Memorizing the Books of the Bible!

As true Christians we do make good use of the Bible. We read it everyday and work hard to apply what we learn in our daily lives but it does take time and effort to get acquainted with the order of the books and find scriptures faster. During our religious meetings we make extensive use of the Bible, we check scriptures often and V wants to follow along, which is great, but she can also get frustrated because at times when she has found a scripture the speaker is already directing us to another. So we try our best to practice searching for scriptures at home while we are preparing for our meetings.

But we needed something more. Our organization created really cool videos for kids to memorize the books of the Bible, they are divided in 3 very interesting songs. You can check the videos at jw.org, under the children section. There are so many other interesting videos to aid parents in teaching their kids about the Bible.

In addition to the videos and practicing looking up the scriptures, I created these fun magnetic books of the Bible. It was a time consuming project but so far worth of every second. V is really enjoying playing with the magnetic books and learning at the same time. Nothing can compare to the effectiveness of fun hands on learning, right? I'll be sharing on another post some ways we will be using these magnetic books of the Bible. So now, you probably want to know how I made it, right?

I could have made a box and added the names of each book in it, but it wouldn't be so appealing (my opinion), so I searched for a book clipart. I then created the file on Microsoft Word,  printed it on regular copy paper. 

We then, colored it in categories that would help us to memorize better. For example, we colored the books written by Moses one color the letters from Paul another, the minor prophets another color and so on.

Then I laminated the printed and now colored sheet,  because I want it to last as long as possible. 

Then I glued the paper on the magnetic sheet and cut it, one by one! It was fun though. 

Now V can play with it and practice putting the books of the Bible in order whenever she wants it. 

One thing I want to make sure I share before you start your own project, if you want to. I didn't think of using clear contact paper instead of laminating the printed page. I wish I had thought of it before because I didn't like how the glue smeared some of the paint  from the markers. It's still usable and legible but if I ever do it again, I will definitely use clear contact paper to protect it instead of laminating it. So here's my tip for you, use clear contact paper if you do want it to last longer and have a more professional look. 

Hope you enjoyed our post! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below or email me by using the contact form.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Fried Dandelion Blossoms!

Once I heard dandelions are edible and I knew then I would have to try a few recipes with it. I must admit I'm really scared of trying new things and the thought of eating some weeds from the backyard made me apprehensive but I'm working hard on not allowing my fears to stop me. So here we are, sharing what we did with the dandelion blossoms.

Most people know you eat the greens from the dandelions in salads, some people even add the blossoms to the salad as well, but we wanted to try different recipes. So after I've done some research online I got some cool basic ideas and went to try something ourselves.

V and Daddy carefully picked the dandelion blossoms from the backyard. To be on the safe side, you want to make sure you know the grass hasn't been treated with weed killers of fertilizers.

 I learned that all parts of the dandelion are edible but we focused this time on the blossoms. After picking the blossom up I rinsed them well under running water, then I let them sit for about 20 minutes in water mixed with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. ( I felt like this would be the time needed, if you don't feel comfortable with the time, make a little research about how long should you keep the blossoms soaked in water and vinegar). I'm not a professional cook, I'm simply sharing something fun we did.

Now back to the recipe, since we were making just a few blossoms to try it, I made a small batch of batter and split it in two so we could try a sweet and a savory recipe. For the basic batter you will need:

1 egg
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of flower
2 small bowls

Whisk the egg and the milk together then pour it over the flour. Whisk it again until all ingredients are thoroughly blended. Now comes the fun part, you can add whatever seasonings fancies you to this basic batter, but we chose cinnamon and sugar (I would have chosen brown sugar but I ran out of it, so we went with white sugar instead), if you do make it with brown sugar feel free to let us know how it looked and tasted.

With the added seasonings we had then two delicious recipes:

• Fried Cinnamon Dandelion Blossoms
• Fried Garlic Dandelion Blossoms

Want to see how we made it? Check the video below!

I was such a fun experience cooking dandelions, we hope you enjoyed our post and give dandelions a try! I won't share here the nutritional benefits of the dandelions because you can easily find that online, and if you want to research more recipes you will find that the possibilities are endless. You can add the blossoms to frittatas, omelettes. muffins and so much more fun and delicious treats.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Perks of Homeschooling!!!

There are so many things we love about Homeschooling and freedom flexibility and adaptability are some of the many perks of Homeschooling. For us poor souls who live on the northern states, when it's sunny and the weather is warmer outside, man it's so hard to stay inside and sometimes I can't even focus well on what I have to do because all I can think about it's how awesome it would be to be out there enjoying this gorgeous day.
But as a homeschooler you have the option to pack up your school activities and get out there and enjoy school "al fresco" and that's exactly what we did a several days ago! We packed a sandwich, some chips, drinks, a blanket (next time I'll bring a bigger one) and the school stuff that needed to get done that day and off we went!

We found a park with a nice spot to get things done.

 Then, a little lunch break.

Lunch break and poetry time!

But it did get hot, so we moved to the picnic shelter and since I didn't think well before we left, V had packed only one small blanket so moving to the picnic shelter to do school was more comfortable for both of us. I did learn my lesson, bigger blanket is already packed for our next outing.

Also, there was another day that it was warm but the weather wasn't stable at all, it seemed like it was going to rain one minute another the sun was peeking out, so we decide to "pause" school, go out and then finish school that evening. Can you see the many possibilities? Check some of the pictures from that day and tell me if it wasn't worth the "pause".

Isn't it a blessing? Have the freedom and the ability to adapt your school day so you can enjoy outings and still get school done! After a long winter we want to get out and enjoy these warmer days.

Most of you know, I do work but very part time these days. I'm a special needs caregiver and V comes to work with me, since she was born at all my jobs she was able to come with me and all of them were great experiences for both of us. Not all of them required special needs care, but I think it's a great thing that she gets to be exposed to it and she's such a lovely girl, she's so protective and caring of the children I care. She will be a great caregiver when she grows up.

Now back to my post, last week I was asked to come to work earlier, the boy was fine but the school had to send him home and the parents were busy and couldn't get away so again I packed the school stuff that wasn't finished, gladly most of what wasn't done were activities V could easily do in the car on our way to work, and that's what we did! Could I have finished school later on that day? Yes I could have done that, but I knew V would have been  really tired because we always go out and do lots of fun stuff with the boy, so the best option was to get things done in the car. If you follow us on Instagram you probably saw our Insta Story, sadly though,  I didn't save any pictures or videos I shared that day.

I hope you enjoyed our post. Homeschool has its many challenges but it has also its many rewards and perks. If you don't homeschool yet but has been thinking about it, you might wonder if homesschool will work out for you? Would you welcome some tips to help you make an informed decision regarding homeschooling? Then, please come and check my next post!

See you next week! Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Piano Lessons and weekly highlights!

Since last week we were having a school break I'll be sharing the Highlights for the previous week and some other cool things that happened.

How was our school break? It was excellent! The weather was great and we got to spend lots of time outside and had lots of fun.

If you follow us in Instagram you already know Little V started piano lessons. If you don't follow us, please feel free to follow us @athometeachingv. Karen from Teach Your Child Piano, invited me to participate in this free challenge she was offering and since we always wanted to learn how to play piano we decided to accept it. We are enjoying it very much. I can't believe yet that I'm actually feeling equipped to teach Little V how to play the piano, far from being a professional, but I do feel like I have the tools needed to teach her the basics and that's what made me decide to give it a try.It was a different proposal than any other program I had seen before because it enabled me to teach her, that gives us more time together, and we get to learn something cool together. I'll have another post sharing more details about this program.

Tracing the Treble Chef

Playing Mary Had a Little Lamb

Little V successfully completed her All About Reading Level 3 curriculum. Instead of starting Level 4 right away, I decided to dedicate some time for Poetry, again more details at a later post because I have lots of fun ideas in my mind right now and I'll share them as they happen.

For Math we use the Math U See curriculum and we love it, but since it's a mastery curriculum Little V doesn't get to learn in Math what kids her age are learning in public school, so I purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers website some activities to make sure she's learning the basics requirements for her grade, it's not necessary but it's something I feel I need to do it. I find so many cool activities there that it's almost impossible to not want them. I love hands on learning and Amy Lemons has it all. I purchased the Magic of Math Unit 3 - Geometry and Fractions and we are having  so much fun with it! There are no worksheets just really cool hands on activities.

Here's some of the cool activities:

Something else we have been doing for a while now is giving Little V more chores around the house. We started with 30 minutes of cleaning on Mondays and 15 minutes all the other days of the week, sometimes during the weekends we stick to the basics chores needed.

She likes helping and it also makes her feel good, she sees that she can also contribute and on top of all she's learning important skills.

That's it for today friends.  Hope you enjoyed our post, feel free to leave comments below, ask questions or share this post to your family and friends.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki 

New Homeschooling Schedule!

Since Preschool, we have basically followed the school schedule of the public school, but I was never really pleased with the long summer break. So this year, something interesting happened. During a gathering with friends I mentioned about the fact that I do not like the long summer breaks and that I was trying to figure out a way to solve it, my friends then mentioned to me that a school district near their house has 6 weeks of school and 3 weeks break. Do I need to say that I loved learning about it?

Once I learned about this different type of schedule, I researched more about it on some Homeschool forums and groups and I found out that there are many families that adhere to a scheduling like this and some made it to fit their needs such as having breaks during family vacation and other scheduled trips for the family, others simply do shorter breaks throughout the year.

So, we started with 3 weeks of school and 1 week break, and once we moved it was a blessing being able to use 2 weeks for moving and getting settled in the new place. Thus far we have nothing to complain about this type of scheduling and to be honest it seems like it will be a regular feature of our homeschooling journey from now on. Little V will still have her summer break but not as long as she used was used to have before, and for that I'm happy.

This week we are on school break and we started by going flower shopping and getting some things done around the house.

While flower shopping she was able to learn a little about perennials and annuals flowers, and when we were ready to plant the flowers she wanted to help too.

Hope you'll have a great week 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