Graduation Party Favor!!

Hello there, first of all I want to apologize for the delay in bringing you this second project of our Gradution Theme Craft Series. Life happens and I was so really busy last week, I didn't have a chance to get to film the video at all, but I'm hoping you'll agree with me that it's better later than never!

Without anymore delay lets get to it, shall we?

Today, I'll be sharing this cute little treat box so you can make it in time for a Graduation Party. Not may tools needed and this is a quick project. I made these boxes many times before so I basically know the measurements by heart.

From a 12 x 12 inches piece of cardstock or Designer Paper, you can make 4 boxes and for me that's a great deal!

Here a list of tools you will need:
- scoring board either in metric (cm) or imperial (inches) or one that has both metric and imperial measurements, with this last one you can also trim the paper.
- bone folder (sometimes come with the scoring tool) but in case you want a separate one
- double sided craft tape
- mini decorative clothespins
- designer paper in silver or gold
- graduation theme sicker 

Now, let's watch the video!

Directions:

Piece of 6 x 6 inches or 15 x 15 cm paper

Score at:

Score line 1: 1-3/8 inches or 3.5 cm
Score line 2: 2-3/4 inches or 7 cm
Score line 3: 4-1/8 inches or 10.5 cm
Score line 4: 5-1/2 inches or 14 cm

Flip you paper once and score at 1-3/8 inches or 3.5 cm.

Use your creativity and decorate it as you wish, have fun playing with paper!

Hope you enjoyed this project, it was inspired by the super talented Sam Donald. If you have any questions please, feel free to leave a comment below or send me a message through the contact form. If you want to show me your project tag your picture on Instagram with #athometeachingv or send me a picture! I would love to see what you create!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki

Graduation Hat Gift Card Holder!

Hello friends, this is the graduation season and guess what? Greeting cards companies can make only so many different cards, so chances are if you have a graduation party to attend to, you and someone else will give the graduate the same card. Yikes!!

Many years ago when I was a Stampin' Up demonstrator I learned  from a fellow demonstrator how to make a really cool card.

Isn't  it  cool?

It turns out that Little V got a few of them with different colors, but she loves them because I made them myself. We love handmade things, they are so special.  So if you would like to give your creativity a try, let's get to it!

First, I'm going to show you how to make that beautiful tassel. Here's a list of the materials you would need for this part of the project:

- Embroidery Floss
- Scissors
- Ruler

Now, just click on the video below to watch how to make it.

Not that hard, right? You can make it whatever color you like. It can match the color of the school uniform, it can be your child's favorite color, whatever color you'll decide to use it will be great!

Now, let's get to the card. First, a list of the material you will need:

- colored cardstock
- white cardstock
- large size brads
- stamps
- stars stickers
- graduation cap stickers

You don't need to have all the fancy tools, just use your creativity and it will be just as special.

I hope you all enjoyed this little project because we have more in store for the week! Only clue I will give - it's still graduation theme!

Any questions? Feel free to leave a comment below or send me a message through 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

Why Do We Homeschool?

You know this is a question that most families ask themselves before they start Homeschooling and our family was no different, but now on our fourth year of Homeschooling I realize that I should probably question it more often because inevitably as we learn more, grow more in this process we realize that we can add more and more reasons to the initial list.

We Homeschool Little V for many reasons, these are just some of the reasons as to why we Homeschool:

Because we wanted: I just couldn't wait to start teaching her and since she was a baby I was there helping her to explore the world around her. Looking for the best educational and fun toys. If you think about it, almost all parents already do some Homeschooling. When you teach your child to recognize the Alphabet, the shapes, colors, number and so on, you're teaching and guess what?You're Homeschooling, even if you don't think you are.

Safety: loving parents care so much for their child safety and we are no different. We also child-proofed the entire house, we made sure we read all the reviews before buying the high-chair, the car seats, toys and the list goes on and on. We lived in a big city and we just didn't have the heart to send Little V to public school. The bullying, the stress and the peer pressure, not even to mention that nowadays when you send your kid to school you pray that you'll see him/her/them alive at the end of the day.

Quality of Education: it's no secret that one-on-one teaching is the best, and to be honest I never felt like I lacked qualifications to teach my daughter, I have a love for learning and I love to teach and that in my opinion is the best qualification I could have. There are great teachers out there and I see some of them on Instagram and they inspire me but with the one-on-one teaching I can tailor the lesson to her needs and likes, I can help her if she's struggling with something by trying a different approach to it, we move on at her pace.

Develop a love for learning: because I have the ability to to teach and guide her in learning what she wants or what interests her the most she can develop a love for learning. It's not learning only because she has to learn to achieve a certain grade or to fulfill the requirements, she's also learning about things that she's curious about it, things that she's passionate about it.

Freedom and Flexibility: we can choose what we want to learn about, when we want to learn it and how we want to learn it. Do we want to make a field trip? Do we want to make an experiment about it that wasn't planned? Do we want to add something else to the list of interests?  Do we want to grab our stuff and go outside because the weather is great, we can because we have the freedom to do so. We can choose the books, the curriculum, the amount of time we spend in each subject. If we have something fun to do in the morning, we can do school in the afternoon, or in the evening. Or we can start school in the morning, do other things and resume it later. That is a huge perk of Homeschooling, but my favorite of all the reasons is the next one!

Be present at the best moments: it's priceless to be there when they read their first word, when they learn how to write their names, when they spell their first words, see their faces light up when they grasp something, when they read something funny and just burst into laughter. Be there when they feel they can't do something and be the one giving them the encouragement needed  to keep on trying and then see how proud they feel when they get it right, oh well, no report card can give that moment.

Faith and Values: we live in critical times hard to deal with (2 Timothy 3:1-5), and teaching your child how to be a true Christian requires time and energy. The Bible admonishes us to teach them in every opportunity we have (Deuteronomy 6:6,7) and Homeschooling gives me the opportunity to do just so. We can together draw closer to God and he will draw closer to us (James 4:8). She will learn what the Bible really teaches and make sure her thinking and her actions are in harmony with Jehovah's righteous standards and not man's.

There are many reasons why a family would decide to Homeschool their children, these are just some of our reasons, what are your reasons to Homeschool? We would love to hear from you!


Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

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