some random remark that incites a twinge of insecurity...if you don't quickly combat those Germy moments with hand sanitizer and an extra dose of vitamin C, it can begin the process of hampering the immune system and before you know it you're body is so burdened it developes an auto immune response, which is when your body starts attacking itself...well...when we get run down and lose our confidence and joy I would say that our soul develops an autoimmune disease if we find ourselves internally beating ourselves up. So I guess as I'm writing this, these C words that came to mind as my intention and focus this year I've decided to call Vitamin C for my soul. Along with spending more time filling myself with God's word, these words I think are great focuses to deflect the attacks of that three headed wolf. I can't live out my purpose or enjoy the many blessings The Lord has graciously given me if I'm a paralyzed slave to fear, anxiety/worry and doubt.

I'm NOT an open book type of person, even within myself I internalize things so much so it's outside my comfort zone to share all this but maybe someone will be able to relate in their own way and know it's ok and it's going to BE ok if we hit times in life when the wind is taken out of our sails and we find ourselves doggy paddling and struggling. If not, at least helps me crack my shell to share personal struggles without worrying about feeling judged or guilty. (Although I still have work to do so I'm sure I'll be worried and self critical over how this post came together and tempted to delete it.😭).

Anyways, here are my C words that I have for my renewed focus of things to be intentional about and work on this year. I kept wondering why the words I was coming up with were all C words, but now that I see it as my Vitamin C, it all makes sense lol!

These words may mean different things to different people but for me personally, here are some notes on each, Without going into too much detail, but in small points. Hopefully these Vitamin C's will keep us more immune from negativity, anxiety, fear, doubt and a host of other negative personal issues that can hamper our mental/emotional/spiritual health, which ultimately affects our physical health as well.

Confidence

Reject self-doubt and be positive.

Here is a list I made while doing some reading in Joyce Meyer's The Confident Woman and will continue to add to but it's a good start. (Reading her book is also my way of starting the year with the intention and focus on confidence.

Affirmations from Heavenly Father

*God's wisdom is in me and I make good decisions.

*No matter how I feel, I can go forward in faith and make the right choice.

*I am greater than my feelings.

*I have favor with God and expect good things

*I am strong (confident) and of good courage. -Joshua 1:6

*He makes my feet like the hinds (strong and able) He sets me secure and confident upon the heights...- 2 Samuel 22:34

*In peace, I will lie down and sleep, for You, Lord, alone make me dwell in safety and confident trust - psalm 4:8

*By the help of God I will praise His word; on God I lean, rely, and confidently put my trust; I will not fear. what can man, who is flesh, do to me? - Psalm 56:4

*I am valuable, I have worth, I am gifted, I am talented and I have a purpose on this earth.

*God has called me by my name and I am His - Isaiah 43:1

*I am precious in his sight and honored. Fear not, He is with me. - Isaiah 43:4-5

*I will ask and receive that my joy may be full. - John 16:24

*I have a great future.

Connection

*Be intentional about connecting with those I love most. Being present and undestracted in the moment.

I'm with my kids all the time, but I want to be sure that I am really WITH them and make the moments count. Anxiety is what gets in the way of this mostly, when you're distracted by worrisome or anxious thoughts, you aren't fully present and robbing yourself of the joy of each moment that you miss.

I came across a great anxiety grounding tool on the blog By Candace Playforth http://candaceplayforth.com/healing-anxiety-nature/

With the 5-4-3-2-1 approach to connect with the present moment and an easy way to do that is looking a kiddo in the eye and coming into their little world, looking at their big round eyes, seeing the rosy health in their cheeks, listening to their sweet little voice and listening what they are playing or thinking about. Whether it's playing Pat A Cake with a baby, engaging with a son and his Lego setup, helping a tween organize her room, doll stuff or pick out clothes...whatever it may be, be intentional to engage with them and their world...even if it's sitting there being shown a bunch of different dragons on Dragon City that are their favorites lol!

Another tip I came across by The Day Designer was to "touch your planner before you touch your phone", a great way to stay grounded and connected with your day, your intentions and your people.

https://www.facebook.com/theDayDesigner

Communication

This is something I have really been learning this year with help of my ladies small group while we read Jen Hatmaker's "For The Love" and Lysa Terkyrst's "Unglued". I learned I'm a stuffer, internalizer and obliger and struggle with setting boundaries with tendencies of an approval addict, which helped me also realize my love language is words of affirmation. Although verbal expression is NOT my strong suit and I know this is an area I can really improve. My husband is the complete opposite, he has amazing communication skills and public speaking skills and has no fear of speaking his mind, isn't held back by social hang ups of worrying what other people might think, can stand up and speak in front of 100 people with ease, whereas I am so opposite in those ways. I can be more of a slave to those things and it's almost like I put a gag on myself and his being so opposite of me in that regard is something I have always loved about him and been a tad jealous of!

Within my family, We all get busy and miss and feel disconnected to the family members I love so much that live cross-country and I want to be more intentional about staying in communication with them outside of social media and even texting. I always thought social media and texting were the best thing ever because I've moved so much and it's how I stay in touch with everyone and I've always had a phone calling aversion so they make a great crutch for someone like me who really cares and thinks about you but picking up the phone incites slight feelings of panic. I was this way before social media and Facebook and I would either write snail mail letters or end up losing touch with people. But, despite how great social media and texting can be for introverts to stay engaged with people they care about, Instagram is no replacement for hearing my sister's or brother's voices and my nieces or nephews in the background or an old friend on her lunch break as she orders her Starbucks in the drive thru! It's true we are all busy and social media makes it easy, but I definitely feel more connected talking to my friend and hearing her actual voice for 5-10 minutes while she has a break than just double tapping her pictures.

The kids...I think I do pretty good here since we are together so much and very connected but I can still have better communication, stealing away moments for intentional connection and conversation with each person, communicating to them positive messages so the day doesn't slip by with me just directing the next thing they need to do and the occasional scolding. Being intentional to communicate positive thinking and joy through playing with them.

Communication with God, praying even when I don't feel like it. Honestly, even when I don't feel in the mood or too tired, once I start, there's so much to be thankful for and so much to say and even a short and sweet prayer is better than none. The more we spend communing with the face of God, the more we are filled with His love for us and that is what flows through us, filling in the nooks and crannies with His goodness and driving out any negative emotions or false thought we may have about ourselves.

Along with communication is your community! Staying in communication "community" with others helps us not feel isolated and not be just focused on ourselves.

Contentment

This one surprised me when it came to mind because I've generally always been a pretty low-maintenance, content person. It's a quality my mom often praised me for was that I was always so content and easy and in the earlier years of our marriage when the budget was super tight and my husband traveled a lot, I was perfectly content, I knew I had everything I needed and in a precious phase of new motherhood that I cherished and was just thankful I could be home with her, even if that meant we were living very tight. But since I somewhat lost myself this past year, it's a reminder to get back to who I am and always was in the past. To remember who I am and stay content and teach the kids contentment as well. Being patient and content in the moment.

Cheerfulness

A merry heart doeth good like medicine. - Proverbs 17:22

'Nough said!

As he thinketh in his heart, so is he. - Proverbs 23:7

A cheerful happy disposition impacts health and life.

One thing that helps me hone in on this trait is my Happiness Project One Sentence 5 Year Journal. I can quickly jot something down and just by 1-2 sentences being put to paper, it quickly changes my mindset and my mood. There is so much research about the benefits of practicing gratitude and having a more positive outlook...it all just backs up what proverbs 17:22 above says. So make sure to use those smiling muscles! These C's are intertwined. I think when we are cheerful and smile, we feel better about ourselves and that brings us full circle back to our confidence level and ability to feel connected with others.

Remember to smile.

One more bonus Vit C is....

Cardio

Anxiety and worry is also a form of intense internal energy, excess adrenalin bouncing around all over the place. Some good old fashioned cardio that gets you sweating can burn up all that excess internal energy that saps you of any real, useful energy (I know that sounds weird right? Too much internal energy gives you less energy...but yes, all that excess internal energy is exhausting). You can feel like a different person coming out of that workout covered with sweat than when you started that workout. You'll feel proud of yourself, more confident, content and cheerful I guarantee! Because I'm experiencing that right now! I always have stuck with yoga and still think it's great but I started taking spin classes recently and I have never worked out so hard before, nor enjoyed working out so much before or felt so much better so quickly! I haven't had a gym membership in 6 years and I remember how much better I felt when I had that membership before and could go, drop the kids off at the childcare center and just burn off steam. I didn't even care what physical benefits the workout gave me it just made me feel better. But we bought an elliptical and kept thinking I can use that and do yoga at home but it's not the same. I need that gym environment to push and motivate me. I can just drive there not motivated and show up, but once in there and started in a class, I can get into that mode and find out I'm capable of more than I thought I was and come out renewed and tired yet energized in a healthy way. For me, in the spin class I can zone out and reboot my brain. It's too intense to think about other things and I don't even have to think about what I'm doing, just follow the instructions and push through.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds with Jesus Christ. -Phillipians 4:6-7

Making Gluten Free Petit Fours

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 01:10:00 +0000

Dairy Free Gluten Free

Chocolate and Cream Cheese

PETIT FOURS

My first experience with Petit Fours was when I started dating my husband in high school and went to his house around Christmas to be offered one of these adorable little cakes from Swiss Colony, a Christmas tradition in his home. They were so yummy it was hard to not want to eat the whole box, especially with how much more crazy my sweet tooth was back then. 7-8 years later, our toddler daughter was there, in her Little but poofy Christmas dress, eating the little cakes with such delight. I didn't know if there was anything cuter than that petit little girl eating petit little cakes. But, by the the time she was 4 we had gone gluten free and sadly no more petit fours for us. Tradition was ruined! Petit Fours did remain a Christmas tradition for my husband however as his parents still send him a box every Christmas (he's not gluten free). Last year I was determined to make some, as my daughter fondly remembers from when she was 3 how good they were. I researched how to make petit fours and then attempted to make gluten free petit fours. I made a gluten free chocolate cake and dairy free coconut cream for the filling and dairy free chocolate ganache for the coating. It was a lot of work, it was a big mess and they were as big as a hostess cupcake and tasted more like a hostess cupcake, so while it was not a complete fail as we still ate them, they were a total mess and not presentable...they were not petit fours.

This week when my husband came home from the office, he had a gold box in his hand and quickly said "don't get mad, my parents sent them to my office but don't worry they aren't that good." What he says to make our daughter feel better when she can't have something he has. Suddenly I thought of a new way to try making gluten free petit fours and it was very quick and easy, easier than regular petit fours. I thought of the gluten free ice cream sandwiches we made last summer using Nicole Hunn's recipe from Gluten Free on a Shoestring. A thin, chocolate wafer/cake that is easy to make and no slicing cake into crumbly thin layers and freezing required! (Typical part of making petit fours)

What you need:

Ice Cream Sandwich Chocolate Wafer recipe from Gluten Free on a Shoestring (HERE)

Can of pillsbury Cream Cheese Frosting (I read the label and it was dairy free-normally I would make homemade frosting to avoid the extra "ingredients" but I was tired and promised my daughter we would have girl time and make these.)

Ghiridelli Chocolate Semi-Sweet Chips (or other dairy free chocolate chips)

Dairy free milk (almond, coconut or cashew)

(SHHHH!!!....I cheated and bought frosting when I realized it was dairy free!)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325

Make the sandwich cookie dough as directed (here)

Separate chocolate dough into 2 balls.

Place one half on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, top with another piece of parchment paper and roll out into a rectangularish shape just a little over a 1/4 inch thick. Remove top parchment paper and if you like, trim the edges to make them straight and add the extra dough to the other ball of dough.

Repeat with the other half on another baking sheet.

Score the rolled out dough into roughly 1 inch wide strips. (My strips were about 1 x 7 inches just depends I how you rolled it out)

Bake in preheated oven according the the sandwich cookie instructions, or until until it lightly springs back. (I ended up doubling the baking time since it was a larger mass since i wasn't cutting out cookie circles *about 14 minutes for me).

Remove from oven and allow cake to cool.

Assemble the cakes!

Using a knife, spread some cream cheese frosting over one long strip of your chocolate cake.

Carefully pick up another strip of cake and lay in on top and then spread that layer with cream cheese frosting and then add one more strip on top of the cream cheese. You now have 3 layers of cake with 2 layers of filling.

Repeat with remaining strips until you can't make any more. If you have excess scraps of cake, just leave those out in a dish for munching.

My fun little helper...she's very involved as she plans to open her own gluten free bakery.

Now that you have some long layered strips of cake and frosting, take a sharp knife and carefully cut them into 1 inch sections creating 1 inch squares.

This looks like a mess but it was all contained within this cookie sheet and the chocolate ganache and sprinkles that fell below were also later picked at and enjoyed ;)

Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper, place a cookie rack over top and then arrange your gluten free petit fours on the cookie rack.

In a double boiler* add a bag of dairy free chocolate chips and 1/4 cup of dairy free milk. Stir until melted. You want the chocolate icing to be somewhat running so it's easy to spread over your cakes so if it doesn't drizzle off your spoon, add some more milk until you get the right consistency.

Using a spoon or small spatula, carefully spread the chocolate icing over the top of your petit fours, letting it drip down the side. As it drips down the sides, using a spoon or spatula, carefully spread the chocolate icing over the sides, adding more frosting as needed and letting the excess drip down onto the baking sheet below the petit fours. They won't all be perfect but as long as you get the tops covered well and most of the sides, that's good enough. Then top with some sprinkles for added color and decoration and allow chocolate icing to set and then enjoy your easy gluten free dairy free petit fours! These were much less labor intensive than making sugar cookies!!!!

As you can see here, this was more of a challenge to make gluten free dairy free petit fours as easy as possible, and have some fun mommy daughter time, not looking for perfection. We had some that we thought looked perfect although most were not, but they all taste the same and they taste VERY yummy!

*to make a double boiler, add an inch or two of water to a small pot, then place a glass Pyrex bowl over top of the pot and boil the water. Place the chocolate and milk in the glass bowl and store as it melts, this produces a smooth ganache.

*usually I like to make everything from scratch, even if it's not "healthy" it's still healthier than using anything from a package with the extra preservatives and ingredients however, as this was an experiment and I wanted it to be as easy as possible, especially if they didn't turn out, I thought a shortcut now and then ain't the worst thing in the world...besides, stress can kill you too! lol!

Gluten Free Black Bottom Banana Bars

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 15:52:00 +0000

Adapted from Taste of Home http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/black-bottom-banana-bars

1/2 c Earth Balance Butter

1 c organic cane sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 ripe bananas mashed

1 3/4 c gluten free flour baking blend such as King Arthur

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup cocoa powder (Hershey dark cocoa powder-even better)

Preheat oven to 350

Line a 9x13 with parchment paper or lightly grease.

Cream the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in stand mixer.

Add bananas one at a time, mixer will mash them up for you as they mix in.

In separate bow mix gf flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and then add to banana mixture. Stir til just combined.

Separate half on batter into a medium size bow and add 1/4 cocoa powder and stir til combined.

Spread the chocolate batter over bottom of pan with a spatula.

Spoon the original banana mixture over top and then use a spatula to spread over the chocolate layer.

Sprinkle top with a few chocolate chips if desired.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown on top and toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate Chip Granola Bar Bites

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 15:13:00 +0000

Peanut Butter Protein Packed Cold or Frozen Chocolate Chip Granola Bar Bites or could be called Healthy Frozen Cookie Dough Bites...My family just calls them Cold Granola Balls...whatever you want to call them...it all started during a hot Texas summer in Dallas in an apartment with very inefficient AC. We lived on homemade granola bars but that one hot summer day I started to make my granola bars as usual and then before I could finish, just couldn't bring myself to turn on the oven. I thought of the days I would sneak those Spunkmier cookie dough balls from my moms freezer (I think they were a fundraiser and you got a gallon size bucket with scoops of cookie dough you kept in the freezer and had cookies ready to bake at anytime.) I used my cookie scoop and plopped the granola the bar dough onto a parchment lined cake pan and put it in the freezer...my husband and I were HOOKED! Now I form them into smaller balls by hand so they are easier for the kids to manage and keep them in the fridge or freezer. I love freezing them and then throwing in a ziplock bag or small container when we go on hikes because they are full of protein and keep everyone going.

These are so awesome to have year round but especially great in the summertime when we crave something cold yet filling to keep us going. These make a great protein packed breakfast on the go instead of a bowl of hot oatmeal or when you're in a hurry. Throw them in a picnic cooler and bring to the pool or lake for a great snack to keep energized and feeling satisfied instead of snacking on chips and popsicles.

After 8 years since my first time making homemade granola bars and playing around with it, here is my Cold Granola Ball Recipe.

1 1/2 c creamy peanut butter

1/2 c brown sugar

1/3 c coconut oil

1/2 c honey

1 Tbsp vanilla (or at least 2 tsp min)

3 cups oats (I use bobs red mill gluten free quick oats or gluten free rolled oats I get through Amazon)

1 cup crushed crispy cereal (such as Rice Chex or Honey Nut Cheerios or GF Crispie Cereal)

1 cup Chocolate Chips (we are dairy free and use Enjoy Life, Kirkland Semi-Sweet or the gold bag by Ghiridelli)

Optional Add Ins

You can add 1/2-1 cup of any other add ins like

1/2 c flax seed

1 c puffed millet

1 c puffed brown rice

1/2-1 c dried fruit like craisins

1/2-1 c nuts (u would recommend they be finely chopped though if you have barge pieces of things it will be harder to shaped into balls and hold together)

Line a 9x13 inch cake pan with parchment paper or a large plastic food storage container. If you don't line it and freeze these they can freeze to the container and be hard to remove.

Mix first 5 ingredients together til smooth.

Add in oats, crispy cereal and chocolate chips (and any optional add in if desired) and mix thoroughly.

Scoop out spoonfuls into your hand and form into balls.

Place into prepared container, cover with plastic wrap, tin foil or container lid and then refrigerate or freeze. These are yummy to eat frozen or just cold.

CTC Math Review

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 04:49:00 +0000

CTC MATH

I would love to tell you about what we have been doing for math for the past 6 months. I had not been able to settle on any particular curriculum, even the most highly recommended Charlotte Mason style math curriculum's, while I knew they were good, just didn't seem right for us. So we started doing a lot more living math which I wrote about here and were really enjoying doing math this way. However, I was becoming more and more drained, not because from doing living math, but my health was just not keeping up and then I started really dropping the ball. I didn't know for some time, but I was very anemic and very low on vit D and just felt like I was dying.

I didn't have the energy to plan and prepare the fun, engaging living math fun that we were finding so rewarding. I wanted to keep doing living math activities, but I felt like I needed something more stable and structured than what I was doing, yet still gentle and not stress inducing. So I went back to searching my top choices. One that I kept coming back to was CTC Math. My husband and I were hesitant about doing an online math program, especially after doing math in such a hands-on way AND being very Charlotte Mason, Waldorf, Nature Inspired in our homeschool, we just weren't sure about doing math on the computer or ipad.

The kids and I were traveling to visit family for 2.5 weeks, so I decided to do the free trial as our math while we were away and now here I am writing a ha;f a year later. My son (K) was so excited by the certificates, he really thrived on the structure of the program and was motivated to plow through it. He thought is was fun and just took off and is almost a full grade level ahead now. He would ask me if he could do more math. I'm so happy that he is just starting out on something that he has taken to so well, hopefully we'll just avoid any math drama all together with him at this rate.

With my daughter (3rd grade) we had started out with basic math workbooks from the store in Kindergarten and done fun math sheets and activities from 1+1+1=1 and other fun pinterest stuff. It was going well. Then first grade we started doing MFW and we did the math that came with that and that's when things started to get wonky...it wasn't bad...it just wasn't good either. We did everything by the book, but it wasn't working, nothing would stick...it was like starting over every day. And part of that is how my daughter learns and the reason we went away from "curriculum" and more into relaxed eclectic, or what I coined Classical Masonori Waldunschoolers. (that's Classical Conversations, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Waldorf and Unschooling all blended up into a super yummy and healthy smoothie!)

Anyways, then by second grade we started Singapore as recommeded by MFW and she liked the pictures and how there weren't too many questions per page so she wasn't visually overwhelmed, but I was floundering in trying to teach it because I'm not mathy...I'm a math phobe! I'm still haunted be a reoccurring nightmare that I skipped my last college math class the last semester and remembered right before finals and am freaking out knowing there is NO way I can pass the final or make up for the all I missed. I hate that dream!

Meanwhile I had began looking at other options more obsessively (at least that's probably how my husband would describe it when he turns on the computer and there's 30 tabs open in just 1 of the browsers and I'm reading and researching too much). We were getting through the Singapore book, but when skills came back up, it was clear she wasn't getting it, it wasn't sticking. AND with any math I did with her, she was always immediately overwhelmed when we started a new topic or idea and would shut down before even giving it a chance and I'd be trying to convince her how simple it was if she would just listen for a second.

I really wanted to like Math U See or RightStart, those are such good programs but every time I looked at them, I just knew it wasn't for us, she would shut down as soon as she see's that page of problems just as much as I felt overwhelmed when looking at all the stuff that came with Rigthstar. Anything that looked like a textbook just was a very hard part of our day. So that is how we just decided to embrace hands-on learning and dove into Living Math.

But once we gave CTC Math a try, I was amazed. My daughter would watch the short video lesson that is like an animated and narrated power point presentation and would just be engaged, nodding her head like "Oh OK that makes sense" and then as soon as the lesson was finished and Pat Murray says "alright we've completed our lesson and good luck with your questions." She would just go right in and confidently be ready to do her math, even if it was something totally new...something that would have her sliding out of her chair and onto the floor in a ball of misery, excuses and overwhelm in the past.

Some key things that really make CTC Work for us are:

Only one question is displayed at a time
There is a progress bar at the top that moves each time they submit their answer so they get that immediate reward of seeing how much closer they are to being finished with questions.
Their score is kept showing their current percentage on that lesson as well as how many out of the total number of questions they have completed.
Being able to type in or select the answer takes away the added stress for those with Dyslexia or other similar issues as they can just focus on the math and not worry if they wrote 25 when they mean 52 or hand fatigue for those who grip too hard, then write wrong and can't erase their answers since they press the pencil SO HARD.
The lessons are concise and to the point but do a great job explaining and demonstrating the concept. (Charlotte Mason would approve)
You can select how many practice questions you want your child to do and what you require for a passing grade when you set up your students account. You could set it for only having to do 10 practice questions but require 90-100% accuracy or you could set it up however you want.
There are diagnostic tests for each topic and you can select short (20 questions) Standard (30 questions) or comprehensive (40 questions)
Parent can assign tasks with deadlines if desired
Parent can edit the students account so if they want to delete a lesson and redo it to get a better score and award, you can.
Kids love checking their awards section and keeping track of how many platinum, gold and silver awards they have earned.
They enjoy the speed skills.
My daughter likes that after she completes a lesson, it shows how long it took her to complete the lesson, but that it doesn't show a timer while she's doing the lesson because any sort of timer is stressful and distracting for her.
mobility - we travel quite a bit and this is easy to access from anywhere without having to pack anything
Built in manipulatives that kids can move around on screen with either a mouse if using computer or with their finger if using an ipad to work out their problems and find the answer.
No teacher frustration...I sit with my kids as support but if they don't get it (which has only happened on rare occasion thus far) they can simply re-watch the video lesson and try again.
Affordable! Having a family subscription with multiple kids with access to all grade levels is an incredible deal. The subscription for the whole family (with the home school discount) costs the same as other curriculum, but just purchasing one grade level. And you can easily move your kids up or down based on where they need to be without having to buy more curriculum/materials.
This program is great for a variety of learning styles as it is Visual, Audio and Kinestetic.
Kids like the new feature of being able to customize the color scheme of their account. My son has Red and Orange and my daughter Teal and Blue. Sometimes it's the little things, like having their own user name and password, their own color scheme, records and awards...they like it.
This program has been like a burden lifted for me as I feel very confident in how my kids are doing in math now and I can still add in living math activities to our day, but I don't HAVE to always be prepared.
I have a two year old...I don't have time and patience for whining and tantrums and dawdling over math! I haven't had any of those issues since we started CTC Math AND my daughter is retaining what she has learned.

I think if Charlotte Mason were around today she would approve.

A couple Cons:

I wish it was easier to go back and change one question that as wrong so they don't have to have a lower award or redo the whole set of questions because of a simple mistake like bumping the submit button or a typo when they knew the right answer. Although it's taught them to really DOUBLE check before they click submit.
The Times Tables Game and Speed Skills didn't work on the ipad but they just fixed that so that's been great!
They have great built in manipulatives but every once in a while you may want to actually take out a scrap paper and pencil for your child to work the question out on. It's not a big con but sometimes you are used to the manipulatives and then you'll get a question without any and my daughter will stare blankly. this isn;t really that much of a negative but more of an FYI. Also one some of the money questions, I brought out some of our fake money for her to use because on some of those there were not built in manipulatives...however, I was happy to be able to bring in some other manipulatives that she could use so not a big deal.
I would love if they made an app for the ipad instead of doing it within the Safari browser. Sometimes it can be a little glitchy on the ipad sometimes. It definitely works smoother on the computer.

Those are the only Cons I could think of and I was really trying to be honest and thorough but there are really no HUGE complaints I have. I think this program is totally awesome and I envision us sticking with this all the way through. And...I'm honestly getting more confident at math from watching his lessons with my kids! I struggled to do mental math...but I am getting much better now and I don't think I've had my college math class nightmare in a while now! :0

And I will say, we are not total unschoolers, but I think many unschoolers would enjoy having this as a math program as I know many people resonate with the ideology but then wonder..."what about math?" I think CTC Math could blend well with any full on homeschool style out there...except maybe not full on Waldorf because you can't watercolor paint on your computer screen! :)

Pea Gravel Courtyard Patio Makeover

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 03:00:00 +0000

BEFORE

It was a weedy mud pit that just always looked like a mess, and the small concrete patio that was by the doors was pretty stained and not looking too attractive either. I love the look and sound of pea gravel underfoot AND it's a lot cheaper, easier, faster and more forgiving for a DIY patio than most other options. I do love flagstone and beautiful hardscaping, but I LOVE the charm of the pea gravel so it was an easy route to go. The pavers that line the pea gravel patio were reused from the messy, weedy ugly path that was going through this area. There were lining the path and it was filled with large jagged white rock.

After 2 truckloads of deco pea gravel was dumped on our driveway...

AFTER

Less than 24 hours later, Tyler and I had laid out landscape cover and he wheelbarrow-ed down all 2.5 tons of gravel himself! Still need to do some things down there, it's pretty bare but we love the look down there so much better!

BLOOM

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Sat, 02 Apr 2016 06:21:00 +0000

Sometimes a winter freeze comes along and it may feel cold, lonely and isolating...but the cold period is needed before the spring bulb can bloom and bring forth a fresh, new season.

"Live with a constant awareness of the ever changing world and your ever shifting self."-Mencius

Sometimes we go through transitions and we may not know why, relationships, connections, attitudes, purpose, health, passions, jobs, whatever it may be. You may have been going just fine in one direction and suddenly you don't know what direction you're going but you know it's not the direction you thought you were...things start changing and shifting for whatever reason. it can feel like a cold isolating heaviness when we don't understand what is going on behind the scenes, but if we trust and be patient, God works all things for our good, and suddenly, the ground begins to warm, we push up through the heaviness and we enter into a new season as beautiful spring flowers. The Spring Flowers are there to rise up, give hope and look around as honored guests and see what the master gardener is doing all around them as the rest of spring follows suite.

If you feel lost, in transition, discontent, unsettled or anxious ...start to warm the cold ground around you through trust and gratitude and then look up, push up, rise up and BLOOM!!!

Look up - acknowledge and praise your Lord

Push up - seek and ask with faith, confidence and quiet patience

Rise up - let go of your cares and trust with all your heart and know He is sovereign

BLOOM- realize you are HIS beloved, that He IS working (no matter the outcome) and you are starting to see and realize it a little more each day as each petal begins to open as his plan unfolds to your view and then rejoice and praise in His work and sing for the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, from the love which from our birth over and around us lies, Lord of all to thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise as you Whitness from the ground first hand the Lillies of the fields and the birds of the valleys being anxious for nothing.

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 week 15

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 03:48:00 +0000

Timeline

We are alacking on timeline....(just keeping it real!)

History

1400s-Henry the Navigator established colonial rule in Africa leading to slave trade between the Portuguese and the Ashanti...

Reviewed and memorized song using the CC app and making up actions. Continued reading The a Royal Diaries: Nzingha Warrioir Queen of Matamba. It isn't about Henry the navigator but is about the villages working together to fight off the Portuguese in Angola, Africa set in the 1500s. (Bonus on this book both my daughter and son are enjoying hearing about the way the clans and villages are because they are relating it to Clash of Clans which they sometimes play...)

Science

Each continents highest mountain

We reviewed this video with actions on YouTube.

http://youtu.be/xumDdxY7eQg

Then we practiced using skittles on a map. They just needed to put the right mountain on the right continent.

Geography

Middle East

We rented a short video about Isresl from the library that I found to go along with this section.

And of course visited our MAPS book to explore that region.

English grammar

More helping verbs...we honestly don't get a lot out of this or do much with it...we just cover it and move on

Latin

Noun endings (1st Declension)

Same thing...don't go too much into it we just learn it and move on and hopefully if they take Latin or when the learn other foreign languages later on this will help some things click. So for now just settin' the lil' pegs in place and keeping it low key!

Fine Arts

This weeks artist was Angelico, however we did not ever get a chance to get an Angelico inspired art project done like I had planned. (This isn't what we were going to do but it's a good idea you can do with kids for Angelico http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2008/12/pastel-resist-madonna-art-project.html?m=1 I showed them some pictures of Angelico paintings in an art book but that's as far as we got. We did a lot of other drawing and some YouTube watercolor painting tutorials to practice for our nature journaling this week...CC is not the only thing we do and sometimes we do more with CC and sometimes we do less with it to make time for other projects or activities we are focused on.

Vase of Tulips by B age 5

Loose Watercolor Tulips by J age 8

Best Ticket Deal for Sea World Orlando for a Family of 4 or more

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 19:42:00 +0000

Sea World

Orlando

best ticket deal

We just got back from a weekend trip to Orlando, FL for a gymnastics meet and wanting to do something else while we were there besides the meet and without spending a fortune, we researched out options and figured out the cheapest way to do sea world for 1 day. Without getting suckered into a timeshare for $39 sea world orlando tickets, the next cheapest way to go for a family of 4 or more is to go online and buy a season pass for one person for $168. If you have AAA, the price goes down to $140 ($149 after tax). Buy this pass online before you go and bring the voucher with you for free parking (save $16). Then all you have to do is go up to the self serve kiosks and scan your voucher to get your seaworld annual pass. After the pass comes out, you can then use it to purchase up to 6 tickets for the rest of your family at 50% off. $49 for adults and $47 for children.

If you have a family of 4, it would cost $79/ person if you buy the tickets on the seaworldparks.com website ahead of time or about $99 at the gate the day of.

Cost Breakdown for a Family of 4

AT GATE PRICING (before tax) $396 plus $16 parking

ONLINE TICKETS (before tax) $316 plus $16 parking

ANNUAL PASS purchased online before with 3 tickets purchased 50% off at gate (Before tax) $311 plus FREE PARKING and other discounts on food, merchandise and encounters in park.

ANNUALS PASS purchased through AAA online with 3 tickets purchased at 50% off at gate (before tax) $283 plus FREE PARKING and other discounts on food, merchandise and encounters in park.

This is the no gimmick best deal for going to Sea World for 1 day with a family of 4 or more!

It's still not cheap, but it might be your cheapest way to spend a day at any theme park in Orlando, FL.

Other things to keep in mind:

If you are military, you may be able to get free admission through Sea World's Waves of Honor Program. (although my brother who did this was not happy about the extent of personal information required to get his free ticket was worth it).

Preschool Fun Card for children under 5 who are residents of the state that Seaworld is located can get in free.

and FYI my one beef with the Annual Pass was that they scan your fingerprint at the entrance. Apparently they need to do this to verify that you are the season pass card holder on each visit, however I would think a photo ID should be sufficient. I mean seriously? I need to have my fingerprint scanned for a theme park? I thought that was weird and was glad that the scanner was not working and so they had to let me in without getting my fingerprint on file. I thought that was straight up stupid.

All in all we had a great time and made lots of fun memories! The Journey To Atlantis was the first real ride our kids have been on and it was so fun to experience that thrill with them, and even more so...since we got in park discounts with the annual pass, a couple of us did the dolphin encounter which was around $14 regularly but less after our discount (sorry can't remember the exact numbers there) but it was so amazing! Holding onto a dolphin's flipper, petting it while making eye contact...simply amazing!

Our kids wanted to get splashed at the One Ocean Show with Shamu, we sat further back hoping to not get soaked and got there 25 minutes early and secured seats in the center of Shamu Stadium. It was a great show however the kids kept complaining they weren't getting wet whenever the audience was getting splashed...until the end of this video clip. ur 2.5 year old wasn't as excited about it as his siblings! But he has since forgiven the Orca and enjoys his squeeky Orca Suvenier and talks about when he got splashed.

This was about 5 minutes after the One Ocean show....Getting splashed by an Orca was just too much! Time for a nap in the ERGO! He woke up later in the middle of Turtle Trek 3-D adventure and was very happy!

Classical Conversations Week 14

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 16:44:00 +0000

Ok I am way behind in posting but life happens!

HISTORY

Went over Timeline Song and History Sentance.

Tell me about the Songhai.

Here are our actions that we came up with to go with week 14 History Sentance.

And we read through this book a bit.

GEOGRAPHY

We covered Ancient Africa and made up a little rhythm to say it to.

Followed by looking in our MAPS book and any corresponding sheets in the MAPS activity book related to Africa.

Continued reading Nzingha, Warrior Queen of Matamba Angola, Africa 1595, from The Royal Diaries series. (Started to compliment week 13 geography of Western Africa.

We also picked up this book from the library.

MATH

Linear Equivalents-we didn't do anything extra really, just covered it and used a ruler to compare centimeters to inches and 12 inches = 1 foot. It was very cold otherwise we would have gone for a walk at a park and maybe walk/ride scooters around the track for a mile. We will probably do this when it warms up.

We are doing CTC Math now and the kids are loving it and I just feel such a relief and joy over how that is going! We will still incorporate living math, which was going really well but required much more of me as far as preparing, planning etc and while I was enjoying that and will continue, it just takes the pressure off knowing we can do that more for enrichment than our core since they have taken such a liking to CTC Math and are excited to zoom through it, competing with eachother to get more platinum certificates and get to the next grade level since a CTC Math membership provides access to all grade levels from K-12.

ENGLISH

Nothing fancy here. Just went over the helping verbs together.

LATIN

Our frog puppet "Latin Leo" helps teach the Latin.

We also got a little extra Latin lesson this week reading from Classic Myths to Read Aloud. Often the end of a story will include a short paragraph about the meaning and origin of a certain word we use today. We started out with Greek and Roman Gods at the beginning of this cycle and also to incorporate some of Ambleside Online into our study, year 3 include covering Greek Mythology so we haven't left that behind.

SCIENCE

Types of Rocks: Igneous, Sedimentary, Metamorphic.

We turned to one of our favorite books Nature Anatomy on the section about types of rocks and the rock cycle. The kids copied the illustration of the rock cycle from the book into their nature journals. We also used the book to identify some of our rock collection and talked about our granite countertops.

Science kits with rocks and earth science are great this week.

FINE ARTS

We used the book Discovering Great Artists and did a project based on Ghibertti.

Living Math

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 06:21:00 +0000

This year as I prayfully researched all the great homeschool math programs out there, I could not settle on one. When I embarked on this homeschool journey and originally started reading and researching I really gravitated towards the Charlotte Mason living as well as the words of John Holt like this gem...

Kindergarten with 1 child was fun and easy with a napping toddler but come first grade and a third baby on the way, I started to feel pressure to make sure I was doing "real school" with her. So I bought an open and go boxer curriculum and signed up for Classical Conversations. However, other than feeling good that I had something "to show" for our days in published bound books and folders...that was about it. I got so caught up in trying to do school and get it all done and forgetting one main reason we were led to homeschool in the first place! My daughter is smart but it was obvious in preschool she wasn't a typical student who fit the classroom mold and we thought she would do better in a more relaxed , flexible environment with the freedom to cater to her learning style. However, teaching her systematically during "school time" at home wasn't helping her that much, but more just making me feel like the worst teacher and worst parent in the world. It would take do long to get through simple assignments that I was resenting her for taking up so much of my time in which I had to keep distracting the younger ones. All in all...things were not right. I had 2 little ones but the oldest was taking up all my time and energy and although I had planned to do more preschool activities with my son, he really ended up just doing puzzles or whatever off to the side because I had to be on top of my daughter the whole time! It wasn't fair to anyone and by the time we got through our day I was spent and had no interest in engaging with them to do all the fun creative things that I really wanted to do. The worst part was the resentment...why couldn't she just copy 5 words without taking an hour and all my emotional energy? Why couldn't she just remember what we had already learned? How can we keep going on in our curriculum when she keeps forgetting what's 7+2 and can't figure it out after a year of practicing it? I just wanted to give up (started learning about dyslexia).

Then I came across a video by Sandra Dodd, an unschooling advocate and she was answering the question of how much time do I need to give to my kids each day and she drew a simple graph...

Basically the youngest need the most mom time so no wonder doing a traditional homeschool curriculum felt wrong, I was spending my time backwards! How often on homeschool pages do you see the question "what do I do with my little ones while we are doing school time?" Now I'm not a full blown unschooler but leaning that way gives our family lots of grace to spend our days in a meaningful purposeful way together, without the stress that can lead to resenting the older children and having them under constant pressure while not spending enough time with the littles. It allows us to improvise and do more learning all together with everyone included, which you will see in our examples of living math further down this post. And yes as I realized this mom time problem, I did consider and pray about putting my kids in school, but that wasn't the answer so last year I still struggled to let go of traditional school style and culture around education and step into the unknown so I bought the 2nd grade curriculum. It was actually going pretty good a little easier than the year before as kids mature a little more each year but something still wasn't jiving.

Sandra Dodd also said don't let your home become some miniature copy of a school...which resonated with me and the first book on homeschooling I ever read, The Thomas Jefferson Education. I just kept coming across all these reminders of the original things The Lord had brought me to in my original quest into homeschooling but had forgotten due to insecurity and worrying what other people think...(a major weakness I have been overcoming). She talked about creating and maintaining an environment where natural learning can thrive, creating a nest where it's not just the home environment but the family relationships within the home are crucial. She encourages parents to learn about learning, not about school, but how real natural learning happens. Be their partner (and mentor as Thomas Jefferson Ed puts it) not their adversary. Encourage, facilitate and assist. See all that is good about your child (which I was having a hard time doing with the way I was doing school with her). Be the kind of person you want your child to be, nurture your own curiosity and joy, find gratitude and abundance in your life....don't do what you don't understand, read a little, try a little wait a while, read a little more, try a little more, wait a while more...don't pull your plants up by the roots to see if they are growing. That's not good for any plants or any children. Be patient and trust that learning can happen if you give it time and space. Observe your children. Are they calm? Happy? Curious and interestied in things? Don't mar their calm or happiness with arbitrary limits, shame or pressure. Learning can't happen when people feel afraid or hungry so feed your children happily, share food and smiles and laughter. Watch movies and listen to music together, explore...follow information trails, play, make connections and touch your children sweetly, smell their heads, relax into an appreciation of each child in your life. If you can envision the kind if relationship and life of learning you want to have then every time you make a choice, choose the one that takes you nearer to that goal. Learn to make many choices a day and when possible choose the more loving, peaceful options. Choose to make your life more positive and less negative. Choose optimism, choose joy. Create good memories with your children. Look directly at your children without filters or labels. Babies are born whole people, help then to grow up and remain whole people, unmared by shame...paraphrased from Doing Unschooling Right by Sandra Dodd.

As I've mentioned in other posts, I didn't feel led to sign up for Classical Conversations this year and my kids didn't seem to care but they did request to do the memory work at home. My daughter loves learning through song and hand motions so we decided to do CC at home along with following Ambleside Online for a guide for each grade, leaving plenty of space for project based learning and to just be curious and spend time in the moment together, and being able to seize the teachable moments in a natural, unforced, meaningful way. This year has been our most productive by far but I was still having my daughter do her Singapore math...that is the area I felt the least confident and bringing to life the way I was everything else.

I poured over homeschool math options and was praying and seeking, but I couldn't settle on any one curriculum, even though I know they are great. I knew in my head which math curriculums I liked and thought would fit our family but in my heart, I couldn't to it. Why? I kept seeking and praying. Then The Lord brought me to info about living math. Well I'm not good at math so how can I teach without a textbook??? This seemed like more work for me not less! Shouldn't I just do Teaching Textbooks or Math U See? Well who knows what the future holds but the answer and conclusion I came to was Living Math. This means I have to face my insecurities, look at the how and why and incorporate what needs to be learned in hands on, fun ways. Followed by some worksheet and or online practice after the concept is understood through hands on play, activities or life experience. This was a definite experience in learning to read a little, try a little, trust and see. What I've found is that we can actually ENJOY Math together and it is sticking better than when we just stuck to the workbooks. Also it's easy to include everyone and then take the concept further with my oldest while my Kingergarteb age son is still getting to play around and be introduced to math concepts beyond his level but enjoying it because we are having fun. There is a website callee Living Math that I found the book Family Math and have been enjoying using that. We also having been purchasing used through amazon or borrowing from library living math books. For worksheet practice we use either the math section of the big Brain Quest workbooks by grade or Math Mammoth worksheets, among other sources and practice online using websites like ixl, matific, starfall, and xtramath. But mostly we are learning through hands on projects, games, role play, or just living and bringing out the math in our daily activities or things we cone across.

Here are a couple of the fun times and ways we've encorporated living math, just a sample not exhaustive of every single thing we do :) My point in sharing is to inspire some ideas and feeling freedom to step outside the box a bit if traditional methods are working as well as you like. The great thing about homeschooling these days is we have do much information and resources at our fingertips and therefor can totally individualize and cater to our individual family needs and styles!

Making up stories for Remembering Odd and Even Numbers

Place Value

We love playing the game Dino tracks. You can make the game more advanced with the playing cards giving lots of opportunity for more advanced math thinking or keep it simple to just becoming familiar with place value.

Millions of Cats - we borrow from the library frequently the book and audio cd set because they love this one! Especially my 5 year old! Now he's ways he can tell me how much he loves me first with a hundred much, then a thousand much up to millions, billions, trillions and finally infinity and beyond ;)

Geometry -Tangrams

Read The Warlord's Puzzle

Cut out Tangram pieces using pattern and activity ideas from Family Math. My kids kept going back to that book and their Tangrams daily for over a week on their own, fascinated by the puzzle and the culture, architecture and clothing in the book.

Wood Pattern Blocks

Megaformers

The Book Nature Math and the section about shapes and patterns in nature.

Symmetry, Mirror Image, Patterns Measurement and Perimiter

https://instagram.com/p/-zlGdIx8Ng/

Concentric Circles-studying patterns and shapes in nature from the book Nature Math

https://instagram.com/p/99x-szx8EP/

Familiarity with a Grid

This game from Family math called Animal Crossing

https://instagram.com/p/9Uk3gLx8C1/

Battleships - Santa brought it for Christmas

Inequalities

Card games such as war and they are starting to learn poker (with their dad) soon we will introduce the chips just for family fun no real money...not trying to teach gambling but it is fun playing some Texas Hold'em at a family gathering! The chips make it fun even if theirs no real money involved)

Also a print out activity from one plus one plus one equals one with an alligator mouth for the > and < symbols for practicing.

Multiplication

All the skip counting songs from Classicsl Conversations memorized up through the 15s has made multiplication so much easier to learn!

Little homemade Montessori multiplication grids are great too

This monster dice game is great for practicing addition, subtraction , multiplication or division

https://instagram.com/p/9Eol5Rx8KY/

Critical Thinking, Memory, Strategy

Playing Poker and learning/memorizing the different versions, rules, hands while having fun and bonding with dad!

Making Donuts for Division and Fractions

we have 12 donuts and can make as many toppings as you like as long as we make an equal amount of each type. You want 3 toppings? Ok then how many donuts will be in each group? What if we did only 2 types of toppings? How many donuts in each group? What if we do 4? Etc? Also when they are measuring ingredients I often hand them a smaller measuring cup so they have to figure out how many "scoops" of 1/3 cup to make 1 cup like the recipe says. Casually practicing division and fractions while having fun making donuts!

Money- counting, dividing, percentage, and life skills money management

Counting out all the money and change, making dollars with different coin combinations of $0.25. Introduce percentage and how to figure out 10%. (We recently did hymn study of Because I Have Been Given Much- not intentionally but it worked out to a good intro o this). After taking out 10%, divide money in half, or 50% for spending and 50% for saving. Child then has to work out how to divide the money into each jar. We wrote in the too lid with a chalkboard marker how much is currently in each jar so we can easily erase and change the number as needed for keeping track. I told my daughter she can give her money however she wants, to church, orphans, missions, or other charity collection boxes and coin rolling things at stores or if she knows of anyone she wants to give to.

For all these resources and more great living math resources, check out my Living Math Shop.

Road Trips with Kids -12 Easy Car Activities & Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 05:27:00 +0000

We aren't exactly what you would call fulltime "Worldschoolers" or "Road Schoolers" but we do try to take advantage of the flexibility homeschooling gives us to take a family road trip as often as we can. Over the past couple of years we have taken multiple family road trips where we drive between 6-10 hours in the car. We have a DVD player in the car when all else fails but it's fun to have other things on hand that keep the kids busy and happy. My kids are between the ages of 5-8 and my 2 year old old does his own variation on some of these activities. There are plenty of ideas for car rides on Pinterest, however these road trip tips all require minimal preparation. One thing I've learned from preparing things like sensory bins, basket, and other car trip activities...it can sometimes take way more time and effort to prepare than it's worth. Why run around collecting materials, assembling, printing, cutting, etc when it will only occupy the kids for a minute or two? So here are the easy car activities we resort to when we are planning a road trip.

1. FINGER LOOMING

When going on a road trip with kids, one of our kids' favorite activities that kept them busy on and off for great lengths of time was looming on their hands with craft loops. Before a family road trip there is enough work to be done to prepare than hunt down craft loops and other little activies. So, if you want to make life easy for yourself, take advantage of Amazon Prime, mom's best friend! Order just a few days before a family road trip and enjoy that 2 day shipping and save yourself the extra running around and preperation! For me that gives me time to focus on all the gluten free baking I do to prepare for a road trip!

Family road trips are so fun when you can hold off on the DVD player or iphone and watch your kids get creative in entertaining themselves! After looming bracelets and scarfs, they starting looming with their toes and making "flip flops" and other various creations. It doesn't look like much but it kept them happily entertained and it is such an easy thing to bring along! I have all our craft loops in a gallon zip lock bag and I just throw it in the car!

2. SCRATCH OFF ART

Another great activity that will kill lots of time on a road trip with kids are these ocean animal rainbow scratch things. I got them on amazon and they came in a pretty big pack so I'm just keeping them in the glove box for future road trips. This was really an awesome one to be able to pull out. It takes a long time if they want to scratch off the whole surface, or if they want to get into a meticulous design, either way...it's great for all ages and they can't seem to resist the rainbow goodness that starts to show through and it keeps them occupied! Which makes it a fun road trip activity. They come with blue cord to hang them up and the kids loved being able to hang their finished rainbow ocean animals on the hanger hooks next their seats. If you don't trust your kids with the pointed untensil that comes with these, they could use their fingernail, a penny and such.

You can find these on amazon here

3. ART JOURNALING

Another great activity for road trips with kids is art journaling. Bring colored pencils, colored tape, stickers etc and let them just draw, doodle or do art with different patterned strips of tape and make a mixed media piece. Even the baby liked this activity, he figured out how to plant his paper on the bottom of his car seat and hold it down with his feet while coloring with a colored pencil...he was like a little monkey! Bringing an art/nature journal is not just great for the car, but can easily be pulled out to document or illustrate the various places and things they see on the road trip. I recommend a smaller art pad for traveling as it's more portable such as this 5.5 x 8 inch pad. And the crayola twistables are the best! You don't have to worry about marker or crayon on the car upholstery or worrying about the pencil breaking and needing to be sharpened! (or the kids coloring each other's face's in a ridiculous manner that may not easily come off once you have to get out of the car! it's happened)

Crayola Twistables Kit keeps 'em nice, tidy and portable!

Let them get creative in the car with colorful washi tape!

For those 6 and up, they may enjoy these Drawing on the Go! books to go with their art journaling on the family road trip! They are super inexpensive and my kids love them!

My kids also enjoy having these little doddle books that are easily stashed in the glove box.

4. WAVING AND THUMBS UP

My daughter made up this game on a family road trip. She looked at cars licences plates and if they were from the same state as us she would wave and give them a thumbs up. That entertained the kids for almost and hour. The baby was cranky and fighting the nap but he started giggling and waving at cars too and then everyone was happy! It was also during rush hour traffic so my daughter liked the idea that she was spreading good cheer to all these bored people as everyone that noticed her would smile and wave back.

5. BOOKS ON TAPE

My kids don't like watching the DVD player that much on family road trips, I wish they did sometimes!!! But they don't so I have to find other things to keep them occupied and then have the DVD player ready with a really good movie just in case things start to fall apart! Some books on tape we have enjoyed are audio disks. This is a great way to get some educational value and enrichment out of the long boring stretches of a road trip with kids. Whether you homeschool or not, these disks are great to listen to for the whole family!

Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer

And better yet, keep the car clutter down! If you have a smart phone you can download the Audible App through amazon and then listen to audiobooks through your phone. If your car allows you to adapt your phone into the sound system such as this or a built in USB port...even better!

I don't have an Audible membership but if you search for books you can usually find some free or very low cost to download. Some larger volumes will cost a bit more but you can determine if it is worth the cost buy the audio download or sign up with audible to get it. Since we don't download TOO many audiobooks, I prefer to order them a la carte, without the membership!

6. TALKING - CONNECTING

Seems obvious, but...I was getting cranky on one particular road trip with the kids and couldn't stop wishing they would just be quiet! However, something came up that I could have brushed off, turned the music up and tuned them out...instead, I turned the music OFF and we talked about random things. Several great teaching moments came up and I just listened to and went along with the kids random and odd/creative questions while trying to be more creative and playful in my answers since normally those Q and A sessions can get tiresome and I often get impatient when I'm already tired and the questions can feel exhausting...But, I just need to go with it and enjoy them, even if I secretly want a moment of silence. If all we hope for is silence when they are young, that may be all we get when they are big, so take the opportunity to just gab and listen about whatever is on their mind, with no parental agenda in our mind. Let them get bored and see what thoughts start to come out of them.

7. HANG A FEW TOYS

When I took the kids on a long road trip by ALL BY MYSELF when they were both younger, I took their various toys and tied strings to them and then tied the other end of the string to different parts of their car seats or around their car seats. That way if they dropped their toy they could pull it back up. Or drop a toy to play when tired of it to play with another, just pull the string up. It worked out really well and I felt pretty clever! It was one of those things I thought of last minute when packing the car the night before. This setup really saved me because when go on family road trips, normally daddy is driving and I can turn around and give them things and tying things to their seats and making them accessible helped them be independent so I wasn't reaching around searching while driving or listening to a child cry because he dropped his triceratops!

8. BOX OF BAND AIDS

Need to kill more time on a plane or road trip with kids? Hand your child a box of band aids to put on their "sick" dinosaur, doll, puppy, themselves etc. it will take them a while to open up and apply that whole box of band aids to something! My kids love this! And I love that it occupies them a long time!

9. CLOUD WATCHING

Ask your kids to look out their window and look for pictures in the clouds. This is a good one for when they are getting annoyed of each other and you want them not looking in each other's direction, but out their own windows! I have to confess this one usually goes like this..."knock it off! Stop talking to each other, everyone be quiet and look out your own window!!!!" .....take a deep breath in... big breath out....woosa....then in a nicer voice "maybe you can see shapes in the clouds that look like animals! I think I see a turtle over there." (Even if I don't actually see anything it will just get them looking for it).

10. LAVENDER ESSENTIAL OIL-AROMATHERAPY

This is not really an activity, but it is essential. I keep it close so when I start feeling stressed or tense I can quickly open the bottle and start huffing it...I mean...use aromatically. I rub some on the air vents to diffuse into the car to help keep everyone feeling calm. I don't go anywhere without Lavendar as it is also great for helping everyone relax and fall asleep in a hotel room, or help sooth a sunburn mixed with some Aloe. Plant Therapy is a great brand that I have really come to enjoy as the quality is right up there with the more expensive name brands but it is less expensive because you are buying it straight from the company so there is less mark up.

Car Essential Oil Diffuser

11. FREE TRIP SOUVENIRS

If you go to a nicer rest stop that had lots of brochures for travel and local attractions,

let your kids collect some to study in the car, use in their art journal or save as a souvenir of the road trip.

12. DVD TIME

Like I said, eventually we get to the DVD player at some point. I think my kids favorite DVD's that made for an awesome road trip were the Liberty Kids series! They were so into it and learned a American History at the same time!

or a triple feature such as this has been good as well!

And when all else fails, Curious George is so soothing and relaxing to put on for everyone!

There a million ways to entertain your kids in the car, I've seen plenty on Pinterest... But these are some of our favorites and they are just so simple and easy and don't require much prep, just throwing it in the car with minimal packing and clutter. Yes it would be great to make a map scavenger hunt of the road trip, make a road trip lap book and every other cool pinterest idea. I love the idea of that kind of thing but I also love just grabbing simple supplies that don't require lots of prep work on my part....sometimes in the past I think I spent more time preparing some awesome educational activity for the kids than is worth the amount of time the kids spend engaged with it....so....rather than kill myself with some amazing idea that doesn't pay off ... I'm sticking with what's easy on me! Lesson learned! If it takes all night to prepare some Pinterest kit for my kids and they enjoy it for 15 minutes ... Then it is not worth losing sleep over. And at the end of the day, mamma needs her rest because if mamma ain't happy, than nobody is happy!

K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple Silly!

I put together a list on Amazon to make shopping for great car activities for you family road trips super easy!

Homemade Gifts and A Christmas Wake Up Call for Me

noreply@blogger.com (Candace @ Candace Creations) — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 13:45:00 +0000

Well, I was excited to make Christmas gifts for everyone this year and I almost accomplished that!!!!

For the 5 little girls in my life I made snuggle mermaid tail blankets

For the women in my family I made pure silk pillowcases accompanied by modestly wrap bracelets I ordered months ago during a good promotion. I was really excited how these turned out and that I didn't have any problems sewing silk with my $50 brother sewing machine from Walmart. I did use a fresh ball point needle though! And I learned how to do a French seam which was exciting! Then my favorite added touch was the label I created for fun with a list if the benefits of using silk pillowcases on the back including care instructions tied on with a raw strip of silk remnants. I ordered the real silk from dharmatrading.com

For my dad who has ALS, I made him a double layered fleece poncho blanket so my mom can easily adjust his layers when he is up for the day in his chair. I'm really happy with this because dad was always hard to know what to gift other than an REI gift cards to help add to his collection of mountain climbing and surviving gear and a lot harder now that he has essentially no mobility.

For a fun little Waldorf inspired gift for my little boys, I made a serving wooden minecraft blocks. I love Grimms colored wooden building toys and my 5 year old lives minecraft (yeah a bit of a contradiction, I'm sure true Waldorf peeps wouldn't even have their kids play a video game...but I have sorta taken all the different educational philosophies that resonate with me and dumped them out of their boxes and onto the floor altogether for a flexible jumbled whatever mix of them all! Rather than climb into any one box lol!)

The square storage box was $3 at Michaels and I ordered the 1.5 inch wooden blocks from craftparts.com. I dipped them in food coloring mixed with rubbing alcohol like dying Easter eggs. The black blocks I dipped them in my black Sumi Ink. For the iconic grass on dirt blocks I dipped each side in brown food coloring leaving one side blank which I then dipped in green. I think these will be a gift to both my boys even though my 2 year old doesn't play minecraft but for him they are still cool naturally colored wood blocks. After they were dry, I dipped them in vinegar as I read that could help seal the color. So now we have a cool Grimm Toys style natural minecraft wooden blocks!

And in the works is a balance beam for our little gymnastics daughter that we started building last night and will probably finish assembling today and some snuggle shark tail blankets like the mermaid ones for my boys. They are cut and ready to sew!

Update with balance beam:

I will say, as I posted on Instagram earlier this month we were going to take a break from our regular style learning for the month so we could basically do a unit study on Christmas time focusing on learning through living, creating, crafting, baking, card and story writing, pouring through as many beautiful Christmas and Winter theme books as we could get our hands on and focus totally on the season. It's been awesome! My kids have learned so much, improved their art skills and we've been able to incorporate a LOT of math into everything we do! The more I learn about living math and understand the concepts and goals myself, the more I can incorporate it into everything we do without it ever feeling like smart lesson! And the kids are totally getting it without and coercion. I have still pulled out my daughters Brain quest book for some math page practice but it's been very interesting how mathy we can be outside of a text and have it be fun (VERY exciting for a math phobe like me!). (Oooo...I just came across a term that describes our month very well...project based homeschooling).

I did have one set back. It was the shark tails. I was starting to stress about getting them done to mail in time and this past week my 2 year old must be cutting teeth or something...he's been totally irritable and fussy and it was rubbing off on everyone. On Wednesday I was literally praying "oh Lord this feels too crazy please help us!!!" My daughter kept begging to go to the library, the baby kept getting up from nap and finally I was like "ugh yes fine lets go I have other errands we can run too then"...then as I and the kids stressed out and in a rush ran out to the car, I realized I left the keys in those house and locked ourselves out. It was crystal clear what was going on...everything had been going so well with my plan to savor the season with the kids and then I still got caught up in being busy and stressed and suddenly realized what a beautiful day it was and we didn't belong anywhere doing anything else other than being outside enjoying it and connecting with each other!!! It was The Lord putting me in an abrupt but good and needed "time out" and the kids and I played on the trampoline together laughing and being silly for the remainder of the afternoon and evening until my hubby got home from work to let us in. The kids had such a great time with me being completely focusee on them...chasing them around the trampoline and making gingerbread cookies out of them...cracking the egg on each knee (remember that game?) mixing it up with lots if tickles, adding LOTS of sugar (smothered in kisses) rolling then out etc....the said "Can we get locked out if the house everyday!!!!??!"

The next day was an even more beautiful day and while I felt the pull of finishing Christmas cards and getting to the post office...I said ok I learned my lesson yesterday Lord, I'm not going to waste this nearly 70 degree sunny day to Christmas errands. So we went to the library (what the kids had been begging to do all week), stopped at ups to mail the cards and then went to the grocery store next door to buy lunch and snacks and we then spent the day at a little sandy beach that's apart if a big lake that is not far from us. It was like pretty much the best day ever. And guess what? By the end if the week I still got done everything I had been so distracted with...and the days I did do it the weather had changed to cold and rainy!

Christmas is a joyful time of year but if we let all the self imposed to-dos....even though they are really good to-do's, interfere with the real joy of connecting with those we love and cherish most...then it's not really worthy of all the hustle and energy we put into it. Now, I didn't end up sending all my gifts by the deadline for guaranteed Christmas delivery but my extended family and friends know it's coming and that we love them and more importantly...my kids know how important they are to me and how much I love them, and praise God for that when he woke me up by showing me how I was allowing myself to get frazzled by locking myself out!!!

Seeing these pictures and all our nature finds we brought hone from that day reminds me to thank The Lord for allowing me to be a flexible person and for the ability to be home with the kids so we can even have these spontaneous adventures and be reminded over and over no matter how much we research great Homeschool supplies and resources...that learning is like breathing, it happens all the time!