S for StrawBerry

Lady Jey and Lady Bells LOVE StarwBerry ShortCake so I thought what better way to learn S and about fruits at the same time! I hope someone out there can enjoy this as much as us. It is filled with 75 pages of fun learning activities! Can't wait to use it with Lady Jey. So without further ramblings here it is...

ENJOY!!!

                                                                            
                                                                                                            Coming soon Beach Theme!!

StrawBerry Shortcake- Guess Who?!

Here is our first game...

It is played just as the family favorite, Guess Who. We Laminated our and used either Bingo Chips or dry erase markers to mark off the characters. Lady Jey enjoys this game and has learned properly the process of elimination and has brought this skill over to other areas in her schooling. I hope one of you out there enjoys this game as much as we have!

Please remember that if you do donate for the link that you NOT share the link with anyone else, the materials are for your personal use only! Do not post them as your own if you do blog about them please link back to our site here. Thanks!

Games Anyone?

     I have been working diligently on pre-school pacs for my daughter, yes I am aware that there are many already created out there for the taking, but she learns better and I can keep her attention longer when the themes are something she likes. So where I could not find something to her liking I have been creating. She also LOVES to play games so I have created a few learning games to go along with "our pacs". She is loving these so I thought I would share with others.
   These games have taken me longer to get together so I am asking for a little donation to get these. Once you place the donation I will send you a link to download the games. You will have 7 days to do so, so please make sure you download within the 7 days. (check your spam box if you have not received the link within 2 days). I ask for only a little donation, but I also ask that you not share this link with anyone,  And that the materials only be used for your personal use, if by chance you (personally) need more boards then what is provided then you may copy off more for yourself.
Please include in the donation email, which game you would like or if you forget please email me with the game of choice. THANKS
I will not provide a second link, so please save the file to your computer and laminate for durability.
Thanks again for allowing us to be a part of your day here at Our Days at CA!

Following My Path with Route 66

     Well I have recently (about a month ago) volunteered to teach one of our Sunday night youth classes (grade 2-3). Although I already teach Sunday Mourning 4-6^th class, I knew this was going to be a big undertaking, because unlike Sunday morning I had/have to come up with my own lessons. After much prayer and indecision, I found what I would consider a goal mind, Thanks to GOD of course! 

     The curriculum I found was just what I wanted; it combines the books of the Bible with stories from each book. I myself growing up in church was introduced to the fundamental “Bible Stories” which seems many have gotten away from. And from experience, with my husband who learned NONE of those stories, I have come to realize these stories are important! Without these stories I would have learned nothing of the Bible, but thanks to them I know the background of the scripture. I thought this important to teach “my kids” as well as learning where each book of the Bible is. So the GREAT curriculum I found was Route 66.

                                               

This book goes through all 66 books of the Bible, teaching along the way the stories from each book.

       With the curriculum the kids make a “scrap-book”  and keep a map for each stop. The activities within the book are not just written assignments but hands on things, such as a Passover supper you share with the children that represents the feast within the Bible.

      We have gotten to Genesis and have learned about the creation, the flood, the covenant with Abraham, and the story of Isaac and Abraham. The kids, (right now all I have are girls) have even asked on off nights if they could do their folders “scrap-books” So I guess if they are asking for it they are enjoying it!

      I know I am enjoying it, not just the book, but the chance to be a part of their lives. It is truly a blessing to know once they accept Christ that you had a small part of that! Or even if they have already taken that step, you as a teacher have a hand in getting them ready to be self confident enough to share their beliefs with others!

     So it was my prayer, through following My path God has set out in front of me, that I found this curriculum, that through its teaching the children will establish the foundation they need to do just as God has commanded us to do in, Matthew 28:19, and TELL!

      I hope also to use this curriculum when finished, with mine own children as I teach them the stories here at home at our days at CA.

Our recipes

     I decided to post these here not necessarily to share but so that I can find them!

     Some are borrowed, some are handed down, and some are tweaked to satisfy our likings. Some are my favorite restaurant recipes from the web, because we can’t afford to eat at them every weekend ;)

     I have some that will not eat without having meat, and some that don’t like anything green!

