Pioneers Gift-Project!

Several weeks ago, in one of our Watchtower Articles, we were studying about those friends who devote themselves full-time to the ministry of the good news of God's Kingdom, so little V wanted to make something special for them. So we decided to give them  something they could use on those super cold days.

This is a very simple project, that soon I will be sharing the directions on how to make it. Little V was a great help on getting things ready and we had so much fun together as we made them!

She helped me with the scoring and the folding of the scoring lines...

Above she is sponging the edges of the circles and scalloped circles we used...

These were a few of the boxes we happily made!

We love handmade things because we like to give our touch and make little things special and I love the fact that I can share my passion with my daughter! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Q-tip Letter Painting!

Fun way to practice the letters! Even though little V is writing well, I still have her doing these activities. Fun, relaxing and still very helpful!

I downloaded this activity from 1plus1plus1equals1, another great website full of resources for homeschoolers!  

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Skip Counting by 10's with Flashcards

 Another activity that I like to have little V to do is to put the Skip Counting Flashcards from Confessions of a Homeschooler in order - so far we have done only in order from the least to the greatest, but soon we will work our way from the greatest to the least (to help with the subtraction).

Picture above is showing little V putting the flashcards in order...

Job all and well done!

How do I wish I had all these fun activities to do when I was in school! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Skip Counting by 10's with Math U See blocks

I really do like the Math U See Curriculum and we love using the blocks! It's so much fun and it really helps making Math real by developing a  concrete understanding of Math problems. I can't believe how quickly she was able to learn skip counting by using the blocks.

Little V is progressing amazingly since we started using Math U See and the use of the blocks is a huge plus!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Hangman Game - Fun way to practice spelling!

How many of us remember all the fun we had playing Hangman?!?!? I personally do!! I found this cool game from Melissa & Doug and we've been using it a lot lately, since little V knows how to spell lots of words on her own, we can totally practicing her spelling while having fun! We do use other markers, because the one that came with didn't have a great quality. 

If you can see, we are doing words with 2 letters....

I was so sure that she had picked the word MOM... so I kept wasting my letters and fooling around...

Then... guess what??!! I got hung! She had picked DOG!!! Lesson learned I must say!!

Back to the game now, you have basically 10 chances to figure out the word the other person has chosen, if you get the chance number 11 wrong you get hung! All the Alphabet  is right there, so you can flip the letter once it has been picked, this way you can keep track of the letters already used or the ones that did not belong to the word. 

Good option to take with you wherever!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Empire State Building - arts and crafts project Part II

Now let the fun of the project begin! Yesterday, you were able to see how we started this project, little V drew the building. Today, she will show you her fun on painting it! As you can see our little artist is all ready to go with art smock and all tools in handy.

We mixed the acrylic paint black with white and got this beautiful tone of gray. With a very thin brush she outlined the building, and the windows were made with plain white paint.

Of course, a happy girl wants a happy sun and a beautiful sky to finish the project!

What a great piece of art!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Empire State Building - Arts and Crafts Project Part I

We are having so much fun on our Road Trip USA and our craft activity for the New York State was to make a painting of the Empire State Building.

I will divide the project in 2 posts, so today we will see how we started the project.

Material needed for the entire project:

- paint (acrylic was our choice)
- canvas
- brushes
- pencil
- eraser
- ruler
- art smock
- container with water (to keep the brushes moist if using acrylic paint)
- easel
- good picture of the Empire State Building (you can find it online and pick the best for you)

Once you found a great picture of the building, checked important details of the architecture of the building, your little one can start drawing the building. Little V used a ruler to help her to draw straight lines, and it also helped us to "try" to put it in a scale, but you'll notice that we needed a longer canvas, we had hardly any room for the antenna.

Very laboring to draw all those little windows!

Tomorrow, I'll share the final part of this project!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Spelling Phrases with the Consonant Team "TH"!

It's beautiful to be able to see your child progressing and learning things, and I must say be a part of that process is priceless.
Little V learned the two sounds that the consonant team "TH" makes such as in the words: that / bath.This part of the process is very important to prevent future mistakes and hesitation when spelling words with the "TH" consonant team. If you hear and pronounce "dat" or "baf" constantly the chances to misspell are higher than if you had learned to pronounce it right from the beginning, basic truth here, right?

When they are learning words with the "TH" make sure you put lots of emphasis on the proper sound of that consonant team, it will prove to be very helpful. 

In the beginning of December I shared a video of little V spelling 4 letter words with the Alphabet Tiles from All About Spelling, today she is able to spell phrases with 3 words! This program works and it's worth every penny. I know she is not learning to memorize words, but she is learning how to build the words and this type of learning is long-lasting!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

5 Senses Experiments!

Back in November of last year, we had a week of 5 senses studies and we made several experiments. We used the book: You can't smell a flower with you ear and the activity below I had seen at thecraftyclassroom.

Experiments we made:

Hearing: I covered little V's eyes and set my cell phone alarm to go off in 2 minutes, I placed it away from her, uncovered her eyes and then she was supposed to follow the sound and find the cell phone. 

Smell: again, with her eyes covered I gave her several different things to smell and she was supposed to tell me what she was smelling (coffee, chocolate, banana, etc..)

Taste: she tasted a little bit of salt, sugar, lemon and we ended with a small pice of chocolate!

Touch: with her eyes covered, she touched different things like teddy bear, satin ribbon, cotton balls, nail file, etc... She had to explain what she was feeling.

Vision: I searched online for optical illusion pictures and printed some, that was fun! Another fun activity was to check the different pupil responses from light different amount of light, and then we made the chart below.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Cauliflower Soup!

When I first made this soup I didn't expect too much of it, but to my surprise this soup is delicious and it pairs well with any sandwich. I make this quite often because it's yummy and healthy, cauliflower is loaded with Vitamin C, and offers high dose of fibers, folic acid and potassium. For those Moms watching the weight, this soup is very low in calories (if you wish you can substitute the butter for EVOO).

Let's get to the recipe, shall we?

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower

1 medium size onion (chopped)

4 tbsp of butter

2 quarts of water

salt and pepper to taste

1. Wash the cauliflower and cut it into smaller pieces.

2. Slice very thinly the core of the cauliflower.

3. In an appropriate size pot, add the butter and the onion and let the onions soften (about 5 minutes medium heat), then add the cauliflower and the water. Let it cook for about 20 minutes, then you'll pour in small amounts the soup in a blender, to make it creamy. If you wish you can also use the immersion hand blender. 

Simple, right? Now you have to try it to check out how delicious it really is! ;o)

I am by no means a professional recipe writer, so if you have any questions regarding this recipe, please feel free to get in touch with me and I'll do my best to answer you promptly. 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Potato Eaters by Van Gogh - Paradise Version

As I mentioned yesterday, Van Gogh seemed very disturbed and sad to see all the suffering of people around him. One of his famous painting is about a family so poor that all they had to eat was potatoes, if you see a picture of the painting Potato Eaters you'll see how the family looks sad and tired. Van Gogh used dark color to express how hard the lives of the poor people were.

So, we decided to make it different! The Bible gives evidence that soon the Earth will be turned into a Paradise, just as God intended in the beginning, so we made our Paradise version of the Potato Eaters painting. I asked Little V to paint the same family from Van Gogh's painting but in Paradise, and how would they feel and we discussed also that Van Gogh used dark colors to express how life of poor people was and what kind of colors should she use to express how life will be in Paradise.

As you can see she used bright colors, the family look happy and there's plenty of food! Don't we look forward to conditions like these?

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Van Gogh Inspired Self-Portrait!

During our Vincent Van Gogh unit of the Greatest Artists, we learned a few facts about this great artist life. He was a very dramatic artist and had lots of anger issues, to the point that he cut off part of his ear. After the incident, he painted pictures of himself and I used this lesson as an opportunity to teach little V how Jehovah God feels about anger, violence against others and against oneself.

Vincent Vah Gogh seemed always disturbed with the suffering he saw people going through and it reflected clearly on his drawings and paintings as well. The Bible assures us that soon all suffering will be a thing of the past (Revelation 21:4) and this gave a positive turn, therefore I was also able to help her see the importance of sharing the good news with others. Many people feel like Van Gogh, and the feeling of not being able to help causes them to feel depressed.

To finish the lesson, I asked her to think of a time she had a little injure and to draw herself and how she felt when she had the little injure.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Sharpie Mug!

I've seen so many of these on blogs around the web and wanted to make one. I saw at Michael's a kit from Creatology and it comes with a small brush and 4 color paint.

I thought little V would like it better, but she decided using the Sharpies.

Material needed:

- sharpies (there are so many colors!!!)
- mug(s)
- tape
- cardstock paper scrap
- punch
- oven
- baking sheet

I used the punch to create a stencil, I really needed, could not trust my hands to draw a heart freely! Next, I taped the "stencil" on the mug.

Then, I started tracing it and coloring it.

Finally, I put the mugs decorated on a baking sheet and put them in the oven, turned the oven to 360F, once it reached 360F I set the timmer for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, it's ready!

Here's a picture of the other "batch", hubby decided to join the fun and made himself a Pac-Man style one and little V did a copycat of one mug we've seen  before.

If you decide to give it a try, and have any questions regarding this project, please use the contact form or leave a comment below, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Dice Math Addition!

By now, you probably figured out I try my best to make Math as fun as possible to little V. I had so many bad experiences with Math while I was in school and I want to make sure she doesn't have to go through the same experience.

Here little V is working on the same activity sheet I downloaded from Confessions of a Homeschooler, I shared on a post on December 10th, 2014. However, I decided to make it a little different by making addition with dice. These dice are from Think Fun Games and you can find them in the widget on the right side bar.

A great way to practice addition!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Road Trip USA - Connecticut

One of the things I really like about Homeschooling is the fact that we can basically decide for ourselves what we want to include or even add to the curriculum we are using. For example, Kindergarten does not require Geography, but I really thought I could add it to our Homeschool Program.
I do not expect little V to get into all the detail, but I do however expect her to be able to find the states, be acquainted with the USA map and if she can memorize a few state capitals, that would be a plus!
I simply like the Road Trip USA Curriculum. I can actually pick what I think little V can handle at this time and later on I can go into more details with her again! The activities are very hands on and fun. States Jeopardy Game is really cool, and a big hit in my house!

She is doing pretty well with this curriculum and she is actually memorizing the capitals! We are moving slowly than I wanted to but I'm aiming for fun learning!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Homemade Sugar Scrub!

One of our Winter Break fun projects was to make Homemade Sugar Scrub.

So I'll share with you the recipe we used:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of soap base melted

1/4 cup of almond oil, or coconut oil

1 cup of granulated sugar

Soap coloring

Essence oil of your preference

Directions:

Melt the soap base in the microwave, once it's melted add the oil, then the oil essence and the soap coloring, mix it well and then add the sugar. Simple, right?

* To get this nice pink color, I added one drop of red soap coloring. 

Once the sugar scrub is ready, put it in an air tight contained and if you will gift it, add a tag and a ribbon!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Raising a Little Helper!

I had spent so much time organizing Little V's clothing drawers, all to see my work be gone in seconds while she would look for an outfit to wear! Frustrating, right? So I decided to teach her to organize it herself. It was kind of fun, I showed how I organized it before and she organized it the way she thought would be best for her! ;o)

I truly believe it's important to teach the kids how to be helpers and have some responsibilities at an early age. It is only fair to them and to us as parents.

Little V also helps me with laundry. We used to have a washer and dryer available at the building, but we no longer have it, so we have to go to a laundromat. She helps me by putting the coins in the machines, folding her laundry and then later putting her clothes away.

What responsibilities your little ones have and how do they help you around the house? We would love to hear from you.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Daily Clock and Money Activity!

We love the Daily Learning Activity Notebook from Confessions of a Homeschooler, it came with the K4  Curriculum I had bought last year, during the last months of Pre-k.

Little V loves the clock activity and to convert the date in money. I printed the pages and put them inside a sheet protector and she uses Expo Markers to write on it.

We started using real coins, this week, to help her grasp the money concept better and make it more real.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Spelling phrases: 1 finger rule!

Little V has been spelling phrases and sometimes they turn into a very long one word! So I taught her to use the 1 finger rule in between the words, it looks much better now and soon I hope she will learn how much room should be in between the words without having to use her finger to measure it all the time.

What have you used with your little one to solve this same problem? We would love to hear from you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Healthy Homemade Chicken Tenders Recipe!

We had so much fun during our Winter Break, can't believe how fast it went by. Little V and I made some cool projects, and we will be posting them and their instructions really soon!
So, today we are back with our school routine, and things can get really hectic after a long break, so I decided to share something you can prepare quickly for dinner and on the plus side, it's really healthy!
These Chicken Tenders have been a staple in my house for the past 6 months, as it's quick to make, delicious and it goes well with many side dishes.
Let's get to it, shall we?

Ingredients: 

1 lb of chicken breasts (you can cut into strips)
2 slices of wheat bread (you can use whatever bread you have as well)
salt
ground pepper
garlic powder
dried basil

Directions:

1. In a mini-food chopper or blender, add the 2 whole wheat slices of bread and chop it until you have small crumbs.

2. Add the salt, pepper, dried basil, garlic powder to the bread crumbs. Feel free to add more seasoning to your liking. 

3. Put the mixture of dried seasonings and the bread crumbs into a plate.

4. Cut the chicken breasts into strips (thick or thin, whatever way you fancy it).

5. Roll the chicken strips into the seasoning/bread crumbs mixture. (no need for eggs!!!!)

6. Put the chicken stripes in a rectangular Pyrex.

7. Bake it in a 400 degrees pre-heated oven for about 35 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees (it all depends on how thin or thick your chicken stripes actually are, so it might take less or more time). Once it's done serve it with you favorite side dish!

We also like it with a side of baked beans, rice and black beans, potato salad, mashed potatoes, or just like in the picture above with veggies!

** Yes, some days paper plates are my choice!!!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Art Curriculum - Pablo Picasso Activities

My choice for Art Curriculum for the Kindergarten was World´s Greatest Artists Vol. 1 , and our very first study unit was about Pablo Picasso. We had so much fun learning about this great artist and his paintings. The curriculum uses the Getting to Know the Greatest Artists books by Mike Venezia, you can see all the books we will use on the right side bar.
I simply love the curriculum, the activities are very hands-on and that is a huge plus for us! By following the discussion guidelines set by Erica, you can learn yourself and teach your little ones how to appreciate all the different artwork from each artist, therefore nurturing an ability to think critically about art.
The books from Mike Venezia present the information in a very fun way and it amazes me how much we information we actually retain. Little V reads them at her leisure - that's how fun these books are!

As you can see, I'm very much pleased with my choice!

Working on the artist mini-book.

Putting together the Artist Puzzle

We even did the puzzle as a family later on that day, but of course we had to time it to see who would put it together quicker. ;o) Little V is a Daddy's girl, so of course, she helped him and Mom could not even stand a chance!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki