Thanksgiving like the Pilgrims

Indian Momma and Her Little Pilgrim Girl on Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!



Thanksgiving was always one of those holidays lost in the shuffle of the closing of Halloween and the beginning of the Christmas season. This year I wanted to make sure to share the importance of remembering that first thanksgiving with my daughter. We were going to enjoy a nice day at home and eat lots of turkey with our lesson but my mom had to work from 1pm to 6pm this day. At first we saw it as a horrible loss. I mean why even cook a big fancy meal when we wouldn't be able to eat it until mom got home around 8pm? So instead we took our bad and flipped it around. We rode into Maryland with mom and while she headed to work we went to Oregon Ridge Park. We love this park because it has so much. There is the big playground, lake, lots of hiking trails, a nature center, and educational classes from time to time. They have just completed a nature playground by the nature center as well. Today we got there to find the most perfect accessory to our day of thanksgiving outdoors, a wigwam. They had built a wigwam in the nature playground and my plans came together perfectly. I had stashed my daughter's civil war apron in my backpack for the day and we made some awesome pilgrim bonnets.(Here is the link for the bonnets. It was fun and fast.  http://www.marthastewart.com/908657/paper-pilgrim-bonnet) Bridget played our pilgrim girl and looked fantastic in this role. We learned what it must have been like for the pilgrims. So many had died since arriving to the new world and they seemed so lost until the Indians showed up to help. 


Last minute I remembered this fabric I had laying around in storage downstairs so I dug it out with some animal fur and grabbed a feather from the woods for a Indian outfit. It was just perfect. I told Bridget the story of Squanto and how he had helped the Pilgrims plant corn and live off the land. We played Indian and Pilgrim for most of the day. Mostly Bridget helped me fix up my wigwam for the winter and I taught her how to whittle a stick. Later we spotted two white tail deer in the woods and tracked them. While there we also got to visit with the animals they keep there. One of those animals just happened to be a turkey. I don't think I ever saw a LIVE turkey on Thanksgiving. Bridget refused to take off her Pilgrim outfit as we hiked back down to the main playground so I wrapped my Indian getup around me like a sarong and we headed on the path getting some weird looks from the fellow hikers out that day. Honestly things like that had no effect on me. I thought I was rocking the Indian look so let them stare. We left that night with my mom to head back home with a new appreciation for those people that gave their first Thanksgiving feast.

It was a great day all in all and we had a blast. We plan to do something like this every year. It was educational but so much fun we forgot how much we were learning. That is the way school should be.

 

Thanksgiving Facts I Learned This Year!

1. We have no idea if turkey was on the menu that first Thanksgiving. In the one and only eye witness account of the day it says they had foul. That could have been a number of birds but I guess turkey was the tastiest so that is what we went with later on. Also on the menu was a lot of seafood since fishing was a main source of their food supply.

2. After the "first" Thanksgiving there was no more until Lincoln's time. It was not a repeated tradition.

 

3. The Indians were not invited guest. I found this shocking! After all without the Indians there would be no Pilgrims. They showed up to find out what the shooting noise was they had heard from their village. Come to find out it was the Pilgrims having shooting games and practice on their day of festivities. While there the Pilgrims did tell them to join in the fun but if you ask me that was a little late. Not only did the Indians stay but they also brought five deer for the feast! What good hearted people.

 

4. The Thanksgiving Day Parade was originally held by Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia. Later Macy's in New York took it over but it was called The Christmas Parade since it kick started the holiday shopping season. Later they changed the name since people were getting confused.

 

Learning and Turkey,

Theresa

 



Playing Catch Up

Happy Fall from this Cyberschooling Momma and her
Cyberschooling Cutie!

Well life has been a bit hectic for us here but I wanted to update just in case someone actually reads this. :P Of course the huge theme this month was FALL! We love fall here in our home and we celebrate it as much as possible while the weather is great. We have been lucky so far this year with our weather. Sandy blew in with minimal damage for us so I think we have been truly blessed.

 



Finishing the corn maze at Cherry Crest Farms.

 

About to venture in the corn maze.

 Fall is a great time to be outside playing in the leaves and visiting the farms. This year we went to Cherry Crest Farms in Ronks, PA for a field trip with our cyber school. Cherry Crest is home to the 5 acre corn maze with over 2.5 miles of paths that will get you lost in the corn. Not only do they have the corn maze but there is also a petting farm, huge slides, a bounce pillow and lots of activities to do. Admission prices and directions are listed on their website at www.cherrycrestfarm.com. We had a good time here. Bridget's favorite thing to do here was the giant slides built into the hills. Only downside to these fast slides was the climb up the hill to get to the top. The ride down was fun but my knees were screaming at me to stop trying to be a kid. Bridget on the other hand went up a few times.


