Frozen CrockPot Meals and other Family Friendly Go-Tos

New Moms, Busy Moms, People Who Don't Like to Cook, this is for you!

About a year or so ago I learned that you can cook just about anything in a slow cooker, and it doesn't have to taste like Cream of Whatever (although sometimes cream of whatever is nice).  Here are some of our families favorites.  Some are mine, some are collected from others.  I'm going to try to make sure I give credit to the right sites.  Here's the best part, I've learned to combined the slow cooker with my deep freezer!  So here's what you do, put together your grocery list and go shopping, set aside an hour our two for prep and that's the most prep work you'll do until next time. Seriously.

Here are a few tips I learned.

• Write the recipes on your gallon baggies with a marker.  It takes some extra time, but when you are in the kitchen with a bunch of recipes going, you don't want to get anything mixed up.
• Fold the top of the baggie over so the bag stays open.  Then you can line your bags up on your counter to fill.
• Fill all of the bags with their meats first.  You have your bags where they will stay open and a large stack of chicken breasts (or tenders they will cook faster).  Just plop how much chicken you think your family will eat in a meal (more if you want leftovers). Just wash hands in between each different meat product.
• Then fill each bag with the rest of it's recipe contents.
• All of those pictures on blogs that you see they lay their freezer bags out flat, but that wouldn't fit in my crockpot.  I have a deep freezer and I set the baggies up right.  It makes the perfect size for my pot.
• Unless otherwise noted if you are putting in frozen meals I try to cook about 6-7 hours on low or 5-6 on high. I try to remember to turn my pot on about 11ish.  I think cooking this way is pretty forgiving.  By the time you eat the meat is going to be done.  If you need to turn it on before work do it.  If the first meal the meat is too tender and mushy just turn it on warm when you get home until you are ready to eat.  If you forget and need to turn it on at lunch time most of these will be fine.  If you want to make sure, turn it on high and then you can always turn it down.  After using it a few times you'll get the hang of it and be a pro, I promise!

Chicken Teriyaki 

This is probably my family's all time favorite.  I serve with mashed potatoes because one time I was out of rice and they begged me to keep this the side. Make sure you take the chicken out of the slow cooker with a spoon so you get some of the marinade juices.  

Chicken

1/2 bottle Moore's Teriyaki Merinade

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup lime juice 

1/4 cup lemon juice

pepper to taste

Chicken Pesto Ranch Pasta

This is another favorite.  It requires a bit of prep work making the pasta and the sauce. But the chicken is done.

Chicken

Pesto (I use half a bottle of Classico's Pesto Sauce)

1 ranch packet

Chicken stock (I use about half a box)

Pasta Sauce

1 cup milk (half and half if you want it richer)

2 Tbsp butter

a splash of white wine If you have the real stuff use it. Then pour yourself a little glass while you are at it, a little trick I learned from my dear friend Jen Hatmaker. ;)

salt

wisk in 2 Tbsp flour

once sauce thickens add in cheese to taste, I like a good Italian mix but I've used lots of different cheeses, whatever I have on hand, I'm sure I've even used cheddar in a pinch.  My family doesn't care as long as there's a good amount of cheese

Honey Dijon Chicken

Chicken

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

rosemary

salt and pepper

The following are from Fun with Sharps! My kids are lovers of Mexican flavors.  Furthermore, I can put just about anything in a tortilla and they will eat it!  This girl took on the same project and had lots of recipes I knew we would love, I left a few off so check out her link.  I halved all of her meals I think.  We don't do well finishing leftovers.  And since there really isn't any cooking involved I just made meals so we would have no leftovers.

Beef Burritos

1 London Broil or top round roast (about 2 lbs)

1 diced onion

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons whole peppercorns (I use crushed peppercorns so you don't have to strain the juice)

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce – Use just 1 pepper!! (It’s in a can.)

1 ½ teaspoon chili powder (you can adjust this according to your taste)

Once meat is done shred and let cook a little longer (30 mins or so)

Chicken Fajitas

1 1/2 pound chicken breast

2 peppers chopped (your favorite)

1 onion chopped

1/2 cup chicken broth

taco seasoning packet

1 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. salt

You will also need tortillas, cheese, sour cream, etc.

Shred meat when it's tender and serve warm

Salsa Chicken

4 chicken breasts
1 15 oz. can of black beans
1 pound bag frozen corn 
1 can diced tomatoes with chilis (like Rotel) 
1 jar salsa 
1 packet of taco seasoning

Serve with rice or on tortillas along with shredded cheddar and sour cream.  This is a favorite of mine!!

Taco roast

1 (2.5 lb) chuck roast
1 (14 oz) can beef broth
1 1/2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 Tbsp cumin
1/2 Tbsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
Juice of 1 lime
May need more salt and pepper once cooked

With any kind of roast I try to turn it on as early as possible in the morning, You can always turn it on warm if it cooks through.

Tomato Basil Soup

So healthy and my kids love it.  I found on The Girl Who Ate Everything

2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes, with juice

1 cup finely diced celery

1 cup finely diced carrots

1 cup finely diced onions

1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 Tablespoon fresh oregano

1/4 cup fresh basil

4 cups chicken broth

½ bay leaf

½ cup flour

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup butter

2 cups half and half, warmed (substitute milk for less calories)

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1. Add tomatoes, celery, carrots, chicken broth, onions, oregano, basil, and bay leaf to a large slow cooker. (This is the part I freeze I use a ninja processor and I don't remember needing to blend in the next step)
2. Cover and cook on LOW for 5-7 hours (maybe a little longer if you are working with frozen starter), until flavors are blended and vegetables are soft. At this point I added all of the vegetables to a blender and blended until smooth. If you have a hand immersion blender that would work great. If you prefer a chunkier texture you can leave it as is or even blend just some of it. Return blended veggies back to the slow cooker.
3. About 30 minutes before serving prepare the roux. Melt butter over low heat in a skillet and add the flour. Stir roux constantly with a whisk for 5-7 minutes. Slowly whisk in 1 cup hot soup. Add another 3 cups and stir until smooth. Add all back into the slow cooker. Stir and add the Parmesan cheese, warmed half and half, salt and pepper.
4. Cover and cook on LOW for another 30 minutes or so until ready to serve. Serve with warm rolls and a green salad.

You can also make bar-b-que in a slow cooker chicken, pork, I've even made ribs although I haven't perfected that recipe yet, they were good but next time I'm trying a dry rub through the night and then through the day with a sauce


Other easy go to recipes (not frozen)

Red Beans and Rice
Brown cut up Conecuh in the bottom of a deep pot in a thin layer of hot olive oil
Add two boxes of Zaterain's Red Beans and Rice cook according to directions

Cheese Quesadilla or Bean Burrito

Baked spaghetti it's better and less of a mess!  If you don't bake it, at least use a different pasta spaghetti is sooo messy.  If you aren't a tomato fan use Classico's Vodka Sauce, trust me!  And if you are baking make sure you add cream cheese and sprinkle lots of grated cheese on top.

Breakfast!

We are not good veggie eaters in our family.  Alex and I like different ones and cooked different ways.  He loves tomatoes (I don't) and canned green beans (I don't).  I love fresh veggies (he doesn't).  We can agree on roasted veggies for the most part, sprinkled with garlic salt, yum!  But the kids (ahem, Sterling) aren't always into them.  So we have found we love smoothies.  Here's what I do.  

• Pick a green, my go to is Spinach. I food process and freeze in ice cube trays, then put in a freezer bag.  I do the same with carrots, they are a nice sweet vegetable for smoothies.  
• You can buy frozen fruit or freeze fresh fruit.  I try to keep fresh fruit, but before it starts to turn, throw it in the freezer!  
• Buy bananas, let them get really ripe, then peel and freeze.  You need bananas!
• Add a few veggie cubes, some fruit, banana, some vanilla yogurt, and some apple juice, milk, coconut water, just plain water to the blender.  I got a ninja blender thing for Christmas, too.  It's amazing and pulverizes the chunks.  My picky, texture sensitive child doesn't like "chunks"
• Make enough for everyone, because they are going to love it!!

