Hello everyone! I have a yummy and healthy smoothie recipe for you today! I’ve been having fun experimenting with the Vitamix we received for Christmas. I’m not gonna lie, some things taste a little “too natural” for me, like…um…eating grass.

But this one seems to work well for my taste buds and is fairly healthy so I thought I would share it!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup ice cubes
• 1 cup water
• 1 handful baby spinach leaves
• 1 handful frozen strawberries
• 1 handful frozen bananas
• 1 orange or about 2 large tablespoons of orange juice concentrate

Method:
Yeah, so just dump it all into your Vitamix and turn it up to high! I’m not sure a regular blender would mix the spinach enough, but if you have a good one it’s worth a try!

And you’ll end up with something like this, don’t be afraid of the light green color. It’s just the spinach, but the taste is still nice and fruity from the oranges. And you know you’re getting some good vitamins in this smoothie too!

Let me know what you think if you try this recipe! It does have a little spinach flavor in it, but the orange cuts it down enough in my opinion to make it easy to drink. I’ll share some more as we get better at this thing. Jason (my husband for newer readers) is obsessed with making all vegetable smoothies. But to me they taste too much like grass/dirt, so I haven’t been willing to share them yet!

But I’m working on getting one that tastes good and is worth it’s weight in veggies.

Have a good recipe to share? Make sure to leave a comment below!

Just a reminder, today is the LAST day of my storewide 30% off sale!

Visit the Confessions Store to see all the goodies on sale!

I hope you enjoy the discount, and as indicated, use coupon code: ILOVECOAH_30.

This coupon is valid from May 20, 2013 – May 24, 2013.

Disclosure: I apologize to anyone who has purchased prior to today, unfortunately the sale prices are only affective for purchases made during the week of May 20 – May 24, 2013.

Hi everyone! As I mentioned yesterday, for one week only everything in the Confessions store is on sale! Yep, you heard me for one week only, everything at Confessions of a Homeschooler is 30% off!

Today I’m featuring more of my Homeschooling 101 eBook & Classical Literature Unit Studies!

So you’ve finally decided to homeschool…but have no clue where to get started? After thousands of emails asking for help getting started homeschooling, I thought a book that set it all out for you in a step-by-step format would a great benefit to new and current homeschoolers!

Homeschooling 101 is a step by step practical guide that will help you to get started, and continue on in your homeschooling journey. It is designed to help guide you through all of the steps to getting started, choosing and gathering curriculum, creating effective lesson plans, scheduling your day, organizing your home, staying the course and more! It even includes a FREE LESSON PLANNER & helpful homeschooling forms!

And of course I added a TON of awesome homeschool planning forms to help you get organized!

The Classical literature Unit studies are a great way to read through the classics, and have a great review tool when you’re done!

Each unit study contains educational lessons, activities and a fun lap book that your students will work on as they progress through the book. They also include book reports, vocabulary, critical thinking, story timelines, and comprehension. These studies are geared towards grades Kindergarten-4th, but can probably be adapted for older students as well.

I really designed these units to be a fun addition to reading the classics. I didn’t want them to be too stressful for myself or my kiddos, but instead give them something fun to do along with the stories to help them remember what they’ve learned in a fun hands-on way. The lap books included are wonderful for reviewing subject matter, and a great creative interactive homeschooling tool.

The units also include forms for predicting story plots, character analysis, identifying the protagonist and antagonist, a story timeline, and a final book report on the novel.

Here are the current units available, they can be purchased individually or as a Classic Literature Unit Study Mega Pack:

• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
• Black Beauty
• Charlotte’s Web
• The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
• Little House in the Big Woods
• Mr. Popper’s Penguins
• Stuart Little
• Treasure Island
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Visit the Confessions Store to see all the goodies on sale!

I hope you enjoy the discount, and as indicated, use coupon code: ILOVECOAH_30.

This coupon is valid from May 20, 2013 – May 24, 2013.

Disclosure: I apologize to anyone who has purchased prior to today, unfortunately the sale prices are only affective for purchases made during the week of May 20 – May 24, 2013.

Hi everyone! As I mentioned yesterday, for one week only everything in the Confessions store is on sale! Yep, you heard me for one week only, everything at Confessions of a Homeschooler is 30% off!

Today I’m featuring some of my unit studies. I have units to help teach students about great artists, composers, and scientists.

Come along on our quest to learn about some of the world’s greatest artists with my World’s Greatest Artists Vol. 1 & World’s Greatest Artists Vol. 2! Grab some art supplies and get ready to explore, create, and learn!

In this series of artist studies, we will be learning about 8 of the world’s greatest artists. We will immerse ourselves in the work of each artist so we become well familiar with their style, methods, and images.

Who is this for? I designed the artist units for elementary aged students, typically K-5, but I’ve had several people say that they’ve been used for older students with great success as well.

Scheduling:
I suggest scheduling approximately 4 weeks per artist. Each artist study has 8 lessons, so that averages to 2 lessons per week over the course of 26 weeks. However, the lessons can be easily adapted to fit your schedule as well.

Each study includes:

• Lesson plans for each week
• Lap Book printables
• Artist Notebooking page
• Art Puzzles
• Artist Flashcards

What Artists are included in Vol 1?

• Pablo Picasso
• Vincent Van Gogh
• Jackson Pollock
• Claude Monet
• Henry Matisse
• Georgia O’keefe
• Michelangelo
• Leonardo Da Vinci

What artists are included in Vol. 2?

• Norman Rockwell
• Rembrandt
• Paul Cezanne
• Andy Warhol
• Pierre Auguste Renoir
• Paul Gauguiin
• Edgar Degas

The World’s Greatest Composers series teaches students about 8 of the world’s greatest composers. The goal behind the World’s Greatest Composers curriculum is to immerse students in the work of each composer so that they are well familiar with their style, methods and music. Much of your time studying will be through open discussion with students and listening to compositions. Upon completion of this curriculum, your student should be able to easily recognize the pieces from each composer studied. They will also have learned several different styles of music, vocabulary, as well as have gained an appreciation for music in general.

What is included in the study?

For each day of listening there is an activity for students to complete while listening. This will help them focus on the music, and think critically about what they are hearing. By the end of the study, your student will have a completed composers notebook along with an orchestra and music lap book.

• Introduction to Orchestra
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• George Handel
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Ludwig Van Beethoven
• Frederic Chopin
• Peter Tchaikovsky
• Igor Stravinsky
• George Gershwin
• Composer Reports
• Instrument Word Scrambles
• Music Bingo Cards

Each composer unit has 10 lessons, I suggest scheduling 2-3 days per week for the composers study. The curriculum will take 1 full year to complete at this pace. However, the lessons can be easily adapted to fit your schedule as well.

I also have a FREE Johannes Brahms Unit Study as well.

This series is all about famous Scientists & Inventors! As usual each study includes fun hands-on activities to go along with the unit to help students remember what they’ve learned, and also provide them with a fun reference too to review and recall each person they’ve learned about.

Each of my scientist & inventor unit studies contains educational lessons, activities and a fun lap book that your students will work on as they progress through the study. The lessons also include book reports, vocabulary, character traits of these important figures, major inventions and contributions, as well as some critical thinking skills. Units can be purchased individually or as a Scientist & Inventor Mega Pack. These studies are geared towards grades Kindergarten-4th, but can easily be adapted for older students as well.

Scientists and Inventors included in the combo pack:

• Albert Einstein
• Alexander Graham Bell
• Benjamin Franklin
• Henry Ford
• Marie Curie
• Thomas Edison
• The Wright Brothers

Visit the Confessions Store to see all the goodies on sale!

I hope you enjoy the discount, and as indicated, use coupon code: ILOVECOAH_30.

This coupon is valid from May 20, 2013 – May 24, 2013.

Disclosure: I apologize to anyone who has purchased prior to today, unfortunately the sale prices are only affective for purchases made during the week of May 20 – May 24, 2013.

Hi everyone! As I mentioned yesterday, for one week only everything in the Confessions store is on sale! Yep, you heard me for one week only, everything at Confessions of a Homeschooler is 30% off!

Today I’m featuring both the Road Trip USA and Expedition Earth Geography Curriculum.

Come along with us on an exciting journey learning about the U.S.A! From the signing of the Declaration of Independence, to the wild west, you’ll uncover all the secrets this Nation has to offer! Within this curriculum you’ll discover the sights and sounds of all 50 states, including state symbols, U.S. Presidents, famous people, landmarks, historical events, and much more!

–>Click here to download a sample<–

For you history buffs, this is a great introduction for young learners! You will start out learning about the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary War. Then you’ll move south to learn more about the Civil War and Underground Railroad. From there you’ll journey with Lewis & Clark through the mid-west, live with the Hopi in the southwest, then venture out into the wild west on a covered wagon ride!

What’s Included in this curriculum?

There are over 350 pages of fun filled adventure just waiting for you! The lessons are divided up into regions, so students will learn about the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, then finally The Western region of the U.S. The Teacher’s Manual includes everything you need for each lesson including any additional info, printables, and recipes for each state. There are 136 lessons total, you will cover 2 states per week and do several review lessons along the way.

Get ready for an exciting voyage across the world! Come along as we walk on the Great Wall of China, wander through the Amazon Rainforest, and climb the Egyptian Pyramids! Within this curriculum you’ll discover the sights and sounds of 31 countries across the globe. You’ll get hands-on with fun activities, crafts, recipes and more! So grab your passports, and get ready to go! It’s time for Expedition Earth!

So what is Expedition Earth: A Journey Through God’s World?

Expedition Earth is a hands on world geography curriculum that covers 31 countries across the world. It is designed primarily for K-5th grade students. Students will learn the continents, oceans, people, cultures, animals, climates, try new foods, crafts and more, all through hands-on activities! I used it with my preschooler, 1st grader, and 2nd grader all together. (My preschooler didn’t do any reports, but she did learn the country names, songs, languages, pray and do all the fun crafts and recipe activities!)

The revised version includes Lap Books for each country, new information, internet links, and books.The Teacher’s Manual includes everything you need for each lesson including any additional info, internet links, reading assignments, crafts, and recipes for each country as needed. There are 32 weeks of lesson plans, plus a Christmas Around the World Unit. The Teacher’s Manual is outlined for you on a daily basis and even includes a Craft Supply Shopping List for each country just to make your life a little easier!

Visit the Confessions Store to see all the goodies on sale!

I hope you enjoy the discount, and as indicated, use coupon code: ILOVECOAH_30.

This coupon is valid from May 20, 2013 – May 24, 2013.

Disclosure: I apologize to anyone who has purchased prior to today, unfortunately the sale prices are only affective for purchases made during the week of May 20 – May 24, 2013.

Hi everyone! I know you are diligently gathering curriculum for next year, so I thought I’d help you out and put my whole store on sale!

Yep, you heard me for one week only, everything at Confessions of a Homeschooler is 30% off!

I’ve never really done a store wide sale before, so I hope it blesses you all in your hunt for curriculum!

NEW!! Homeschool Lesson Planners!

Along with my sale, I’m releasing 3 new homeschool lesson planners! I will have giveaways coming up for each of them in the following weeks, but wanted you to be able to get a discount on them this week as well! Click below to see my new homeschool lesson planners!

I’m also going to be featuring my curriculum this week for anyone new to Confessions to help answer some frequently asked questions regarding each one.

Today I’m featuring both the Letter of the Week and K4 Kindergarten Curriculum.

The Letter of the Week is a full 26 week preschool course designed to give your student a head-start on preparing for kindergarten! It is a 26 week curriculum that’s full of educational activities that focus on the letter recognition, sounds, number recognition, counting, basic math skills, pre-writing practice, and all the necessary fine-motor skills that will be required for your preschooler to be ready for kindergarten! Included are 26 weekly lesson plans that guide you through each day. Click here for full details on the Letter of the Week preschool curriculum.

The K4 Curriculum is geared towards kids ages 4-5 who are kindergarten ready and want a fun hands-on kindergarten curriculum. The K4 curriculum covers beginning reading and phonics skills as well as basic math addition, subtraction, and skip counting skills and more! It is best to complete the Letter of the Week curriculum prior to completing the K4 curriculum. It also comes along with 34 weeks worth of daily lesson plans

Visit the Confessions Store to see all the goodies on sale!

I hope you enjoy the discount, and as indicated, use coupon code: ILOVECOAH_30.

This coupon is valid from May 20, 2013 – May 24, 2013.

Disclosure: I apologize to anyone who has purchased prior to today, unfortunately the sale prices are only affective for purchases made during the week of May 20 – May 24, 2013.

(Image source: getcrocked.com)

Hi everyone! Today I have a super yummy crockpot pork chop recipe for you! This one seriously doesn’t get any easier, and it was definitely a crowd pleaser for everyone at the Confessions household. And that is quite impressive since there is usually one person who isn’t thrilled with dinner.

So let’s get on to dinner shall we?

Ingredients:

• 4-6 bone in pork chops depending on your family size.
• 1 small can cream of mushroom soup (Can use cream of chicken as well)
• 1 can filled with water or milk depending on how creamy you like your gravy.

Method:

• Combine the soup with the milk or water in a bowl.
• Pour a bit of the soup into the bottom of your crockpot, then add a layer of pork chops (frozen or thawed is fine. Mine are usually frozen because I don’t plan ahead very well!)
• Pour more soup over that first layer, then add another layer of pork chops, another layer of soup, and another layer of pork chops. Finish your layers with a final layer of soup.
• Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

Serving instructions:

The pork chops will be VERY moist and tender, and will fall right off the bone! Place some in a plate then top with a little of the gravy mixture left in the crock pot. I like to serve this with mashed potatoes and your favorite veggie.

Alternative flavoring:

For a little more flavoring you can add in one dry  mix packet of Ranch Dressing to the soup mixture! Yum!

So that’s it, my super easy, yummy, and comfort food recipe for any night of the week. I hope you enjoy it, leave a comment below if you try the recipe!

Have a favorite crockpot recipe to share? Make sure to leave a comment below!

Hi everyone! Welcome to today’s homeschool curriculum forum where we’re talking all about physical education!

I’ve received quite a few questions about how we are liking Family Time Fitness. And I have to say that we still love it!

I did a more formal review and giveaway for Family Time Fitness back in October, you can read it here.

If you aren’t familiar with Family Time Fitness, they are a physical education program. They provide daily lesson plans as well as video tutorials if you need them. Most lessons can be completed with very little preparation. Although they do give daily lessons, we typically do it 2-3 times per week time allowing. I really love their focus on physical education, and even get reminder emails sent to my inbox to encourage me to continue on with our lessons.

How are we doing?

The kids are STILL loving the activities, and I like that they’re super easy to do without a lot of prep work on my time. I simply print my lesson plans as they are sent to me. I keep them all in a binder for easy access, then whenever we are ready for our lesson I bring out my binder and flip to the next lesson and get started!

One of the things I like most is The Family Time Fitness YouTube channel.  Here you can see videos on all of the exercises to make sure you are doing them correctly, and also informational videos as well.

What does the curriculum include?

• Each lesson is planned out for you from start to finish
• Detailed instructions and videos to help you teach the skills
• Easy to customize to your schedule
• Motivational reminders sent to your inbox
• Most activities can be done indoors or outdoors with minimal space requirements
• 30-45 minutes per day
• Increases physical health and well being
• Program develops fundamental movements, agility, and balance
• Includes progress chart
• Activities are progressive and sequential
• Daily Food Diary
• Grocery List
• Meal Planner
• Nutrition Log
• Tracking Calendar

Pros:

• Easy to teach
• Little to no-preparation by me
• Fun for the kids
• Daily plans to make it easy
• Tracking charts to record progress

Cons:

• I haven’t really found any cons to this aside from my own laziness!

So, now comes the fun part!

What are your favorite physical education curriculum, resources, websites, etc? Leave a comment below discussing your choices for this year and why.

Feel free to ask questions or reply to each other too! It’s my way of doing a forum without actually doing a forum haha!

And hopefully this will help us all as we start the process of researching curriculum, and trying to decide what will be the best fit for our homeschool.

Note: Please keep today’s conversations geared towards P.E., I will be posting one for each subject separately so we can keep our comments organized.

Click here if you missed my previous Homeschool Curriculum Forum posts!

Disclosure: This was not a sponsored post, I may however be affiliated with one or more products mentioned. The opinions expressed in this post were not influenced by the company. They are products I have used and felt like sharing, cuz’ it’s my blog and I can if I want to.

Hi all! Today we’re talking about our favorite foreign language programs in the homeschool curriculum forum series!

For younger students my favorite program is PowerSpeak. It is an online program with fun games and activities that help foster general vocabulary and sentence structure. My only issue with this is price and the lack of levels available. Currently they only offer elementary level 1 and 2, then the next one up is Jr. High which I thought would be too difficult for my 4th grader.

Pros:

• Fun and independent curriculum.
• No experience necessary to begin.

Cons:

• Fairly expensive, especially if you have multiple students.
• Limited in levels available.
• Only 5 languages available

My next choice is Rosetta Stone. We tried to use this initially when Strawberry Shortcake was in 2nd grade and it just didn’t go well. The curriculum moved way too fast for her, and it assumed a certain level of maturity to infer differences in verb tenses and sentence structure. However now that she’s a bit older we will re-visit this program and see how it goes!

Pros:

• Thorough lessons
• Visual and audio lessons
• Available in 30 languages

Cons:

• Can be costly unless you can find a used version.

So, now comes the fun part!

What are your favorite Foreign Language curriculum, resources, websites, etc? Leave a comment below discussing your choices for this year and why.

Feel free to ask questions or reply to each other too!

It’s my way of doing a forum without actually doing a forum haha!

And hopefully this will help us all as we start the process of researching curriculum, and trying to decide what will be the best fit for our homeschool.

Note: Please keep today’s conversations geared towards FOREIGN LANG., I will be posting one for each subject separately so we can keep our comments organized.

Click here if you missed my previous Homeschool Curriculum Forum posts!

Disclosure: This was not a sponsored post, I may however be affiliated with one or more products mentioned. The opinions expressed in this post were not influenced by the company. They are products I have used and felt like sharing, cuz’ it’s my blog and I can if I want to.

Good morning all! Welcome to another homeschool curriculum forum. Today we’ll be discussing vocabulary curriculum!

This upcoming year will be the first year I’m introducing a more formal vocabulary program into our homeschool. Up until now we’ve just been reviewing words that come with our spelling program and in our Abeka readers.

However this year we’re going to be working through Wordly Wise workbooks just to include a little more vocabulary focused work. I’ve heard fairly good reviews for Wordly Wise products. However I’ve also been cautioned that they are a secular curriculum so some of the terms used might not be appropriate if you prefer Christian materials.

Pros:

• Fairly inexpensive workbooks.
• Students work independently.

Cons:

• Secular curriculum.
• TBD as we progress through it!

One other vocabulary curriculum I’ve had my eye on and planned to use this year, but haven’t been great at it are the Vocabulary Cartoons. It is a book full of funny cartoons that help students remember vocabulary words through visual reminders as well as mnemonics.

Pros:

• Fun and memorable cartoons
• Includes reviews and quizzes after every 10 or so words.

Cons:

• Only two levels are available, the elementary and SAT word power.
• Unless you want to use the book to “show” students the cartoons, it is difficult to photocopy pages to allow students to color them.

So, now comes the fun part!

What are your favorite Vocabulary curriculum, resources, websites, etc? Leave a comment below discussing your choices for this year and why.

Feel free to ask questions or reply to each other too!

It’s my way of doing a forum without actually doing a forum haha!

And hopefully this will help us all as we start the process of researching curriculum, and trying to decide what will be the best fit for our homeschool.

Note: Please keep today’s conversations geared towards VOCABULARY, I will be posting one for each subject separately so we can keep our comments organized.

Click here if you missed my previous Homeschool Curriculum Forum posts!

Disclosure: This was not a sponsored post, I may however be affiliated with one or more products mentioned. The opinions expressed in this post were not influenced by the company. They are products I have used and felt like sharing, cuz’ it’s my blog and I can if I want to.

Welcome to my new series of unit studies! This series is all about famous Scientists & Inventors! As usual each study includes fun hands-on activities to go along with the unit to help students remember what they’ve learned, and also provide them with a fun reference too to review and recall each person they’ve learned about.

–> Click here to get the Scientist & Inventors Mega Pack! <–

Each of my scientist & inventor unit studies contains educational lessons, activities and a fun lap book that your students will work on as they progress through the study. The lessons also include book reports, vocabulary, character traits of these important figures, and critical thinking skills. I currently have 7 studies in this series. These studies are geared towards grades Kindergarten-4th, but can probably be adapted for older students as well.

This study uses the scientists and inventors series by Mike Venezia, but students are welcome to use any other researched information they can find as well. I would highly encourage older students to do some independent research on their scientist and inventor prior to completing their final report.

In each study students will learn all about the scientist or inventor, their childhood history, lifetime achievements, characteristics, as well as some of their greatest inventions and contributions. Below is a sample of the Lapbook that students will create as they learn about each scientist. This one is for Benjamin Franklin. Activities for this as well as other units are similar to the ones listed below:

• All About Benjamin Franklin
• Inventions
• The New England Currant
• Franklin as an Author
• Famous Quotes
• Community Contributions
• Characteristics
• Electricity
• Vocabulary
• Benjamin Franklin on U.S. Currency
• A Final Report

Each study also includes a final report on the scientist for students to complete. There are several different formats of the report to accommodate varying student grade levels that might be completing the unit.

What is included? This combination pack of units include materials for 7 different scientists and inventor studies.

Scientists and Inventors included in the combo pack:

• Albert Einstein
• Alexander Graham Bell
• Benjamin Franklin
• Henry Ford
• Marie Curie
• Thomas Edison
• The Wright Brothers

Please Note: Scientist and Inventor series books by Mike Venezia must be purchased separately.

Ready to get started? Get the whole set for just $12.00!

Ready to Win the whole set for your family?

Simply enter using the rafflecopter below!

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