Lazy Housewife Dinner

Cheesy Manicotti Shells:

Manicotti Shells

Jar spaghetti sauce of your choice

Mozzerella String Cheese

Shredded Italian Cheese blend

Spray your baking dish. Slide a string cheese into your manicotti shell. Line a baking dish with them. Dump on sauce. Top with shredded cheese. Bake until shells are al dente.

Seriously.

If you're feeling ambitious, you can pre-boil the shells. Then you only have to bake for 30 minutes to melt the string cheese a little, and brown the cheese on top. :)

Blog Update!

Ok, so we've been getting a lot done, but I'm not finding time to blog. This is not the way I want things to be, as I love having this as a resource for myself, to offer to others, and to sort of keep track of all the cool stuff we do. ;) I'm going to try to do better, for myself AND you. Best intentions...yadda yadda yadda.

Last week, we covered the letter G. For some reason, Three has had a mental block about G and F. *shrug* Last week, the letter G just clicked. I think it was the groundhog, honestly. We predicted whether or not "Mortimer" the groundhog would see his shadow, and then on Groundhog Day we visited a local park and got to meet Mortimer up close and personal! Then we played a shadow game (they had stapled groundhog "shadows" all over the playground and you had to find all 6 of them.) Three also found the letter G on all the signs posted around the park. We also talked about hibernation, and what it means to hibernate, which animals hibernate, and how they prepare. We also learned how the sun changes your shadow by tracking our shadow on the driveway at different times during the day (he has asked to do this again this week, so it was a hit.)

This week we did a mini review of letter H (which he's known for awhile, but my OCD wouldn't let me just skip over it *eye roll*) and moved on to letter I. For letter I, we've only done one craft...we made Ice Cream cones with Three and Four's names on them, one scoop of ice cream for each letter. I have hopes of building an igloo (from cotten balls) this afternoon after we attend a Valentine's Exchange Party this morning. We've also been talking about adaptations that animals have to survive the winter (extra layers of fat, getting a winter coat....) We attended a waterfowl class, and talked about how some birds migrate to warmer climates, and how the ones that stay here survive (although, this winter has been one of the mildest on record for our state...so they haven't really struggled!)

Now we are in a full on Valentines Day blitz! We are going to an exchange this morning, we have a party on Monday-Wednesday next week too! FUN!

Looking ahead (for a change!)

Honestly, I was once one of the most prepared people....over the last year though, my personal life (meaning: the grown up stuff) has fallen apart around me, and as I've been trying to piece it back together others areas of my life have most definitely suffered. I'm trying to get THOSE parts back on track.

My plan for December consists mainly of a countdown to Christmas. We will only do "real" school through the 16th. The week leading up to Christmas has a birthday for our family (Two is turning 12....*sigh*) as well as Yule, and the week after we need to recover. ;) Plus, I think MIL is coming in for at least some of that time. We'll do a study of Winter in January (even though it starts this month.) For December, we're going to countdown and discuss some of the symbols of Christmas.

I found this link that gives some background to the different symbols of Christmas. There are Bible verses and biblical reference. I'm good at taking the parts of things that work for me, and leaving the rest...I recommend you do the same. *wink*

http://www.achristmastestimony.kingdomdesignministry.com/christmas-symbols-and-their-meanings

Our Christmas Countdown, which will start on the 1st, includes these activities:

1. Open new ornaments for the tree (Each year the kids get new ornaments for the tree, I try to find something representative of their year, and I'm SUPER excited about this years ornaments.)

2. Take Christmas Pictures!

3. Attend a Christmas parade.

4. Write letters to Santa.

5. Discuss St. Nicholas Day and leave out shoes!

6. Shop for a gift for Birthday Buddy (this is a birth board gift exchange.)

7. Shop for a gift to donate to Toys for Tots.

8. Train ride

9. Make Christmas Cookies!

10. Make a handmade ornament.

11. Make and leave gifts for neighbors on their doorsteps.

12. Drive around to see Christmas lights.

13. Buy presents for siblings.

14. Choose a special treat.

15. String popcorn for the birds.

16. Have a family christmas movie night, with special goodies.

17. Make Chex Mix and Muddy Buddies.

18. Make chocolate covered pretzels

19. Learn a French Christmas tradition

20. Make Christmas presents for family.

21. Visit the bookstore and choose a new Christmas book.

22. Christmas lights hayride and visit Santa.

23. Make a craft with Mom.

24. Make reindeer food, and Santa's cookies. :)

Random Fall Activities

This year we joined a preschool co-op with our homeschool group. We meet once a week, and so far it's been great. Three enjoys it, and Four....well, he likes the playing after. :) This is a picture from co-op where we did "nature painting." Here is Three painting a leaf, and a stick with a feather.