I have some who would rather not have meat (ME) and all do not eat meat on the bone! 

I have some who eat only one meal a day and some who eat ALL day. 

Some are Cajun recipes that I grew up on, some are Mexican recipes (tweaked) that my husband grew up on, some are “country cooking” because we live in Tennessee, and some or Italian because it is my favorite!

     So by now you may have guessed that our menus have a variety of meals!  I hope someone out there can enjoy them. If any question about a recipe leave a commit! I will try to post all the recipes I use monthly, here at Our Days at CA!

                                  

                                

B for Bird

     I was not anticipating this collection, it just came to me. As you might know we will be starting Apologia Science for our summer quarter (I gave the kids another week off, to get things ready). I decided to start with Zoo 1, which for those who know is centered around flying creatures. I decided to break it in half, doing the first half, birds and bats, during this summer, and the second half, bugs, during next summer. This will give us a break with the Apologia text, in which we will fill in with MFW science.
     So I decided what better way to include Lady Jey in the studies but with her own bird unit! So here it is...                                 

Remember if you use this collection and have a blog please blog about it and link it up here. As we use it I will blog about it.  Thanks for reading and joining us here at our days at CA




               Coming soon: S for Strawberry "shortcake" Fruits

15 reasons!

      As some of you may know, this week is our VBS! I have to admit that for many reasons I was not ready for this year, and thought many times to give up my teaching position, but every time I was about to do it I backed out feeling guilty. I knew that not teaching would bother me all SUMMER.

 I have finally accepted that this IS my calling and I need to stop trying to run from it. 

       Anyway when Monday morning came around I was ready as usual and things went smoothly until Tuesday Afternoon when I was getting my things together for the next day, our BIG day, the ABC day. I begin doubting myself, wondering if I am really doing what I should be, wondering if I would say the things that needed to be said, to lead these kids to CHRIST. Well Wednesday came, and after a night full of prayers, it went smoothly. I knew the exact things to say, as I always do. I knew and felt God working through me, like I KNEW he would.

     NOTHING happened!

     I began wondering this morning (Thursday)on my way if maybe this year would be like our last year, I know we are just suppose to be happy to “plant the seed” but these are kids (most of) who you see every year, they grow on you, and you want so much to share your happiness with them, you just want to grab them and say listen it is so easy! JUST DO IT!!! But I know that is not the way it is done, you wait until they are ready to accept, when GOD is working in their life. Anyway with all this on my shoulders I pushed my way forward and arrived on time for another day of VBS. 

       Upon arriving one of the other teachers whose daughter is in my class whispered to me  that her daughter, said she thinks she is ready! So I made mention in class  that even though we have the ABC day behind us, that it does not mean that it is too late, today is better than any other day to accept CHRIST if he is knocking on your hearts door. Later in the day our pastor came in the room to speak to the kids about salvation and accepting CHRIST.

     AND WHAT A BLESSING I WOULD HAVE MISSED! After all the doubts, which I knew were redundant, 7, YES you see right, SEVEN!! in my class alone accepted CHRIST as their SAVIOR!!!!! What joy, and this is not even the icing on the cake, we had 15, yes FIFTEEN, in all, of various ages  TODAY to turn their lives over to CHRIST!!! 

some of the 15!

     WHAT MORE COULD ONE ASK FOR, I prayed: God just give us one, and GOD answered with 15. GOD is SO!!! GOOD! And that is why I am THANKFUL for this Thursday!

                            Some other pictures from the week!

Are we starting yet?

      So, my days have been spent planning out our year, I don't want it to be a repeat of the unorganized year we had this year. We had several family emergencies that threw us off course, but we managed to get our 180 days in to make it official.
       So the course of action this summer is plan, plan, PLAN, and laminate and bind an so on and so forth. In the mist of all this action, I had Prince ask very enthusiastic, "Are we starting yet?" Which threw me for a loop, Hey weren't you the kid who was happy to be finished at the beginning of the month? I had to give a very apologetic NO, which was answered with We are bored can't we start back? SOON, I say (too soon for me, I'm not done yet!!) I planned on giving them the whole month of June off, then start back on the 4th of July (we celebrate over the weekend). I am crossing my fingers that they hold off that long. Maybe with VBS next week, they will forget about being bored!
       I know the main reason they want to start back is because of this...


 I am just praying that I get everything done for at least our fist quarter to have a smooth, or as smooth as can hope for , year here at Our Day at CA

P for Princess!

Ok, so if your on this page it means that you are checking out my printables! I am in no way claiming the awesomeness for some of those  creatively blessed moms nor the "seasoned" moms, I simply just know what Lady Jey likes. So using a collection of ideas from COAH, Carisa, and too many more to list, I have come up with a collect that contains Lady Jey's favorite exercises. We are trying, since she will be 5, to do more "school" but I am still trying to make it fun for her. So thinking in these terms, what better way to keep it fun then to use themes she likes, and of course princess had to be first. I know, there are plenty of this theme already created, some from the sites mentioned above, but what better feeling is there to know your child is learning from something you created with him/her in mind, and that is my reward for all the time put into these, "Our collections at CA"

P for princess

(I will blog about this collection as we use it!) If you use it and have a blog, I would like it if you blogged about it and linked back to us here. I hope you and your little princess enjoys these, courtesy of Our days at CA.





                                        COMING SOON.... S for Strawberry Shortcake (fruits)
                                                                         B for Beach

Thankful Thursday

Ok so I know I am a day late for this post, but I have come to accept that I am NEVER on time for anything!
This thankful post is like the snowball effect but I will post about the most recent layer.
I have to say right now I am very thankful for my kids and their relationship with CHRIST. Both of my older children, Prince and Princesa accepted Christ at an early age and have been in church ever since. They have heard since an early age the importance of striving to be like CHRIST and to share (TELL) others about his awesome love. I know that one is not to doubt another's salvation, and I didn't, I just thought, "How can one so young truly understand everything, how can they grasp the importance of telling others." Then I realize I do not understand EVERYTHING, I learn more and more each day, that is how it is meant to be, we grow as Christians each and every day.
As for TELLING others, my son made me realize that it is truly as easy as ABC (Admit, Believe, Confess). I always use to think teaching Sunday school and VBS classes, just how much the children learn. Well I got my answer on Wednesday: Prince (age 11) came in elated, with tears in his eyes; He had led two of his friends to CHRIST! Simply using the ABC,'s and our all time favorite song "HE was thinking of me". This makes me so very thankful for what CHRIST did for me, what he does for my family, and to know that he truly hears and answers my prayers about my children. Life is filled with temptation, so to know that God is leading and guiding my children, I can never be thankful enough! I will continue to pray the prayer that CHRIST leads my children down the right roads, because I realize as they grow life will be filled with more difficult temptations and they will need CHRIST by their side.
So for today, and everyday, I am truly thankful for my children being able to be part of the "church" leading others to CHRIST through their love of HIM. Isn't it wonderful that HE can use the youngest of "members" to win others over?
So our goal now, is not only to strive to be like CHRIST, but to win others over with HIS guidance, at our days at CA~ 

God's simple plan

Sharing

Not that these are so awesome that everyone is going to come running to claim these as their own, it just seemed professional to include a terms of use. So here goes:

These printables are created, for free, for personal use and/ or for use in your classroom. No part of these can be changed or edited in anyway (unless otherwise posted). Please do NOT upload, reproduce, sell, host, or store on any website or retrieval system. Please do not abuse this system of sharing. Printables, pictures, and post or the sole property of CA and are copyrite protected.

Enjoy these printables, courtesy of our days at CA!

Our Studies

Our home-schooling journey began 2 years ago, so we are still going through a trail and error phase. With my children and my teaching style a packaged curriculum did not seem to work for us. So over the past 2 years I have pulled from here and there, seeing what "fit" us and what didn't. So I guess that would make us a eclectic home-schooling family. We also tried a traditional style, but all the worksheets and test seemed mundane. As some of you probably already found, my children were doing better narrating their "test" then doing them by paper and pencil. So I have decided to incorporate more reciting and narrating. So I guess now we would be considered a mix of CM and traditional styles. Whatever one may want to label us as we just call it Our Days At CA.

Our Summer Plans?

     With our year whining down, June 4th our last day, my mind has been focused on what to do about the summer. I have considered all of our needs and have decided on a plan, IF it holds together. I am always planning but am willing to take life as it happens!
   Last year we tried Time 4 Learning; it was a good program and could possibly be used as a total curriculum depending on your state standards. We however enjoy hands on curriculum. I did like that the program helped to reinforce and gave extra practice for my children over the summer. For this reason, I did a lot of searching for a program like Time 4 learning, one that might possibly be, dare I say it, FREE! especially since it will only be used as summer practice and reinforcement. After many long nights searching, I found IT,
   Head of the Class. This site is very comparable to T4L, but it is FREE! And what better word is there after spending lots of money on our "basic" curriculum. Besides it will only be used for a month, which is all my DC can take of this type of curriculum, before we start our Summer Quarter.
    So my main focus is on our summer "Quarter", which is 8 wks from, June through August. (We start our fall "Quarter" in September). So here is my plan:

       Math: We will be doing MUS, Alpha, because my children still use their fingers to add… so to get a firm foundation on their math skills we have decided along with the wonderful staff at MUS that reviewing Alpha will be the best for us. In the fall, or after Christmas, we will start Gamma, only because my DC have their regrouping down, and are able to skip Beta.

Reading: Prince will read Old Yellow and then complete the comprehension worksheets. Then for a family movie night we will enjoy the movie. He will then read the series, The Incredible Worlds of Wally McDoogal.

                    


 Princesa will read the Ramona Series.       
 

Language Arts will be done at Head of the Class.
 

Science: I am excited to say, this will be our first year using the Apologia, Young explorer series. We will start out with Zoology 1. I have been planning out our quarter and I am excited to get it started. We have yet to find a "fit" for us, in Science. Both Prince and Princesa Love Science so I really believe they will enjoy these texts and notebooks. I am aware that we may not finish in 8wks, so since we LOVE science around here we will probably add this in to our Fall Quarter also, which will put us doing two sciences (NO, I am NOT crazy), don't worry they will intermingle in a way because we will be starting MFW 1^st cycle. YES, YES, I know, ECC is about Ecology or habitats, not a focus on the animals, but here at CA we are going to do a spin on the science and focus more on the animal kingdom and where in the world the animal can be found. I got this idea from Erica over at COAH. Once we finish up Zoo 1 we will then start in on Zoo 2 and finish it up the following summer. (Yea, I like to plan for the future!)

    So... Math, Reading, Language Arts, Science, and a week of VBS thrown in, I believe that counts as an academic summer ;)  and if not at least our days at CA will not be spent idol and unfocused. I will not have to hear the all too famous, "I am bored! What can I do!?"

            

 

Have you Heard?

    I know many of you probably already follow, but just in case, I wanted to share:

   Michelle, over at musings of me is having a great give away. It is her newest creation, a Circus Teacher pack. It is awesome and includes lots of goodies. The main pack includes, math and literacy centers along with, writing, cooking, and art projects. Included with the give away (separate with purchase) Michelle is giving an art project with a cute little train, and kindergarten and 1st grade sight words unit. If you have not tried these packs they are great and I highly recommend them.

Property of
http://thoughtsofesme.blogspot.com/

      Lady Jey loves them. She is not good with change so these packs work out great with her because they stick with one theme throughout the week or 2, depending on how fast you work through them. The packs include work in all the "main" subjects. So we are not jumping from theme to theme throughout the day, which would be impossible with Lady Jey. She also gets excited on Sunday and can not wait until she knows what theme we will be starting on Monday. It often times turns into a guessing game, which I aways give into, so the theme is not just thrown at her on Monday, this gives her the chance to get ready for Mondays.
       Anyway go on over and enter for a chance to win this great give away. Also while there check out Michelle's other free theme packs. We will defiantly be adding this theme to our days at CA.

Castle Academy?

    I "researched" and visited MANY blogs in my attempt to start my own, and I always wondered where some of the names came from.
   So you may be wondering, Castle Academy, well the name was "born" the summer of 2009. That summer was when "that" light went off and we started our adventure, anyway I figured let's be all techy and give ourselves a name. There was not much deliberation, the kids had already chose "their" colors, which I knew from the beginning we were going to have to be color coded to keep organized. We ended up with a rainbow of colors, so our mascot, per say, became a rainbow but I also wanted to use our last name so the rainbow became a castle over the rainbow, which we use for our planners and other paper work.
     So keeping within our "mascot" we chose Castle Academy (which is a play on our last name) as our school name. After the name was chosen the perfect school motto came to mind, "where we serve the KING of kings". VOILA! It all fit perfectly!
     And so the name got transfered to the blog since this will be our unofficial record of happenings within our school years.
     So without further ado, here are the students of Castle Academy and my Heirs to HIS kingdom:

Prince
(Born Again on 5/06)

           Prince is our oldest and only son, for now, my DH keeps saying ;) He is in the 5th grade, and enjoys reading and video games. He loves reading anything that pretains to the Greek myths, which I allow only because he has a firm understanding of God in relation to these mythical characters. He struggles in Math and Spelling, so those are our areas we will emphsize in the fall. He excells in Reading, and History. And he loves Science! especially expirements ;p

Princesa
born again on 7/09

          Princesa is our oldest daughter. She is in 2nd/3rd grade. She enjoys reading, computer games, drawing, and writing. She is the little mommy of the group and enjoys her role as such. She also likes to sing and does so in church when she can get someone else to muster up enough courage to join her. Princesa has also recently been diignosed with ADHD and ODD along with other sensory issues. So we have a road of great trail and error ahead of us! She does great in all her studies and only struggles when she has a bad day with her issues. She is my first expirence through these medical issues so I am still learning.

Lady Jey
(awaiting title)

       Lady Jey is our middle daughter and is in an awkard stage. At 4 she wants so bad to be independant but still needs Mommy. She is at times jealous of baby sis, so then she wants to be a baby.  She is in pre-school (sometimes) and doing well. We are using a LOTW type study with her. We get most of her things from Erica but we also add in more sensory activites. She enjoys TV (which we limit) and wants to meet the Veggie Tales and Hermie ;) She is much of the same kind of learner and has many of the same mannerisms as Princesa so we anticipate having some of the same issues with her.

Lady Bells
(awaiting title)

           Lady Bells is our youngest, for now! Yes we want a big family (which may be uncomfortable to some). She is my tornado, a non-stop whirl wind. I was pregnaunt with her when our adventures began so she knows nothing more then everyone always being together. She is almost 2 (in july) and thinks she is 5. This year was new to Lady Jey with doing pre-school stuff but Lady Bells wanted in on everything. So I have decided, with the help of Carisa's materials over at 1+1+1=1, that she is ready for Tot School. This will be an adventure, because she is very strong willed, but we will take it one day at a time. I have learned within this short time to make it as fun as possible, especially with the littles so they think you/they are playing, while actually learning. Carisa has lots of fun stuff, check out her tot packs and if this is a little to advanced for your little one, she now has Tot letter printables, check them out in action here.

         So just in case you were wondering, that is the story behind the name. As for the children, I enjoy teaching each one, although I have to admit it is a struggle some days :) But I would not expect any less with 4 all on different learning levels and with different learning styles. There are some days when mentally I would like to throw in the towel, but looking at them and actually getting to see them grow before my eyes, I am reminded why I chose to commit heart, soul, and mind to this journey. I am also gently (sometimes shaken) reminded that this is GOD'S path for me and I know that where he puts/leads  me he will always be there for me. So it is with much prayer, guidence, and lended strenght that we as a family: make it through our days at CA!

         

Home-schooling: OUR choice!

Hello World!

Hello, and Welcome to our madness lives. This blog was started for many purposes:
 1^st as a memory for my children,
 2^nd as a way to hold myself accountable,
3^rd to keep records,
4^th to allow those who doubt, a peek into our world,
and last but not least for enjoyment.

 I would like to introduce you to my family,  

 We are a homeschooling (I like how this is always underlined in red, like there is no such word) family of 4. Our days are filled with structured “school” lessons, life lessons, family time, and most important GOD. We strive each and everyday to walk in his will, which lead us to the reason(s) we home-school (what is the proper way to spell this anyway?)


          I image we have some of the same issues and struggles as each of you have/had that pertain to the reasons we all chose this road. My two older children attended public school before we set out on God’s path.
     Do you realize the number of hours they are way from you? Mom and Dad are here to be the most influential person in the life of their children, how can this be if the child spends a total of 6 (give or take)sleepless hours a day with his parents and a total of 9 hours within the PS system. Not to mention, those allotted hours we get are spent getting ready for school, driving to school or waiting for the bus, driving back from school (with parent if lucky), doing homework, doing what chores time allows, eating, and then getting ready to do it all again.  And believe me we almost NEVER got it all done! So, I ask, who is raising our children? After going through the higher education system to join in the ranks believe me when I say, " YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW!!!" (of course I have to admint there are a few good apples put there by GOD)


        Any way back to the point, Princesa (which will be her nickname for all intense & purposes) went to PS in kindergarten where she did fairly well and was on target for everything, but the same could be said for my son whom we will call Prince. He attended PS for 4 years (K-3^rd). Let’s just face it life happens and sometimes we are forced to move, and we all know PS districts are not on the same wave link. In 1^st grade he was put into a system that was failing BAD! Needless to say he got way behind (which was not realized until later!). We ended up having to stay within the same school district for 2^nd grade (princesa still not in school) so I chose to enroll him out of zone and we swallowed the gas bill! The school in which he attended was a “top district school” in the area, so he did well with what he had. Then 3^rd grade rolls around he and Princesa attended this same school, again the gas bill!


       Third grade was the catch! We realized just how much he had drifted behind, there was NO catching up. His grades plummeted, everything from handwriting (which was never worked on outside of home) to math! For this to be a “top” school I think I had all but 2 mandatory visits with the teacher, beginning of the year and midway to the end. The last visit was to inform me that if he did not work and his math during the summer he would not understand anything and fall behind during 4^th grade. (You are kidding right! YOU are going to allow him to move on AGAIN without a foundation, and oh, he did not qualify for summer school.)

        So I took this knowledge and my frustrations home, and fumed for the rest of the school year. We went shopping for workbooks to use during the summer. I planned out a hole math unit for him. In the mist of doing this a light bulb went off  "why don’t I keep them home to learn" after all we had neighbors who did this and I could always lean on them for guidance (and believe you me, I got it, sometimes more then I could stand). Plus I was not willing Princesa get pushed aside (she has been diagnosed with ADHD and ODD along with some sensory issues) So I turned to God and begin praying about it. The funny thing was, I was already attending “home-school” with distance learning at UOP. I believed at the time this was God’s calling to become a elementary teacher but through the prayers for my children I realized God’s ultimate goal, My experience with the EDU system was to open my eyes to the PS environment, and to reinforce my decision to educate my children myself through the knowledge and strength of God.

        I have to admint it has been a rough 2 years. We have had everything possible we could handle thrown at us. From the non-support of family members (I’m sure most have been in the same boat), to financial issues, family crises, health issues, to the all well known burn-out. But through GOD we have stood Strong and will continue to do so! So to all who read, and you know who you are, this was not a decision taken lightly, many sleepless nights were put into this decision, but this will be the road we continue on until GOD lets me know otherwise. So sit back and enjoy the journey through our days at Castle Academy! (Where we are serving the KING of kings)

Brandy