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Saturday, June 30, 2012

Food On Friday: 4th of July Confetti Pops

I know, I know it is Saturday, not Friday. I forgot yesterday, lol! Not being in school leaves me much free time to not think about blogging, obviously. So today I am sharing an awesome 4th of July treat, that is healthy too. I love these and can not wait to try them. 4th of July is next Wednesday, and we will be going to see the fireworks in Alachua, and it is also DJ's birthday. I can not believe he will be 12. Small party on Thursday.



Wednesday, June 27, 2012

How To Make A Homeschool Portfolio In Florida: Step 2

OK, so last Wednesday, was step one. I showed you what the daily log should look like. Again, if you leave out any of these steps, you will be scrambling to figure them out at the time of your evaluation. I always write them in the log, and then transfer them to a neater piece of paper, then add it to the portfolio. You can make it real fancy, but I don't see any point. Next week is the third, and most time consuming step, putting the portfolio together. Then the following week is our evaluation. Almost here! I require each child to read six to eight books each year. DJ has to do book reports on his, and Caitlin will begin picture book reports next school year. They both read way more than what is listed, but I don't write down them all because a lot is done during free time, not school time.






Monday, June 25, 2012

Music on Monday 1986

It is time for Music on Monday, and we are reliving the 80's! Why? Because I was a teen in the eighties, it is summer, and I want to, lol! The number one hit song of 1986 was? If you guessed That's What Friends are For, by Dionne and Friends, than you are correct. A beautiful and poignant song. Listen and remember the beauty of this song, your teenage years, and remember to thank your friends for being there for you. Happy Monday all! If you are in Florida, try to stay dry as Debby just sits and churns in the Gulf.




Friday, June 22, 2012

Food on Friday

Welcome to Food on Friday. All Summer I will be sharing some of my favorite recipes, or just recipes I find that I must try. Some of you may remember that my son will be 12, on July 4th. I am always looking for fun ways to help decorate and cook for the holiday and his birthday. This drink is so clever. It says that the colors don't mix because they are layers from heaviest to lightest, starting at the bottom first. I am definitely going to be making these this year, but DJ does not know it yet. I am sure he will get a kick out of it. The image was borrowed from Food Network, and I found the idea on Pinterest.

3 ounces fruit punch
3 ounces blue Gatorade, be sure it is NOT sugar free
3 ounces Diet Sprite, you want this one to be diet or sugar free.

Add ice to 1/3 of glass. Pour fruit punch almost to the top of the ice cubes. Then add another 1/3 of ice cubes and add the Blue Gatoride almost to the top of the ice. Repeat the same steps for the Sprite, and there you have an interesting and fun 4th of July drink. Enjoy!




Wednesday, June 20, 2012

How To Make A Homeschool Portfolio in Florida part 1

Since I can't find a video on how to make a homeschool portfolio, I will just show you the steps, as I do mine. This is for Florida, and all states have their own laws. There are three parts to the Florida homeschool portfolio. The daily log, the reading list, and then the actual portfolio part with samples of your child's work through the year. I will start with the easiest first, the daily log. Of course this is not the easiest if you don't actually do it. This is the end of our fifth year homeschooling, but my first year, I didn't do it. I guess I didn't know I had to. I got a little bit of a scolding, but I was lucky I could have been put on probation. To make the daily log, simply write down what you do everyday. If you do nothing, put no school for that date. I use just a plain five star notebook, that I paid a dollar for two years ago, and I think I can fit another whole year in it. There are very fancy logs you can buy, but I don't bother with any of that. There are some sample pages below from the start of our school year, the middle and the end of our school year. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I will post the other two steps on the following two Wednesdays. Hopefully that will give me enough time to get the other two parts together, and images taken for you to see. I think portfolios is the biggest issue homeschoolers have, and make them the most nervous as well.













Monday, June 18, 2012

Music on Monday: Walk Like An Egyptian

Since I was a teenager in the 80's I will torture you all Summer, with the top hits, and my favorites, from that time period. According to billboard's countdowns, this was the number one song of 1987, the year I graduated. Walk Like an Egyptian by the Bangles. I love the hair, miss the big hair days. Enjoy a walk down memory lane. I did! Did you grow up in the 80's, or do I have a lot of spring chickens here?


Friday, June 15, 2012

Food on Friday

Well since we are on Summer vacation, I will have to be creative with my posts.  Since there are no lessons to share, I will be sharing Food on Friday and maybe Music on Monday, and Weird Wednesday, lol!  That should keep me busy over the Summer.  Since I am trying to be more frugal with my grocery shopping, I really didn't know I could be more frugal than I already am, but apparently I can.  We are also eating lighter meals.  So Food on Friday will focus on food, of course.  My first, and personal favorite light meal is chicken with tomatoes and olives.

You can use any kind of chicken, but boneless skinless chicken breasts are the healthiest.  You can use bone in too, just skinless.  You can always remove the skin yourself and save a few bucks that way.  Then you just need tomatoes either chopped, cherry or grape, whichever you prefer and can afford.  We love black olives, but you could use green or a combo of both.  Feta choose, we skip the cheese, and any kind of oil and vinegar dressing that you prefer.  Just extra virgin olive oil, and red wine vinegar is my preference, as far as flavor and saving on fat. 

Cook your chicken first, about six minutes on each side.  Then add the remainder of ingredients.  Cook until tomatoes are just tender.  I like mine not too soft, so they only cook a few minutes.  We like onions, so I would probably add them too.  Sprinkle the cheese over the top and serve.  We don't do the cheese, so you can leave it off if you want.

Simple, fast, and delicious!  I would even serve this over lettuce leaves for a delicious warm salad, or pasta.  I got the idea for this recipe at Cooking Light.  I buy their magazine and use their website all the time.  I do adapt the recipes to suit our needs.


Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Tri County Earth's Kids Club

I found Earth's Kids quite by accident.  Then I learned you could start your own club, so I sent for info and decided to do it.  While we will continue to do 4H, Earth's Kids affords me the opportunity to learn more about nature and things that have to do with helping our environment.  4H is more agricultural than anything.  Since I have no interest in starting a new blog, all my Earth's Kids posts will be put here, on FB and on a new Yahoo group.  This will afford me the convenience of keeping track of things, plus anyone who does not have Facebook or Yahoo can still be a member and follow along.

Since we are in Gilchrist county, the group was made for the Gilchrist, Dixie and Levy county areas.  However, members can join from other counties, but of course there may be a bit of a drive to get to meetings and club events.  This is not a  homeschool group.  I can not stress that enough.  All children will be allowed to be a member, homeschooled or public schooled.  Right now we have three families already interested, plus mine of course.  A meet and greet is scheduled for July 9, 2012 at 6 PM.  The place of the meeting will be announced when we get closer, and I know how many families may be coming.  You can contact me at melissaruede@yahoo.com if you have any questions.  Listed below are the other two links to the group's pages.  Feel free to join and follow these pages as well, or just follow along here.  If you are following on this blog, you may need to type in Earth's Kids Club to find the latest updates, in the search box at the top of the blog.  I look forward to this being a great experience for my children, and any children who decide to join.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/earthskidsclub/
 http://www.facebook.com/TriCountyEarthsKidsChapter

Friday, June 8, 2012

Last Day of School

Well another school year has come to an end. I can't believe it already. The kids have their evaluations in July, and DJ has a 4H scrapbook to create. So, don't worry I will still be sharing and writing. I wouldn't want anyone to miss me too much.

I return to work tomorrow night. As much as I love being home, I am ready to go back. You don't realize how much you need money until it is not coming in anymore. Of course we still have my husband's pay, but my pay covered some pretty hefty bills. Plus it allowed us some breathing room for play and fun things as well. Because I am basically a contract worker, there are no benefits as in sick pay and such. The benefit is that I make my own hours. I am not usually sick so this has never been an issue. Anyway enough about all that. The wound is healing and can easily be covered and managed without risk of infection. So I shall return.

