Modeling Bee's Wax recipe

I found this recipe here for modeling beeswax. Since we found some bee's wax at the local festival for $1.00 a small bar I bought 5-- to try some modeling wax with the kids. My Grandpa Curtiss raised bees and I love the smell of bee's wax. It reminds me of him. It's like a hug from the past.

Modeling Beeswax
Approx 1 cup of beeswax
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp lanolin [do not use if you are allergic to lanolin]
Melt the beeswax in a double boiler, [add grated crayon for colour]
Mix the lanolin and the olive oil together and add to the beeswax.
Once all is melted – remove from heat and keep stirring and pour into a walled [and lined] cookie tray. Cut into pieces and leave to cool
To check consistency, warm a piece in your hand and check its pliability. If it is to hard, add lanolin or oil. If to soft add beeswax.

*note while looking for this recipe I found out what was in the modeling clay from the store-UGGGHH!!! I will never buy that again. Definitely worth making our own naturally.

Happy Birthday Taylor!

My "onely" son is turning 17 years old today! When he was about 8 or 9 years old he wrote me a letter about how I should let him have a snake as a pet. He signed it "from your onely son". The typo has always stuck even if he isn't my only son anymore he will always be my number one, oldest, first-born "one-ly" son.
Happy Birthday Tay!
P.S. You still aren't getting a snake!

Thrifty deals

 A Neighboring town is having its yearly festival and the whole town is one giant garage sale. I went to get some kids clothes for the little ones. But I didn't find many clothes in my price range.


Board Books
1,2,3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle for $0.50
Colors $0.25
Peek-A-Boo Alaska by Bernd and Susan Richter $0.25 Little-man calls the moose a cow.



Childrens Books
The Silver Nutmeg by Palmer Brown $1.00
Tomie's Little Mother Goose by Tomie dePaola $0.10
The Little Penguin by A.J. Wood $0.10

Creatures of the Night by David Cutts $1.00
Abe Lincoln Remembers by Ann Turner $0.25

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss $0.10 Yes a FIAR book for $0.10!
The Growing Story by Ruth Krauss $0.10
Terry and the Caterpillars by Millicent E. Selsam
A Child's Garden of Verses Illustrated by Tasha Tudor for only a $1.00
The Amazing Pop-Up-Geography Book by Kate Petty &Jennie Maizels
Sunset of the Sabertooth Magic Tree house #7 by Mary Pope Osborne $0.50
Ghost Town at Sundown Magic Tree house #10 by Mary Pope Osborne $0.50
Good Morning Gorillas  Magic Tree house #26 by Mary Pope Osborne $0.50
Blizzard of the Blue Moon Magic Tree house #26 by Mary Pope Osborne $1.00

Mom's Books
Leather bound Harvard's Classics copy of Shakespeare  $0.10 (Yes ten cents!) in mint condition

Baskets
Basket shaped and decorated like a chicken $2.00
Small Nantucket wood and woven basket $0.50
Watermelon shaped basket $0.50
Tiny watermelon basket $0.50

Toys
Magnetix  (several sets at three sales) $20.00 total Tippy-toe spent an hour playing alone with the robot ones
Baby doll, bed, stroller $2.00 Pitty-pat picked them out for herself
Step two tool bench $2.00
Set of wooden nuts and bolts (for a Montessori tray) $0.50
6 wooden train pieces $0.75--that match our wooden train the boys got for christmas

I need to make a list of all the books we own because I have several duplicates-but I couldn't resist the FIAR book for $0.10 That's a bargain!

Art Supplies
Almost new set of pastel chalks for drawing $0.50 (new they were $3.47-- perfect for Cam and for some Waldorf influence in our home school nature center.)

frugal crock pot meals

Slow Cooker Dr Pepper Ribs

This all-time favorite ribs recipe because it is SO EASY.

• 3 1/2 pounds pork loin back ribs or pork spare ribs (we just buy a full rack of ribs)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup Dr Pepper (or water, or other soda)
• 2/3 cup barbecue sauce (we like Sweet Baby Ray's the best for this recipe.

