Free Lapbooks at Homeschool Share

This is one of my very favorite sites! Great stuff! Hope you enjoy it. :-)

Free Lapbooks at Homeschool Share:

'via Blog this'

Ingles360: February task cards

Many neat resources here for pre-school and kindergarten! Lots of freebies and everything else is very economically priced.

Ingles360: February task cards: From now on, I will be offering a free set of monthly resources such as poems, decoration for the classroom, word wall cards, task cards, c...

Home School Adventures

I started my home school adventure with Teddy, 6 years ago!  I had so much fun teaching him.  I started with pre-school and I used Sing, Spell, Read and Write.  It was amazing how fast he learned all the letter sounds.   For Kindergarten we started using Sonlight Curriculum.  I had taught school for many years and probably could have handled kindergarten on my own, but wanted to have a curriculum that was planned out, so that I would be sure not to miss any of the important things.   The first few years I was definitely what one would call a "box checker".  I had to do EVERYTHING and check it all off.  

Last year we added 2 precious children to our family.  They both have their own needs, and finally after about a semester, I was able to figure out where they were and start working with them on their level.  We figured out that basically they are 2 years behind "normal", but then that is the great side of home schooling.  You can meet your children exactly where they are and go from there.   Still learning to juggle 3 children at 3 different levels was a huge change from just teaching 1.   Carla worked through Sing, Spell, Read and Write Kindergarten level and also started Rosetta Stone US English.  We use Singapore Math, and she worked through the Early Bird K level books.   Matthew, wasn't ready for the Kindergarten level work, so I pulled out files from my years of teaching K-4, and we also used a beginner English Program by Britanica.  Teddy worked in Sonlight's 3rd grade program which was the first of a 2 year study in US History.   He also added Rosetta Stone's Spanish program and continued with Piano.   

I will admit that for most of last year, I felt like I was just barely swimming with my head above water. ;-)  Toward the end of the year I started hearing more about the "workbox" method.  I started searching blogs and eventually bought the ebook that explained it thoroughly.   We actually tried it for a few weeks at the end of school, because I wanted to know if it was something that I thought would work for us.   

This year we started out using the system, as it was described in the book.  I couldn't find "boxes" so I bought baskets...and did a combination of baskets and folders.  After a 6 week term of trying to make this work for everyone, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't really working for us.  I didn't want to scrap the whole idea, as I thought it had some really good points.  I decided, that I would put in the kids folders, all of their "independent work".   While 2 of them work on their folders, I'm working with the other one, and then we just switch off. It has worked out really well, and we have just finished our 3 term, so are now half way through our school year. :-)   

I will look forward to "chatting" with you about our home school experiences.  Would love to hear any ideas or thoughts you might have.

Blessings,

Joy

--
Joy Anzalone
Manta, Ecuador

What's for dinner?

Friends on Face Book have been asking for recipes when I mention what we had for dinner, so I decided, I would just start posting them on here.  I doubt that I will post everything I cook...after all that could get really boring!  :-)  This first one, is simple and plain, but my family enjoys it.

Creamed Tuna and Vegetables
This recipe is from "The Wycliffe International Cookbook"

Drain and combine, reserving all liquids:
1 cup tuna or any cooked fish
1 1/2 cups cooked, diced carrots
1 1/2 cups cooked, diced potatoes
1 cup cooked peas
3 tablespoons chopped onion
(I just cook 2 1/2 to 3 cups of frozen mixed veggies for the carrots and peas.)
Combine separately in skillet and cook until bubbly:
1/4 cup cooking oil or shortening, (I used margarine)
1/4 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
Add slowly, stirring until it thickens:
2 cups liquid, reserved liquids and milk
Combine vegetables with sauce and put in a greased baking pan.  Cover with pie crust or buttered crumbs.  Bake at 350 F for 20 to 30 minutes.

Topical Fruit "Ice Cream"

Ok, this really isn't Ice Cream... but my kids didn't know the difference.  It was very yummy and a yummy way to get the kids to eat more fruit! :-)  I got the idea from the "Jamie Oliver 30 minute Meals".


I added 2 frozen peeled bananas to my food processor, along with frozen papaya, and some frozen strawberries.  I started processing them, and added between 1/2 cup and 1 cup of vanilla yogurt. (Our yogurt here is more like a drink than what you get in the US, so you may need to add more) You just want to get it the consistency of soft serve ice cream.   Then I added about a tablespoon of honey and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.  At this point it tasted pretty good, but my family has a sweet tooth, so I added about a 1/4 cup of "lite sugar" (a white sugar and stevia mix, it is much sweeter than just plain sugar and you only need to use about half the amount you would normally use).  I then filled up little dessert cups that we have and stuck them in the freezer, to be ready to serve after lunch.