Ducks, Dinosaurs and Doing School On The Road

I guess that is a bit of a tricky title. Do not be misled, I am not writing much about how we do school on the road in this blog but we did, in fact, school part of the week on the road.

For the D Bible Verse we did Philippians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petitions, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus." This was a long verse that was very familiar to Titus. So we listened to this song and watch the below video to help with it. I dont think he got the entire verse this week, but he definitely understands the concept and where it is located in the Bible.

For our "God is Faithful, You can Be/Have" board we did, "God is Faithful, You can have Peace." This is a big concept for Titus that we pray goes down deep in his heart and mind. He is our worrier and so this is a concept we practices often around our home! This was good reinforcement for sure!

This week we did more "hands on" because I was packing us for our trip and needing him to be occupied with out my guidance. Also, it was just soooo nice out!! I hated making them stay in and school so we did a lot out side.

We left for Houston on Thursday morning so we schooled a bit on Thursday afternoon when we arrived and then again on Friday in the hotel. I brought alot to do with Justus but haven't quite got the hang of schooling two in hotels, this was my first go round, so we didnt actually do much at all with Justus. We did some of the activities I had planned to do in the hotel, tonight when we got home.

So here are some of the D things we did::

Here are some of the D books we read::

We made a Dinosaur out of the letter D.

Titus actually did most of this while Justus screamed "STEGOSAURAS!!" over and over. I guess we can do this again for the letter S.

Brother read him Dinosaurs Before Dark::

this picture is when he started. Titus took the book on the road with us and read it to him as we drove. Do not be fooled though, I am unsure that Justus listened at all except the day this picture was taken, but who knows.

We went and fed the Ducks::

This was, as always, a big hit. It was a very nice day so the ducks were a little full from all the other kids feeding them too.

We dug for dinosaurs::

I just buried some of his dinosaurs, big and small, in the sand box.

Dinosaurs hunting for Ds::

I had Titus hide the letter D all around the house. They put on Dinosaur masks and Justus "hunted" them with help of Titus, of course :)

That's it for D week...I think :) I am so tired, so I apologize if this makes zero sense! ha!

Remember.

Today we remember. We remember those who were lost in the tragic events of 9/11/01. We all remember the moment we heard.

To those who have experienced great loss through these events, I am so sorry. We honor you and your families this day. Thank you to all who serve our country. You are not forgotten.

I kept seeing this video retweeted over on twitter and finally decided to watch it. I am so glad I did. Please take a moment to do so as well. You will be blessed.

Gluten Free Granola

Hey Yall! I posted a pic via instagram of the granola that I had made and got lots of commenters asking for the recipe. I have posted a similar one HERE years ago but here is approximately what I do now. I never make it the same so feel free to mix and tweak whatever you want! Oh and by the way, any oats will do but most all oats are full of gluten so if you are hoping for these to be gluten free you will need to make sure you buy g-free oats. (Here is a link to ones we get if I cant get them at a local g-free store although this is a link to a 4 pack so don't worry its not that expensive!)

I have a method of doing this that keeps the cost down and keeps the majority of items fresh and local. I take a measuring cup with me to a store that sells bulk raw nuts (or farmers market if you have one close that actually sells nuts that are raw & local. local nuts are not easy to find in some cities so at least go for raw) and just measure out and buy exactly what I need.

Ingredients::

4 1/2 cups gluten free oats ::

we prefer quick cooking oats but rolled oats work well too

1/2 cup of 4 different seeds or nuts.

• Example :: 1/2c pecans,1/2c cashew, 1/2 sliced almonds, 1/2 pumpkin seeds:: all nuts need to be broken up to edible pieces if not already. I some times use extra to make it less sweet...its up to you

1/4 cup flax seeds (optional)

3/4 cup PURE maple syrup ( i use a medium grade)

1/4 cup Local honey

1/4 cup Coconut Oil or Canola Oil whatever you use around your house (canola works best but it is not easy to find non GMO canola in the US)

1 teaspoon vanilla (if you are going for g-free be sure to make sure your vanilla is in fact g-free, not all are)

Cinnamon to taste

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries (or raisins or dried anything fruity)

Directions::

Pre-heat oven to 350.

In a large bowl mix all the oats, seeds & nuts. This step is very simple if you already measured out your nuts because all you do is pour them all in and stir!

In a separate small bowl, mix the syrup, honey, oil and vanilla. Once it is mixed well, pour this mixture over the oats/seeds/nuts. Stir until all dry ingredients are covered.

Grease a 10X 13 pan (the deepest one you have) and pour all ingredients into the pan. lightly dust with cinnamon and place in oven. Set the timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes pull it out and stir it carefully (the pan will be very full). Lightly dust with cinnamon again and place back in oven for 10 more minutes. Repeat this until it is a desired texture. I prefer it to be less crispy and sticky so I do it for 3 rounds. But many do it up to 5 rounds.

Pull final granola out of the oven and let it cool to room temp, stirring occasionally to avoid it clumping up. Then add cranberries and you have granola!

If you use G-free oats you will need to refrigerate your granola. We refrigerated it way before we were g-free because we liked it cold!

Enjoy!

C is for Caterpillar, Cupcakes and Casting Your Cares

Here I am blogging week 3 and feeling a little insecure about the "homeshcooliness" of this blog recently. I am going to try my best to up the "cool" factor in the next few weeks by posting things other than the musings of my attempt to homeschool a 2nd grader while keeping a preschooler entertained. But lets be real, the day in and day outs of our lives are not "cool," and never have we claimed that to be true, so we will see what I can do in way of other subjects to cover :)

If you are new to this homeschooling series, you might want to check out the previous posts:: Intro, A & B

Our verse for the letter C was :: Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never let the righteous fall. Psalm 55::22

This was very timely in that we had a loss in our family this week. In light of this we decided that for our "God is Faithful, You can be____" board we would do "God is Faithful, You can be Comforted & Comfort Others." This was great for our verse and for our letter although we generally don't stick with the letter for this activity. It was also great for what was going on in our family. We talked about times when they have been comforted by God and how He was faithful to hear them when they prayed. Then we had them think of some people who were going through something hard and send them a letter with the verse on it. Titus LOVED this. Justus was sorta clueless but had fun. :)

We love Seeds Family Worship and they happen to have a video out for Psalm 55:22 so we watched it multiple times a day this week. It really helped!

For Justus we did our normal letter pages::

We read lots of C books::

We pulled out the paint dabbers this week which were a huge hit! So I put a bunch of letters on a page and had him dob the C's. I was so excited at how well he did, I had very low of expectations. He mixed up a few Us but I thought it went great and he loved it!

We made a Caterpillar out of two C's. We read (and watched) The Hungry Caterpillar. I had hopes of making a Cow out of a C also but didn't get around to it.

We delivered one of the boy's "comfort letters" to a friend who just moved and she happens to work at Starbucks. SOO we did C is for Coffee. (of course!) We looked all around the store for Cs and J loved it. We found them all over, Cafe, Coffee, Cake, Cappuccino, etc. Justus (if you know him this wont surprise you) was a little too loud and excited about the Cs so our field trip didn't last that long! ha! He was screaming "C mama C!" and the people in the cafe were not as excited about this schooling experience as we were. hehe!

We had Chocolate Chip Cookies but I have no pics of it because I was indulging in them myself since I made them gluten free!

And last but not least:: CUP CAKES!

That's all I can recall for C. I hope this helps yall! I know I keep saying this but I plan to blog what all Titus is covering this year...I'm working on it. I hope to have linked all the curriculum and sites we use. Please pardon my slowness.