I thought I would share the pictures from the farm the other day. I only didn't share two. One of a chicken, and one of the foal. DJ wants to use those two in some photography contests. So, until I get a watermark on them, they won't be shared. It is a shame you have to worry about people borrowing your images. I keep all my Picasa albums private as well. Google images does offer a wide variety of images available supposedly for people to use. But beware because you can still get scolded if you use one and the owner did not intend for that purpose. Trust me. My kids love cats and kittens. Unfortunately I am highly allergic so there will be no cats or kittens at my house. That is probably why they like them so much, LOL!

I have already started working on next years curriculum and lessons. I am trying to avoid textbook learning as much as possible. Plus, I am trying all the free resources I can. There are some fabulous resources now, and not just for homeschoolers. If you visit my Pinterest board, that is where I have been sharing all the new ones I find. They save space on my blog and my computer.

Well that is it for now.  Have an awesome weekend, everyone!  I have given DJ a writing assignment for his evaluation.  It is a poem, so be on the watch for that.  Are your kids on Summer Vacation yet?






















Wednesday, June 6, 2012

End of Painting Class? No Way!

Even though this is our last official week of school, we decided that painting class will go on through the Summer. Today, we painted on these large glass vases, that I found for a steal on clearance. Mine has Santa, Caitlin did wolves in the snow, and Mom did flowers and vines. DJ does not care for painting on glass, so he started a new landscape picture. When finished it will have a lovely sailboat on the water. I also finished my adorable cow painting. I really love the cows. My mom, since she is the official painting teacher, is going to do a write up on how the kids have progressed through the year, for their evaluation portfolio. Woo Hoo thanks Mom!
















Monday, June 4, 2012

Chickens, Foals and Summer Reading Program

Today was our coop day. So, I bandaged up my spider bite extra good, and off we went. Marcia has a small farm, and so does her neighbor. We always walk first. So, we walked to her neighbor's farm for an unexpected surprise. One of the horses had a foal. My kids were so excited to see the 3 day old foal. Mom and baby were very friendly, and came right up to us. The little foal even put on a bit of a show for us. They make the cutest whinnies and it was running around and jumping. So cute! Caitlin was especially excited. I will add the other pictures in the future. I am kind of short on time this minute. Then we learned about chickens. DJ got a really cool picture of one of the chickens last time we were there, but I have to search through hundreds of pictures to find it. One of my projects over the summer is to put a watermark on his pictures and put them on his blog. It is kind of time consuming. I should just do them as I upload them, but I never seem to remember. It took me a while to even figure out how to do a watermark.

This is our last official week of school. Tomorrow, we will walk, depending on how sore my leg is from today's activities. I really need to return to work this Saturday, so I am hoping it will be OK. If the bite mark is still substantially open, I will have to miss another Saturday of work. Tomorrow DJ will also be starting to put together his 4H photography book. Now that we have the pictures printed off, they need to be placed in the book, under the correct lessons. He also has Math, Science and Language Arts. We need to do the last chapter in the Entomology book as well. They are all due this Friday.

One of the things I wanted to know about chickens, that I didn't already know, is why do hens lay eggs?  Marcia wasn't sure, so I looked it up.  Why do chickens lay eggs?  Click the link to read and find out.  It is actually quite neat.  I have to be sure and share the new info with the kids.  

We signed up for the Pizza Hut reading program, but I haven't gotten the paperwork yet. I found another reading program on Pinterest. You can click right here, to learn and join if you like. Some lucky reader will win an Amazon gift card at the end of the summer.







Sunday, June 3, 2012

Check Out My New Mailbox

I joined a group activity, where you have to create something every day. This is day 3, and if you want to see how we progressed to this step you will have to visit my blog. Some of the things I will create, will be for sale, and some will just be things we wanted to do. Caitlin has been assisting me, and DJ some too. This is our mailbox. To see the other two sides, you will have to go to my other blog. Caitlin painted the sun, and yes there are 50 stars all together.

My spider bite is healing, but I am not patient. It is inhibiting my activities. I do not want sweat or dirt in it, so I have to be very careful. Ugh it is getting to me now. Still grateful it is healing and moving in the right direction.






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