How to talk about Death to your Child?

Recently, we were just confronted with this subject and I asked Jehovah for guidance in dealing with it and I got it. To my surprise Little V handled it better than I expected.
A very nice friend passed away and his memorial was coming up, so I did some research about it and also had some very great friends helping me out with ways to talk about it with Little V.
Today, I'm sharing some of the things that I learned because I believe we all can benefit from it, regardless of our religious background.

The biggest challenge when the situation comes up with a child Little V's age is to decide how much she can actually understand, but that can be determined as you go along in the conversation. A few things to keep in mind though:

1) Avoid confusing your child: by applying the principle found at Ephesians 4:25 "therefore, now that you have put away deceit, each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, because we are members belonging to one another", you will see that if you tell your child so and so has gone away, they might wrongly conclude that the deceased person might come back, Instead, use simple and direct words to explain what happened: So and So died, his/her body stopped working, so now we can't talk to him/her but we will never forget him/her.

2) If your child is concerned about the deceased being in pain or suffering: you can relate what Jesus said regarding his friend Lazarus at John 11:11 "After he said these things, he added: “Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep, but I am traveling there to awaken him." Note that here Jesus said that Lazarus was sleeping, and you can help your child to understand that the deceased person no longer feels pain or is suffering by asking your child, when you are sleeping do you feel pain? Do you know what is happening around the house? You child obvious answer will be no, and you can say that's how so and so is right now, sleeping in death therefore, he/she is feeling any pain or suffering.

This is also a good time to explain the hope of resurrection that we all have, as Jesus mentioned at John 5:28,29 "Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.”, just as Mom and Dad can easily wake up the child in the morning, that easy will Jehovah wake up those sleeping in death.

3) It is ok for the child to cry: death is an enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26), and it brings pain and suffering for those who lose someone they love and it's just natural to want to cry, so allow your child to cry but comfort him/her as well. Even Jesus cried before resurrecting Lazarus  as you can see in your own copy of the Bible at John 11:35, Jesus felt for the bereaved.

This information is Bible based and proved very helpful for me and my family to help our 5 year old daughter to deal and cope with a loss of a loved friend. If you have more questions regarding this subject feel free to get in touch, leave a comment below or visit jw.org to research more on your own.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Math Tests!

By the end of the school year Little V was already into lesson 7 of the Alpha Level of her Math U See Curriculum. We simply love this math curriculum and for the Alpha level on the kids receive a test at the end of each lesson. So far she has done pretty well!

The tests come in a separate book so the child doesn't have access to them until it's time for it.

I personally take them very seriously, as it is a way for me to see where I need to improve as a teacher, rather than looking for scores to see how much she retained. I do grade the test just for the fun of it and because we do all the activities pages including the systematic review and application & enrichment activities she feels very confident by the end of each lesson.

Do you grade your child's activity? How do you feel about tests? We would love to hear from you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Summer Swimming Classes!!

We wanted Little V to have some physical activity this summer, so I started searching for something that she would have fun and that could fit our budget. I was able to find an affordable swimming class for her and since she has little experience with water, it turned out to be a great opportunity.

She has class once a week and so far she has enjoyed them very much!

On this first level, she's learning how to climb out of the pool, how to feel confident and relaxed on the water, and hopefully be able to feel confident to total body submersion. One thing I realized is that she's not too worried or scared about the water, she thinks it's all fun, and that concerns me a little but gladly the teacher is addressing it by teaching her skills to prevent any issues and Daddy and I are talking to her about it too.

Last week, she asked permission to get in the pool and that was one of the things they were expecting her to be able to do on her own! We are so proud of her!!

What are your plans for your kids during the summer? Feel free to share with us, we would love to hear from you.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Planting Flowers!!!

I love gardening and I love to teach Little V about it, not that I'm an expert or anything, but I share with her the little I know, which by the way I learned by researching, reading or watching videos. We have many tools nowadays that if used properly can be of much benefit, and that's one of the things I also want Little V to learn, we can learn about things we love and want if we put forth effort and dedicate time to research and read about it.

We went to Home Depot and bought some flowers to plant at the very limited area around the building we have, while choosing the flowers with so many options, I could also guide her to meditate on the variety of pretty things Jehovah God had created, and that's a way to help them to appreciate and draw close to God. 

Back home Daddy was able to show her how to plant the flowers, by following the directions:

After that part of the job was done, she could now water them:

Simple things of life that make a great impact in our little ones! What about you? Any gardening experience you would like to share with us? We would love to hear from you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Kindergarten Graduation!!!

Wow... It seems like it was yesterday that we went outside to take our first day of class picture, and here we are already on summer vacations!

We had lots of fun in our school year, Little V learned so much and so did I. I do however must confess: we were so ready for some vacation. We both worked very hard throughout the year and we will enjoy our vacation as much as we can.

I can see a huge difference in my approach regarding homeschooling from our first homeschool year (Pre-School). I found the great curricula that we have been using: Math U See, All About Reading, All Abour Spelling, Road Trip U.S.A, Scientists and Inventors, World's Greatest Composers, World's Greatest Artists, the Portuguese Curriculum I developed throughout the year and many extra activities I found online.

I learned a lot more about homeschool management and I feel ever more confident about being able to help Little V succeed. Most of all I am immensely grateful for Jehovah's guidance throughout the year in every aspect of our homeschooling. It's tough to find a balance and juggle all I have to juggle in my life but with God's help we did it.

Thank you at home teaching V readers, who came here and read our articles, watched our videos and had fun with us in our Kindergarten journey! Hope you'll continue visiitng us as we will share some of the cool stuff we are planing during our summer vacation, plus I still have lots of stuff from Kindergarten to share still.

As for now, check out Little V all happy and proud of her accomplishment!

I downloaded the diploma from a Teachers Pay Teachers Store, I loved it!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Yummy Chicken Sandwich!

We like very much the chicken sandwich from a restaurant close to our Kingdom Hall, so I decided to make my own version of a delicious chicken sandwich and add my special touch to it.

How did I make it? If you have time I would highly recommend to marinate the chicken it just adds flavors to it (just use whatever marinate juice you like better). If you want it to taste even better, grill it. 

I love sesame seed buns, so that's the one we used but feel free to use whatever bread you prefer. Spread mayonnaise on the bread and add some greens, I used arugula and baby spinach. 

Next, brown your chicken in a frying pan, you can slice the chicken breasts thinner than I did in here or just keep them plump like that.

Now, the special touch: add a slice the mozzarella on top of the chicken breast and some sliced tomatoes and oregano!

Let the cheese melt a little and add it all to the bread:

As easy as it can be and must I say, it is delicious!!!

Do you think of anything else we could add to it? Let me know. We would love to hear from you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Where do we Homeschool Sometimes?

There are many great reasons why we love Homeschooling, and one of them is the flexibility! It's very important when your household depends on only one income and the family has only one car! My husband works far from where we live, and this can be great as we can get to spend time in other places when we need the car and it can also be a pain, but we try to make the best of our circumstances, and our school routine has never been affected by it.

So, today just for the fun of it, I'm sharing some places where we have done school. Let's check them out, shall we? ;o)

Unfortunately, we do not have a washer and dryer in our unit nor in our building anymore, so we have to go to the laundromat and guess what? Sometimes, there is where we do some school!

If we do have to use the map, or something else that would be difficult to carry around we save that activity for later on in the day.

We all well know how time consuming it can be to have your car serviced at the dealership, so here we are - School at the dealership waiting area (much better than watch the TV channel they have on).

Here is Little V's favorite place the LIBRARY!!!

My little book worm loves to browse some books after she's done with school, play with the other kids and check out all the different toys they have there.

What are the places you have done some school? Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki