Jessica's Week:

This Monday was Martin Luther King Day and I wanted to celebrate it with our school day but couldn’t see stretching this into a week long event so I chose to try an overarching hero theme. Monday we did Dr. King, Tuesday military heroes, Wednesday (skip...we had a lot of extra stuff going on), Thursday Jesus our ultimate hero, and we finished the week with everyday, every person heroes...aka how Taegan can show heroic qualities to those around her. I think this was a bit much to cover in back to back days with a three yr old...the connection of “heroes” in all these different lessons was pretty much lost on her thus the days seemed disjointed and a little hard to follow but once we got past that hurdle they actually were good themes and we had some fun learning.

​For MLK we did different on the outside, but same on the inside experiments. Taegan seemed to easily grasp the concept that although each of us are unique and may have different shapes, skin colors etc we all have the same emotions on the inside. Military day was fun because we have a scrapbook of the year Daddy deployed with cool items, pictures, and stories she got to explore. We learned about each branch of the military with diy puzzles and got to take a visit inside a navy submarine at the science center. For Jesus as our hero we did several “play through the Bible” lessons studying the miracles Jesus performed during his time on earth and then talked about why he is still our Hero today and how we can be more like him. On our final day I let Taegan dress up as her favorite superhero “cat boy” from pj mask and together we found some ways she could be a hero in everyday life. Holding the door for someone, putting away the silverware, making a card to send to a sad friend, and encouraging her ponies to stop fighting and let everyone take turns are just a few of the heroic things she came up. 

Ana's Weeks

Our Bible weeks are definitely some of my favorite weeks of the year. Though we do Bible readings during the year and try and read Biblical stories that align with the units that we are doing, it was super fun to really focus on the Bible for two whole weeks and give Aria a stronger sense of some of the most famous stories you find within the Bible. We also got to mix some history into our lessons, and talking about Egypt over the Moses and Joseph days was super fun. We worked on our Bible unit over two separate weeks, taking a break in the middle to do our St. Patrick’s Day unit. I think you could spend at least a month, if not more, on doing stories from the Bible, but I tried to stick to 10 (one for each day) that I had the most materials for. We did some of the same stories from last year and added in a few new ones.


The most successful days were the Joseph, Jonah, David, and Esther days. Last year, I didn’t do any stories of famous biblical women, so this year I chose to add in Esther and Mary (though I’ll go into why I think covering Mary was somewhat of a mistake at a later point). Aria really loved the Esther Veggie Tales movie, and she even created her own crown craft out of popsicle sticks and jewels because she was so inspired by the story. She also loved putting on a puppet show about Esther. Jonah is always a hit because Aria loves whales, and it is so easy to do fun tactile activities with this story. We played Jonah in the tub with whales and even made our own whale over the kitchen table that they played inside of. I couldn’t find the Jonah Veggie Tales movie on Amazon or Netflix, but it is free on Youtube. David and Goliath was a huge hit with Aria (enough so that I bought her a whole David and Goliath army set for her big Easter present). She loved knocking the Goliath picture down with a ball and creating her own stones. And Joseph was great because we spent time doing lots of great Egyptian activities, such as digging up a mummy, building a sugar cube pyramid, and making mummified apples. Aria LOVES Egypt now!


We didn’t have quite as much success with the Mary and Jesus units. Aria does love Jesus and seemed to enjoy everything we did (especially the feet painting and washing and the awesome Parable of the Sower activity). However, I think I should have covered just one or two aspects of Jesus. The day wasn’t as focused as it probably should have been. There was just too much cute stuff out there that I wanted to try! Covering Mary was a mistake because Aria got really upset with me for doing Christmas activities when it wasn’t Christmas. She enjoyed what we did for the day, but the timing was off. I will try and do a Mary day next year at Christmas rather than during the Bible unit.


