Getting dinner on the table after a homeschool day

Getting dinner on the table is easy with this cookbook!

I first heard about this cookbook from The Minimal Mom, and immediately went to my library's app to reserve a copy. Unfortunately, I was number 146 on the wait list so I went ahead and bought it on Kindle. Wow, was this book worth the price!




Cook Once Eat All Week gives you three easy and flavorful dishes that can be prepped in about an hour once a week.

Tonight we're having a baked dish with a base of polenta that is topped with kale, then shredded beef and topped with caramelized onions. Yum! This is our third round of using Week 15 of this cookbook. A total of 26 "weeks" are included, but I prefer to have some repeats!

What about modifying these recipes for a hot homeschool lunch? This week we took the Barbacoa-Stuffed Poblanos (we substituted green bell peppers) and split it into two pans, which is the perfect portion for two homeschool lunches. We ate one pan on Tuesday and another today.

Curious about my new favorite cookbook? Click here to get a printed copy or digital copy on Amazon. 

How do you handle meal planning as homeschoolers? I'd love to hear your suggestions in the comments!

What we're reading May 2017

We're wrapping up A6's kindergarten year and preparing for the next roadschooling adventure, so our library pickings are slimmer than usual. I only have 27 items checked out right now, and here are some of our favorite picks:

Nadia, The Girl Who Couldn't Sit Still and Peanut Butter and Cupcake

There's a school teacher in Montana who blogs about her 1st and 2nd grade classroom; I check out her blog every few weeks and get terrific ideas! Her class had "March Book Madness," which I didn't notice until May, but the book recommendations were still helpful! We checked out these two picture books: one is a biography of Nadia Comaneci and the other is a silly tale where peanut butter and jelly finally find each other at the end (please click on the book cover images below; these affiliate links help support our church preschool).







Thornton Burgess' The Bird Book for Children

Somehow I came across a science curriculum from Simply Charlotte Mason (not an affliate link; I just really am excited about this book!) that uses two Thornton Burgess titles as a spine. How did I not know about Thornton Burgess until now? Have I been hiding under a rock? Now that I have been informed, it feels like his name is everywhere! Usually in May I like to preview some resources that we'll use during the upcoming school year, so I read aloud the first two chapters this week. I learned something about wrens and the kids are captivated!






Ed Emberly's Wings on a Flea, A Book About Shapes

This book came in a kit from the library about two-dimensional shapes; we also got some shape bean bags (diamond, square, hexaon, circle, rectangle).

What are you reading this month in your homeschool?

What we're reading now

We're gearing up for a week of road-schooling, so this is probably the first time I haven't used up all my library hold allowances (our library system lets us put up to 15 books on hold at a time) in a long time. We're reading the rest of what we have checked out to return before our trip; some books and audio books will join us for the journey.

Here are some of the highlights from last week:

If I Ran the Horse Show
I'm glad I bought this book on Amazon instead of borrowing it from the library, because it will take us a while to learn all the horse facts it includes. Oh, how little I knew about horses! There are seven of these Cat In The Hat science books on our bookshelf, and all have been terrific so far. I am using these books as "spines" for A5's kindergarten science plan.

 

The History of Counting
I heard about this picture book on one of Pam Barnhill's podcasts. It's a great read, and I'm learning alongside the boys. The pages have many words, so even though it's only 45 pages long, I think it will take us two weeks to read it.

 

BOB Books Set 3
A5 sure does love these easy readers. I plan to continue through all of the sets.


 

 Count on Math
This math guide for teachers of kids ages 3-7 is one I revisit frequently. I want to get more deliberate with R2's early education as he gets closer to his 3rd birthday. It's good for me to re-read this and plan for R2. The first eight weeks or so for him will be about exploration of materials.



This is My Home, This is My School The hilarious illustrations make this book such a worthwhile read. I think this is a good one to bring out every year as friends go "back to school" to celebrate how our family chooses to educate.



Those are the highlights from last week. More to come!

Summer Reading 2

The kids are tracking as many reading minutes as possible for our library's summer reading program. It's the final week of the program, and our bin full of library books is overflowing. Here's a link to some of what we read last week.

Here are some books we are enjoying this week:

How Do Apples Grow?

On a whim I bought one unit of Deana Jump's Guiding Readers on TPT. We're skipping to the fourth book, How Do Apples Grow?, and will read it as much as he wants before we go apple picking in a couple of weeks.





The Snatchabook

The kids picked this out themselves, and it was an entertaining bedtime read.





School Bugs

Our librarian gave this book to A5 since he is starting kindergarten, and the pop ups really are impressive! Am I the only mom who is scared to buy pop up books? The only one I have is What Makes a Rainbow, but the paper pop-ups don't seem like they'd hold up around R2.





The Green Ember

We're finally starting this book that, it seems, everyone is talking about. I'm reading a chapter at a time to C18 and N18.





Fast-To-The-Freezer Cookbook

I'm re-reading this book of make-ahead meals. This week I have plans to make three of her recipes. I haven't done a freezer cooking session all summer and I'm completely out of freezer meals!



Those are some of our library and Amazon picks for the week. It's almost time for traditional schools to start back in our area, so we'll be adventuring more to our favorite parks and museums as the weather cools and crowds shrink.