I used the boys hand/arm to make the tree trunk by painting them brown. I put out "fall" colored paint--red/yellow/orange/green--and they dipped fingers in and made leaves using their fingertips. You can see (the top one) where Three made "falling leaves" in a line. :)

I added some fall items to our "oatmeal box." I put in a few leaves that are bright fall colors, some pine straw, some acorns and a small pinecone. The oatmeal box is a small box I bought at $Tree with a flip top lid. I filled it with dry oats, and try to switch out the small objects inside it. The boys will take a spoon (or their hands) and dig through the oatmeal to find the "prizes." It's usually a messy activity...but the clean up only involves a vacuum, and the large thing of generic oats is a buck.

I wrote out some "simple story problems" for Three to work on. Things like:

The squirrels are getting ready for winter. Brown squirrel collected 4 acorns. Grey squirrel collected 2 acorns. How many acorns do the squirrels have?

We'll work on learning what the "+" and "=" signs mean, as well as simple addition.

I printed these onto cardstock: http://scrapbooking.about.com/od/layouts/ig/Rebecca-s-Fall-Leaf-Layout/Fall-Leaf-Pattern.htm and let the boys finger paint on them with brown/orange/red/yellow...then I let them dry and cut the shapes out and hung them in the window.

Three did a leaf craft that I ordered from Oriental Trading (a couple years ago actually) that could be easily replicated. Cut out a leaf shape, and you would paint it with glue, and add small pieces of tissue paper crumpled up in fall colors. It's hanging in our window, but I don't have a picture.

In the spirit of thanksgiving, I'm putting up a tree trunk in the window, and from now until thanksgiving we will be adding one leaf a day with something we are thankful for written on it. I've been doing it since the girls were Three's age (sigh...8 years ago.) I used the same leaf templates from above to cut out leaves in orange/yellow/red to write our gratitude on.

Thanksgiving is coming!

I'm spending the next 2 weeks doing a thanksgiving unit that I downloaded from Homeschool Creations.

I'm also printing the "Roll a Turkey" game from A Lemon Squeezy Home.

And this: Thanksgiving Activity Sheet

As well as the corn maze, and color by letter sheets from Reading With Kids.

We also are collecting leaves and drying/pressing them for an activity with our co-op after thanksgiving.

Random Picture Catch Up Post

I know that I have severely neglected the blog...again. It was one of my "new year goals" to keep the blog updated regularly. Fail. Oh, well...there is always 2012. *wink wink*

My BFF and I took all our kids (minus Four, making a total of 6 kids) to a corn maze. Three worked on directions (left/right) and the big kids worked on working together.

After making his "mama snake" he counted "babies" and put them all in the nest.

He's rolling out a playdough snake. (I'm so glad I have a table cover on my gorgeous wooden table...look at what they've done to it.)

Do-A-Dot snake.

Three and Four painted a paper plate to make a snake...we hung them from the ceiling.

Finished snake.
Making his bead "mama snake."

Four making a "mama snake" out of beads as well....so serious.

This is probably one of Four's FAVORITE activities. It is wooden shapes (from a puzzle that had it's board broken, and a couple wooden shapes I picked up at the craft store) and an outline of the shape on index cards. Easy peasy, and he will do it three or four times in a row!

Frog paper bag puppet.

Going over a printable of the frog life cycle.

Putting the frog life cycle cards in order.

Painting a lily pad.

Finished lily pads.

Snakes

I'm currently doing units that Three is requesting, because well, he doesn't like what I pick. And, with public school recently starting back here, and the neighbor kids talking about all the fun things they were going to learn Three started talking about what he could learn when he goes to school...he seemed a little surprised that *I* could teach him those things NOW if he wanted. Seriously, who taught you all the things you already know, dude? Yeah, that would be ME! So, he asked to learn about animals....but then asked to learn about frogs. And, now, snakes. Uh huh, amphibians and reptiles. I got ya.

Snake Letter Craft I think I will adapt this to have "our" snake make a W...or some other letter, that would be easily made by a snake (I'm still in the planning phase, so I'm not sure what we'll end up with) as Three already knows S.

Counting Snakes

Snake Life Cycle Printable

Snake Craft I Love!

Snake Maze

Geared more for Four, but Three almost always wants to do whatever activity I have for his brother, we'll make a color snake. http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/msnake-colors.htm Four has a good grasp on colors, but almost always gets brown and black confused. So, our snake will probably have more than one black/brown segment. :)

We will visit the science museum and look at some native snakes.

For gross motor we'll slither on our bellies like snakes. :)

For fine motor, we'll make a bead snake on a pipe cleaner.

We also have our first preschool co-op meeting this week, and a park day. This should be more than enough activities to keep us busy.