1. Spray inside of 5-6 quart slow cooker with cooking spray (or just use one of those bags ).
2. Cut ribs into 2 or 3 rib portions. Place ribs in slow cooker; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour Dr Pepper (or water or other soda) into slow cooker.
3. Cover and cook on low heat setting 8 to 9 hours or until ribs are tender. Remove ribs. Discard liquid.
4. Paint BBQ sauce over ribs and replace ribs into slow cooker. Pour a little additional sauce over ribs. Cover and cook on low heat for 1 hour.             

Found this recipe here and I thought I would try it. Maybe Aimee would like it too?

History in the making

Aaron got up at 4:30 am to watch the Royal Wedding of William and Kate with Camryn. They talked me into letting her stay home from school today to watch the wedding on television so early this morning. He is such a good Daddy! As he said it is living history. We after-school homeschool Cam to make up for the deficiencies of our local public school (she was going to a church based school until December when it became to hard to transport her back and forth). I remember staying home to Watch Dianna and Charles' Wedding as a teen. Every girl loves a fairy tale wedding story. I remember watching William grow up. History isn't just the past. It is the here and now as well.

Enjoying the rain!

I can't help but enjoy the sound of the rain on the roof and the light show put on by the lightening storm this evening. We have a screened in front porch that is perfect for viewing storms. Aaron is so much like my Dad, a weather watcher. We don't want the kids to be afraid of storms so we try to invite them to enjoy them with us. What better way to study the weather than to enjoy it first hand?
    Camryn remembers reading Thunder Cake but we don't own a copy. I am going to have to make a trip to our library to find the book. It goes perfect with our weather theme this week.  Better yet, I should make a trip to the used book store after work this week.

Have you read these books?

Copy and paste then bold the books you have read. See how you compare. The original post can be found here. I saw it on this blog and had to see how wrong the BBC is about me!
The BBC apparently believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here:

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - read all
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy.
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth.
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo 
I have read all but 26 and my computer will not let me bold any of them I have read for some reason.But the ones I have not read are the most recent ones. Probably because I was so busy starting a career and raising my oldest kids to read those.

What's on our shelves this week?

The Theme(Yes, I actually have a theme for this week) is April Showers Bring May Flowers! (aka weather)

I found 100 most common sight words printed on clouds at Sparkle Box so Pitty-pat will be reviewing and Tippy-toe will be learning these words. Cutting out 100 clouds really hurt my hands so I put Cam to work cutting some out for me. They are English so I found mum instead of mom but otherwise I like how they are properly capitalized so Pitty-pat will also review capitalization of nouns for grammer.
Weather week chart from Homeschool Creations to record our weather.Including the thermometer found here. We have a weather station we build last year and I hope to move it outside the back porch so we can see it from our playroom window.
We are studying the water cycle in science. I found these cards to print out.
Weather dominoes
Weather word cards.
Weather graph for math I printed out from Confessions of a Homeschooler.(see link below)
Play dough will be white for clouds with glitter.
The Art box has been changed out and now has the flower shaped cookie cutters and new colored paper. As always pencils for tracing, glue sticks, scraps form mom's projects--all to free to use under supervision.
We will be watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs again-My kids all love this movie! I made meatballs last week and froze them for this weeks dinner on movie night Friday. Hurray!
Calender Board-I made a calendar board to use with this unit since I work I don't do a calender board with the kids so sometimes we loose track of what day it is. (Especially since my day off rotates each week and I work some weekends.) Quote for the week: "Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud." Dr. Maya Angelou

For Little-man
The letter of the week is W.
I printed cloud clip cards
Cloud shaped lace up card from a recycled cereal box.
Shape sort twister and lightening clouds.
W dot page to color from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Sensory Bin-yellow yarn strips for spaghetti and black and brown pom-poms for meatballs, red blobs of felt for sauce,spaghetti tong,toy  plates, and baby forks. I think they will all enjoy serving up some fun play.


*I will be updating this post as I get photos and more ideas as the week progresses. This is just my rough draft of our lesson plan*

Easter Morning

Camryn made this cross at Sunday School a few years ago and it hangs in our hallway and is visible to our dinning room and kitchen. I think it looks good against the white wall. The colored stones are aquarium gravel glued to a wooden base.

Frugal meals

Mini Meatloaf Mounds

• 2 pounds hamburger
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. chopped onion
• salt, pepper, garlic salt (to taste)
• 1 cup oatmeal (author used old-fashioned)[I substituted bread crumbs]
• 8 oz. tomato sauce (or use a cup of salsa – yum!)
• ketchup

Mix all but the ketchup together.  I use a potato masher for this icky job!  Scoop 1/2 cup meat mixture with a measuring cup and place in 8×12 pan to form 10 mounds.
Bake at 350° for 50 minutes.  Spread ketchup on top of each mound.  Return to oven for 3-5 minutes. I found this recipe here. I deleted the onion because Aaron is allergic. I baked this this morning when I had time. I plan to reheat it for dinner tonight with some leftover cheesy potatoes.

 **I also doubled the recipe and made the other half of this into meatballs (leaving out the ketchup) which I cooked and froze to use later in the week for meatball subs or spaghetti and meatballs.

Quote for the day

"Learning is MESSY, learning is NOISY and learning is FUN!" I saw this quote at Lightening Bug Literacy while blog hopping.
They have these great jelly bean printables found here. Perfect for Easter. I plan to use the weather printables I found to use with our weather unit for next week.

Earth Day

My work gave out little pine trees today and I couldn't resist bringing one home for the Aaron to plant with the kids. I have several pine trees in the yard but we will squeeze one more in. Aaron wasn't as excited as I hoped he would be about it. I remember planting a blue spruce that McDonald's was giving out for one of the first Earth Days 20 years ago. It is huge and still growing in the yard at our old house.

My coworkers gave me 2 more trees now we are waiting to plant them outside this week. One for each of the littles.

Saved $5.00 today

Just by going to the product website and printing coupons for just products on my grocery list. bonus!

Quote for the day

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

-Jim Elliot

 

I see this quote and I think of all I have lost to adopt these wonderful kids. The friends, the family, the keepsakes and things, the land that was my inheritance--- but the price is worth it.

Homeschool moment Kids say the darndest things

Aaron decided to test Little-mans learning. He asked him if he wanted 1, 2, or 3 crackers. My sweet little son age two looked at Daddy and replied "three duh!" So Aaron decided to test Little-man again. Aaron only put 2 crackers on his tray. Little-man looked at the crackers, looked at Daddy, looked back at the crackers and said "One, One!" He knew he was missing one and need another to make three. I think the Montessori homeschooling is working. I couldn't stop laughing when Aaron told that story. "Three duh!"

Quote for the day

I love this old hymn it is one of my favorites ever since a day in prayer at college made this MY scripture. I heard how Jesus just wanted to have his disciples stay awake and be watchful. This is all he calls us to do today. Be Vigilant until his return. So simple, yet so hard.

In the Garden

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

(refrain)
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

(Refrain)

I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

Summer backyard wish list

We want to try to keep the area as natural as possible. We are making over our backyard as a play place for the kids this summer. I want to include:a place for digging, a raised bed vegetable or flower garden, my wind chimes from off the front porch, a rainbow windsocks, a weather station,pinwheels, prisms,a gazing ball,a water table,a sand box,a long log for a balance beam, tree stumps for climbing, a playhouse with a child size clothes line.Wow that's a long list.

Unleavened bread

I want to work in the more of Lent/ Resurrection into our holiday and take the Easter out. So i found this great site with a unleavened bread recipe here. I plan to try this with the kids and I can use my wonderful bread machine. All my bread turns out like rocks anyway if it isn't in the bread machine so this may be perfect for me. I'll post a picture if it turns out.

Frugal meals

Our leftover Pot Roast from the other night has been recycled into beef and noodles (the leftover veggies have been frozen for a quick side dish addition to a meal next week). I just put the broth and shredded roast beef into a pan with 2 bullion cubes and set to boil. I added more spices and the noodles after it came to a boil. Then just before serving I will add a can of cream soup. Voila! A recycled dinner and no complaints about eating leftovers.

Mom to Mom Sale

It's a giant garage sale for kids things. I cleaned up on school things.

• Books $0.25 each-see list below
• Frog life cycle puzzle $0.50
• Dinosaur puzzle $0.50
• Suitcase full of wooden blocks $5.00
• Bag of cars $1.50
• Bag of animals $1.50 (4 of them Schlein)
• Bag of little toys $1.50
• Bee Movie $4.00
• Curriculum--365 Bible Stories for Children by Melanie M. Burnette $0.50

Book list-
Degas and the Little Dancer by Laurence Anholt
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Fins and Scales by Deborah Uchill miller and Karen Ostrove
I Spy a Butterfly by Jean Marzollo
Ugly Duckling
Babar's Busy Year by Laurent De Brunhoff
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman (We've worn out 2 copies already)
Manners by Aliki
The Magic School Bus Chapter Book #5 Twister Trouble
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a fly..
Curious George and the Dinosaur by Margret and H.A. Rey
John Deere Farm ABC
Little hands Love
Mouse's First Valentine by Lauren Thompson (Board book)
Goodnight, My Duckling by Nancy Tafuri (Board book)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (Board book)
Brown Bear,Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin and Eric Carle (Board book)

I know I bought duplicates but the Littleman is very hard on books so I have tried to get him Board Books  He has loved some of them to death so we are getting new copies to keep up.

What did we do all day?

Today we started with a hundreds board for number review. That turned into a sorting game since I got out the bin of place markers most of which the kids hadn't seen. Little man started a color sort with the egg tray I keep in the bin all by himself. I was surprised and then pleased at how many he put on the right color no prompting from the peanut gallery either. Pitty-pat and Tippy-toe then abandoned the hundreds chart for the sorting game so I gave them each a Candyland card and told them to find only the color on their card.

Then I took Pitty-pat aside and gave her number cards I found on Mathwire that are like the hundred board-but I only gave her the 5's and asked her to count by fives to 100. I am surprised at the tears but then she caught on and now can count in her head to 100 by 5's.

Then all three little one made crosses from tissue paper and contact paper. I showed them how pretty they were when held up to the light. Little man held on to his all day long. He like placing the tissues on the "sticky".

I also got out the Resurrection basket and talked about each item and how we would be learning about the real meaning of Easter the next two weeks. Pitty-pat was amazed to learn Jesus was "real". Of course then she demanded to see where Israel was on the map and astounded to see me point to it. I could see the wheels turn as she realized it was "REALLY REAL". I think today was a success.I was going to study Scotland next but I think we should study Israel for our next country instead. I don't want to do too much right now at the holidays but I might be able to find the flag and a map for our continent box at least.

Resurrection Basket

I put together a Godly Play Basket for Easter. It is like the resurrection eggs but without the eggs. So far I have collected a pewter cup, a cracker, praying hands, 3 wooden crosses, a stone, a drawstring purse with 30 dimes, a purple cloth (It doesn't show up purple very well), gauze bandages, strips of paper with scripture verses. Somewhere I have a wooden donkey, dice and nail to add but I wanted to include a picture with the post.

Peter Rabbit

We are rowing Peter Rabbit so here are some of our activities we are doing.

• I bought several plastic fruits and veggies from Walmart and the dollar stores. I found some three part cards and printed them out. The kids loved it. They sorted fruits from vegetables. Used the cards for a shopping lists to play farm market and grocery shopping. 
• We cared for our plants that we planted last week. We got our garden raked and did spring cleaning outdoors. I think a Mr McGregor's garden theme might be a fun project I saw one online. I need a wooden gate, clay pots, watering can, flowers, herbs and veggie plants--so I really have nothing I need for this project. Pitty it looks so cute.
• I printed out some bingo marker pages, and some cardboard stick puppets of Peter, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton Tail and Mother Rabbit.

Spring is here!

 

Look what we found in the yard today. It is a beautiful day out day.

Hot Find at Kohls, Family movie night

• I went today to pick up a new copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and bought four  Eric Carle books and The  Very Hungry Caterpillar --24 piece puzzle for $24.90 What a great find the books are just $5.00 each! Each of the kids is getting one for Easter. I am looking up activities to go with the book there  are so many it is hard to choose.

• We had family movie night tonight popcorn and Tangled. We have been waiting for it to come out on DVD. I read a version of Rapunzel to the kids and did activities to go along earlier when the previews first came out. It wasn't what I planned to do tonight but Aaron brought it home for the kids.

• I set up some Egg related activities for this weekend.  We should be more productive then.

What we did all day

• I found some wooden letters so we (Cam and I) painted a Montessori movable alphabet. Tippy-toe started using them before we even could get them painted.
• I also started a new sensory bin-Birds, Birds, Birds  Inside is two nests, two different birds, four small eggs,the wooden letters B,I,R, and D, Corn, and other seeds birds eat, large wooden egg, feathers,and a Bird three part card that matches one of the plastic birds. (It is not finished yet so no pictures until it is done.) I can't decide if I want bird seed as the base or something else.
• Ostrich egg and two books on birds Eye Witness books Bird and Bird ,Egg ,Feather ,Nest by Maryjo Koch both books we got at the school closing give away. The kids were amazed at my large real egg and we compared it to a chicken egg for size. I loved getting Pitty-pat to read without her realizing it.
• Cards for  -at  words. 
• Number matching cards which Tippy-toe zoomed through (faster than it took me to make them). but the numbers can be used for other math sets too.
• A foam tan gram set to give as a gift (since we have one each already) and the bunny cards to use with it.

Over all it was a very productive day both for me and the kids. Some days it is hard to keep ahead of them in work. Thank goodness for workbook sheets.

Sequence of Montessori Work

 Sometimes you just need a check list to make sure you are staying on track. I try to have several activities on the shelf for each area and each level  We are teaching a 2 1/2 year old, 7 year old, and an 8 year old. I found this list and couldn't resist posting it here for my own check sheet.


SEQUENCE OF MONTESSORI WORK

PERIOD ONE
[Early Practical Activities, introductory, sensorial, Culture, and Language Activities, no Math]

Practical:
- Pouring beans between two jugs
- Opening and closing containers
- Buttoning
- Buckling
- Other simple dressing frames
- Carrying and laying floor mats and table mats
- Saying Thank You
- Other early grace and courtesy work
- Carrying a tray
- Lifting, carrying and putting down a chair at a table
- Climbing and descending stairs
- Walking on the line
- Folding
- Hanging clothes on a hook
- Brushing hair
- Dusting

Sensorial:
- Cylinder blocks
- Pink tower
- Color tablets, box 1
- Presentation tray of geometric cabinet
- Sensitizing the fingers
- Touch boards
- Presentation 1 of geometric solids
- Stereognostic bags

Language:
- Classified pictures, exercise 1
- Classified pictures, exercise 2
- Speech
- I Spy, Stage 1
- I Spy, Stage 2
- I Spy, Stage 3
- Book corner and library

Mathematics:
- None

Culture:
- Land and Water


PERIOD TWO[Building fundamental skills in all subject areas except Math, concentrating on sight and touch in Sensorial work]

Practical:
- Pouring water from a jug
- Medium difficulty dressing frames
- Simple braiding of rope or yarn
- Laying a table for a meal
- Polishing brass, glass surfaces, shoes or furniture
- Washing hands
- Washing cloths
- Scrubbing a table top
- Sweeping sawdust
- Brushing clothes
- Folding clothes
- Hanging clothes on a hanger
- Handling a book
- Asking for and receiving scissors
- Greeting people
- Kindness to visitors
- Being silent

Sensorial:
- Advanced cylinder block exercises
- Brown stair
- Red rods
- Color tablets, boxes 2 and 3
- Geometric cabinet, exercises 1 – 4
- Binomial cube
- Blindfold
- Tactile tablets
- Later geometric solids presentations
- Stereognostic bags
- Sorting grains
- Sound boxes
- Preliminary presentation of bells
- Three-stage lesson on the names of the sensorial qualities

Language:
- Classified pictures, exercises 3 and 4
- I Spy, stage 4
- Single-letter sandpaper letters, exercise 1
- Metal insets
- Speech “questioning”

Mathematics:
- None

Culture:
- Land and Water exercises
- First maps
- Places classified pictures
- Classification by leaf, preliminary work

PERIOD THREE[Developing more advance Practical skills, concentrating on other senses in Sensorial work, completing preparatory work in Language, fully entering Culture work, starting Math]

Practical:
- Pouring water from a jug
- Pouring water through a funnel
- Bows, laces, and other difficult dressing frames
- Advanced braiding, then plaiting hair
- Tying a tie
- Simple cooking chores
- Ironing
- Making beds

Sensorial:
- Geometric cabinet exercises 5 – 8
- Constructive triangles
- Square of Pythagoras
- Trinomial cube
- Fabrics
- Thermic bottles
- Baric tablets
- Presentations of bells

Language:
- Double-letter sandpaper letters, exercise 1
- I Spy, stages 5 and 6 frequently
- Exercise 2 with all sandpaper letters