When you are making something like Bean Burritos and feel like you need to up your game a little, whip up a smoothie and you're golden

Baby Update

Thank you all so much for your prayers as we've entered the journey of fostering!  I first want to apologize for all of my grammatical errors (it's not like that's a new thing, right?) and anything that makes no sense. Chalk it up to no sleep.  If you haven't heard, we've been blessed and privileged to care for not one but two newborns, non-related, which I fell like is probably unheard of.  They are just two weeks apart. And to think I almost took ages 0-1 off our age list. (I've done the baby thing)  However, I'm so glad I didn't; we've enjoyed these sweet little girls so much.  Our big kids have done beautifully with our new additions, and between all of the girls' appointments we've even managed to get a few things done in school. I'm praising God for a bright firstborn, who catches on quickly, and has finally decided he enjoys reading.  Even if all we do is read and subtract football score deficits (that counts as math, doesn't it?), I know we're not getting behind because of how far we've come this semester.

First, I want to give a shout out to my husband who has been amazing!  Going from two to four with no notice, add in the infant thing, is no easy task.  We got our second baby Thursday, and since he is off on Fridays, I haven't been alone yet.  Come to think of it, he has been alone with them, all of them, voluntarily, so that could get some grocery/new baby shopping done. But today I got a taste of what this week will be like without him.  Wow, that man helps more than I realize.  I was getting the big kids lunch after church today (he was still there).  It was also babies lunch time.  It all escalated quickly and before I knew it my sweet, happy sleepers were screaming while I was making pb&j, and I knew I was going to have to do two bottles at once.  As I thought to myself, what have I gotten myself into, my sweet son, who ate quickly, asked if he could help.  I said yes and started tearing up.  I thanked him profusely and his response was something like, "I'm happy to help, mom." Thankfully, he had had a little practice already, and in that moment I decided it would be ok.  He has his father's servant heart and I'm sure has learned this by seeing his Daddy in action.  He's even done his chores more cheerfully in the last two weeks.  Those two guys will be my saving grace!

Secondly, we've sold our house! Pending appraisal it's done and we close in January.  Thanks for your prayers about that matter.  God is so very good!!

Please pray we will find a new one as well, one that fits our unique needs: homeschooling, large family, different mix of genders in and out, and youth minister salary budget! I would love to find one that we could be in for a long time, but God may have something else planned, and I'm trying to remember that. We know God will provide, He always does!  I think it's Barbara Barker that says, "God is seldom early, but never late."  When I look back at major events that is very much the story of my life.  Pray that my nesting instinct/need for control doesn't go into overdrive and that I remember that He is sovereign. He sold our house quickly for a reason, and he will provide somewhere else for us to live - I need to remind myself of that every morning.

Everyone asks us if the babies are good.  The best!  They eat and sleep well, they easily got on the same schedule so no extra night feedings, and both are hardly ever fussy!  Our friends have been delivering dinner to our door which has been the biggest help, especially now that there are two.  If you know of anyone who is fostering and you want to know how to help keep in mind that many foster kids, babies or not, have a hard time sleeping.  They also have loads of appointments, especially the first week.  They have court, visits with mom and dad, doctors visits, school/daycare enrollment (if applicable) WIC appointments - which is the nastiest nightmare with multiple children and yet the biggest blessing (imagine your children rolling around in the floor of Walmart, in flu season, that is how I felt at the health dept.) but I walked out with vouchers for enough formula for my baby for three months.  Multiply these by the number of children they have and you can see how a warm meal at the end of the day is welcomed, it really doesn't even matter what it is. Play dates or free babysitting for the other kids during these appointments is also huge. Health dept - multiple children = not as bad.  I've told many friends, just bring your kids over and let my big kids play and have fun, hold a baby and chat with me while I do some laundry or dishes.  Seriously that is a huge help and you get baby snuggles!

How I Teach Reading

Homeschooled or not when your child gets to age five reading becomes very important to mamas.  If you are homeschooling the burden falls completely on you as the teacher to teach your child to read.  A child in public school gets lots of support from teachers, but there is still an element that has to come from home.  I love learning new techniques for teaching your child to read.  Of course it's going to be different with every child, I'm sure Ann Elizabeth will need different strategies because let's be honest number two doesn't get as much one on one time, or reading time.  Anyway for what it's worth here are the things I did to teach Sterling to read.

1. Taught the letter sounds not the alphabet.
Way back when he started showing interest in letters, I decided what is the point, really, in teaching the letter names?  Eventually they will pick up on that, but does knowing letter names really help with literacy?  I decided that letter names weren't necessary so when we would look at letters I always called them by their letter sound.  Soon he had it down and we started playing games naming words that started with those letters.

2. Practiced rhyming words.
After Sterling was really good at grouping words by beginning sounds, we started coming up with rhyming words.  I taught him to blend three letter words using rhyming words.  I used this paint swatch idea I found on pinterest
 

not my pic

We practiced blending just two sounds on the big card, then he just had to put the beginning sound with it.  I think this helped him greatly. As he progressed I added harder endings like ones with long vowel sounds or other diphthongs.

3.  Preschool Prep for sight words
We didn't know about these videos until after we had already learned sounds. Sterling loves TV, way to much in fact.  But I've learned that he really learns well from educational videos, so, why fight it.  We watched Preschool Prep and soon he had the sight words from the videos down. He would even tell me what video the words were from (to have half that memory!)

4. We read chapter books aloud at an early age.
I think I started reading chapter books aloud to him at about three.  (I really need to start this with Ann Elizabeth). At four we started letting him stay up a little bit later to listen to a chapter. So reading became a reward for him.

4.  Found easy readers to practice
There's nothing like actually doing something to practice, so we started on Dr. Seuss.  We went to the library and checked out easy leveled readers.  We tried to read everyday, but you know how that goes.  Life gets in the way.  Sterling quickly got to where he dreaded reading, it became a chore for him.  I hated it because he is really a good reader.

5. Let him read what he wanted
It went against everything in my teacher training to let him do this because what he wanted to read were chapter books.  Hard chapter books, I didn't want him to get frustrated and hate reading even more.  I tried checking out comic books (which it's hard to find ones that are appropriate by the way) and even that he wasn't really into reading.  I had to make him pick them up, and he wanted to be done in a few minutes.  So I decided to let him try; I decided it wasn't going to get worse.  We started with Magic Tree House books.  The vocabulary isn't super difficult.  He would read some at night and then I would read the rest of the chapter.  It took a lot of patience because he needed lots of help. But as he is a memorizer. Soon, he was remembering the words that we had sounded out.  We had worked just a little on the diphthongs and blends and such, but when actually reading tough words he practiced them a lot and soon was reading more and more without help.  In the beginning I didn't try to make him read every word.  I would help him sound it out quickly if he came to a word that was hard.  But soon I would have to help less and less.  This little five year old has been sitting beside me night after night reading Winnie-the-Pooh, which according to Accelerated Reader is a 5.9 reading level.  Which is why I hate when schools push AR.  He wouldn't be allowed to struggle through this book even if he wanted to at some schools because it isn't "on his level."  And it's not.  By no means is he reading on the level of an average sixth-grader, but with a little help here and there he can read two pages a night (about 20 mins).

October in Pictures

Here's our month of October in review.  We made a trip to Atlanta to see Frozen on Ice, then headed down to the beach with the family.  Most of the month we enjoyed perfect weather so we clocked in lots of outside time and made a trip to the zoo.

Pray for Us, Off the Cliff

I can't believe the day is almost here.  In a few days we will be officially licensed as foster parents and then soon after that there will be more warm bodies running around this place.

We need your prayers!  Seriously, as in every time you think about us, every time you scroll through facebook and see one of our names, every time you run into us at Winn Dixie, if you have a list of people you pray for on a regular basis we'd love to be added to that list.  You can put us right next to that crazy aunt of yours that you don't even know how to pray for except, "Lord, help her, I don't even know, she's crazy, just, help her." Well, I may be in that category soon so just add me to the list.

I'm kidding, but I'm not, I do feel pretty crazy and we really would love your prayers.  I feel like missionaries when they send out those cards where they say you can support them financially or what they really want is your prayers.  In your head you are like, yeah, no, you just need money (or is that just me?)  Nope, they really want your prayers!  If they feel like I do right now they really, really, really want you to commit to praying for them.  So, I don't have any fancy cards, but I really want you to consider committing to pray for us.  There are so many things I can think of to pray for, so I'm going to try to give you a list of some things to start out. 

1. Pray for our biological kids.  Pray that they would share us willingly.  Pray that they would accept these children in our home with open arms, even when it gets hard.  Pray that they would sympathize with them, that they would understand when the rules may seem blurred at times or different, or when they may become the recipients of a child's anger and grief.

We want so much for them to see and even be a part of this living picture of the gospel in our home.  Pray that through these kids that will come into our home, Sterling and Ann Elizabeth will see Jesus.  Pray that the gospel will be made much of in their eyes through caring for those that can't care for themselves.  Pray that they would see that "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

Pray that they will see a picture of their Father who lavishly loves them unconditionally even when they reject Him.  Pray that they will see a world outside their own.  It is hard to pray that when everything inside you as a parent cries out for protecting them from the ugliness of the world.  But they need to see, maybe not what we as adults see, but they need to see the beautiful life they have been given.  At the same time pray for their protection.  Pray that God protects their little souls and minds, that they can be "in the world" beginning to learn to get their hands dirty with kingdom work, but not "of the world." 

2. Pray for us as parents.  We are going to be outnumbered.  We are going from two to three or four, and possibly maybe even probably without the buffer of infanthood.  Pray that we know how to devote ourselves to these kids' special emotional needs, while still meeting the everyday needs of S and AE.  Pray that we would be quick to understand and slow to anger.  Pray for patience and then more patience.  I'm not always very patient.  Pray for rest as I am not a good mom without rest, and when there isn't much rest pray for the Spirit to keep me going.

Pray that we understand just how to meet the needs that these kids we will be entrusted with will face.  Pray that we learn to parent anew.  That we will figure out what works with each kid, and that we will be able to uncover any underlying issues that may be affecting them. 

3. Pray for sleep.  Sleep certainly won't take away all of the emotions our kids will be dealing with, but good sleep won't add to them.  My kids are great sleepers.  I know I only have two, and it is certainly a gift to have good sleepers.  At the same time some of that comes from training them to sleep.  However, we have never put kids to bed who are grieving for their mother.  Pray that we will find the right things to help them get the rest that we will all need.  That we know how to help them sleep in a way that fosters attachment while at the same time doesn't create habits we can't live with long term. Pray that they will quickly learn to trust us.  That we will know what to do to foster that trust.  Pray for attachment. Attachment. They need attachment.

4. Pray for our marriage.  That we will work as a team.  I can look back and see how much God has taught us about each other.  There were certainly days where I never thought we would understand each other like we do.  We have gotten to that place where, for the most part, we know what the other needs, and after seven years we've never been a better team than we are at this point.  God is so Good!  I know we are going to need to rely on that in the coming days.  We need each other!  Pray that we can find time together to build upon that.  Pray that through the Holy Spirit we can continue to make each other better parents.

5. Pray for our house to sell.  This of course is not vital to anyone's spiritual well being, although maybe my sanity (who am I kidding I would be just as insane with more square footage).  I have a feeling we are going to learn some lessons through this whole house situation, but pray that God would allow us to sell it.  Of course, we are fine in our current home and we really love it, but adding more children + the always uncertainty of ages, genders, room arrangements that maybe coming and going + homeschooling, aka being here all day every day + we've got a crib set up in our bedroom right now.  We could use a tiny bit more space and a better layout would be wonderful.  I hate to even ask you to pray for this because it isn't really vital to what God is calling us to do, but it would be amazing if it could happen.

It's kind of crazy, when we decided to buy a home I (being the introvert/guardian of my home time that I am) prayed that we would be able to use our home for ministry, that was that part that says the Holy Spirit prays when we don't know what to pray, 'cuz that didn't come out of my nature, and I'm the world's worst hostess.  Oh, little did that five year ago self know how completely literal that would become! I feel almost selfish for this one, but the request is still there.

6. Pray for these sweet children that we will soon meet.  I can't even imagine what they are going through and at such a young age.  A child having to leave his mother, alone brings a knot to my throat; on top of whatever is going on in their little worlds already.  Then having to go live with strangers, not knowing what to expect of them.  Pray for their little hearts.  Pray that we can be consistent in our actions and in parenting them (I fail at consistency a lot).  Pray for attachment and consistency.  It is vital to a child's, and adult for that matter, well being.  Pray if they haven't learned to trust adults that they can do so.  Pray that we would actually be trustworthy in their eyes.

7.  Pray for me.  I already sometimes feel I'm going bonkers with my two.  God is going to have to give me some supernatural parenting skills.  We love our kids with all of our hearts, but being a parent is hard! Pray that I would rely on God everyday.  That sounds cliche and churchy, but I mean that, pray that I would wake up remembering how hard this parenting thing is and how utterly desperately I need Jesus.  Most days I wake up and think, once I get my coffee, I've got this.  That never makes it to the end of the day.  I'm pretty sure God is taking me to the cliff of myself and my own abilities, and pushing me off.

I feel like I'm at that moment when Moses was arguing with God about how he wasn't a good speaker.  And God told him do it anyway.  And then Moses had to walk to Egypt, I'm guessing wrestling with that thought that it was about to go down.  He was about to face off with Pharaoh, and God was going to have to show up.  On a really tiny (as in not saving a race of people) scale, that's the feeling I have right now.  "Ok, God we are doing what we think you are calling us to, you've got to show up for us, because this is way over our heads."

8. Pray for the biological parents.  No matter what they are going through, they aren't going to have their kids in their homes!  That's huge!  For a while, actually because of going through the adoption process, I have had a huge desire to help single mothers who are struggling.  I haven't been completely sure where that is supposed come out.  It could be just by taking care of children while a mom picks up the pieces of her life. There could be other opportunities through this, who knows.  But I'm so glad God has been building this desire, because no matter what is going on in their lives, these moms are having a rough time.  It's easy to judge them for whatever got them to this point, but life is never that easy. Pray for them. Pray for souls.  Pray for God to mend the brokenness.  Pray that we wouldn't be seen as the bad guys, not for our sakes, but so that we would have opportunities to minister to parents when possible. Who knows what God will do, we've learned not to guess.


We are so excited for the opportunity we are being given to love these children, Love them as God Loves us. 

“'Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.' 'Ooh' said Susan. 'I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion'...'Safe?' said Mr Beaver ...'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'"

How often do I think God is a man, and that he is safe and he is calling me to safe. "'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

Classical Conversations

We began our Classical Conversations class a few weeks ago, and overall, we love it.  However, I want to talk a little bit about how we, maybe non-conventionally, structure CC into our homeschool week.

First of all, what is Classical Conversations?  It is a Classical Christian homeschool class and community. CC is not a curriculum.  We meet together once a week for 24 weeks.  Different communities structure that differently, but we go for four months a semester taking one week off a month.  It is a class you have to pay for, which was one of the big reasons we didn't participate last year, you know, paying for an adoption and all.  However, this year we decided to go for it, especially when we began looking down the foster care route.  Our director was in need of another tutor and a sub. I told her I would love to sub, and if she got desperate I would tutor... Well I'm tutoring, it's our first year with CC, I have no idea what I'm doing (they do give you training and it was plenty, but it's still a little intimidating, There Are Moms In There With Me!)

Ok, so lets start with my hang ups about CC.  Before actually visiting a class we had heard lots about it from friends.  I'm a researcher so I pulled out my laptop and began scouring the internet reading on their website and other blogs trying to find out everything I could.  Here were my initial impressions. 

1. It can get pricy.  There's tuition to pay the director and tutors for their time, plus there are certain materials that you have to have, and then things that you and your kid will want to have, then a smaller facility fee and supply fee. 

2. It's "just memorization."  When I was first researching CC I wasn't even sure what the Classical Method was.  Sterling was just 4 and we weren't doing anything really formal with him.  More on preschool later.  But memorizing seemed really boring to me and not much like a well rounded education.

3. Once we did decide to homeschool classically, CC doesn't follow the schedule/pace that I wanted to follow.  They go faster than I had planned and what if we decide to take longer with a certain week because my child is very interested?  Then we would be off.

Ok, now my thoughts after participating for several weeks (and remember I'm saying this as a skeptic).

1. It is worth the $$ and more!  Sure I could come up with cute jingles to help my child memorize the periodic table for free.  But would I?  Probably not!!  Secondly, I'm tutoring, so I get a small stipend for my time leading and preparing for the class, more than enough to pay for the materials and tuition for my one child. So if money is an issue for you and you are interested in CC, sign up to be a tutor or a sub (if they have an opening).  I'm actually surprised at how much fun I'm having, even with the other moms intimidation factor.

Week 4, we have learned 20 states and capitals and where they are on the map.  Sterling and I, and Ann Elizabeth somewhat for that matter, have memorized the definitions for infinitive and past and present participle, we've learned the main bones that make up the axial skeleton, some Latin (even though I think I'm screwing up my class royally in this area some weeks), etc.  It really is amazing what their little minds can absorb.  And with all of the cute little songs, I can remember everything too, another plus of being a tutor, I've got to remember it (it helps that every word goes on the board!)

To participate in the Foundations class you, as the mom (your child's teacher), need a Fondations Guide (just one/family forever in Foundations), $10 map for geography/child, and one $10 tin whisle/child. We also chose to get the timeline cards, mainly because I have to get them as a tutor, but they are great, and a CD with all of the music for this year, we may just do the iPad app next year it's a little cheaper!  You will have to purchase a new map for each child for the first three years, but after that you just start back at the beginning.  So next year the only materials we will need is next year's map for Sterling, and a map and tin whistle for Ann Elizabeth (you can start Foundations at 4), we already have the cycle 1 iPad app so we may be able to skip the CD (you need at least one cycle's CD b/c the app doesn't have the songs you repeat every year like the timeline song.) Speaking of the "Timeline Song" every year we learn/review (it stays the same) the 14 minute timeline song that hits high points in history, it's amazing!

2. I've already talked about the Classical Method, so I'm not as opposed to memorizing as I was as I see now that memorizing at 5 is different than what I remember, memorizing stuff in high school.  With CC the memory work sticks, it really does.  We sing this stuff all of the time without even realizing we are doing it.  AE even knows a lot of the songs now!  Actually, out of 3 hours only 30 minutes are spent on memory work and 30 minutes spent reviewing past memory work.  We also have a 30 minute science project or experiment, the kids all give a few minute presentation, and we also practice art, music, and learn art and music history.

3. This is probably where we differ from a lot of CC families, I don't know maybe more do it this way than I think.  We do not do lessons at home that mirror what we are learning in class  We don't even try!  Here's how I look at it.  Classical Conversations is our Memory Class.  Memorization is important at this age, and while there are a few things that we will try to memorize along the way that will go with our curriculum, we won't worry too much about it because I know the kids will probably get it at some point in a three year CC cycle.  If they learn it in CC first we will be building upon that information.  If we learn about it in class first, then hopefully it will serve as a review in CC and maybe stick more since they have some information to go with it.

So that's it.  We attend class once a week.  My kids love being in a classroom environment.  We don't stress about having everything perfectly memorized (the kids at least I of course have to).  We just have fun sing go over our songs once a week at home, usually in the car, during bath time, or just to show Alex what we learned.  Other than that we go about our week.

Lake Santa Fe

We enjoyed a week away, seeing my paternal grandparents.  I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking!