Beautiful Disaster

Monday, September 13, 2010

Joshua's First Day of Preschool!

Today I "officially" started homeschooling Joshua. As parents, we are our childs' first teacher - so technically I've been homeschooling Joshua for the last 4 1/2 years, but I digress.

Here is Joshua all dressed up with his backpack.

Rachel wanted to wear her backpack too!

Rebekah bounced in the doorway as Joshua & I made waffles (see previous post) and counted all the measurements of the ingredients.

After breakfast, Joshua played Chutes & Ladders to help him count to 100 while I made all those waffles!

Then it was "Time 4 Learning" computer time!

After I got Joshua started on a lesson upstairs, it was time to feed Rebekah some rice cereal.

She is such a good eater!

And such a happy baby!

I sure do love my camera. It makes everyone look good. It even blurs out the background so you can't see that although the pictures I post may look like I have it all together.....my house is a mess most of the time.

After Rebekah's feeding, Joshua worked on some writing sheets and dot to dot worksheets to strengthen his fine motor skills needed for writing. And then before we knew it it was time to make dinner. Tomorrow, we will do it all over again!

Making Waffles!

I've been having fun experimenting in the kitchen and watching all kinds of cooking shows on The Food Network. One of my favs is "Good Eats" with Alton Brown. His episode about making your own waffles was intriguing since we go through a good amount of waffles per week here in the Bailey household. During one of my weekly phone calls with my grandmother, we got on the subject & long story short - she sent me her mother's old waffle iron (that would be my great-grandmother).

Wahoo! Brian & I anxiously waited for the UPS man to deliver it and were so excited to have homemade waffles for a fraction of the store bought kind! So today I made a triple batch to freeze. The recipe and photos are as follows (Remember this is a triple batch):

3 Cups each of All-Purpose & Whole Wheat Flour

9 Tbs Sugar, 3 tsp Kosher Salt, 3 tsp Baking Powder, 1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda

6 Cups Buttermilk

9 Whole Eggs

6 oz Melted Butter

Mix the dry ingredients together first then whisk eggs in separate bowl. Slowly whisk melted butter into eggs, then slowly add buttermilk. Add wet ingredients into the large bowl containing the dry ingredients and gently mix together.

While still lumpy, let the mixture rest for 5 minutes

Turn on & preheat your waffle iron

Spray with nonstick spray and scoop mixture into waffle iron.

When (and only when) the light indicates the waffle is done, open and see your delicious waffle!

Let cool completely & slice apart.

Freeze & never buy Eggos again!

Clearly the kids enjoyed them!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Time 4 Learning Product Review

I recently had the opportunity to let Joshua test the Time 4 Learning online curriculum and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Joshua has always loved using the computer so I knew this would be a good fit. He finished half of the Level 1 Preschool units on the first day! I had trouble getting him to only do a few units at a time because he loved them so much.

The small issues I have:

Subjects - Being that Joshua is Preschool aged, the amount of subjects are limited. I would like to see that level expanded. (There are tons of units for K-8)
Reports - It seems that there are no reports available for the Preschool level and I would love to be able to track his progress more. (I understand reports are available for K-8)
Passing A Unit - Joshua had particular difficulty getting the hang of patterns. When given the choice of what comes next, he would often choose the wrong one first. Then he would choose the right one because there was no other choice. He did this for almost every question, but was still given a "check mark" that he finished that unit. I would love it if there was a way to not give a child the "check mark" until they answered the questions correctly at least a passing percentage of the time or if there were a report showing that he does not have comprehension in that area, so I know to make him go back & do that exercise again.

Things I love:

Each lesson was fun, kept his attention all while teaching him fundamental subjects.
Ease of use! This is such an easy and comprehensive curriculum!
Joshua LOVES it. And that really says it all. Joshua is retaining the things he's learned and having a blast at the same time, so to me - it's completely worth the money.

I highly recommend this as a comprehensive curriculum to anyone homeschooling or looking to enhance their child's public school learning.

Wanna see if Time 4 Learning is right for you? Visit their website and sign up. They have a money-back guarantee. I believe you'll be glad you did. I sure am!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Homeschooling Adventure Begins...

With back-to-school around the corner I've been researching Pre-K curriculum and I've been invited to try Time4Learning's online curriculum for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own so be sure to come back and read my experience with Time4Learning's educational program. Click to find out more or if you would like to apply to be considered for a review.