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Month: September 2020

Costco Workbooks and Muddy Puddles

Costco Workbooks and Muddy Puddles

Sunday, I spent about 3 hours working on Eli’s school lesson plan for the week, so I knew exactly how Monday was going to unfold….and it was spot on! Up until this point, school work took roughly 2 hours total each day and when I say school work, I really mean school review what I already know. Well, after talking with a couple other moms of first graders at different schools, I realized just how little Eli was doing with…

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I Love Boxes Today!

I Love Boxes Today!

We are one week away from moving and my house looks like a warehouse of boxes and smells like cardboard, but today, I am grateful for boxes – the perfect medium for building a wall! My children love each other, and most of the time even like each other, but today it seems they can’t look at each other, be within 5 feet of each other, or hear each other without feeling the need to report it to me. Ava:…

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Fairy Time

Fairy Time

Eli and Ava have fairies that visit them at night and leave goodies, notes, tricks around the house, etc. This all started with 2 wooden fairy doors I bought on a whim at JoAnn’s a couple years ago and Ava found in my craft room during a quarantine clean out in the spring. She and Eli painted the doors, set them on their desks, and waited to see if the doors would turn magic to let the fairies in our…

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Writing the Room

Writing the Room

With the amount of protesting Eli does every time I ask him to write a sentence, one would think I was asking him to walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope while blindfolded with a monkey on his head – no way! Nope! Can’t do that! Kryptonite is to Superman what a pencil is to Eli, but since his letter formation is atrocious, his sentence structure is atrocious, and his spelling is atrocious, writing is the one thing he…

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Baking with Math

Baking with Math

I decided that every week needs to have something fun in it that also relates to school because I don’t want Eli and Ava to think school is all about doing worksheets and computer programs. Being with friends is an equally crucial part of school, but since that isn’t happening right now, I decided to bring a little socialization to our homeschool room! Introducing Baking with Math…Colleen’s Cooking Classroom….Kitchen Math….something like that. Haven’t settled on the name just yet, but…

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Here we go again!

Here we go again!

I woke up this morning with an attitude of gratitude ~ thankful for cool weather moving in, our house move coming along, and the ability to snuggle in bed with my two little sidekicks tucked under each arm. Then, I remembered it was Monday. School day. Ahhhhh!!! But, today I was armed with a new schedule and worksheets that I had prepped over the weekend, and Sam had the incentive of all incentives for Eli to finish his work quickly…

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Science Experiments

Science Experiments

I am so thankful for the “mom tribe” in my life and the ladies who are in the virtual learning trenches with me right now! These are the ladies who feel my pain when Eli and Ava are spinning in their desk chairs…because their kids are doing the same thing! Well, one of these fabulous ladies hosted us for a science afternoon at her house. Woohoo! Away from the computer screens and enjoying the outdoors doing actual experiments. There were…

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Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

Have you ever been so stressed and upset over something that all you do is laugh about it? Not like the haha this is funny type laugh, but the I’m laughing because if I don’t I will fall into a giant sinkhole and be perfectly content to not climb back out kind of laughing. I hit this stage yesterday like a marathon runner who turned around to see if anyone was behind him and Bam! there’s a giant sumo wrestler…

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Best Toy Ever!

Best Toy Ever!

The older your kids get, the harder it is to shop for birthdays and Christmas. Babies don’t care about things, so you pick what you like and think is cute; toddlers will take to anything that has music and lights and is interactive; but school-age kids definitely have a preference for how they like to spend their free time. We are big into Legos, board games, and outdoor toys at this house (and Eli of course loves any Nintendo Switch…

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Cookie Break Time!

Cookie Break Time!

After the week we had, I thought Saturday would be a great day for a new cookie recipe….and I was right! Ha! What do salted pretzels, chocolate chips, and coconut all have in common? They are excellent cookie ingredients! The crunchy texture of the pretzels is a delicious contrast to the smoothness of melted chocolate chips. But how do you ensure a soft cookie that won’t fall apart when you hold it? My secret ingredient ~ coconut cream pudding mix….

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