Mathematics:
- Number rods, exercise 1

Culture:
- All maps
- Places picture folders
- Past and present
- Stories about the past
- Air
- Water
- Magnetism
- Classifying animals
- Classification by leaf
- Parts of animals
- Parts of plants


PERIOD FOUR
[Advanced Sensorial activities, early Language reading and writing, Mathematics Group 1 and starting Group 2]
Practical:
- Responsibility for certain daily Care of the Environment duties
- Helping and advising younger ones in a group

Sensorial:
- Geometric cabinet, exercises 9 and 10
- Thermic tablets
- Mystery bag
- Visual work with blindfold
- Bells exercises 1, 2, and 3
- Tasting cups
- Smelling boxes

Language:
- Movable alphabet
- Writing individual letters
- Writing families of letters
- Positioning letters on lines
- Sandpaper capitals
- Box 1 of object boxes
- Action cards
- Box 2 of object boxes
- Reading folders, exercise 1

Mathematics:
- Number rods, exercise 2
- Sandpaper numbers
- Number tablets (with the number rods)
- Spindles
- Numbers and counters
- Memory play
- Limited bead material
- Number cards
- Function of the decimal system
- Fractions

Culture:
- Gravity
- Sound
- Optics
- Places artifacts


PERIOD FIVE
[Further development in Language reading and writing, essence of counting, adding, subtracting, and multiplying in Math]

Practical:
- Assisting with group activities
- Attending to visitors
- Comforting other children

Sensorial:
- Knobless cylinders
- Bells, exercises 4, 5, and 6

Language:
- Matching and writing capitals
- The alphabetic sequence
- Writing copies
- Puzzle words
- Reading folders, exercise 2
- Classified reading
- Environment cards
- Articles
- Adjectives
- Conjunctions
- Prepositions
- Verbs

Mathematics:
- Formation of complex numbers
- Introduction to teens
- Introduction to tens
- Unlimited bead material (Addition, subtraction, and multiplication)
- Counting
- Stamps (Addition, subtraction, and multiplication)
- Dots
- Fractions exercises

Culture:
- Plant life cycles
- Timeline


PERIOD SIX
[Advanced Language work, basic division and arithmetic memory work in Mathematics]

Practical:
- Serving snacks and meals
- Subtle etiquette

Sensorial:
- Advanced bells work

Language:
- Margins
- Punctuation cards
- Reading folders, exercises 3 and 4
- Adjective matching
- Detective Adjective Game
- Adverbs
- Command cards
- Adverb matching
- Verb games
- Plurals
- Feminine and Masculine
- Root word charts

Mathematics:
- Unlimited bead material (Division)
- Stamps (Division)
- Addition and Subtraction Snake Games
- Addition and Subtraction Strip Boards
- Multiplication tables
- Multiplication bead board
- Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication charts
- Advanced work with fractions

Culture:
- Reading classified cards in Geography, Nature Studies and History
- Fact books from the library


PERIOD SEVEN
[Application activities in Language, abstraction in Mathematics]

Practical:

- Presenting practical activities to younger children

Sensorial:
- Presenting sensorial activities to younger children

Language:
- Written questioning
- Free writing
- Reading folders exercise 5
- Reading analysis

Mathematics:
- Unit Division Board
- Division Charts
- Short Bead Frame
- Hierarchies
- Long Bead Frame
- Simple Division

Culture:
- Definition stages of Classified Cards in Geography, Nature Studies and History
- Field nature observation work

what's next?

I am working on a unit based on the book  A Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle Kohl's has the board book and stuffed toy for $5.00 each and Little-man is getting it in his Easter basket. In fact at that price they all might be getting one of his books for Easter!                                                                                                                      

Quote for the day

"While we try to teach our children about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about." ----Unknown

Oatmeal cookies

I got this recipe in the mail today and decided to try it with some modifications of course.

Oatmeal cookies

3/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons Margarine
1 egg
1/4 cup applesauce
2 Tablespoons milk
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I doubled this for 1 tsp)
1 cup +2 Tblsp quick rolled oats
(I doubled the recipe and I also added butterscotch chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, mixed all together, dropped by teaspoons full about 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet. Baked 15 minuets.
Since it uses applesauce it is lower in fat. The oatmeal makes it healthy and full of fiber.