Cherry Crest Farm slides.

There are some activities and attractions here that you will have to pay extra for but most of these things are not open on the weekday when we were here. The prices on their food was also costly. Plus side, there is free parking and special event weekends where you can get more for your money. The other awesome part of our trip was the night time maze. Equipped with our flashlights we ventured into the dark corn field and got very lost. We did however find a full service food stand in the middle of the maze. It was very impressive but as you can see my daughter wasn't too sure about the dark maze.

Not too sure about our trip inside the night maze.

All in all we had a blast at Cherry Crest Farms. It is family owned and operated and you can feel that in all they do here. Be prepared to lay down some money but for the most part you will have a blast. They are closed for this season but check them out next year and start making it a family tradition.

Over a thousand pound of pumpkin!



In the hay maze having fun.

 Valley View Farms is a tradition for us. It is located close to my job in Cockeysville, MD and easily accessible from I83. Every year they bring in some of the biggest pumpkins I have ever seen. As you can see above they are not your average pumpkins. The kids get a kick out of seeing the giant gourds and a highlight for my daughter is also the hay maze. Seriously my daughter can stay in this maze for hours. It is so much fun and a big thank you to the employees at Valley View Farms for putting benches next to the maze this year.

Running away from the haunted hallway.

While you are here check out their Christmas shop which is open before Halloween. Lots of huge trees all decked out in their ornaments. In the back of the greenhouse you will find the Halloween shop. There is a free haunted house here too. Bridget got enough courage to sneak a peek inside but ran away just as fast. I cracked up! We always have a good time here but I never buy our pumpkins from Valley View. They are way too over priced. The same pumpkin I got on a roadside stand for $2 is $10 here. It's all about supply and demand because there is no other option for the people in the area for fall fun.

Art project at the car repair shop.

Bridget's leaf art.

And once again this fall it is inspection time for our car. It is usually a 1-2 hour process but for us it turned into a 9 hour day. It was a exhausting day. Lucky for me I packed lunches and school supplies to get us through the day. We did a art class on weaving. while there as you can see from our picture. I also turned it into a learning experience and took her to watch our car get looked at. By time we left we were broke and tired but we were able to drive away legally once again. The following pictures are of our extra time spent outside the car shop. There was one tree with lots of leaves and that is all we needed. We had leaf fights, made leaf art on the lawn, and Bridget made me some leaf soup with bark sticks. I just love what the imagination can think up of.



My leaf girl!

Trick or Treat at Senior Commons of Powder Mill

Grandma clown handing out candy to the trick or treaters.


 

 Halloween was here before we knew it. This year we were torn on what to do. As Christians we did not want to celebrate a pagan holiday but as a parent we don't want to disappoint our munchkin. I considered this a transition year for us. We still did the costume for Bridget but it was a positive role model costume. We also went trick or treating but not in the neighborhood and not on Halloween. We decided to go to the Senior Commons of Powder Mill in York County. The residents of this assisted living home handed out treats for the kids and some even had some tricks. I loved how some of the residents got dressed up in costume to hand out their candy. It was great fun but I don't know who was happier, the kids or the residents.  The other trick or treat moment happened at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Manchester, PA. It was a trunk or treat event but since Sandy showed up that night they moved it inside. It was still awesome. There were lots of people who participated and they decorated the whole inside of the hall at the church. The people here were so nice too. We go to VBS here every year since it's close to home. We would go to church here if we haven't already found our church home. Trunk or Treat events happen almost everywhere though. Next year check out your local churches or children's center to find a trunk or treat in your neighborhood.



The trunk or treat at St. Paul's. This guy made this trick for a treat display.



Halloween night!



Spa Night at our house! Check out the
face mask.

 On Halloween we started our first monthly spa night. I looked up some homemade recipes for face mask on Pinterest and found a oatmeal, honey and water mask that was safe even for my daughter to apply. Then I set up a basin with water, Epsom salt and apple cider vinegar as a detox foot bath. While the mask worked it's magic I gave everyone pedicures and after the foot soak we did pedicures. Not to mention the oh so yummy food we had. We bought the Tortilla Bowl Maker as seen on TV. It worked great and it was so yummo. We put some of my homemade chili inside the bowl which made it perfect. For desert...candy! Lots and lots of candy. It was the one night a year we will go crazy on the candy. Bridget thought this was great and never once missed the annual neighborhood trudge for candy. It wasn't hard to think of fun things to do with my 7 year old to substitute for the holiday. Some people might think it was overboard, banning Halloween, but to us it was just the right choice.


Fall is not over yet and it's getting hard to remember that with the stores filled with Christmas decorations and holiday commercials on TV all day long. Don't forget to take some time to enjoy those leaves and all the fun that can happen with your child during this magical time of year. Before you know it winter will be here and then you got cabin fever setting in. :-) Until next time....
 

Pray Around The Pole

I am finding that there are more Christian home school families then any other. Being a Christian for us means we start each day of lessons with prayer and Bible time. If it wasn't for our Lord we wouldn't have opportunities to learn and grow. I don't plan anything out as of yet. I basically open our family Bible and let Bridget close her eyes and point to a scripture. I feel God leads us in what we need to learn that day. So far it's been good scriptures that relate to our lives now. So when I heard today was Pray at the Pole day at most schools I was envious. We don't have a flag pole, school filled with students or the ability to pray with anyone except the people in our house. That didn't stop us! God listens to all prayers so we prayed.

Standing in front of our tiny American flag I put up in the classroom this year for our pledge time we prayed. We thanked God for the time we get to have together as mother and daughter while learning. We asked God to bless all Connection Academy staff and families. We also asked to continue letting the proper authorities in our state support all cyber schools. We couldn't forget all the other homeschooling, unschooling, public, private, and charter schools in our state and across the nation. I think prayer is needed most today more then ever! Too many bullies, suicides, and shootings to name a few. This is our future! The children are growing fast and they are the next generation to take over and make this country great once again. As 2 Chronicles 7:14 states "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." So I encourage all you homeschooling parents to pray for not just your student but all students everywhere! Let's support the next generation in prayer.
I think the best part was watching my child take the responsibility of praying in her hands. She felt we needed more at our "flag pole" today so she invited some friends. Barbie and Ken with their friends showed up as well as the Chick-Fil-A Cow and Bridget's stuff pet monkey; Esther. She held hands with me and her dolls as she bowed her head and listened to the prayer I spoke from my heart. We have been listening to worship songs on the radio all day in the background of our studies too. The Spirit is alive in this house and I am proud to say that we will continue to live for the Lord.

 

 

Learning and growing,

Theresa

Learning Space Decorating 101

Part of our school space.

Recently someone asked where I got all the cool decorations for my learning space and how I came up with all the ideas. That gave me a idea for this week's blog. There are lots of new people (which was me last year) always looking for tips on what to do. After a year with Connections Academy I realized I needed some things and didn't need others so much. Being a single parent that cyberschools, I don't have a huge budget for learning supplies so I am trying some helpful tips from friends, pinterest and my good ole noggin. Now each child is different and will need different things to help stimulate them during the day. This style works for my daughter who is in the second grade. Try your own styles and post up your tips in the comments below.

Our theme is Be A Wise Learner!

More Owls!

Picking a Theme

Last year we really didn't have a theme but this year I wanted to do something special to make the space fresh. I went to Lakeshore Learning Store to pick up some supplies and fell in love with their owl collection. So there it was, our theme. I picked this theme in the middle of summer so I was able to look for anything owl related in a longer period of time. I found this awesome owl mini cork board at Target in their $2.50 bin up in the front of the store and the owl 3D memo board at Target as well. Not only does it give the space a direction of fun but my daughter found a interest here and is willing to spend more time in this area because of her friendly owl friends on the wall. I post all her lessons for the day here and she wipes each one off as we finish them.
 

 

 

Learning Posters

This year I went through the lessons in advance when I got her books. I wanted to understand what direction we were going in with her learning. When I went to Lakeshore Learning Store I got great posters on what my child needed to work on the most. Now Bridget is great with math and I didn't think she needed much help there but her Language Arts needs some work. I picked up a cursive alphabet poster as well as a good reader poster. I have already referred to the reader one many times this year and I think it was a great investment. I also love the 100th day of school but always forget about it until it comes up. This year we are counting our way to 100 with our apple tree I got at Target. One more interactive learning tool I have that Bridget loves to do!

Counting to 100 Days Of School!

 

 

Work Boxes

 

This summer I heard a lot about work boxes. A woman named Sue Patrick came up with this homeschooling system of teaching. You can check out her way at http://www.workboxsystem.com/. I took her amazing ideas and worked with them to make it my own. The basic idea is to have your child do what they want to do during the day. Have all their supplies for each subject set out and they pick what to start with and what to do each step of the way during their school day. I got this bookcase from Target this year. I used my owls as my labels for each subject and posted them on each bin. I keep them empty until the school day begins and fill them with everything she needs for each subject. If it's a painting project for art the paint, brushes, newspaper to protect our workspace, paper and directions are in this shelf. At this stage of the game I need to help Bridget learn most of her lessons but as she grows she will take responsibility for each lesson herself. It's way more organized this way and Bridget loves that she gets to choose what to do. Last year I was the one who picked what we needed to do and when it was going to get done. I thought if I let go of that it would get crazy confusing but it actually made things less hectic. When Bridget is done with her lesson the books go back on the shelf and she gets to take her owl for that subject and put him in the tree house. This was suppose to be a chore chart for a classroom that I made my own. Once again I laminated the areas that were going to be taped a lot to protect them. By the end of the day all her owls are safe in the house. The next morning I fill up her shelves again and put her owls back on the bookshelf where they wait for her to get done for the day. Again interactive is key here for my daughter. Getting to put her owl away in his home is a highlight of each lesson now. 



Putting her owl in his house for her first completed subject.

 



Magnet Boards, White Boards, Cork Boards...Oh My!

 

Last year I had two small white boards and one medium sized cork board. This didn't cut it for us. The white boards were too small to write a whole sentence on in one line. When I was demonstrating how to write a sentence Bridget got confused when I had one sentence on two boards. This year we bought a bigger white board at WalMart. This was a great decision! Already she is understanding her writing assignments more and to make it even better it's magnetic. I can post stuff up on the board then cover answers with a paper held up with magnets. Also Bridget loves writing on the board. She can fill in the blanks on answers or circle the parts of a sentence. Here we learned about predicates. I had her underline the predicate of the sentence and circle the subject. It beats sitting at the computer all day long reading off the screen. Anything interactive is exactly what my daughter loves. And as most homeschooling parents know, you need to find your child's interest and work around that to make it more interesting for them. I love our white board.

Our word magnets.

 

We also have a magnet board I got at Ikea a million years ago. Here I can post up anything that she did over the week. She likes showing it off to grandma when she gets home. I also got magnetic words from WalMart this year and I have her make sentences to leave messages here. This is placed next to our calendar. Everyone needs a calendar! We decided to get a more interactive wall calendar instead of a regular flip one. I got this at Lakeshore Learning on our yearly trip to Maryland's teacher store. I laminate the back of the numbers with clear tape so they don't get ruined. Having Bridget put the number up each day helps reinforce learning the days of the week, months, and days. Get something fun and funky to help spruce up your space. When Bridget was in kindergarten I printed out copies of a calendar for her and had her write the number of the day in each square. It helped her learn her numbers as well as writing.

Cork boards are great ways to spruce up the work space. This year I got a oversized one at WalMart to decorate with our Be A Wise Learner rules. I got the decorations at Lakeshore Learning as well. It stuck with our theme so well and I liked the bright colors to stimulate her mind. Each of the owls tells a different way to help yourself during the school day. I had extras too so I posted them around the walls in empty spaces. The smaller of my cork boards I had since I was young. Now I use this as my seasonal board. For the beginning of school I had to decorate it with a welcome but I will be switching it soon with fall ideas. Sometimes I get Bridget to do a craft to use as the decorations. The board gets switched for different seasons and holidays to help us celebrate and learn about each one.

 

Hit Up The Dollar Store!

I love the Dollar Store! I find so many helpful items here. They even have a awesome teachers corner with all sorts of posters, reward stickers and teaching aids. They even have awesome color poster boards for projects. Now Target and WalMart have dollar bins with useful items for teachers, especially at that back to school time. I found this for my word wall this year. Each unit of Language Arts comes with a slew of new words to learn and they suggest making a word wall. It could take up a lot of space so this is very helpful to keep everything very organized. Yard Sales are another great place to find items you need. Bridget's desk is a yard sale find. I hated all the new desk and wanted one like I had when I was younger. This is almost exactly like it and only $10!

Our new word wall. Index Cards $1 at Dollar Tree and the hanging word chart $1 at Target.

Our yard sale find! Desk $10 

 

 

Displaying Your Child's Accomplishments

My daughter's painting from our lesson on shade and tints.

You don't have to be a homeschooling parent to know you should always praise your child's accomplishments. Hang up their art work or do arts and crafts to make decorations for your learning space. Let them know how proud you are of them always! If I had more room I would make a art area separate from her learning space with a art gallery of her work on the wall in frames. Maybe one day I will be able to have that room but until then I will hang up her work everywhere! Plus it's cheaper to hang your child's work then buy expensive paintings to decorate your home.

 

Learning Space Begins With You

No matter how much space you have you can create a wonderful space for your child to learn. Just make sure you make it fun and make it for your child. That is the great part of being home to learn. In a classroom it is the style of the teacher not the students. If your child likes dinosaurs, create a Jurassic space complete with fossil paperweights and your child's dinosaur artwork. If your child is a ballet student, hang up her ballet shoes throughout the years as a timeline. I know it's not going to make your child learn any better but it will get them more interested in learning. My daughter likes saying the pledge every day so we got a tiny flag to hang up. Find what they are interested in and go with it.

 

What Is Your Style?

I am always looking for ideas for our learning space to evolve. If you have any ideas, leave a comment here and let me know. Share your wisdom with others. :-)

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Love and Learning,

Theresa

 

 

 





I Survived My First Week Of School and All I Got Was This Lousy Leaky House!

Bridget's first day of 2nd grade!

Hey Y'all! First week of school has been completed and we have survived.....barely. It all started the day before school, Labor Day. We were all enjoying some Jerry Lewis movies on our day off when we heard the rain. This was no normal rain, this was downpours! We get used to them out here from time to time but this time it invaded us. That's right, water in the living room. Our brand new windows that we been fighting for now for 4 years finally were put in a couple weeks ago. Since then there was no rain. But on this day we got rain alright, right onto our couch by the new windows. I stood at my window for what seemed like forever holding a bucket under the dripping windows. After the rain our living room was a mess of towels and furniture lying in the middle of our floor. My beautifully set up learning space in our living room was now home to everything that was by the windows. What a mess!

First day of school needs to be special.I gave Bridget bookmarks for her text books and pencils that said 2nd Graders Rule.

So fast forward to the next morning... we start school. It was a great start and we were on the roll when all the workmen started to show up for the windows. We let them in to check it all out and continued with our work. It was hard when the workmen stopped behind us to watch a Brain Pop video on scientific method we were playing. Oh my, it can't get any worse then this.

The workmen on our first day of school.

I spoke too soon. The next day we had a Live Lesson. This is a cyberschool class time. All the students get on the computer in a chat room type setting with the teacher. You could talk when the teacher allows you to use a headset or type in the chat box. This lesson was to the teacher's way of getting to know everyone and answer questions we might have about the school year. Half way through this lesson my daughter had to use the restroom. So up she went but then I heard her yelling for me a couple minutes later. The toilet had overflowed and there was water everywhere. After getting out the last of our towels (the rest were used for the windows just two days before this) and getting the mop out the mess was cleaned up and we went back down to continue the Live Lesson. Drip, drip, drip....what was that noise? Our ceiling in our living room has now started to leak from the overflowed toilet mess. I guess I didn't clean it up as fast as I thought. Our maintenance men had to come back and look at the new problem in which they said they couldn't do anything about until the painters come in and fix the appearance of it up.

Sitting back to enjoy her first Live Lesson.

We did however get work done in the midst of this big mess. Bridget did well adjusting despite the craziness of the week. This is our second week into school now and things are already starting to slow down. I noticed last year it took almost a month to get us in the groove of learning. I am thinking that I will start a back to school week next year before the official start of school. Hopefully that will help ease Bridget back into the school setting after summer break. Our learning space is back looking great and Bridget loved all the addition I put up this year. Now if only our house will stop falling apart. Hahaha! Back to work for us now but I will be posting more soon. Stayed tune to find out if I will be living in a pile of rumble by the end of the week. :P

We completed our first day and it was a doozy. Bridget filled her owls on her tree and is ready for some r&r.

Once in a blue moon....

It's not every day we have a blue moon but in the sky tonight was just that. Since it won't be until July of 2015 until the next blue moon we decided to do this night right! Let's not even mention that my daughter will be 10 years old by then (oh my!). It was a awesome learning experience for us.

We started our night by making pizza. We get pizza dough from Wegmans market in the bag. All we had to do was lay it out on a baking sheet and stick it in the oven. I tried my hand at making blue pizza dough. It was just too much dough for my little eye dropper bottle but it made a cool marble look to the dough. My daughter had a blast stretching the dough and shaping it like the moon. For our sauce we took Classico's Alfredo sauce and dyed it blue. Grandma and Bridget had a blast mixing it all together.

Our pizza turned out amazing. Out of this world really! Fun and yummy, perfect combination. Bridget enjoyed the pizza but the best part was the learning. While the pizza was baking Bridget drew me a space ship. Later in the night she stood in front of grandma and myself to teach us how to draw our own space ships too. When we were ready to eat I also surprised her with blue kool-aid. I even had blue plates and cups on hand to add to the atmosphere. It all came together real nice.

Now let's not forget dessert. Blue Moon Jello! My mom stopped for some cool whip and dyed it blue when she got home for a topping. We made craters with our spoons and dug in to this tasty lunar dessert.

Okay so this part was a fluke. My mom wanted to get The Smurfs on DVD for us to watch since they are all blue and all. Little did she know the movie is all about the Blue Moon Festival! What a awesome movie for tonight! Many have said this movie was kind of bad but I thought as far as cheesy kid movies go it was fun and it fit perfect with our theme tonight.

After our movie we checked out the moon. As it was foretold, it was not blue. I explained the fact to Bridget now. The blue moon is a rare time where there are two full moons in one month. Our calendars don't meet up with the lunar cycles at these times but it only happens...well....once in a blue moon.  Here is a awesome link to all the great details of a blue moon.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48831835/ns/technology_and_science-science/?ocid=ansmsnbc11

After finding out all the details of this great blue moon I printed out a copy of the moon and had Bridget doodle in space. Something fun and easy to end out night. My mom and I were brainstorming on this on Wednesday and within the past 2 days we got it all together to make this blue moon special. Because let's face it, we all have blue moon moments. Times when we know that there will never be another moment like it in our whole lives. Our kids growing up is full of blue moon moments. My daughter won't have another blue moon until she is 10 years old. By then she might be too cool to hang out with mom and grandma to watch cheesy movies and eat blue pizza. Tonight I made a blue moon moment that we won't soon forget.

Until the next blue moon.....



It's the Grade 2 Countdown

Bridget at the end of the year picnic in Hershey.

Last year I did something daring and very risky. I decided to cyberschool my daughter. This decision was not one that was easy. I enjoyed my mid afternoon naps before picking up my daughter at the bus stop each day. Even though I was enjoying my daughter's kindergarten year she was not. Not only was she bullied by a group of boys in her class for begin a girl who had short hair and liked the color green, she was also given a lesson of anatomy by a little boy during nap time when he exposed himself to her. The school did nothing to help and the counselor never responded to my emails. I had enough with the school but what else was there to do?
We received tickets to a local baseball game through my church which led me to Connections Academy. They are a public cyber school here in PA. I never heard of such a thing before and was interested to find out it was a perfect fit for us. I can help my daughter learn at home while still receiving all my materials and curriculum from the public schooling system through Connections Academy. With only weeks left before school started we signed on right away, praying that this was a good choice for us.
Bridget's first grade year went off amazingly! She received great grades and her teacher was awesome. She was able to talk to her teacher on the phone bi-weekly and was in her virtual class every week. She did a amazing job and I was so happy to watch her blossom into a amazing reader. There were some hiccups along the way but for the most part I was happy with the results.

This year we are headed into second grade. For me, this was my favorite grade! I can't wait to enjoy this time with my daughter. Now that I have a year under my teacher's belt I came up with some ideas as well as swiping a few from Pinterest to make this year more successful. I want to share this year with as many people as I can. So here I am! On my own blog and happy as a bee in a garden. I named this blog Owls in the classroom because that is our theme this year. We love owls and have decorated our learning area with as many owls we could find. Be prepared I love the camera so there will be pictures with my post.          Leave your comments and ideas here and follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/#!/theresamyoung. Leave me a message letting me know you saw me here on my blog or else I won't friend you, you stranger you. :P

I will post once a week at the least. Being a mom, learning coach, and a part time worker I do get busy at times and I will try my best to post once a week for you to follow. School offically starts September 4th this year. Look out Grade 2 here we come!Thanks for stopping by and I hope to encourage more moms to take a daring step in their child's education.

A photo collage we did for a contest to show the amazing things we get to do with Connections Academy.