I think spending several days, weeks, or even a month covering Bible stories is super fun. I spent a good bit of time gathering materials in advance so that I would have math and phonics workbooks, videos, characters, and even musical CDs. If you decide to do this unit, I suggest you do the same! I found so much stuff at the dollar store or on sale at Lifeway Christian Bookstore that I will be able to use over and over again with both Aria and Skylar, so the investment is absolutely worth it! At Christmas and Easter time, there is so much great material to be found at both locations.


Because we covered Jesus on the last day of our unit, we are now perfectly primed to start our Easter unit this coming week. Aria absorbed so much more about the Bible during these last few weeks, so I can’t wait to see what she learns and loves about God after this coming week! ​

Jessica's Week

Little leprechaun and I had a fun St. Patrick’s week. What I love about the green holiday is that there’s so many ways to celebrate with healthy food instead of the junk that too often surrounds themes. We started our week by making green muffins. They had 2 cups of spinach which was well hidden by banana, all natural pb, and some dark chocolate chips. The whole family loves them and it made for a festive on-the-go treat all week long. We also did lots of green smoothies and cooked our morning eggs inside a slice of green pepper. Grapes, Apple, Celery, Snap Peas, Cucumber, Broccoli, Green Beans, Kiwi, and Kale Chips all make good snack foods easily passed off as special St. Patricks food! 

T went to school with a friend on Monday for “green” visitor day and got had a blast choosing a secret show n tell item…she decided on daddy’s Army hat. That afternoon we took a hike to look for and scissor cut out clover. We did not succeed in bringing home a four leafer but still had fun collecting lots of greenery from nature. Since there was no “lucky leaf” I taught her to draw her own (well kinda, four connected circles with a stem) and she drew little green paper lucks to give all her friends. 

St. Patrick’s isn’t just about the color green though, we traded the dark and stubborn gloom of March for some lucky rainbows this week with a Magic School Bus science kit I picked up unopened at a local goodwill for only $3! I heart goodwill if only for the learning kit steals I frequently find unused and for pennies on the dollar. The kit contains a LOT of activities so we will be able to use it for several years to come but this go around Taegan got to color her own spinning rainbow wheel, make a rainbow from bubbles, and play with a mini prism. The prism was a big hit as no rain and few sunny skies meant we weren’t likely to glimpse a real rainbow around the holiday. T’s daddy explained how a rainbow is made up of colors of the light spectrum dispersed through a refraction of water, or glass, or our prism. She found tiny rainbows streaming in through the glass of our front door, she made a rainbow across her bed using the prism, she even created a wiggly rainbow by jiggling a glass of water. As a parent, I never thought to look anywhere but the sky for rainbows but these activities inspired me to stop and admire the beautiful blessing of God’s rainbow in all the hidden places we forget to notice. It also reminded me to share the story of  Noah’s ark and spend time talking about how we can be rainbows to the people around us by finding little ways to brighten someone’s day. 

A lot of the books we checked out from the library this week were about Leprechauns and since it’s still too cold to play outside in our fairy garden I brought the wee-playground indoors and paired it up with some green dollar tree fillers and a teeny gnome character to be our leprechaun. He hid every night, left lots of gold coins around for us to do math activities with, and got into some mischief on March 17th when he did a green pepee and left footprints on the potty. We let it slide since there was also a treasure hunt for us but Taegan did express interest in “trapping” him for once and all. I wasn’t crazy about the Pinterest trap crafts (too hard for her age group and too much work for me) so we made it a simple STEM activity instead. I told T she could pick any blocks or materials of her choosing and to try and create a structure that would entice him to come in, but somehow prevent him from leaving. She did better than expected stacking a “house-like” tower of duplos with a drawbridge and chest of coins in the middle. Of course he escaped but the my little ponies have an ongoing mission to get him back 😉
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In all the excitement of rainbows, leprechauns, and shamrocks I almost forgot to get in our Irish culture lessons but thankfully we had a great books, “A Visit To Ireland” and “Saint Ciran” to remind us. I let Taegan help make colcannon, irish stew, and bailey’s cheesecake for dinner. We danced a few irish jigs, made a green/white/and orange construction paper flag, and listened to some bagpipe music. Brave (the Disney movie) was a nice quiet not quite Irish but close enough (Scottish) way to finish an otherwise busy week!


Ana's Week
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Well, we certainly had a blast celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this week. Each day the “silly Leprechaun” would come play a trick on Aria, which she would excitedly go find the moment she woke up (except for the morning I forgot when she had to wait 5 minutes to come out- eek!). Her favorite trick was the Leprechaun “pooping” on her potty and leaving glitter butt prints and glitter in the potty as if he went to the bathroom! Each day the Leprechaun would leave a clue that he visited (such as a note with footprints), a present (such as St. Patrick’s Day tattoos and silly green glasses), and he would hide coins in different ways. Probably the most creative stuff we did during the week involved the hidden coins, from the “leprechaun” hiding them in green baking soda balls that Aria had to dissolve in vinegar to freezing the coins in green water that Aria had to dig out by using salt and spoons. So festive, easy, and fun to do as long as you take 5 minutes to set up each night!


The girls also loved playing in a sensory St. Patrick’s Day green soup, where they had to figure out how to move the coins, and not the water, into a pot to make a “pot of gold.” I love when Aria and Skylar can both work together to practice their fine motor skills. They also worked together to stir and cook St. Patrick’s Day Playdough on the stove, and though they didn’t care much about the final product, they loved measuring ingredients and stirring the mixture. The Marshmallow stamping was a really easy and fun activity that both girls got into. They didn’t really make many clovers (preferring to just stamp like crazy), but it was still fun and Skylar really got into it.


The science experiments were the coolest part of the week, and though so activities worked and some did not, the girls loved everything we tried. The Skittles rainbow activity is one of the easiest science experiments to do and shouldn’t be missed. It’s really cool to watch the Skittles create a water rainbow, and Aria loved the activity so much that she taught her dad how to do it when he got home (without my help!). The Skittles layering activity didn’t work for us, and this is the second time we have tried it and failed. We had fun doing it, and Aria was meticulous and slow in dripping the water, but I’m really not sure how to make the experiment actually work! We also tried to make glossy Skittles paint, and while it worked for a few minutes after we heated the mix in the microwave it quickly hardened up and took several days of soaking to get the Skittles off of the bowl. Needless to say, these experiments made me even more wary of Skittles and their ingredients! Definitely not going to be eating Skittles any time soon!


St. Patrick’s Day week was a big success from the Leprechaun perspective, but it was hard to find as many religious activities as I would like for the girls to learn about St. Patrick. Hopefully as the girls get older we can find more, but we enjoyed all of the silly fun that the week brings! Looking forward to all of the yummy leftover corned beef this week!

Jessica's Week

​For our valentine date this year I chose to do an in home spa day.I thought about taking her to get a manicure instead but wasn’t sure she’d sit still long enough. I took the money I would have spent and got some fun in home spa supplies instead. Taegan and I filled the jetted tub with red colored water, and a fizzy bath bomb. I added essential oil for a sweet scent and  got some valentines foam grow capsules we could toss in and open. We even painted hearts on the sides of the tub with our Crayola bath markers. After our bath we tried out some  face masks….Taegan claimed she was looked like the goo monster; and she wasn’t wrong haha.  To distract her while it dried we ate chocolate covered strawberries and had some tea. Then we painted each others nails, which left me looking like I got the goo monsters hands but it was fun. Our final spa indulgence was adding a streak of pink valentine color to our hair. We used Alex brand hair chalk and both loved the new do. 

I was in charge of coming up with a craft for the Valentine party at Taegan’s school. As a stay-at-home mom and somewhat experienced homeschool teacher I always feel like should plan something above and beyond for the students. This time I decided on teaching kids about the superpower of love. When you think of cupid I doubt superhero comes to mind, but teaching children its cool to spread love and kindness is no small task. After a brief explanation of how they can share their own version of this super-power we made capes and masks. I cut the masks from cardstock with heart holes for the eyes and made capes by cutting the front off $1 tee-shirts in the clearance bin of Walmart. I used a concept for rocket straws from Space week to fashion cupids arrows and a fellow mom was kind enough to make a target for the kiddos to practice their aim. I don’t know if the love and kindness message will be remembered past lunch but the kids did seem to enjoy the celebration. 
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Back to homeschool, yes we did manage to fit a few activities in. The favorites were a borax crystal hearts experiment, making pink and red puppy chow, and a bible lesson on measuring God’s love. I gave T a tape measure and let her go. She measured (really just counted numbers on the tape) all her favorite items. The activity also allowed us to measure rice from our sensory bin, time for 20 jumps etc) but then we red Ephesians 3:18 and talked about how we can’t measure God’s love, we can’t grasp its width, depth, length….he loves us infinitely and unconditionally!! What’s a better way to celebrate Valentine’s day than by basking in the love of our Lord.  

​Taegan missed out on having a third birthday party. We had just moved, didn't know a lot of people in the area yet, and frankly with my health issues I simply wasn't up to hosting a big shindig. So to make up for last year we decided to go all out. By that I mean my planning started in July for an October birthday lol. I have absolutely no idea how I'll ever match up if I have to plan multiple birthdays in one year (if our family ever grows) but this was def one for the books. I chose a "Neverland, pixies and pirates" theme because it would be attractive to both genders and I knew at this age we would be inviting a pretty split down the middle crowd. The clincher was our setting. We live on a few acres with a creek and already had a fairy garden with tinker bell figures and a teepee we grew with string bean plants on a wood frame. Can't ask for a more perfect Indian camp, pixie hollow, or crocodile creek! I added the sandbox (skull rock), playground set (hangmans tree/lost boys hideout), Jolly Roger (lawnmower cart turned pirate ship) and our hammock (mermaid lagoon) and decorated each location to complete our Neverland landscape. Once we had a theme I started looking into renting a pirate bounce house for wow factor (but wow are those things expensive for a one time use rental) when I stumbled upon diy backyard zip lines. For more or less the same amount it would cost to rent a bouncer my husband could put up a permanent 200ft zip line. He's very handy and decided to save a few bucks, increase the length, and piece it all together from a professionals website but amazon also makes a great simple kit for those like me who are less than handy (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00Q2POYZE/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1508352689&sr=8-8&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=zip+line+kit&dpPl=1&dpID=51KeELMrUDL&ref=plSrch). The "flying to neverland" experience made the party unique and though I thought we might have some scared 3-5 yr olds, they were almost all surprisingly brave enough to go soaring across our creek! 

For other activities we made a map of our yard with hidden treasure "aka plastic gems, gold coins, feathers, tiny golden chocolates, dollar store pirate eyepatches, beads, and painted golden rock nuggets) at each location. The map was a google image of neverland my husband photoshopped before we printed, burned the edges, and rolled with twine. When the kids found a treasure from each spot they could claim their favor (fairy wings or a pirate hook...again good ol dollar tree). 

We painted Michaels treasure chest boxes and filled tiny jars with pixie dust (white sand colored with grated chalk...and a sprinkle of glitter) for a craft. T enjoyed sprinkling her fairy dust around the driveway to make colorful pictures as you can see. 

I tried to keep costs and labor reasonable by doing a mid afternoon party with just light appetizer type food. Paper napkins were folded into Peter Pan hats. We served cannonball meatballs on sword toothpicks, hot dogs with a paper pirate sail, lost boys trail mix, fish (goldfish) and (potato) chips, Fairy fruit (flower shaped kiwi with a raspberry center), and Tink wands (pretzel sticks dipped in green candy). I served Taegans favorite (sparkling cider) in fancy mini plastic champagne glasses so the kids could toast to her. Since we had a large crowd hubby fashioned some themed tables from plywood and firewood stumps. I covered the tops with cheap burlap found at Walmart and a couple simple pirate/fairy toys for centerpieces found on consignment. 

We had about 25 children show up and they all seemed to have a great time! So glad we got to celebrate Ts forth birthday in a big way but I hope she never grows up....because I'm not anywhere near ready to start planning the next one 😜

Jessica's Week: 

This week we celebrated the Olympics. I didn’t have time to do sports week in the fall so I figured this would be a special substitution. As it turned out, most of the winter sports were a bit too obscure and there really aren’t as many good resources for this type of a theme. We still tried to have fun with it and while it wasn’t a highly successful theme I am glad Taegan at least became familiar with what the Olympic Games are and how they work. Maybe we will be ready to try this one again by summer 2020. 

We started this lesson with geography. I wanted T to know a little about South Korea where the games are being held and how countries from all over the world including the US send athletes to compete. We used printed mini flags to locate and represent a dozen or so of the most common winners. Then we watched the opening ceremony as a family while T danced around singing our anthem and waving her flag. She represented America well lol! 

For sports we focused on ice dancing, hockey, bobsled, and skiing. Since we’ve already been to the ice rink this year I decided to let her skate around indoors using wax paper on the hardwoods for skates. This actually works rather well and was a fun, easy movement activity. We also made a cardboard box sled for stuffed animals to bobsled and timed how long it took to get them down the stairs. We did do some outdoor hockey lessons but also made a miniature rink from ice frozen onto a cookie sheet. To represent skiing we colored cardstock ski jumpers and attached them to straws. T could blow them off and measure how far each jumper went using large LEGO blocks. 

Finally, we spent some time reviewing sportsmanship and the concept of working as a team. I had Taegan make several crafts of the Olympic Rings while I explained that each ring represents a different continent and how they all come together intertwining for these games. We made a gold medal from a sauce jar lid and some ribbon while I explained how teammates must count on each other and work together to “win” at many events such as dancing, hockey, and bobsled. The book “Tacky and the Winter Games” was a good example of teamwork and T spent the rest of the afternoon organizing teams of stuffed animals and my little ponies to compete in her own sport games. 

Jessica's Week:

The week before thanksgiving is always a frantic race to prep as much of our big meal as possible. In the past I have only tried to get Taegan’s “help” with mixing filling for a few pies or other small tasks and saved the bulk of my cooking for nap time or after bed. This year I really wanted to include her in a significant way. Not only does it teach her a valuable skill but I figured she would be really proud when it came time to feed the large group of family/friends if she could tell everyone how she contributed. With this in mind, we made our weekly theme food. 
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Taegan learned how to set the table properly through the use of a printable laminated placemat and by practicing before every meal. I also asked her to wash her own dishes after dinner using a plastic bin filled with soapy water and a sponge. They weren’t always perfect but she enjoyed this task and the work it took to set up was mitigated by the fact she always got her dishes at least clean enough to go straight into the dishwasher. I also tried to improve her table manners by focusing on things like placing a napkin in her lap, using polite language to ask for what she wants, offering to pass items to others, making conversation about everyone’s day, asking to be excused and clearing the table. 

We practiced sorting out food groups with pictures cut from supermarket advertisements. I spent time talking about the difference between healthy items and treats that are not good for our bodies. Surprisingly, Taegan got really interested in how to keep her body healthy to the point of refusing unhealthy snacks. Woohoo!!! On the other hand she also felt it necessary to scold other children for eating fruit snacks and goldfish. Whoops.  I had her make some pretend Thanksgiving foods for her kitchen. We did a slice of pumpkin pie from tissue paper and bubble wrap painted corn on the cob. She loved using these along with a felt stuffed turkey I found to serve me and all her dolls the thanksgiving meal. 

 I also gave her a printable Thanksgiving shopping list which was used both in our play “store” and on our field trip. I kept it simple this week and just took her around the grocery store with me. In PA I have been fortunate enough to have a local Giant Eagle with the nest (a drop off childcare playroom for shoppers). Usually, this makes shopping tolerable, enjoyable even, for us both. This week however, I just went ahead and planned to spend three hours collecting a small number of items. This is not an activity that can be done in a rush but it was a fun way to accomplish our chores. We named all the fruits and veggies we could find, pausing to check out some of the more unusual variety. I let her walk around and help me collect items from her shopping list and check them to make sure we got the freshest green beans or unbroken eggs. It was a lot of fun to teach this often monotonous task and I started to appreciate it with fresh child-like eyes. We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and the fact we can easily find and  afford to purchase all the food for our feast is not to be overlooked!

Ana’s Week
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Dr. Seuss week was an absolute blast. Not only did we read loads of Dr. Seuss books, but we filled the week with lots of creative activities and topped it all off with a fun Dr. Seuss birthday party at the local library that had crafts and treats! This was one of the weeks that I was most glad that we homeschool, as Skylar and I got a short virus at the start of the week that made it difficult to do much. However, we didn’t have to miss any school and were able to hit the ground running when I started feeling good on Wednesday.

Once again, the favorite activities were science experiments. We had friends over on Friday and did some experiments together, but even before they arrived we did some activities because Aria was so excited to hit the ground running. I highly recommend the fizzing green eggs and the One Fish, Two Fish science experiment because they are so easy and fun for the kids. They were all fighting over who would get to use the stoppers next! I caution that the plaque attack experiment either doesn’t work or requires a very specific temperature because I was unable to make anything happen, which wasted my yeast. Up to you if you want to try it, but it definitely didn’t work for us when we followed the directions.

Other favorites were the Cat and the Hat hide and seek game and the Cat and the Hat kids game. We played it as a family and Aria had a blast learning to follow instructions while being silly. Definitely worth the cost as a first board game for your kids. We also did some great art crafts, and Aria told a wonderful story about how she would get rid of the Cat and the Hat if he came to her house.

I love that Dr. Seuss can be applicable to so many different things in life, such as teaching kids to feed their pets or clean their teeth properly, to pick up their toys, to follow instructions/maps, and even to try new foods. We were able to touch on so many different important concepts and read, read, read loads of books, which is also so very important. Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss! We are so grateful for you! ​

Jessica's Week

​Seuss was on the loose in our house this week! This is still amongst my favorite themes two years  running. I’ve heard Dr. Seuss is NOT a favorite author of many parents I know because many of the books can be tongue twisters, at times lengthy and to be honest before starting these lessons I would tend to agree. Since having T I’ve done a 180 and he’s quickly become a favorite of mine if for no other reason than the creativity his work inspires. Dr. Seuss was a free thinker (much like my daughter) who was not afraid to step outside the box and create his own words set to rhyme in ways no one else had done. Taegan too has her own little language and made up words for things. She also “plays” unconventionally and doesn’t always follow societies norms. For example her ponies can be whiny crying babies needing to be fed a bottle and her babydolls can go on adventures over a magical rainbow to another world while camping. Crazy right? She likes to be in charge, she likes to challenge authority, she sometimes rhymes everything she says and she likes to find her own unique way of living. It can be trying for me, it can occasionally make it hard for peers to understand or play with her, so I’m ashamed to admit I’ve tried to squelch these behaviors on many an occasion. Then I started learning Seuss. Maybe, just maybe, if I allow her to be creative, to live on whatever special imaginative world she wants to inhabit, to be a unique person, her inventive talents and innate creativity will flourish in ways I can’t begin to imagine. What if she’s the next Dr. Seuss taking us out of a world of Dick/Jane to something new, fun, and exciting! A great deal of the reason I’m homeschooling stems from the belief that traditional education is designed to make great factory workers, NOT great thinkers or creators. But if I keep her out of school and then replicate an environment where assimilation is paramount I’m doing it wrong. So here’s to embracing all things crazy and different, no matter how difficult or time consuming they are 😉
We read more books than I can count this week. Short books, long books, wacky non-sensical books, and classic cat in hat favorites. For each book there was at least one activity. Some involved math some involved hanging a shoe on the wall. ALL of them involved learning…..for Taegan AND for me. Hope you enjoy the activities as much as we did!!!