Brazil

We spent a week in Brazil, another country we enjoyed!
We stamped our passports and watched the powerpoint. We listened to our wee sing song and the kids enjoyed themselves dancing.

We also studied the rain forest and the Amazon. Prince and Princessa drew their own notebook pages.

Princessa "cloud forest"

Prince "rainforest"

Princessa "Amazon"
 We learned about an Indian tribe who built their homes on stilts in the water, which actually goes along with Venezuela but it is still on the Amazon.

Prince "Amazon"

We also started using Erica's Expedition Earth to supplement the MFW student sheets. We made the animal mini books.

Animals of... books

 The kids are really getting into learning the animals of different countries, that's why the powerpoints have taken that change. Because they have made that interest known I have let them do their own research on any animal of that region and write a small report to read to each other.
We are also putting the lapbooks together that go along with EE and God's animal wall, which is an easy way to teach or review classification.
We have also decided to take just one week on each country, which will allow us more time to fit in more countries.
The children learned the history behind Mardi Gras, or carnival in Brazil. they created their own carnival costumes on paper dolls.

Then we had Brigaderiros, chocolate balls, which you can find in the A Trip Around the World book.
I also had the plan to Watch Rio, but my Netflix did not ship like planned :(
That was our week in Brazil thanks for visiting Brazil with Our Days at CA.

Tot-school with Lady Bells

Ok so it has finally happened, Lady Bells has REALLY gotten into schooling. Before the holidays she was crying to do school, I knew the time would come, and believe me I am happy! But I had really nothing for her to do. So I got busy over the holidays putting things together especially for her.
I looked through all of our learning toys, all of our school supplies, and the dollar area in Target, gotta love it;0  along with searching my favorite blogs and pinterest and came up with some ideas.

Lady Bells, like her older siblings wanted workboxes, I could not, of course, go out and buy her ones on a whim, so we settled instead for a work basket. In this is the bulk of her "paper" learning, along with other things. We have another box that fits on our cube shelf with "fun" things if she chooses to continue school after her nap.

In her basket she has her notebook, an idea I have to contribute to Carisa along with the printables. I also stuck some of Erica's jellybean printables in there because Lady Jey is also doing the letter J and has jellybeans to eat, anything to forgo an uproar! So you may ask why not just do Erica's printables for both? At 2 years old Lady Bells is more of a fit for Carisa's Tot-school printables.

She has her J for Jellyfish play-dough mat. This is the first time she has ever played with play-dough, I know shame on me, but I am sort of a neat freak! I had to do the first one for her, she was kind of freaked out at the touch of it but she warmed up!

She has lacing beads, which she really took to because of course it looked like a necklace, which she had to wear for the remainder of the day.

She has stickers for her sticker book, which was originally for potty time, but was "recycled" into school time.

Jellybean shape matching puzzle. I really did not think she would be able to do this but she proved me wrong!

There is also an undersea board puzzle and vocabulary cards in her basket. A J pom-pom magnet page, a jellybean color sort, which was real fun because she got to eat them when she was done. And a jellyfish button shape sort page and lots more cute and creative printables to finish during the week.

After her nap she has a box that contains things she can do on her own or with Lady Jey while I work with the older ones. Here are some shots of some of those things.

Tea Party with Sis!

Leap Frog bus

Baby Bear sorting

Stacking cups

unifix cubes

And her favorite an American Girl Magazine

 This is her reaction around 3:00 when we finish school.
She has such a cute pout face!

After a long day in school!

Thanks for joining Lady Bells for a day of Tot-school here at our days at CA~

Canada

Here is another post I forgot to get posted during the holidays, but we were very busy with the holidays and moving, yes moving during Christmas. But I am not complaining I prayed for a bigger place and God answered my prayers on his time ;) We now have a 4 bedroom instead of 3 and that 4^th bedroom makes all the difference. Although I hate, HATE packing and moving I enjoyed it this time because we have finally been blessed with our OWN home, no more RENT!

Anyway I realized I have not posted about our Canada week, so here is a short version of what we did.

We started with stamping our passports and watching the powerpoint. We listen to the Wee Sing CD, and just as before the children enjoyed themselves. We made up hand movements to go with the song, it was fun watching the kids try and keep up.

our dance moves

The kids were very impressed with the Edmonton Mall in Canada, so I search for pictures for them to drool over. I guess I know where we are going once we can get our "Dream" vacation.

We also studied the history of Quebec and with Prince we did and short history lesson of our Acadian Heritage, and the reason why "our" people ended up in Louisiana. I also made him read the poem Evangeline and the history behind it. I plan on taking a day trip to St. Martinville, in March when we visit our family still in Louisiana.

That was our trip to Canada, it was very short due to packing and the itch for the upcoming break.

Mexico

I just now realized that this post has been sitting in my "ready" folder. My mind seems to shut down near the first of December, after Thanksgiving, I go on break mode.

Here is our weeks spent in Mexico.
So far the kids still think it fun to stand in line and stamp their passports, I wonder how long this will last, after which we watch the powerpoint on landmarks of the country.

We then listened to the Wee Sing CD, again the kids enjoyed listening to the song. We did two with Mexico they liked the song Tingalayo better (west Indies), I think we listened to it 5 times each day!

Along with Mexico we studied the desert ecosystem. Both Prince
and Princessa did their own notebook page that I think turned out awesome! They certainly draw better than me.

 

Prince's desert

princessa's desert

                    We also studied the Oasis in the desert, and they both did notebooking pages for this.

Prince

Princess

In art, which is every one's favorite time this year, we did yarn art. This is a type of art taken from the Huichol Indians, which we also learned about. This was a tedious craft for the kids, I had to help Lady Jey who soon got bored with it.

 I chose to do this during nap time there was no way Lady Bells was doing this one (she gets VERY unhappy when things do not come together as she likes them to) but I highly recommend it as a stress relief exercise, it was for me anyway. 

To go along with our week we ate "Mexican" food all week, which is not a surprise for us. We had Apple Panadas, Pozole, Spanish Rice, Dobladas and Taco Casserole, and drank Horchata. We also enjoyed Erica's Hot Taco soup recipe.

Since the menu for the week was nothing new or special we decided to treat the kids and ended our week with a trip on Sunday, after church, with a visit to our favorite Mexican restaurant.
And That is our days at CA.

Our Kindness Challenge

We started our kindness challenge, along with Toddler Approved on Monday. We are using a 100's chart, in valentine's colors of course. We will mark the chart with heart stickers for every good deed or act of kindness shown.

 The rules are that the kids have to give a heart candy or Hersey kiss to whom ever shows kindness toward them, then they mark our chart. I done it this way so that the kids are actually realizing acts of kindness people show toward them and in turn they are showing thankfulness in the form of the candy.
The kids are really enjoying it and I have seen some really good deeds being done, things that they would not have done before. Let's just hope they continue this after the challenge is done.
The first challenge was for each child to write thank you notes to five different people. The children have really come through with this also and have really searched their hearts to say thank you to those who deserve it.
We will also start our first character study on Monday. Now is a really good time to start these with the kids, Prince and Princessa are at the age where they have really begun to bicker with each other.
It is not to late to join in, hop on over to Toddler Approved and grab their button, and begin showing kindness.

Spanish Rice

Here is another dish we served during our "trip" to Mexico.

Spanish Rice

ingredients:

3 cups white rice

1 small can tomato sauce

1 cube chicken & tomato bouillon cube

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. salt

6 cups water, or enough to cover the top

1. heat olive oil in pan over medium heat, pour in rice and stir mixing in the olive oil.

2. let rice cook for 5 mins. add tomato sauce, Pour in the water (making sure to cover the top of the rice) and add salt.

3. bring to a boil, stir and reduce to a simmer (this is the point on that you do not want to stir, to avoid mushy rice)

4. once  you start to see the rice, reduce to medium low and cover. If rice is still hard at this point move rice to center of pot and add 1 cup of water and repeat step 3. rice is done once all water is gone. (if rice appears to wet, remove lid and continue to cook until done.)

Can be served as a side or put into a casserole.

ENJOY!

Taco Casserole

Here is another recipe we used while studying Mexico. It was a big hit with everyone!

Ingredients:
3 pounds of ground meat
1 package taco seasoning
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. salt
1 medium can green chilies
1 can of dice tomatoes
1 medium onion chopped
1 can refried beans
fiesta blend shredded cheese
1 cup red Spanish rice (see recipe)
1 cup masa (corn flour) separated

optional garnishes- fresh diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce

1. brown the ground meat in a skillet and drain pre-heat oven 350
2. return the meat to skillet, add green chilies, onions, diced tomatoes, and all seasonings. cook until onions are wilted.
3. sprinkle the bottom of a casserole dish with 1/2 cup masa, then add a layer of cheese, spoon half of the meat mixture into dish, top with remaining masa, spoon in rice, layer again with cheese.
4. add the refried beans to remaining meat mixture cook for couple of minutes.
5. spoon the remaining meat mixture to top and sprinkle top with cheese.
6. cook at 350 for 45 minutes
serve with garnishes


Enjoy!

A Challenge

    I decided to take a blog challenge, then I thought are you crazy? (I tend to ask myself that a lot these days.) I am so far behind on my blogging that I have gotten discouraged with myself, but I am not giving up, this was a way to hold myself accountable and to cherish the memories of our home schooling years so I promised myself I would keep at it.
   Anyway I have singed on to the challenge, shouldn't be a hard one but one that the world needs a little more of. Over at Toddler Approved, They are holding a kindness Challenge from 1/16/12 to 2/14/12 so go on over and link up and grab their cute button and let us all be a little more kind.

I have been looking at  Erica's character studies  for a while and guess what, she just happens to have one on kindness (gentleness) but I just have not found the right time to add those into our studies. So with the challenge this is as good a time as any.  If you have never tried any of her curriculum you should, she has lots for free and what she does sell is very cheap, personally I think she should charge more but thankful she doesn't.

If you choose to do the challenge leave a comment and let us know some of the things you did, don't forget to leave a comment on Toddler Approved also, and to check the challenge every Monday.

Book Basket Friday

We are finally back in session. The holidays were like a whirlwind and to top it off we have moved. Yes call me crazy, but in the mist of all the action of Christmas we were packing and 5 days, yes you read right, FIVE DAYS before Christmas we closed and were moving our stuff. Now I am not complaining because this was an answer to my prayers to have a bigger place. We now have 4 bedrooms and room for everybody, for now ;)

So with school back on and "arriving" in Brazil on Monday I thought it fit to start back up my book basket posting. Remember these titles or our picks, some recommended by the Hazells and some supplemented by me. Again you may want to preview some of them for your taste. But in any case thanks for reading with us here at Our Days at CA!

Christian Heroes: Then & Now  Nate Saint  * (Prince's Lit reading)
Geronimo Stilton: Four Mice Deep in the Jungle
One Day in the Tropical Rainforest
Amazon Fever
Little Monkey Lost
The Great Kapok Tree
Jabuti the Tortoise: A Trickster tale from the Amazon
I Wonder What A Rainforest Is
Ecosystems in action: Life in a Rainforest
Plants of the Rainforest
MSB: in the Rain Forest *
MTH research: Rain Forests
Animal Worlds: Rainforest Animals
Tropical Rain Forest
Nature Hide & Seek: Jungles
The Rainforest Indians: Footsteps in Time *
Explore the Continents: Explore South America
Brazil Countries of the World *
Brazil American Geographical Society: Around the world program
DK A school like mine: The Americas



* recommended by the Hazells