Sight Word Love

 

Homeschooling has been one of the biggest pleasures and struggles of my life. I absolutely love teaching my own children. It gives me a chance to be creative and go back to my days of being a public school teacher. It is also amazing to watch my loves learn and be able to help build a joy of life long learning.

One of my loves is doing a mix of Kindergarten and 1st grade, depending on the subject. We are doing a  ton of work with sight words, reading and writing sentences. So for fun, the day before  Valentine's Day, I made tons of little hearts with all the words he knew. Then he moved the words around to build sentences. And we practiced writing them neatly, starting with a capital letter and even adding punctuation. It is great fun, it gets away from always doing a  worksheet and it gives you the ability to easily add more adjectives and change up the sentences.

For my oldest love, the hearts contained fractions and mixed numbers. She randomly selected two hearts at a time, to represent the length and width of a rectangle. Then she used a ruler to draw the rectangles and finally, she calculated the perimeter and area of the rectangle. There were so many great skills coming together in this activity.

What fun things do you do to keep homeschooling fun?

Is your "To Do" list killing you?

 

I LOVE lists. Grocery lists, lists of books to read, Christmas present idea lists for what I should get my little loves, etc. But I am sad to admit, that I used to spend quite some time making and completing daily "to -do" lists. My lists were insane. I would have so many items on there. I would stay up until 4 in the morning trying to complete them all, just to get back up at 6 or 7 and do it all over again. I was running ragged, losing my mind.... just to complete the "to-do" list. And in the end, was every item on there done? NO! No matter what, I always came up with more that I "had" to do. And then I started to fall apart. Now I am tired. I have no energy. My stomach no longer likes any foods... well at least it seems, because most days my hands are swollen, my stomach is swollen, my head hurts. The list goes on and on. And it was because of STRESS.

I thought I needed the lists to keep it all together. I thought that without the lists, I would forget all of the most important things. Instead, "to-do" lists caused unneeded stress in my already stressful life. They created some sort of urgency over things that don't always matter. I had folding laundry in the same list as completing a work project. I guess, maybe my "to-do" lists were a problem, but I have a feeling that there are others out there as well that do the same thing with their lists. And I bet that list, no matter how much you love it's organized beautiful look, is causing you extra stress.

I have since changed my ways. I have a weekly appointment book. Inside, I write appointments for work meetings, and deadlines for projects. I do have to make sure I don't over book myself. However, I no longer list the extras. Laundry, dishes, even grocery shopping are no longer on any lists. I no longer stress about every work project I have going on every day or every last detail of keeping my house clean. Maybe I don't have time to fold the laundry because after a 10 hour work day, I spent a few minutes grounding, dry brushing, soaking in sun, playing with my three little loves.... And I no longer feel guilty about that.

I still finish projects on time. However, I don't try to work on each one every single day. Instead, I work on the one due the soonest or the one that I am feeling the most open to working on, that one that I am the most inspired about that day. Sometimes the ideas are flowing, and I have to jump on it!  Sometimes they are not, and I have to realize that too and use my energy in a more efficient way.

Getting rid of my "to-do" list has helped me to focus on what is important to me. I am living more. I am out and breathing in fresh air, smiling and playing more.

Now, I know that sometimes you need some help keeping organized. And I am not saying that getting rid of the list is the best option for everyone. However, I would like you to stop and ask yourself if your "to-do" list is really helping you get it all done or is it creating a monster that will never end and keeps you down away from living your life.

Let me know what you think.

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ACV - Inexpensive Step Towards Health

Real apple cider vinegar (ACV) is nothing new. It has been used for many different reasons for quite some time. In fact, thousands of years ago, even the Babylonians were using a form of vinegar. That is back in 5000 BC!

Sometimes it seems like we forget about the natural items, like ACV, that have such healing benefits. And when it comes to apple cider vinegar, there are so many uses it seems like it is good for just about anything! We need to keep turning to this natural item.

I started taking a teaspoon of ACV every morning. And I am not going to lie, chugging this stuff down each day is going to be tough. My taste buds were not ready for it. But the benefits have me searching for yummy ways to try and get it down.

Before I get in to all that though, let's first talk about the many uses, that don't involve you swallowing it plain! Of course, many people probably already use vinegar for salad dressings. But remember, you want the vinegar with the "Mother". This is the cloudy stuff that isn't processed. It contains the good stuff that will really help your guts heal. You can use this to do so much more than make dressing. Consider the following:
         * Helps get rid of warts         (cotton ball with ACV on all night)
         * Helps get rid of dandruff    (dilute with water and spray right on scalp)
         * Keeps fleas off of dogs
         *Helps with many stomach issues (which is why I am drinking it... things like
           bloating, constipation, heart burn, etc.)
         * Helps to keep you from getting sick (Have a soar throat? Feel under the weather? Take this
           to stop it in its tracks.)
        * Helps lower blood sugar levels (some even think it helps with weight loss!)
        * It will kill weeds.
        * It neutralizes odors.
        * It even can be used as a non-toxic cleaning product!

There are so many ways to use it. And a bottle of the good stuff is typically under $5, depending on where you and where you shop.  You could even order it off places like Amazon if you can't find it in a store near you.

I am still searching for yummy ways to take it. I have seen people put it in different juices. I have seen concoctions made of water, honey and ACV. For right now, I take it straight and chase it with a sip of juice. That seems to be the best option for me right now. I will share any other great ways I find and try! How do you take your ACV? Any cool and amazing ways you are using it at home?

Please note that I am in no way affiliated with Bragg. I just love their ACV. All opinions are mine. And remember, they are just opinions. I am not a doctor!

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