Making Plural Nouns!

There are so many rules for making plural nouns and I do love the fact that Language Arts and Grammar for 2nd Grade from Annie Moffatt at Moffatt Girls Activity Pack is full of really good and engaging practice.
A quick review of some of the rules:

• Add -s to most nouns to make them plural (chair - chairs)
• Add -es to nouns that end in CH, SH, S, SS, and X (peach - peaches, brush - brushes, dress - dresses, fox - foxes)
• in nouns that ends n -y: with a consonant before y, drop the -y and add -ies (baby - babies);with a vowel before y, just add -s (toy - toys)
• in nouns that end with -f, -fe, change the -f or -fe for -ves (leaf - leaves, knife - knives)

Now, you can check quick video of  Little V practicing making plural nouns with nouns ending in -y.

 She made the plural of candy - candies.

Hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Sewing Lessons!!

I love sewing and I've been able to make Little V a dress, and some other stuff myself. My love for sewing of course made her want to learn to sew. So, during the summer break we had a few lessons and she was able to make a pillow case for her doll and we started a quilt for her other doll.

Here's a quick video of Little V sewing:

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Making Good Use of Activities!!

We all know the adage "Practice makes perfection", right? Based on that we all know also that practice helps a student to really get the idea, helps them to feel confident and sometimes we run out of activities or have to search for more activities or we can simply add something to an activity that you already have in order to give them more practice.

On Lesson 12 of All About Reading level 3, Little V was learning about Syllable Division Rule for Three Consonant Tiles. Basically, she had to figure out where to separate the syllables in words that have 3 consonants between the vowels, like in CHILDREN and PUMPKIN.

One way: like in CHILDREN, first you locate the vowels (highlighted in yellow), then you separate the syllable right after the first consonant in between the vowels. CHIL-DREN

Another way: like in the word PUMPKIN, again locate the vowels, but in this case if you separate right after the first vowel, you won't make a word, so you'll move the second consonant to the first syllable. PUMP-KIN

One of the activities of this lesson was to read the word in a loaf of bread and "cut" them (separate) the syllables with a fake knife. I thought it would impress more on her mind if we could use colors. So I asked her to color the vowels, and then we would check which way would be best. She got it and she was really good at it. After we did it with the markers, she was able to do "cut the bread with the knife" as intended and I was happy to know that she really understood the rules of dividing syllables with the consonants between the vowels.

Hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Addition to Road Trip U.S.A. Curriculum

Geography wasn't a fun subject for me in school, I honestly dreaded it, so it was one of my resolution to make sure Geography would be a fun learning experience to Little V. We did use Road Trip U.S.A while she was in Kindergarten, but at that time my main objective was for her to learn the states, locate them and maybe as a bonus memorize a few capital cities. It went much better than I expected. Last year, for First Grade we used the Expedition Earth Curriculum and that was great too. This year, I decided that we should learn more about U.S.A Geography and Road Trip U.S.A., from Confessions of a Homeschooler is such a great choice because it gives me guidance and at the same time allows me to add more to it, and that's what I decided to do.

I made a Power Point presentation for each region and the states that belong to that region. We use the coloring pages and the postcards activities from Road Trip U.S.A., and I designed a Book Report.

I also, designed Multiple Choices Quizzes for the end of each state or two covered, and also for the end of each region.

We go to the library and get books about each of the state we are studying, and she uses these books to research the information to fill out the book report. She's loving it and we are learning more than we expected.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

We are back!!

I'm so sorry for being so absent here. Little V is already back in school and is now on Second Grade! Wow!! Time is really flying. It was very encouraging to receive an email from one of our followers and know that people do miss us here. So, let's get to what matters, shall we?

We started school on August 22nd, and as usual we had our first day of school picture, can't skip this tradition!

We have had well over 20 days of school and I have already changed some of the curriculum choices I made, they were simply not working for us. Homeschooling already has many challenges, there's no need to add stress by trying to make a curriculum work out when you know it won't. I'm pleased with the new choices so I'll be showing here what are we using right now! It might look like she has a huge load of school work but it's because I separated Language Arts (which includes phonics, spelling, reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar etc...), into different subjects, it just makes it easier for me to keep track of what she's learning.

Math: Math U See Beta

Spelling: All About Spelling Level 3

Reading: All About Reading Level 3

Grammar: Language Arts and Grammar for 2nd Grade no Prep Pack from Annie Moffat @ Moffat Girls

Vocabulary: Vocabulary Workshop Level Purple

Writing: Ready for Writing 2nd Grade from Annie Moffat @ Moffat Girls

Fine Arts: I made our own curriculum based on the book How to Teach Art to Children - Grades 1-6. Also, I did some research from websites like Mrs. Brown's Art Class and Art Project for Kids.


Science: Earth Science & Astronomy for the Grammar Stage from Elemental Science

Geography: Road Trip U.S.A. from Confessions of a Homeschooler

History: I designed our own curriculum based on the books below.

Bible: My Book of Bible Stories and many other activities from jw.org


Portuguese: I designed the curriculum as well.


We are very pleased with the choices we made and we are having lots of fun with our Second Grade Homeschooling.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Graduation Cap Card - Directions!!

Hello everyone, finally I had a chance to sit down here and show you the directions for how to make the card.

What you will need:

- cardstock measuring 8" x 8" of the color you want, I used purple because Little V likes it

- ruler

- some scoring tool

- 2 pieces of white cardstock measuring 3-3/4" x 3-3/4" (for the inside)

- some Happy Graduation themed stamp set

- ink pad (either black or the cardstock color you picked)

- Star shape paper punch or star stickers or any other embellishments you want

- a brad ( I used a silver heart brad)

- some perforating tool 

- bone folder

Let's get to the directions, shall we?

First, make sure you cardstock measure 8" x 8", you might need to cut the cardstock to get to this measurement. Also, a good time to cut the 2 pieces of white cardstock so they can measure 3-3/4" x 3-3/4" each.

You can stamp the white pieces of cardstock now, and decorate them as you wish and set them aside to dry.

Now, it's time to score the 8" x 8" cardstock: score on both sides (landscape and portrait) at 4"

Or you can simply fold the cardstock in half on both sides:

 Make sure to use a bone folder to mark the creases well. Next step, open your carstock and with the help of a ruler and a scoring tool, score a diagonal line from one side to the other.

Again use a bone folder to mark the diagonal crease well. 

This diagonal crease will allow you to open and close the card. Next, make a perforation on the "top" part of the card, the part that you will hang the tassel and secure it with the brad. The perforation is for the brad. At the 2" mark you make a little hole. 

Now, all you need to do is the tassel, and add the 2 white pieces of cardstock that you stamped and your card is ready to go!

Since I have craft tools I was able to punch a slot for a giftcard for Little V, You can do the same using a ruler and a craft knife. 

I tried to make a video so you could follow all the steps, but I just couldn't get a good visual angle, so I'll share a link to the website I learned to make this type of card, visit The Stamp Camp, and there on the search box you'l type :graduation hat card/gift card holder and you'll be directed to a video where she shows how to make the card!

Hope you'll enjoy it!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Zeferino.

Graduation Day!!!

Wow... I  can't believe how quickly this school year went by! It feels like it was yesterday when we were going outside to take the first day of school traditional picture, and here we are, already enjoying our summer vacation from school.

Little V, officially completed her schooling for first grade last Tuesday, May 24th, and now we will be able to get some rest, have some summer fun. She will be doing her swimming classes again during the summer, which starts today!

Her Certificate of Completion I made myself, using cliparts from Pretty Grafik Designs. The card I also made myself, it's the second year I make the same style of graduation card ( I just love it). It's pretty easy and simple to make and I'll soon share directions on how to make it, so you can make your own cool graduation cap card! I'm just trying to figure out if it will be easier to demonstrate it with a video or pictures.

During this summer, we will also be participating in a nature pal exchange  with some other homeschool families, which I will give more information as soon as we have more done. We already started picking up some nature samples for the nature pal exchange.

Happy Graduation to Little V and to all the other little hard workers out there!

I will still be sharing more stuff we did during the school year, our choices of curriculum for the next school year and what interesting things we will be doing during our summer break!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki