Pre-School?!

We are doing pre-school with a boost!,this year.

Lady Jey is 4 and will be 5 after the cut off date, so she has another year before she would be mandated to attend (in the PS system). I will be using this year as a kind of a see what we can do year, if that makes since. I have never taught Kindergarten before, Princessa attended PS, and I am in a "I CAN DO IT! (maybe not) mode". Lady Jey is a very difficult? child, and is very emotional when she can not GET things, so we will have to see where it goes.

We did a little last year, so I am not just throwing her in. She actually did good beside my fear, it just did not interest her long. We used and will use again LOTW. Although some of the themes did not hold her interest, hence the collections I am creating. We will use the alphabet tree every week weather I use Erica's curriculum, or the themes found elsewhere such as Carisa's, Michelle's... or others. I will just have to remember that I can not give into her, and that this is a "real" school year for her. So to keep her interest this year we have found some FUN things to do with her lessons. Here are some of those.

I will post throughout our year on how things are going. I am also trying to get Lady Bells involved, but that is a whole different "post"

Apple panadas

This is a great, an easy substitution to apple pie. When you are cooking for 6 anything simple is greatly appreciated!

Apple Panadas

ingredients

2 cans of crescent rolls (we use the large ones)

2 apples cut up into 8 equal slices (use your favorite)

2 sticks butter melted

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon

10 oz. yellow soda (Mellow yellow, Mt. Dew... just use your favorite)

1. preheat to 350

2. roll cut apples into crescents. fold ends up so apple is enfolded completely.

3. mix butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and soda in large bowl and pour over crescents

4. bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Serve hot!

Deserts!

Here is a list of our recipes, for deserts. Again sorry for the post listings as soon as I figure out how to do a multi-level drop down menu I will repost them.


Apple Panadas

Horchata (rice milk)

This refreshing drink took the place of milk in my children's diet whenever they refused to drink milk. Even now they still enjoy it.

Homemade Horchata

ingredients

1 cup rinsed long grain rice

1/2 a gallon of water

2 Cinnamon sticks broken in half

1/2 cup sugar

1. in a large saucepan combine water, rice, and Cinnamon sticks. set aside for 4 hours.

2. after 4 hours bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. allow rice mixture to cool.

3. puree rice mixture in a blender until smooth

4. finely strain mixture leaving only liquid. Add sugar to taste, chill and serve over ice.

Drinks

Here is a list of our recipes, for family friendly drinks. Again sorry for the post listings as soon as I figure out how to do a multi-level drop down menu I will repost them.

Horchata (rice milk)

Mommy's Pozole

Ok so I know different families have "their" own recipes for family dishes. And since we are studying Mexico on our trip around the world with MFW, I thought I would share some of our family recipes with you guys.

Mommy's Pozole

ingredients

1 small bell pepper

8 ounce bacon chopped

1 tablespoon bacon drippings

2 pound pork loin, cut into stripes

1 medium onion diced

10 cloves garlic minced

1 can green chilies

2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 bunch chopped cilantro

8 cups chicken broth

2 cans diced tomatoes

2 29 ounce cans of white hominy drained

optional garnishes

cabbage

radish

avocado

tosados

1. cook and stir the bacon in a large pot over medium heat, until it begins to crisp. Drain keeping 1 tablespoon of bacon fat.

2. heat pot to medium high and add pork stripes. cook stirring periodically until browned. remove pork and reduce heat. 

3. stir in onion and garlic, cook until onion has softened and beginning to turn brown. 

4. stir in the bell pepper, green chilies, cumin, chili powder, salt and cilantro. cook for a few minutes make sure mixture is complete mixed together.

5. pour in the chicken broth and diced tomatoes. stir in the bacon and pork stripes, bring to a simmer. reduce heat cover and simmer 1 hour.

6. stir in the hominy, recover and continue cooking until pork is tender.

serve hot with or without optional garnishes.

Main dishes

Here is a list of our recipes, that would be considered main dishes. Again sorry for the post listings as soon as I figure out how to do a multi-level drop down menu I will repost them.


Pozole

Taco Casserole

Cilantro Lime Chicken and Salsa


Shrimp Creole

Calendar Printables

I am in the process of making calendar numbers and month titles for our calendar. I will link them as soon as each is finished. Sorry I am not able to make one post for each, but I still have not figured out how to make a multilevel drop down menu. If anyone can lend a hand, please leave a comment.

Months/Numbers

January
February
March
April                                                             
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Extras/Activities

Season cards
sight word cards
number cards
color cards
shape cards

Our Calendar

There were so many wonderful ideas from great websites about pre-school calendars and activities, we ended up borrowing from different websites. Here is a picture of our calendar and activities.

Calendar

activities

   Our calendar we got from the dollar tree, and actually comes with 2 calendars. The September title also come from the dollar tree in a pack with the other 11 months, although they will probably never be used because I decided to make my own, good thing they were only a dollar! The apple date cards are from Nest Learning. The foam clock hanging beside the calendar is Princessa's calendar activity and came from the dollar aisle in Target, LOVE those dollar deals.
The black poster board above hangs just under our calendar and holds all of our mourning calendar activities.  This is were we "borrowed" from many of the talented moms who also blog, a BIG thanks to all of you!
   The my name space came from Erica, I am sure, over at COAH sorry I can not find the exact post it came from. This activity is for helping Lady Jey recognize, write and spell her name. The one on the board is on regular paper, and taped to the board. She has an exact copy of this page that is on card stock for durability and laminated for reuse. Every mourning she has to write her name for me, first and last. Once she gets this down I will then cover up her name on the board and make her write her name from memory.
   The memory verse activity is part of Erica's Letter of the week curriculum, and includes one verse for every letter of the alphabet. They are a little hard for her to remember, but we just read it everyday and by Friday she can at least remember half of it.
   The color of the week and shape of the week are for both Lady Jey and Lady Bells. The color cards are from 1+1+1=1, although they do theirs by the day, we do the same one all week. The shape cards are from the website TLS.
   The letter of the week on the purple background goes along with our letter we are learning with both little girls that week. Not sure where I found these, but there are thousands of websites that offer printable alphabet flashcards.
   The what is the season is for lady Jey and Princessa to learn the seasons and when each starts and ends. You can find my season cards under our printables
   The word of the week card is Lady Jey's sight words, we made them with the Monkeys because she LOVES them. You can download them under our printables. After making these for her, Carissa over at 1+1+1=1 posted about her you can read curriculum, we immediately joined the members sight, for a small fee which goes to a GREAT cause. Can't wait to be able to use them!
    The what is the weather like, yesterday, today and tomorrow, along with the weather graph you can see off to the side came from COAH. I made 5 copies of each type of weather cards and hole punched each and put them on key rings and hung them from tacs under each day of the week, not my idea but came from Mama Jenn's site. I also got her idea for the make the date activity and days in school, which are Princessa's activities.
Well that is our calendar activities, thanks for joining us here at our days at CA with our mourning routine.

Book Basket Friday

We are off to Mexico on Monday, so as promised here is the list of books we have found for our book basket. Again these are books recommend by the Hazells along with those extras we have found to supplement them. Remember you may want to preview some of the books, like the day of the dead books. We chose to add these in because it is a part of our heritage.

Cinco de Mayo: Celebrating Hispanic Pride
Festivals of the World: Mexico
Holy Mole!
Cactus
life in the desert
Scream shop: Day of the dead
Time Warp trio: Me oh Maya Celebration
Alejandro's Gift
Way out in the Desert
Clementina's Cactus
Spotlight on Mexico
Manana Iguana
Musicians of the Sun
The Legend of the Poinsettia
Erandi's Braids *
Hill of Fire *
Manuela's gift *
The Tortilla Factory *
Deserts *






* reccomended by the Hazells